GCSE English Literature

Course Length

This course enables the students to become acquainted with some of the major works of Literature from past and present time in the principal genres of drama, poetry and prose. The Edexcel International GCSE in English Literature is designed as a two-year course. A selection of prose, drama and poetry from around the world allows teachers a wide choice of set texts. It provides two routes of assessment — either a 100
per cent examination option or an examination and coursework route. The examination questions allow all students to make a personal, informed response to the texts studied. The qualifcation offers an enjoyable and stimulating introduction to the study of English Literature.

The Specification

Edexcel 4ET1 IGCSE English Literature

Assessment

60% written examination paper and
40% internally assessed coursework
(Paper 1 and Paper 3).
4ET1/01 Paper 1
Poetry and Modern Prose
1 hour 45 mins | 60%

4ET1/03 Paper 3
Modern Drama and Literary Heritage | 40%

Course Content

Paper 1 Drama options include:
Arthur Miller: A View from The Bridge
J B Priestley: An Inspector Calls
Simon Stephens: The Curious Incident of the Dog
in the Night-time
Diane Samuels: Kindertransport
Wole Soyinka: Death and the King’s Horseman

Paper 1 An unseen poem.
Poems taken from Section C of the Pearson
Edexcel International GCSE in English Literature,
including:
If – Rudyard Kipling
Sonnet 116 (‘Let me not to the marriage …’) –
Shakespeare
La Belle Dame Sans Merci – John Keats
Poem at Thirty-Nine – Alice Walker War
Photographer – Carol Ann Duffy
The Tyger – William Blake
My Last Duchess – Robert Browning
Half-caste – John Agard
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night – Dylan
Thomas

Prose options include:
The Whale Rider: Witi Ihimaera
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mocking Bird
John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart

Paper 2 and Paper 3 Drama options include:
Arthur Miller: A View from The Bridge
J B Priestley: An Inspector Calls
Simon Stephens: The Curious Incident of the Dog
in the Night-time
Diane Samuels: Kindertransport
Wole Soyinka: Death and the King’s Horseman

Paper 2 and Paper 3 Literary Heritage
options include:
William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare: Macbeth
William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter

Reading List

Reading
To be advised from the selection of literature options above, plus the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in English Literature.