AP English Literature and Composition - DOC 2

							                   AP English Literature and Composition
                                  Syllabus

Course Overview
   This course is designed to teach literature and composition to twelfth grade
      students who have consistently demonstrated high achievement in English courses
      during high school. The class consists of two consecutive semesters. The class
      emphasizes the development of advanced skills in the critical reading of
      imaginative and discursive literature and in writing about literature and related
      ideas.

      Student discussion will center on the historical, social, and cultural aspects of
       each work. Students will also be required to discuss how the specific authors use
       various techniques such as point-of-view, diction, syntax, tone, metaphor,
       symbolism, irony, etc. These techniques will be included in a Handbook of
       Literary Terms. Students who take this course must be prepared to analyze and
       interpret a wide variety of material through their oral participation, as well as
       through their writing.

      The writing assignments are designed to advance the writing skills of students
       through exposition and analysis of the presented works. Students will be
       expected to consider the author’s use of structure, style, themes, figurative
       language, imagery, etc. in their writing. Writing assignments will include
       expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Instruction will be provided and
       students will be expected to develop a balance of generalization and specific,
       illustrative detail, as well as an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling
       tone, establishing and maintaining voice, and achieving appropriate emphasis
       through diction and sentence structure. Student will submit at least two drafts of
       each formal essay that show revision. Feedback will be provided both before and
       after students revise their work.

      Students will read from a wide range of literature from many periods, styles, and
       genres to build upon their understanding of themselves and their world. They
       must be prepared to read, think, write, and participate at an advanced level.

      Students who take this course must have an excellent attendance record. The
       College Board says that excellent attendance is a primary determiner for doing
       well in class.

      Students will use The Elements of Style by Strunk and White for lessons on
       grammar. Students will receive grammar lessons as the need arises.

      During the past twenty years that I have been teaching AP Literature and
       Composition, I have selected fifteen to eighteen works each year. I determine
       which books to read based on the abilities and interests of the students in each
       class. The following is the current list for AP Literature and Composition:


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AP Literature and Composition Reading List for 2011-12

Short Stories:
Warren, Robert Penn, editor. Short Story Masterpieces.

Plays:
Bolt, Robert. A Man for all Seasons
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot
T.S. Murder in the Cathedral
Shaffer, Peter. Equus
Shakespeare, William. Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth
Shakespeare, William. King Lear
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing

Novels:
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth
Cather, Willa. Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William. Light in August
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary
Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude
Hardy, Thomas. Far from the Madding Crowd
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Heller, Joseph. Catch – 22
Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Kogawa, Joy. Obasan
Maugham, Somerset. Of Human Bondage
McCarthy, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick
Morrison, Toni. Beloved
Morrison, Toni. Paradise
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried
O’Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things
Saramago, Jose'. The Stone Raft



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Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein
Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath
Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark. Huck Finn
Warren, Robert Penn. All the King's Men
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse

Mythology:
Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fagles

Poetry selections from:
Perrine/Arp. Sound and Sense
Williams, Oscar, editor. The Mentor Book of Major American Poets
Williams, Oscar, editor. The Mentor Book of Major British Poets

Grammar Book:
Strunk and White. The Elements of Style.


Units and Objectives Schedule:

    1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: (14 days)
       The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context of
       this novel? What is the significance of realism and naturalism? What is the
       literary language in this novel? What are the universal themes?

        Concepts and Skills:
       Identify and analyze the major divisions in the novel.
       Identify and analyze the use of intercalary chapters and their meaning to the work.
       Identify and analyze Steinbeck’s prose style.
       Examine the roles of Emerson and Transcendentalism in this novel.
       Identify and analyze the novel’s universal themes.
       Demand writing, timed writing, and quizzes will be given.
       Essay: Choose one of the following: 1.) Discuss how Steinbeck’s use of literary
        techniques contribute significantly to the reader’s attitudes regarding social ills
        and may even create a climate for change. 2.) This book has been called both
        realistic and naturalistic. Choose either of these categories and defend your
        position.
        2.) Discuss the significance of Steinbeck’s development of transcendentalism.
        3.) Steinbeck aimed for the development of universal themes. Select one of the
        significant themes and trace the development of the theme throughout the novel.

   2 Light in August by William Faulkner: (17 days)
     The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
     What effects do the multiple points-of-view have? What is a tragedy? What are the
     implications of tragedy for the themes and characters? What does this novel reveal
     about the human experience?


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   Concepts and Skills:
    Identify and analyze literary elements: syntax, diction, tone, imagery, flashback,
      foreshadowing, metaphor, etc.
    Identify and analyze Faulkner’s use of humor.
    Identify and analyze the ways in which the subject, style, genre, theme, and
      purpose of a literary work are effected by and reflect a specific culture.
    Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
    Theme: In a well-organized essay, convey how Faulkner’s use of diction, syntax,
      tone, and imagery effectively develop the novel’s most significant theme.

3. Beloved by Toni Morrison (14 days)
   The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context of this
   novel? How is this novel a chronicle of slavery before, during, and after the Civil
   War? What is the effect of magical realism? What are the significant, universal
   themes and why are they important?

   Concepts and Skills:
    Identify and analyze the use of magical realism and/or magical irony in this novel.
    Identify and analyze objective reality as opposed to poetic fantasy.
    Identify and analyze how the appearance of ghosts mirrors the historical and
      cultural context of the novel.
    Identify and analyze syntax, diction, tone, and imagery.
    Identify and analyze what experimental stylistic literary devices create the interior
      worlds of characters.
    Identify and analyze how the individual voices reflect memory both in and out of
      linear time.
    Identify and analyze how the novel is a subtle, ambivalent portrait of both the
      stability and oppression of village life and rural life.
    Identify and analyze how the complexity in the novel points to the way in which
      one remembers.
    Identify and analyze the importance of reincarnation.
    Compare/contrast Morrison’s use of magical realism with the realism of slavery.
    Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
    Essay: 1.) Contemporary novels that use magical realism encompass many things
      such as awakenings, discoveries, and changes in consciousness for the characters.
      Write an essay in which you analyze how Toni Morrison uses magical realism in
      Beloved. 2.) Toni Morrison uses syntax, diction, tone, and imagery in a complex
      way in this novel to create a theme regarding memory. Show how Toni Morrison
      develops the theme of remembering through specific use of syntax, diction, tone,
      and imagery. 3.) In a film interview, Toni Morrison, stated that, “The past is




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   infinite.” Interpret a major theme in Beloved based on the idea that “the past is
   infinite.”



4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (14 days)
   The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context of
   this novel? What are the effects of the Great Depression, Realism, and
   Naturalism? How do the life-giving properties of land and water contribute to the
   major themes?

Concepts and Skills:
 Identify and analyze the corruption inherent in wealth.
 Identify and analyze the cycle of poverty and wealth.
 Identify and analyze the fickleness of fortune.
 Identify and analyze the inequality of women.
 Identify and analyze the significance of major passages in this novel. Examine
   how they relate to the major themes.
 Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
 Essay: 1.) In The Good Earth, the land itself is arguably the most powerful and
   nuanced character. The land has a powerful influence on the theme(s). In a well-
   developed essay, address the role of the land and its effect on the novel. 2.)
   Demonstrate that you understand how The Good Earth develops the theme of
   misogyny throughout the entirety of the novel. Consider both the major and
   minor female characters and their relationship to the male characters. Also,
   consider any other significant influences within the Chinese culture during the
   time of this book.

5. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (12 days)
   The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context of
   this novel? What is the influence of the novel’s structure on theme? What does
   this novel say about cultural diversity?

Concepts and Skills:
  Identify and analyze the setting of the American Southwest from 1848 to 1888.
  Identify and analyze the literary influences on this novel.
  Identify and analyze major symbols.
  Identify and analyze the novel’s structure: the Prologue and nine books.
  Identify and analyze the Third person central point of view through the
    consciousness of the Bishop and sometimes that of Father Vaillant.
  Identify and analyze the significant historical background.
  Identify and analyze themes.
  Identify and analyze style.
  Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
  Essay: In a well-organized essay, develop one of the following topics:



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     1.) Discuss the effect of third-person central point-of-view. 2.) Discuss the
      contrast between the old world and the new world. 3.) Discuss the significance
      or miracle, legend, and myth in the novel. 4.) Discuss how the syntax, diction,
      tone, and imagery develop a significant theme.

6. “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” from The Mentor Book of Major British
   Poets by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (3-4 days)
   The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
   Why is it important to understand allusions in literature? How do literary ideas
   connect with different historical periods?

Concepts and Skills:
  Identify and analyze Coleridge’s use of Romanticism.
  Identify and analyze literary terminology: anaphora, caesura, catharsis,
    epiphany, slant rhyme, end rhyme, allegory, allusion, etc.
  Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
  Essay: After we read Frankenstein, students will select three of the following
    and write short answer responses: 1.) Mystery and Allusion—Frankenstein
    involves the investigation of a mystery. The solution of the mystery may be less
    important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Your
    essay must discuss how the novel Frankenstein focuses on mystery. Your
    discussion must also show that you understand the significance of Mary
    Shelley’s use of allusion to “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” 2.) Discuss
    two themes that are prevalent in Frankenstein and “The Rhyme of the Ancient
    Mariner.” 3.) Identify and analyze 2-3 techniques in Frankenstein and “The
    Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.” Demonstrate that you understand the
    significance of each technique. 4.) Discuss your understanding of Romanticism
    based on this reading.

7. Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus (5 days)
   The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
   What is the significance of mythology for a contemporary reader? Why is this
   myth important?

     Concepts and Skills:
     Identify and analyze the allusions and their effect.
     Identify and analyze archetype.
     Identify and analyze aspects of the myth that are in Frankenstein.
     Demand writing and timed writing will be given.

8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (10 days)
   The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
   What is the novel’s structure and why is that important? What are the traits of
   Romanticism in this novel?




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      Concepts and Skills:
      Identify and analyze the traits of Romanticism: focus on self, doctrine of the
       basic goodness of man, emphasis on emotion, interest in nature, preference for
       melancholy, interest in the exotic and supernatural, political ideology, variety of
       form, and human perfectibility.
      Identify and analyze the boxed narrative, a narrative almost entirely in
       flashback, sometimes returning to the initial scene at the end (framed narrative).
      Identify and analyze the traits of the Gothic novel: set in past times, in a lonely
       haunted castle; mysterious hero; brave heroine; atmosphere of horror.
      Identify and analyze the effect of allusions.
      Identify and analyze point-of-view: first person with three different narrators.
      Identify and analyze important themes: nature of good and evil, man’s
       limitations, role of scientific enquiry, effects of ambition, idealization of the
       poor, responsibility for actions, responsibility to others, revenge, Doppelganger,
       etc.
      Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
      Essay: Mystery and Allusion—Frankenstein involves the investigation of a
       mystery. The solution of the mystery may be less important than the knowledge
       gained in the process of its investigation. Your essay must discuss how the
       novel Frankenstein focuses on mystery. Your discussion must also show that
       you understand the significance of Mary Shelley’s use of allusion to “The
       Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner or Prometheus Bound. Your interpretation must
       demonstrate that you understand Shelley’s focus on mystery and how the
       investigation of mystery and allusion illuminates the meaning of the work as a
       whole.

9.       Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and “The Hollow Men” by T. S. Eliot
         (7 days)
         The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
         How are the themes of these two works similar?

         Concepts and Skills:
         Identify and analyze the frame story.
         Identify and analyze the rhetorical devices used in the novella.
         Identify and analyze the allusions.
         Identify and analyze themes in both works.
         Identify and analyze the use of syntax, diction, tone, and imagery in both works.
         Identify and analyze the plot, characters, and setting
         Demand writing, timed writing and reading quizzes will be given.
         Essays: 1.) In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does
          not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose such a character from Heart
          of Darkness and discuss how your respective character functions in this work.
          Focus on how the character affects action, theme, and/or the development of
          other characters. 2.) Consider why T. S. Eliot regarded Joseph Conrad’s Heart
          of Darkness to be significant enough to allude to it in “The Hollow Men.”



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10. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brion (8 days)
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
    What is the effect of numerous characters? What does conscience mean? What
    Are the themes in The Things They Carried that are similar to those in Heart of
    Darkness?

    Concepts and Skills:
    Identify and analyze characters.
    Identify and analyze the effect of setting on character.
    Identify and analyze traits in this book that are similar to the themes in Heart of
      Darkness.
    Identify and analyze syntax, diction, tone, and imagery.
    Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
    Essay: 1.) Discuss how metaphoric/symbolic truth creates a larger Truth. 2.)
      Compare the theme(s) in this novel to the themes in Heart of Darkness.

11. Hamlet by Shakespeare (18 days)
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
    Why is this play considered to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies? What
    is the effect of suffering that is disproportionate to the sin.

    Concepts and Skills:
    Identify and analyze the traits of a Shakespearean tragedy.
    Identify and analyze the hero’s traits.
    Identify and analyze the significance of a change of fortune due to a reversal or
     a discovery.
    Identify and analyze how the plot conforms to the three unities of action, place,
     and time.
    Identify and analyze universal themes and timeless implication.
    Identify and analyze the idea of irony: shows the ways that gods, fate,
     providence, etc. are paradoxical and mysterious.
    Identify and analyze the reality of good and evil.
    Identify and analyze the affirmation of positive values.
    Identify and analyze the play’s significant passages.
    Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
    Essay: 1.) Novel and plays often include scenes of weddings, funeral, parties,
     and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters
     and the society in which they live. Discuss how a particular scene from Hamlet
     makes a significant contribution to the meaning of the play as a whole. 2.)
     Select one of the most significant themes from Hamlet that you consider to have
     universal and timeless implication. Discuss the relevancy of the particular
     theme in the play Hamlet, and interpret how this theme is timeless in its scope.
     3.) In some works of literature, a character that appears briefly, or does not
     appear at all, is a significant presence. Show how such a character functions in



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      the play Hamlet. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action,
      theme, or the development of other characters in the play.

12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (18 days).
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
    What is a Gothic Romance? What are the characteristics of this book as a
    feminist novel?

   Content and Skills:
   Identify and analyze the main setting of this novel: Gateshead, Lowood,
    Thornfield, Marsh End, and Ferndean.
   Identify and analyze the effect of the passage of time.
   Identify and analyze imagery used throughout the novel.
   Identify and analyze significant passages that further the plot, character, setting,
    and theme.
   Identify and analyze the traits of the Gothic novel
   Identify and analyze the themes at various stages of Jane’s life.
   Identify and analyze this novel as a Bildungsroman or personal quest or journey.
   Identify and analyze Jane Eyre as a feminist novel.
   Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
   Essay: From a previous AP essay exam: In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
    (1899), protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess “that outward existence
    which conforms, the inward life which questions.” Identify a character in Jane
    Eyre who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. Write an essay in
    which you analyze how this tension between outward conformity and inward
    questioning contributes to the meaning of Jane Eyre.

13. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (6 days).
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
    What is the theater of the absurd? What does the statement “Nothing to be
    done” mean?

      Content and Skills:
     Identify and analyze how the play develops the absurdity of the human
      condition.
     Identify and analyze the effectiveness of the setting with a barren tree as the
      single prop.
     Identify and analyze imagery.
     Identify and analyze Biblical allusions.
     Identify and analyze how this play might be a metaphor for the 20th-21st
      centuries.
     Identify and analyze how a victim might become the victimizer.
     Identify and analyze the play’s themes.
     Demand writing.




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    Essay: 1.) Waiting for Godot makes numerous statements regarding life through
     the use of absurdity, nihilism, and existentialism. Explain. 2.) From a previous
     AP exam: “Critic Roland Barthes has said, ‘Literature is the question minus the
     answer.’ Consider Barthes’ observation as you analyze Waiting for Godot by
     Samuel Beckett. Analyze a central question that Waiting for Godot raises and
     the extent to which the work offers any answers. Explain how the author’s
     treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.
     Avoid plot summary.”

14. Sound and Sense, Major British Poets, and Major American Poets (20 days).
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context of
    the poems? What is poetry? Why is poetry an important genre?


      Content and Skills:
    Examine and interpret poems in the books listed above.
    Identify and analyze the use of literary terms in specific poems:
     allegory, alliteration, allusion, anaphor, apostrophe, assonance, blank verse,
     caesure, catharsis, chorus, connotation, denotation, irony, elegy, end rhyme,
     internal rhyme, sonnet, enjambment, epic, epigraph, metonymy, pastoral,
     personification, litotes, run-on-line, simile, hyperbole, understatement,
     onomatopoeia, etc.
    Demand writing and timed writing will be given.
    Essays: 3 essays will be given on the following topics: 1.) From a previous
     AP Exam: “Read the following poem (“Blackberry-Picking” by Seamus
     Heaney) carefully, paying particular attention to the physical intensity of the
     language. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain how the poet
     conveys not just a literal description of picking blackberries but a deeper
     understanding of the whole experience. You may wish to include analysis of
     such elements as diction, imagery, metaphor, rhyme, rhythm, and form. 2.)
     Select one of the poems by Byron, Shelley, or Keats and discuss how that poet’s
     use of poetic techniques conveys meaning in the poem. Select your poem from
     “The Solitary Reaper,” “London, 1802,” “It Is a Beauteous
     Evening,” “The World Is Too much With Us,” “Composed Upon Westminster
     Bridge,” “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind,” “She Walks in Beauty,” or
     “The Ocean.” 3.) Select one of the poems by Wordsworth to discuss how his
     use of language, imagery, structure, or point-of-view controls his belief that
     poetry, “takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

14. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (20 days).
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
    What are the various kinds of love? Does wealth guarantee happiness? What
    are the benefits of various kinds of institutions?

   Content and Skills:
  Identify and analyze the themes.


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    Identify and analyze the values of a culture or society.
    Identify and analyze characters who are alienated from that culture or society
     because of gender, race, class, or creed.
    Identify and analyze the irony and fate.
    Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
    Essay: from a previous AP Exam: “Writers often highlight the values of a
     culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or
     society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a significant character
     from this novel and show how that particular character’s alienation reveals the
     surrounding society’s assumptions and moral values.”



15. To the Lighthouse by Virgina Woolf (12 days)
    The essential questions are: What is the historical, social, and cultural context?
    What is the meaning of both subjective and objective reality? How is daily life
    significant?


     Content and Skills:
    Identify and analyze Part I, “The Window,” as a metaphor for life’s
     possibilities; Part II, “Time Passes,” as time moving both backward and
     forward; Part III, “The Lighthouse,” as a powerful symbol for eternity.
    Identify and analyze how the multiple viewpoints use stream-of-consciousness.
    Identify and analyze the lighthouse as a symbol: it represents a common point of
     desire.
    Identify and analyze how the every day things contain the elements for the
     greatest things to happen.
    Identify and analyze this book as an elegy.
    Identify and analyze the interior monologues.
    Identify and analyze the themes.
    Identify and analyze the Boeuf En Daub Dinner as a central metaphor.
    Identify and analyze the central idea that Art = light against the darkness of life.
    Demand writing, timed writing, and reading quizzes will be given.
    Essay: All of the most significant events, external or internal, in To the
     Lighthouse are framed by vivid imagery. Select what you consider the most
     significant image in this novel. Show that you understand how and why
     Virginia Woolf uses this image throughout the novel. Also, interpret how
     Woolf layers her ideas. Use appropriate literary terms to help convey your
     understanding and depth.

When students enroll in the AP Literature and Composition class, they agree to take
the AP Exam. The majority of students who have enrolled in this class do take the
AP Exam. After the AP Exam, AP Literature and Composition students continue to




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read and analyze rigorous work to the end of Semester II. The semester concludes at
the end of the school year with a final test in this class.




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