sign in sign up
<<
Home , Native Son, The Age of Innocence

18th May 2020

Dear Prospective Year 12 English Literature Students

Back in , I sent out a document with a suggested reading list to prepare you for the A Level course and to help to keep you busy during this unusual period. This list is still an important resource to help you prepare for studying Literature at Sixth Form.

The Literature team now have some tasks that we wish for you to complete. We would expect students beginning the course to have completed the list of tasks below, and to bring them to class when Sixth Form begins. These are incredibly important to the work on 1880-1940, one of the units on the course.

American Literature 1880-1940

When we return to Farlingaye, you will be studying two novels set in this time period. The two novels we will be studying are The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) and (). In understanding these texts, you need to understand the context of America at the time, and in understanding that, we need to understand the wider context of America leading up to 1880.

Your project is to study the ‘Making America’ context (the history, society, culture etc.) up until 1880.

To do this, you will:

1. Create notes (in whatever form suits you best, e.g. timelines, mind maps etc.) for each century from 1600 until 1880. More information is below, including some areas to focus you on important issues. 2. Create a reference guide for key terms. Again, information is below.

Optional extension: 3. Read one of the novels, carry out some research and answer the questions. More information below. 4. Watch one of the films, carry out some research and answer the questions. More information below.

Task 1: Creating notes

Focus on 100 years at a time, starting with 1600, and produce an information sheet for each century. For this task and for Task 2, use the internet and videos on Youtube. At the bottom is a list of useful links to Youtube videos.

 Presidents and politics – any major laws? How did it affect life? How did people respond?  Conflicts – between whom? Where fought? Outcome? Short and long-term consequences?  Key dates?  Art and culture – important artists? Cultural movements? What caused them? How did they reflect American life? Key writers?  What was society like? Was there a class system? Who had power? Slavery?  Cultural diversity  What was life like in cities and in the country?  Was there a difference between the northern states and the southern states?

It may help to understand the time as these (overlapping) eras: Colonial Period (1607- 1754), Puritan Times (1650-1750), The Age of Reason (1750-1800), Romanticism (1800- 1865), Realism (1850-1900).

Task 2: Creating a Reference Guide

Below is a list of key moments and ideas. You need to create a glossary where you give detailed information about what each term means and what happened/how it affected people.

 The American Civil War and emancipation  Reconstruction Era  Manifest Destiny  The Monroe Doctrine  Jeffersonian Agrarianism  Gold rush  The American Dream  The Constitution and the Bill of Rights  Migration west- pursuit of the frontier

Useful Youtube videos for Tasks 1 and 2:  American history from 1600 - only use up to about 20 mins (after witch trials /expansion west): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMnXJpOYRYg  1700-1860: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/history- survey/us-history-survey/v/us-history-overview-1-jamestown-to-the-civil-war  There is lots on the Civil War. Here is a short cartoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v5pY9300MQ  Jeffersonian Agrarianism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxQDRRNWv3c  The Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny (explains how America got ‘made’ - it wasn’t just always ‘there’): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ClU_kS4uiY  Manifest Destiny (shorter): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japRb6U_FuQ  The Gold rush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDkqvqqjMAA Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxekRM5-uMU  and Oregon Trail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iquQUhja7ec

Extension tasks

Whilst these are extensions, we would strongly encourage reading novels and watching films to get a strong and visceral understanding of the times. Everything you do now will benefit your A Level and will prepare you for the new term.

Task 3: Book review

Read one (or more!) of the following. These are from 1880-1940 time period, so just after the point you have been researching. These 60 years are the main focus of the unit. We would recommend you read a few summaries to see which novel might interest you the most.

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (1881)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895)

The Age of Innocence by

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)

The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1904)

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1905)

The Jungle by (1906)

Three Lives by Gertrude Stein (1909)

My Antonia by (1918)

The Magnificent Ambersons by (1918)

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (1919)

Main Street by (1920)

Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson (1921) Cane by Jean Toomer (1923)

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dresier (1925)

The Sun Also Rises by (1926)

The Bridge of the San Luis Rey by (1927)

Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (1928)

The Sound and the Fury by (1929)

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (1929)

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930)

Flowering Judas and Other Stories by Katherine Porter (1930)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931)

Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (1934)

The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)

Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara (1934)

The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos (1936)

Gone with the Wind by (1936)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West (1939)

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)

Native Son by (1940)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)

Carry out some research into:

 The novel’s time and geographical settings and relevant context  The author’s life

Answer these questions:

 When was the novel written/set?  Who is narrating? If it is first person, what are their views?  How is the text structured? Is it chronological or is the narrative interrupted? Why?  What is the writer’s language like? Do they use any repeated images or motifs?  How are different types of characters presented? E.g. Are there different expectations for the behaviour of men and women? What about wealth or class? Are any characters prejudiced against? What hardships are there? What about technology?  Can you see any similarities or differences to anything else you have read?  How has context affected the novel? Can you explain why a character behaves a certain way or how ideas or beliefs have come about?

Task 4: Film Review

Watch one (or more!) of the following…

(The brackets show the era the film roughly covers)

The New World (1607 ‘onwards’)

The Scarlet Letter (1660s)

The Crucible (1690s)

The Last Of The Mohicans (1757 ‘onwards’)

12 Years A Slave (1841)

Gone With The Wind (1861 ‘onwards’)

Amistad (1839 ‘onwards’)

Harriet (1840s)

Lincoln (1860s)

Gettysburg (1860s)

Glory (1860s)

The Age Of Innocence (1870s)

Far and Away (1890s)

The Untouchables (1930s)

Of Mice and Men (1930s)

On The Waterfront (Late 1940s –early 1950s)

Malcolm X (1940s onwards)

Wall Street (1980s)

Do The Right Thing (1989/1990)

Boyhood (2000 onwards)

Carry out some research:

 The film’s time and geographical settings and relevant contexts.

Answer these questions:

 When was the film set/made?  Who is the main character? What is their life like and are we encouraged to empathize with them?  How is the film structured? Is it chronological or is the narrative interrupted? Why?  How are different types of characters presented? E.g. Are there different expectations for the behaviour of men and women? What about wealth or class? Are any characters prejudiced against? What hardships are there? What about technology?  Can you see any similarities or differences to anything else you have read/watched?  How has context affected the film? Can you explain why a character behaves a certain way or how ideas or beliefs have come about?

We hope you enjoy these tasks and that you feel like your understanding of this country and its culture is growing.

Best wishes

Miss Kerridge and the Literature Team