Literature and Composition
This course sequence surveys major literary works from the Western Canon, beginning with literature from the medieval period through Renaissance through early modernity. We will examine the major questions that have informed the Western literary tradition: man’s understanding of his own experience in the world, and how that understanding is influenced by and in turn influences his relationship to God. In the pre-Christian tradition, we consider the ways in which the individual confronts the conditions of his own knowledge, morality, and place in society. At every stage, the historical context of the literature—the relevant historical, social and philosophical concerns– will be integral to our understanding of the questions and concerns represented by the various authors.
This course will largely follow a chronological sequence, but we will read one or two novels and one or two of Shakespeare’s plays with attention to thematic content, and we will likewise examine poetry from various periods that is thematically relevant, where it may not be chronologically contiguous.
There will be careful attention paid to the historical conventions of poetry and its forms, and the analysis and understanding thereof. Writing for the course focuses on both the traditional skills of literary analysis, but also thoughtful synthesis and reflection, and students can expect both analytical and creative writing assignments.
Readings include literature from the following authors (or works): Marlowe, Shakespeare, 16th -17th century poets including Sidney, Donne, and Jonson, Swift, Milton, Johnson, 18th-19th century poets including Blake, Dickinson, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron and Shelley, Tennyson, Whitman, and Eliot.
Plays read by Shakespeare may include: Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, Love’s Labours Lost, or The Comedy of Errors.
Our study of the novel may include work by the following authors: Austen, Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, Dumas, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy.
AP® Literature and Composition
This class provides more in-depth practice for the analytical study of literature across genres: students build close reading/analytical skills, practice written literary analysis, study literary terms and rhetorical figures to build their understanding of how authors communicate ideas in literature, and learn to apply their analytical skills to a variety of texts across historical periods.
This course is intended to prepare students to successfully complete the AP® exam in English Literature and Composition.