Advanced Placement English



AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION SUMMER READING 2018

Summer reading is an essential part of AP Literature and Composition. It will expose you to a range of ideas and literary techniques as well as to some of the key issues of the course. The assigned texts will be a focus not only in the first weeks of school but also later in the course. ENJOY! Please obtain copies of these texts as soon as possible and begin reading. If you purchase your own copies, you are encouraged to mark them up – underline, highlight, color code, make notes in the margins, for example. If you borrow copies from the library (please note that you will need any library copies to be available for work in class), you are encouraged to make notes - on post-its or index cards, for example. As these are just suggestions, decide on a system that is appropriate for you. Making an explicit record of your thinking about these texts will be helpful for the tasks below as well as for the work you will do with these books in class.

1. SING, UNBURIED, SING BY JESMYN WARD (2017):

Read Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Explore the book in some depth and reflect on the wide range of literary considerations present within this text. Develop 5-7 original, perceptive essay prompts for Ward’s novel. These prompts, which should be thoughtful and compelling enough to enable sophisticated analytical writing, will reveal the critical and varied ways that you approach reading and interpreting literature. Provide 2-3 examples from the novel exploring each prompt. These examples should include properly-cited direct textual support from the novel as well as your thoughts about how the evidence responds to the prompt. Also, label each prompt with a brief phrase identifying the topic of the prompt. See the models below using texts from your sophomore and junior English courses.

o Models for this assignment (remember, each prompt should include a topic label, the prompt itself, and 2-3 examples that include properly-cited direct textual evidence and thoughts about the evidence’s connection to the prompt):

• The Great Gatsby Model:

MEANING OF “HOME”: What is the importance and continuing influence of “home” (a broad concept that could refer to many things such as a dwelling, a place, or a state of mind) in The Great Gatsby and how does this significance illuminate the larger meaning of the novel?

✓ 1st properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

✓ 2nd properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

• The Great Gatsby Model:

INFLUENCE OF WEALTH: What does The Great Gatsby reveal about the effects of wealth on the individual and/or society and how do these ideas inform the overall meaning of the novel?

✓ 1st properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

✓ 2nd properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

• Macbeth Model:

MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER ORIGINS: In what ways do the mysterious origins of a character / characters in Macbeth shape their interactions and relationships with others, and how do their mysterious origins contribute to the play’s meaning as a whole?

✓ 1st properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

✓ 2nd properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

• Macbeth Model:

DESIRE FOR POWER: How does the play of Macbeth explore the potent human desire for power? In what ways does a character struggle to free himself/herself from the power of others, or seek to gain power over others, and how does this power struggle enhance the overall meaning of the play?

✓ 1st properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

✓ 2nd properly-cited direct textual evidence and explanation of connection to prompt

Some tips for completing this assignment:

o Your edition of Ward’s novel may include supplementary material such as a reading guide and an interview with the author. The

essay prompts you develop should explore territory and questions NOT taken up in these resources. You should work to develop prompts that attend to considerations that are original, layered, and nuanced. Avoid superficial, obvious, standard literary topics.

o You can complete this work in a format/structure that works for you (outline, chart, etc.).

o Be clear that for your work over the summer, you are writing essay prompts and examples, but you are NOT writing an essay. (FYI: You WILL write an essay on Ward’s novel early in the year. This essay will be used as a diagnostic writing sample, a benchmark to measure your progress as a writer and to identify strengths and areas needing refinement.)

1. POETRY COLLECTION:

Choose one of the following contemporary poetry collections to read. Be sure to explore the choices in order to select a poet and a collection you want to spend time with. See the chart later in these materials to assist in selecting your summer poet.

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Richard Blanco City of a Hundred Fires

Eavan Boland New Collected Poems

Billy Collins Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems

Mark Doty Source

Martín Espada Alabanza

Seamus Heaney Opened Ground

Juan Felipe Herrera Notes on the Assemblage

Ted Kooser Delights and Shadows

Philip Levine What Work Is

W.S. Merwin Present Company

Mary Oliver New and Selected (Volume 1) Linda Pastan Carnival Evening

Robin Robertson Swithering

Kay Ryan The Best of It: New and Selected

Natasha Trethewey Domestic Work

You will be expected to write in class about your selected poetry collection. In order to prepare for this writing, read your chosen collection for enjoyment as well as critical contemplation. Record your thinking in some form throughout your reading of the collection. In particular, you should select 3-5 poems that intrigue and/or challenge you to annotate and comment on specifically (on post-its, in the margins, etc. – your choice). Let the questions below (adapted from Literature – Structure, Sound and Sense, 6th edition [Arp and Perrine, editors]) guide your explorations and work.

1. Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?

2. Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? What can we know about it (her, him or them)?

3. What is the occasion?

4. What is the setting in time (hour, season, century and so on)?

5. What is the setting in place (indoors or out, city or country, land or sea, region, nation, hemisphere)?

6. What is the central purpose of the poem?

7. What is the tone of the poem? How is it achieved?

8. Outline the poem so as to show its structure and development.

9. Discuss the diction of the poem. Point out words that are particularly well chosen and explain why.

10. Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kinds of imagery are used? Is there a structure of imagery?

11. Point out examples of the following literary techniques and explain their appropriateness: metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, irony, paradox, understatement, symbols, allegory and sound devices (consonance, assonance, rhyme, meter, alliteration).

3. WHAT IT IS BY LYNDA BARRY (2008):

Another reading that we will be working with early in our course is the graphic/visual text WHAT IT IS by Lynda Barry (2008). This book provides a creative, unique reflection about writing. We will have copies available for your use during class in the fall. However, if you would like a more extended opportunity to explore the book, you may preview this text over the summer (either purchase or through the Bucks County library system). East’s library also has several copies available.

A FEW ADDITIONAL NOTES:

A Note on Academic Integrity:

The readings and interpretations of the books assigned this summer (and those assigned later) are to be wholly your own. Do not read critical essays, interviews, reviews, or notes about these works. Consultation of SparkNotes, Cliffs, Monarch, Bloom’s, or any other supporting resources/criticism is counter to the purposes and challenges of this course. Consulting such sources is considered cheating and will be handled accordingly.

A Note on Pacing:

Summer reading is best done over the course of the summer—not in one hectic week. So get an early start! If your fear is that you will forget everything you read in June, you can refresh your memory by reviewing your writing and the notes in your books shortly before the beginning of school. Please have your summer reading books and notes available to bring to class upon the start of school.

DUE DATES:

Late summer projects will not be accepted without significant consequence. See the following chart for the submission timeline.

|Assignment # |Assignment |Submission Date and Relevant Information |

|1 |Sing, Unburied, Sing |Submit a hard copy of your work to the main office at CB East before 3:00 p.m. on |

| |Prompts and Examples |Tuesday, August 28, 2018. Please note that this is well before the first day of school. |

| |(5-7 prompts, 2-3 examples per prompt) |Label with your name and AP Literature (Grade 12). |

|2 |Poetry Volume |Writing (for which annotations are necessary) will take place in the first weeks of |

| | |school. |

|3 |What It Is |Reading of text and creation of project will occur in the first weeks of school. |

| |(optional to preview during the summer) | |

POETRY VOLUME DESCRIPTIONS – USE THE FOLLOWING ANNOTATIONS TO ASSIST YOU IN SELECTING YOUR SUMMER POETRY VOLUME:

|POET |TITLE |COMMENTS |

| | |rhythm, imagery, coming of age, multilingual (English and Spanish), multicultural (America [Miami] |

|Richard Blanco |City of a Hundred Fires |and Cuba), Latino identity and experience, nostalgia, family |

| | |Irish identity and experience, female identity and experience, radical, mythical, |

|Eavan Boland |New Collected Poems |referential/intertextual |

| | |the everyday expanded, accessible (yet), profound, travel, allusions, reflexive, popular and |

|Billy Collins |Aimless Love (New and Selected|critical acclaim |

| |Poems) | |

| | |lyrical, descriptive, identity, the familiar, the everyday |

|Mark Doty |Source | |

| | |historical, political, oppression, Latino identity and experience |

|Martín Espada |Alabanza | |

| | |Irish, local, small details, daily life, family, mythical |

|Seamus Heaney |Opened Ground | |

| | |Chicano identity and expression, civil rights, multilingual (English and Spanish), imagery, the |

|Juan Felipe Herrera |Notes on the Assemblage |everyday experience with a social critique, experimental |

| | |domestic, small, daily life, imagery, metaphor |

|Ted Kooser |Delights and Shadows | |

| | |working-class experience, childhood, memory, Detroit |

|Philip Levine |What Work Is | |

| | |simple (yet), complex, daily life, apostrophe |

|W.S. Merwin |Present Company | |

| | |lyrical, primitive, the beauty and terror of nature |

|Mary Oliver |New and Selected (Volume 1) | |

| | |the ordinary, the domestic, the beauty and terror of daily life, female identity |

|Linda Pastan |Carnival Evening | |

| | |Scottish, raw, imagery, metaphor, nature, childhood |

|Robin Robertson |Swithering | |

| | |musical, witty, compact, concentrated |

|Kay Ryan |The Best of It: New and | |

| |Selected | |

| | |history, regional, imagery, working–class experience, varied forms |

|Natasha Trethewey |Domestic Work | |

Enjoy your summer and see you in the fall!

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Ms. Tricia Conn: tconn@ / Ms. Colleen Rosini: crosini@

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