Berkshire School

AP English Literature and Composition

Berkshire English
AP English Literature and Composition
2010 – 2011 Syllabus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

This course consists of six curricular units, with texts drawn from each of the literary genres
poetry, drama, and fiction. The units vary in length (from two to five weeks), commensurate
with the tight schedule of the boarding school academic year, but they follow the general
organizational principal of British Literature, which students in the non-AP track at Berkshire
take in their senior year. Building on the fundamental skills introduced in our sophomore course,
“Elements of Literature and Introduction to Analysis,” as well as the junior-year courses
“American Literature: A Comparative Approach” and “AP English Language and
Composition,” AP English Literature seeks to immerse students in some of the English
language’s richest literature while encouraging the asking and answering of one enduring,
fundamental question: how do the writer’s techniques contribute to the overall effect of the text?
Doing close reading, the students must select the most salient details of the text upon which to
build rigorous and persuasive arguments.

While all of the primary texts are canonical, nearly each unit includes more contemporary,
alternate voices, and the issues we examine include racial and gender identity, inter-textuality,
and post-modernism. As such, the course is conversant with more recent academic tendencies in
studying these works. In the future, we will endeavor to find a way to truncate the existing units
to include a more contemporary “British” text, such as Sadie Smith’s White Teeth

Assessments in all the units are largely expository, analytical, and argumentative. Students write
extended formal, multi-drafted essays as well as shorter response papers throughout most of the
year. They also write many responses to free-response questions (FRQs) from prior AP English
Literature exams. These assignments evaluate students’ ability to identify how writers use
literary elements (such as imagery, tone, figurative language, verse forms, etc.) to create specific
effects, in longer works and in short, close-analysis passages. They also give students the ability
to develop strategies for responding to questions in conditions similar to those they will
encounter on the exam.

Additionally, students practice multiple-choice questions, one passage and the attendant
questions, every two weeks throughout the course. These exercises along with the FRQs provide
the modus vivendi for developing the critical vocabulary useful for the AP English Literature and
Composition exam. They keep a journal for informal responses, notes from reading at home, etc.

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AP English Literature and Composition

UNIT INFORMATION

1) British Lyric Poetry

Content and/or Skills Taught:

Content:

English language poetry dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Most selections are
taken from The Norton Anthology of Poetry, (shorter) 5th edition. Readings are extensive,
often including all of the poems for individual writers contained in the anthology.

Goals:

 To learn the characteristic features and tendencies of Renaissance, Enlightenment,

Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist era poetry and thinking, in context of the larger
intellectual trends of these historical periods.

 To identify and comment on the use of poetic elements, including diction, tone, imagery,
figurative language, symbolism, sound, verse form, and theme.

 To explore the relationships between form and content in poetry.

 To compare the various iterations of common verse forms, such as the sonnet, in
historical context.

 To distinguish between individual writers’ styles and attitudes, particularly in reference to

similar subjects and themes.

 To connect the poetry of disparate writers and intellectual eras to the students’ personal
experiences (to activate prior knowledge).

 To consider the issues and controversies of canon formation.

 To weigh the importance of identity politics, particularly gender race, country of origin,
and sexual orientation, to an historical understanding of poetry.

 To evaluate the aesthetic merit of poems and the assumptions involved in selecting one
poem as "better" than another.

 To develop a broad sense of the major intellectual periods/trends in British history, from
the Renaissance to Post-modernism.

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Major Assignments and/or Assessments:

One major, analytical-argumentative, take-home essays, topics changing year-to-year,

with each prompt requiring students to connect the use of poetic elements to overall
aesthetic effect and intellectual context. The essays ask students to compare the work of
one or more writers from one historical context to that from another historical period.
Emphasis is placed on thesis formation, use of textual evidence, matching structure to
content, and achieving appropriate academic tone and voice. Teacher and peer feedback
are provided throughout the drafting process.
Students also complete multiple (four or five) FRQ. Evaluation of these is holistic,
according to a generalized rubric based on the AP model.

2) “Perced to the Roote”: Canterbury Tales and the beginning of English-ness is

literature
Content and/or Skills Taught:

Content:
Canterbury Tales (c. 1400)

Goals:

 To learn the characteristic features and tendencies of late-medieval early-Renaissance

narrative poetry, such as fantasy and satire, ideas about gender and chivalry in
characterization, editorial omniscience, etc.

 To identify and comment on the use of elements of narrative poetry, including diction,
point of view, tone (especially irony), imagery, figurative language, symbolism, theme,
characterization, and allegory.

 To describe and contextualize Chaucer’s attitudes about gender identity and sexism,
investigating the question of whether the author was an early feminist.

 To describe and contextualize Chaucer’s social criticism, with particular regard to the
role of the church.

 To connect the themes and plot of the tales to the students’ personal experiences (to
activate prior knowledge).

 To explore the relationships between form and content in narrative poetry.

 To practice close reading of key passages in the text.

 To differentiate between and characterize different critical approaches (New Critical,

Feminist, New Historicist, and others) to the text.

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Major Assignments and/or Assessments:

One major analytical-argumentative, take-home essay, completed at the end of the unit,
on one of several topics in the Tales. Emphasis is placed on thesis formation, use of
textual evidence, matching structure to content, and achieving appropriate academic tone
and voice. Evaluation is holistic, according to a generalized rubric based on the AP
model.

Two FRQ essays, completed in-class, according to an AP or AP-like prompt and based
on passages from the Tales. Evaluation is holistic, according to a generalized rubric based
on the AP model.

3) “When Sorrows Come…”: Hamlet and the structure of Shakespearean tragedy

Content and/or Skills Taught:

Content:
Hamlet (1601); the Branagh film Hamlet (1996); essays on Hamlet by various critics
(Hazlitt, Bradley, and Bloom); Aristotle’s Poetics (c. 330 BCE); Freytag’s Theory of
Drama (1863)

Goals:

 To engage various theories of tragedy and tragic structure, including Aristotle’s mimetic
theory (the tragic hero, hamartia, hubris, reversal, irony of fate, catharsis) and Freytag’s
5-act structure of tragedy.

 To identify and comment on the use of verse-dramatic elements, including diction, tone,
imagery, figurative language, symbolism, themes, scene-and-act plot structure, and
staging (mis-en-scene).

 To evaluate the alleged universality of Shakespearean literature, particularly as expressed

by adaptations, such as The Lion King, and by critical receptions to the play.

 To connect the themes and plot of Hamlet to the students’ personal experiences (to
activate prior knowledge).

 To explore the western notions of heroism and filial relationships, of loyalty and service.

 To explore the meaning and importance of suffering, judgment, and fate in tragedy.

 To describe the relationship between form and content in Shakespearean drama.

Major Assignments and/or Assessments:

One major analytical-argumentative, take-home essay, completed at the end of the unit,
on one of several topics: the nature of the “intellect/hero” in Hamlet, the relationships

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between Hamlet and the supplemental fictive texts, or the applicability of theories of
tragedy to Hamlet. Emphasis is placed on thesis formation, use of textual evidence,
matching structure to content, and achieving appropriate academic tone and voice.
Teacher and peer feedback are provided throughout the drafting process. Evaluation is
holistic, according to a generalized rubric based on the AP model.

There is also one FRQ, based on a prominent soliloquy in Hamlet.

4) “The Horror! The Horror!:” Heart of Darkness and the fiction of race

Content and/or Skills Taught:

Content:
Heart of Darkness (1899); Francis Ford Coppolla’s film Apocalypse Now (1999); “An
Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” (1977); various Nietzsche and
Freud readings

Goals:

 To learn the characteristic preoccupations of Edwardian and early-modern fiction, such as

realism and naturalism, attitudes toward empire, new ideas about race and the Other in
characterization, etc.

 To identify and comment on the use of elements of fiction, including diction, point of
view, tone, imagery, figurative language, symbolism, theme, plot structure, and
characterization, particularly in the context of the Modernism of which Conrad was a
fore-runner.

 To identify and discriminate between overt and implied meaning—to develop the
students’ sense of inference.

 To describe and contextualize Conrad’s attitudes about the unconscious self and its
motives, cf. Nietzsche and Freud

 To connect the themes of the novel to the students’ personal experiences (to activate prior
knowledge) of race.

 To explore the relationships between form and content in fiction.

 To practice close reading of key passages in the text.

 To differentiate between and characterize different critical approaches (New Critical,

New Historicist, Black Studies and others) to the text.

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5) “Arrange Your Face:” Wolf Hall and historical fiction

Content and/or Skills Taught:

Content:
The contemporary novel Wolf Hall (2009) by Hilary Mantel (winner of Mann Booker
Prize), which chronicles the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII; several
episodes of the Showtime series The Tudors

Goals:

 To learn the tropes and motifs that inform the construction of historical fiction.

 To learn the characteristic features and tendencies of contemporary fiction, such as

realism and satire.

 To identify and comment on the use of elements of fiction, including diction, point of
view, tone, imagery, figurative language, symbolism, theme, plot structure, and
characterization.

 To identify and discriminate between overt and implied meaning—to develop the
students’ sense of inference.

 To describe and contextualize Mantel’s attitudes about political power, both historically
and in the contemporary world.

 To describe and contextualize Mantel’s attitudes about gender identity and sexism,
investigating the question of whether the author is a feminist.

 To connect the themes and plot of Wolf Hall to the students’ personal experiences (to
activate prior knowledge) of politics in today’s world.

 To explore the relationships between form and content in fiction.

 To practice close reading of key passages in the text.

Major Assignments and/or Assessments:

One analytical, comparative, take-home essay, in which attitudes about power and its
abuses are contrasted in Wolf Hall and Heart of Darkness. Emphasis is placed on
synthetic thinking—not merely analyzing the elements of each text in itself but rather
contrasting larger, inferential meanings between the two texts. Evaluation is holistic,
according to a generalized rubric adapted from the AP model for personal writing.

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Since the AP exam is approaching, there is enhanced emphasis on FRQs, both prose and
poetry alike. By the beginning of the second semester, students are writing at least one
FRQ response per week.

4) “Words, words: They’re all we have to go by.” Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern are Dead and post-modernism

Content and/or Skills Taught:

Content:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966); the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Dead (1990); "Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting" (1964) by Bertold Brecht

Goals:

 To engage various 20th c. theories of comedy, surrealism, absurdity, irony, inter-

textuality, and Theater of Alienation.

 To identify and comment on the use of verse-dramatic elements, including diction, tone,
imagery, figurative language, symbolism, themes, scene-and-act plot structure, and
staging (mis-en-scene).

 To evaluate the supposed stability of protagonist/antagonist and major/minor character

relationships.

 To contrast notions of hero with those of anti-hero.

 To evaluate the alleged universality of Shakespearean literature, particularly as expressed

in subversive adaptations.

 To evaluate claims of canonicity, of text-in-itself New Criticism, and textual stability.

 To explore the meaning and importance of suffering, judgment, and fate in tragedy.

 To describe the relationship between form and content in contemporary drama.

Major Assignments and/or Assessments:

One pastiche take-home scene, in imitation of Stoppard’s style, completed half-way
through the unit, that recasts/re-engages a scene (dramatic or fictive) from earlier
in our course. Emphasis is placed on synthetic thinking and creativity—not merely
analyzing the elements of each text in itself but rather contrasting larger, inferential
meanings between the two texts. Evaluation is holistic, according to a generalized rubric
adapted from the AP model for personal writing.

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AP English Literature and Composition

Since the AP exam is approaching, there is enhanced emphasis on FRQs, both prose and
poetry alike. Students are now writing them with great frequency.

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TEXTBOOKS

1) Title:The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Shorter 5th Ed.

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Published Date: 2005

2) Title: Canterbury Tales

Publisher: Bantam Classics
Published Date: 2006
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

3) Title: Hamlet
Publisher: Folger Shakespeare Library
Published Date: 1992
Author: William Shakespeare

4) Title: Heart of Darkness

Publisher: Norton Critical Editions
Published Date: 2006
Author: Joseph Conrad

5) Title: Wolf Hall

Publisher: Picador
Published Date: 2009
Author: Hilary Mantel

6) Title: Rosencrantz and Guildentern are Dead

Publisher: Grove
Published Date: 1994
Author: Tom Stoppard

7) Other Course Materials

Material Type: Audiovisual Materials
Description:
- Hamlet (1996)
- Apocalypse Now (1979)
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990)

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