The No‑Stress Guide to Creative Literature for IB English B (HL Only)
Wait… English B can be literary?
- Yes! While English B is about language learning, HL students may be asked to show off creative literary skills: writing prose fiction, prose non-fiction, poetry and drama
- Think of it as a playground where you can:
- Invent worlds and voices
- Experiment with style and tone
- Show language mastery in a fun, artistic way
- Examiners want to see: Can you control English well enough to sound like a real writer?
Note
- At HL in Language B, you have to study two literary works written in the target language.
- You’re expected to understand the basics, plot, characters, themes, but you’re not doing full literary criticism (that’s for Language & Literature students).
- Instead, literature here is a springboard for ideas and discussion, especially in the oral assessment.
Why Creative Literature matters
- At HL, English B isn’t just about practical text types. You’ll also be expected to engage with fiction, poetry, or drama in ways that show:
- Understanding of themes: love, power, identity, injustice, resilience.
- Awareness of style: imagery, tone, rhythm, dialogue, symbolism.
- Connection to cultural context: how texts reflect or challenge their time, place, and values.
- Relevance to global issues: linking literature to areas like inequality, environment, or human rights.
The Big Four of Literature: What They Are and Why They Matter
Prose fiction
- What it is: Made-up stories written in everyday language (not poetry).
- Examples: Novels (The Handmaid’s Tale, Pride and Prejudice), short stories (Lamb to the Slaughter).
- Key features: Plot, characters, narrator’s voice, imagery, symbolism.
- Why it matters: Lets you analyse how writers invent worlds and explore themes like love, power, or identity.
Prose non-fiction
- What it is: Real-world writing in ordinary language that isn’t made up.
- Examples: Memoirs (Persepolis), essays, speeches, travel writing, biographies.
- Key features: Author’s perspective, argument, tone, structure.
- Why it matters: Shows how writers use facts, stories, and personal experience to persuade, inform, or reflect.
Poetry
- What it is: Writing that uses rhythm, line breaks, and compact language to create meaning.
- Examples: Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife, Shakespearean sonnets, free verse poems.
- Key features: Imagery, rhyme, rhythm, sound devices (alliteration, assonance), metaphor, symbolism.
- Why it matters: Poetry packs powerful ideas into very few words — it’s about spotting patterns and feelings beneath the surface.
Drama
- What it is: Plays written to be performed on stage.
- Examples: Shakespeare (Othello, Macbeth), Ibsen (A Doll’s House), Miller (A View from the Bridge).
- Key features: Dialogue, stage directions, conflict, character interactions, dramatic irony.
- Why it matters: Drama brings themes to life through performance — what’s said, what’s unsaid, and how characters clash in front of an audience.
Features to focus on
- Themes: What is the central idea? How is it presented? Is it universal or culturally specific?
- Style: Which literary devices (metaphor, irony, rhythm, repetition, stagecraft) shape meaning?
- Cultural context: How does the text reflect or challenge the world it comes from?
- Relevance: Why does this text still matter? How does it connect to students’ or society’s lives now?
- Exam link: Individual Oral (IO)
- For English B HL, the IO is based on an extract of about 300 words from one of the literary works you've studied, which is why you need to know creative literature!
Practice task
Write a paragraph analyzing how a theme from your HL text relates to “Sharing the Planet.”
- Step 1: Identify a theme (e.g., justice, inequality, freedom, power).
- Step 2: Choose an example (quote, moment, stylistic feature).
- Step 3: Link it to the theme clearly.
- Step 4: Explain relevance in both the text’s context and today’s world.
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the theme of control over women’s bodies links directly to the global issue of “Sharing the Planet,” specifically the unequal distribution of rights. The Republic of Gilead reduces women to reproductive tools, stripping them of autonomy. Atwood’s use of imagery, such as Offred describing her red dress as “a cloud of blood”, symbolises how her identity has been subsumed by the state’s demands. This theme resonates with global struggles over reproductive rights, showing how access to healthcare and bodily autonomy remain uneven across cultures. By drawing attention to this inequity, Atwood highlights that the planet cannot truly be shared if half the population is denied basic freedoms.Note
- Why this is high‑level:
- Theme identified and explained: Oppression and lack of bodily autonomy.
- Literary evidence: Close reference to imagery in the red dress quotation.
- Context awareness: Connects Gilead’s fictional world to real‑world struggles over reproductive rights.
- Global issue link: Explicitly ties to “Sharing the Planet” through fairness and access to resources.
- Analytical depth: Goes beyond summary to explore how language shapes meaning.
Final pep talk
- Creative literature at HL is about thinking with style and depth.
- You’re not just showing you understand the story, you’re proving why it matters, how it’s built, and how it connects to the wider world.
- Do that, and your IO and written tasks will feel less like exams and more like meaningful conversations with literature.
