IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Intertextuality: Connecting Texts Study Guide

This study guide teaches Intertextuality: connecting texts, the third of the three syllabus components of IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature (teachers often call them areas of exploration). It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021). It covers SL and HL: the brief recommends 50 teaching hours for this component at SL and 80 at HL, the same as each of the other two components. The unit covers how texts relate to other texts, the conventions of text types and literary forms, and comparing literary and non-literary works.

Use it with the Intertextuality revision notes and the Intertextuality practice questions. For the whole course, see the Language and Literature course hub and the printable checklist. The first two components are covered in Readers, writers and texts (how choices create effects) and Time and space (how context shapes meaning). This guide adds a third question: how does a text mean differently because of the texts around it?

What this unit covers

Part of the unit	What you must be able to do	SL/HL
Text-to-text links	Spot an allusion, quotation, parody, pastiche or adaptation, name its source and explain what the borrowing adds	Both
Conventions of text types	Say what readers expect of an advert, speech, letter, news report or blog, and whether a text follows, bends or breaks those expectations	Both
Conventions of literary forms	Do the same for the sonnet, the novel, the short story and drama	Both
Comparing texts	Compare a literary and a non-literary text, or two literary works, with a clear point of connection	Both
Using it in assessment	Apply these skills in Paper 1, Paper 2, the individual oral and (HL) the HL essay	Paper 1 is longer at HL; HL essay is HL only

What the brief says this component is for

The subject brief does not list content for each component, but its aims and assessment objectives point straight at this one. One aim is to “develop an understanding of relationships between texts” and of how they “open up multiple meanings”. Assessment objective 1 asks you to know “features of particular text types and literary forms”. Assessment objective 2 asks you to analyse and evaluate “relationships among different texts” and “ways in which texts may offer perspectives on human concerns”.

So the unit has three strands, each a kind of connection.

1. Text to text. One text points to another.
2. Text to convention. A text works with, or against, the expected features of its type or form.
3. Text beside text. You place two texts together and build an argument out of the comparison.

Strand 1: when one text points to another

An intertext is any earlier text that a new text depends on for part of its meaning. The main ways of connecting are:

• Allusion – a brief, indirect reference the reader is expected to recognise. A headline that calls a doomed project “a modern Titanic” alludes to the ship.
• Quotation – the exact words of another text, usually marked. It borrows authority or invites comparison.
• Parody – imitation of a style or form in order to mock or criticise it. It exaggerates the features you already know.
• Pastiche – imitation of a style that celebrates or plays with it, without mockery.
• Adaptation – a text moved into a new medium or form, such as a novel into a film.
• Response or rewriting – a text that answers another, often by telling the story from a silenced point of view.

The question is never just “what is referenced?” but “what does the reference do here?”. An allusion can borrow prestige, set up irony, or compress a big idea into a few words.

Worked example: using a convention against itself

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 (published 1609), opens:

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

Step 1 – name the intertext. Love sonnets of the period often praised a beloved by comparing her features to precious or beautiful things: eyes like the sun, lips like coral, skin like snow. This listing of features is called a blazon.

Step 2 – say what is kept. The poem keeps the form: fourteen lines, three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, in iambic pentameter. The reader recognises it at once as a love sonnet.

Step 3 – say what is changed. Each comparison is reversed. The eyes are “nothing like” the sun.

Step 4 – explain the effect. The reversal mocks the exaggeration of conventional praise. The closing couplet then turns: the speaker thinks his love “as rare / As any she belied with false compare”. The poem claims that honest description is the truer compliment. Its meaning depends on the reader knowing the convention it rejects.

That four-step move – name, kept, changed, effect – works for any intertextual reference.

Strand 2: conventions of text types and literary forms

A convention is a feature readers expect in a given kind of text. The brief names both text types and literary forms. In practice, text types are non-literary (adverts, speeches, reports, letters, blogs, infographics) and literary forms include poetry, prose fiction, drama and forms within them such as the sonnet.

Kind of text	Typical conventions
Print advert	Headline, image, brand name, slogan, call to action, direct address (“you”)
News report	Headline, short lead paragraph answering who/what/where/when, quotations from sources, third person
Speech	Direct address, repetition, lists of three, rhetorical questions, a memorable close
Letter	Salutation, sign-off, first and second person, register set by the relationship
Sonnet	Fourteen lines, a set rhyme scheme, a turn (volta) in the argument

A text can do three things with a convention:

• Follow it. The reader’s expectations are met, so attention goes to the message.
• Bend it. A familiar feature is used in an unexpected place or way.
• Break it. An expected feature is missing or reversed, which draws attention.

A hybrid text mixes the conventions of two types or forms. Adverts often borrow the look of news reports or fairy tales; poems borrow recipes, letters and lists. The analytical point is always the gap between the borrowed form and the real purpose.

Worked example: an advert in the shape of a fairy tale

Original text written for Marlbridge (the product and brand are invented):

Once upon a time, in a kitchen not far from yours, there lived a kettle that took forever to boil. Every morning the family waited. And waited. Then one day a small blue box arrived at the door. Inside was the Marrowby Quickboil. Now breakfast takes five minutes, and everyone lives happily ever after. Marrowby. Mornings, rewritten.

Conventions borrowed: the opening “Once upon a time”, the setting “not far from yours”, a problem, a magical arrival, and “happily ever after”.

Conventions of the real text type still present: the brand name, the product name, a slogan.

Effect: the fairy-tale frame turns a small appliance into the hero of a story. It suggests the product can transform a household. The phrase “not far from yours” pulls the reader into the tale. The slogan “Mornings, rewritten” admits the borrowing: the advert is rewriting a familiar story, and invites you to rewrite your routine.

What a strong answer adds: “happily ever after” promises a feeling, not a fact, so the advert persuades without stating anything it could be held to.

Strand 3: comparing texts across the course

The course puts literary and non-literary texts side by side. The individual oral, as the brief describes it, asks how one literary work and one non-literary body of work “have approached a common global issue”. Paper 2 is a comparative essay on two literary works. Comparison is therefore a skill you need in more than one place.

A good comparison needs a point of connection first: a shared issue, theme, technique or form. Then you ask how each text treats it, and why they differ.

Worked example: one issue, two text types

Both texts are original, written for Marlbridge.

Text 1 – poem, “The Last Bus” She keeps the kettle warm for no one now. The clock is loud. The street lamps come and go. At nine she walks as far as the bus stop to watch the last bus leave, and not be on it, and wave goodnight to the driver, who waves back.

Text 2 – leaflet from an invented charity Somewhere on your street, someone has not had a conversation all week. One hour, once a fortnight, can change that. Open Door Visits pairs volunteers with older neighbours for a cup of tea and a chat. Pick up a form at your local library today.

Point of comparison	Text 1 (poem)	Text 2 (leaflet)
Shared issue	Loneliness in old age	Loneliness in old age
Purpose	To make the reader feel the experience	To make the reader act
Address	Third person (“she”); reader observes	Second person (“your”); reader is involved
Method	Concrete images (kettle, loud clock, bus)	Plain statement and a practical offer
Ending	An image of small contact (“who waves back”)	An instruction (“Pick up a form”)

A model comparative sentence: Both texts present loneliness through a missing conversation, but the poem leaves that silence for the reader to feel in images such as the “loud” clock, while the leaflet names it outright and turns it into a problem the reader can solve in “one hour”.

Notice the shape: a shared point, then “but”, then evidence from both texts in the same sentence. That is comparison woven together, not two separate descriptions.

How this unit is assessed

The brief’s assessment model has no paper for a single component, so all four assessments can draw on this one:

• Paper 1 (SL 1.25 hours, HL 2.25 hours; 35% at both levels) is a guided analysis of unseen non-literary passage or passages “from different text types”. Knowing the conventions of text types, and noticing when a text borrows from another type, is part of reading any unseen passage well.
• Paper 2 (1.75 hours at both levels; 35% SL, 25% HL) is a comparative essay on two literary works, answering one of four questions. Strand 3 is the core skill.
• Individual oral (30% SL, 20% HL) connects one literary work and one non-literary body of work through a common global issue.
• HL essay (HL only, 20%) is a 1,200–1,500 word essay on one literary work or non-literary body of work. You could build it on an intertextual line of inquiry, such as how a work uses or subverts its form.

Your teacher will share the assessment criteria for each component.

Common errors

• Spotting without explaining. “This is an allusion to a fairy tale” earns little until you say what the fairy-tale frame does to the message.
• Guessing sources. If you cannot name the intertext with confidence, describe the convention instead (“the language of a fairy tale”) rather than inventing a specific source.
• Treating parody and pastiche as the same. Parody mocks; pastiche imitates without mockery.
• Listing conventions as a checklist. Pick the convention that is bent or broken and analyse that.
• Comparing block by block. Writing all about Text 1 and then all about Text 2 leaves the comparison to the reader. Put both texts in the same paragraph, often the same sentence.
• Choosing a weak point of connection. “Both texts are about people” is too broad to argue from. Narrow it to a specific issue, technique or form.

Where to go next

Condense this guide with the revision notes, then test yourself with the practice questions (both linked at the top). For how the three components fit together, read the syllabus guide and the subject guide; for each assessment, see exam preparation and the assessment revision notes.

Official syllabus

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