AP English Literature Summer Reading Assignment 2017-18
The following is the summer reading requirement for AP English Literature. We will be reading and writing a great deal next year, so we’re going to get a jump on things by doing some reading over the summer. All of you should be able to find something that interests you from the enclosed list.
You should not read SparkNotes, CliffsNotes, or any other “notes” in lieu of reading these primary texts. I am not interested in what the writers of SparkNotes and CliffsNotes have to say about the literature. I want to hear what you think. You should analyze and interpret the literature on your own.
First you need to get a response journal for your reading. This should be a spiral notebook or a bound “composition style” notebook about 8 1/2 x 11 in size. Choose something you are comfortable using. This notebook will serve as your Response Journal for the entire year.
On the inside cover I want you to attach the reading list I have enclosed. Highlight, or indicate in some manner, those books you feel you know well. You will need a cache of reference literature for your AP test. Also include other works that are not listed if you feel that they fit the requirements of the list. Be sure to indicate them by some mark different from your other indicators.
1. Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky. Read this book last. This will be the first book that we will be discussing in class and it should be fresh in your mind.
A. Consult the AP Central English Literature Author Pages and click on Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Read and take notes on the Introduction and the Chronology.
Follow these guidelines for Crime and Punishment:
B. As you read, take notes, i.e., annotate the novel by (a) writing questions and comments in the margins, (b) noting issues you would like to discuss in class, (c) underlining quotes or ideas that interest you, (d) noting patterns of literary devices (i.e. diction, imagery, metaphor, symbolism, syntax, detail, irony, allusion, hyperbole, understatement, foreshadowing, motifs—think about how Dostoyevsky uses these techniques, (e) mark important events and conversations, character motivations, and ideas that suggest Dostoyevsky’s themes. You will use post-it notes for these annotations. These should reflect a CLOSE reading of the novel; you will use them during our class discussions of the text.
These notes will be part of your summer reading grade.
C. Select, then xerox, scan, or type one passage from the novel that effectively describes each of the following:
o The setting o The main character o One other character o A major conflict o A theme or idea
Below the passage, write 100-200 words explaining why you chose this passage. I don’t want summary. I want to know WHY you thought this passage was noteworthy. Use your notebook for these responses. These are also due the first day of class. You should have FIVE journal entries, one on each of the above topics.
We will use these for our first discussions on the novel.
D. You will be writing an essay on Crime and Punishment during the first day of class.
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2. Read at least two other books from the enclosed reading list. Choose books you have not read prior to this summer.
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If you have any questions about any of the above information, please email me at [email protected]. I may not get back to you right away, but I will get back to you within a few days.
Have a great summer! I look forward to working with each of you next year.
AP Reading List
Based on the examinations from 1981 to 2012, the following is a list of the authors, plays and novels that have been suggested for use on the open essay questions of the AP exam. There have, of course, also been hundreds of other appropriate novels and plays that were not on the list of suggested titles.
Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart Aeschylus: the Oresteia Julia Alvarez: In the Time of Butterflies Aristophanes: Lysistrata Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace, The Handmaid’s Tale Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility Saul Bellow: The Adventures of Augie March James Baldwin: Go Tell it on the Mountain Bertolt Brecht: Mother Courage and Her Children Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights Willa Cather: My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, One of Ours Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote Anton Chekov: The Cherry Orchard Kate Chopin: The Awakening Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim, Victory James Fenimore Cooper: The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Prairie Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders Charles Dickens: Great Expectations, David Copperfield E.L.Doctorow: Ragtime Feodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov Theodor Dreiser: An American Tragedy, Sister Carrie Allen Drury: Advise and Consent George Eliot: Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man Euripides: Medea William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby, Babylon Revisited Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary E. M. Forster: A Passage to India John Fowles: The French Lieutenant’s Woman Myla Goldberg: Bee Season Graham Greene: The Heart of the Matter Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far from the Madding Crowd Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter Lillian Hellman: The Little Foxes Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha William Dean Howells: The Rise of Silas Lapham Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Aldous Huxley: Brave New World Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler Henry James: The Turn of the Screw, Portrait of a Lady Franz Kafka: Metamorphosis, The Trial Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Maxine Hong Kingston: Woman Warrior Joy Kogawa: Obasan D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers Sinclair Lewis: Main Street, Elmer Gantry, Arrowsmith, Babbitt Bernard Malamud: The Fixer John Marquand: The Late George Apley Gabriel Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian Herman Melville: Billy Budd, Moby Dick Arthur Miller: All My Sons, The Crucible Toni Morrison: Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye Bharati Mukherjee: Tree Bride Joyce Carol Oates: We Were the Mulvaneys Flannery O’Connor: Wise Blood Eugene O’Neill: The Hairy Ape, Long Day’s Journey Into Night Alan Paton: Cry, The Beloved Country Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea Jean-Paul Sartre: No Exit William Shakespeare: all plays George Bernard Shaw: Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Pygmalion Leslie Marmon Silko: Ceremony Upton Sinclair: The Jungle, World’s End John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin William Styron: The Confessions of Nat Turner Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina Mark Twain: Huck Finn Voltaire: Candide Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five Alice Walker: The Color Purple Robert Penn Warren: All the President’s Men Evelyn Waugh: The Loved One Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest Thornton Wilder: Our Town Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse Richard Wright: Native Son