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Component 2: Texts in shared contexts

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you compare set texts that share a context so that period and method drive a single argument?

Comparing two or three set texts within a shared context: tracing common concerns and divergent methods across genres, integrating contextual reading and critical interpretations, and structuring a sustained comparative argument (AO1 to AO5).
How to compare set texts within a shared context for AQA English Literature A Component 2: tracing shared concerns and contrasting methods across poetry, prose and drama, weaving in context and criticism, and building a sustained comparative argument across the assessment objectives.
10 min answer →

How do you read post-1945 literature as texts responding to a shared modern context of upheaval and change?

Studying Modern times (literature from 1945 to the present) as a shared context: postwar disillusion, identity, gender, class and globalisation, analysing how method shapes meaning across poetry, prose and drama, and reading texts against the contemporary world (AO1 to AO5).
How to study Modern times (1945 to the present) as a shared literary context for AQA English Literature A Component 2: analysing how postwar poetry, prose and drama present identity, conflict and change, and reading texts against the modern world across all five assessment objectives.
10 min answer →

How do you answer the compulsory unseen prose extract in Paper 2 Section B, where method and context carry the marks?

The unseen prose extract (Paper 2, Section B, 25 marks): analysing an unfamiliar passage from your shared context for how the writer presents an aspect of that context, with AO2 (method) and AO3 (context) central, supported by AO1 and AO5.
How to answer the compulsory unseen prose extract in AQA English Literature A Paper 2 Section B: analysing an unfamiliar passage from your shared context for how the writer presents an aspect of that context, with AO2 method and AO3 context carrying the marks, supported by argument and interpretation.
11 min answer →

How do you read literature of World War One and its aftermath as a body of texts shaped by a shared historical moment?

Studying WWI and its aftermath as a shared context: poetry, prose and drama responding to war, trauma, memory and disillusion, analysing how genre and method shape the representation of conflict, and reading texts against their historical moment (AO1 to AO5).
How to study WWI and its aftermath as a shared literary context for AQA English Literature A Component 2: analysing how poetry, prose and drama present war, trauma and memory, and reading texts against their historical moment across all five assessment objectives.
10 min answer →