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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12English Advanced 11–12 Syllabus (2024)

Implementation from 2026
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 12

Critical study of literature

Students develop detailed analytical and Loading  knowledge of a substantial literary text. Through increasingly informed personal responses to the text in its entirety, students understand and appreciate the text’s distinctive qualities, notions of meaning, and significance. Students study ONE prescribed text, focusing on an analysis of the text’s construction, content and Loading . This enables students to develop informed personal Loading  of the text as well as an understanding of its Loading  contribution, basing their judgements on evidence drawn from their critical reading. They evaluate the Loading  of the text’s composition and reception, investigate and evaluate the perspectives of others, and explore the ideas in the text, further strengthening their personal perspectives.

Understanding
  • The relationship between reader, author, text and context

  • The ways a text can be valued for its Loading  qualities, text structures, Loading  and stylistic elements

  • The language of critical expression in refining arguments and interpreting texts

  • The ways Loading , Loading  and Loading  shape and inform responses to texts

  • The ways language forms, features and structures are used to represent a range of perspectives

  • The ways texts can reflect, confirm and challenge expectations associated with particular Loading  and Loading 

  • The ways context can shape social, moral and ethical perspectives in texts

  • The effect of theme and genre, and how these can influence a texts value

Responding
  • Loading  critical texts that affirm or challenge the ideas, Loading  and perspectives represented in a complex text

  • Compose informed personal responses shaped by critical interpretations of texts and textual analysis

  • Support critical interpretations of texts through Loading  argument and relevant textual analysis

Prescriptions (2027–2030)

These prescriptions must not be taught until Term 4, 2026. They will be examined in the HSC from 2027.

For prescriptions examined in the current HSC year, see HSC English prescriptions 2019–2026 [PDF 560.06 KB].

Prose fiction
  • Austen, Jane, Pride and PrejudicePenguin Classics, 2003, ISBN: 9780141439518
  • Ondaatje, Michael, WarlightVintage, 2019, ISBN: 9781784708344
Poetry
  • Glück, Louise, PoemsPenguin Classics, 2022, ISBN: 9780241526088‘The Wild Iris’, ‘Nostos’, ‘Vita Nova’ (You saved me, you should remember me), ‘Youth’, ‘Mitosis’, ‘Harvest’ (It’s autumn in the market–), ‘A Village Life’
  • Yeats, William Butler, WB Yeats: Poems selected by Seamus HeaneyFaber and Faber, 2005, ISBN: 9780571222964‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’, ‘Easter 1916’, ‘The Second Coming’, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, ‘An Acre of Grass’, ‘Long-legged Fly’
Drama
  • Shakespeare, William, OthelloCambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN: 9781107615595
  • Shakespeare, William, King Henry IV, Part 1Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN: 9780521626897

Where a prescribed text is listed as a series of poems or short stories, all listed selections constitute the prescribed text.

Specific editions of the texts set for study are listed here. If the specified edition is out of print or widely unavailable, schools may use any suitable edition of the text selected. Where a text is quoted in an examination question, it will be from the listed edition.

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