AS English Literature Exam

[Cultivated]

There are 4 areas my wider reading is meant to focus on (that my teacher has given):
Progress - Industry and Empire
Position of Women
Social Problems - urban poverty and the working class
Evolving attitudes, culture, religion and science

These four areas we will need to incorporate into our exams, and we'll have to memorise quotes. Do you have any examples of novels that fit into evolving attitudes? Should I be making detailed notes? This is for my AS English Literature exam in Juna, any responses will be much appreciated. :)

[kelby_lake]

Dickens would be good for social. I'm thinking 19th century would be good here.

[Cultivated]

Dickens would be good for social. I'm thinking 19th century would be good here.

Do you have a specific example in mind? :)

[kelby_lake]

Oliver Twist would definitely cover the first three.
Could always try Tess of The D'ubervilles, except it's not about urban poverty.

[Cultivated]

Oliver Twist would definitely cover the first three.
Could always try Tess of The D'ubervilles, except it's not about urban poverty.

Thank you. I'm not sure about which novels would fit into evolving attitudes (culture, religion and science) though?

[kelby_lake]

Well in Tess, you have the clash between religion and paganism. Hardy believed in Darwinism.

You could probably even do Lady Chatterley's Lover if you were feeling brave enough.

[Cultivated]

Well in Tess, you have the clash between religion and paganism. Hardy believed in Darwinism.

You could probably even do Lady Chatterley's Lover if you were feeling brave enough.

Wasn't Hardy agnostic?

[kelby_lake]

Darwinism is a part of that- basically Hardy didn't believe that God created the world and that chance was out to get you.

[Cultivated]

Oh alright. Thanks for the help :)

[wessexgirl]

There are 4 areas my wider reading is meant to focus on (that my teacher has given):
Progress - Industry and Empire
Position of Women
Social Problems - urban poverty and the working class
Evolving attitudes, culture, religion and science

These four areas we will need to incorporate into our exams, and we'll have to memorise quotes. Do you have any examples of novels that fit into evolving attitudes? Should I be making detailed notes? This is for my AS English Literature exam in Juna, any responses will be much appreciated. :)

Is there a specific time period that you are studying for these areas, say the 19th century novel, or can you choose any time? I am assuming you have a set era.

[Whifflingpin]

Tressell's "Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists" is classic related to urban poverty and the working class.

Butler's "Erewhon" for religion & science.

Anthony Hope's "Intrusions of Peggy" for the place of women.

Conrad's "Lord Jim" for empire.

Maybe, "The Road to Wigan Pier."

All the above are worth reading, regardless of exams. If you want to show evidence of wider reading, then they would all, I think, fall just outside of most curricula, and lead you down some paths slightly less-travelled, but well known enough not to frighten teachers or examiners.

And yes - if you are reading for exams, then make notes - in this exercise, you are not judging the books as literature, however, you are asking what they say about the world they are describing, and particularly what they reveal about the attitudes of the people who wrote and read them.

[applepie]

Progress - Industry and Empire Rand comes to mind for me in this. Anthem is pretty short, and I'm seeing progress as a bit of a theme there

Position of Women Kate Chopin, The Awakening

Social Problems - urban poverty and the working class Dickens has already been mentioned here, so I feel no need to mention it again :)

Evolving attitudes, culture, religion and science I've a few that come to mind, but I find I'm discarding them for not fitting everything. There is always Frankenstein.

[mal4mac]

Rand's novels are not considered to be great literature in the UK. For school exams (or life!) you should stay mainstream, and concentrate on novels that all the good critics recommend.

Evolving attitudes, culture, religion and science - Aldous Huxley Brave New World

I'd also support Oliver Twist for position of women and social problems.

Progress - Industry (and women's issues, poverty, working class...) - North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Progress - Empire - Lord Jim by Conrad is good recommendation.

[Whifflingpin]

"For school exams (or life!) you should stay mainstream, and concentrate on novels that all the good critics recommend."

Nah - For school exams, read what you're told. For life, read widely, the good along with the bad. You've got to taste soap and jelly babies to appreciate stilton.

For the OP's purpose, which seems to be to get some kind of background and context for the set books, then good rather than great books might be more appropriate. A good potwalloper book can give a very good idea of what people of its time were thinking and feeling. So, for instance, Cutcliffe-Hyne (Thompson's Progress, Kate Meredith, The New Eden, The Marriage of Captain Kettle) might tell you more about the subjects in question, as seen by people of the earlier C20th, than, say, Ulysses. Thompson's Progress might, for instance, be useful to show the background against which Brave New World was written.

[kasie]

[QUOTE=Whifflingpin;890164....Nah - For school exams, read what you're told. For life, read widely, the good along with the bad. You've got to taste soap and jelly babies to appreciate stilton.....[/QUOTE]

Whiffle - I just love your reading rule! :lol: It's what I have been trying to tell some people for years but much less succinctly.

[mal4mac]

"For school exams (or life!) you should stay mainstream, and concentrate on novels that all the good critics recommend."

Nah - For school exams, read what you're told. For life, read widely, the good along with the bad. You've got to taste soap and jelly babies to appreciate stilton.

For the OP's purpose, which seems to be to get some kind of background and context for the set books, then good rather than great books might be more appropriate. A good potwalloper book can give a very good idea of what people of its time were thinking and feeling. So, for instance, Cutcliffe-Hyne (Thompson's Progress, Kate Meredith, The New Eden, The Marriage of Captain Kettle) might tell you more about the subjects in question, as seen by people of the earlier C20th, than, say, Ulysses. Thompson's Progress might, for instance, be useful to show the background against which Brave New World was written.

I haven't heard of Cutcliffe-Hyne or Kate Meredith. Do they have any kind of literary reputation? What do you mean by potwalloper? Try telling your teacher that you chose a book because it was good potwalloper and see what happens...

You only need to taste soap once, and quickly, to know it's not a good idea. Good food critics (or just Mum and Dad!) will then tell you to avoid shoe polish and shampoo as well. Do you listen to them, or do you try every lickable object?

Certainly, read a chapter of Harry Potter or similar trash, say once a year, to remind you of the taste of soap. Buy why would you spend any more time with trash?

[Whifflingpin]

"But why would you spend any more time with trash?"

Why would anyone get drunk twice? Because the first hangover might be an accident, and so might the fifth.

One try is simply not enough, even with the classics. Many years ago I tried Pickwick Papers and yawned. Forty years on I read it and rolled about in stitches, when I wasn't just soaking in it.

"I haven't heard of Cutcliffe-Hyne or Kate Meredith. Do they have any kind of literary reputation? "
Well, that says it all about so-called reputable critics. In his day, Cutcliffe-Hyne was highly acclaimed, now he's not mentioned. Tomorrow some fancy scholar might just realize that he was the voice of his age. Any-one who sticks within the bounds of some arbitrary canon will (today) miss Cutcliffe-Hyne and hundreds of other perfectly competent, sometimes excellent, novelists.
"Kate Meredith" was a book, strictly "Kate Meredith, Financier," not a novelist. Covers themes of progress, status of women (definitely an equal-opportunities and even feminist novel), empire etc. Written by Cutcliffe-Hyne in 19-o-something.

[applepie]

Nah - For school exams, read what you're told. For life, read widely, the good along with the bad. You've got to taste soap and jelly babies to appreciate stilton.

I would have to agree with that :D

Rand isn't my favorite, but I don't think her works are complete rubbish either.