IB Group 1 · Studies in Language and Literature

Language A: Literature

2026 syllabus · First assessment 2026

A literature course built on three areas of exploration and seven concepts. The works are chosen by your school, so these notes teach the framework, the four assessments and the analytical toolkit, with a My works tab to log the texts your class studies. HL-only content is clearly split.

0. How the course works

A literature course built on three areas of exploration and seven concepts, assessed by two papers, an oral and (at HL) an essay. The works are chosen by your school. Start here.

INTRO — Nature, aims and objectives

LL_AB_1 · What Language A: Literature is — A study of literary texts as the sole focus: reading closely, interpreting, and communicating a critical response in writing and speech.

LL_AB_2 · Aims and assessment objectives — The course aims and the assessment objectives (know, understand and interpret; analyse and evaluate; focus, organisation and language), and which component assesses each.

FRAME — Areas, concepts and works

LL_AB_3 · The three areas of exploration — Readers, writers and texts; Time and space; Intertextuality: an overview of the frame that organises the course and how the areas overlap.

LL_AB_4 · The seven concepts — Identity, culture, creativity, communication, perspective, transformation and representation: what they are for and how they thread through every work studied.

LL_AB_5 · Choosing works and the learner portfolio — How works are chosen (SL at least seven, HL at least ten; a balance of original-language, translated and freely chosen works across forms, periods and places) and the learner portfolio as the through-line of the course.

ASSESS — Assessment

LL_AB_6 · Assessment at a glance — Paper 1, Paper 2, the Individual Oral and, at HL, the HL Essay: weightings, durations and what each covers, and how SL and HL differ.

A. The three areas of exploration

The frame that organises the course. Each area sets a different angle on the works you study, with its own guiding questions and the concepts most in play.

RWT — Readers, writers and texts

LL_A1_1 · What this area explores — How literary texts generate meaning and how readers respond: close personal and critical response, literary form, and the act of reading and interpretation. Its guiding questions and key concepts.

TS — Time and space

LL_A2_1 · What this area explores — How context (historical, cultural, social) shapes texts and is shaped by them: developing broader and more cosmopolitan perspectives. Its guiding questions and key concepts.

IT — Intertextuality: connecting texts

LL_A3_1 · What this area explores — Relationships between texts: comparison across forms, traditions, themes and conventions, building critical response grounded in how texts relate. Its guiding questions and key concepts.

C. The seven concepts

When you study a text, explore how it engages with these seven concepts: they are the angles that turn reading into analysis. They thread through every work and area, and are not assessed on their own, but strong responses use them to frame what a text is doing.

CONCEPTS — The seven concepts

LL_C_1 · Identity — The complex relationship between authors, the voices and perspectives they create, and the identity a reader brings to interpretation.

LL_C_2 · Culture — How a text relates to the values and context of its production and reception, and to the literary tradition around it.

LL_C_3 · Creativity — The role of imagination in writing and reading, originality, and the range of meanings a reader can generate from a text.

LL_C_4 · Communication — The relationship a text builds between writer and reader, and how choices of style and structure shape that exchange.

LL_C_5 · Perspective — The many viewpoints in and around a text: those of characters, the writer, and readers across time and place.

LL_C_6 · Transformation — How texts rework, adapt and respond to other texts, and how meaning changes across forms, versions and readings.

LL_C_7 · Representation — How form and language re-present reality, and the relationship between the world and its portrayal in a text.

S. Assessment and skills

The exam and oral components, and how to do well in each: the task, the criteria in student language, and what to focus on. At HL the HL Essay has its own section.

P1 — Paper 1: Guided literary analysis

LL_P1_1 · The task and what to focus on — An unseen literary passage with a guiding question (SL analyse one of two passages, HL analyse both). How to read and structure a guided analysis, the criteria, and common pitfalls.

P2 — Paper 2: Comparative essay

LL_P2_1 · The task and what to focus on — A comparative essay on two studied works in response to one of four general questions. How to build a genuine comparison led by the question, the criteria, and common pitfalls.

IO — The Individual Oral

LL_IO_1 · The task and what to focus on — Examining how a global issue is presented across two works (one written originally in English, one in translation), as a 10 minute response plus 5 minutes of questions. Choosing a global issue and extracts, the criteria, and pitfalls.

H. The HL Essay (HL only)

HL only. The fourth HL component: a formal 1,200 to 1,500 word essay on one work, built from your portfolio. A guide to finding a line of inquiry and writing it well.

HLESSAY — Guiding the HL Essay

LL_HE_1 · What the HL Essay is — A formal literary essay of 1,200 to 1,500 words on one studied work, worth 20 percent at HL, developed from your learner portfolio around a line of inquiry you choose.

LL_HL_2 · Finding a line of inquiry — The heart of the task: turning a broad interest in a work into one focused, arguable line of inquiry that can be sustained across the whole work.

LL_HL_3 · Writing and refining the essay — Structuring a developing argument, using evidence from the whole work, citing any secondary sources, meeting the criteria, and redrafting from the portfolio.

T. The literary toolkit

The analytical skills that win marks: how to read each literary form, the vocabulary of analysis, and a repeatable method for the unseen passage and for writing about literature.

FORMS — Reading the forms

LL_T_1 · Poetry — Reading a poem closely: form and line, sound and rhythm, imagery, diction and structure, and how they make meaning.

LL_T_2 · Prose: fiction and non-fiction — Narrative voice and point of view, character, structure and pacing, and style, across fiction and non-fiction prose.

LL_T_3 · Drama — Reading drama on the page: dramatic structure, dialogue and subtext, stagecraft, and the performance dimension of the text.

TECH — Technique and terminology

LL_T_4 · Literary techniques and terms — The vocabulary of analysis: diction, imagery, figurative language, tone, and structure, used accurately to support a point rather than listed for its own sake.

METHOD — Analytical method

LL_T_5 · Analysing an unseen passage — A repeatable method for Paper 1: annotate, find a focus, and build an argument about how the text makes meaning, supported by close reference.

LL_T_6 · Writing about literature — Close reading with evidence, genuine comparison, and structuring a clear, developed argument that answers the question.

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