What books/literature should be read as part of the UK GCSE curriculum?

[Fab Foodie]

Is a good question arising from the Schooliform thread.

English Literature Statutory Requirements:

• At least one play by Shakespeare.
• At least one 19th century novel.
• A selection of poetry since 1789, including Romantic poetry.
• A post-1919 fiction or drama from the British Isles.

Details are here:
https://thenationalcurriculum.com/gcse-english-literature-texts/

From distant memory I recall reading at School - Julius Caesar, To kill a Mockingbird, the Caucasian Chalk Circle, the Crucible, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men - but don't recall much poetry....

Has the curriculum got it about right for GCSE?

 

[The Crofted Crest]

World literature: Africa, Indigenous American/Australian, Chinese. Let's step away from the suffocating pink map of literature written by the likes of Graham Greene, Jane Austin and John Betjeman

 

[Electric_Andy]

What is the aim of GCSE English Literature; what are we trying to teach our kids?

I remember doing Macbeth and Lord of the Flies. It taught me what the story was about, and with Macbeth how different styles of language were used from that era. I didn't like the story, nor the language used, I also didn't appreciate the skill that Shakespeare used. So what did I learn really? I think I only l learnt how to comprehend what the author was on about, so I could then answer the exam questions on said book.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I believe reading, writing, comprehension are far more important. What "good examples" are taken from set text is largely irrelevant. A-Level is where they should really be drilling down into literary critisim and theory, for that is a chosen subject.

 

[Pale Rider]

Mein Kampf.

 

[matticus]

Get rid of some of the more stuffy poetry*, bring in Pam Ayres or Brian Bilston.

Fight Club.

 

[matticus]

*You HAVE to keep Betjeman - how else will kids know about bombing Slough?!?

 

[AndyRM]

Animal Farm
Blindness
The Tempest
Beowulf
Oedipus Rex
Persepolis
Maus
Anna Karenina
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The F*ck Up
The Great Gatsby
Invisible Monsters
Trainspotting

For starters!

 

[Bromptonaut]

I'm pretty sure Eng Lit was compulsory in my seventies Yorkshire Grammar School. We were obliged to read Lord of the Flies, Merchant of Venice and a poetry book called 10 Twentieth Century Poets. I'd no enthusiasm for the subject and got a D, which I repeated in the November retake.

Would have passed if the book had been a bit more up my street, previous year's My Family and Other Animals would have been ideal.

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm pretty sure Eng Lit was compulsory in my seventies Yorkshire Grammar School. We were obliged to read Lord of the Flies, Merchant of Venice and a poetry book called 10 Twentieth Century Poets. I'd no enthusiasm for the subject and got a D, which I repeated in the November retake.

Would have passed if the book had been a bit more up my street, previous year's My Family and Other Animals would have been ideal.

At my Worcestershire grammar school in the 70s we had English language and English literature.

Language was compulsory, so I took that, but Literature was optional, which I didn't take.

Language involved reading three or four books, including Lord of the Flies, and The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy - what a dirge that was.

 

[C R]

Animal Farm
Blindness
The Tempest
Beowulf
Oedipus Rex
Persepolis
Maus
Anna Karenina
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
The F*ck Up
The Great Gatsby
Invisible Monsters
Trainspotting

For starters!

Another vote for Persepolis and Maus. Also, something by Verne, Mysterious Island would be my preference.

 

[AndyRM]

Another vote for Persepolis and Maus. Also, something by Verne, Mysterious Island would be my preference.

Mysterious Island is a great shout.

 

[Unkraut]

Posters are reminded of the necessity of good English and orderly presentation.

I remember a YT piece during the Boris Johnson wars where a lecturer in English had read all the books that would have been set for Johnson in his early school years, including the one he got the word piccaninny from. The books children read can have an ongoing affect - for good or ill - on the adult.

@Fab Foodie I hope this thread will kindle an interest in reading ...

 

[Ian H]

Cider with Rosie* was a set text for my O-level. I can't remember what the others were. I do remember the wonderful Mrs Griffiths (always 'Ma'am') introducing us to all kinds of literature outside the syllabus (Sherriff's Journey's End; EE Cummings' poetry; etc.), explaining odd bits that didn't make sense because they'd been bowdlerised for school use.

*I later lent it to my grandmother who was dying (not that I knew at the time). She thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Beebo]

Cider with Rosie* was a set text for my O-level. I can't remember what the others were.

Interestingly Cider with Rosie was published in1959.
I don’t know how old you are, but I guess that would have been a fairly modern book at the time.
If you were studying that in 1982 it would be the same as kids today studying text from 2000.

 

[AndyRM]

A few more:

Farenheit 451
The Plague
A Clockwork Orange
Matilda