'Get Ahead' English Literature

Hi, I’m Vicki, and I teach English Literature. 

A little about me, despite the fact I tell everybody that my favourite colour is red, it has taken me fifty years to realise that I'm actually obsessed with the colour yellow! You will see me around college in my bright yellow Fiat 500 (called Vincent in homage to Van Gogh’s Sunflowers) carrying a yellow bag and probably wearing yellow nail varnish. My guilty pleasure is reading Detective Fiction or anything by Kate Atkinson. I can’t remember learning to read and my earliest memories are all focussed around stories, reading or being read to. It’s really difficult for me to select my favourite writers, but I suppose the first book that made me want to study literature was Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.  

I know that you will love studying A level Literature as much as I love teaching it. The course covers some fantastic texts in Year 12, centred around the theme of supernatural and Gothic literature. We also study a great variety of twentieth century poetry that explore many interesting perspectives and areas for debate.You will be introduced to critical theories such as feminism, marxisim and post-modernism as means of reading texts in new and exciting ways.

My top tips for getting ahead is to read Dracula and Frankenstein over the summer. This will allow you to get familiar with the text and save you precious time when you come to study here. I’m looking forward to meeting you and having many lively discussions!