BACCALAUREAT OPTION INTERNATIONALE OPTION AMERICAINE
PROGRAMME DE LANGUE/LITTERATURE
2009- 2011: Mr Mitcham, Mrs Hunnewell, Miss Singer, Mr Cole, Mrs Aubert EABJM
BACCALAUREAT OPTION INTERNATIONALE AMERICAN OPTION
SYLLABUS FOR THE LANGUAGE/LITERATURE EXAMINATION
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A total of twelve texts will be studied for the examination reflecting diversity in ethnic background
and gender. Six texts will be studied in common by all candidates. The remaining texts will be
chosen freely by individual sections/schools. Hamlet will be the in-depth text studied in common by
all schools. The remaining two texts in depth will be chosen freely by each section/school (from the
poetry and novel section.)
The following are the texts:
1. One Shakespeare play: Hamlet* (CORE)
2 Two 19th/20th/21st century English-language works of prose fiction (one of which should be
American):
a) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (CORE)*
b) Free Choice: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3 Two English-language playwrights (one of which should be American):
a.) A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams (CORE)
b.) Free choice: Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka
4 Two English-language poets (one of which should be American):
a.) A selection of four poems by Elizabeth Bishop and four poems by
Emily Dickinson
(selection made by individual section/school) (CORE)
b.) Free choice: Selection of poems by Seamus Heaney*
5 Four Works of World Literature (which may be in translation)
a.) Medea by Euripides (CORE)
b.) Free choice: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
c.) Free choice: Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
d.) Free choice: Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
6. Two English-language non-fiction works:
a) Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr (CORE)
b) Free Choice: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
List of Poems: EABJM 2009-2011
A) A Selection of 4 poems by Elizabeth Bishop and 4 poems by Emily Dickinson
Elizabeth Bishop
One Art
Sestina
In the Waiting Room
First Death in Nova Scotia
Emily Dickinson
510: It was not death, For I stood up
465: I heard a fly buzz - when I died
249: Wild nights - wild nights!
712: Because I could not stop for death
B) A Selection of 9 poems by Seamus Heaney:
“Death of a Naturalist”
“Wedding Day”
“Digging”
“Personal Helicon”
“Punishment”
“Sonnets from Clearances 3”
“Sonnets from Clearances 5”
“Mid-Term Break”
“Follower”