The Concepts

The study of your literary texts will be approached from a conceptual perspective. Concepts are simply defined as ideas and the IB specifies seven albeit conceptual understanding is limitless. The rationale behind studying your literary texts from a conceptual perspective is that you will gain greater understanding of the diversity of meaning within the text.

Areas of Exploration.

The three areas of exploration are intended to help you gain a better understanding of what constitutes a literary work .

• Readers, writers and the text - exploring a text from this perspective allows for an understanding that the text's meaning is not only derived from the author or writer's intentions but is also derived from the reader who comes to the text with a different contextual background.

• Time and Space - exploring a text from this perspective allows for an understanding that a text and its meaning is forever evolving as it is read by different generations across different time periods that occupy different spaces in history

• Intertextuality - exploring a text from this perspective allows for an understanding that a text does not exist in a vacuum, that ideas are shared from one text to another. Intertextuality at its most transparent is when a writer uses the plot, ideas and characters of a former text and transforms it into a contemporary setting. A rewarding study of intertextuality would be to see how genres have evolved - what literary features have been sustained and what has been transformed in say a horror, detective fiction, fantasy or science-fiction story?

• What the student should ask is:

What are the implications of the above explorations and how do they add to my understanding of literary texts?

The seven concepts are connected to the Areas of Exploration in that they offer different and interconnected ways of approaching the meaning of a text. By considering these concepts you will gain a fuller understanding of the many facets of meaning that may exist within a text, the interconnection between and amongst texts and the text as a construct of reality.

There are seven concepts that the IB has designated as mandatory but be aware that there are more ways of looking at a text than these:

• Identity - literary texts present us with a 'multiplicity of perspectives, voices and characters' Questions that arise when reading a literary text are ' What is the relationship between the writer and the different voices within the writer's text?' What is the relationship between the reader of the text and the voices they encounter when reading?' Simply put ' What constitutes a character's identity ? How does it change when different readers interact with the character? How does it change when the author gives his character up to the reader ?

• Culture - literary texts do not exist in a vacuum. They are written at a particular point in time and within a particular cultural space. Therefore questions that arise are ' Within what context [ social, historical, literary etc ] was the text produced and how did the context influence the ideas and construction and indeed reception of the text at the time of its production. The reception of a text also refers to when it is read at any point across time and space. Therefore questions that arise as to its meaning and construction will be shaped by changing values and beliefs and changing attitudes to the construction of a text.

• Creativity - is related to the role of the readers imagination above and beyond the established interpretations. It is also related to the notion of originality and how important or desirable it is in the production and reception of a text.

• Communication - communication revolves around the relationships and conflicts between characters in a text. How the author's communication to the reader facilitates discussion and exploration. the intended audience also warps the communication and the underlying meaning however the cooperation of the reader and their openness impact the communication as well for engagement. The meaning of a text is never univocal as the reader adds communication into the text. (Overall communication is both productive and problematic in conveying the conflicts and meanings within a text. IB) However, one could argue that the communication once a text is read involves the reader too, therefore the 'problematic' aspect of communication should be void.

• Perspective - a text may offer a multiplicity of perspectives which may or may not reflect the author. The reader may bring a perspective that conflicts with the perspective of a text. This begs the question of how far the perspectives derived from a text are influenced by the contexts in which the text was produced and received.

• Transformation - is connected directly with intertextuality. It refers to the interconnections within texts, how texts appropriate aspects of themselves and as such transform themselves. Additionally the act of reading is transformative both for the reader and the text. This means that a text can change one's views on reality and that the reader can offer a personal interpretation of the text.

• Representation - this begs the question as to how representative or divorced from reality should a literary text be in order to have value?

The questions below can be used to investigate the way any text represents its subject matter. In exploring texts in response to these questions, it is important for students to realise the limitations of the terms 'realistic' and 'realism' in relation to literature; reading Rushdie's article first should allow for consideration of these limitations and an appreciation of how realism does not necessarily correspond to truth.

How does this text represent people, places and events?

How is this text realistic in the way it represents people, places and events? For example: In its representation of human behaviour? In its representation of human psychology? in its representation of the physical world? In its depiction of cause and effect?

How is the text unrealistic? How else would you describe the way the text represents people, places and events? (e.g. are there elements of fantasy? melodrama? hyperbole? caricature? surrealism? magical-realism?)

What are the most notable authorial choices and stylistic techniques used in these representations?

What effects and meanings are created by the authorial choices used in creating these realistic/unrealistic representations?