The History of Paper 2

In both Literature and Language & Literature courses, the Paper 2 assessment has always invited students to apply understanding of their works to broader questions about life and the role of the arts in human understanding of the world and each other. In Literature, it was called 'Literary Genres' and students studied all the same genre (prose fiction, poetry, or drama usually) and were expected to make connections between the works and develop some understanding of the evolution of the genre and its style. Language & Literature, on the other hand, insisted upon some appreciation of the context of production for similar reasons, and to ensure students were considering social and historical influences on creation and interpretation.

One way to be successful in this assessment is to always consider a broader conceptual framework about why people write and what we can learn about the world and ourselves from literature. Consider whether the works you are studying agree or disagree with the following statements about the role of literature in life, and test yourselves on whether you can construct a comparative response exploring the statement with reference to your works studied:

Of course, if you can do this - apply your understanding with reference to such words by famous authors - you will be well-prepared for the statement questions that are common for this assessment. Below you'll find actual statements that were used as stimuli for the type of 'Discuss this statement with reference to works you have studied...' question that you may face: