Advice on A level (AQA) English literature course work please?

[shadypines]

DD 17yrs has to select a book/novel during the summer break to write about for her course work. She has to write an essay applying a critical theory to it and she is struggling to decide between:-

Pride and Predjudice - by Jane Austen or Song of Achilles - by Madeline Miller.

She likes both equally but wonders if one would be more suitable than the other for her course work. If she used P & P she would apply Marxist Theory ( she has already used the choice of Feminist theory for her poetry). She wonders if Narrative theory applies to Song of Achilles but doesn't understand it so can anyone explain it or recommend example essays or questions please?

Any advice appreciated by DD!

I would recommend pride and prejudice with Marxist theory. She’ll find a lot more resource on the topic to help her get better marks, and if she’s still not solid on her understanding of the other it seems like there will be additional unnecessary work there.

Can she choose any prose fiction or has she got a specific list?

Looking at the AQA spec, I'd go for something like The Reluctant Fundamentalist with post-colonial theory.

When DD did this she was really pushed not to do marxism as all of her English Lit teachers said it was too hard to get a good grade on. I actually think her teachers just said this as they weren’t sure how to help her do it

Thank you, she can choose any adult fiction as long as it's not on the current GCSE or A level spec.

Definitely Austen with Marxism

Or Mansfield Park with Post Colonialism?

Pride and prejudice is on the current AQA GCSE spec. Listed here I did double check, but was certain as my DD is doing AQA GCSE and P&P is her 19thC text.

Does it have to not be on the spec at all or just not be one they’ve studied? As DD ended up doing Wuthering Heights and I feel like that was on the A Level spec at the time