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Detecting the Dane: shoehorning Shakespeare into genre studies in A level literature.

The main post-16 qualification in England, the A level, has undergone substantial reform in the last two years and is now being taught in its revised form. One (highly popular) qualification offers the option to study 'Elements of Crime Writing' or 'Elements of Social and Political Protest Writing', both genres with recent origins, one in the 1800s and one arguably within the last 50 years. Within this, students may opt to study Hamlet or Henry IV Part 1 respectively. The question arises as to whether these choices are a convenient curricular fiction - simply a way to shoehorn further Shakespeare study into the qualification - or a way of attracting students to the study of Shakespeare through identification with a popular genre or with another which is linked to the politically active inclinations of young people.

This paper explores the realism of these generic identifications, whether viewing the plays through the lens of these genres can be helpful or interesting, and whether it is pedagogically appropriate for A level students to retrofit genre to Shakespeare in this way. These issues will largely be considered through the case of Hamlet as Crime Writing, with additional argument from Henry IV as necessary. I will also consider what the effect may be when students who have read Hamlet and Henry IV in this way move on to study literature at university.