Past+Question+Papers-+Genre+specific+and+General

**__General Questions on Literature __**
 * __Questions specific to Part 3 (Novel Genre) __**
 * In portraying characters and events, writers of novels and short stories often employ some elements of the satirical. In at least two works you have studied, discuss the nature and effects of such treatments.
 * “In isolating circumstances people often discover the truth about themselves or their lives.” Considering at least two works you have studied, explore the presentation of such situations and what writers achieve by their inclusion.
 * “In order to create one convincing character, an author needs to create at least one other character.” To what extent have one or more characters contributed to the compelling creation of another in at least two works you have studied?
 * Whatever the story or novel, there’s “likely to be some kind of a clock ticking”. Using at least two of the works in your study, explore how time passing is in some ways important to their development.
 * With reference to two or three works you have studied, discuss to what extent the opening pages establish the nature and development of the remainder of the work.
 * Writers are often concerned with problems of inequality. How, and to what extent, is this issue treated in two or three works you have studied?
 * “My own preference is for a story that is kaleidoscopic, with a number of different voices rather than one character speaking for the entire novel or short story.” Focusing on single and/or multiple voices, discuss the effects of viewpoint in the two or three novels or short stories you have studied.
 * “The characters of a novel can only be individualized if they are set in a background of particularized time and place.” How important is the setting of a particular time and/or place to the development of the characters? Refer in detail to at least two novels or short stories.
 * How have two or three writers you have studied used foreshadowing as a literary device and with what effect for the reader?
 * By what means, and to what effect, are failure and/or suffering presented in two or three novels or short stories that you have studied?
 * Compare and contrast the use made of dreams, hopes or aspirations in two or three novels and/or short stories you have studied.
 * Compare the ways in which writers of two or three novels or short stories you have studied have used moral issues to develop their works.
 * “I believe plot is necessary, although I believe it would be possible to write a work of fiction without it.” Including your own definition of plot, consider the relative importance and impact of plot on works in your study in light of the above quotation.
 * Work and professions are one defining element for characters in fiction just as they are for people in real life. Compare how writers in your study have used one or more of the following to provide depth and interest to characters in their novels or short stories: work, professions, work environments.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Setting is a powerful vehicle of thematic concerns; in fact, it is one of the most powerful.” How far has setting served to carry or underscore thematic concerns in fiction you have studied?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Conversations are one of the tools most commonly used by writers of fiction to develop their characters. Compare how writers in your study of novels or short stories have employed particular conversations as a means of characterization.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Economic circumstances can be critical elements of the way a writer presents the world through literary forms. In what way have economic factors been included in the works of at least two writers you have studied?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Literature sometimes takes readers on an imaginary journey into a past different to their own individual experience.” In what ways and how effectively have at least two writers in your study provided you with a view of times past?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Separation and reunion are sometimes used by writers to create and maintain tension in a literary work. In at least two works you have studied, show how writers have made effective use of the artistic potential of one or both human experiences.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“I always start with a visual image,” is the way one writer describes the beginning of his work. In at least two works you have studied, identify one of the earliest visual images you recall from the work and explain how the writer uses it to engage the reader in a part or the whole of the work.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">How do at least two writers you have studied use frustration or seemingly unconquerable obstacles to create tension in their work?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In what ways, in at least two works you have studied, have technology or technological advances played a role as a theme or a source of conflict?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Texts often connect with other texts in ways which are mutually enriching. Using at least two works you have studied, cite and evaluate some significant connections that you have appreciatedbetween or among these works.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Embarrassment passes, humiliation lingers, but both can lead to an evolution of character.” Discuss the ways in which embarrassment or humiliation have affected the course of events or have been a central concern in at least two works that you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">How, and to what effect, have strong females been depicted in two or three works you have studied?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Many works of literature deal with a sense of longing. How, and to what effect, have two or three writers you have studied made use of a sense of longing in their works?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Fear and hope are significant in any person’s life. How have two or three writers you have studied presented these emotions in a convincing way, and what role have they played in the works concerned?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“It’s love that makes the world go round.” To what extent and in what ways does love, or its absence, dominate two or three of the works you have studied?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Look to the future and beware.” How and to what effect have writers depicted the future? Discuss with reference to two or three works you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Health and sickness may appear in the works of writers either in plots, characters, imagery or themes. In what ways and to what effect have writers used health and sickness in two or three works you have studied?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">What can a writer accomplish through the use of repetition? Respond with reference to two or three works you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Explore the ways in which “chance” or “coincidence” is used in any two or three works of literature you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In what ways have writers shown that things are not always what they seem? Illustrate your answers with reference to any two or three works of literature you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Compare and contrast the treatment of different, new or alien cultures in any two or three works of literature you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">How successfully have writers been able to portray the opposite sex? Refer in detail to any two or three works of literature you have studied.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“I believe plot is necessary, although I believe it would be possible to write a work of fiction without it.” Including your own definition of plot, consider the relative importance and impact of plot on works in your study in light of the above quotation.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Work and professions are one defining element for characters in fiction just as they are for people in real life. Compare how writers in your study have used one or more of the following to provide depth and interest to characters in their novels or short stories: work, professions, work environments.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">The form of a work is often considered equal in importance to the content of a work of literature. How far does your experience confirm or question this notion?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Sometimes readers are disappointed with literature in which abstraction and reflection are more in evidence than the concrete and particular. How far has your appreciation of works of literature been based on either of these preferences?
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Great literary themes involving love, death, survival and the like have sometimes been treated in ways that are unique or are unexpected. Discuss how any of the works you have studied demonstrate this phenomenon.
 * <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 14pt;">“A writer without a keen sense of justice and injustice would be better off editing a school yearbook.” To what degree is such a sense of human behavior important to works you have studied?

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Cambria,serif;">__**Remember**__: For SL students, you have to refer to at least two texts in your syllabus. For HL, the requirement is three. Even if the question states " Referring to any one or two", always keep in mind what I have written above or told very often in class.