20TH Century American Literature

AP Literature and Composition Class Syllabus Year of 2012-13 Period 3 Instructor:  Ms. Catherine Trein, M.A.  E-mail: [email protected]  Office hours: 1st period; before or after school

Description:  This course has been designed as a college-level introductory course in literature and writing. Upon completion of the yearlong course, the student should be prepared to take the Advanced Placement English Literature Exam. As such, the student will be exposed to a wide array of reading and writing. While participation on the AP exam is anticipated, the goals and objectives for the course go beyond test performance and focus instead upon expanding the skills and knowledge of the student.

Upon completing the course, then, students should be able to utilize the following skills:  Analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques.  Apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing.  Create and sustain arguments based on reading, research, and/or personal experiences.  Demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings.  Write in a variety of genres and contexts, both formal and informal, employing appropriate convention.  Move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.

As writers, students will  Employ a variety of rhetorical structures appropriate for various purposes and audiences.  Subordinate parts to an effective whole and create appropriate transitions between them.  Adopt the conventions of the appropriate discipline or discourse community when writing for a particular audience.  Use a wide-ranging vocabulary with denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness.  Use a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and coordinate constructions.  Develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques of coherence.  Employ an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving emphasis.

As readers, students will  Identify the purpose and modes of discourse and explain their relationship to rhetorical structure.  Explain how the parts of discourse are related to each other and to the whole.  Recognize the conventions of different genres and historical periods, and identify the assumptions authors have made about their audiences. Requirements:  Journal: daily 5-10 minutes worth 10 points per day (blocks 20 points).  Attendance and Participation

This first and second semester course will be structured into seven (7) units. Each unit (except for the first, introductory, unit) will have a central theme and will contain the following activities:  Anchor novel / play – dialectical journals for Socratic Seminars, daily reading assignments, weekly student-led Socratic Seminars; quizzes as needed.  Co-texts (novels, drama, short stories, poetry) – daily reading assignments, in-class reading assignments, in-class discussion circles and Socratic Seminars  Bi-weekly timed writings – practice AP questions  Bi-weekly review of literary terms – review and prepare glossary and handouts  Thematic essay – Students will write an essay for each unit, developing a response from a timed writing or another topic. Any type of essay may be used at any time (argumentative, evaluation, explication, comparison, analysis, critical strategy).  Student identified co-texts – Students will research and identify a piece of work that enhances the thematic learning of each unit. Students will be responsible for teaching a mini-lesson on their co-texts for each unit.  Independent reading project – Students will read one outside novel per unit to be selected from a teacher-provided list. Students will complete an oral report for the novel to be presented to the class.  Socratic Seminar – Students will participate in discussions that require students to think for themselves rather than filling their heads with the “right” answers. Socratic Seminars begin with an open-ended question. Ideas, not opinions, are discussed. Applicable examples and quotes will be selected from the text to back-up or prove ideas. Every student will be take a turn at being a seminar leader.  Homework: You should be reading and reviewing DAILY!

Texts:  The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 6th and 8th editions, texts. (Meyer, Michael, Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002, 2008).  Essential Literary Terms (2007), Sharon Hamilton  Oedipus Rex, Sophocles  Pride and Prejudice, Austen  A Doll’s House, Ibsen  The Awakening, Chopin  Othello, Shakespeare  Jane Eyre, Bronte  Death of a Salesman, Miller  The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver  Krapp’s Last Tape, Beckett  One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez  Antigone, Sophocles  Catcher In the Rye, Salinger Grading:  Straight points. The grading scale for this class is as follows:  A = 90 - 100%; B = 80 – 89%; C = 70 – 79%; D = 60 – 69%; F = 59% and below.

Supplies:  You will need a three-ring notebook and loose-leaf paper for class and assignments; this notebook should be designated ONLY for this class. Always bring this notebook and a pen to class.  You will need a spiral notebook with at least 90 pages to use as a daily journal. This notebook is to be used ONLY for this class’s journals. The daily journal will be left in class and checked weekly or bi-weekly.

Absences and Tardies:  You are expected to be in class EVERY DAY.  Absences will hurt your grades.  Tardies are not acceptable; 3 tardies = 1 unexcused absence.  After 3 unexcused absences, your parents will be contacted, and you will be placed on an attendance contract.  After 4 unexcused absences, administration will begin truancy proceedings.  After 10 unexcused absences, the student will receive no credit for the class.

Expectations:  Come prepared for class with your notebook, a pen, and the text we are using.  All assignments must follow the handout “Manuscript Rules” which you will be given.  You may make-up journals and work if you have excused absences within one day of the absence.  MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TURNED-IN ON DUE DATES: NO EXCUSED ABSENCES ACCEPTED.  NO LATE WORK IS ACCEPTED! NO EXCEPTIONS!  Make-up is corrected AFTER I have corrected all other work!  Incomplete work will NOT be accepted.  All work must be YOUR work; any assignments that are copies or are “collaborations” will receive zeroes (0s).  Major assignments must always have documentation; plagiarism will earn a zero (0) in the class. (See handout on “Plagiarism.”)  Always be prepared to explain your work via brainstorming, outlines, and rough drafts.  You will be given a separate handout of class “Rules” which must be followed.

Parent Worksheet:  This worksheet must be completed by your parent and/or guardian and returned by the end of the first full week of class.  No exceptions.

. KEEPING A DIALECTICAL JOURNAL For Socratic Seminar

Keeping a dialectical notebook means dialoguing with your text. Make the dialectical journal by drawing a line down 1/3 of the page. On the left side, record important lines from the text and ask two Genuine Questions (GQs). These can be Level 2 or Level 3 questions. On the right side of the page, react to the lines – why they are striking, confusing, important, etc. and answer the GQs.

Usually I will ask for ten (10) pertinent quotes for each Socratic Seminar. These are due the day of the Socratic Seminar. No late or incomplete work accepted.

Genuine Questions criteria:  The response to the question is not found directly in the literature. The response is only inferred from the literature.  The response to the question will NOT be just “yes” or “no.”  The question will incite thought and, therefore, will be more than a few words.  There is more that one plausible response to the question: the answer is debatable.  The answer to the question must be supported by examples in the literature. (Give page numbers; this will help you when you are writing your essays!)  The question is important to meaning or theme; the question and the answer will help us better understand the story.

Vocabulary List: Keep a running vocabulary list. The best way to learn new words is to READ. Keeping this list and including the words in your writing will also help. From your reading: Jot down words you do not know, look them up in the dictionary, and write your own meanings. Use them in a sentence. Draw a picture to help you learn and/or understand the meaning.

Seminars: We will have student-led seminars on each anchor text. Write down questions and quotes that can be used in these discussions. Introductory Unit: (approximately 2 weeks)

 Bedford Text: Read Intro pp. 1-7; read Chapter 1, “Reading Fiction.” Begin your dialectical journal (questions, vocabulary, ideas, etc).  Journals  Identifying Literary Devices and their Effectiveness (Pre-test?)  AP Test: become familiar with test, expectations, and scoring  MLA Format  Induction: Paraphrase, Commentary, Essential Questions  Socratic Seminars  Critical Strategies: Read Chapter 52 (51). Group work: posters and collages: “What are some different types of literary criticism? How does a particular work of literature look when examined under the lens of different types of literary criticism?”  Bedford Text: Read Chapter 2, “Writing About Fiction.”  Review: Bedford Text: Chapters 3-9.  Bedford Text: Read Chapter 10, “Combining the Elements of Fiction.”

Unit One – Who Am I? Search for Identity: (5 weeks)

The question every human faces is that of identity: defining one’s Self based on values, interests, dreams, and perceptions. One way to facilitate the search is to study literature. Authors can experiment with style, tone, and point of view to help characters establish identity and to provide readers with new insight to identity. How to discuss, evaluate, and use literature are critical for any reader hoping to know text and him/herself.

Essential Questions:  Who and what gives us our identity?  What happens when identities collide?  What is the corollary between multiple critical lenses and ourself/selves?  If language shapes identity, how does it do so?

Anchor play and novel: Oedipus Rex, Sophocles (Bedford Text, Chapter 43 (45)); Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Co-texts:  The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams  “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor  “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner  Trifles, Susan Glaspell  “Negro,” Langston Hughes  “Daddy,” Sylvia Plath  Ralph Waldo Emerson (your pick!)  “Traveling through the Dark,” W. Stafford  “Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce Springsteen  “To an Athlete Dying Young,” A.E. Housman  “Manners,” Bishop  “Death Be Not Proud,” Donne  “The Fish,” Bishop  Bradford Text: Chapters 20, 21, and 30 (21, 22, and 31) on Poetry; review Chapters 22-29 (23- 30).  Bradford Text: Chapters 41 and 42 (43 and 44) on Drama  A pick of your own

Independent Reading Options: (You must pick one and prepare an oral report for the class):  Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll  My Antonia, Willa Cather  Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison  Light in August, William Faulkner  The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald  The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway  A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving  The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro  Portrait of a Lady, Henry James  The Namesake: A Novel, Jhumpa Lahiri  No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy  Sula, Toni Morrison  The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor  We Were the Mulvaneys; Wonderland, Joyce Carol Oates  The Shipping News, Annie Proulx  Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmund Rostand  The Help, Kathryn Stockett  The Joy Luck Club; Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy Tan  Ethan Frome; The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton  Orlando, Virginia Woolf  Black Boy; Native Son, Richard Wright

Unit Two – Marriage and Family (5 weeks)

When is a family a family? This unit will help you to consider the definition of family and the impact of family on development of character and of your “Self.” There is no one ideal type of family, and our American culture draws much of its strength from the diversity that we all bring to it. When reading a book about a non-traditional family, you will be better equipped to understand your own families, many of which may not resemble the mother, father, sibling “normal” arrangement.

Essential Questions:  What defines family?  What is a “normal” family?  What happens when conflict is introduced to a family?  How does family influence one’s identity?  Does the portrayal of family in literature affect “Self”? In what ways? Anchor play and novel: A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen, Bedford Text, Chapter 46 (48); The Awakening, Kate Chopin

Co-texts:  Hamlet, William Shakespeare (Bedford Text, Chapter 44 (46); read whole chapter! except for A Midsummer’s Night Dream)  “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne  “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” Anton Checkhov  “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” Joyce Carol Oates  “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”; “Dance Africaine,” Langston Hughes  “The Flea,” John Donne  “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” Anne Bradstreet  “My Last Duchess,” Robert Browning  “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke  “Marks,” Linda Pastan  “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways,” Browning  “The Shirt,” Jane Kenyon  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee, film  Bedford Text: Chapter 45 (47)  Bedford Text: Chapter 46 (48)  A pick of your own

Independent Reading Options: You must pick one and prepare an oral report for the class:

 Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom  The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende  Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya  The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood  The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards  Freedom, Jonathan Franzen  The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne  Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley  A Pale View of the Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro  Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce  A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean  Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez  All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy  Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt  A Member of the Wedding; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers  Every Last One, Anne Quindlen  An Unfinished Life, Mark Spragg  Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner  The Accidental Tourist; Digging to America, Anne Tyler  The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton  Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates Unit Three – Good vs. Evil (5 weeks)

Beginning in childhood, people struggle with issues of good and evil. The conscience guides most people in making decisions about actions, deciding what is good or evil. Historically, societies have determined what is good and evil and have then established laws to illustrate the concepts. This unit will examine situations involving moral choices. This will challenge you to examine your own conscience and how and where it directs you.

Essential Questions:  What are good and evil? Is evil an intrinsic part of human nature? Is good?  What happens when moral systems collide?  What is the difference between sin and crime?  How does point of view affect the presentation of good and evil?  What are “gothic elements”? How do they affect the atmosphere, mood, and tone of a work?

Anchor play and novel: Othello, William Shakespeare Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte Co-texts:  Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen  “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” F. O’Connor  “The Birthmark,” N. Hawthorne  “The Cask of Amontillado,” E.A. Poe  “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” J. Edwards (handout)  “Mafioso,” S. Gilbert  “Casual Wear,” J. Merrill  “Mid-term Break,” S. Heaney (handout)  “The Haunted Palace,” Poe  “On Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tragic Vision,” H. Melville (374)  In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, film  Capote, film and/or Infamous, film  Bedford Text: Chapters 11and 12 (Hawthorne and O’Connor)  A pick of your own

 Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe  A Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt  Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte  In Cold Blood, Truman Capote  Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky  Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser  Madame Bovary, Gustav Flaubert  A Passage to India, E. M. Forster  The End of the Affair, Graham Greene  Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy  Brave New World, Aldous Huxley  The Aspern Papers; The Turn of the Screw, Henry James  The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova  Wicked, Gregory Maguire  Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe  The Road, Cormac McCarthy  Moby Dick; Billy Budd, Herman Melville  Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton  Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys  Interview with a Vampire, Anne Rice  The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield  Frankenstein, Mary Shelley  Candide, Voltaire  The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde  The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe  Native Son, Richard Wright  The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Unit Four – Loss of Innocence (5 weeks)

The topic of loss will allow you to deal with issues of maturity, decision-making, and value formation in an open, informed, and frank atmosphere. Sidestepping important questions or distorting reality with half-truths or myths is not the job of literature. Discovering what is valuable in your own life, the lives of your peers, and the world at large is an integral part of coming of age. Examining and comparing values, beliefs, and other points of view are the first steps to critically reading text.

Essential Questions:  What is innocence? What is loss?  What has been the development of “loss” in literature?  What defines “realistic” expectations of life?  Is life in literature fair? Should it be?  Does literature represent life or vice versa?  When do we let go of our innocence?  How does one move from childhood to adulthood?  Is there a “rite of passage” to do so?

Anchor play and novel: Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, Bedford text: Chapter 49 (50). The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

Co-texts:  “A&P,” John Updike  “Eveline,” James Joyce  “How to Tell a War Story,” Tim O’Brien  “Soldier’s Home,” Ernest Hemingway  A Modest Proposal, Swift (handout)  “Battle Royal,” Ralph Ellison  “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” William Blake  “The Chimney Sweeper,” William Blake  “Richard Cory,” E.A. Robinson  “The Shower,” A. Choi  “Invocation,” R. Morgan  “The ABC of Aerobics,” P. Meinke  “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” Randall Jarrell  A pick of your own

 Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte  A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess  Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad  The Hours, Michael Cunningham  The Brother Karamazov, Fyodor Doestoevsky  Lord of the Flies, William Golding  Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson  The Kite Runner; A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini  A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving  The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver  Life of Pi, Yann Martel  The Road, Cormac McCarthy  1984, George Orwell  The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx  The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand  Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins  Blindness, Jose Saramago  No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith  Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy  The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh

Unit Five – Appearance vs. Reality (5 weeks)

“Truth” includes both metaphysical and narrative dimensions. How to live an authentic life is the central metaphysical concern; how to read a text in which past, present, and future merge; in which retellings of the same event occur; and in which ambiguity reigns supreme are its narrative concerns. Additionally, language can be used to hide truth as well as illuminate it.

Essential Questions:  What is truth? Is it absolute or relative?  What is the relationship between language and truth?  How willing are we to embrace truth?  What if a “truth” leads us to violate an essential element of our self-concept?  Does literature present truths or undermine them?  What is “magic realism”?  Must truth be realistic?

Anchor play and novel: Krapp’s Last Tape, Samuel Beckett, (Bedford text, Chapter 47 (50). One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Co-texts:  “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the Whole World,” Marquez  “A Hunger Artist,” Franz Kafka  “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner  “Barn-Burning,” William Faulkner, (Bedford test, Chapter 14 (13).  Bedford text: Chapter 16 (17), “A Thematic Case Study”, (Metafiction).  “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson, (handout).  “The Convergence of the Twain,” Hardy  “Titanic,” Slavitt  “Unholy Sonnet,” Jarman  “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” Dylan Thomas  “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Whitman  Chapter 34 (36), “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot  A pick of your own

 Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood  In Cold Blood, Truman Capote  Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis DeBernieres  Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow  As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner  The French Lieutenant’s Woman; The Magus, John Fowles  A Map of the World; The Book of Ruth, Jane Hamilton  Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston  The Wild Duck, Henrik Ibsen  The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera  The Fox, D.H. Lawrence  In Country, Bobbie Ann Mason  Expensive People, Missing Mom, Joyce Carol Oates  In the Lake of the Woods; The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien  1984, George Orwell  The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath  All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard  Cane, Jean Toomer  Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut  All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren  To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

Unit Six – Alienation (5 weeks)

One characteristic of modern culture is coming face to face with others whose language, customs, experience, and beliefs are unfamiliar. Language and image can play particularly potent roles in these encounters. You will consider how the figure of the stranger and other “archetypal figures” may be assimilated, rejected, understood, or misunderstood.

Essential Questions:  How does literature shape our encounters with those different from ourselves?  What does it mean to be “the stranger”?  What are other common archetypes encountered in literature?  What gains and losses in identity may come through unfamiliar encounters?  How do we approach the boundaries of what is familiar?  How can language and culture be both unifying and divisive?

Anchor play and novel: Antigone, Sophocles, (Bedford text, Chapter 43 (45). Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Co-texts:  “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Herman Melville  “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman (handout)  “Miss Brill, “ Katherine Mansfield  “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes  “Telephone Conversation,” W. Soyinka  “Sex Without Love,” Sharon Olds  “She being Brand,” ee cummings  “What It’s Like to be a Black Girl,” Smith  Bedford text, Chapter 27 (28), “Patterns of Rhythm,” review  Bedford text, Chapter 31 (32), “Dickinson”  Bedford text, Chapter 15 (14), “Joyce”  A pick of your own

 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou  Middlemarch, George Eliot  Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison  Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert  Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier  The End of the Affair, Graham Greene  Plainsong; Eventide, Kent Haruf  The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne  Catch 22, Joseph Heller  A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway  The Iliad; The Odyssey, Homer  A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini  The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo  Ironweed, William Kennedy  Wicked, Gregory Maguire  The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham  The Road, Cormac McCarthy  Blonde; The Falls, Joyce Carol Oates  The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand  Save Me the Waltz, Zelda Sayre  The Jungle, Upton Sinclair  A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn  East of Eden; The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson  The Help, Kathryn Stockett  The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton