Syllabus for AP English
We will be covering the following material in the AP English Literature Class:
The Oedipal Cycle
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Excerpts from Aristotle’s The Poetics
Excerpts from Beowulf
Excerpts from The Canterbury Tales
We will also extensively review literary terms and tropes and how they relate to theme and characterization in the literature.
Hamlet
Various Elizabethan poems by the following poets:
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt
2. Edmund Spenser
3. Christopher Marlowe
4. William Shakespeare
Various Jacobean poems by the following poets:
1. John Donne
2. Andrew Marvelle
3. Ben Jonson
4. Robert Herrick
Petrarchan Sonnets
We will also cover the historical and philosophical contexts of the following periods:
1. The Puritan Age
2. The Restoration
3. The Age of Pope
4. The Age of Johnson
The Romantic Period:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Poets:
1. William Blake
2. Lord Byron
3. John Keats
4. Percy Shelley
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
We will also cover some of the ideas of the following philosophers:
1. Nietzsche’s concept of the übermensche.
2. John Mills
3. Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarian Theory
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary
We will also cover the philosophical concepts of free will, determinism, and
feminism.
1. A Doll House
2. Three Sisters
3. A Room of One’s Own
We will also cover the historical context of World War 1.
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet On The Western Front
Poetry of World War 1:
1. Rupert Brooke
2. Wilfred Owen
3. Siegfried Sassoon
4. William Butler Yeats
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness shown in conjunction with Francis Ford
Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Essay on “The Other”
19th, 20th and 21st Century Poetry:
1. Emily Dickinson
2. T.S. Eliot
3. W.H. Auden
4. Dylan Thomas
5. Robert Frost
6. Sylvia Plath
The Stranger by Albert Camus
We will also read some excerpts from the following:
1. “Existentialism” by Jean Paul Sartre
2. “Man Against Darkness” by W.T. Stace
3. “The Christian Commitment” by Reinhold Niebuhr
Short stories and excerpts by:
1. Henry James’ “The Pupil”
2. James Joyce’s “The Dead”
3. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
We will examine racism, sexism and colonialism and their effect on society and
the indiviual.
Readings and selections from the following books:
1. George Orwell’s 1984
2. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
3. Toni Morrisson’s Beloved
4. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible
5. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
6. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
In addition, we will be working on vocabulary, grammar and writing. We will also do many timed 40 minute essays and many literary excerpts and multiple choice questions in preparation for the AP exam in May.
We will be covering the following material in the AP English Literature Class:
The Oedipal Cycle
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”
Excerpts from Aristotle’s The Poetics
Excerpts from Beowulf
Excerpts from The Canterbury Tales
We will also extensively review literary terms and tropes and how they relate to theme and characterization in the literature.
Hamlet
Various Elizabethan poems by the following poets:
1. Sir Thomas Wyatt
2. Edmund Spenser
3. Christopher Marlowe
4. William Shakespeare
Various Jacobean poems by the following poets:
1. John Donne
2. Andrew Marvelle
3. Ben Jonson
4. Robert Herrick
Petrarchan Sonnets
We will also cover the historical and philosophical contexts of the following periods:
1. The Puritan Age
2. The Restoration
3. The Age of Pope
4. The Age of Johnson
The Romantic Period:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Poets:
1. William Blake
2. Lord Byron
3. John Keats
4. Percy Shelley
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
We will also cover some of the ideas of the following philosophers:
1. Nietzsche’s concept of the übermensche.
2. John Mills
3. Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarian Theory
Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary
We will also cover the philosophical concepts of free will, determinism, and
feminism.
1. A Doll House
2. Three Sisters
3. A Room of One’s Own
We will also cover the historical context of World War 1.
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet On The Western Front
Poetry of World War 1:
1. Rupert Brooke
2. Wilfred Owen
3. Siegfried Sassoon
4. William Butler Yeats
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness shown in conjunction with Francis Ford
Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Essay on “The Other”
19th, 20th and 21st Century Poetry:
1. Emily Dickinson
2. T.S. Eliot
3. W.H. Auden
4. Dylan Thomas
5. Robert Frost
6. Sylvia Plath
The Stranger by Albert Camus
We will also read some excerpts from the following:
1. “Existentialism” by Jean Paul Sartre
2. “Man Against Darkness” by W.T. Stace
3. “The Christian Commitment” by Reinhold Niebuhr
Short stories and excerpts by:
1. Henry James’ “The Pupil”
2. James Joyce’s “The Dead”
3. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
We will examine racism, sexism and colonialism and their effect on society and
the indiviual.
Readings and selections from the following books:
1. George Orwell’s 1984
2. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
3. Toni Morrisson’s Beloved
4. Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible
5. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
6. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
In addition, we will be working on vocabulary, grammar and writing. We will also do many timed 40 minute essays and many literary excerpts and multiple choice questions in preparation for the AP exam in May.
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