§-Literature syllabus
WA · SCSA← Literature
Literature syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the WA Literature syllabus, with a focused answer for each. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions and links to related points.
Unit 3: Interpretations and Perspectives
Module overview →How do style, voice and structure work together to shape a reader's experience of a text?
Analyse the relationship between style, voice and structure and the meanings and effects they produce
How do different critical perspectives produce different readings of the same text?
Apply critical perspectives such as feminist, post-colonial, Marxist and reader-response to generate and justify interpretations
How does close reading reveal the layered meanings a literary text makes available?
Analyse how language, form and stylistic features in a literary text shape meaning and invite particular readings
How do the discourses a text draws on shape the way it represents the world?
Analyse how discourses and language choices in a text construct particular ways of thinking and speaking about the world
How does a text represent people, places and ideas rather than simply reflect them?
Analyse how literary texts construct representations of people, ideas and events through deliberate selection and framing
How does point of view control what a reader knows, trusts and feels?
Analyse how point of view and narrative perspective control knowledge, sympathy and reliability
How does a text position its reader to feel, assume and judge in particular ways?
Analyse how a text positions the reader and how reader-response approaches account for meaning made in reading
How do the conventions of drama shape the meaning of a play?
Analyse how dramatic conventions such as dialogue, stagecraft, silence and structure shape meaning in plays
How do the conventions of poetry shape the meaning of a poem?
Analyse how poetic conventions such as form, sound, image and line shape meaning in poetry
How do the conventions of prose fiction shape the meaning of a story?
Analyse how prose conventions such as narration, focalisation, free indirect discourse and pacing shape meaning in fiction
What makes an analytical Literature essay argue an interpretation rather than describe a text?
Construct a sustained analytical essay that argues a coherent interpretation supported by close textual analysis
How does a feminist reading change what a text appears to mean?
Produce a feminist reading that analyses how a text constructs gender, power and agency
How does a Marxist reading expose the work that class and money do in a text?
Produce a Marxist reading that analyses how a text represents class, labour, money and power
How does a post-colonial reading expose whose perspective a text privileges?
Produce a post-colonial reading that analyses how a text represents colonised peoples, cultures and lands
How does a psychoanalytic reading interpret desire, repression and the unconscious in a text?
Produce a psychoanalytic reading that analyses how a text represents desire, repression and the unconscious
Unit 4: Literary Texts, Contexts and Values
Module overview →How does a text make meaning by drawing on, answering or rewriting another text?
Analyse how allusion, appropriation and rewriting create meaning through the relationship between texts
How do you close-read an unseen text under exam conditions?
Construct a sustained interpretation of a previously unseen literary text through close analysis of its language, form and values
How do you compare texts to reveal what each one means and values?
Analyse the connections, contrasts and intertextual relationships between texts and the values their comparison exposes
How do you build a sustained interpretation of a studied text under timed exam conditions?
Construct a sustained, evidenced interpretation of a studied text within the constraints of the external examination
How do the context of writing and the context of reading shape a text's meaning?
Analyse how the context of production and the context of reception shape the meanings and values of a text
How do you analyse the aesthetic qualities of a text and discuss its literary value?
Evaluate the aesthetic features of a text and discuss how and why texts are valued as literature
How do genre and its conventions shape the way a text means and is read?
Analyse how genre and generic conventions shape meaning, and how texts conform to, adapt or subvert them
How do literary texts both reflect and challenge the values of their context?
Examine how texts endorse, question or subvert the social, cultural and ideological values of the context that produced them
How does a text make a particular set of beliefs feel natural and obvious?
Analyse how texts naturalise ideology, making particular values and assumptions appear obvious or universal
How does film make literary meaning through its own visual and aural conventions?
Analyse how film conventions such as mise en scene, camera, editing and sound construct meaning and values
How can a reader read against the grain of what a text invites?
Produce a resistant or alternative reading that reads against the dominant reading a text invites
How does what a text leaves out and silences shape its meaning and values?
Analyse the silences, gaps and marginalised perspectives in a text and the values these absences reveal
How do you write a reflection that defends the craft choices in your creative response?
Produce a reflective commentary that explains and justifies the literary choices made in a creative or transformative response
How do you transform a text creatively and explain your choices?
Produce a creative transformation of a studied text and reflect on how your choices reposition its meaning and values