What does reading look like in english literature?

Literature students

  • Read at the level of content and discourse: what a text means and how it is put together, to enable them to read critically and make evaluative judgements about a text. 
  • Recognise the effect that different linguistic, grammatical and syntactical choices have on meaning.
  • Explore the ​‘big ideas,’ or themes in a text (e.g. class, gender) and use lenses to interpret texts (e.g. feminist, post-colonial) to place the text within the context of social and cultural experiences.
  • Make comparisons across texts (e.g., texts with the same theme, texts by the same author)
  • Manage and navigate through ambiguity and inference, recognising that a text does not have one fixed meaning.

These are suggestions rather than a definitive list and can be used as a starting point to support and prompt curriculum discussion around disciplinary literacy.

~ Moje, E. (2007). Developing socially just subject-matter instruction: A review of the literature on disciplinary literacy teaching. Review of Research in Education, 31(1), 1 – 44.

Disciplinary Literacy in English Literature

Useful wider reading

  • Eagleton, T. (2013). How to Read Literature. Yale University.
  • Eaglestone, R. (2009). Doing English: A Guide for Literature Students. (3rd revised ed.) Routledge.

Downloadable template