Senior Literature

Literature focuses on the study of literary texts, developing students as independent, innovative and creative learners and thinkers who appreciate the aesthetic use of language, analyse perspectives and evidence, and challenge ideas and interpretations through the analysis and creation of varied literary texts.

Students engage with language and texts through a range of teaching and learning experiences to foster the skills to communicate effectively. They make choices about generic structures, language, textual features and technologies to participate actively in the dialogue and detail of literary analysis and the creation of imaginative and analytical texts in a range of modes, mediums and forms.

Students explore how literary texts shape perceptions of the world and enable us to enter the world of others. They explore ways in which literary texts may reflect or challenge social and cultural ways of thinking and influence audiences.

Pathways

A course of study in Literature promotes open-mindedness, imagination, critical awareness and intellectual flexibility — skills that prepare students for local and global citizenship, and for lifelong learning across a wide range of contexts.

Objectives

By the conclusion of the course of study, students will:

• use patterns and conventions of genres to achieve particular purposes in cultural contexts and social situations
• establish and maintain roles of the writer/speaker/signer/designer and relationships with audiences
• create and analyse perspectives and representations of concepts, identities, times and places
• make use of and analyse the ways cultural assumptions, attitudes, values and beliefs that underpin texts and invite audiences to take up positions
• use aesthetic features and stylistic devices to achieve purposes and analyse their effects in texts
• select and synthesise subject matter to support perspectives
• organise and sequence subject matter to achieve particular purposes
• use cohesive devices to emphasise ideas and connect parts of texts
• make language choices for particular purposes and contexts
• use grammar and language structures for particular purposes
• use mode-appropriate features to achieve particular purposes.

Structure