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IB Lang Lit HL study materials
IB Lang Lit HL study resources

IB Lang Lit HL practice questions

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Question 1Readers, writers and texts

In the IB Language and Literature course, the three areas of exploration are readers, writers and texts; time and space; and which third area?

  1. Grammar and syntax
  2. Literary periodisation
  3. Translation theory
  4. Intertextuality: connecting texts Correct answer.

Explanation

The course is organised around three areas of exploration: readers, writers and texts; time and space; and intertextuality, which concerns connections between texts. Grammar, translation theory and periodisation are not the named organising areas of the syllabus.

Question 2Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that meaning in a text is produced through the interaction between the reader's context and the text's features. Which area of exploration does this argument most directly address?

  1. Readers, writers and texts Correct answer.
  2. Time and space
  3. Formal genre conventions
  4. Intertextuality

Explanation

The readers, writers and texts area focuses on how meaning is constructed through the relationship between authorial choices, textual features and reader response. The student's claim about reader context shaping meaning sits squarely within that area.

Question 3Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best describes the role of the 'writer' in the readers, writers and texts area of exploration?

  1. The writer is irrelevant once a text is published.
  2. The writer's intentions must be ignored in all analytical work.
  3. The writer's biography determines the single correct meaning of a text.
  4. The writer's choices of form, structure and language shape possible meanings for readers. Correct answer.

Explanation

This area treats the writer as a maker whose choices of form, structure and language construct meaning and position readers. It does not reduce meaning to biography, nor does it declare the writer irrelevant or insist intentions are always ignored.

Question 4Readers, writers and texts

A novel shifts between a first-person narrator and an omniscient third-person narrator. Which analytical concept from the readers, writers and texts area best frames this feature?

  1. Lexical field
  2. Point of view and narrative perspective Correct answer.
  3. Intertextual allusion
  4. Register and idiolect

Explanation

Shifts between first-person and omniscient narration are analysed through point of view and narrative perspective, which shape how readers access characters and events. Register, allusion and lexical field address different textual dimensions.

Question 5Readers, writers and texts

In a poem, a speaker addresses a 'you' who is never identified. Which term best describes this addressee in the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. The narratee Correct answer.
  2. The persona
  3. The implied author
  4. The empirical reader

Explanation

The narratee is the figure within the text to whom the speaker addresses discourse, distinct from real readers. The implied author is the constructed authorial presence, the empirical reader is the actual person reading, and the persona is the speaker's constructed voice.

Question 6Readers, writers and texts

A student claims a text's meaning is fixed by its historical moment of production and cannot change for later readers. Which area of exploration does this claim most directly challenge?

  1. Formal analysis, because it ignores structure
  2. Intertextuality
  3. Readers, writers and texts, because it denies the reader's role in producing meaning Correct answer.
  4. Time and space, because it ignores the production context

Explanation

The claim denies that readers in different contexts can produce new meanings, which directly challenges the readers-writers-texts premise that reader response matters. It actually overemphasises production context rather than ignoring it.

Question 7Readers, writers and texts

Which pairing correctly matches a textual element with the analytical term used for it in the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. The order of events as presented in a narrative - story
  2. The arrangement of events as presented to the reader - plot Correct answer.
  3. The underlying chronological sequence of events - discourse
  4. The chronological sequence of events - plot

Explanation

Plot refers to the arrangement of events as they are presented to the reader, which may reorder chronology. Story refers to the underlying chronological sequence, and discourse refers to the communicative level of narration rather than the event sequence itself.

Question 8Readers, writers and texts

An advertisement uses the pronoun 'we' throughout to position its audience as part of a community. Which concept from the readers, writers and texts area best explains this positioning?

  1. Discourse community and reader positioning Correct answer.
  2. Dramatic irony
  3. Intertextual parody
  4. Free indirect discourse

Explanation

Using 'we' constructs an implied community and positions readers as members of it, which is analysed through discourse community and reader positioning. Free indirect discourse, parody and dramatic irony describe other specific techniques.

Question 9Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best captures the relationship between 'text' and 'context' in the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. Context only matters for non-literary texts.
  2. Context is irrelevant once a text is published.
  3. Context is one influence on meaning, interacting with textual features and reader response. Correct answer.
  4. Context determines the single correct reading of a text.

Explanation

The course treats context as one influence among several, interacting with textual features and reader response rather than determining meaning alone. It applies to both literary and non-literary texts and is not dismissed after publication.

Question 10Readers, writers and texts

A student analyses a charity campaign film and notes its use of close-up shots of faces and a slow piano soundtrack. Which analytical framework from the readers, writers and texts area is being applied?

  1. Narratological analysis of focalisation
  2. Poetic metre and rhyme
  3. Multimodal analysis of image, sound and language Correct answer.
  4. Pragmatic analysis of speech acts

Explanation

Analysing camera shots and soundtrack alongside language is multimodal analysis, which addresses how different semiotic modes combine to make meaning. Metre, focalisation and speech acts address other dimensions.

Question 11Readers, writers and texts

Which term describes the implied authorial presence constructed by readers from the text, as distinct from the real writer?

  1. The narratee
  2. The persona
  3. The implied author Correct answer.
  4. The narrator

Explanation

The implied author is the authorial presence readers infer from the text's choices and values, distinct from the real biographical writer. The narrator tells the story, the persona is a constructed voice, and the narratee is the addressee.

Question 12Readers, writers and texts

A reader interprets a colonial-era travel narrative differently after learning about postcolonial criticism. Which area of exploration does this change most directly illustrate?

  1. Formal genre conventions
  2. Time and space, as the reader's context shapes interpretation Correct answer.
  3. Narrative structure
  4. Intertextuality

Explanation

The reader's changing interpretive framework is a matter of context, which is the focus of time and space as it shapes how texts are received. The other options concern textual relations, genre or structure rather than the reader's situated position.

Question 13Readers, writers and texts

In analysing a speech, a student notes that the speaker shifts from formal vocabulary to colloquial slang when addressing younger listeners. Which concept best captures this shift?

  1. Register Correct answer.
  2. Dialect
  3. Idiolect
  4. Code-switching between languages

Explanation

Register is the variety of language shaped by audience, purpose and situation, which is exactly what the speaker adjusts. Dialect and idiolect concern regional/social variation and individual usage, and code-switching involves moving between distinct languages.

Question 14Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best explains why the readers, writers and texts area treats texts as 'constructed'?

  1. Because texts are assembled through deliberate choices of form, structure and language that shape meaning. Correct answer.
  2. Because texts are always fictional.
  3. Because texts are produced without any authorial intention.
  4. Because texts are identical in meaning for every reader.

Explanation

Calling texts constructed highlights that meaning arises from deliberate choices of form, structure and language rather than being natural or inevitable. This applies to non-fiction too and does not imply identical readings.

Question 15Readers, writers and texts

A student compares two news reports of the same event and notes that one foregrounds official statements while the other foregrounds eyewitness accounts. Which concept best frames this comparison?

  1. Dramatic monologue
  2. Syllogistic reasoning
  3. Poetic diction
  4. Selection and framing of information Correct answer.

Explanation

Foregrounding some sources over others is a matter of selection and framing, which shapes how readers understand an event. The other options are literary or logical terms unrelated to news construction.

Question 16Readers, writers and texts

Which term best describes a text's use of another text's style or phrases for comic or critical effect?

  1. Pastiche
  2. Plagiarism
  3. Pastiche of genre
  4. Parody Correct answer.

Explanation

Parody imitates another text's style or phrases for comic or critical effect. Pastiche imitates without that critical or comic intent, plagiarism is unacknowledged copying, and the fourth option is a redundant variant of pastiche.

Question 17Readers, writers and texts

A poem's speaker describes a scene but reveals attitudes through word choice rather than explicit statement. Which concept best describes this indirect presentation of perspective?

  1. Enjambment
  2. Tone conveyed through diction Correct answer.
  3. Direct address
  4. Anaphora

Explanation

Tone is the speaker's attitude as conveyed through word choice and other stylistic features rather than stated outright. Direct address, anaphora and enjambment are specific devices, not the general concept of implied attitude.

Question 18Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best explains the role of 'intertextuality' in the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. It examines how texts gain meaning through relationships with other texts. Correct answer.
  2. It treats every text as wholly original and self-contained.
  3. It focuses only on translated texts.
  4. It requires identifying the author's biography.

Explanation

Intertextuality examines how texts gain meaning through relationships with other texts, including allusion, parody and genre conventions. It does not treat texts as self-contained, require biography, or apply only to translations.

Question 19Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a reader's gender, class and education shape how a text is understood. Which area of exploration does this argument most directly engage?

  1. Time and space, through the text's production date
  2. Formal analysis of syntax
  3. Intertextuality
  4. Readers, writers and texts, through the reader's situated response Correct answer.

Explanation

The argument concerns how the reader's social position shapes interpretation, which belongs to the readers-writers-texts focus on reader response. It does not address intertextual links, production date or syntax.

Question 20Readers, writers and texts

Which term describes the level of narration that communicates the story to the reader, as distinct from the events narrated?

  1. Discourse Correct answer.
  2. Fable
  3. Motif
  4. Story

Explanation

Discourse is the communicative level through which a story is told, distinct from the events themselves. Story and fable refer to the event sequence, and motif is a recurring element.

Question 21Readers, writers and texts

A student claims a text's meaning is entirely determined by its formal features, with no role for the reader. Which area of exploration does this claim most directly neglect?

  1. Readers, writers and texts, because it excludes reader response Correct answer.
  2. Intertextuality, because it ignores other texts
  3. Genre conventions, because it ignores form
  4. Time and space, because it ignores production context

Explanation

Denying any role for the reader directly neglects the readers-writers-texts focus on how readers construct meaning. The claim overweights form rather than ignoring it, and does not specifically concern context or intertextuality.

Question 22Readers, writers and texts

Which pairing correctly matches a device with its effect in the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. Direct address to the reader - positions the reader as implicated in the argument Correct answer.
  2. Repetition of a phrase - ensures factual accuracy
  3. Short, clipped sentences - create a slow, reflective pace
  4. Use of passive voice - guarantees objectivity

Explanation

Direct address ('you') positions readers as participants in the discourse, which is a recognised effect in the readers-writers-texts area. Short sentences typically quicken pace, repetition does not ensure accuracy, and passive voice does not guarantee objectivity.

Question 23Readers, writers and texts

A student analyses how a graphic novel combines panels, speech bubbles and captions. Which concept from the readers, writers and texts area best frames this analysis?

  1. Historical context
  2. Poetic form
  3. Multimodal composition and visual grammar Correct answer.
  4. Speech act theory

Explanation

Combining panels, speech bubbles and captions is multimodal composition, which draws on visual grammar alongside language. Poetic form, speech act theory and historical context address different analytical dimensions.

Question 24Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best explains how 'form' contributes to meaning in the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. Form shapes how content is received and can itself generate meaning. Correct answer.
  2. Form is determined entirely by genre conventions.
  3. Form is merely a container for content and has no bearing on meaning.
  4. Form matters only in poetry, not in prose or media texts.

Explanation

Form is treated as constitutive of meaning, shaping reception and generating significance rather than merely containing content. It applies across poetry, prose and media, and is not wholly dictated by genre.

Question 25Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a text's meaning shifts when it is read in a different historical period. Which area of exploration does this argument most directly engage?

  1. Readers, writers and texts, through the writer's biography
  2. Intertextuality
  3. Formal analysis of genre
  4. Time and space Correct answer.

Explanation

Changing meaning across historical periods is precisely the concern of time and space, which addresses how context of reception shapes interpretation. The other options address intertextual links, biography or genre rather than historical reception.

Question 26Readers, writers and texts

In the readers, writers and texts area, which term describes the persona a writer projects into a text, distinct from the biographical person who wrote it?

  1. The unreliable narrator
  2. The implied author Correct answer.
  3. The narratee
  4. The implied reader

Explanation

The implied author is the version of the writer constructed by the reader from choices of tone, selection and style; it is an effect of the text rather than the historical individual. The narratee is the audience addressed inside the text, and the implied reader is the reader position the text assumes.

Question 27Readers, writers and texts

A student analysing a poem notes that the words 'this', 'here' and 'now' only make sense once a reader supplies a situation. Which concept from the area best names this dependence of meaning on readerly context?

  1. Prosody
  2. Deixis Correct answer.
  3. Intertextuality
  4. Register

Explanation

Deictic expressions such as 'this', 'here' and 'now' anchor language to a speaking situation, and their reference must be filled in by the reader or hearer. This makes deixis a clear illustration of how meaning depends on context of reception rather than residing wholly in the words.

Question 28Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best describes the role of 'mode' when the area asks students to consider how a text is communicated?

  1. Mode is the channel and semiotic system through which a text is produced and received, such as speech, print or a multimodal screen. Correct answer.
  2. Mode is the emotional atmosphere created by a text's diction and imagery.
  3. Mode is the sequence of events arranged in the order the reader encounters them.
  4. Mode is the grammatical category of a verb indicating possibility or obligation.

Explanation

In this area, mode refers to the medium and semiotic resources of communication, which shape what can be said and how audiences receive it. A spoken broadcast, a printed editorial and a social media post differ in mode even when their topic is identical.

Question 29Readers, writers and texts

A reader notices that a novel's narrator knows what every character is thinking and reports events in which the narrator takes no part. Which narrative situation is this?

  1. Third-person omniscient narration Correct answer.
  2. Free indirect discourse
  3. First-person homodiegetic narration
  4. Second-person narration

Explanation

Third-person omniscient narration uses a narrator outside the story world who can access multiple characters' inner lives. The narrator is heterodiegetic, taking no part in the action, and the scope of knowledge is unlimited.

Question 30Readers, writers and texts

Which term names the process by which readers fill gaps in a text and construct coherence from incomplete information?

  1. Readerly gap-filling Correct answer.
  2. Canon formation
  3. Close reading
  4. Defamiliarisation

Explanation

Texts typically leave indeterminacies that readers must resolve using inference and prior knowledge, and this activity is what produces a coherent reading. The concept foregrounds the active contribution of the reader rather than passive reception of a finished meaning.

Question 31Readers, writers and texts

A student compares a Shakespeare play with a modern film adaptation and argues that the adaptation's new ending changes the work's meaning for contemporary audiences. Which concept is the student applying?

  1. Verisimilitude
  2. Appropriation Correct answer.
  3. Genre convention
  4. Narrative frame

Explanation

Appropriation involves a later text taking up and reworking an earlier one for a new context, audience or purpose, and the changes made are part of its meaning-making. It differs from direct quotation because the reworking is sustained and transformative.

Question 32Readers, writers and texts

Which of these is a property of a text's 'register' rather than of its 'genre'?

  1. The degree of formality and technicality appropriate to a particular social situation Correct answer.
  2. The historical period in which the text was first published
  3. The broad category of text defined by shared conventions, such as elegy or editorial
  4. The physical format in which the text is distributed

Explanation

Register concerns variation according to situation, audience and purpose, ranging from intimate colloquial speech to formal technical prose. Genre concerns conventional categories of text with shared expectations, so register can shift within a single genre.

Question 33Readers, writers and texts

A student writes that a text 'positions' its reader. Which explanation of that claim is most consistent with the readers, writers and texts area?

  1. The text's choices of address, structure and tone construct a preferred reading position that actual readers may accept, resist or negotiate. Correct answer.
  2. The text's meaning is fixed entirely by the author's stated intention at the time of writing.
  3. The text has no effect on readers, who simply project their own meanings onto it.
  4. The text physically determines what each reader must think, leaving no scope for disagreement.

Explanation

Positioning refers to the reading position a text invites through its address and rhetorical choices, which real readers may take up, modify or reject. The concept keeps both textual design and reader agency in view rather than collapsing into determinism.

Question 34Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a wartime poem's meaning changed when it was reprinted in a peace memorial anthology decades later. Which concept best explains this shift?

  1. Mimesis
  2. Anaphora
  3. Synesthesia
  4. Recontextualisation Correct answer.

Explanation

Recontextualisation occurs when a text is placed in a new setting, publication context or frame, altering the associations readers bring to it. The same words can generate different meanings when the surrounding discourse changes.

Question 35Readers, writers and texts

A student claims a character's speech in a novel reproduces exactly how a real person of that class would speak. Which criticism of this claim is most consistent with the area's assumptions?

  1. The speech is a literary representation shaped by authorial selection and genre conventions, so it constructs rather than records social speech. Correct answer.
  2. The claim is sound because fictional dialogue is always sociolinguistically accurate.
  3. The claim fails only because the novel is a written rather than spoken mode.
  4. The claim is sound because authors transcribe speech directly from life without mediation.

Explanation

Represented speech in fiction is a crafted effect, selected and stylised to serve characterisation, plot and ideology, even when it draws on real linguistic variation. The area therefore treats such dialogue as constructed rather than as documentary evidence.

Question 36Readers, writers and texts

In analysing a political poster, a student notes that the candidate is photographed from below and appears against a plain background. Which analytical focus does this observation belong to?

  1. Narrative temporality
  2. Phonological patterning
  3. Lexical cohesion
  4. Visual composition and its rhetorical effect Correct answer.

Explanation

Camera angle, framing and background are elements of visual composition that carry connotations, such as authority or plain-dealing. Analysing them as rhetoric connects formal choice to persuasive purpose.

Question 37Readers, writers and texts

A student notes that a novel repeatedly interrupts its main plot with documents, letters and newspaper cuttings. Which concept best describes this structural choice?

  1. Metrical regularity
  2. Syllogistic argument
  3. Multimodal and heteroglossic composition Correct answer.
  4. Deictic shifting

Explanation

Embedding documents and other text types creates a multimodal, heteroglossic texture in which multiple voices and genres coexist and qualify one another. The structure invites readers to compare sources and to weigh competing accounts rather than accept a single narrative authority.

Question 38Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best explains why the area treats the 'reader' as a plural, situated category rather than a universal one?

  1. Readers can only understand texts produced in their own lifetime.
  2. Readers are irrelevant to meaning, which is determined solely by the writer's biography.
  3. All readers process texts identically because interpretation follows fixed textual rules.
  4. Readers bring differing social positions, prior texts and purposes that shape which meanings they find plausible. Correct answer.

Explanation

Interpretive communities and individual histories mean that readings vary systematically with social position, education and prior reading experience. Treating readers as situated explains both shared readings within groups and disagreements between them.

Question 39Readers, writers and texts

A student compares a text's use of a well-known fairy-tale opening with its later subversion of that tale's ending. Which pair of concepts best captures what the student is analysing?

  1. Register and dialect
  2. Narrative distance and focalisation
  3. Prosody and caesura
  4. Intertextual reference and generic expectation Correct answer.

Explanation

The opening invokes a familiar tale through intertextual reference, activating generic expectations that the ending then disappoints. Analysing both together shows how meaning arises from the tension between invoked convention and deviation.

Question 40Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a text's title is part of its framing apparatus. Which justification best supports this?

  1. The title primes expectations and categories that shape how the following text is read. Correct answer.
  2. The title has no relation to the text's content and is purely decorative.
  3. The title is always written by the publisher rather than the author.
  4. The title is part of the text's paratext, which is irrelevant to interpretation.

Explanation

Titles are paratextual elements that orient readers, activating genre expectations and interpretive frames before the main text is encountered. Their effect on reading is therefore part of meaning-making rather than an external irrelevance.

Question 41Readers, writers and texts

A reader finds a satirical text's irony obvious, while another reader of a different background takes its statements literally. Which explanation of the disagreement is most consistent with the area?

  1. The text's meaning is whatever the author privately intended, regardless of cues.
  2. The first reader is simply more intelligent than the second.
  3. Irony is an objective property of words that competent readers cannot miss.
  4. Recognising irony depends on shared contextual knowledge and cues that are not equally available to all readers. Correct answer.

Explanation

Irony is signalled through cues such as tone, context and shared assumptions, and readers who lack those resources may read literally. The disagreement is therefore interpretive and contextual, not a simple matter of competence or authorial intention.

Question 42Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best distinguishes 'story' from 'discourse' in narrative analysis?

  1. Story is the events in chronological sequence; discourse is the manner and order in which they are presented to the reader. Correct answer.
  2. Story is the narrator's commentary; discourse is the dialogue between characters.
  3. Story is the theme; discourse is the setting.
  4. Story is the printed text; discourse is the reader's interpretation.

Explanation

Narrative analysis separates the underlying sequence of events from the presentation of those events, including ordering, pacing and narrative voice. The same story can be told through very different discourses, producing different effects.

Question 43Readers, writers and texts

A student wants to show how a text invites sympathy for a character. Which evidence would most directly support an analysis of the text's construction of reader alignment?

  1. The author had a well-documented interest in psychology.
  2. The narration reports the character's fears in detail while other characters' inner lives remain opaque. Correct answer.
  3. The text was published in a year of economic recession.
  4. The novel's chapters are of unequal length.

Explanation

Selective access to one character's inner life is a narrative technique that invites alignment with that character. Contextual facts about publication or author biography may inform interpretation but do not directly demonstrate the textual construction of alignment.

Question 44Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a text's use of a first-person plural 'we' can exclude as well as include. Which explanation best supports this?

  1. 'We' refers only to the writer and never to the audience.
  2. 'We' defines a boundary, so it simultaneously constructs an in-group and an implied out-group. Correct answer.
  3. 'We' is a singular pronoun and therefore cannot include anyone.
  4. 'We' is always a neutral grammatical choice with no social meaning.

Explanation

Inclusive and exclusive uses of 'we' draw boundaries of belonging, so every construction of community also implies who is outside it. Analysing that boundary is central to studying how texts position audiences.

Question 45Readers, writers and texts

Which statement best explains why the area studies both 'literary' and 'non-literary' texts?

  1. Non-literary texts lack authors and therefore lack purpose.
  2. Literary texts are the only ones with identifiable form and structure.
  3. Non-literary texts are studied only to provide historical background for literature.
  4. The same analytical concepts, such as purpose, audience and construction, apply across text types, and comparison sharpens analysis. Correct answer.

Explanation

The area treats all texts as constructed communications shaped by purpose, audience and context, so the same analytical tools travel across advertising, journalism, speeches and literature. Comparing text types makes those shared and divergent features visible.

Question 46Readers, writers and texts

A student claims that a text's meaning is produced at the intersection of writer, text and reader. Which phrasing best captures the area's position on this?

  1. Meaning is produced solely by the writer and merely received by the reader.
  2. Meaning is produced solely by the reader, with textual form playing no part.
  3. Meaning is produced solely by the text's formal features, independent of writer and reader.
  4. Meaning is negotiated among authorial design, textual form and readerly context, none of which alone fully determines it. Correct answer.

Explanation

The area treats meaning as arising from the interaction of production, form and reception, so each element constrains without fully determining interpretation. This negotiated model explains both convergence among readers and genuine disagreement.

Question 47Readers, writers and texts

A student analyses how a speech uses short clauses and repetition when urging immediate action, then long complex sentences when explaining policy. Which analytical claim is best supported?

  1. Long sentences are always more persuasive than short ones.
  2. Syntax is irrelevant to spoken texts because they are ephemeral.
  3. The speaker's syntax is random and carries no rhetorical significance.
  4. Syntactic choices are varied to match rhetorical purpose, shifting pace and emphasis for different parts of the argument. Correct answer.

Explanation

Sentence length and complexity are resources for controlling pace, emphasis and emotional temperature, and their variation often tracks shifts in rhetorical function. Analysing syntax alongside purpose shows how form does argumentative work.

Question 48Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a text's silences and omissions are as analysable as its explicit statements. Which justification best supports this claim?

  1. Only explicit statements count as evidence in textual analysis.
  2. Omissions are matters of accident and carry no interpretive weight.
  3. Selection is constitutive of representation, so what is excluded shapes the version of reality the text constructs. Correct answer.
  4. Silences are analysable only when the author admits them in interviews.

Explanation

Because every representation selects and arranges, exclusion is part of the construction of meaning rather than an absence outside it. Analysing what a text does not say, and for whom that silence is convenient, is therefore a legitimate interpretive move.

Question 49Readers, writers and texts

A student notes that a text's narrator reports events in a way that invites the reader to share a judgement the narrator never states. Which concept best names this?

  1. Lexical borrowing
  2. Direct authorial address
  3. Implied evaluation through narrative stance Correct answer.
  4. Metrical substitution

Explanation

Narrators can guide judgement through selection, tone and stance without explicit commentary, so evaluation is implied rather than stated. The reader is invited to infer the judgement from the way the narration is angled.

Question 50Readers, writers and texts

A student argues that a text's meaning is overdetermined by its context, so that no reading can escape the ideology of its moment. Which criticism of this position is most consistent with the area?

  1. It underestimates the capacity of form and readerly context to produce readings that exceed or contest the originating ideology. Correct answer.
  2. It is correct because context wholly determines meaning and readers have no role.
  3. It is mistaken only because ideology has no bearing on texts at all.
  4. It is correct because texts cannot be read outside their period of production.

Explanation

The area acknowledges contextual shaping while insisting that form and later reading contexts can generate meanings that challenge the originating ideology. A wholly deterministic account cannot explain critical readings, appropriation or reinterpretation over time.