Love Through the Ages

On Tuesday 12 November the A Level English Literature classes took a day trip into London to broaden our understanding of “Love Through the Ages”, which is a large part of our English studies at Queen Anne’s.

As suggested in the title, this part of the course is very broad, covering classical poetry all the way up to the 21^st century, so to be able to get an opportunity to gain insights from four experts and a truly special guest at the end of the day was fantastic.  

The day started off with Julia Geddes, a senior examiner and moderator of English Literature discussing “Reading for meaning: an examiner’s perspective”. This was a marvellous opportunity for us as she gave extremely specific advice for the paper and helped us to see from an examiner’s perspective. She covered a broad expanse of issues students may have during their A-level and in their exams, such as looking at alternative interpretations in many of our works that we study over the two-year course.

We then moved on to hear from Luke McBratney, focusing on the idea of “The truth about love”. McBratney is a former Principal Examiner and specification writer for one of the exam boards at A Level, and has also co-written a textbook on A Level English Literature which he was handing out to some of the students who answered his insightful questions. Throughout his forty-five-minute talk, McBratney discussed: key terminology relating to poetry and the love genre, ideas about love, and key comparisons between different poetry which may seem similar at first glance His words were not only useful but opened up a new way in which to look at poetry, something that will become key when we are further along in the course.

The next speaker was someone who we have heard countless things about from our English teacher Mr Jackson. Emma Smith is a Shakespearean scholar working as a professor at the University of Oxford; she has published a recommended key text for A Level English Literature students: “This is Shakespeare”. Emma discussed how the meaning of the word “love” can change throughout Shakespeare’s plays depending on both the context of the scene and the character. Smith combined both humour and unadulterated passion for literature, in her talk making her one of the day’s highlights.

However, my favourite speaker of the day was Michael Meeuwis, a professor from the University of Warwick, who discussed “Reading narratives of love over time”. I think one of the reasons I found his talk so inspiring was because he discussed two of my favourite classic texts: “Persuasion” by Jane Austen and “The Great Gatsby” by F.Scott Fitzgerald. Throughout the talk Meeuwis’ passion for Literature was truly inspiring and talks of whether he believes that the idea of “Love” has changed throughout history based on changing politics and the growth of capitalism, was fascinating.

Our final encounter of the day was with renowned novelist, poet and playwright Owen Sheers. Sheers’ collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (2005), is one of the options on the A Level course for the modern times poetry. So, although we don’t study him, (I believe Mrs Spellman has a preference to the iconic former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy!) it was incredible to see him explain and speak about his works on an analytical level. It certainly inspired me as a budding writer at Queen Anne’s!

Overall, the day was not one to forget. I’m so grateful we had the opportunity to expand on the course with some true professionals in their craft. The day also highlighted the importance of wider reading during A Level Literature, something that will help expand our knowledge and perception of the works that we study.

Written by Pippa (L6) - A Level English Student