Hi Heather! I resonate with your “mid-school-life crisis”; it was only a year and a little bit ago that I too was in this situation. After deciding that French was not for me, I switched it out for Literature, beginning the subject during semester 2 of year 11. I studied both English and English Literature for year 12. Both were equally intensive and interesting, however Literature did require more work - 3 to 5 hours more study per week than English - to receive similar marks. In saying that, the appeal for Literature, I believe, lies in the opportunity it affords for you to be creative with your writing; it invites you to ‘have fun’ with sentence, paragraph, and essay structure, to develop complex and left-of-centre interpretations of the text, and to approach the text with more curiosity than in English. Yet the structure of English meant that I had a better idea and indication of my performance, as the standard of essay and work I needed to produce was clearer.
In response to question 4, I studied Heart of Darkness, Ariel and Only the Animals for Literature, and Year of Wonders/The Crucible and Frankenstein for English. The subjects did complement one another, and my improvement in Literature was reflected in my work for English. However, during the exam time and now reflecting on my results, I found it harder to achieve a high score in Literature than in English. So, given that my school wasn’t that great at Lit, but were strong in English, I do wish that I had switched Lit out for another subject (but it was much better than French!!).
Irregardless of the English that you pick, my biggest tip for you is to be widely read; hit up Google Scholar and read some literary articles regarding your text, read precious essays about them, read reviews! The more thorough your understanding is of how other people have responded to the text, the stronger your response becomes.
Best of luck!