Readers, writers and texts flashcards

Topic 1: Readers, writers and texts

What is the central idea of Readers, writers and texts?

Reading is active: readers construct meaning from a writer's choices, so two readers can build different, defensible interpretations. Explain what a choice opens up or closes off for the reader, not just its name.

What does Paper 1 involve in Language A: Literature?

Two unseen literary extracts from different literary forms, each with a guiding question. SL: guided analysis of one extract, 1 hour 15 minutes, 20 marks. HL: both extracts, 2 hours 15 minutes, 40 marks. 35% at both levels.

How does Literature Paper 1 differ from Language and Literature Paper 1?

In Literature, Paper 1 uses only literary extracts (poetry, prose, drama). In Language and Literature, it uses unseen non-literary texts such as adverts, speeches and news reports.

Enjambment versus caesura

Enjambment: the sentence runs over the line break, creating momentum or putting weight on the word at the start of the next line. Caesura: a strong pause inside a line, which can slow the reading or mark a shift.

Petrarchan versus Shakespearean sonnet

Petrarchan: octave (abbaabba) + sestet, with the volta (turn) near line 9 — often problem, then response. Shakespearean: three quatrains + couplet (abab cdcd efef gg) — argument, then a closing twist.

What is iambic pentameter, and what is blank verse?

Iambic pentameter: five iambs (da-DUM) per line, ten syllables. Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter, which sounds speech-like and flexible.

Metre versus rhythm, and form versus structure

Metre is the regular pattern of stresses; rhythm is how the lines actually move, including departures from it. Form is the shape (sonnet, quatrains); structure is the movement (where it turns, what repeats, how it ends).

What is apostrophe in poetry?

Direct address to an absent person or to an object ("O moon, ..."). It can create intensity or show the speaker's isolation, since the addressee cannot answer.

Concept versus theme

A concept (creativity, perspective, culture, transformation, communication) is a question you bring to any text. A theme is what one particular text is about.

What is a critical lens, and how should you choose one?

A way of reading, such as formalist, reader-response, historical, Marxist, feminist, postcolonial or ecocritical. The lens belongs to the reader, not the writer; choose the one the evidence in the text invites.