Specification at a glance

Assessment overview

All components include synoptic assessment.

Students must complete all components (01, 02 and 03) to be awarded the OCR A Level in English Literature.

Students who are retaking the qualification may carry forward their result for the non-exam assessment component.

Content overview

Students study a minimum of eight texts, including at least two examples of each of the genres of prose, poetry and drama, to develop their ability to analyse and evaluate literary texts across a variety of genres and periods.

The set texts will be reviewed after three years and may be subject to change. If a text is to be removed from the list and replaced with another text, centres will be notified a year in advance.

Component 01: Drama and poetry pre-1900

There are two sections.

In Section 1: Shakespeare, students study one Shakespeare play from the following:

• Coriolanus
• Hamlet
• Measure for Measure
• Richard III
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night

In Section 2: Drama and poetry pre-1900, students study one pre-1900 drama text and one pre-1900 poetry text.

Drama texts:

• Christopher Marlowe: Edward II
• John Webster: The Duchess of Malfi
• Oliver Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer
• Henrik Ibsen: A Doll’s House
• Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband

Poetry texts:

• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale
• John Milton: Paradise Lost Books 9 & 10
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Poems
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Maud
• Christina Rossetti: Selected Poems

Component 02: Comparative and contextual study

There are five topic areas:

• American Literature 1880—1940
• The Gothic
• Dystopia
• Women in Literature
• The Immigrant Experience.

Students choose one topic area and study at least two whole texts, one of which must be from the core set text list for their chosen topic area:

American Literature 1880—1940

• F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
• John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath

The Gothic

• Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
• Bram Stoker: Dracula

Dystopia

• Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale
• George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four

Women in Literature

• Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway

The Immigrant Experience

• Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
• Henry Roth: Call It Sleep

Component 03: Literature post-1900

This component encourages individual study, interest and enjoyment of modern literature. Students study three literary texts, which must include one prose text, one poetry text, and one drama text. All texts must have been first published or performed after 1900, and at least one must have been first published or performed after 2000. Texts in translation are not permitted.

There are two tasks:

• Close reading or re-creative writing with commentary – both must be based on one literary text
• Comparative essay – must be based on two literary texts.

Assessment overview

Both components include synoptic assessment.

Students must complete both components (01 and 02) to be awarded the OCR AS Level in English Literature.

Content overview

Students study a minimum of four texts, including at least one example of each of the genres of prose, poetry and drama, to develop their ability to analyse and evaluate literary texts across a variety of genres and periods.

The set texts will be reviewed after three years and may be subject to change. If a text is to be removed from the list and replaced with another text, centres will be notified a year in advance.

Component 01: Shakespeare and poetry pre-1900

There are two sections.

In Section 1: Shakespeare, students study one Shakespeare play from the following:

• Coriolanus
• Hamlet
• Measure for Measure
• Richard III
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night

In Section 2: Poetry pre-1900, students study one pre-1900 drama text and one pre-1900 poetry text.

• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale
• John Milton: Paradise Lost Books 9 & 10
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Poems
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Maud
• Christina Rossetti: Selected Poems

Component 02: Drama and prose post-1900

There are two sections:

In Section 1: Drama post-1900, students study one modern play from the following:

• Noel Coward: Private Lives
• Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire
• Harold Pinter: The Homecoming
• Alan Bennett: The History Boys
• Polly Stenham: That Face
• Jez Butterworth: Jerusalem

In Section 2: Prose post-1900, students study one prose text from the following:

• F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
• Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
• George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway
• Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist