ALevelGeniusEnglish Literature

OCR · H472

OCR English Literature

254 questions on the set texts most schools choose, with OCR's essay questions.

The papers

  • Component 01: Drama and poetry pre-1900 60 marks, 150 minutes.
  • Component 02: Comparative and contextual study 60 marks, 150 minutes.
  • Component 03: Literature post-1900 40 marks, coursework.

Set texts in this course

  • Shakespeare Othello, King Lear, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, The TempestPractise
  • Prose The Great Gatsby, DraculaPractise
  • Drama before 1900 The Duchess of Malfi, She Stoops to ConquerPractise
  • Poetry Christina Rossetti, ColeridgePractise

Not covered: Richard III, Edward II, A Doll's House (set in a modern translation), An Ideal Husband, Chaucer, Milton, Tennyson's Maud, the Component 02 texts other than The Great Gatsby and Dracula, and the non-exam assessment. In-copyright texts are not quoted or taught here.

Skills: assessment, interpretations, unseen texts and connections

  • How A-level Literature is assessed: papers, objectives and levelsOCR H472: Every component
    • Know each board's papers, sections and set-text choices
    • Know the five assessment objectives and what each rewards
    • Know how the level descriptors separate a straightforward answer from a perceptive one
    LessonPractice
  • Genre, critical lenses and interpretationsOCR H472: Every component
    • Use the terms of tragedy and comedy precisely: hamartia, anagnorisis, peripeteia, catharsis, comic resolution
    • Apply feminist, Marxist, post-colonial, eco-critical and narrative readings to a text
    • Weigh interpretations in an argument instead of listing critics
    LessonPractice
  • Unseen poetry and proseOCR H472: Every component
    • Read an unseen poem or prose passage for voice, imagery, form and structure
    • Compare two unseen poems' methods as well as their ideas
    • Connect an unseen extract to the genre or period you have studied
    LessonPractice
  • Connecting texts and using contextOCR H472: Every component
    • Build a comparative argument across two texts, not two essays side by side
    • Use contexts of writing and of reception to explain meaning
    • Plan a 25 or 30-mark essay with a clear line of argument
    LessonPractice

Shakespeare

  • Othello, Acts 1 to 3: Venice, Cyprus and Iago's plotOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the plot of Acts 1 to 3, from Iago's grievance to the temptation scene
    • Analyse how Shakespeare presents Iago's manipulation, Othello's love and Desdemona's choice
    • Use context: Venice, race, the Ottoman threat and Jacobean attitudes to marriage
    LessonPractice
  • Othello, Acts 3 to 5: jealousy, murder and recognitionOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the plot from the handkerchief to Othello's death
    • Analyse Othello's changing language, Emilia's role and the tragic ending
    • Judge readings of Othello as a tragic hero, and of Iago's motives
    LessonPractice
  • King Lear, Acts 1 to 3: division, folly and the stormOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the plot from the love test to the blinding of Gloucester
    • Analyse how Shakespeare presents power, nature and madness in the two plots
    • Use context: kingship, inheritance and the Jacobean fear of a divided kingdom
    LessonPractice
  • King Lear, Acts 4 and 5: suffering, reunion and deathOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the plot from Dover to the deaths of Cordelia and Lear
    • Analyse sight and blindness, justice and the gods, and the play's ending
    • Weigh readings of the play as redemptive or nihilistic
    LessonPractice
  • HamletOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the plot from the Ghost to the duel
    • Analyse revenge, delay, madness and corruption, and Hamlet's soliloquies
    • Use context: revenge tragedy, Elizabethan ideas of the soul and the state
    LessonPractice
  • The Taming of the ShrewOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the induction, the two wooing plots and the wager
    • Analyse how Shakespeare presents Katherina, Petruchio, marriage and money
    • Weigh readings of the ending: submission, irony or performance
    LessonPractice
  • The TempestOCR H472: Component 01, Section 1 (Shakespeare)
    • Know the plot from the storm to Prospero's epilogue
    • Analyse power, freedom, forgiveness and theatre in Prospero, Caliban and Ariel
    • Use context: colonial voyages, masques and readings of the play as Shakespeare's farewell
    LessonPractice

Prose

  • The Great GatsbyOCR H472: Component 02 (American Literature 1880 to 1940)
    • Know the plot and Nick's narration from West Egg to Gatsby's funeral
    • Analyse how Fitzgerald presents love, wealth, class and the American Dream
    • Use context: the 1920s, prohibition, old and new money and the First World War
    LessonPractice
  • DraculaOCR H472: Component 02 (The Gothic)
    • Know the plot from Jonathan Harker's journey to the Count's death
    • Analyse how Stoker presents fear, desire, science and the foreign
    • Use context: the fin de siecle, the New Woman and reverse colonisation
    LessonPractice

Drama before 1900

  • The Duchess of MalfiOCR H472: Component 01, Section 2 (drama and poetry pre-1900)
    • Know the plot from the secret marriage to the deaths of the brothers
    • Analyse how Webster presents power, corruption, women and Bosola
    • Use context: Jacobean revenge tragedy and Italian settings
    LessonPractice
  • She Stoops to ConquerOCR H472: Component 01, Section 2 (drama and poetry pre-1900)
    • Know the plot: the mistaken inn, Kate's disguise and the jewels
    • Analyse how Goldsmith presents class, courtship and town and country
    • Use the contrast between laughing and sentimental comedy
    LessonPractice

Poetry

  • Christina Rossetti: selected poemsOCR H472: Component 01, Section 2 (drama and poetry pre-1900)
    • Know the OCR selection, from Goblin Market to Up-hill
    • Analyse how Rossetti presents love, death, faith and women's choices
    • Use context: Pre-Raphaelites, Tractarian faith and the fallen woman
    LessonPractice
  • Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and selected poemsOCR H472: Component 01, Section 2 (drama and poetry pre-1900)
    • Know the Mariner's crime and punishment, and the conversation poems
    • Analyse guilt, nature, the supernatural and the imagination
    • Use context: Romanticism and Lyrical Ballads
    LessonPractice

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Independent practice for AQA A-level English Literature A (7712) and B (7717) and OCR A Level English Literature (H472). Not affiliated with or endorsed by AQA or OCR.

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