IB English A: Literature HL
A comprehensive study deck for the IB Diploma Programme course English A: Literature at Higher Level, covering the three areas of exploration, seven central concepts, literary forms and techniques, critical approaches, assessment components, and major literary periods.
Ämne: Engelska · Nivå: Gymnasium (16–19) · 470 kort
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- IB English A: Literature is organised around three areas of exploration: (1) Readers, writers and texts; (2) Time and space; (3) Intertextuality: connecting texts.
- The area of exploration 'Readers, writers and texts' focuses on the nature of literature, how texts are read and interpreted, and the relationship between reader, writer, and text.
- The area of exploration 'Time and space' examines how literary texts reflect, represent, and are shaped by their cultural, historical, and geographical contexts.
- The area of exploration 'Intertextuality: connecting texts' explores the relationships between literary texts, including shared themes, conventions, genres, and influences across works.
- Each area of exploration in IB English A: Literature is framed by a set of guiding conceptual questions that help focus study and analysis of texts.
- The seven central concepts of IB Language A: Literature are identity, culture, creativity, communication, perspective, transformation, and representation.
- The concept of 'identity' in literature concerns how texts construct and explore individual and collective selfhood, including questions of who we are and how identity is shaped.
- The concept of 'culture' in literature examines how texts reflect, transmit, and challenge the beliefs, values, and practices of the societies that produce and receive them.
- The concept of 'creativity' in literature relates to the imaginative and inventive aspects of writing, including originality, the writer's craft, and the reader's creative role in interpretation.
- The concept of 'communication' in literature concerns how meaning is transmitted between writer and reader, and the ways texts both enable and complicate understanding.
- The concept of 'perspective' in literature refers to the points of view embodied in a text — those of characters, narrators, and authors — and how they shape meaning and the reader's response.
- The concept of 'transformation' in literature explores how texts adapt, rework, and respond to other texts and contexts, and how meaning changes across time and forms.
- The concept of 'representation' in literature concerns the relationship between language and the world — how texts depict reality, people, and ideas through linguistic and formal choices.
- At Higher Level (HL), students of IB English A: Literature study 13 literary works over the two-year course. At Standard Level (SL) the requirement is 9 works.
- The HL Essay is a 1200–1500 word formal essay on a literary aspect of one work studied. It is an HL-only assessment component and is internally assessed but externally moderated.
- Paper 1 in IB English A: Literature is a guided literary analysis of unseen texts. At HL, students analyse TWO unseen passages in 2 hours 15 minutes; at SL, ONE passage in 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Each unseen passage in Paper 1 is accompanied by a single guiding question that directs the student toward a technical or formal aspect of the text, though students may go beyond it.
- Paper 2 in IB English A: Literature is a comparative essay written in response to one of four general questions. Students compare TWO works studied during the course. Duration is 1 hour 45 minutes at both HL and SL.
- The Individual Oral (IO) is an internally assessed 10-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of questions, in which the student explores a global issue through two extracts from two different works.
- For the Individual Oral, at least one of the two extracts must come from a work originally written in the student's language (English), and at least one from a work in translation.
- The prompt for the Individual Oral is fixed: students explore the ways in which a global issue of their choice is presented through the content and form of two literary works.
- At HL, the external assessment weighting is typically Paper 1 (35%), Paper 2 (25%), and HL Essay (20%), with the Individual Oral (20%) as internal assessment.
- The Prescribed Reading List (PRL) is an extensive online database of authors from which IB English A teachers select works, balanced against a portion of freely chosen texts.
- IB English A: Literature requires that works studied represent a range of literary forms, time periods, and places (continents/regions), ensuring breadth of literary experience.
- At HL, students must study works originally written in at least two different languages — at least four works originally in English and at least three works in translation (with the rest freely chosen).
- The learner portfolio is a central, mandatory tool in IB English A where students record their developing responses to texts, preparation for assessments, and reflections throughout the course.
- The four broad literary forms studied in IB English A: Literature are prose fiction (novel, short story), poetry, drama, and prose non-fiction (essay, memoir, travel writing, etc.).
- A novel is an extended work of prose fiction, typically featuring developed characters, a plot, and a setting, allowing for complex exploration of theme and the inner lives of characters.
- A short story is a brief work of prose fiction that typically concentrates on a single incident, a limited set of characters, and a unified effect, often building to an epiphany or twist.
- The novella is a prose fiction form intermediate in length between the short story and the novel, focused enough for a single sitting yet long enough to develop theme and character.
- Drama is the literary form written to be performed, communicating through dialogue, action, and stagecraft rather than narration. Its texts include tragedy, comedy, and modern realist plays.
- Prose non-fiction is literary writing about real subjects, including the essay, memoir, autobiography, biography, travel writing, and literary journalism, valued for its craft as well as content.
- A memoir is a form of prose non-fiction in which an author recounts personal experiences and memories, usually focused on a particular period or theme rather than an entire life.
- An essay is a relatively short prose composition that explores a subject from a personal or argumentative standpoint. The form is often traced to Michel de Montaigne, who coined the term 'essais'.
- A sonnet is a 14-line poem, traditionally in iambic pentameter. The two main types are the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and the Shakespearean (English) sonnet, distinguished by their rhyme schemes.
- The Shakespearean (English) sonnet has the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG — three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet that often delivers a turn or resolution.
- The Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet divides into an octave (8 lines, rhyming ABBAABBA) and a sestet (6 lines, variably rhymed). The shift between them is called the volta, or 'turn'.
- The volta is the 'turn' of thought or argument in a sonnet — a shift in tone, perspective, or direction. In a Petrarchan sonnet it falls between octave and sestet; in a Shakespearean sonnet, often at the final couplet.
- A villanelle is a fixed 19-line poem of five tercets and a final quatrain, built on two refrains and two repeating rhymes. Dylan Thomas's 'Do not go gentle into that good night' is a famous example.
- Free verse is poetry without a regular meter or rhyme scheme. It relies on natural speech rhythms, line breaks, and imagery for its effects. Walt Whitman is a foundational practitioner.
- Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is the dominant meter of Shakespeare's plays and Milton's 'Paradise Lost', valued for its closeness to natural English speech rhythm.
- Meter is the regular rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse. The basic unit of meter is the foot.
- An iamb is a metrical foot of two syllables: unstressed followed by stressed (da-DUM), as in the word 'aGAIN'. Iambic pentameter contains five iambs per line.
- A trochee is a metrical foot of two syllables: stressed followed by unstressed (DUM-da), as in 'GARden'. It is the reverse of an iamb.
- Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or phrase beyond the end of a line of verse without a pause, carrying the meaning over the line break. Its opposite is an end-stopped line.
- A caesura is a deliberate pause or break within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation. It can create emphasis, rhythm, or a sense of hesitation.
- A stanza is a grouped set of lines in a poem, separated from other groups by a space. Common stanza forms include the couplet (2 lines), tercet (3), and quatrain (4).
- Iambic pentameter is a line of verse with five iambic feet (ten syllables, alternating unstressed-stressed). It is the most common meter in English poetry and dramatic verse.
- Scansion is the process of marking the stressed and unstressed syllables of a line of verse to analyse its meter.
- A refrain is a line or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout a poem, often at the end of stanzas, reinforcing theme, mood, or musicality.