GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE
SKILLS FOR SUCCESS
Paper 1 - Shakespeare And The 19th-Century Novel
Content
Section A
Shakespeare
Students will study one play from the list of six set texts. Students should study the whole text.
Teachers choose one of:
• Romeo and Juliet
• Macbeth
• The Tempest
• The Merchant of Venice
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Julius Caesar.
Section B
The 19th Century Novel
Students will study one novel from the list of seven set texts. Students should study the whole text.
Teachers choose one of:
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Key Skills
• AO1 - to read understand and respond to the texts, supporting and illustrating ideas with
quotations and textual references
• AO2 - analyse the language, form and structures used in texts and how they help create
meanings and effects, identifying relevant features and using accurate subject terminology as
appropriate
• AO3 - show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they
were written
• AO4 - use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with
accurate spelling and punctuation
Paper 2 - Modern Texts And Poetry
Content
Section A
Modern Texts
Students will study one from a choice of 12 set texts, which include post-1914 prose fiction and
drama. Students should study the whole text.
Techers choose one of:
Drama
JB Priestley - An Inspector Calls
Fiction
William Golding - Lord Of The Flies
Section B
Poetry
Students will study one cluster of poems taken from the AQA poetry anthology, Poems Past and
Present. There is a choice of two clusters, each containing 15 poems. The poems in each cluster
are thematically linked and were written between 1789 and the present day.
The titles of the two clusters are:
• Love and relationships
• Power and con ict.
Students should study all 15 poems in their chosen cluster and be prepared to write about any of
them in the examination.
Unseen poetry
In preparing for the unseen poetry section of the examination students should experience a wide
range of poetry in order to develop their ability to closely analyse unseen poems. They should be
able to analyse and compare key features such as their content, theme, structure and use of
language.
Key Skills
• AO1 - to read understand and respond to the texts, supporting and illustrating ideas with
quotations and textual references
• AO2 - analyse the language, form and structures used in texts and how they help create
meanings and effects, identifying relevant features and using accurate subject terminology as
appropriate
• AO3 - show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they
were written
• AO4 - use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with
accurate spelling and punctuation
Ways Of Supporting Success In Reading
The following are simply suggestions, but are in line with the challenge and complexity of the texts
that are used in the exam. Students and parents may like to dip in to a selection, rather than
reading the whole text of full novels, or to concentrate on short stories and only read full novels
which they find engaging.
Reading Classic 19th century fiction (novels/short stories) - other texts by 2 set authors
Charles Dickens/Robert Louis Stevenson, plus a selection from other authors such as: Thomas
Hardy, Mary Shelley, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, George
Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Lewis Carrol, Wilkie Collins, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker
Reading Classic 20th century texts (novels/short stories) - other texts by set author William
Golding, plus a selection from other authors such as: Daphne du Maurier, George Orwell, Aldous
Huxley, Graham Greene, John Le Carre, E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Burgess, Gerald
Durrell, D.H. Lawrence, Muriel Spark, Jean Rhys, H.G. Wells, John Buchan, P.G. Wodehouse,
William Golding, Mervyn Peake, Alexander McCall Smith, Ronald Dahl (short story collections,
rather than his novels), J.G. Ballard, Barry Hines, Virginia Woolf (short stories, such as 'A Haunted
House', rather than full novels, may be most accessible), Michael Morpurgo, Melvin Burgess, Alan
Paton, Michael Rosen, Anne Fines, Robert Swindells, Clive Barker, Leon Garfield, Joan Aiken,
John Wyndham, Lawrence Durrell
Reading Classic 20th century texts (drama) - other texts by set author J.B. Priestley, plus a
selection from other authors such as: Terence Rattigan, John Galsworthy, R.C. Sherriff, George
Bernard Shaw
Reading Shakespeare (tragedies) - e.g. Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra,
Othello, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus
Reading Poetry (post-1789) - John Agard, Simon Armitage, William Blake, Emily Bronte, Robert
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron, Charles Causley, Gillian Clarke, John Keats,
Cecil Day-Lewis, Imtiaz Dharker, Maura Dooley, Rita Dove, Andrew Forster, Beatrice Garland,
Thomas Hardy, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Jackie Kay, Rudyard Kipling, Mary Lamb, Denise
Levertov, Dalit Nagra, Wilfred Owen, Christina Rossetti, Carol Rubens, Owen Shears, Percy
Bysshe Shelley, Andrew Waterhouse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred, Kate Tempest, Lord
Tennyson, William Wordsworth, Benjamin Zephaniah
Revision Materials
• GCSE English Language and Literature Revision Guide - For the Grade 9-1 Courses, ISBN139781782943662 (also available from The English Faculty; currently discounted at £3.50)
• AQA Website
• BBC Bitesize GCSE English Literature
• York Notes - An Inspector Calls
• York Notes - Lord Of The Flies
• York Notes - Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
• York Notes - Romeo And Juliet
• A range of revision apps are available for Android and iOS
• Spark Notes also offer a range of good revision guides both in hard copy and (free) online