Summer Reading Instructions
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition
Outside Reading Books (ORBs) & Summer Reading Instructions- 2010-2011
Patrice Norris- Instructor Email: elwyn.norris@mnps.org
READ THIS HANDOUT VERY CAREFULLY BECAUSE THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE QUITE SPECIFIC
Part I. All AP Literature students are required to read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. You will refer to this book throughout the year. The book is very entertaining and very informative as an introduction to studying motifs and patterns in literature. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK BEFORE READING THE TWO NOVELS!
Viewing and writing assignment for HTRLLAP:
The following short writing assignments will let you practice your literary analysis and they will help me get to know you and your literary tastes. Whenever I ask for an example from literature, you may use short stories, …show more content…
novels, plays, or films (Yes, film is a literary genre). If your literary repertoire is thin and undeveloped, use the Appendix to jog your memory or to select additional works to explore. At the very least, watch some of the “Movies to Read” that are listed on pages 293-294. Please note that your responses should be paragraphs- not pages! The complete product should be five typed pages.
Even though this is analytical writing, you may use ”I” if you deem it important to do so. As you compose each written response, rephrase the prompt as part of your answer. In other words, I should be able to tell which question you are answering without referring back to the prompt.
Concerning mechanics, pay special attention to pronouns. Make antecedents clear. Say Foster first; not “he.” Remember to capitalize and punctuate titles properly for each genre.
Respond to twelve (12) of the following prompts concerning the chapters of HTRLLAP:
Introduction: How’d He Do That?
How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol and pattern.
Chapter 1- Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form on pages 3-5.
Chapter 2- Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.
Chapter 3- Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work you have read or viewed.
Chapter 4- If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet
Select three sonnets and show which form they are. Discuss how their content reflects the form. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your analysis.
Chapter 5- Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
Define intertextuality. Discuss three examples that helped you in reading specific works.
Chapter 6- When in Doubt, It’s From Shakespeare…
Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection thematically. Read pages 44-46 carefully. In these pages, Foster shows how Fugard reflects Shakespeare through plot and theme. In your discussion, focus on theme.
Chapter 7-…Or the Bible
Read “Araby” by James Joyce (available on-line). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does not mention. Look at the example of the “Two great jars.” Be creative and imaginative in these connections.
Chapter 8- Hanseldee and Greteldum
Think of a work of literature that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the parallels. Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 9- It’s Greek to Me
Write a free verse derived or inspired by characters or situations from Greek mythology. Be prepared to share your poem with the class. You can consult online sites to classical mythology.
Chapter 10- It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.
Interlude- Does He Mean That
Chapter 11- More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Present examples from two kinds of violence found in literature. Show how the effects are different.
Chapter 12- Is That a Symbol?
Use the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the fence in “Araby.” (Mangan’s sister stands behind it.)
Chapter 13- It’s All Political
Assume that Foster is right and “it is all political.” Use his criteria to show that one of the major works assigned to you as a freshman is political.
Chapter 14- Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too
Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major character in a significant literary work. Try to choose a character that will have many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing film- for example, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben Hur.
Chapter 15- Flights of Fancy
Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail.
Chapter 16- It’s All About Sex…
Chapter 17-…Except When it Isn’t
Ok.. The sex chapters. The key idea from this chapter is that “scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense than literal depictions” (141). In other words, sex is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described, and, if the author if doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or character. Choose a novel or movie in which sex is suggested, but not described, and discuss how the relationship is suggested and how this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.
Chapter 18- If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism
Think of a “baptism scene” from a significant literary work. How was the character different after the experience? Discuss.
Chapter 19- Geography Matters
Discuss at least four aspects of a specific literary work that Foster would classify under “geography.”
Chapter 20- …So Does Season
Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then discuss how the poet uses the season in a meaningful, traditional, or unusual way. (Submit the poem with your analysis.)
Interlude- One Story
Write your own definition for archetype. Then identify an archetypal story and apply it to a literary work with which you are familiar.
Chapter 21- Marked for Greatness
Figure our Harry Potter’s scar. If you aren’t familiar with Harry Potter, select another character with a physical imperfection and analyze its implications for characterization.
Chapter 22- He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23- It’s Never Just Heart Disease…
Chapter 24- …And Rarely Just Illness
Recall two characters who died of a disease in a literary work. Consider how these deaths reflect the “principles governing the use of the disease in literature” (215-217). Discuss the effectiveness of the death as related to plot, theme, or symbolism.
Chapter 25- Don’t Read With Your Eyes
After reading Chapter 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play, or epic written before the twentieth century. Contrast how it could be viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century with how it might be viewed by a contemporary reader. Focus on specific assumptions that the author makes, assumptions that would not make it in this century.
Chapter 26- Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select an ironic literary work and explain the multivocal nature of the irony in the work.
Chapter 27- A Test Case
Read “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, the short story starting on page 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265-266, following the directions exactly. Then compare your writing with the three examples. How did you do? What does the essay that follows comparing Laura to Persephone add to your appreciation of Mansfield’s story?
*Thanks to Sandra Effinger and other members of the College Board EDG for the HTRRLAP assignment*
Part II. ALL AP Literature students are also required to read six novels throughout the school year from the following lists. You must read at least one novel from each category.
Two novels are to be read for summer reading. You may choose any two novels from the outside reading list that is attached. The journals for these novels will be due the second day of school. You will also take an essay test for each of these novels throughout the first week.
You will write a separate journal for each novel.
Each journal should be a minimum FIVE TYPED pages WRITING IN THE FIRST PERSON IS ENCOURAGED!
Requirements: these components must be included in your journals
*Choose 8-10 passages (quotes) from the novel you find particularly powerful, striking, and important. Discuss these passages and the effect they have on the meaning of the novel as a whole. Convince me of their importance!
*Apply two or more chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor to your novel and discuss the way the writer uses these motifs and the effect they have on overall meaning. Provide proof from the text for support.
*Must show plentiful and meaningful personal connections. I am interested in your reactions to your reading. Explore!
*Make connections between the novel and other literary works you have read. Discuss these connections.
*If you have seen a filmed version of your book, you need to include an evaluation of the film as it compares to the book. Keep in mind that it is very rare for a film to be exactly like the book. Never make that
mistake!
*This journal must avoid plot summary at all costs! Look at it as a conversation between us about an interesting piece of literature. Be provocative- tell me something I don’t know! These journals ALSO serve as my first impression about you!
*FOR ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS! Font should be Times New Roman. Use 12 point type.
* The work must be your own and you must include the HFA honor code on the upper left of the first page.
2010-2011 ORB List
Category One:
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, Emma
Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
Charles Dickens Hard Times, Great Expectations
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment
Gustav Flaubert Madame Bovary
Thomas Hardy Tess of the D’Urbervilles Return of the Native The Mayor of Casterbridge
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Category Two:
Kate Chopin The Awakening
James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Geo. Bernard Shaw Major Barbara (play) Pygmalion
Edith Wharton Ethan Frome
Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse
Category Three
William Faulkner Absalom, Absalom, Light in August,
F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night This Side of Paradise
Graham Greene The Power and the Glory The Heart of the Matter
Lillian Hellman The Little Foxes (play)
Earnest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms For Whom the Bell Tolls The Sun Also Rises
Somerset Maugham The Razor’s Edge
John Steinbeck East of Eden The Grapes of Wrath
Category Four
Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale
Albert Camus The Stranger
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
Joseph Heller Catch-22
Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Bernard Malamud The Fixer
Kurt Vonnegut Breakfast of Champions Cat’s Cradle
Category Five
Isabel Allende The House of the Spirits
Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon, Sula The Bluest Eye Beloved
Tim O’Brien In the Lake of the Woods Going After Cacciato
Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things
Category Six
Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Gabriel Garcia-Marques Love in the Time of Cholera One Hundred Years of Solitude
Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses The Road
Ian McEwan Atonement
Zadie Smith White Teeth
John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces
Outside Reading Books (ORBs) & Summer Reading Instructions- 2010-2011
Patrice Norris- Instructor Email: elwyn.norris@mnps.org
READ THIS HANDOUT VERY CAREFULLY BECAUSE THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE QUITE SPECIFIC
Part I. All AP Literature students are required to read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. You will refer to this book throughout the year. The book is very entertaining and very informative as an introduction to studying motifs and patterns in literature. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK BEFORE READING THE TWO NOVELS!
Viewing and writing assignment for HTRLLAP:
The following short writing assignments will let you practice your literary analysis and they will help me get to know you and your literary tastes. Whenever I ask for an example from literature, you may use short stories, …show more content…
novels, plays, or films (Yes, film is a literary genre). If your literary repertoire is thin and undeveloped, use the Appendix to jog your memory or to select additional works to explore. At the very least, watch some of the “Movies to Read” that are listed on pages 293-294. Please note that your responses should be paragraphs- not pages! The complete product should be five typed pages.
Even though this is analytical writing, you may use ”I” if you deem it important to do so. As you compose each written response, rephrase the prompt as part of your answer. In other words, I should be able to tell which question you are answering without referring back to the prompt.
Concerning mechanics, pay special attention to pronouns. Make antecedents clear. Say Foster first; not “he.” Remember to capitalize and punctuate titles properly for each genre.
Respond to twelve (12) of the following prompts concerning the chapters of HTRLLAP:
Introduction: How’d He Do That?
How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol and pattern.
Chapter 1- Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form on pages 3-5.
Chapter 2- Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.
Chapter 3- Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work you have read or viewed.
Chapter 4- If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet
Select three sonnets and show which form they are. Discuss how their content reflects the form. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your analysis.
Chapter 5- Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
Define intertextuality. Discuss three examples that helped you in reading specific works.
Chapter 6- When in Doubt, It’s From Shakespeare…
Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection thematically. Read pages 44-46 carefully. In these pages, Foster shows how Fugard reflects Shakespeare through plot and theme. In your discussion, focus on theme.
Chapter 7-…Or the Bible
Read “Araby” by James Joyce (available on-line). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does not mention. Look at the example of the “Two great jars.” Be creative and imaginative in these connections.
Chapter 8- Hanseldee and Greteldum
Think of a work of literature that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the parallels. Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 9- It’s Greek to Me
Write a free verse derived or inspired by characters or situations from Greek mythology. Be prepared to share your poem with the class. You can consult online sites to classical mythology.
Chapter 10- It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.
Interlude- Does He Mean That
Chapter 11- More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Present examples from two kinds of violence found in literature. Show how the effects are different.
Chapter 12- Is That a Symbol?
Use the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the fence in “Araby.” (Mangan’s sister stands behind it.)
Chapter 13- It’s All Political
Assume that Foster is right and “it is all political.” Use his criteria to show that one of the major works assigned to you as a freshman is political.
Chapter 14- Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too
Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major character in a significant literary work. Try to choose a character that will have many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing film- for example, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben Hur.
Chapter 15- Flights of Fancy
Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail.
Chapter 16- It’s All About Sex…
Chapter 17-…Except When it Isn’t
Ok.. The sex chapters. The key idea from this chapter is that “scenes in which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense than literal depictions” (141). In other words, sex is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described, and, if the author if doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or character. Choose a novel or movie in which sex is suggested, but not described, and discuss how the relationship is suggested and how this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.
Chapter 18- If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism
Think of a “baptism scene” from a significant literary work. How was the character different after the experience? Discuss.
Chapter 19- Geography Matters
Discuss at least four aspects of a specific literary work that Foster would classify under “geography.”
Chapter 20- …So Does Season
Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then discuss how the poet uses the season in a meaningful, traditional, or unusual way. (Submit the poem with your analysis.)
Interlude- One Story
Write your own definition for archetype. Then identify an archetypal story and apply it to a literary work with which you are familiar.
Chapter 21- Marked for Greatness
Figure our Harry Potter’s scar. If you aren’t familiar with Harry Potter, select another character with a physical imperfection and analyze its implications for characterization.
Chapter 22- He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23- It’s Never Just Heart Disease…
Chapter 24- …And Rarely Just Illness
Recall two characters who died of a disease in a literary work. Consider how these deaths reflect the “principles governing the use of the disease in literature” (215-217). Discuss the effectiveness of the death as related to plot, theme, or symbolism.
Chapter 25- Don’t Read With Your Eyes
After reading Chapter 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play, or epic written before the twentieth century. Contrast how it could be viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century with how it might be viewed by a contemporary reader. Focus on specific assumptions that the author makes, assumptions that would not make it in this century.
Chapter 26- Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select an ironic literary work and explain the multivocal nature of the irony in the work.
Chapter 27- A Test Case
Read “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, the short story starting on page 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265-266, following the directions exactly. Then compare your writing with the three examples. How did you do? What does the essay that follows comparing Laura to Persephone add to your appreciation of Mansfield’s story?
*Thanks to Sandra Effinger and other members of the College Board EDG for the HTRRLAP assignment*
Part II. ALL AP Literature students are also required to read six novels throughout the school year from the following lists. You must read at least one novel from each category.
Two novels are to be read for summer reading. You may choose any two novels from the outside reading list that is attached. The journals for these novels will be due the second day of school. You will also take an essay test for each of these novels throughout the first week.
You will write a separate journal for each novel.
Each journal should be a minimum FIVE TYPED pages WRITING IN THE FIRST PERSON IS ENCOURAGED!
Requirements: these components must be included in your journals
*Choose 8-10 passages (quotes) from the novel you find particularly powerful, striking, and important. Discuss these passages and the effect they have on the meaning of the novel as a whole. Convince me of their importance!
*Apply two or more chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor to your novel and discuss the way the writer uses these motifs and the effect they have on overall meaning. Provide proof from the text for support.
*Must show plentiful and meaningful personal connections. I am interested in your reactions to your reading. Explore!
*Make connections between the novel and other literary works you have read. Discuss these connections.
*If you have seen a filmed version of your book, you need to include an evaluation of the film as it compares to the book. Keep in mind that it is very rare for a film to be exactly like the book. Never make that
mistake!
*This journal must avoid plot summary at all costs! Look at it as a conversation between us about an interesting piece of literature. Be provocative- tell me something I don’t know! These journals ALSO serve as my first impression about you!
*FOR ALL WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS! Font should be Times New Roman. Use 12 point type.
* The work must be your own and you must include the HFA honor code on the upper left of the first page.
2010-2011 ORB List
Category One:
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, Emma
Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
Charles Dickens Hard Times, Great Expectations
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment
Gustav Flaubert Madame Bovary
Thomas Hardy Tess of the D’Urbervilles Return of the Native The Mayor of Casterbridge
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Category Two:
Kate Chopin The Awakening
James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Geo. Bernard Shaw Major Barbara (play) Pygmalion
Edith Wharton Ethan Frome
Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse
Category Three
William Faulkner Absalom, Absalom, Light in August,
F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night This Side of Paradise
Graham Greene The Power and the Glory The Heart of the Matter
Lillian Hellman The Little Foxes (play)
Earnest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms For Whom the Bell Tolls The Sun Also Rises
Somerset Maugham The Razor’s Edge
John Steinbeck East of Eden The Grapes of Wrath
Category Four
Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale
Albert Camus The Stranger
Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
Joseph Heller Catch-22
Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Bernard Malamud The Fixer
Kurt Vonnegut Breakfast of Champions Cat’s Cradle
Category Five
Isabel Allende The House of the Spirits
Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon, Sula The Bluest Eye Beloved
Tim O’Brien In the Lake of the Woods Going After Cacciato
Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things
Category Six
Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Gabriel Garcia-Marques Love in the Time of Cholera One Hundred Years of Solitude
Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses The Road
Ian McEwan Atonement
Zadie Smith White Teeth
John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces