English A Lit or Lang + Lit?

[helenehmj]

I just started 2.i a few weeks ago and I chose English A Language + Literature HL. I love literature so I was really excited about that part, but it turns we won't work with literature until 3.i. At first I figured it was fine, but the language part is just so boring to me!

 

Basically, I'm considering changing from lang + lit to lit. I really like my teacher though, he's very charismatic and great at teaching, which I don't know if the literature teacher is (my school isn't very good at hiring good IB teachers). One of my worries, though, is if the literature course is 1) too heavy, and 2) just generally "boring" - what I mean is, do you get tired of reading and analyzing so many books? Are the books any good or are they heavy and dry to get through? Just, any thoughts on the literature course in general would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

 

Also, if anyone in here has experience with both subjects, I would just really appreciate to hear your thoughts - which one did you find to be more interesting and is any of them more challenging than the other? Thank you guys in advance! :-)

[ShootingStar16]

I take English Lit at HL and it's a lot of fun. The books are actually really interesting and some of the ones we've read had a sort of dark, ironic humour to them. It's a lot of analysis ngl. You also have to write this huge paper in the end for World Lit where you basically pick apart a technique used in one of the works. Apparently, literature is considered to be more rigorous than Lang and Lit, but idk if that's true because it really depends on what you're good at. If you don't want to risk getting a teacher who screws you over for the IA's and the exams, then I'd stick with Lang Lit, but if you like Lit so much that you're willing to take that risk, by all means go for it. 

[bguloglu]

I never took English Lit., but I loved taking Turkish Lit. Analyzing and taking apart the books was great fun and made for some really cool discussions in class. Also about the books: I don't think they are determined by the IB. My teacher once told me that the IB releases a whole big list with possible books and that each school can choose their own. For example, my teachers went with books that all had a common central theme so that we would make connections between them.