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AQA LTB6 Literature - Pre-release chatter (How'd you find it?)

Advice, good website's on, questions about and things generally concerning the new pre-release (Specification B, AQA, LTB6, Literature no language). I checked the rules with my teacher and we can discuss it as much as we like provided there are no Enlgish AQA syllabus teachers here. So go for it.

On my first breif look the first text remind's me of Perfume (Patrick Suskind), because it's amodern novel with a narrator in the past, haven't actually got much to on atm I haven't read it in full, will save that till tomorrow after my Philosophy exam.

Good luck!

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Reply 1

man123

good luck too, and good luck in your philosophy exam tegid! i will have a little read through it and post my thoughts on it too. I think we should make this thread the discussion thread for the Pre-relaese AQA Literature B LTB6 ONLY!

Reply 2

abood

amen...
and to kick start things, a brief list of the texts (with relevant wikipedia hyperlinks, of course :biggrin:

):

The Historical Novel

•

Item One: Extract from Restoration, Rose Tremain, 1989

•

Item Two: Critics on Rose Tremain

•

Item Three: Rose Tremain on Rose Tremain

•

Item Four: Extract from What are the Rules for Historical Fiction, Sarah Johnson, 2002

Also see this article on Rose Tremain as well as wikipedia stuff on the historical novel, The Restoration and (although I feel this is somewhat irrelevant) Restoration literature itself.

any ideas what kind of poetry may pop up on the exam?

Reply 3

Spiffy

Its about the restoration? FANTASTIC :biggrin:

Had to do that for The Rover this year *phew*

Reply 4

abood

Spiffy

Its about the restoration? FANTASTIC :biggrin:

Had to do that for The Rover this year *phew*

maybe not particularly about the restoration itself...just set in that period (although written in 1989)

I'm sure knowledge of it would be useful though...it seems kinda straightforward. There's the text, critics, autobiographical criticism (new phrase :biggrin:

) and a kind of generic insight into the genre.

but, as I said above, I wonder what unseen texts they'll give us

Reply 5

phyla

abood

any ideas what kind of poetry may pop up on the exam?

Surely if the pre-release is titled "The Historical Novel" it's likely that we'll get another extract from a novel on the exam? That was the view of people in my class when we got the material.

Reply 6

all red and ermine

ABOOD UR ARE AMAZING

THNKX A LOT

just had a major discussion with this on the phone (im at home revising for an exam tomoz) and basically when i realised this came up i was AMAZED

the historical novel for me just links beautifully with birdsong.

the restoration is just a period outside my history syllabus but is majorly linked with it so i have knowledge on this.

so i'm guessing the poetry which may come on the day may be something connected with Jonathan Swift, or Alexander Pope, or the poet laureate at the time: John Dryden.

it's all about anti-puritanism, a Cromwell backlash, back to the status quo, back to the monarchy (watered down of course) and more power to parliament. maybe these themes of change, of returning may be there.

the restoration itself is an interesting idea; that of coming back to what once was etc.

i'm just rambling, but coming back to the historical novel idea, i think the extract could be an example of another historical novel that's why i said "birdsong".

peace out, thnkx again abood. i'll post this in ur thread now :smile:

Reply 7

Spiffy

Ok, I've got the pre release.

"The Historical Novel"

Doing a quick search on wikipedia, I'm thinking maybe Walter Scott will come up? He's considered the first historical novelist, wrote Ivanhoe and various poems which could possibly come up.

Dickens A Tale of Two Cities and Birdsong are mentioned on there too.

Im so not looking forward to this anymore :frown:

Reply 8

abood

RudyKatoch

ABOOD UR ARE AMAZING

THNKX A LOT

peace out, thnkx again abood. i'll post this in ur thread now :smile:

a bit of rep love would be appreciated :p:

anyway, I still need to do a bit of historical research etc. don't want to get bogged down with any one thing in particular. I'm sure a knowledge of context will be useful but must remember to keep everything relevant/english related.

agree with phyla though...seems a bit more feasible that they'd give us another novel extract and ask us to compare (zzz...)

Reply 9

all red and ermine

Spiffy

Ok, I've got the pre release.

...I'm thinking maybe Walter Scott will come up? He's considered the first historical novelist, wrote Ivanhoe and various poems which could possibly come up.

Dickens A Tale of Two Cities and Birdsong are mentioned on there too.

yehhh exactly spiffy! :smile:

interestingly my teacher forced us to read at least one "historical novel"

and trivia on tremain:

she doesn't like being referred to as an author to historical fiction. she doesn't like the term etc etc apparantly

which is a nice twist i think, maybe if it isn't historical fiction - what does she think she writes?

could question 2, in fact, ask us to think about history and literature and their symbiotic link. what the effect history has when reading and/or writing?

i remember there was a past paper where there was a link between art (paintings) and literature.

you could argue that literature written in the past maybe is convienient to highlight issues in the present/future.

for example with Shakespeare or Robert Browning: by setting their plays or poems in la ancién régime (SP?) or different exotic locations/times they don't have to risk getting into trouble or be as controversial as by writing tales of debauchery in their contemporary period.

i don't know, but these were some of the ideas i just thought may be of use :smile:

Reply 10

all red and ermine

found this:

Fendler, Susanne, and Ruth Wittlinger. “Rose Tremain’s Restoration and Thatcherism.” Culture and Communication 3 (Winter, 2000): 29-50. A convincing argument for the influence of contemporary politics on Tremain’s novel of seventeenth century court intrigues.

which backs up my earlier argument for contemporary issues affecting historical novels and their link

:smile:

Reply 11

Spiffy

^ yeah there is something about Thatcher in Item 3 part e.

Reply 12

cheekymonkey229

just a quick point - i though the whole point of this exam was that you were supposed to use ONLY the text in the pre release...countless examiners reports and meetings have given the feedback that no research should be done...for example, the extract is about the restoration period, great if you know something about it but does not matter at all if you dont. The theme is the historical novel and so the questions will probably be on that theme in general. As far as I can see there will probably not be a question that focus's on the restoration period - in fact i bet they will give us text from a completley different historical period...

Although yes, maybe knowing who rose tremain is and her literary context will help, from what i have experienced examiners are wise to students who research every fact about them or have extensive knowledge on pointless trivia - and in some cases they have penalised students for doing so...i really really think that the text is far more important than what it is/who it is by etc...the first question will be comparing it to another text AO3 style anyway...

was slightly dissapointed at first when i heard the theme, but think it will be good now! extract reminds me of orlando by virginia woolf, if anyone has read it??

in other news, i wonder whether we have escaped the unseen poetry!!! the theme is clearly the historical novel, so it would be a bit left field to throw a poem/drama text in, but hey who knows!

having a big disscussion on thursday about pre release in school (obviously no staff...) so if any interesting points come up ill post them!! xxx

Reply 13

Hester-0

When I first saw it I didn't think it would be a poem but now I've read the extract I think it could be, if they expect us to compare themes instead of just genre then it could quite nicely coincide with a poem.
Not really sure, nothing clear is coming to me at the moment. I was really surprised at the genre though.
Really hope its not poetry...

Reply 14

Nadi

Generally (from my experience) past papers have had a different 'focus' for the first and second questions. The second question (based on the pre-release) is most likely going to be focussed on genre, judging by the critical texts we have been given. Bearing this in mind, there is a chance that the first question will focus on themes, context or character in order to prevent candidates repeating themselves in questions one and two. I'm not 100% on this though, anything could come up. All I'm saying is, don't discount poetry/drama. Also, this extract doesn't provide much in the way of structural/language analysis (feel free to say I'm wrong on this point - but I don't see very much) so they may want to put a poem/play in to test us more on that. Just a thought.

Reply 15

Hester-0

Yeah I agree, I haven't really seen any past papers so I'm really not sure but I looked at the specification today and the extract they have given us doesn't seem to give much scope to fulfill some of the criteria.

Reply 16

ZoyaP

abood! i didnt read the name on here and i thought ooh physics and philosophy bristol..hes going to be with abood and then i realised it was you...what an anti-climax hahah, good stuff on pre-release, wished wed got a poem though

Reply 17

man123

cheekymonkey 229 how is the extract linked with ORlando by Virginina Wolf. I read that book, it all about a man turning into a women, how can that be linked? Thanks

Reply 18

hsitin

Hester-0

Well these are the past papers if anyone wants to take a look:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gceasa/englib_assess.php

To the above comments: anything can really come up . It could very easily be a poem or a play (although it would be cruel of them to do so) and I guess beacuse its a synoptic paper, we shouldnt really focus much time on background research. Its more about the actual extract being analysed and the other items and how they inform our opinion of the text.

Reply 19

koldstare

Got the pre-release first thing this morning. From the first glance histotical elements will probably be the main theme. Some of my friends brought up the idea of a medical theme but I thought there was not alot of support for it but you never know.

I'm not sure really how to go about this release though. The theme is pretty evident, and short of figuring out some of the language and just clearing up what happens I'm stuck as to what to look at after that.

BTW, thanks for that list abood, it really helped and will help alot more people lol.

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