Literature Course Catalogue
VCE Literature focuses on the meaning derived from texts, the relationship between texts, the contexts in which
texts are produced and read, and the experiences the reader brings to the texts.
In VCE Literature students undertake close reading of texts and analyse how language and literary elements
and techniques function within a text. Emphasis is placed on recognition of a text’s complexity and meaning, and
on consideration of how that meaning is embodied in its literary form. The study provides opportunities for reading
deeply, widely and critically, responding analytically and creatively, and appreciating the aesthetic merit of texts.
VCE Literature enables students to examine the historical and cultural contexts within which both readers and
texts are situated. It investigates the assumptions, views and values which both writer and reader bring to the texts
and it encourages students to contemplate how we read as well as what we read. It considers how literary criticism
informs the readings of texts and the ways texts relate to their contexts and to each other. Accordingly, the texts
selected for study are drawn from the past through to the present, and vary in form and social and cultural contexts.
The VCE study design is made up of four units:Unit 1 : Approaches to literature
Unit 2 : Context and connections
Unit 3 : Form and transformation
Unit 4 : Interpreting texts