AP Literature and Composition 2010-2011
Instructor: Mrs. Tonya Cumberland
Email: cumberlandt@gnasd.com or tonyacumberland@gmail.com or
Tmpetunia@aol.com
Dear Students,
Welcome to AP English Literature and Composition! I look forward to
meeting (or re-meeting) and working with you in the fall. The first few
weeks of
school will be devoted to the study and discussion of your summer reading
assignment and setting up the structure of the course. The nature of this
assignment will require you to work on it throughout the summer. You should
not procrastinate and wait until the week before school starts to begin
reading and completing your notes, or you will not finish. Be sure to keep
an electronic copy of your work so that you can have access to the
assignments after you turn in the hard copies.
In order to have a productive start to your school year, you must complete
this assignment to the best of your ability. Your work should always reflect
careful reading and insight. All of your work should be TYPED in Times New
Roman or Arial 12-pt. font. You will submit hard copies of all of these
assignments on the first day of school. Have a fun, safe, and productive
summer! Note: The summer assignment is challenging ( it does not reflect the
entire dynamic of the course)
Mrs. Cumberland
Required Text :
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster.
This book is an invaluable resource for students who are interested in doing
more that just a cursory reading of any text they encounter.
Thomas Forster, a professor of English at the University of Michigan,
humorously provides an introduction to literary analysis. You should read
this book before you read any of the other summer assignments.
***AP Literature Reading Requirements – Disclaimer:
Your summer reading will be worth 10% of your semester grade and the failure
to complete this
assignment may result in dismissal from the course.
ASSIGNMENT PART I
Please address the following questions in conjunction with How to Read
Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster.
The following are going to be assignments to follow the book and ensure a
comprehensive read of the materials in the book. Notes and discussions will
be done when you return in the Fall. Do your best until we journey through
the text together.
Introduction: How'd He Do That?
How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does
the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature?
Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by
understanding symbol or pattern.
Chapter 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have
read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 3-5.
Chapter 2 -- Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this
literary depiction.
Chapter 3: --Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work
you have read or viewed.
Chapter 4 -- If It's Square, It's a Sonnet
Select two sonnets and show which form they are. Discuss how their content
reflects the form. (Submit copies of the sonnets, marked to show your
analysis).
Chapter 5 --Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
Define intertextuality. Discuss three examples that have helped you in
reading
specific works.
Chapter 6 -- When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare...
Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects
Shakespeare. Show how the author uses this connection thematically. Read
pages 44-46 carefully. In these pages, Foster shows how Fugard reflects
Shakespeare through both plot and theme. In your discussion, focus on theme.
Chapter 7 -- ...Or the Bible
Read "Araby" (available online). Discuss Biblical allusions that Foster does
not
mention. Look at the example of the "two great jars." Be creative and
imaginative in these connections.
Chapter 8 -- Hanseldee and Greteldum
Think of a work of literature that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the
parallels. Does it
create irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 9 -- It's Greek to Me
Write a free verse poem derived or inspired by characters or situations from
Greek mythology. Be prepared to share your poem with the class. ( Instead of
your own writing, you may find a free verse poem with Greek mythology within
its structure)
Chapter 10 -- It's More Than Just Rain or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms
of plot.
Chapter 11 --...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Present examples of the two kinds of violence found in literature. Show how
the
effects are different.
Chapter 12 -- Is That a Symbol?
Use the process described on page 106 and investigate the symbolism of the
fence in "Araby." (Mangan's sister stands behind it.)
Chapter 13 -- It's All Political
Assume that Foster is right and "it is all political." Use his criteria to
show that one of the major works assigned from your junior or sophomore year
is political.
Chapter 14 -- Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major character in a significant literary
work. Try to choose a character that will have many matches. This is a
particularly apt tool for analyzing film (approved by your parents) -- for
example, Star Wars, Hero, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon, Gladiator and Ben-Hur.
Chapter 15 -- Flights of Fancy
Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain
in detail.
Chapter 16 -- It's All About Sex...
Chapter 17 -- ...Except the Sex
OK ...the sex chapters. The key idea from this chapter is that "scenes in
which sex is coded rather than explicit can work at multiple levels and
sometimes be more intense than literal depictions" (141). In other words, sex
is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described, and,
if the author is doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or character.
In 1984, sex is suggested, but not described. Discuss how the relationship is
suggested and how this implication affects the theme or develops
characterization.
Chapter 18 -- If She Comes Up, It's Baptism
Think of a "baptism scene" from a significant literary work. How was the
character is different after the experience? Discuss.
Chapter 19 -- Geography Matters…
Discuss at least four different aspects of a specific literary work that
Foster would
classify under "geography."
Chapter 20 -- ...So Does Season
Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then discuss how the poet uses
the season in a meaningful, traditional, or unusual way. (Submit a copy of
the poem with your analysis.)
Interlude -- One Story
Write your own definition for archetype. Then identify an archetypal story
and apply it to a literary work with which you are familiar.
Chapter 21 -- Marked for Greatness
Figure out Harry Potter's scar. If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter,
select another character with a physical imperfection and analyze its
implications for
characterization.
Chapter 22 -- He's Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23 -- It's Never Just Heart Disease...
Chapter 24 -- ...And Rarely Just Illness
Recall two characters who died of a disease in a literary work. Consider how
these deaths reflect the "principles governing the use of disease in
literature" (215-217).
Discuss the effectiveness of the death as related to plot, theme, or
symbolism.
Chapter 25 -- Don't Read with Your Eyes
After reading Chapter 25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play or
epic poem written before the twentieth century. Contrast how it could be
viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century with how it might be viewed
by a reader contemporary to the work. Focus on specific assumptions that the
author makes, assumptions that would not make it in this century.
Chapter 26 -- Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select an ironic literary work and explain the multi-vocal nature of the
irony in the
work.
Chapter 27 -- A Test Case
Read “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, the short story starting on
page 245. Complete the exercise on pages 265-266, following the directions
exactly. Then compare your writing with the three examples. How did you do?
What does the essay that follows comparing Laura with Persephone add to your
appreciation of Mansfield's story?
Envoi
Choose a motif not discussed in this book (as the horse reference on page
280) and note its appearance in three or four different works. What does this
idea seem to signify?
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PART TWO:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
AP Literature and Composition: Summer Assignment
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan
Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the
Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will
need from home, but soon find that all of it--from garden seeds to Scripture--
is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful
epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the
course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of
the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the
murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his
replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs
the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna
Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western
assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and
unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story,
by turns, are her four daughters--the self-centered, teenaged Rachel; shrewd
adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old.
These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial
preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly
different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself.
Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their
passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral
risk and personal responsibility.
Dancing between the dark comedy of human failings and the breathtaking
possibilities of human hope, The Poisonwood Bible possesses all that has
distinguished Barbara Kingsolver's previous work, and extends this beloved
writer's vision to an entirely new level. Taking its place alongside the
classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes
Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.
"What we have here-with this new, mature, angry, heartbroken, expansive out-
of-Africa Kingsolver-is at last our very own Lessing and our very own
Gordimer."
-The Nation
http://www.kingsolver.com/bookshelf/poisonwood_bible.asp
Assignment: Using the study questions below as your guide, read The
Poisonwood Bible, marking significant passages with post-its (or as you see
fit). If you purchase the novel, I encourage you to write in them. The book
is long- although you are required to read it in its entirety. It has
frequently been on the AP exam and therefore, is a worthwhile read.
Study Questions for The Poisonwood Bible:
1. How does Kingsolver present the double themes of captivity and
freedom and of love and betrayal? What kind of captivity and freedom does she
explore/ What kinds of love and betrayal? What are the causes and
consequences of each kind of captivity, freedom, love, and betrayal?
2. There are numerous differences to sight/eyes in the Poisonwood Bible.
Who is “blind”? Who is a visionary? How do these differences illuminate the
messages of the book?
3. Studying a work with multiple narrators offers the ultimate
opportunity to demonstrate juxtaposition of style. For instance, in The
Poisonwood Bible, each daughter’s voice/distinctive point of view is created
clearly by her syntax and diction. Make note of distinctive examples of word
choice and sentence structure that aid in creating attitude, tone, and mood.
4. One of the effects of the novel’s shifting perspective is also its
unusual style of characterization: for example, Nathan, one of the major
character in the novel, is revealed to us only via others’ view of him. What
does this say about the effect of social environment on identity?
5. Kingsolver says, “I’m a biologist I know that everything eats
something else.” Kingsolver utilizes a great deal of animal imagery in this
novel. How do the realities of the natural world permeate the novel? Make not
of key examples. What role does biology play on each of the character’s
experiences? What messages are revealed through these repeated references?
What is the human relationship to nature?
6. The meaning of some literary works is often enhanced by sustained
allusion to myths, the Bible, or other works of literature. The Poisonwood
Bible makes use of such sustained references. Read the notes below about the
general structure of the novel and think about why Kingsolver uses such
allusions to deepen our understanding of her purpose.
• Book One- Genesis ( the beginning of things, first book of the Bible)
o “The Things We Carried”
• Book Two- Revelation (the end of things, last book of the Bible)
o “The Things We Learned”
• Book Three- The Judges ( the time of judgment, book of the Bible)
o “The Things We Didn’t Know”
• Book Four- Bel and the Serpent ( an apochryphal book of the Bible
about wonders and a dead god)
o “What We Lost”
• Book Five- Exodus ( Journey to the Promised Land, book of the Bible)
o “What We Carried Out”
• Book Six –Song of the Three Children ( an apochryphal story of hope
and despair, in this case the three children are Leah, Rachel, and Adah)
o “What We Come To”
• Book Seven- The Eyes in the Trees ( Kingsolver’s creation)
o “The Story We have Made our Own”
o The lost daughter’s tale- Ruth, otherwise known as “muntu Africa” at
this transformative point in the novel
Thus, there are seven books (a holy number, representing completion)
The novel’s structure underscores its theme, a story of expiation and
forgiveness that includes origins and endings, judgment and hope, wonders, a
long journey, all resulting in an understanding that weaves its previous
books together.