ENGLISH LITERATURE AT A LEVEL | My Set Texts, the Course & MORE!
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- čas přidán 17. 05. 2017
- I talk about what it's like to study English Literature at A Level, with a focus on the AQA English Literature A course.
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➤ BOOKS MENTIONED
Othello by William Shakespeare
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Zábava
Please Lucy don't stop talking about Victorian literature. You're one of the only booktubers who talk about it, most don't.
Also, yes for videos about Victorian literature!
Trust me, I have no plans to stop! Once my exams are over, I should have lots more videos on Victorian lit coming up in the summer. I love making them!
Thank you so much for making this video! I'm in year 11 so I've just had to pick what I want to study at A-level and I was having doubts about whether English lit was for me, but after watching this video I'm feeling more confident about the subject. Thanks again and good luck with your exam! X
Let me know if you have any questions about it! I'd be very happy to help - I would have loved some guidance when I was choosing!
MAKE SURE U GET THE GRADES. cause choosing them is 1 thing but if u dont have the grades you cant do it.
Lucy, I love Victorian Literature too!. I am studying Literature in Latin America, and I enjoyed reading and analyzing english masterpiece's books as Wuthering Heights.
Thanks for the videos, and I hope watch more videos about your reading experiences.
I've just finished my first year of A level English and it's so interesting to hear what everyone else has been studying! We did Richard || and Othello by Shakespeare, the Great Gatsby and Keats poetry. Currently doing coursework on Christina Rossetti who's poetry is amazing!
thank you for making this video! i'm starting sixth form this september and i chose english literature as one of my options because english is my favourite subject! this video gave me a deeper insight into the course, so i'm very grateful! i'm ecstatic to begin year 12
I Love the Wordsworth Classics Editions! They look so Pretty and "Classy" for Me. Good Luck for Your Exams!!
so thanful that youve made this video, its very useful! now i know that poetry is in the a level i dont think i want to do it anymore, this was great xx
Taking AS English Literature, thank you so much for this video!
great video:) love your passion and helpful info
Good luck with your exams! I was in your position 2 years ago so I know how you feel! I was on the WJEC exam board for English so my course was slightly different although we did Othello too and I totally agree with the lack of diversity in the poetry!
I can't believe the lack of diversity and how it's still so bad, even after the exam boards had the chance to change all the specifications!
I've just finished with the A Level course of this spec, and I wish you all the best of luck with it!
For the anthology of poetry, I studied the Pre-1900s collection and I can really appreciate your point about the lack of diversity explored. It is a little more understandable, perhaps, with the contexts of the collection I studied, however, as it begins at a time in which women writers weren't really acknowledged, especially in terms of love poetry of 'substance'. But it was still a tad frustrating.
There is actually a wealth of homosexual undercurrents throughout the entire specification, which I thoroughly recommend that you consider. My personal exam specialty is resorting to an exploration of the latent homosexual attraction surrounding Othello and Iago - you can really work something out of the phallic connotations of certain meters if you're desperate enough! The phallic imagery in anything is a great trump card - you can nail several of the AOs with a feminist discussion of the phallic symbolism of the gun in Gatsby, for example.
So, from a seasoned Lit Veteran, good luck again, and try not to be too disheartened when the guys deciding on the unseen extracts don't seem to have access to anything older than, like, 20 years.
Thank you for amazing video!
A Level English Lit was my favourite class, and the way the exams work has already changed so much since I did them! Gosh! At least it seems like there is more 'seen' material, I can't remember having any in exam reference material in A2 but honestly, the exam are just a blur now haha
This really makes me want to do a video about how studying English Lit at A Level and at uni changes, because the expectations are completely different! Still, this video will definitely help with my dissertation creative writing project because I'm definitely out of touch with A Levels now, so thank you, Lucy! - Bee x
Thanks this video was so helpful x I'm trying to decide if I should do English lit and ik that tess is one of our set texts so it was really helpful to hear you talk about that xx English lit Q&A would be great also...
+sheep i I'll be filming my Q&A/advice video at the start of September! Is there anything you'd like to ask/ hear me talk about?
lucythereader maybe you could talk more in depth about your texts and how you go about analysing them and the sorts of questions you get asked? Also tips on keeping organised please xx
great video, agree with the love poetry !!
It's definitely interesting for me to know such a different system! I would love to watch more videos about English literature!
Yay, that's great to hear!
thanks, very interesting every single word you've said
Your lipstick looks gorgeous! Amazing video as always❤️
Ahh thank you!
Enjoyable video.
Very personal and individual.
In my country books for a person like me seems a bit expensive yet bcz of wordsworth classics I have readed so many classics and as I am fan of short stories I thinks its a blessing to have such publishers...
Thanks very much for this video! Really gave me confidence for my exam in a few weeks. Going to be doing something very similar, except with Charlotte Bronte. Good luck with your exam!
Good luck with your exams! Yay for Charlotte Brontë!
Thank you! Yes, I agree. Her writing style is fantastic
This is the course I'm doing, too! Except I'm a second year so I'm looking at a few others on top. When you mentioned the question on Desdemona and Emilia as wives I had a pretty stressful flashback to last exam season 😅 Good luck in your exams!
Good luck with yours too!
Since September I'm going to a sixth form (I just moved to England last summer, which means that I have/had no clue about the English school system. However, I knew that I wanted to take English literature because I have a big passion for books. That's why I searched for videos about English literature and that's how I came to this video. Since then I always loved watching your videos and you seem to be such as nice and sympathetic person! That is also probably the third time I'm watching your videos about English literature because I like them that much.😅
Have a nice day! 😊
PS: I would really like to see a video about your second year of English literature :)
Even though I hated doing the exams, I actually really miss studying English Literature, particularly the Bronte sisters! My A2 coursework essay on Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea was so much fun. I also loved studying books like and The Kite Runner The Great Gatsby, which are both so rich with imagery and symbolism.
Good luck with your grades! You seem really passionate about the books and that will definitely come through in your essays :)
Yay for the Brontë sisters! I'm very upset that I don't get to study them at my college because that would be the best. Hopefully I'll be reading Wide Sargasso Sea this summer!
Thank you, Jack!
personally, I ove English, and I would like to persue the master and the phd in it. Honestly, your videos show how English literature has a great impact on your personality.
i am new on your chanel, but i surely would enjoy more videos like this one. good luck with your exames ❤
Hi Alexandra! That's great to hear - thank you!
Hi just watched this, I'm in the same year as you but we are doing the Love through the Ages topic now and Othello and the Great Gatsby. Are you doing the war section now with the First Casualty and Journey's End? x
That's really cool. I'm also studying english literature at A-level (in Denmark) and have an exam in two weeks. Through my classes I've been introduced to victorian authors and the romanticism period, which sparked my interest in books from those periods. That's how I've found booktubers like you :-)
Oh wow! How is learning English Lit like in Denmark? Good luck for your exam!
I've just finished the second year of the same course! I really enjoyed the second year, probably more than the second year as we had already developed the skills in the first year and we could get really stuck in the texts. We looked at the pre-1900 poetry - I read a few of the post-1900 I wasn't that keen on them either. I also studied Othello and The Great Gatsby as well and really enjoyed both (I studied Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca instead). And yes!!! I think I was the only who picked up on the Nick X Gatsby vibes in my class!!!! I did the unseen prose last year on Brooklyn and I thought the question was alright but not really inspiring. The second year of the course for me was very intense (particularly exam wise). The exams are really long and ask you to do a lot - I thought I'd never be able to get through a three hour paper, writing three consecutive essays in a row but here we are - you have to be motivated and passionate about the texts (which will be no problem for you :) ). The coursework is also a great opportunity to gain as many marks as possible and pick two texts you love: I looked at the fluidity of gender identity (exploring gender as a social construct) in Shakespeare's As You Like It and Virginia Woolf's Orlando; have you had any thoughts on your coursework yet? I hope your exams went great. We studied some great texts in the second year (Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Duffy's Feminine Gospels). Do you know what texts you'll be studying for the second year yet? Good luck with the rest of the course :)
This is super interesting! I'm in my second year doing the OCR papers, and I've got 3 exams. The first has 10+ anthology texts compared with an unseen text, the second is analysing an element of Jane Eyre and doing a creative writing piece, and the last is analysing a theme in Othello and a copy of a Blake poem you have to analyse and then use two other Blake poems as support. I used the Wordsworth classic copy of Othello for A2 year, I thought the paper was really good for writing on! Mine was a mashup of English Lit and Lang, but there's definitely more of a focus on Lit in A2 year. And I get what you mean, we're a month from our final A2 exams and people still haven't read Jane Eyre. Good luck on your exams and your UCAS application (which I 100% recommend starting to work on, especially your personal statement, as soon as exams are finished! It really drags and I wish I had started earlier!)
It's so interesting hearing about the other exam boards! I really, really wish I was studying a Brontë novel -- I've never had the chance to, even though they're my favourite authors. I think I might have to cram one in for my coursework next year, just so I can!
Good luck with your exams too!! I'll definitely take your advice on board, although personal statements do scare me!
I'm an international student wanting to apply to oxford.. my secondary school system is incredibly different (we don't choose particular courses) which means i've never studies english lit in that much detail (esp since it's a secondary language at our school).
So i'm wondering if you have any (course) books you use or will need to use for your AS and A level that will help me in the same way to prepare for my application?
Thank you!
Thank you for the video! Since I am from Turkey; naturally, I had not knowing what a A Level English course consists of until the time I started to read Doing English by Robert Eaglestone. Your video make the idea about the course concrete in my mind. And I highly recommend the book to you. I think it is just for you. When you have look at the book you will understand what I mean.
Good Luck with all your exams Lucy!!
+nukemz thank you!!
How do u read the books,
for example do u read them in class or at home
Love this video! I'm in year 12 doing edexcel English literature and I want to do it at uni, so nice to see someone equally passionate about English! Just wondering if you were thinking about doing it at uni and if so where, or just what universities you were looking at in general? Loved this video x
Good luck for your exams!
Yes, English Lit is what I want to do at uni -- so far, I'm looking at Winchester and Sussex seriously, but I also think I'll apply to Exeter, Bristol and York St John. How about you? :)
I am going to be studying English Literature, I'm slightly worried as I'm not the biggest reader however I am going to try my hardest. The texts I will be studying are Tess of the D'Urbervilles, King Lear and Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'. Are there any tips you would recommend for starting sixth form and this course?xx
Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night.
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Good luck on your exams! As a fellow Victorian literature lover myself I can't wait to see some more Victorian lit videos from your channel! ❤
Thank you! I'll hopefully be reading and talking about LOTS of Victorian lit over the summer!
yay!! I can't wait! :)
Hooray!❤
Best tips for English language and literature for GCSEs and A levels, for instance, powerful phrases, what to avoid, specific techniques, how to set it all out to ensure best marks, etc Please?
Is the A-level like the Advanced Placement courses (AP) or is it more intense? In America we have two AP English courses: English Language and Composition; and English Literature. They count for college credits.
Yes, I enjoyed the texts we studied, except I didn't really enjoy Dancing at Lughnasa, it was just as simple as I didn't enjoy the story too much. Although my teacher at the time did say that with Dancing at Lughnasa that was pretty normal, because she didn't even enjoy it. I actually forgot to mention in my last comment that English is a compulsory subject throughout secondary school here, we also have to study Irish and Maths throughout school too.
hello lucy im not a uk girl i am Moroccan so i don't know your culture or the uk past stories would that affect me because i would love to study literature but now i only have language if you think its gonna be hard for me can you help me with something else to study in uk? thank you 💕
I'm Irish so I didn't do A-levels, but it's actually really interesting to see how similar it is to Leaving cert English. Our English course is combined so we do two papers, the first paper is comprehension/creative writing and the second paper is literature and unseen passages and poetry. We studied How Many Miles To Babylon, Sive, seen poetry and Dancing at Lughnasa. We also only do one exam in our final year at school. Good luck in your exam :)
That's really interesting to hear! I'm always curious as to how everyone else's courses work. Do you enjoy the texts you studied?
love your videos
Thank you!
I'm freaking out big time about English literature this year. We're giving composite, meaning we study 2 years and then give all the papers at the end of A2 instead of 2 in AS and the rest in A2. I barely studied at all in AS, and I'm not sure at all whether I'll manage so much in A2. Should I keep with it and try anyway? Would it be possible to study from scratch and cover the whole syllabus?
I did my AS level of English Literature before switching to a journalism/social media coms course, and I wish I could've carried Literature on because I loved it and it was my best subject! I can't wait to be doing it again at uni! But in my first year of college I studied Tess of the D'Urbervilles too (though I didn't like it all that much, unfortunately). I also studied Jane Eyre and The Doll's House :)
Jane Eyre
I’m not very good at English Literature but I really like it so I don’t know what to do I’m really worried about it and if I’ll be able to do it
I know how you feel, my favourite poem in my anthology was the one used in the previous year’s exam. 😞
I do A-Level English Lit too, we're studying Frankenstein for our pre-1900 text - I wish we did Tess of the D'Urbervilles though, it's a book I've always meant to read and I think studying it would incite me to read it just that little bit more.
Also, if you want a good edition of Shakespeare, try the Arden Shakespeare series. They're really good for critical analysis and interpretation, they're a little bit more money but it's worth it!
I did Othello in year 8!
Lucy you're so adorable. I want to recommend a fun read for you that I'm currently enjoying: My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul. Pamela is the editor of the New York Times Book Review, and the book is all about her life, her books, and her book of books, BOB. I know you will love it. This is a bookworm's book about books.
So will you have 4 English Literature exams at the end of Year 13? By this I mean will you have exams based on the work you've learnt this year at the end of Year 13? I'm from Wales and we still do AS Levels in Year 12 which count as 40% of our final A Level Grade.
Hey Lucy, could you tell me what I am expected to do if the instruction says: Your lesson topic is: Identify and analyse distinguishing features of figurative language in a given text (choose to your preference).
Sorry, I'm not sure -- this isn't like anything I have to do! Good luck though!
Great content
For gay love poems, I would recommend The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, and Gay Testaments Old and New. And of course you know about Sappho, I'm sure. Ovid's Metamorphosis has what we might today call a transgender man (female to male) transformed into male shape by a goddess.
I don't actually live in England so I am not taking A levels but I loved this video anyway because you talking about books is just the best! xxx Also will you be filming bookshelf tour soon? (no pressure I know you are in the middle of exams so I am wishing you luck!)
Haha, I'm glad you still enjoyed it!
There *should* be a bookshelf tour up in the next few months. It's definitely on my list of videos to make, but I want to get the filming just right - I don't want to upload it unless I'm 100% happy with it. Hopefully soon, though!
I'm at the end of year 11 and will have to finalise my A - Level choices soon, one being English lit. I love to read but I'm really unsure as to whether I want to study it as I find GCSE lit hard in terms of memorising quotes and having to learn poems and I'm a bit unsure as so whether I should still go ahead with it or drop it. Any advice? (Great video by the way!)
Hi Alice! I would say definitely check which exam board your school do at A Level - for AQA, which I do, memorising quotations is only a tiny part of the course, and most of our exams at AS in particular are open book. As with the poems, we don't have to memorise them and get the one we analyse in front of us in the exam.
I'd say if you love reading and are committed to it, English Lit is a great subject to take. Plus, your school might have a trial period where you can drop out of the course if you don't like it a few weeks in - my college does!
Have u done read all books behind u?
You should definitely do a video about as creative writing, like what we do + the exam, even though they are getting rid of it... 😒
Hi! What an interesting video! I would say that it has must be the perfect course for booklovers; however, I also believe that you have to work hard in order to memorize a lot of names and titles. Besides, analising poetry it could be really tricky sometimes.
Well, I have a question about those books. Is the print small?
To sum up, I wish you luck in the exams. Go for it!
Greetings from Spain!
I don't think the print is small in them and I quite like these editions (especially because they're so inexpensive!) but I have known of some people who think they are quite small and the letters are close together. But, as I said, for the price they're very good.
Nice videos, thanks for your time and efforts, to increase your viewers awareness of English literature. That's realy kind of you. My concern is , do the international students who are eager to improve their knowledge as well as their writing skills, able to master English literature in 4 years? thanks again....
I'm probably not the best person to ask because I'm not an international student so I don't have any experience with learning abroad -- but good luck with your study!
oooo I might make one of these cause mine is all different
+NeedForCaffeine doooo ittttt! I'd be interested in watching it!
I have always wanted to study literature. Alas! I can't now.
English Lit is groovy. It would be cool to have someone with differing opinions and ideas about the texts.
I'm doing A-Level too, I'm not weird.
Do you recommend any other lit vlogs that are up-to-date?
I can't think of any off the top of my head that I watch but you could try searching "English Lit A Level" and filtering by date!
I got Othello , handmaid's tale and Atonement and I got to agree that Atonement is fucking awesome.
I still haven't read Atonement but I'm hoping I'll be able to do so soon, once my exams have finished. I don't study it at A Level!
hello, i am studying this course this year via distance learning
Good luck!
I'm starting the lit A level course this September, and i'm kind of worrying about the poetry aspect of it; I didn't like many of the poems from GCSE and so revising them was pretty difficult for me. I was wondering how they differ from GCSE to A level - is the level of analysis different? Are your A level ones harder?
Your videos are really helping me get into reading more classics (and books that aren't just YA), so thank you!
Personally, I found the poetry analysis at A level a great deal easier than at GCSE. With the new specs it seems that the approach to analysis is a lot different. Instead of having to revise a list of things about a poem, there is a lot more of a discussion about the poet's intentions, and what you can decipher from the context of their lives. I had to study a few poems that I wasn't particularly keen on, but I quite enjoyed the examination of the poet's life - it is remembering these, often quite peculiar, facts that springboards the analysis of the poems in an exam setting.
Thank you! This really put my mind at ease - having to literally learn fifteen pages of BBC Bitesize analysis notes for GCSE kind of puts a downer on things, and the context is always a lot more interesting to me :)
Make a video for A2 please please?
I wonder whose poems would you add to the text book? I wolud like to read some poems by female authors written before the XX century.
I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'll see if I can come up with some poetry recommendations for some videos over the summer!
Thank you. That would be great. :D
I got an A* in eng lit, super fun course, we didn't get any part of the text though in our exams. We had to memorise everything
Wow, well done! That's super good.
I want to be a writer. Is it a good idea for me to study english literature??
Skye Rad I study french and english literature, and let me tell you: being a writer has nothing to do with your studies. Sure, in the US, there are creative writing courses and it can help you get started, but literally anyone, hairdresser, janitor, lawyer, physics teacher, can become a writer.
To be a good writer you need to: have read a lot of different books from different times and places (having read The Odissey for example is a must to me, because it is central to the European/Wester culture in general. A lot of writer probably didn't read it but to me it's a real loss), have a deep understanding of the diversity of human nature surrounding you so your characters aren't generally flat, and have a creative, personal way of writing and shaping stories (being creative is somehow linked to having a big general knowledge in the field of literature because it helps breeding new ideas).
To sum it up: to write well, read a lot, and look around you. However, literature studies aren't about "reading a lot". It's the search of meaning between the lines, the precise examination of words already written, the will to produce theory, sense, out of the aesthetics of language. There is a creativity to it but it's more technical (or it appears to be more technical), to me studying literature is like... Learning the tools to solve a very complicated puzzle that doesn't really have an answer. And academic research in literature is using these tools to try to provide an answer (that is most likely to not be absolutely right in the eyes of everybody).
If this seems boring to you and what you really want to do is only writing, I'd suggest finding a field where you can get free time to write but that's also a good spot from which to watch people. I know a lot of brilliant literature scholar who are incapable of writing anything because they're so turned on themselves. Studying literature can lead you to writing but it's a total myth to think that you have to be a literature student to be a writer.
Anne and Sylvia did study together! Anne has a poem she wrote about Sylvia after she died
+Sarah W. Ooh I'll go and have a read of it once my exam is over this afternoon!
hi there, did you go to university to study English Literature? If so is it possible if you could make some videos on how that is going?
Hi! Eventually, I made the decision not to go to university and will be discussing this in a video in the next few weeks. :)
Oh, looking forward to it.Love your videos.
Do you from America? The accent diffence. Video a lot interesting. I love it. Thanks so much!
From England!
can u please post your notes and essays for tess? i am in year two of alevels, i really need help with this text. maybe u could send me pictures of your notes? help a sis out please, i would be eternally grateful
What are you're target grades for English literature
Also do you think doing English literature with biology and chemistry is too much. 💖
I won't know my target grade until I start back up. But my own personal target is either an A or an A* at the end of my A Levels!
I don't think it is too much -- as long as you read the texts and put the effort in, it will pay off.
lucythereader thanks for replying generally in the initial term (s) what grades do ppl on average receive
wow disgusting is a strong word. damn...
You're beautiful
👍
I'm curious what you mean by "white feminist love"... white lesbian or? (Agree with your overall point, just was caught by the phrasing.)
"White feminism is a form of feminism that focuses on the struggles of white women while supposedly failing to address distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges."
I thought it was best to copy the definition, rather than botching my own definition! I basically meant that it portrays a specific type of feminism, rather than being inclusive of everyone.
I feel so agitated when I think that i am going to study in UK in September. For native English speakers it might be easier to read a vast amount of books but for people from other countries the whole curriculum might seem far more challenging as the unknown words will be more. The whole idea is getting me upset :(
what else do you study at A level?
+Gabriella x Sociology and Creative Writing!
lucythereader can I ask of sociology is very demanding and hard. I understand that all a levels are very complex but is it possible to get a good A in this subject
I do Language and Literature and it's so stressful to me because I didn't know my sixth form did both, I thought we'd just do Literature and so I'm having to play catchup on the Language side of it
Oh, I have a few friends who do Lang/Lit! Do you prefer the Literature?
lucythereader Yes so much it's really good for me
Pretty much the only female poet of any note I’m aware of is Elizabeth Barrett Browning... shame that... wish there were more female poets!
I hope you meant that you wish there were more female poets. There should be no majorities especially in something like A- level
you don't need an english literature degree to say " would you like fries with that"...lol...
I would give an A+ to that accent.
Plz speak lil bit slow