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← English Literature syllabus

United StatesEnglish Literature

Unit 1: Short Fiction I

8 dot points across 8 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do the details a writer gives us about a character reveal who that character is and what drives them?

How do you turn a reading of a text into a defensible argument supported by evidence?

Who is telling the story, and how does their position change what we see and how we judge it?

How does a narrator's perspective, bias, and reliability change the way we read a story?

How does the order in which a story is told, and the conflict at its heart, shape what it means?

How do the Unit 1 skills combine into the prose fiction analysis essay, and what does that essay reward?

How do you read a short story closely enough to interpret it, rather than just follow what happens?

What does the setting of a story do, beyond telling us where and when events happen?