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Literary Compare and Contrast (Paper 2)

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Whichever Language A course you have elected to study, in this section you’ll learn how to prepare in advance for your Paper 2, techniques for approaching different questions, how to plan on the day, and how to structure and write a brilliant compare and contrast essay. You’ll find sample essays that have been written using the texts from your course which you can read and discuss, and you’ll be encouraged to prepare in the best way possible: write your own model responses to sample open questions.

Culture Mashing

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Intertextuality is everywhere in today’s culture, and one of its most striking forms is the cultural mash-up. Sampling, remixes, and collages dominate the digital world. From mash-ups and fan edits to street art and fan fiction, creators now reimagine beloved stories and cultural icons with ease. While some of this work is playful or amateurish, much of it is inventive and meticulously crafted, raising questions about creativity, ownership, and the blurred lines between high and low culture.

Poetry Study: Charlotte Mew

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On a modest London street in Bloomsbury in 1913 called Devonshire Street stood a tiny independent bookshop by the name of The Poetry Bookshop. It’s proprietor was Harold Munro, and he ran this friendly neighbourhood store until 1926. As well as selling books of poetry, Harold also published – and it’s thanks to him that Charlotte Mew, a sometimes shy-and-silent young woman from Bloomsbury, found her audience. Invited to the shop by Harold’s assistant Alida Klemantaski, while Mew had never sought fame, she agreed to the publication of The Farmer’s Bride in 1916.

Prose Study: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

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The story of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress opens as the narrator (who remains unnamed) and his best friend Luo arrive at the Phoenix of the Sky village in the Chinese province of Sichuan near the border with Tibet. The year is 1971 and Mao Zedong, Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, is conducting a policy of ‘re-education’ whereby young men of middle-class families are sent to the countryside to learn from poor peasants how to be model citizens. The two boys are tasked with menial and back-breaking work, such as coal mining and carrying buckets of faeces up the mountain to fertilize the rice fields.

Children Playing

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According to the IB Subject Guide for Language and Literature, of the two texts presented to you in your Paper 1 examination, one will be predominately verbal (meaning it will have comparatively more text) and one will be visual in nature (meaning the image or images will dominate). If you are an SL student you will have a choice and, while you shouldn’t go into the exam determined to consider only one type of text, you can follow your own strengths in regard to your choice of which text to analyse. HL students will have to analyse both, which reflects the greater amount of class time you are given to explore and learn various text types. In this sample, the text is one single image, which is a common way for satirical cartoonists to present their work. Take some time to work on this text yourself, then read the sample answer below for an idea of how you might analyse this kind of text.

You Have a Question, Calvin?

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Comic strips are a popular text type to read and study and may also appear on Paper 1. By this stage in your education, your use of language is quite developed, and it may be hard for teachers to help you too much with your use of language (according to criteria D, 5 of your marks for this paper are available for the way you use language). However, one way to boost your mark in criteria D is to use the correct terminology in relation to the text type. In this response you can find the words ‘panel’, ’emanata’, ‘speech bubble’, ‘negative space’ and ‘punchline’. Of course, identifying these features correctly is only the start; commenting on the effect of features you see will help you score in criteria B as well.

Prose Study: Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee

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An unnamed magistrate is stationed at a frontier border town of an expanding empire. He’s been posted here for a long time and, despite how far away he is from the capital, he is happy to live out his ‘easy years’ in this remote area on the border of the empire; approaching sixty, he will retire soon and, apart from the occasional sheep raids and sporadic attacks, his posting is not at all dramatic. However, rumour is spreading about a possible barbarian attack by the indigenous peoples who live on the empire’s fringes. Displaced by the foreign settlers, are they now massing together to counter-attack?

The History of Advertising

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Five thousand years ago, the Babylonians hung symbols over their shop doors depicting what kind of trade went on inside and, voila, the first advertisements were born. Advertising may have become more prevalent over the years, but wherever communities and commerce exit, so too does advertising.

Drama Study: The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

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The impoverished town of Guellen looks to multi-millionaire Claire Zachanassian for financial salvation. When she offers them a million dollars, they think their dreams have come true – but her offer comes with a condition attached. They must kill a citizen of the town, named Ill, a popular man standing for mayor – and someone who just happens to be her former lover. Initially, the townspeople refuse, but their resolve is tested by the allure of wealth. Will they hold true to their morals, or will they end up carrying out her wish?

Prose Study: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

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Han Kang’s The Vegetarian is one of the most internationally well-known Korean novels. It is not a story about a vegetarian per se; rather, it is a work that investigates what constitutes suffering. It tells the story of Yeong-hye as related through the eyes of three members of her family: her husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister In-hye. The story begins when Yeong-hye, seemingly from out of the blue, tells her husband she will no longer eat meat and proceeds to throw all the meat in their house away.