Revising Literary Works for Paper 2
· For your examination, you will need to write about two of the literary works you have studied.
· You do need to know your works well; you may not bring your texts in to the examination. There is no requirement that your response
includes quotations, but if you intend to include quotations, you will need to commit them to memory.
· Another reason you need to know your works well is because examination questions (there are four; you choose only one) ask you to
select relevant knowledge to respond to the question you choose. There is no examination question that goes ‘write everything you know
about two of the works you have studied’. So, you must select only relevant detail, and discard irrelevant detail.
· The following grid helps you to begin think about and revise your works as you approach the examination. Although you must write
about only two works, you should revise three works. Doing this gives you a choice, and having a choice advantages you.
· Please remember, knowing your works is only part of the process of revision; you must also practice planning, structuring, and writing
responses to past examination papers.
· Try to complete the following grids without your literary works. How much can you do? When you get stuck, refer to your works.
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What is the title of the literary work?
What is the name of the writer – author, playwright, or poet?
When was the work first published? If it is a play, where and when was it first performed?
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What happens in the work? Summarize or describe what happens in no more than 100 words.
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What are the key thematic concerns of the literary work?
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What contexts are important to understanding your work? Context is something that is, in the main, external to the work, but which
has a potential impact on how readers may understand the work. Understanding context could mean knowing something about when
the work was written, where events take place (an aspect of setting), the cultural, political, or religious practices in the period where
the work takes place and/or was written, and/or details of the writer’s life. Note down 3 – 5 contexts that you are likely to refer to in
your Paper 2 examination response.
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Setting: Where and when does the work take place? How is the setting shown/described? If the setting changes, why does the
setting change, and how is the change shown? What is the significance of setting for the characters and the development of plot?
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Characterization: Who is the main character(s) in the work? If there is a protagonist, is there an antagonist? How is the protagonist
described? How does the protagonist develop/change in the course of the story? What other characters are important to the work,
and why?
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Mode of narration/narrative voice: How is the text narrated/focalized? Is it constant, or does it shift? If it changes, what is the impact
of the shift? How reliable is the narrative voice? If the narrator is also a character, what is the significance of this?
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Structuration/Plot: How is the work structured, and what is the significance of this structure? What is the relationship between plot
and story? Consider things like chapters, acts, and scenes. Think about the organization of time and space, and the ways in which
events and actions are revealed to readers. What you are concerned with here is to understand the ways in which your work is
organized.
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Language, style, and literary devices: What makes your work literary? How does the writer establish an imagined world through
things such stage directions, figurative language, imagery and symbolism, lexical choice/diction, sound/music, movement etc.?
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Choose 10-15 quotations and explain why these quotations are particularly relevant or significant to understanding the work. What
aspects of literary style do these quotations reveal? How does the quotation reveal an aspect of, for example, theme, character, or
setting? What is the relationship between the quotation and context(s)?
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Significance to understanding morality, social life, and the human condition: The works you have studied are not messages.
Messages are messages, and literature is literature. However, it is likely that your work suggests something about what we might call
‘the human condition’. What does your work help explain, do you think? Can your work be understood in more than one way?
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