Perspectives on Power and Justice

MYP Unit Framework

Key Concept: PERSPECTIVE Related Concepts: Context. Theme. Point of View. Global Context: Fairness and Development (How do literary texts expose, challenge, or reinforce systems of power?) Statement of Inquiry: Authors use perspective to critique systems of power and illuminate paths toward justice.

Inquiry Questions

1. Narrative Voice and the Construction of Authority

Who Speaks? — The Politics of Narration

'EVERY narrative has a perspective. There is no such thing as a "neutral" story. The choice of who tells the story — and how they tell it — is ALWAYS a choice about power.'

First-person narrator: 'I'. Subjective. Unreliable. 'The reader experiences the world through ONE consciousness. We see what the narrator sees — and we are BLIND to what they miss or hide.'

Third-person limited: 'He', 'she', 'they'. The narrator follows ONE character's thoughts and perceptions. 'We are inside one mind — but we see the character from the outside too.'

Third-person omniscient: The narrator knows EVERYTHING — all characters' thoughts, past, future. 'The god's-eye view. But whose god? Even omniscience has a PERSPECTIVE — the author's.'

Unreliable Narrators and Hidden Agendas

An unreliable narrator is one whose credibility is COMPROMISED. 'The reader must READ AGAINST the narrator — to notice what the narrator is NOT saying, or is saying WRONG.'

Examples: A child narrator who does not understand the adult world. A criminal justifying their actions. A biased observer who sees only what confirms their prejudices. 'The unreliable narrator is a TOOL for the author to critique power — because the reader sees what the narrator CANNOT.'

2. Power and Resistance in Literary Texts

Power — Visible and Invisible

Visible power: The police. The state. Laws. Armies. 'The power you can SEE and NAME.'

Invisible power: Ideology. Social norms. Culture. Language. 'The power that tells you what is "normal" — what is "natural." The most effective power is the power you do NOT recognise as power.'

Literature as Resistance

'Literature gives voice to the VOICELESS. It makes the INVISIBLE visible. It says what CANNOT be said in public discourse.'

Colonial and postcolonial literature: Texts that expose the violence and dehumanisation of colonialism — and imagine a world AFTER empire. 'Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" (1958) tells the story of colonialism from the AFRICAN perspective. It is a direct RESPONSE to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" — which showed Africa through European eyes.'

Feminist literature: Texts that expose patriarchy and imagine gender equality. 'Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" (1929) argues that women need MATERIAL CONDITIONS — money and privacy — to create art. The injustice is not just SYMBOLIC. It is MATERIAL.'

Dystopian literature: Texts that exaggerate present-day power structures to warn about the future. 'George Orwell's "1984" (1949) and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" (1985) are not predictions. They are EXAGGERATIONS of tendencies the authors saw in their own societies.'

3. Point of View and Bias

Every Text Has a Position

'All texts are written from a PARTICULAR position. There is no neutral observation. Even a textbook has a perspective — what it CHOOSES to include, what it OMITS, whose stories it TELLS.'

Identifying bias:

• What is the author's PURPOSE? (Inform? Persuade? Entertain? Provoke?)
• Who is the INTENDED AUDIENCE? (What do they already believe? What does the author assume about them?)
• What is INCLUDED and what is OMITTED? (Every choice to include is ALSO a choice to exclude.)
• What LANGUAGE is used? (Connotation. Metaphor. Tone. Loaded words.)

A Tool for Analysis — SOAPSTone

'SOAPSTone is a framework for ANALYSING any text — literary or non-literary. It forces you to think about PERSPECTIVE before you think about MEANING.'

4. The Argumentative Essay — Structuring a Position

The Thesis — Your Argument in One Sentence

'A strong thesis is NOT a statement of fact — "Orwell critiques totalitarianism." It is a DEBATABLE claim — "Orwell uses the figure of Big Brother to argue that totalitarianism depends not on FORCE alone but on the MANIPULATION of language and memory."'

Structuring the Argumentative Essay

1. Introduction: Hook. Context. Thesis.
2. Body paragraphs: Topic sentence. Evidence (textual citation). Analysis (HOW does the evidence support your thesis?). Link back to thesis.
3. Counter-argument: What would someone who DISAGREES say? How do you RESPOND?
4. Conclusion: Synthesis — not summary. What is the SIGNIFICANCE of your argument? Why does it MATTER?

5. Case Study — Analysing a Power Text

'The Danger of a Single Story' — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009)

'The single story creates STEREOTYPES. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are UNTRUE, but that they are INCOMPLETE. They make ONE story become the ONLY story.'

Adichie's TED Talk is a CLASS example of analysing power and perspective. She shows:

• How her own perspective was shaped by the British books she read as a child in Nigeria.
• How her roommate assumed she could not speak English well — because the single story of Africa is a story of POVERTY and FAILURE.
• How power is about WHO tells the story, HOW they tell it, WHEN they tell it, and HOW MANY times they tell it.

'Adichie's central argument is that POWER is the ability to tell the dominant story of another person. The antidote is to SEEK out multiple stories — to REFUSE to reduce any person or culture to a single narrative.'

Your Summative Assessment — The Argumentative Essay

Task: Write a 1200–1500 word argumentative essay analysing how an author uses PERSPECTIVE to critique a system of POWER and illuminate a path toward JUSTICE. Choose ONE literary text studied in this unit. Develop a clear THESIS. Use TEXTUAL EVIDENCE to support your argument. Address at least ONE COUNTER-ARGUMENT. Reflect on YOUR OWN perspective as a reader — how has your position shaped your interpretation?

'This assessment requires you to demonstrate: textual analysis, critical thinking, argumentation, and metacognition — the ability to think about your OWN thinking. These are the skills of IB DP Language A: Literature.'

ATL Skills

Formative Assessments

Interdisciplinary Connections

• Individuals & Societies: Systems of governance, human rights, conflict analysis.
• TOK (Theory of Knowledge): How does perspective shape knowledge? Can knowledge ever be 'objective'?
• Psychology: Cognitive bias, confirmation bias, the psychology of prejudice.

Service as Action

• Literacy tutoring: Tutor younger students in critical reading skills.
• School newspaper editorial: Write an editorial on a justice issue in your school or community.
• Community storytelling project: Collect and publish stories from community members about experiences of injustice.

IB Learner Profile Attributes

Self-Test Questions

1. What is the difference between first-person and third-person limited narration? Provide an example of each from a text you have read.

2. Choose a text about power and identify THREE specific ways the author uses perspective to critique that power.

3. Write a thesis statement arguing that a specific literary device (e.g., irony, metaphor, unreliable narrator) is effective for exposing injustice.

4. Apply SOAPSTone to a short text of your choice. What does the analysis reveal about the text's perspective and bias?

5. 'All literature is political.' Do you agree? Write a short paragraph explaining your position with reference to at least one text.