Specification A

• Approaching AQA English Literature: Specification A

  The specification encourages the exploration of texts in a number of different ways.
• English Literature A

  • English Literature A’s historicist approach to the study of literature rests upon reading texts within a shared context.
  • Working from the belief that no text exists in isolation but is the product of the time in which it was produced, English Literature A encourages students to explore the relationships that exist between texts and the contexts within which they are written, received and understood.
• English Literature A cont.

  • Studying texts within a shared context enables students to investigate and connect them, drawing out patterns of similarity and difference using a variety of reading strategies and perspectives.
  • English Literature A encourages the process of making autonomous meaning, encouraging students to debate and challenge the interpretations of other readers as they develop their own informed personal responses.
• Exploring texts

  • The specification encourages the exploration of texts in a number of different ways:
  • The study of a literary theme over time.
  • The study of various texts, both singly and comparatively, chosen from a list of core set texts and a list of chosen comparative texts.
  • Writing about texts in a number of different ways.
• Exploring texts cont.

  • The study of literature through engaging with two of the main historicist perspectives:
  • The diachronic (reading texts written across widely different time periods that explore the same theme).
  • The synchronic (reading texts written within a narrower and clearly defined time period).
  • You will be reading Othello in a diachronic context.