Every Friday, from now until early December, I will publish a cluster of short questions, designed to help students consider the more abstract discussions associated with studying the arts and humanities at university. These are conceived, primarily, as an aid to students who will attend interviews at university and they function as a supplement my longer blog post about the skills needed to succeed in an Oxbridge interview
(https://swlondontutor.wixsite.com/englishtutoring/post/university-interviews-some-advice).
As far as I know, none of these questions have been asked at an Oxbridge interview and my aim is not to steal the thunder from the tutors at Oxford and Cambridge by anticipating what they will say. I do, however, sometimes wonder whether A-Level English courses and sixth forms in general encourage students to contemplate this sort of question frequently enough. Considering how to answer them should prove useful to students of English, philosophy and the social sciences.
Each question might reasonably generate a discussion that fills an entire book so these topics cannot be exhausted in an interview of half an hour's duration. The purpose of their being asked is to test and thus develop the precision and logic of your thinking. I don't propose to publish answers to them, partly because I don't want to give the impression that there is a definitive, 'correct' set of responses and partly because the individuality of the answers that they will yield is part of the pleasure of study. However, if you wish to book a mock-interview with me, I will be more than happy to discuss these and other topics.
Today's questions are:
Can one analyse a text without assuming its writer's intentions?
What makes a text interesting?
Is literature culturally important in 2021?
I hope that they prove stimulating and look forward to posting more on Friday 22nd October.
I offer mock-interviews, tuition in English at A-Level and assistance with the ELAT paper. If you need any help, please contact me at swlondontutor@yahoo.com.
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