IB English

Unit 1

Readers, Writers & Texts

Authorial Intent vs Reader Response: The author's intended meaning may differ from how a reader interprets a text. IB exams often ask you to distinguish between what the author intends and what effect is created.
Register: The level of formality in language. Formal, informal, colloquial, technical, or literary register each signals context and audience.
Tone & Mood: Tone = the writer's attitude toward the subject. Mood = the emotional atmosphere felt by the reader.
Purpose, Audience, Context (PAC): Every text is shaped by who it's for (audience), why it's written (purpose), and when/where it was produced (context). IB Paper 1 requires contextual analysis using PAC.

Unit 2

Narrative Time: Chronological vs Non-linear: Chronological narratives follow time forward. Non-linear techniques include analepsis (flashback) and prolepsis (flash-forward).
Setting as Symbol: Physical space can reflect character psychology, social conditions, or thematic concerns. A decaying house may symbolise moral corruption; a garden may represent paradise or confinement.
Temporal Markers: Words like "once," "now," "meanwhile," "by the time" control the reader's sense of time and can create suspense, urgency, or nostalgia.
In Medias Res: Latin: "into the middle of things." Starting a narrative at a key moment rather than at the beginning. Common in epic poetry and contemporary fiction.

Unit 3

Allusion: An indirect reference to another text, historical event, myth, or cultural element. Readers familiar with the source gain added meaning.
Intertextuality: The relationship between texts — how texts quote, transform, or respond to one another. Every text exists in dialogue with other texts.
Parody vs Pastiche: Parody imitates a work for comic effect or criticism. Pastiche imitates a style in tribute, without satirical intent.
Archetype: A universal symbol, character type, or narrative pattern appearing across cultures: the Hero, the Shadow, the Mentor, the Threshold. Originates in Jungian psychology.

Unit 4

Adaptation: Rewriting or re-presenting a text in a new form, medium, or context. An adaptation may shift the genre (novel → film), the cultural setting, or the perspective (telling the story from a minor character's viewpoint).
Translation & Fidelity: Translation involves choices about fidelity to the source (foreignisation) or accessibility for the target audience (domestication). Some nuances are inevitably lost or changed.
Appropriation: Taking elements from an existing text and using them in a new work, often to comment on the original or to explore new social/cultural contexts.
Fidelity Criticism: Evaluating an adaptation based on how "faithful" it is to the source text. IB encourages analysis of what is gained and lost through transformation.

Unit 5

Imagery & Extended Metaphor: Imagery: vivid descriptive language appealing to the senses. Extended metaphor: a metaphor sustained across multiple lines or throughout a work.
Irony: Three Types: Verbal: saying the opposite of what is meant. Dramatic: audience knows more than the character. Situational: what happens is opposite to what is expected.
Narrative Voice & Point of View: 1st person: "I" (limited/unreliable). 2nd person: "you" (immersive). 3rd person limited: one character's perspective. 3rd person omniscient: all-knowing narrator.
Syntax & Sentence Structure: Short, declarative sentences create urgency and shock. Long, complex sentences can create a sense of exhaustion, abundance, or lyrical flow. Fragmentation suggests instability or stream of consciousness.
Diction: Connotation vs Denotation: Denotation: the dictionary/literal meaning. Connotation: the associated emotional or cultural meanings.