AP Literature Summer ReadingBilse
2013-14 AP English Summer Reading Assignment Overview
Incoming AP Literature students are required to readtwo books over the summer and complete short assignments for both. Our first weeks of course-work -- including discussions, group-work, writing assignments, and tests -- will require completion of this summer assignment.
If you have questions, contact me through the school or email . My school web page, available through the MHHS web page ( will have downloadable copies of this assignment and other course information.
Requirements
- Read Thomas C. Foster’s, How to Read Literature like a Professor.
As you read, take notes. At a minimum you should write down the main idea of each chapter and supporting details that illuminate the main idea. Also includeconnections that you make between the ideas in the chapter and other literary works you’ve read. You will take an open-notes quiz on this material when you return from break.
Alsoas you are reading, complete fiveHow to Read Literature Like a Professor shortreflection assignments (Appendix A) and submit them to Turnitin.com byAugust 1st.
*Important Note: you will have to stop reading before Chapter 27 in order to complete one of the required reflection assignments. (See Appendix A for more details)
- Read Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyrelike a professor.
Read the entire novel, and in your assigned chapters (see Appendix B), analyze the significance of five quotations or events “like a professor.” From your analysis, it should be clear that you have read How to Read Literature like a Professor: Is there a quest? A dark and stormy night? Baptism? How does geography matter?
Also, select two SHORT passages fromanywhere in Jane Eyre– a few sentences each -- that seem important and worthy of analysis. Copy these on separate paper, leaving space between each.(No commentary or analysis is necessary for these passages.)
Use MLA in text citation format to include the page number; “If this were a direct quote from page 122 of a novel by Charlotte Bronte, I’d cite it like this” (Bronte 122). Notice where the punctuation falls above.
Submit the analysis notes on your assigned Jane Eyre chapters to Turnitin.com and bring a copy of those notes and your selected passages to class on Monday, September 9th
Why These Texts?
- Why How to Read Literature Like a Professor? Understanding literature need no longer be a mystery… Professors and other informed readers see symbols, archetypes, and patterns because those things are there -- if you have learned to look for them. As Foster says, you learn to recognize the literary conventions the "same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice" (xiv).
- Why Jane Eyre? Well, aside from being tied as the 3rd most frequently listed work on the Free Response Question of the AP Exam, check out what Shmoop.com has to say:
When you look at Jane Eyre, you might just see a long novel about a gal in an ugly gray dress whose life – a lot of the time – totally sucks. Whether she’s gagging on burned porridge at her horrible boarding school or…wandering around on the moor starving to death, life is often painful for Jane.
The thing is, it’s not painful to read about it. In fact, we start to get kind of obsessed with all the gory details after a while. … Will Jane marry her cousin or agree to bigamy? Is there a ghost at Thornfield Hall or is it a vampire? They could make a reality show out of this; it would be like Supernanny + The Bachelorette + Ghost Hunters.
Of course, apart from the whole thirst-for-voyeurism thing that we all have, Jane Eyre also about something else: The Man getting you down. Over and over, Jane’s put into situations where she’s too young, too poor, or too powerless to win, but she has to try anyway, and we all know about that. We’ve all been the kid who was completely mistreated by some random adult like Mrs. Reed or Mr. Brocklehurst just because that person has a stick up you-know-where. We’ve all had to accept that everyone would believe the adults just because they are adults, so they get away with it. Maybe some of us have also been the young employee who gets pressured to do something immoral by our boss. Or the girlfriend who finds out that her boyfriend’s taking someone else out on Friday night. That "someone else" might not be an insane vampiric arsonist, but hey, parallels only go so far.
What we’re trying to say is: half of Jane Eyre is pure get-the-popcorn omigosh-she-didn’t spectacle, and the other half is looking pretty familiar.
Note from Mrs. Bilse: Don’t let the length of Jane Eyre intimidate you. It’s the longest book we read all year, so we get it over with first. Stick with it! Get Jane through Low Wood (a “low point” in reader entertainment) and then the real DRAMA begins!
Appendix A: How to Read Literature like a Professor Writing Assignments
These short writing assignments will let you practice your literary analysis and they will help me get to know you, your writing, and your literary tastes. Whenever I ask for an example from literature, you may use short stories, novels, plays, or films. (If your literary repertoire is thin and undeveloped, use the book’s appendix to jog your memory or to select additional works to explore. At the very least, watch some of the "Movies to Read" that are listed on pages 293-294.)Please note that your responses should be paragraphs -- not pages!
Remember to capitalize and punctuate titles properly for each genre. (A poem or short story is in quotation marks, while longer works --like a novel, play, movie, or television-- series are italicized.)
Complete responses to five of these questions. Underlined/* chapters are required and you should select three other chapter topics to explore. Submit responses to Turnitin.com byAugust 1.
(Turnitin.com Class ID: 6523527 Password: read)
AP Literature Summer ReadingBilse
Introduction: How'd He Do That?
How does the recognition of patterns/symbols make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a work was enhanced understanding symbol/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 a sonnet and show which form it is. Discuss how the content reflects the form. (Submit a copy of the sonnet, markedto 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.
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.
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 to you in high school (Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, To Kill aMockingbird, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, something from American Lit…) is political.
Chapter 14 -- Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
Apply the criteria on page 119 to a major character in a literary work. Choose a character that will have many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing film -- for example, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus, Gladiator and Ben-Hur.
Chapter 15: Flights of Fancy
Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom. Explain in detail.
Chapter 16/17: It's All About Sex...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 that 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. Choose a novel or movie in which sex is suggested, but not described, and 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 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 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 contemporary reader. Focus on specific assumptions the author makes that would not make it in this century.
Chapter 26: Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select an ironic literary work and explain the multivocal 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?
AP Literature Summer ReadingBilse
Adapted from assignments originally developed by Donna Anglin.
Appendix B: Jane EyreQuotation Analysis Examples and Chapter Assignments
*Quotation Analysis Example: first chapter of Jane Eyre (notes by Charlie Nettesheim)*
FORMAT for analysis/commentary assignment:
- Quotation, Symbol, Theme or Point of Interest (with MLA in-text citation)
- Analysis and Commentary (showing understanding of Foster’s ideas)
- “…the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber, and rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was not out of the question.
I was glad of it: I never liked long walks” (Bronte 11).
- Almost immediately, weather and season are set into play, but along with them is irony. The weather, while terrible, seems to bring Jane joy, and if there is any truth in foreshadowing, this book will likely be very depressing.
- “John Reed was a school-boy of fourteen years old… large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin” (Bronte 13).
- Immediately your radar goes off while reading the before, during, and after of this description, but John Reed, while cruel and quite ugly, doesn’t fit the devil “norm.” He’s just not smart enough, and he doesn’t tempt: he demands.
- “He ran headlong at me; I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder: he had closed with a desperate thing” (Bronte 15).
- Violence almost always has a point. This is no exception. Reed’s “tender ministrations” serve as a catalyst for Jane’s cathartic release, which, unfortunately, sends her to the red room and puts the plot into overdrive.
Jane Eyre Quotation and AnalysisChapter Assignments
While you need to read the whole book, yourfive pairs of Quotation Analysis notes should cover only your assigned chapters.
Last names beginning A-FChapters 2-11
G-LChapters 12-20
M-PChapters 21-27
Q-ZChapters 28-36