Aqa A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B (7717/2B) Paper 2B Texts and genres: Elements of political and social protest writing - June 2022 CORRECT Mark scheme.

Aqa A-level ENGLISH LITERATURE B (7717/2B) Paper 2B Texts and genres: Elements of political and social protest writing - June 2022 CORRECT Mark scheme. AO1. Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression With respect to competence in writing focus needs to be on the: • quality of argument • organisation of ideas • use of appropriate concepts and terminology • technical accuracy Accept any valid discussion of interpretations, any valid discussion of contexts and any valid discussion of authorial method. 0 2. Songs of Innocence and of Experience – William Blake ‘In Blake’s poetry, personal relationships are liberating and empowering.’ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed exploration of Blake’s authorial methods. [25 marks] Some possible content is given below. It suggests some of the ways the Assessment Objectives might be addressed. Some ideas will inevitably address more than one AO. Examiners must also remember that, because students have read and studied Songs of Innocence and of Experience through the lens of political and social protest writing, the AOs must necessarily be connected to that genre through the task. Please refer to pages 4 to 8. AO5. Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations With respect to meanings and interpretations, students may choose to look at all sides of the debate or just one. It is the quality of the student’s response that matters. Some students might consider: • relationships between lovers that are liberating and fulfilling (eg Ona and the youth in A Little Girl Lost); relationships between parents/carers and children (eg the mother and father with the child in The Little Boy Lost); relationships between peers (eg Tom Dacre and the narrator of The Chimney Sweeper in Innocence, or the narrator and ‘another’ in On Another’s Sorrow where compassion is an empowering and positive experience); relationships between authority figures and those without power (eg the nurse and the children in Nurse’s Song) • that the relationship between Ona and the youth in A Little Girl Lost is liberating in the escape from parental control, and empowering in its connection with nature; the empowering fulfilment of the lover in My Pretty Rose Tree when he rejects the advances of another; the sense of freedom and enjoyment that the speaker has in the recalled relationship at the start of The Garden of Love, showing that love relationships can be empowering and liberating; the relationship between the nurse and the children in Nurse’s Song as liberating because she lets them continue playing in Innocence; the empowering love felt by the mother for her child in Cradle Song; the joyful resolute love of the mother in The Little Black Boy who presents the power of God’s love as liberating to her son • how Blake portrays personal relationships as liberating and empowering in Songs by presenting them as central to the narrative structure, eg the speaker’s nostalgic recollection of love that starts The Garden of Love, the delight of the speaker in My Pretty Rose Tree when he tends his rose tree, the foregrounding of the young lovers in A Little Girl Lost • the focus on physical desire and fulfilment in the 3 flower poems My Pretty Rose Tree, Ah! Sun- flower and The Lilly that is liberating • the joyful nature of the purity presented in the lily that ‘shall in love delight’ • the Bard’s view in A Little Girl Lost that those in love should be free to express their ‘sweet Love’ without it being ‘thought a crime’ so presenting it as empowering