AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025: Question 12
25 marks · Hard difficulty · Extended Response
Compare the significance of the struggle for identity in two other texts you have studied, using one prose text and one poetry text (at least one written post-2000, writing about at least two poems).
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12 Compare the significance of the struggle for identity in two other texts you have studied.
Remember to include in your answer reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts
you are comparing.
You must use one prose text and one poetry text in your response, at least one of
which must be a text written post-2000.
You must write about at least two poems.
[25 marks]
Mark scheme
Show the mark scheme
Question 12
Compare the significance of the struggle for identity in two other texts you have studied.
Remember to include in your answer reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts you are
comparing.
You must use one prose text and one poetry text in your response, at least one of which must be a
text written post-2000.
You must write about at least two poems.
[25 marks]
Possible content:
Please refer to pages 4 to 7.
AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations
Focus might be on:
• interpretations of the significance of the struggle for identity as expressed in their two texts
• the extent to which the contrasting genres of the two texts affect the ways in which the struggle for
identity are presented
• etc.
AO4 Explore connections across literary texts
Focus might be on:
• connections of similarity and/or difference at the level of subject matter/genre/attitudes and/or
methods
• etc.
AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which
literary texts are written and received
Focus might be on:
• differing representations of the struggle for identity and its possible effects and impact
• the psychological effects of the struggle for identity
• an analytical comparison of characters who respond to the struggle for identity in various ways
• how the struggle for identity may be viewed differently over time
• how the theme of the struggle for identity contributes to a text or texts as a whole
• etc.
AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts
Focus might be on:
• methods of presenting and explaining the reasons for the prevalence and significance of the theme
of the struggle for identity in modern literature
• possible purposes and effects of the presentation of the struggle for identity
• prose methods such as: narrative structure; point of view; chronology; use of dialogue; indirect
34 speech; development of settings; ways of influencing the readers’ response to character and
incident
• dramatic methods such as: explicit structural devices; dramatic irony; stage directions; indirect
ways of communicating the writers’ messages and ideas; naturalistic, non-naturalistic,
expressionist and other styles of representing character, incident and narrative
• poetic methods such as: types of verse form; explicit and implicit structural features; use of tropes
for rhetorical effect; use of aural devices for rhetorical effect; elliptical use of language
• etc.
AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated
concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression
• quality of argument
• organisation of ideas
• use of appropriate concepts and terminology
• technical accuracy
• comparing texts.
Accept any valid interpretations, any valid comments on contexts and any valid discussion of
authorial methods.
Option 3
Section A: Prose Set Text
How to answer it
Comparative Study: The Struggle for Identity (Question 12)
What this question tests
This synoptic comparative essay tests your ability to synthesise cross-genre literary study under modern times / core themes. You must balance all five Assessment Objectives (AO1–AO5) across a minimum of two texts:
- Rubric compliance: Exactly one prose text and one poetry collection (from which you must examine at least two poems). Crucially, at least one text must be written post-2000.
- AO1 (Coherent Argument & Terminology): Constructing a sustained, nuanced comparative thesis examining the nature of "identity" and the friction ("struggle") surrounding it.
- AO2 (Authorial Methods & Craft): Analyzing prose features (POV, focalisation, narrative structure) alongside poetic forms (meter, caesura, enjambment, voice, strophic design).
- AO3 (Contextual Influences): Linking how social, historical, psychological, and gender factors produce and receive identity struggles.
- AO4 (Cross-Textual Comparison): Illuminating parallels and divergences in how authors position individual agency against external hegemony.
- AO5 (Critical Interpretations): Weighing alternative readings (e.g., whether the struggle results in liberation, tragic alienation, or assimilation).
Deconstructing the Question & Rubric Demands
Understanding the prompt: "Compare the significance of the struggle for identity in two other texts..."
💡 Key Knowledge: The Rubric Checklist
Failing to meet explicit rubric requirements instantly caps your response regardless of writing quality:
- Genre pairing: One prose text + one poetry text (no plays!).
- Poem quantity: You must write about at least two poems from your studied collection (e.g., Feminine Gospels, Skirrid Hill).
- Post-2000 condition: At least one text must be post-2000 (e.g., The Road, Waterland, The Handmaid's Tale depending on pairing date; or poetry written post-2000 such as Duffy's Feminine Gospels [2002] or Sheers' Skirrid Hill [2005]).
- Topic: "Significance" means why it matters, how it drives character fate, theme, and structural resolution.
📐 Assessment Objective Weighting Breakdown
Total: 25 Marks. All AOs carry equal parity in this section:
- AO1 5 Marks: Quality of argument, formal academic register, structural cohesion.
- AO2 5 Marks: Close stylistic analysis (prose craft vs. poetic techniques).
- AO3 5 Marks: Socio-cultural, political, and historical contexts of production/reception.
- AO4 5 Marks: Explicit, point-by-point comparative synthesis.
- AO5 5 Marks: Critical perspectives, ambiguity, debates, and counter-readings.
Mastering the Comparative Synthesis
How to structure high-scoring comparative paragraphs
🧠 Exam Technique: The Integrated "Weave"
Top-band scripts never write a separate half-essay on prose and then a separate half-essay on poetry. Instead, use an integrated thematic matrix:
- Topic Sentence (AO1/AO4): Define a facet of the struggle (e.g., bodily autonomy, institutional erasure, or cultural displacement).
- Prose Focus (AO2/AO3): Analyse how narrative perspective and syntax encode alienation or resistance.
- Comparative Pivot (AO4): Transition using connective nuance ("Whereas Text A internalises the conflict through free indirect discourse, Text B enacts this fracture visually through...").
- Poetic Exploration (AO2/AO3): Analyse Poem 1 (meter, stanzaic constraint, voice).
- Deepen Poetics: Draw in Poem 2 to demonstrate collection-wide authorial intent.
- Critical Resolution (AO5): Evaluate whether the resolution yields autonomy or systemic defeat.
✅ Model Comparative Argument Framework
Thesis Prompt: Does the struggle for identity empower the marginalized individual, or does it confirm their inescapable subjugation?
- Argument 1 (External Imposition): Identity stripped by institutional or patriarchal hegemony (e.g., societal naming, gaze, commodification).
- Argument 2 (Internal Fracture & Psychology): The psychological burden of existing between two worlds or fragmented senses of self.
- Argument 3 (Resistance & Reclamation): Subverting language, myth, or physical boundaries to rebuild selfhood.
Examiner Commentary: Where Students Lose vs. Gain Marks
What separates Band 3 (Satisfactory) from Band 5 (Perceptive/Illuminating)
❌ Common Errors (Why Candidates Lose Marks)
- Single Poem Trap: Only analyzing one poem alongside the prose text. This violates the rubric instruction ("at least two poems") and severely caps AO1/AO4.
- Block Essays (The "Ping-Pong"): Writing 3 pages on prose, then 3 pages on poetry with a hasty 2-sentence comparative conclusion.
- Ignoring "Struggle": Merely describing who characters are, rather than interrogating the conflict, tension, and cost of establishing an identity.
- Bolt-on Context: Dropping biographical or historical trivia (e.g., dates) without linking to how the text questions identity.
- Technique Spotting: Spotting caesuras or alliteration without connecting the device to the psychological state of identity fracture.
🎯 Top-Band Distinctions (Band 5: 21–25 Marks)
- Genre-Conscious Analysis: Directly contrasting how prose builds identity over narrative duration versus how poetry crystallises moments of identity crisis through compression, line breaks, and silence.
- Nuanced Definition of Identity: Treating identity as intersectional (racial, gendered, linguistic, generational) rather than a flat character trait.
- Productive Debate (AO5): Interrogating whether the text views identity as an innate essence to be liberated, or a performative social construct that imprisons.
Topics
Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day · Feminine Gospels · Skirrid Hill · The Handmaid’s Tale · The Color Purple
Question and mark scheme from the AQA A-Level English Literature A examination, Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025. QuestionVault is an independent revision resource; questions remain the copyright of the awarding body.