YEAR 11-12
VCE Literature
Subject Area
English
VCE Units
1-4
About the Course
VCE Literature focuses on the meanings derived from texts, the relationships between texts, the contexts in which texts are produced, and how readers’ experiences shape their responses to texts.
In VCE Literature students develop and refine four key abilities through their engagement with texts. These are:
• an ability to offer an interpretation of a whole text (or a collection of texts)
• an ability to demonstrate a close analysis of passages or extracts from a text, in consideration of the whole text
• an ability to understand and explore multiple interpretations of a text
• an ability to respond creatively to a text.
Students are provided with opportunities to read deeply, widely and critically; to appreciate the aesthetic qualities of texts; and to write creatively and analytically.
VCE Literature enables students to examine the historical, social and cultural contexts within which both readers and texts are situated. Accordingly, the texts selected for study should be drawn from a wide range of eras, a variety of forms and diverse social and cultural contexts.
UNIT 1
Text Selection
Area of Study 1: Reading practices
In this area of study students consider how language, structure and stylistic choices are used in different literary forms and types of text. They consider both print and non-print texts, reflecting on the contribution of form and style to meaning. Students reflect on the degree to which points of view, experiences and contexts shape their own and others’ interpretations of text.
Students closely examine the literary forms, features and language of texts. They begin to identify and explore textual details, including language and features, to develop a close analysis response to a text.
Area of Study 2: Exploration of literary movements and genres
In this area of study students explore the concerns, ideas, style and conventions common to a distinctive type of literature seen in literary movements or genres. Examples of these groupings include literary movements and/or genres such as modernism, epic, tragedy and magic realism, as well as more popular, or mainstream, genres and subgenres such as crime, romance and science fiction. Students explore texts from the selected movement or genre, identifying and examining attributes, patterns and similarities that locate each text within that grouping. Students engage with the ideas and concerns shared by the texts through language, settings, narrative structures and characterisation, and they experiment with the assumptions and representations embedded in the texts.
Students must study at least one complete text alongside multiple samples of other texts from the selected movement or genre.
UNIT 2
Text Selection
Area of Study 1: Voices of Country
In this area of study students explore the voices, perspectives and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors and creators. They consider the interconnectedness of place, culture and identity through the experiences, texts and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including connections to Country, the impact of colonisation and its ongoing consequences, and issues of reconciliation and reclamation.
Students examine representations of culture and identity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ texts and the ways in which these texts present voices and perspectives that explore and challenge assumptions and stereotypes arising from colonisation.
Students acknowledge and reflect on a range of Australian views and values (including their own) through a text(s). Within that exploration, students consider stories about the Australian landscape and culture.
Area of Study 2: The text in its context
In this area of study students focus on the text and its historical, social and cultural context. Students reflect on representations of a specific time period and/or culture within a text.
Students explore the text to understand its point of view and what it reflects or comments on. They identify the language and the representations in the text that reflect the specific time period and/or culture, its ideas and concepts. Students develop an understanding that contextual meaning is already implicitly or explicitly inscribed in a text and that textual details and structures can be scrutinised to illustrate its significance.
Students develop the ability to analyse language closely, recognising that words have historical and cultural import.
UNIT 3
Text Selection
Area of Study 1: Adaptations and transformations
In this area of study students focus on how the form of a text contributes to its meaning. Students explore the form of a set text by constructing a close analysis of that text. They then reflect on the extent to which adapting the text to a different form, and often in a new or reimagined context, affects its meaning, comparing the original with the adaptation. By exploring an adaptation, students also consider how creators of adaptations may emphasise or minimise viewpoints, assumptions and ideas present in the original text.
Area of Study 2: Developing interpretations
In this area of study students explore the different ways we can read and understand a text by developing, considering and comparing interpretations of a set text.
Students first develop their own interpretations of a set text, analysing how ideas, views and values are presented in a text, and the ways these are endorsed, challenged and/or marginalised through literary forms, features and language. These student interpretations should consider the historical, social and cultural context in which a text is written and set. Students also consider their own views and values as readers.
Students then explore a supplementary reading that can enrich, challenge and/or contest the ideas and the views, values and assumptions of the set text to further enhance the students’ understanding. Examples of a supplementary reading can include writing by a teacher, a scholarly article or an explication of a literary theory. A supplementary reading that provides only opinion or evaluation of the relative merits of the text is not considered appropriate for this task.
Informed by the supplementary reading, students develop a second interpretation of the same text, reflecting an enhanced appreciation and understanding of the text. They then apply this understanding to key moments from the text, supporting their work with considered textual evidence.
UNIT 4
Text Selection
Area of Study 1: Creative responses to texts
In this area of study students focus on the imaginative techniques used for creating and recreating a literary work. Students use their knowledge of how the meaning of texts can change as context and form change to construct their own creative transformations of texts. They learn how authors develop representations of people and places, and they develop an understanding of language, voice, form and structure. Students draw inferences from the original text in order to create their own writing. In their adaptation of the tone and the style of the original text, students develop an understanding of the views and values explored.
Students develop an understanding of the various ways in which authors craft texts. They reflect critically on the literary form, features and language of a text, and discuss their own responses as they relate to the text, including the purpose and context of their creations.
Area of Study 2: Close analysis of texts
In this area of study students focus on a detailed scrutiny of the language, style, concerns and construction of texts. Students attend closely to textual details to examine the ways specific passages in a text contribute to their overall understanding of the whole text. Students consider literary forms, features and language, and the views and values of the text. They write expressively to develop a close analysis, using detailed references to the text.