IB Literature A allows complete freedom of choice when it comes to planning your curriculum and choosing texts. For some this is a huge perk, but for many it is overwhelming. Especially given the nature of the course and the need for texts to be connected, comparable and still able to meet the strict criteria for variety.
Here is the guidance from the IB:
You must also make sure that you have:
- 4 genres (HL),
- 3 genres (SL),
- 3 periods,
- 3 countries,
- 2 continents
- No repeated titles or authors within a part
The IB is strict about genre – it doesn’t refer to sci-fi, romance, comedy etc. They define genre in the following ways:
- Prose (fiction)
- Prose (non-fiction)
- Poetry
- Drama
It is vitally important that you follow these guidelines closely and ensure the 9 or 13 texts chosen meet these specifications.
You are free to choose where and when to use each text.
Unlike previous years, students can choose to compare any text from any part of the course during their exams unless they have previously used it for their HL essay or Oral assessment.
As a teacher or a student it is therefore also important to consider which texts are most compatible and when you should teach these to coincide with assessment.
The areas of exploration
The new specification asks the curriculum to cover 3 areas of exploration. It is up to you whether you want to separate them into the distinct units or cover them all throughout the year.
- Readers, writers and texts
Just as the reader participates in the production of the text’s meaning so the text shapes the reader.
Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan (2005)
This area of exploration introduces students to the nature of literature and its study. Students will investigate the details of texts in a variety of literary forms to learn about the choices made by authors and the ways in which meaning is created.
At the same time, study will focus on the role readers themselves play in generating meaning as students move from a personal response to an understanding and interpretation that is influenced by the community of readers of which they are a part.
Their interaction with other readers will raise an awareness of the constructed and negotiated nature of meaning.
2. Time and Space
The ultimate boundary of world literature is found in the interplay of works in a reader’s mind, reshaped anew whenever a reader picks up one book in place of another, begins to read, and is drawn irresistibly into a new world.
David Damrosch (2009)
This area of exploration focuses on the idea that literary texts are neither created nor received in a vacuum. It explores the variety of cultural contexts in which literary texts are written and read across time and space as well as the ways literature itself—in its content—mirrors the world at large. Students will examine how cultural conditions can shape the production of a literary text, how a literary text can reflect or refract cultural conditions, and the ways culture and identity influence reception.
Students will investigate ways in which literary texts may represent and be understood from a variety of cultural and historical perspectives. They will recognise the role of relationships among text, self and other, and the ways in which the local and the global connect.
The background of an author and the make-up of an audience are not necessarily clear or easily described. Literary texts are situated in specific contexts and deal with or represent social, political and cultural concerns particular to a given time and place.
Cultures that are geographically separated can share mores or ideas, while people living in proximity can embrace disparate traditions.
Students will consider the intricacies of communication within such a complex societal framework and the implications that language and text take on when produced and read in shifting contexts.
3. Intertextuality – connecting texts
Any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations: any text is the absorption and transformation of another.
Julia Kristeva (1980)
This area of exploration focuses on intertextual concerns or the connections between and among diverse literary texts, traditions, creators and ideas. It focuses on the comparative study of literary texts so that students may gain deeper appreciation of both unique characteristics of individual literary texts and complex systems of connection.
Throughout the course, students will be able to see similarities and differences among literary texts. This area allows for a further exploration of literary concerns, examples, interpretations and readings by studying a grouping of works set by the teacher or set in close conversation with a class or groups of students.
Students will gain an awareness of how texts can provide critical lenses to reading other texts and of how they can support a text’s interpretation by expanding on it or question it by providing a different point of view.
I chose to cover all 3 areas simultaneously, as the nature of literature means you will always talk about readers, writers and texts, alongside time and space. I bring in intertextuality throughout by constantly comparing each text to the previous texts studied. This is personal preference – there is no “right” way or “wrong” way to do it.
Here’s how I did it…
This therefore covers:
My aim was to replicate the old format and give students the option to compare texts of the same genre in their Paper 2 exam. While this limits comments about genre, it allows them to learn shorter texts and therefore makes quotation learning less scary! And yes, you do need to learn quotations – you cannot take books into these exams.
However, students who are more confident might well want to bring in texts from different parts of the course and they are free to do so. As a teacher this is terrifying! You could walk into an exam at the end of Year 13 and try to talk about the first text you ever covered at the beginning of Year 12… but, if you have revised it well, then of course you will not be penalised for that. Just make sure you know your texts inside out!
As a teacher, I decided to group my texts into 3 main categories for comparison:
I then had set questions I wanted to cover during these areas of study:
The theory behind this meant that the texts in each area would be directly comparable and therefore students would have some structure to their learning and revision. It also allows students to consistently practise for Paper 1 and Paper 2 throughout the two years.
You can then structure your year around these assessments and students will – in theory – be confident with their exam techniques way before the end of Year 13!
The rest of the content on this website will therefore use the texts and structure outlined. Do you have any texts you want me to cover? Let me know by visiting my contact page and leaving me a comment!
Want to skip ahead?
The English Revision Room 