Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition, Summer Reading Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex E. M. Forster A Room with a View

Transcription

1 Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition, Summer Reading Required for Summer: Read both of the following books: Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex E. M. Forster A Room with a View In addition to the above two books, choose one from these texts: Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre Anne Carson Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse Michael Cunningham The Hours Charles Dickens Great Expectations Thomas Hardy Tess of the D Urbervilles Michael Ondaatje The English Patient You can expect tests on, and discussion of, the above texts beginning on the first day of school in August. **We would also like for you to keep a Dialectical Journal on your summer reading. The directions and requirements for your dialectical journals are at the end of the following list of other, suggested readings for your own personal summer (and school year and beyond) reading lists. One of the best ways to prepare for and participate effectively in A.P. English Literature and Composition and to do well on the exam is to read widely and often. With that in mind, here is a list of books you may want to read on your own. On the A.P. English Literature and Composition exam, the final essay question allows you to choose a novel or play of literary merit as the material for your response. It does not have to be a book we read together in class. Also, as you have probably already learned, and as we will discuss more this year, writers often reference other texts (intertextuality), and the more you ve read, the more layers of meaning you can see in new works you encounter. With that in mind, here are some lists of books you might want to consider reading (or rereading) over the summer, throughout the school year, and beyond. Many of them have appeared on the AP exam. Some Pulitzer Prize Winners: William Styron Confession of Nat Turner (1968) N. Scott Momaday House Made of Dawn (1969) Wallace Stegner Angle of Repose (1972) John Updike Rabbit is Rich (1982) Alice Walker The Color Purple (1983) Alison Lurie Foreign Affairs (1985) Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove (1986) Anne Tyler Breathing Lessons (1989) Oscar Hijuelos The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1990) John Updike Rabbit at Rest (1991) Jane Smiley A Thousand Acres (1992) Robert Olen Butler A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain (1993) E. Annie Proulx The Shipping News (1994) Carol Shields The Stone Diaries (1995) Richard Ford Independence Day (1996) Michael Cunningham The Hours (1999) Jhumpa Lahiri Interpreter of Maladies (2000) Michael Chabon The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2001) Richard Russo Empire Falls (2002) Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex (2003) Edward P. Jones The Known World (2004) Marilynne Robinson Gilead (2005) Geraldine Brooks March (2006) Cormac McCarthy The Road (2007) Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008) Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge (2009) Paul Harding Tinkers (2010) Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad (2011) --no fiction award in Adam Johnson The Orphan Master s Son (2013) Donna Tartt The Goldfinch (2014) Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See (2015)

2 Some Booker Prize Winners: Penelope Lively Moon Tiger (1987) Peter Cary Oscar and Lucinda (1988) A. S. Byatt Possession (1990) Ben Okri The Famished Road (1991) Barry Unsworth Sacred Hunger (1992) Michael Ondaatje The English Patient (1993) Roddy Doyle Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1994) Graham Swift Last Orders (1996) Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things (1997) Ian McEwan Amsterdam (1998) Jim Coetzee Disgrace (1999) Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin (2000) Peter Carey True History of the Kelly Gang (2001) Yann Martel Life of Pi (2002) DBC Pierre Vernon God Little (2003) Alan Hollinghurst The Line of Beauty (2004) John Banville The Sea (2005) Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss (2006) Anne Enright The Gathering (2007) Aravind Adiga The White Tiger (2008) Hillary Mantel Wolf Hall (2009) Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (2010) Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (2011) Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies (2012) Eleanor Catton Granta The Luminaries (2013) Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2014) Some National Book Award Winners 1960: Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth 1961: The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter 1962: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy 1963: Morte D'Urban by J.F. Powers 1964: The Centaur by John Updike 1965: Herzog by Saul Bellow 1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter 1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud 1968: The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder 1969: Steps by Jerzy Kosinski 1970: Them by Joyce Carol Oates 1971: Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow 1972: The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor by Flannery O'Connor 1973: Chimera by John Barth Augustus by John Williams 1974: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer 1975: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams 1976: JR by William Gaddis 1977: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner 1978: Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle 1979: Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (from 1980 through 1983, separate awards were given for hardcover and paperback.) (Hardcover) 1980: Sophie's Choice by William Styron 1981: Plains Song by Wright Morris 1982: Rabbit is Rich by John Updike 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Paperback) 1980: The World According to Garp by John Irving 1981: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

3 1982: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell 1983: Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty (in 1984, they went back to awarding one prize for fiction) 1984: Victory over Japan: A Book of Stories by Ellen Gilchrist 1985: White Noise by Don DeLillo 1986: World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow 1987: Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann 1988: Paris Trout by Pete Dexter 1989: Spartina by John Casey 1990: Middle Passage by Charles Johnson 1991: Mating by Norman Rush 1992: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 1993: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx 1994: A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis 1995: Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth 1996: Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett 1997: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier 1998: Charming Billy by Alice McDermott 1999: Waiting by Ha Jin 2000: In America by Susan Sontag 2001: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen 2002: Three Junes by Julia Glass 2003: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard 2004: The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck 2005: Europe Central by William T. Vollmann 2006: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers 2007: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson 2008: Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen 2009: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann 2010: Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 2011: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 2012: The Round House by Louise Erdrich 2013: The Good Lord Bird by James McBride 2014: Redeployment by Phil Klay Some Orange Prize (now the Bailey s Women s Prize for Fiction) Winners Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter (1996) Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces (1997) Carol Shields, Larry s Party (1998) Suzanne Berne, A Crime in the Neighborhood (1999) Linda Grant, When I Lived in Modern Times (2000) Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection (2001) Ann Patchett, Bel Canto (2002) Valerie Martin, Property (2003) Andrea Levy, Small Island (2004) Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005) Zadie Smith, On Beauty (2006) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (2007) Rose Tremain, The Road Home (2008) Marilynne Robinson, Home (2009) Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna (2010) Tea Albrecht, The Tiger s Wife (2011) Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles (2012) A.M. Homes, May We Be Forgiven (2013) Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing (2014) And if you haven t read any of The Bible, try some of it, particularly if Biblical references in literature are not easy for you to see. Also, consider reading sacred texts from traditions other than Judeo-Christian so your world literature experiences can be deeper, too.

4 Finally, we will be reading the following books throughout the year in addition to works from an anthology custom made for us. You will borrow these books from the English department, read them on your own, and then we will discuss and work with them in class. If you want to begin this reading during the summer, feel free, but do not let this keep you from reading what you really want to read this summer. The following list is alphabetized according to the author s name; it does not indicate the order in which we will read the books. The reading load during the school year should not be all that heavy, so our advice is to wait until the school year begins to read these books. Use the summer to explore and tailor a summer reading plan to your individual interests and needs. Joseph Conrad James Joyce Toni Morrison William Shakespeare Leslie Marmon Silko Graham Swift Oscar Wilde Heart of Darkness Dubliners Sula Hamlet Ceremony Waterland The Importance of Being Earnest See next page (or scroll down if you are online) for detailed directions and examples for the Required Dialectical Journal Assignment. Books are available through local bookstores such as: Joseph-Beth, Barnes and Noble and Half-Price Books; online sources such as: Amazon.com: Powell s Books: Joseph- Beth: or through the Cincinnati Public Library and Branch libraries. The Public Library restricts access to some books for readers under 18. Parents can check out these books on their adult card or they can fill out a Parental Authorization Card that permits their under-18-year-old children to check out books on their own cards.

5 Dialectical Journal Instructions and Requirements Bring completed Dialectical Journals to class on the first day of school. They will constitute a meaningful percentage of your first quarter grade. A dialectical journal is a conversation between you and what you are reading. It highlights the questions, connections, and ideas that you have as you read. The journal process is an important way to understand a piece of literature. By writing about a book, exploring your thoughts about it, you create meaning and more fully understand the work you are reading. Books are there for all to read; however, the connections you make are uniquely yours. Your initial responses to a text are neither right nor wrong, and it is through examining them that you create lasting understanding. Here s the practical info you need to write your dialectical journals: You may use a good old-fashioned spiral notebook or bound journal, or you may create a journal in a Word (or other word processing) document. Either way, your journal pages need to have a left and right column (divide pages vertically down the middle as in the samples below): the left side for recording phrases, sentences, or short passages from the text you are responding to; the right side for writing your thoughts, questions, observations, critiques, etc, about the quoted text. Be sure to elaborate and develop your thinking. Your comments might include: what you think something in the text means the personal connections you make (to a character, setting, event, etc) patterns you notice (within the text or across other texts) commentary on important decisions made by characters, ideas expressed, key events, turning points observations about characters how they are developed, ways they change over time, how they represent or defy their time or culture what seems unusual, unexpected, shocking even! the use of literary techniques and your thoughts about their effect and purpose Some possible ways your responses might begin: Why did This setting reminds me of This doesn t make sense to me because This idea/event/image/detail seems to be important because The language makes me believe the author is When the author does.he/she creates a tone that This character reminds me of.because If I were (character), at this point, I would Now, I understand that This seems to symbolize because This reminds me of (another work, author, character) because

6 Your journal entries will be evaluated on thoughtfulness, details, development of thinking, and on meeting the following requirements related to books and number of entries: Essentially, you will create journal entries for each of the 3 novels you read (although they can be in the same notebook or document as long as they are clearly identified). Your journal must include the following: A series of dialectical journal entries for your choice book (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Autobiography of Red, The Hours, Great Expectations, Tess of the D Urbervilles, or The English Patient) that includes at least 3 entries, one for each third of the book (in other words, when you are about one third of the way through the book, stop and write an entry if you haven t already; when you are about two thirds of your way through the book, stop and write an entry if you haven t already and so on ). A series of dialectical journal entries for Middlesex that includes at least 3 entries for each third of the book. A series of dialectical journal entries for A Room with a View that includes at least 3 entries for each third of the book. Below are samples of journal entries. If you have questions about the directions, please make sure to reread them carefully and look at the examples, and then, if you still are unsure of how to proceed, contact Ms. Wischer and Ms. Lyons by (send an to us both; since it s summer, we may not be available for periods of time, and this way, you are likely to get a quicker reply from one of us). addresses: wischera@wyomingcityschools.org and lyonsd@wyomingcityschools.org Sample Journal Entries: Sample Journal Entry #1 Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson Where does he get his ideas, said the teacher. It was Parent-Teacher Day at school. They were sitting side by side in tiny desks. Geryon watched his mother pick a fragment of tobacco off her tongue before she said, Does he ever write anything with a happy ending? Geryon paused. Then he reached up and carefully disengaged the composition paper from the teacher s hand. Proceeding to the back of the classroom he sat at his usual desk and took out a pencil. New Ending All over the world the beautiful red breezes went on blowing hand in hand (38). My Thoughts The most intriguing part of this passage to me is that Geryon is writing his autobiography one for which he had already sketched out an ending (rather surprising for a little kid/monster?). In his total facts known about Geryon, he included that Geryon is killed by Herakles, (true to the mythological story Carson is building from). But when his mother seems interested in happy endings, he revises he writes something lyrical and even uses the word beautiful, along with hand in hand, an image he would probably know would signify happy to his mother. So Geryon changes the ending to his own story. For his mother. This makes it clear to me how much he loves his mother and wants her happy. But more than that, it raises a much larger question about how much of our lives we determine. Is it possible to write a happy ending to our own lives? How much of it is up to chance, Fate, genes? It occurs to me that

7 this is something Carson is exploring by reimagining an ancient story in the first place. What stories can we rewrite? Only the imaginary ones? What stories do we rewrite?...should we rewrite? For example, I think of the reexamining of our national story about Christopher Columbus, from one that glossed over the truth to one that tells the truth and makes it impossible to celebrate Columbus Day ; or the constant retellings of other historical events as we gain new facts, more documents are uncovered, witnesses come forward, or values and perspectives change. And then there are the personal stories that thing you did that was so painfully embarrassing at the time that later becomes a hilarious tale for entertaining family and friends Sample Journal entry #2: Tess of the D Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Through the latter miles of their walk their foot-path had taken them into the depths of the New Forest, and towards evening, turning the corner of a lane, they perceived behind a brook and bridge a large board on which was painted in white letters: This desirable mansion to be Let Furnished (394). When Tess and Angel finally run off together, and they need a place to sleep, they go to that forest house, where they spend some blissful time until the old woman who is caretaker find them. Sounds familiar. It s like a fairy tale, a Hansel and Gretel story...two young people in a forest, looking for shelter. An old woman who ruins it all for them. But things certainly do not turn out the same way for Tess and Angel as they do for Hansel and Gretel. There is no shoving of the old woman into and oven (thankfully) and no happily ever after for anyone. And perhaps that s the point. By setting up the fairy tale happy ending expectation, Hardy can dash it more easily, demonstrating to readers that we are all just the playthings of Fate, and anyone who expects a happy ending will be disappointed. For Hardy, a happy ending would be a lie, and one that didn t fit with the blighted star version of earth that he set up in an early conversation between Tess and her little brother. There are not happy endings, only endings as Don Draper says in Mad Men, "It's your life. You don t know how long it s gonna last, but you know it doesn t end well.