A complete text studied in the course: a novel, a play, a poetry collection, a work of literary non-fiction…
Prescribed reading list (PRL)
The IB's list of authors from which works in translation are chosen.
Literary form
Prose fiction, prose non-fiction, poetry, drama.
Work in translation
A work originally written in another language, studied in English.
Learner portfolio
Your ongoing record of reading, annotations and reflections; required, not marked.
Since the May 2026 exams, schools must study at least 7 works at SL and 10 at HL, covering at least 3 (SL) or 4 (HL) literary forms, 3 periods, and 3 countries or regions on at least 2 continents.
At least 2 (SL) or 3 (HL) works are in translation, chosen from authors on the prescribed reading list; at least 3 (SL) or 4 (HL) were originally written in English.
The course is organised into three areas of exploration: Readers, writers and texts; Time and space; Intertextuality: connecting texts.
Assessment: Paper 1 (unseen literary passages), Paper 2 (comparative essay), Individual oral (IA), and HL essay (HL only).
Keep your learner portfolio up to date: it's where ideas for your IO, Paper 2 and HL essay come from.
Worked example
Why does the course require works from different forms, periods and places?
Different forms teach different tools: you analyse a poem's line breaks differently from a play's stage directions.
Different periods and places show how context and culture shape writing and reading.
Together they give you a range of works to compare in Paper 2 and the IO.
Exam tip: Make a one-page sheet for each work: form, author, context, 10–15 key quotations, techniques, themes and concepts. It's your revision base for Paper 2.
1.2Reading poetry: form, sound and imagery
Key terms
Metre
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line (e.g. iambic pentameter).
Enjambment
A sentence runs on from one line to the next without punctuation.
Caesura
A pause within a line, often marked by punctuation.
Structure: stanza breaks, line length, enjambment vs. end-stopped lines, caesura, shifts in tone, the volta, the ending.
Always link form to meaning: a broken rhythm can mirror a broken mind; a regular form can contain or contrast chaotic emotion.
Worked example
Analyse Shakespeare's line “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” (Sonnet 18).
Iambic pentameter: five unstressed–stressed pairs give a calm, measured rhythm.
The rhetorical question opens the poem as a reflection, inviting the reader into the speaker's thought.
The comparison will be overturned: the beloved is “more lovely and more temperate”, so the summer image sets up praise.
Exam tip: Don't just name the metre or rhyme scheme: say what it does to the meaning or the reader's experience.
1.3Reading prose fiction: narrative voice and structure
Key terms
Narrator
The voice telling the story: first person, third person limited or omniscient, second person.
Focalisation
Whose perspective the reader sees events through.
Free indirect discourse
Third-person narration that takes on a character's thoughts and voice.
Unreliable narrator
A narrator whose account the reader cannot fully trust.
Pace
The speed of narration: summary (fast) vs. scene (slow).
Characterisation: direct (the narrator tells us) and indirect (through speech, action, appearance, other characters' reactions).
Structure: chronology, flashback, foreshadowing, frame narratives, multiple narrators, open or closed endings.
Setting and atmosphere: how place, time and weather mirror or contrast the characters' emotions (pathetic fallacy).
Symbolism and motifs: objects or images that gain meaning through repetition.
Ask who tells the story, from where, and what they leave out.
Worked example
Analyse this original line: “He said he wasn't angry, and closed the door so gently that the frame shook.”
Contrast between his words (“wasn't angry”) and his action.
Irony: the exaggerated gentleness and the shaking frame reveal suppressed rage.
Indirect characterisation: the narrator lets the reader infer his feelings, creating tension.
Exam tip: In prose passages, track shifts: a change in pace, perspective or tone is often where the meaning lies.
1.4Reading drama: dialogue and stagecraft
Key terms
Stage directions
The playwright's instructions about action, setting, sound, lighting.
Soliloquy
A character alone on stage speaks their thoughts aloud.
Aside
A brief remark to the audience that other characters don't hear.
Dramatic irony
The audience knows something a character doesn't.
Subtext
The meaning beneath what characters say.
Drama is written to be performed: analyse how it would work on stage (movement, silence, props, lighting, sound).
Dialogue reveals character through what is said, how (register, interruptions, pauses) and what is not said (subtext).
Structure: acts and scenes, rising tension, climax, reversals, entrances and exits.
Genres: tragedy (hamartia, catharsis), comedy, tragicomedy, theatre of the absurd, epic theatre.
Worked example
Explain the effect of the stage direction “A long silence. Neither looks at the other.” after an argument.
The silence slows the pace and lets tension fill the stage.
Avoiding eye contact shows broken communication and unresolved conflict.
The audience must read the subtext: what cannot be said matters more than the words.
Exam tip: Refer to “the audience” rather than “the reader” when analysing drama, and imagine the scene in performance.
1.5Paper 1: guided literary analysis
Key terms
Paper 1
Analysis of unseen literary passages from different forms, each with a guiding question.
Guiding question
An optional focus offered for each passage.
Thesis
Your central argument about how the passage creates meaning.
Format: SL: 1 h 15 min, analyse one of two passages (20 marks, 35%). HL: 2 h 15 min, analyse both passages in separate answers (40 marks, 35%).
The two passages are from different literary forms (e.g. a poem and a prose extract).
Read twice: first for overall meaning, tone and situation; second to annotate techniques and shifts.
Thesis = the passage's main concern + the key methods that present it.
Organise by ideas or by the passage's development (beginning → shift → ending), not by a list of devices.
Worked example
Build a thesis for a poem in which a speaker returns to a childhood home that has been sold.
Main concern: loss and memory; the past can't be recovered.
Methods: contrast between vivid past imagery and bare present description; shift from present to past tense; a final short line.
Thesis: “Through contrasting images of a vivid past and an emptied present, and a final abrupt line, the poem presents memory as both a refuge and a reminder of loss.”
Exam tip: At SL, choose the passage you can say most about, not the one you find easiest to understand.
1.6Paper 1: writing the analysis and the criteria
Key terms
Criterion A: Understanding and interpretation
Understanding of the passage and its implications, supported by references (5).
Criterion B: Analysis and evaluation
How well you analyse and evaluate the writer's choices (5).