IB English Lit HL case studies
IB English Lit HL · Put your knowledge to work in context.
IB English Literature HL is the higher-level literature course in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, assessed through external examinations and internally assessed coursework rather than a single test. It suits students who read widely, enjoy close reading, and want to build sustained arguments about how texts make meaning. The IB English Lit HL case studies are 5 cases and about 3,822 words.
1The Poet's Agoraphobia: Authorial Intention in a Paper 1 Mock
During a timed HL Paper 1 mock (2 hours 15 minutes, two unseen texts), a student analyses an unseen poem about a woman who has not left her house in years. The exam booklet supplies a brief note: 'The poet lived in Belfast and published this poem in 1972.' The student writes: 'The poet suffered from agoraphobia, so the locked room is really her fear of the outside world.' The rest of the response is strong on imagery, but the thesis rests on the biographical note.
837 words, about 4 min2Context as Costume: A Paper 2 Essay on Ibsen and Satrapi
In a Paper 2 timed essay (1 hour 45 minutes), the prompt asks students to compare how two studied works represent the relationship between private life and public power. A student has prepared A Doll's House and Persepolis.
722 words, about 4 min3The Prequel Trap: Intertextuality in an HL Essay Proposal
An HL student submits a 300-word proposal for the HL Essay. Her line of inquiry is: 'How does Jean Rhys show that Bertha Mason was a victim?' She plans to write 1,500 words on Antoinette's marriage and madness, with no quotations from Jane Eyre.
755 words, about 4 min4Device-Spotting in the Unseen: Rescuing a Paper 1 Paragraph
In a mock Paper 1, students respond to an unseen contemporary short story. The guiding question is: 'How does the writer use voice and setting to shape your response to the narrator?' One student writes 750 words in 50 minutes.
724 words, about 4 min5The Global Issue Is Too Global: Narrowing an Individual Oral
A student prepares her Individual Oral on The Handmaid's Tale and A Doll's House. Her global issue is 'gender inequality'.
784 words, about 4 min