36 exam-style questions on Connections and comparisons between literary works — topic AE3.1 of Intertextuality: connecting texts in the IB English A: Literature syllabus — with answers and explanations. Samples below; the full set is free with an account.
A 'global issue' suitable for organising a comparison of literary works is best understood as:
Answer: A significant idea of wide relevance (belonging, power, identity) explored across works
A global issue is a broad, transnational concern that lets you compare how different texts and contexts address the same human question.
State the term for the relationship between texts, whereby one work shapes or is shaped by the reader's knowledge of others.
Answer: Intertextuality
Intertextuality names the web of connections between texts; it is the organising concept of the 'connecting texts' area of exploration.
Determine the term for a work that imitates the style of another author or genre in order to mock or comment on it.
Answer: Parody
Parody exaggerates the features of a target text or style for comic or critical effect, an explicitly intertextual form that depends on the reader recognising the original.
Identify the term for a new work that responds to, reinterprets or reworks a canonical text, often from a marginalised character's perspective.
Answer: Retelling
A retelling (or reimagining) reworks an existing story, frequently shifting perspective; comparing it with its source is a classic intertextual analysis.
Explain which term names a broadly shared theme, such as the journey or the fall from innocence, that recurs across many texts and traditions.
Answer: Archetype
An archetype is a recurring universal pattern, character or theme; tracing archetypes is one way to build connections between otherwise different works.
Determine which Paper 2 requirement most distinguishes it from Paper 1.
Answer: It is a comparative essay on two studied works
Paper 2 is a comparative essay in which the student discusses two works studied in class in response to a general question; Paper 1 instead analyses unseen passages.
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