Unit 5
Reading
for Unit 5 – Literary Connections
The
aim of this unit is to provide you with the opportunity to
make a sustained comparison between two substantial texts.
This is the key Assessment Objective for this Unit.
The
two texts that we will teach in class for this unit will
probably be:
Waterland - Graham Swift (Picador) and either
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber) or
Snow Falling on Cedars – David Gutterson
However,
if you should wish to choose your own texts from those
listed below, you may do so. If you were to
choose this latter option, you would follow the
course taught in class and then apply the skills and techniques that you
have learnt to your own texts with individual guidance
from the course tutor. This
is the option that the examination board and the Northallerton College English
Department recommend as it gives you the best opportunity of developing your
own understanding and interpretation.
The
additional texts that we recommend for Unit 5 are:
The
Gift of Stones - Jim Crace (Picador) [Set in prehistoric
times, this novel concerns the role of the storyteller/artist
in society as the stone age
gives way to the bronze age.]
The Inheritors - William Golding (Faber) [Also
set in prehistoric times, this story is told from the point
of view/mind of an early Neanderthal tribe as it is wiped
out by an invading tribe of early modern men.
Ridley Walker - Russell Hoban (Picador) [This
novel is set several thousand years in the future after
a nuclear holocaust has reduced human society to the state
of a prehistoric tribe. It concerns the role of the story
teller in society.
When we Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber)
[This story is mainly set in Shanghai in the 1930s. A famous
detective tries to solve the mystery of his
parents’ disappearance when he was a small child.]
No Great Mischief - Alistair McLeod (Penguin)
[This novel shows how a clan of Scottish immigrants have
developed since they arrived on the coast of Canada in
the nineteenth century.]
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