All set texts foreground oppression and domination and they all look at…

The idea

Every set text places oppression and domination at its centre, but it does so through particular cultures rather than in the abstract. Oppression may be colonial, racial, gendered, economic, religious or political, and domination may be exercised by states, employers, families or majorities. The phrase 'cultures we live in and have lived in over time' asks you to read each text historically and in the present: a nineteenth-century novel about industrial poverty still speaks to contemporary inequality, while a postcolonial play about language and education connects past empire to current identities. Strong answers name the specific form of oppression, trace how domination is maintained, and consider what the text suggests about continuity and change across time.

What earns the marks

• Identifies the specific form or forms of oppression and domination in each set text, such as colonial rule, patriarchy, class exploitation or racial hierarchy.
• Explains how domination is maintained through institutions, language, ideology, violence or consent, using textual evidence.
• Situates each text in its historical culture and considers how that culture continues to shape the present.
• Analyses how the text invites readers to recognise, resist or critique oppression rather than merely observe it.
• Compares texts to show how different cultures and periods produce different modes of protest and different objects of critique.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Reducing oppression to a single vague idea such as 'society is unfair'.

  Put it right: Name the precise system and show its mechanisms in the text.

• Treating historical context as decoration.

  Put it right: Use context to explain why a particular form of domination appears and how the text challenges it.

• Assuming all set texts protest in the same way.

  Put it right: Compare methods, targets and tones, noting where texts differ or conflict.

Exam tips

• Build a grid of each text's oppressor, oppressed, mechanism of domination and mode of resistance before revising comparisons.
• Anchor context in specific evidence, such as a law, event or cultural attitude, and link it directly to textual detail.
• When writing about time, use precise temporal language to distinguish the culture of production from the culture of reception.