Contextual Analysis and Unseen Prose for Paper 2 Section B

Paper 2, Section B of the AQA A-Level English Literature exam presents you with an unseen prose extract related to the shared context you have studied — in this case, WW1 and Its Aftermath. You are required to analyse the extract in terms of both its literary qualities and its contextual significance. This lesson prepares you for that task, combining the contextual knowledge developed across this course with the close-reading skills essential for the unseen element.

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What to Expect

Element	Detail
The extract	A passage of prose (typically 500–800 words) from a WW1-related text you may or may not have read before
The question	You will be asked to analyse the extract, considering its literary methods and its contextual significance
Assessment Objectives	AO1 (informed response, coherent argument), AO2 (analysis of how meanings are shaped), AO3 (contextual significance) — with AO3 being particularly prominent in this section
Time	Approximately 45 minutes — including reading, planning, and writing

Key Principle: This is not simply a comprehension exercise. The examiner wants to see you read the extract as a literary text — attending to language, form, and structure — and as a product of a specific historical and cultural moment. The two dimensions must be integrated, not separated.

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Approaching the Unseen Extract: A Method

Step 1: First Reading (2–3 minutes)

Read the extract through without annotating. Establish the basics:

Question	Purpose
What is happening?	Establish the literal situation: who, where, when, what
Who is the narrator/speaker?	First person? Third person? What is their perspective?
What is the tone?	How does the passage feel? What is its emotional register?
When was this likely written?	Is this a contemporary account (written during/soon after the war) or a retrospective one?
What aspects of the WW1 context are relevant?	Trench conditions? Shell shock? The home front? Gender? Class? Memorialisation?

Step 2: Second Reading with Annotation (3–5 minutes)

Read again, marking:

• Significant word choices — particularly loaded, unusual, or unexpected vocabulary
• Imagery and figurative language — metaphors, similes, personification
• Narrative perspective — how the narrator positions themselves in relation to events
• Tone and its shifts — where does the emotional register change?
• Contextual markers — details that locate the text in a specific period, class, gender, or cultural context

Step 3: Planning (3–5 minutes)

Identify 3–4 key points that integrate literary analysis with contextual understanding. For each point, note specific evidence from the extract.

Step 4: Writing (30–35 minutes)

Write a sustained analytical response, integrating AO1, AO2, and AO3 throughout.

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Identifying Period Markers in Prose

Unlike poetry, prose extracts often contain explicit markers that help you locate the text historically:

Marker	What It Tells You
Vocabulary	Archaic terms, military slang, period-specific language (e.g., "Blighty," "shell shock," "Boche")
Social conventions	Attitudes to class, gender, and authority that reflect a specific historical moment
Material culture	References to objects, technologies, and daily practices that locate the text in time
Narrative conventions	The style of prose writing changes over time: a passage written in the 1920s will read very differently from one written in the 1990s
Explicit references	Place names (Ypres, the Somme), dates, historical events

Distinguishing Contemporary from Retrospective Writing

Feature	Contemporary (Written During/Soon After)	Retrospective (Written Decades Later)
Authority	Claims eyewitness authority; "I was there"	Claims imaginative or research-based authority
Immediacy	Often raw, unprocessed, urgent	More shaped, reflective, with historical perspective
Language	Period vocabulary and attitudes may be unselfconscious	Period vocabulary may be deployed deliberately, with awareness of how language has changed
Understanding of trauma	Uses terms like "shell shock," "nerves," "funk"	May use modern terminology (PTSD, trauma); may analyse psychological states more explicitly
Gender awareness	Reflects period gender assumptions without necessarily questioning them	May foreground gender as an analytical category; may recover women's perspectives
Class	Class distinctions are present but may be taken for granted	May critique class distinctions explicitly

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Literary Analysis of Prose: Key Areas

Narrative Voice

The choice of narrative perspective is one of the most important literary decisions in prose:

Perspective	Effect	Example
First person (participant)	Creates intimacy, subjectivity, and potential unreliability. The reader sees through one pair of eyes	Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer; Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
First person (retrospective)	The narrator looks back on past events; the gap between experiencing self and narrating self creates irony and reflection	Brittain's Testament of Youth; Graves's Goodbye to All That
Third person (limited)	Follows one character's consciousness while maintaining a slight distance	Barker's Regeneration; Faulks's Birdsong
Third person (omniscient)	Can enter multiple minds; can offer panoramic views of events	Less common in WW1 prose, but used in some later novels

When analysing an unseen extract, pay close attention to the narrative voice: Whose perspective are we getting? What do they notice? What do they overlook? What gap exists between what the narrator describes and what we, as readers, understand?

Prose Style and Syntax