IB Literature SL study guide
IB Literature SL · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
IB Literature SL is the Standard Level component of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme's studies in language and literature. It is designed for students aged roughly 16 to 19 in IB World Schools, and it is also taken by candidates seeking a standalone subject certificate. The course develops close reading, analysis of literary technique, comparative argument, and independent interpretation across poetry, prose fiction, drama, and non-fiction, usually studied in translation and in the language of delivery. Assessment combines external written papers with an internally assessed oral, and the IB publishes the current structure, timings, weighting, and grade boundaries in its official subject guide and assessment materials; candidates should consult those documents for exact figures rather than relying on secondhand summaries. Topics on this exam: Readers, writers and texts, Time and space, and Intertextuality: connecting texts. The IB Literature SL study guide has 3 sections and about 1,076 words.
01Readers, writers and texts
Readers, writers and texts asks how meaning is produced through the interaction of authorial choice, textual form and reader interpretation. In SL Literature it is tested in Paper 1 (guided analysis of an unseen text), the individual oral (an extract linked to a global issue), and Paper 2 (comparative essay).
343 words, about 2 min02Time and space
Time and space examines how texts are shaped by historical and social contexts and how setting, chronology and spatial organisation produce meaning. In SL Literature it appears in Paper 2 questions about context, in the individual oral’s global issue, and in Paper 1 analysis of an unseen text’s setting and temporal structure.
363 words, about 2 min03Intertextuality: connecting texts
Intertextuality: connecting texts asks how texts gain meaning through relations with other texts, genres and traditions. In SL Literature it underpins Paper 2’s comparative essay, the individual oral’s second work, and Paper 1’s recognition of genre conventions.
370 words, about 2 min