Time and space flashcards

Topic 2: Time and space

What is the key skill in Time and space?

Link a fact of context to a choice in the text and to its effect. Start from the text: quote a moment, name the choice, state the effect, then add the context that explains it. Context explains; it never fills space.

Context of production versus context of reception

Production: the time, place, culture and conditions in which a work was written (Ibsen writing A Doll's House in 1879). Reception: the time, place and culture in which it is read or watched now.

What is an anachronistic reading?

Judging a work only by the values of the reader's own time, for example calling a character "backward" and stopping there, instead of exploring what the work meant in its own context.

How should you write about a work studied in translation?

Name the translator and edition; base main claims on what survives translation (events, structure, images, point of view); treat claims about single words as claims about this translation; compare two translations of a key line where you can.

Focaliser versus narrator

The narrator is the voice that tells the story. The focaliser is the character through whose eyes events are seen. They can differ, as in third-person limited narration.

What is free indirect style?

A character's thoughts rendered in the narrator's sentence without "she thought". It blurs judgement, so the reader must ask whose view is being expressed.

Soliloquy, monologue and aside

Soliloquy: a character alone on stage speaks thoughts aloud, giving the audience private access. Monologue: a long speech heard by other characters. Aside: a brief remark other characters do not hear, creating complicity with the audience.

What is dramatic irony?

When the audience knows more than a character. It creates tension, pity or comedy. Verbal irony, by contrast, is a speaker saying the opposite of what they mean.

What is the HL essay in Language A: Literature?

Independent coursework of 1,200–1,500 words on one literary work studied in the course, built on a focused line of inquiry. If the work is a collection of poems or stories, refer to more than one text within it. 20% of the HL grade. (HL only)

What is a line of inquiry in the HL essay?

The single, focused question your whole essay answers. The thesis is your answer to it in one or two sentences. (HL only)

Embedded versus dropped quotation

An embedded quotation is built into the grammar of your own sentence; a dropped quotation stands alone without being worked into your argument. Embedding keeps evidence and analysis together.