IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Intertextuality: Connecting Texts Revision Notes

These revision notes condense Intertextuality: connecting texts, the third syllabus component of IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature. They follow the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021) and apply to SL and HL alike; the brief recommends 50 teaching hours for the component at SL and 80 at HL. For full explanations and worked examples, read the Intertextuality study guide first. Then test yourself with the practice questions.

Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist · the other two components: Readers, writers and texts and Time and space.

The unit in one line

A text’s meaning depends partly on other texts: the ones it borrows from, the conventions of its type or form, and the texts you place it beside.

The brief’s wording to remember: assessment objective 1 includes knowing “features of particular text types and literary forms”; assessment objective 2 includes analysing “relationships among different texts”.

Key terms

Term	Meaning	Quick test
Intertext	An earlier text that a new text relies on for part of its meaning	Would the text lose meaning if you did not know the source?
Allusion	A brief, indirect reference the reader should recognise	Is the source hinted at, not named or quoted?
Quotation	The source’s exact words, usually marked	Are the words borrowed unchanged?
Parody	Imitation that exaggerates a style or form to mock it	Is there a target being criticised?
Pastiche	Imitation of a style without mockery, often as tribute or play	Is it imitation that admires?
Satire	Using humour, irony or exaggeration to criticise people, ideas or institutions	What is being attacked?
Adaptation	A text moved into a new medium or form	Has the medium or form changed?
Rewriting / response	A text that answers or retells another, often from a new point of view	Whose voice is added?
Convention	A feature readers expect of a given text type or form	Would its absence surprise a reader?
Text type	A kind of non-literary text: advert, speech, report, letter, blog, infographic
Literary form	A kind of literary text: poetry, prose fiction, drama; sub-forms such as the sonnet
Hybrid text	A text that mixes the conventions of two or more types or forms	Which two forms can you see?
Subversion	Using a convention against its usual purpose	What expectation is set up and then undercut?

Parody and satire overlap but are not the same. Parody always imitates a particular style or form. Satire attacks a target and may or may not imitate anything.

Method in steps

Analysing an intertextual reference

1. Name the source, or the kind of source (“the language of fairy tales”) if you are not sure.
2. Kept: what is borrowed unchanged – words, structure, form, tone?
3. Changed: what is new – the context, the speaker, a reversed detail?
4. Effect: what the gap between the two does for meaning and for the reader.

Analysing conventions

1. List the conventions a reader expects of this type or form.
2. Decide whether each is followed, bent or broken.
3. Choose the most significant bent or broken one.
4. Explain why the writer made that choice, linked to purpose and audience.

Building a comparison

1. Find a point of connection: a shared issue, theme, technique or form.
2. For each text, find one precise piece of evidence on that point.
3. Write a sentence that holds both: “Both … but …” or “Where Text A …, Text B …”.
4. Explain why they differ: purpose, audience, form, context.
5. Repeat for two or three points, then state what the comparison reveals overall.

Worked reminders

Borrowing a form to mock it. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (1729) is written in the calm, reasonable form of a pamphlet offering a solution to a public problem. The proposal it makes is monstrous. The polite, statistical form makes the cruelty of the argument stand out, so the target is the cold way the Irish poor were discussed, not the reader.

Parodying a genre. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1817) plays with the conventions of the Gothic novel. Its heroine expects mysteries like those in the novels she reads, and ordinary life keeps failing to supply them. The joke only works if the reader knows the genre.

A modern allusion, in a headline. Original text written for Marlbridge: “Council’s new car park: a monument to wasted millions”. “Monument” borrows the language of grand, lasting buildings, so the headline mocks the project by giving it a dignity it does not deserve.

A literary form hosting a non-literary one. Original text written for Marlbridge: a poem titled “Terms and Conditions” in which each numbered clause is a promise between two friends. The legal form (numbered clauses, “shall”, “hereby”) is cold; the content is personal. The clash suggests that the friendship has become something to be managed rather than enjoyed.

Must-know distinctions

• Allusion vs quotation. An allusion points; a quotation copies. Both need an effect.
• Parody vs pastiche. Parody mocks its source; pastiche imitates without mockery.
• Text type vs literary form. Text types are non-literary kinds of text; literary forms are kinds of literary text. A hybrid can mix the two.
• Following vs subverting a convention. Following keeps attention on the message; subverting pulls attention to the form itself.
• Comparison vs contrast. Comparison covers similarities and differences. A comparison built only of contrasts misses the point of connection that made the pairing worth studying.
• Woven vs block comparison. Woven: both texts in each paragraph. Block: one text, then the other. Woven comparison shows the connection; block comparison leaves it to the reader.
• Influence vs intertextuality. You do not need to prove a writer read a source. It is enough to show what a reader gains from making the connection – but do not invent a source that is not there.

Where the unit shows up in assessment

From the brief’s assessment model:

Component	Format (from the brief)	Time SL / HL	Weight SL / HL	Intertextual skill used
Paper 1	Guided analysis of unseen non-literary passage/passages from different text types	1.25 h / 2.25 h	35% / 35%	Conventions of text types; hybrids
Paper 2	Comparative essay on two literary works, one question from four	1.75 h / 1.75 h	35% / 25%	Comparison; literary forms
Individual oral	One literary work and one non-literary body of work on a common global issue	–	30% / 20%	Comparing across literary and non-literary
HL essay	1,200–1,500 words on one literary work or non-literary body of work	HL only	20% (HL)	A form or intertext as a line of inquiry

Your teacher will share the assessment criteria.

Quick self-test

1. Define intertext in one sentence.
2. What is the difference between parody and pastiche?
3. Name three conventions of a news report.
4. A charity leaflet is laid out as a school report card. What is this kind of text called?
5. Name the four steps for analysing an intertextual reference.
6. What are the three things a text can do with a convention?
7. What must you find before you can compare two texts?
8. Write a comparison sentence frame that keeps both texts in one sentence.
9. How long is Paper 2 at HL, and what weighting does it carry at HL?
10. In the individual oral, what connects the literary work and the non-literary body of work?
11. Why is “both texts are about people” a weak point of connection?

Answers

1. An earlier text that a new text depends on for part of its meaning.
2. Parody imitates in order to mock; pastiche imitates without mocking, often as tribute.
3. Any three of: headline; lead paragraph answering who/what/where/when; quotations from sources; third-person, factual register.
4. A hybrid text (a non-literary text borrowing the conventions of another text type).
5. Name, kept, changed, effect.
6. Follow it, bend it, break it.
7. A point of connection: a shared issue, theme, technique or form.
8. “Both texts …, but Text A … while Text B …” (any frame that places evidence from both texts in one sentence).
9. 1.75 hours; 25% at HL (35% at SL).
10. A common global issue that both have approached.
11. It is too broad to argue from; a precise connection (an issue, technique or form) lets you compare specific choices.

Where marks are usually lost

• Naming an allusion or parody without explaining what the borrowing adds to meaning.
• Inventing a precise source when only a general style is present. Say “fairy-tale conventions” if that is all you can support.
• Listing the conventions of a text type as a checklist instead of analysing the one that is bent or broken.
• Calling a text a parody when nothing is being mocked.
• Describing Text A, then Text B, and leaving the comparison to a single closing sentence.
• Choosing a point of connection so broad that no specific evidence can support it.
• Treating the non-literary text as simpler than the literary one; both are built from deliberate choices.
• Explaining how texts differ but not why: the difference in purpose, audience or form.
• Quoting a long passage when a short embedded phrase would carry the point.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: language and literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019).