1. An Introduction to A Level English Literature
Taster Lesson

2. What will I study?

3. What will I study?

4. What Will I Study?

5. What will I study?

6. Texts I will study: Unit Texts Component 1: Drama
Shakespeare Tragedy: Othello
Anthology of critical essays on Shakespeare
Modern Drama: Comedy: The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wide
Component 2: Prose: Science and Society
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Component 3: Poetry
Poems of the Decade Anthology
Unseen poetry anthology
The poems of Christina Rossetti
Component 4: Non- Exam Assessment
A Comparison of two texts of your choice – words

7. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Watch this trailer from the recent adaptation
What do you learn about:
Genre
Character
Structure
Symbolism
Language
Think about what you can infer

8. Chapter 1: Extract
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in mini-skirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.
There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh.
We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army-issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the end of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts. No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field which was enclosed not by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us, but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made some trade-off, we still had our bodies. That was our fantasy. We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semi-darkness we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren’t looking, and touch each other’s hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other’s mouths. In this way we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.

9. Chapter 1 Extract
Read the extract at least twice and then do the following activities:
First annotate the extract below underlining and commenting on any aspects of it which you find interesting.
Take the five Ws as your starting point and then discuss whether we can predict anything about the themes, genre and narrator of the novel from reading this extract.
What is the effect of this chapter as an opening to the novel? Make a list of questions which it raises for the reader.

10. Group work questions
The handling of time in the novel is extremely important. Identify the different times described in this extract.
In the third paragraph we are told ‘We yearned for the future’. How does Atwood create the impression that the narrator now longs to return to the past?
What type of narrator is used here? What is the narrator’s sex? What is the significance of this type of narrator? How might storytelling be an act of resistance?
Describe the atmosphere of the chapter. How is language used to filter out emotion?
What is the hierarchy in this new world? Find quotations which help you work this out.
The narrator is sleeping with others in what used to be a gym. On what occasions are buildings used as temporary accommodation for large numbers of people? Does this help you to work out the narrator’s situation in this chapter? What do you notice about what these buildings were formally used for and what they are used for now?
What do you think is the role of the Angels and Aunts in the novel? What is interesting about these names?
Are there any signs that the women in the gym are trying to resist the regime they are in?
What do we learn about the way women are treated? How are the adult women infantilized? How are they dehumanised? What does this suggest about the regime?
What type of narrative is this?
Each group/ pair takes a question
10 minutes to discuss your answer/ gather evidence, then feed back to the whole group.

11. English Literature - Bridging Task: Summer 2017
The Tasks
Read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (copies of the book were distributed in the intake lesson. If you missed this lesson, please obtain the Vintage edition of the novel.
(ISBN: )
If you can, watch the TV version of the book, available on Channel 4 catch up.
Find out a little about Margaret Atwood and the key issues that interested her when she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. You will find links to useful websites at the end of this document.
Write an essay of words in which you answer the question below.
Deadline: 8th September 2017.

12. The Essay How does Margaret Atwood present ideas about the treatment of women in this extract from The Handmaid's Tale and in the novel as a whole?
You should aim to:
present a critical argument with sustained textual evidence
evaluate the effects of literary features, using some appropriate literary terminology
explore meanings and ideas and the ways they are shaped in texts
show understanding of the writer’s craft
show appreciation of the significance and influence of contextual factors
You could write about:
the use of the first person narrator
the way in which Atwood constructs characters
the use of structural features, including the use of flashback
the themes of gender / biological destiny / power
the use of the dystopian genre
Atwood’s use of language including the use of names, forms of address, Biblical quotes)
the use of imagery, particularly the use of colour
the context of the novel in regards to women, political ideas. environmental issues and feminism