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http://www.firstworldwar.com is really, really good for the history of the war. The most useful bits I found were the articles, as they analyse things in depth- the one of women in WW1 is ever so useful for a background to female writers like Jessie Pope, Kathryn Tynan and Vera Brittain (all of whom have come up on exams before).
My school gave us a couple of different reading lists, which I've unfortunately left in my folder in my locker heh, but off the top of my head...
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks (I didn't read it, might do before the exam, but I've heard mixed reviews- people seem to either love it or loathe it)
Regeneration - Pat Barker
The Eye In The Door - Pat Barker
The Ghost Road - Pat Barker (These 3 form a trilogy. I read them over last summer and absolutely loved them, I would completely recommend them)
Strange Meeting - Susan Hill
All Quiet On The Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque (Really couldn't get into it and gave up as it has a very dispassionate style)
Private Peaceful - Michael Morpurgo
A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway (Offers a bit of a different perspective on war. I did finish it but just came out of the whole thing hating Hemingway)
The Accrington Pals (It's a play, can't remember who by. We read it in class and it's a good look at the social aspect of the war)
A Chronicle of Youth - Vera Brittain (A collection of her letters as a VAD)
And, of course, as much WW1 poetry as possible. Owen and Sassoon are pretty much mandatory, but Rosenberg and Edward Thomas are also worth a look at as well as Rupert Brooke, for a pro-war perspective. Pope, Tynan and Brittain are the main female poets I can think of off the top of my head.
You don't need to read everything by any means, but having a good wide base is probably advisable.
My school gave us a couple of different reading lists, which I've unfortunately left in my folder in my locker heh, but off the top of my head...
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks (I didn't read it, might do before the exam, but I've heard mixed reviews- people seem to either love it or loathe it)
Regeneration - Pat Barker
The Eye In The Door - Pat Barker
The Ghost Road - Pat Barker (These 3 form a trilogy. I read them over last summer and absolutely loved them, I would completely recommend them)
Strange Meeting - Susan Hill
All Quiet On The Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque (Really couldn't get into it and gave up as it has a very dispassionate style)
Private Peaceful - Michael Morpurgo
A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway (Offers a bit of a different perspective on war. I did finish it but just came out of the whole thing hating Hemingway)
The Accrington Pals (It's a play, can't remember who by. We read it in class and it's a good look at the social aspect of the war)
A Chronicle of Youth - Vera Brittain (A collection of her letters as a VAD)
And, of course, as much WW1 poetry as possible. Owen and Sassoon are pretty much mandatory, but Rosenberg and Edward Thomas are also worth a look at as well as Rupert Brooke, for a pro-war perspective. Pope, Tynan and Brittain are the main female poets I can think of off the top of my head.
You don't need to read everything by any means, but having a good wide base is probably advisable.
Our reading list was as follows:
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
Regeneration - Pat Barker
Return Of The Soldier - Rebecca West
A Chronicle of Youth - Vera Brittain
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Scars Upon My Heart - Selected authors (it is a collection of poetry by women)
The Great War And Moder Memory - Paul Fussel (this is more like an information guide/text book than a literary source but it is incredibly helpful, with details on the Theatre Of War, Literary war, war technicalities etc.)
Recommended extras I chose to read of my own accord were:
Gooodbye To All That - Robert Graves
All Quiet on The Western Front - Erich Maria (I finished this and yes I do agree it is quite dispassionate but then again I expect most of the realistic accounts of hard warfare to be that way)
Stalky And Co. - Rudyard Kipling
We were also advised to look at some plays set around the period. We looked at Journey's End. Mostly we looked at the final scene and the scene concerning mental illness. This play is reflected by Blackadder Goes Forth with an added splash of 'black humour'. Blackadder was in my mock exam along with Stalky And Co. and a poem by a lady, possibly an auther listed in Scars Upon My Heart.
I really hope this helps you, goodluck.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
Regeneration - Pat Barker
Return Of The Soldier - Rebecca West
A Chronicle of Youth - Vera Brittain
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
Scars Upon My Heart - Selected authors (it is a collection of poetry by women)
The Great War And Moder Memory - Paul Fussel (this is more like an information guide/text book than a literary source but it is incredibly helpful, with details on the Theatre Of War, Literary war, war technicalities etc.)
Recommended extras I chose to read of my own accord were:
Gooodbye To All That - Robert Graves
All Quiet on The Western Front - Erich Maria (I finished this and yes I do agree it is quite dispassionate but then again I expect most of the realistic accounts of hard warfare to be that way)
Stalky And Co. - Rudyard Kipling
We were also advised to look at some plays set around the period. We looked at Journey's End. Mostly we looked at the final scene and the scene concerning mental illness. This play is reflected by Blackadder Goes Forth with an added splash of 'black humour'. Blackadder was in my mock exam along with Stalky And Co. and a poem by a lady, possibly an auther listed in Scars Upon My Heart.
I really hope this helps you, goodluck.
Snow Witch
The Great War And Modern Memory - Paul Fussel (this is more like an information guide/text book than a literary source but it is incredibly helpful, with details on the Theatre Of War, Literary war, war technicalities etc.)
I read that actually, very useful book, I still have a whole list of works referenced in it that I need to have a look at. Our teacher for WW1 was/is (she now teaches us Blake) fairly useless, so it's the only analysis of war literature as a whole that I've experienced.
I find this website good - http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/ - especially the forums, if you need help or just want to generally discuss WW1 literature.
The best thing to do is think of all the different types of war literature and find something that falls into each category (preferably a few works for each).
Think about:
- women who were involved in the war (Vera Britten's 'Testament of Youth')
- women whose husbands were soldiers (Helen Thomas - wife of the poet Edward Thomas)
- men who wrote about nature and war (Edward Thomas' poems)
- enthusiasm for war (Rupert Brooke)
- soldiers' experiences of battle (Robert Graves, Remarque, Wilfred Owen, Sassoon - read Sassoon's diaries for a more detailed account of his feelings as well as his poetry if you can)
- works written after the war (Hemmingway, Edmund Blunden's poetry)
The above are all WW1, but you'll need to make comparisons with other war literature too, so:
- WW2 (Anne Frank's diary, Catch-22)
- wars before WW1 (Boer war - Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Crimean -Tennyson, Shakespeare's history plays - definitely read Henry IV part 1 or 2)
- modern war literature (I'd recommend thinking about the new forms of war literature, eg. Colby Buzzell who wrote an online blog that he turned into a book later on)
Anyway these are just a few examples of things you might want to look at which might help you map out what you need to read and make sure you're reading the right range of stuff. Basically, the best thing you can do is (predictably) READ. But also learn to think about what you're reading in relation to everything else...How does early/late WW1 lit. differ? How do women and men's accounts differ? How has war literature changed through time? Also, think about how different forms suit war literature or represent it differently (eg. the comprehensiveness and detail of prose compared to the more emotional and compact poem).
If I think of any other tips I'll post them! Good luck, and ignore your teacher, just enjoy this unit, in my opinion it's one of the best A level units there are and just immerse yourself in it.
The best thing to do is think of all the different types of war literature and find something that falls into each category (preferably a few works for each).
Think about:
- women who were involved in the war (Vera Britten's 'Testament of Youth')
- women whose husbands were soldiers (Helen Thomas - wife of the poet Edward Thomas)
- men who wrote about nature and war (Edward Thomas' poems)
- enthusiasm for war (Rupert Brooke)
- soldiers' experiences of battle (Robert Graves, Remarque, Wilfred Owen, Sassoon - read Sassoon's diaries for a more detailed account of his feelings as well as his poetry if you can)
- works written after the war (Hemmingway, Edmund Blunden's poetry)
The above are all WW1, but you'll need to make comparisons with other war literature too, so:
- WW2 (Anne Frank's diary, Catch-22)
- wars before WW1 (Boer war - Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Crimean -Tennyson, Shakespeare's history plays - definitely read Henry IV part 1 or 2)
- modern war literature (I'd recommend thinking about the new forms of war literature, eg. Colby Buzzell who wrote an online blog that he turned into a book later on)
Anyway these are just a few examples of things you might want to look at which might help you map out what you need to read and make sure you're reading the right range of stuff. Basically, the best thing you can do is (predictably) READ. But also learn to think about what you're reading in relation to everything else...How does early/late WW1 lit. differ? How do women and men's accounts differ? How has war literature changed through time? Also, think about how different forms suit war literature or represent it differently (eg. the comprehensiveness and detail of prose compared to the more emotional and compact poem).
If I think of any other tips I'll post them! Good luck, and ignore your teacher, just enjoy this unit, in my opinion it's one of the best A level units there are and just immerse yourself in it.
Integrated comparison - don't just block your analysis of texts into, say, three or four different long paragraphs and then compare them all. Write a well-structured essay (DO make a plan, for the second question it's near impossible to be structured without making a plan) and compare texts you're given in the paper with texts from independant study. Make sure you bring in a work you've read to compare with most points you make.
Just a note, on one of the above reading lists was "All Quiet On The Western Front," my teacher said you can't actually use this text in the exam as it was not originally written in English and you can only use texts that were.
You are right; All Quiet On The Western Front is not to be mentioned as a solid subject of the essay. However, it can be mentioned briefly as an example of wider reading as this shows a broad spectrum of literary texts (some of which are not from the more well known war writers). This book was on my own personal reading list and I would still recommend it to get a good view point from a soldiers perspective, the British troops are mentioned frequently.
Sorry if that wasn't clear before, hell_o is right you probably shouldn't use it as a main subject of your essay but it is good for reference
.This is brilliant advice thanks! It must be some trend for teachers teaching this vital unit to be crap! Since january our new teacher has been teaching us the wrong stuff and usually random stuff we dont need e.g. 3 lessons (YES 3!) on counting syllables. It was shocking! this forum is going to be a great help!
Cambyses
I find this website good - http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap/ - especially the forums, if you need help or just want to generally discuss WW1 literature.
The best thing to do is think of all the different types of war literature and find something that falls into each category (preferably a few works for each).
Think about:
- women who were involved in the war (Vera Britten's 'Testament of Youth')
- women whose husbands were soldiers (Helen Thomas - wife of the poet Edward Thomas)
- men who wrote about nature and war (Edward Thomas' poems)
- enthusiasm for war (Rupert Brooke)
- soldiers' experiences of battle (Robert Graves, Remarque, Wilfred Owen, Sassoon - read Sassoon's diaries for a more detailed account of his feelings as well as his poetry if you can)
- works written after the war (Hemmingway, Edmund Blunden's poetry)
The above are all WW1, but you'll need to make comparisons with other war literature too, so:
- WW2 (Anne Frank's diary, Catch-22)
- wars before WW1 (Boer war - Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Crimean -Tennyson, Shakespeare's history plays - definitely read Henry IV part 1 or 2)
- modern war literature (I'd recommend thinking about the new forms of war literature, eg. Colby Buzzell who wrote an online blog that he turned into a book later on)
Anyway these are just a few examples of things you might want to look at which might help you map out what you need to read and make sure you're reading the right range of stuff. Basically, the best thing you can do is (predictably) READ. But also learn to think about what you're reading in relation to everything else...How does early/late WW1 lit. differ? How do women and men's accounts differ? How has war literature changed through time? Also, think about how different forms suit war literature or represent it differently (eg. the comprehensiveness and detail of prose compared to the more emotional and compact poem).
If I think of any other tips I'll post them! Good luck, and ignore your teacher, just enjoy this unit, in my opinion it's one of the best A level units there are and just immerse yourself in it.
The best thing to do is think of all the different types of war literature and find something that falls into each category (preferably a few works for each).
Think about:
- women who were involved in the war (Vera Britten's 'Testament of Youth')
- women whose husbands were soldiers (Helen Thomas - wife of the poet Edward Thomas)
- men who wrote about nature and war (Edward Thomas' poems)
- enthusiasm for war (Rupert Brooke)
- soldiers' experiences of battle (Robert Graves, Remarque, Wilfred Owen, Sassoon - read Sassoon's diaries for a more detailed account of his feelings as well as his poetry if you can)
- works written after the war (Hemmingway, Edmund Blunden's poetry)
The above are all WW1, but you'll need to make comparisons with other war literature too, so:
- WW2 (Anne Frank's diary, Catch-22)
- wars before WW1 (Boer war - Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Crimean -Tennyson, Shakespeare's history plays - definitely read Henry IV part 1 or 2)
- modern war literature (I'd recommend thinking about the new forms of war literature, eg. Colby Buzzell who wrote an online blog that he turned into a book later on)
Anyway these are just a few examples of things you might want to look at which might help you map out what you need to read and make sure you're reading the right range of stuff. Basically, the best thing you can do is (predictably) READ. But also learn to think about what you're reading in relation to everything else...How does early/late WW1 lit. differ? How do women and men's accounts differ? How has war literature changed through time? Also, think about how different forms suit war literature or represent it differently (eg. the comprehensiveness and detail of prose compared to the more emotional and compact poem).
If I think of any other tips I'll post them! Good luck, and ignore your teacher, just enjoy this unit, in my opinion it's one of the best A level units there are and just immerse yourself in it.
tomdav
Hi everyone, really helpful thread and thanks for all the advice so far. Im abit confused about how we answer the question, for example, will I need to know quotes from my wider reading or it more general than that? Thanks in advance
Yeah, you'll need to quote your wider reading. I'd recommend learning some poems off by heart in full and some quotations from poems/novels/short stories that make an interesting point about war experience too.
It's not always essential to quote your wider reading. Sometimes just some references to the names of other authors/texts will suffice if it's a general point. Though if, say, you're comparing language of an exam extract to wider reading, you'll definitely need to bring in some quotes. I'd advise learning a quotation or two from all the different 'types' of war literature, so you have evidence to back up any theme that might come up.
mcgoo
can i just double check; is this English lit AQA spec: A?
just im doing Eng lit AQA spec B and this thread has me slightly worried as we havn't been told that the exam has anything to do with war (we havn't actually had any teaching for this unit yet)
just im doing Eng lit AQA spec B and this thread has me slightly worried as we havn't been told that the exam has anything to do with war (we havn't actually had any teaching for this unit yet)
Don't worry! As far as I know, war lit is only for English Literature AQA A. Your Unit 6 should be a preliminary release booklet about 'exploring literature' or something.
my teacher was crap teachin this too 
now shes teachin measure for measure.. bummer
now shes teachin measure for measure.. bummerI'm lucky in that my teacher is excellent in this subject, but as well as the poetry and novels, I'd say the most important text is R.C Sheriff's Journey's End, it's the most typical,and you can compare everything else to it.
Also, the Blackadder script came up a few years ago, and its a fun way to revise by watching it. I'd also suggest the DVD for A Very Long Engagement.
Obviously, you're going to need to do the required reading, but this is a nice break for when you want to work but cant deal with anymore reading!
Hope this helps!
Also, the Blackadder script came up a few years ago, and its a fun way to revise by watching it. I'd also suggest the DVD for A Very Long Engagement.
Obviously, you're going to need to do the required reading, but this is a nice break for when you want to work but cant deal with anymore reading!
Hope this helps!
Ok I've hit another problem. So far I have read Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, Journeys End and The Last Post, I understand all the general attitudes but im struggling on what exactly I should be looking for and taking notes on, can anyone help me out please Thanks alot in advance.
Thanks alot in advance.EmpireRecords
I'm lucky in that my teacher is excellent in this subject, but as well as the poetry and novels, I'd say the most important text is R.C Sheriff's Journey's End, it's the most typical,and you can compare everything else to it.
Also, the Blackadder script came up a few years ago, and its a fun way to revise by watching it. I'd also suggest the DVD for A Very Long Engagement.
Obviously, you're going to need to do the required reading, but this is a nice break for when you want to work but cant deal with anymore reading!
Hope this helps!
Also, the Blackadder script came up a few years ago, and its a fun way to revise by watching it. I'd also suggest the DVD for A Very Long Engagement.
Obviously, you're going to need to do the required reading, but this is a nice break for when you want to work but cant deal with anymore reading!
Hope this helps!
Yeah, there are lots of ways to revise for this unit that aren't just the required reading. Watch lots of war movies and think about them more in terms of the script than the visual side. And Blackadder did come up so it's definitely a good idea to watch some of that!
hey, WH Auden is really good for world petry, especially 'refugee blues'
hope that helps x
hope that helps x
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