IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature: Syllabus Guide

This guide covers the full syllabus structure of IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature, first assessment 2021, for both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL) students. It complements the subject overview and the assessment revision notes already on the site by setting out what the course actually studies – three areas of exploration built entirely around literary texts (the official guide’s own table still uses “syllabus component” as its column header, but its body text and the current IB course page both use “areas of exploration”).

Total teaching hours are 150 at SL and 240 at HL, split evenly across the three areas of exploration (50 hours each at SL, 80 hours each at HL), and a Higher Level essay and individual oral round out the assessment alongside the two written examination papers – the same overall structure as Language A: Language and Literature, but applied to a different body of material, as explained below. The guide is explicit that this hour split is a recommendation, not a binding rule: a footnote to the table states that the hours indicated should not be taken as prescriptive or restrictive, since the areas will often overlap in the study of a text, and the IB’s own course page heads the equivalent column “recommended” hours.

Central concepts and the learner portfolio

Seven concepts – identity, culture, creativity, communication, perspective, transformation and representation – structure the teaching and learning of the course and recur across all three areas of exploration. They are not directly assessed in any component, but the guide treats them as an essential part of a student’s investigation of every work studied.

The learner portfolio is a mandatory, central element of the course for every student, built up over the two years and used to prepare for every assessment component. It is not itself assessed or moderated by the IB, but schools may be required to submit it to help establish the authenticity of a student’s work – “not assessed” does not mean “never seen” or “irrelevant.”

Works studied

SL students must study a minimum of 9 works across the three areas of exploration (at least 4 originally written in the language studied, at least 3 in translation, and 2 freely chosen); HL students a minimum of 13 works (at least 5 originally written in the language studied, at least 4 in translation, and 4 freely chosen). Note that the IB’s own course description webpage currently states lower figures (7 works at SL, 10 at HL); the guide’s 9/13 is the more detailed, itemised and internally consistent source, but this discrepancy with the course page is worth knowing about rather than silently resolving.

Readers, writers and texts (50 hours SL / 80 hours HL)

Introduces close literary analysis: how a writer’s choices of language, form and literary craft shape meaning, and how readers actively construct interpretations of literary works rather than simply receiving them. Because this course studies literary works exclusively, this foundational component goes deeper into literary technique specifically – narrative voice, poetic form, dramatic structure – than the equivalent component in a course that must also cover non-literary text types.

Time and space (50 hours SL / 80 hours HL)

Examines how literary works relate to the context in which they were written and received – historical period, culture, and place – and how the same literary work can be read differently by readers in different times and places. Works are drawn from a genuinely international range of literary traditions, so this component often introduces students to works originally written in languages other than the one they are studying in, read in translation.

Intertextuality: connecting texts (50 hours SL / 80 hours HL)

Explores relationships between literary works: how one work of literature echoes, responds to or subverts another, and how meaning is shaped by reading works of literature in dialogue with each other. Since the whole course is built from literary works, this component can draw comparisons across a wide span of literary history and form – a modern novel read alongside a much older play, for instance – in a way a mixed literary/non-literary course has less room to do.

Why “literature” alone, rather than “language and literature”

This course exists alongside Language A: Language and Literature as a genuine alternative, not a harder or more advanced version of the same course. Students choose Literature when their interest and strength lie specifically in sustained literary study across a wide range of authors, periods and traditions, rather than in comparing how meaning is made across both literary and non-literary communication. Both courses develop closely related skills of close reading and critical analysis, and share an identical hour allocation and syllabus component structure, but Literature commits the entire allocation to literary works exclusively.

The defining feature: an exclusively literary reading list

What distinguishes this course from Language A: Language and Literature is that all study across all three areas of exploration above is of literary works only – novels, poetry, drama and other literary forms – with no non-literary text-type component. Paper 1’s guided analysis is always set on two unseen literary passages: SL students analyse one of the two, HL students analyse both. The individual oral specifically requires one work originally written in the language studied and one work studied in translation, reflecting this course’s emphasis on reading widely across literary traditions and languages rather than across text types.

How to approach it

Because every component of this course works from literary texts, build your revision around the specific works your class has studied rather than around general text-type categories – unlike Language A: Language and Literature, there is no separate non-literary strand to prepare in parallel. For the individual oral, remember it requires pairing a work originally written in your studied language with a work studied in translation: start planning this pairing well before the assessment, since finding a genuinely productive connection between the two works around a common global issue takes real revision time, not something to improvise on the day. For Paper 2’s comparative essay, practise writing timed comparisons between two of your studied literary works well before the exam, since comparative analysis under time pressure is a distinct skill from single-text close reading.

Because the works studied span different times, places and (through translation) different original languages, keep a structured set of notes for each work covering its context of production, its major formal and stylistic features, and the specific critical arguments you can make about it – rather than relying on general plot recall, which Paper 1’s unseen literary passages will not test at all and Paper 2’s comparative essay only partly rewards. Since Paper 1 requires guided analysis of one (at SL) or both (at HL) unseen literary passages, deliberately practise with unfamiliar poems, prose extracts and drama excerpts beyond your set texts throughout the course, not only in the weeks immediately before the exam – the analytical skill being tested is transferable close reading, not memorised knowledge of any one specific work.

Choosing between the two courses is usually made in consultation with a student’s language A teacher, based on where a student’s genuine interest and reading strength lie, rather than on any perceived difficulty difference between them – both are assessed to the same standard and carry equal recognition.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief – Language A: Literature, first assessment 2021, © 2019.