Prossers I.B.

English Curriculum Outline

Semester 1 Junior Year Literature in Context Works in Translation (Part 1)
TOK Literature Questions to be answered this semester:
1. What knowledge of literature can be gained by focusing attention on the author? Can, or should, authors
intentions and the creative process itself be understood through observing authors or knowing something of
their lives? Is the creative process as important as the final product, even though it cannot be observed
directly? Are an authors intentions relevant to assessing the work? Can a work of art contain or convey
meaning of which the artist is oblivious?
2. What knowledge of literature can be gained by focusing attention on its social, cultural or historical
context?
3. What is lost in translation from one language to another? Why?
Texts:
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
A Dolls House by Ibsen
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Fo

Semester 2 Junior Year Writing for Change Option 1 (Part 4)
TOK Literature Questions to be answered this semester:
1. What is the proper function of literatureto capture a perception of reality, to teach or uplift the mind, to
express emotion, to create beauty, to bind a community together, to praise a spiritual power, to provoke
reflection or to promote social change?
2. Can literature express truths that cannot be expressed in other ways? If so, what sort of truths are these?
How does this form of truth differ from truth in other areas of knowledge?
3. How important is the study of literature in individual/ethical development? In what ways?
Texts:
Selected essays by Vargas
Vindication of the Rights of Women by Wollstonecraft
There are No Children Here by Kotlowitz

Semester 1 Senior Year Interpreting Literature Detailed Study (Part 2)
TOK Literature Questions to be answered this semester:
1. Does familiarity with literature itself provide knowledge and, if so, of what kindknowledge of facts, of the
author, of the conventions of the form or tradition, of psychology or cultural history, of oneself?
2. What knowledge of literature can be gained by focusing attention solely on the work itself, in isolation from
the author or the social context?
3. Is a work of literature enlarged or diminished by interpretation? What makes something a good or bad
interpretation?
Texts:
Hamlet by Shakespeare
A Christmas Carol by Dickens
Selected Poems by Donne

Semester 2 Senior Year Writing for Knowledge Literary Genres (Part 3)
TOK Literature Questions to be answered this semester:
1. How can a literary work of fiction, which is by definition non-factual, convey knowledge?
2. What constitutes good evidence within the study of literature?
3. What knowledge can be gained from the study of literature?
Texts:
The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro
Things Fall Apart by Achebe
The Awakening by Chopin
The Bluest Eye by Morrison