Hello Comp Lit Students,
During these uncertain times, I know that many of you are
feeling anxious over the remainder of your senior year. While I too am in the
dark over what may transpire in the coming months, I hope to add clarity as much
as I can in regards to the AP Comp Lit course.
First, understand that I do not expect you to work on any
class work or assignments for AP Comp Lit during our time away from school. Our
school administrators informed the staff that we are actually not allowed to
assign work or to require you to complete unfinished assignments.
Thus, I am not expecting you to work on the research papers
during this hiatus. IF we do in fact come back on April 13th,
I will greatly modify the assignment (make it 5 pages instead of 10 and
eliminate the passage analysis sections) and the due date will be pushed back
to May. For this reason, I will not be providing feedback on essays sent to me
via email during this time. If you choose to continue to work on your shortened
research paper during this time, that is absolutely up to you – but there are
no expectations on my part that you need to do so.
If we do come back on April 13th, we will pick up
where we left off with poetry and complete that unit and I will eliminate one of
our final two units of the year. As of this morning, College Board (the people
in charge of the AP exams) has not stated if they will cancel or push back the
dates of the exam. Once College Board does decide, I will be able to better
plan the final weeks of the year for the course.
All of this is contingent on the fact that we will indeed
return to school before June – and that is certainly not a guarantee. Obviously,
if this hiatus is extended, more information will come from the district (or
state) and we can cross that bridge if it gets here.
If some of you are saddened by the lack of English
literature in your lives, fear not! I have put together a list of fantastic
works that you can use as entertainment and intellectual stimulation if you
need to spice up your lives during your time at home. Again, reading from the
list is neither expected nor required of you, but remember that reading good
literature certainly beats any forehead snapchats or lame iPhone games you
might be getting bored with.
The Classics:
Dante’s Inferno:
It may seem like a rather dire choice, but if you want to read a classic that
is often alluded to in books, films, and music, look no further than this
medieval Italian epic poem that takes you through the nine circles of hell.
Unfortunately, as genius of a poet that Dante was, he was unable to foresee the
tenth circle of hell reserved for those who take their phones out in class.
Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight: I have a soft spot for medieval literature, and if we had an
extra few weeks added to a normal school year, I’d probably want to teach this
classic Arthurian tale. Most of the romantic Arthurian tales were actually
written in French, but this one was written in Middle English making it one of
the few pieces of English literature we have from that era. It’s funky, fun,
and short, plus, they’re turning it into a movie later this year (the trailer makes it look a
bit more gothic than I remember it).
Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
Somewhat relevant to your current situation in a way. The young prince Hamlet
wants to go back to school in Germany, but due to a family tragedy, he is stuck
back in his home castle in Denmark. Ghosts, murder, conspiracy, betrayal all
come out of the darkest corners of both the castle and of Hamlet’s mind as he
suffers through existential angst long before he would have Sartre and Kierkegaard
to comfort him.
Anne Bronte’s The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Hell, I haven’t read it, but maybe we all need to
give that third Bronte sister a chance. If you did Jane Eyre as your
winter-break read, then you have the opportunity to do the Bronte sister gauntlet
in one year!
Camus’s The Plague:
Most read Camus’s The Stranger, which I personally think is overrated. Instead,
read the Plague… unless you want to lower your anxiety about the worst-case
scenario of a health pandemic. Actually, on second thought, maybe don’t read
The Plague after all – my bad.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave
New World: If you want to read one of the classic dystopian novels, choose
this one over 1984; it’s far superior
in my opinion. Somewhat of a dark comedy of what the world would look like if the
human race simply wasn’t interested in all that much anymore. Parallels abound
with our current society as Huxley puts a warped mirror up to our faces,
warning us of what we certainly want to resist becoming. Also, when I have
taught it in past years, students often tell me it’s their favorite book they
read in high school.
Ralph Ellison’s
Invisible Man: Due to our break from school, this novel sadly may not be
possible to fit in to the curriculum when we return. I always love doing this
unit right before the AP exam since it works well for just about any open-ended
prompt. But I also think it’s one of the best novels ever written. It’s hard to
state just how much of a talented writer Ellison is – but this novel has it
all. What makes this novel so profound is that it’s still highly relevant in
terms of its portrayal of the black experience in America. It’s a hard novel to
simply read on its own since Ellison is incorporating a lot of allusions and
historical references (hence why my PowerPoint slides on the novel are so
coveted by competing districts), but John Green’s CrashCourse does have a
pretty good video analyzing the work.
Lighter Page Turners:
The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins: I heard the movie
version was pretty bad, but the book definitely sucked me in and I couldn’t put
it down. A murder mystery/thriller, but the protagonist is a young alcoholic
woman who does some fascinating people watching on a train – it makes for a
great beach read (or just a read in the living room with Netflix set to the
beach channel).
Station Eleven by
Emily St. John Mandel: A more sophisticated (and better-written) page-turner
that again works well for our current times. A virus has spread over the world
wiping out most of civilization leaving people living in groups attempting to
survive and keep humanity’s spark going. What’s the best way to do that? Start
a traveling Shakespeare troupe in post-apocalyptic Canada of course!
A Thousand Splendid
Suns by Khaled Hosseini: A devastating novel that offers small glimmers of
hope about the turmoil of 1980s and 90s Afghanistan. Told from the perspective
of two Afghan women living through war, regime change, and constant fear, it’s
one of the best page-turner books I have ever read, and given our country’s
history with Afghanistan over the last 40 years, I think it should be required
reading for all American citizens.
Moonraker by Ian
Fleming: As a James Bond fan, I feel as though I need to put at least one
Bond book on this list. Yet, as an English teacher, I do have to inform you
that none of the 007 novels are actually good, per se, but if you want to read
the best of them, choose this one (don’t worry, it’s nothing like the movie).
I am Not Your Perfect
Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez: This popular novel came out in 2017 and Sanchez’s
willingness to tackle some rather mature subject matters in the young-adult
genre really impressed me. The novel sort of alludes to the plot of Salinger’s Catcher
in the Rye (the protagonist even reads the novel at one point), but instead of
following a rich white, isolated boy mope around NYC while dealing with teenage
angst, it follows a lower-class, Mexican-American girl dealing with teenage
angst and depression in Chicago. Oh, and her favorite class in high school is
English so the book is perfect in my opinion.
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain: Not a novel, and not a book for those under 18, but
one of my favorite books. I’m a big Anthony Bourdain fan and was devastated
after he died in 2018. This book put him on the map as he shares his stories
behind the scenes as a chef in New York City’s restaurant culture. Just
remember that if you read it, don’t do drugs…or say the F word this much.
Some of my Favorites:
A Hero of Our Time by
Mikhail Lermontov: One of the rare examples of shorter Russian fiction, this
collection of stories all revolve around the adventures of the anti-hero Pechorin
who is certainly not admirable, but somehow remains endearing for the reader. If
you like Wolverine, Harley Quinn, or Deadpool, but feel the itch for some
sophisticated 19th century Russian literature, this one is for you.
The Brothers Karamazov
by Dostoevsky: Yes, I’ve already spoken at length about why I love this
novel. If you enjoyed Crime and Punishment, but wished it was longer and more
epic, then read this beast of a book. Even if you dislike it, you can live the
rest of your life telling people that you finished it – which is a great way to
make friends in your adulthood.
Sophie’s World by Jostein
Gaarder: a strange novel that is partly a story about a curious Norwegian
teenager named Sophie but also partly Gaarder’s attempt to teach his readers
about the history of philosophy. If you didn’t get enough philosophy during our
Existentialism unit, give this one a try.
All the Light We
Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: A WWII novel that bounces back and forth
between a blind girl living in France and an orphan German boy who is forced to
join the Nazis. Sure enough, their paths collide as they try to survive the
trials of war. Oh, and there is a mythical diamond added to the mix to get the
plot rolling. Doerr write with lyrical prose that I find beautiful, and you
never stop rooting for his protagonists which makes the novel that much more of
an emotional read. Although I never cry, I thought about it at the end of the
novel.
A Constellation of
Vital Phenomenon by Anthony Marra: Do yourself a favor and read this novel
at some point in your life – trust me. You can thank me later.
