Senior English (Literature)

Sections and Teachers

There is more information at the teacher's course Website: Senior English (Literature)

We will primarily read modern literature in the western tradition, with a few excursions into areas that seem too important to ignore - some of which are also specially noted as relevant in the College Board's AP materials.

The other point of this class is to address the requirements of the College Board Advanced Placement English program, leading to the AP exam. Taking the AP Exam, however, is not required.

Note: The College Board has begun to audit all curricula offered with the AP label. Having examined their standards, I have decided not to pursue their approval: it seems clear to me that meeting their expectations would entail dumbing the course down considerably. We cannot call this course AP English, therefore, but its substance is basically unchanged from the days when we did. It has provided solid preparation for students intending to take the AP Exam.

Prerequisites

To be admitted to Senior English, a student should: (a) be a senior; (b) have completed English and American Literature or their equivalents; (c) secure permission from the instructor. I am willing to consider exceptions to either of the first two, but they tend to be fairly rare.

Recommended background

While it is possible to waive one or another of the various prerequisites, the course presumes serious commitment to literature and literary thinking, and should not be undertaken without some solid background. Some solid writing preparation is also strongly advised.

Textbooks and Materials

This item is required:

An Experiment in Criticism , Authors: C. S. Lewis

ISBN: 0521422817

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

Anton Chekhov's Selected Plays (Norton Critical Editions) , Authors: Anton Chekhov, Laurence Senelick (Translator)

ISBN: 0393924653

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Billy Budd and Other Tales , Authors: Hermann Melville, Joyce Carol Oates

ISBN: 0451526872

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

Copenhagen , Authors: Michael Frayn

ISBN: 0385720793

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

Emma (Norton Critical Edition) [Edition or Version: 3], Authors: Jane Austen

ISBN: 0393972844

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Ethan Frome: Authoritative Text Backgrounds and Contexts Criticism (Norton Critical Editions) , Authors: Edith Wharton, Kristin O. Lauer, Cynthia Griffin Wolff

ISBN: 0393966356

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Fathers and Sons (Norton Critical Edition) , Authors: Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Michael R. Katz (Editor)

ISBN: 0393967522

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Hamlet: An Authoritative Text, Intellectual Backgrounds, Extracts from the Sources, Essays in Criticism (Norton Critical Editions) [Edition or Version: 2], Authors: William Shakespeare

ISBN: 0393956636

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Heart of Darkness (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism) [Edition or Version: 2], Authors: Joseph Conrad, Ross Murfin (Editor)

ISBN: 0312114915

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Henry IV, Part 2 (Folger Shakespeare Library) , Authors: William Shakespeare

ISBN: 074348505X

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials for various class activities.

This item is required:

Henry IV, Part I (Folger Shakespeare Library) , Authors: William Shakespeare

ISBN: 0743485041

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials for various class activities.

This item is required:

Henry V (Folger Shakespeare Library) , Authors: William Shakespeare

ISBN: 0743484878

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials for various class activities.

This item is required:

Ibsen's Selected Plays (Norton Critical Editions) , Authors: Henrik Ibsen, Brian Johnston (Editor)

ISBN: 0393924041

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Iphigenia; Phaedra; Athaliah (Penguin Classics) , Authors: Jean Baptiste Racine

ISBN: 0140441220

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Any complete text of this play in a reasonable translation will suffice.

This item is required:

Measure for Measure (Folger Shakespeare Library) , Authors: William Shakespeare

ISBN: 0743484908

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

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Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry [Edition or Version: 13], Authors: Thomas R. Arp, Greg Johnson

ISBN: 1428289704

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: It is imperative that you get and use this edition only. It is signficantly changed from previous editions.

This item is required:

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead , Authors: Tom Stoppard

ISBN: 0802132758

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Any complete edition of this play will suffice.

This item is required:

Ten Greek Plays in Contemporary Translations , Authors: Levy Lind (ed.)

ISBN: 0395051177

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

The Cid, Cinna, The Theatrical Illusion (Penguin Classics) , Authors: Pierre Corneille, John Cairncross

ISBN: 0140443126

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Any complete edition of this play will suffice.

This item is required:

The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides I , Authors: David Grene (Editor), Richmond Lattimore (Editor)

ISBN: 0226307808

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

The Great Gatsby , Authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald

ISBN: 0743273567

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

The House of the Seven Gables (Norton Critical Edition) , Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert S. Levine (Editor)

ISBN: 0393924769

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

The Life of the Drama , Authors: Eric Bentley

ISBN: 1557831106

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

The Misanthrope and Other Plays (Signet Classics) , Authors: Jean-Baptiste Moliere, Donald M. Frame

ISBN: 0451529871

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Any complete edition of the play will suffice.

This item is required:

The Remains of the Day , Authors: Kazuo Ishiguro

ISBN: 0679731725

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

The Rhetoric of Fiction [Edition or Version: 2], Authors: Wayne C. Booth

ISBN: 0226065588

Publisher's website: The Rhetoric of Fiction

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: A reasonable search online or through Amazon’s secondary dealers can often turn up inexpensive used copies of this volume.

This item is required:

The Sorrows of Young Werther (Penguin Classics) , Authors: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Michael Hulse (Translator)

ISBN: 014044503X

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

The Waste Land (Norton Critical Editions) , Authors: T. S. Eliot, Michael North (Editor)

ISBN: 0393974995

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.

This item is required:

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold , Authors: C. S. Lewis

ISBN: 0156904365

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

This item is required:

War and Peace (Signet Classics) , Authors: Leo Tolstoy, Ann Dunnigan (tr.)

ISBN: 0451523261

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Any complete version will suffice, but I strongly recommend the Dunnigan version for readability.

This item is required:

Wuthering Heights (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism) [Edition or Version: 2], Authors: Emily Bronte, Linda H. Peterson

ISBN: 0312256868

Best sources: Scholars Online Bookstore

Other information: Please get this edition specifically. We will be using the unique critical materials in the back for various class activities.