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AQA A2 English Literature Coursework

I think this is a great module because it allows you to do something you're really interested in.
I just thought it would be good if people posted up their courswork titles.
Mine is,
"An exploration of mental breakdown as a necessary step towards Creative Freedom - Insanity, Recovery and Escape in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman."

Unfortunately, after my school asked the moderator over five weeks ago whether The Yellow Wall-Paper would be alright (as it's a short story) three days ago they replied that it would only count as half a text and I'd have to do something else as well. To me this seems like such an uneducated, completely-absurd-for-an-Alevel-english-exam attitude that length is somehow indicative of literary merit. It may be a short story, but it is a seminal text, and people write PhD theses about it!
Anyway, rant over. It just annoyed me slightly.

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Reply 1
hitchhiker_13
I think this is a great module because it allows you to do something you're really interested in.
I just thought it would be good if people posted up their courswork titles.
Mine is,
"An exploration of mental breakdown as a necessary step towards Creative Freedom - Insanity, Recovery and Escape in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman."

Unfortunately, after my school asked the moderator over five weeks ago whether The Yellow Wall-Paper would be alright (as it's a short story) three days ago they replied that it would only count as half a text and I'd have to do something else as well. To me this seems like such an uneducated, completely-absurd-for-an-Alevel-english-exam attitude that length is somehow indicative of literary merit. It may be a short story, but it is a seminal text, and people write PhD theses about it!
Anyway, rant over. It just annoyed me slightly.

Well for my A2 English Lit AQA coursework I did The Yellow Wallpaper and A Streetcar Named Desire, so I don't know how I and the rest of my class got away with it! Are you sure they've not got it wrong?
Reply 2
I'm doing OCR, but heres my coursework title I have decided to do;

In her slave naarative entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Hariet Jacobs wrote that 'as for the coloured race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation'. To what extent is Toni Morrison's Beloved a product of that 'abler pen'?
Ooo, I'm examining Tony Morrison's Beloved and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I've got to think of a title over half-term. Toni Morrison is amazing though; my mom dragged me along to a reading from her latest novel Love at the Royal Festival Hall a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

For anybody who's interested, I've got a list of 53 "successful" titles (AQA board) for the A2 comparative texts coursework.

<To the initial poster> Successful titles for The Bell Jar are:

"Compare Plath's presentation of the father figure in The Bell Jar and in her poetry."

"Compare Plath's uses of motifs and symbols in The Bell Jar and Selected Poems".

EDIT: I've found one which is [more closely] linked to both the authors you've chosen;

"A comparison of the presentation of freedom and constraint in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Sylvia Plath's poetry."
musicman
Well for my A2 English Lit AQA coursework I did The Yellow Wallpaper and A Streetcar Named Desire, so I don't know how I and the rest of my class got away with it! Are you sure they've not got it wrong?


How unfair!
I've already told you everything I know - they said it's not good enough.
Reply 5
mobb_theprequel
Ooo, I'm examining Tony Morrison's Beloved and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I've got to think of a title over half-term. Toni Morrison is amazing though; my mom dragged me along to a reading from her latest novel Love at the Royal Festival Hall a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

For anybody who's interested, I've got a list of 53 "successful" titles (AQA board) for the A2 comparative texts coursework.

<To the initial poster> Successful titles for The Bell Jar are:

"Compare Plath's presentation of the father figure in The Bell Jar and in her poetry."

"Compare Plath's uses of motifs and symbols in The Bell Jar and Selected Poems".

EDIT: I've found one which is [more closely] linked to both the authors you've chosen;

"A comparison of the presentation of freedom and constraint in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Sylvia Plath's poetry."


I wouldn't have placed Heart of Darkness alongside Beloved :confused:

A comparision of T.S.Eliot and Heart of Darkness might be interesting though *ponders*
Reply 6
mobb_theprequel
Ooo, I'm examining Tony Morrison's Beloved and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I've got to think of a title over half-term. Toni Morrison is amazing though; my mom dragged me along to a reading from her latest novel Love at the Royal Festival Hall a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

For anybody who's interested, I've got a list of 53 "successful" titles (AQA board) for the A2 comparative texts coursework.

<To the initial poster> Successful titles for The Bell Jar are:

"Compare Plath's presentation of the father figure in The Bell Jar and in her poetry."

"Compare Plath's uses of motifs and symbols in The Bell Jar and Selected Poems".

EDIT: I've found one which is [more closely] linked to both the authors you've chosen;

"A comparison of the presentation of freedom and constraint in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Sylvia Plath's poetry."


do you have any questions for HofD apart from your one obviously? :smile:
I'm doing "Compare and contrast how Salman Rushdie and Virginia Woolf develop character through change in 'The Satanic Verses' and 'Orlando'."

Oh, how I had to fight for that one! I spent months looking for something to go with Rushdie, and eventually settled on Virginia Woolf much to the surprise of....well, everyone. Still, it's several weeks and some extensive planning and drafting later, and my teacher has finally admitted to being "fully convinced" that it works :biggrin:

ZarathustraX

EDIT: Doing WJEC exam board, btw!
Reply 8
hitchhiker_13
I think this is a great module because it allows you to do something you're really interested in.
I just thought it would be good if people posted up their courswork titles.
Mine is,
"An exploration of mental breakdown as a necessary step towards Creative Freedom - Insanity, Recovery and Escape in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman."

Unfortunately, after my school asked the moderator over five weeks ago whether The Yellow Wall-Paper would be alright (as it's a short story) three days ago they replied that it would only count as half a text and I'd have to do something else as well. To me this seems like such an uneducated, completely-absurd-for-an-Alevel-english-exam attitude that length is somehow indicative of literary merit. It may be a short story, but it is a seminal text, and people write PhD theses about it!
Anyway, rant over. It just annoyed me slightly.


Hey! I also love this module. I think my texts are the most exilarating in the year group! A streetcar Named Desire and Great Expectations.

Compare and contrast the aberrant dispositions of both Miss Havisham and Blanche DuBois.
vinny2256
Hey! I also love this module. I think my texts are the most exilarating in the year group! A streetcar Named Desire and Great Expectations.

Compare and contrast the aberrant dispositions of both Miss Havisham and Blanche DuBois.



I almost did Streetcar along with the Bell Jar, but decided that The Yellow Wallpaper whas just too good to miss. Have you read either of them? Heartily recommended, along with the poetry.
Reply 10
corey
I wouldn't have placed Heart of Darkness alongside Beloved :confused:

A comparision of T.S.Eliot and Heart of Darkness might be interesting though *ponders*

One possibility: Is Heart of Darkness about Africa or Poland?
Joseph Skvorecky has a chapter in The Engineer of Human Souls where the narrator argues that Harlequin- the Russian who thinks Kurtz is a great man- is there as a representative of Russian imperialism's occupation of Poland.
would anyone mind trading essays (on completely diff books of course so there's no risk of plagiarising). I'd like to have a look at the sort of standard of work for A2.
Reply 12
I've just been working on mine! The title is:

Themes of Moral Decay in Brideshead Revisited and The Picture of Dorian Gray

I've read The Yellow Wallpaper - it's great! Has anyone read any of Antonia White's novels: particularly Frost in May and Beyond the Glass? BtG would be a great partner for TYW.
Good news - AQA have now apparently decided that the Yellow Wall-Paper is fine. That information would have been nice three days ago before I wrote the essay.
Reply 14
vinny2256
Hey! I also love this module. I think my texts are the most exilarating in the year group! A streetcar Named Desire and Great Expectations.

Compare and contrast the aberrant dispositions of both Miss Havisham and Blanche DuBois.


Thats such a great essay title! Both characters are wonderfully kooky and poignant at the same time..

EDIT: yes yes I know its an old thread :p:
Mine is "The presentation and significance of the end of the Empire in 'The Go-Between' and 'The Remains of the Day'."

We didn't get to choose what we did, though. Although I am rather grateful to my teachers for introducing to me to the books they are very good!
*sigh* my school forced us all the do it on the same texts..

Beloved and The Color Purple. I hate The Color Purple-there are so many better books which can be compared with Beloved!!

Oh and my title was "Compare and contrast how Toni Morrison and Alice Walker give a voice to the collective memories of the slaves through their unusual narrative structure".
Reply 17
I did 'Compare and contrast Monica Ali and Jane Austen's presentations of arranged marriage in Brick Lane and Mansfield Park.' Really enjoyed it. :biggrin:
I did 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Great Gatsby', but could have done 'The Color Purple' and 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit', since me and my friend decided we didn't like the original texts lol. But we decided it was too much work in the end...
Reply 19
How can anyone not like Streetcar?
We had our texts and title chosen for us, though we did have some discussion about it. The title was something like "Compare the use and effect of Satire in Emma and The Importance of Being Earnest". I quite enjoyed it, but that word limit... :mad: