first, here is the literary terms worksheet, the terms the test covers.
Second, here you'll find the meanings of the various LITERARY TERMINOLOGY.
2nd Quarter Run Down, from the syllabus
Second Quarter Run Down
November-January
Unit 1: What is Poetry?
Review of AP test: approaches to poetry.
Unit Readings:
Blackberries: a poetry series
John Keats “When I Have Fears,”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Mezzo Cammin”
Walt Whitman “Song of Myself,” (selections)
Emily Dickinson various
T. S. Eliot “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Wallace Stevens “Sunday Morning”
Robert Frost various
Nikki Giovanni “Because”
Theodore Roethke “My Papa's Waltz”
Linda Pastan “Autumn”
Elizabeth Bishop “One Art,” “The Fish”
Robert Pinsky ‘The Shirt”
Unit Writing
Poem Analysis
Unit 2: Review of AP Practice Test, cont.
Unit 3: Critical Approaches to Shakespeare
How to interpret a monologue
Unit Readings
William Shakespeare Hamlet
Unit Writing
Hamlet: Essential question OR passage explication
Writers Notebooks:
SOAPStone
TPCAST
Say-Show-Mean
Compare/Contrast
Question # 1 practice
College Application Essays: Risk and Well-Written
Winter Break Reading: Begin Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
November-January
Unit 1: What is Poetry?
Review of AP test: approaches to poetry.
Unit Readings:
Blackberries: a poetry series
John Keats “When I Have Fears,”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Mezzo Cammin”
Walt Whitman “Song of Myself,” (selections)
Emily Dickinson various
T. S. Eliot “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Wallace Stevens “Sunday Morning”
Robert Frost various
Nikki Giovanni “Because”
Theodore Roethke “My Papa's Waltz”
Linda Pastan “Autumn”
Elizabeth Bishop “One Art,” “The Fish”
Robert Pinsky ‘The Shirt”
Unit Writing
Poem Analysis
Unit 2: Review of AP Practice Test, cont.
Unit 3: Critical Approaches to Shakespeare
How to interpret a monologue
Unit Readings
William Shakespeare Hamlet
Unit Writing
Hamlet: Essential question OR passage explication
Writers Notebooks:
SOAPStone
TPCAST
Say-Show-Mean
Compare/Contrast
Question # 1 practice
College Application Essays: Risk and Well-Written
Winter Break Reading: Begin Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The First Quarter Short Story Essay
Guinan/AP Lit
First Quarter Story Analysis Essay.
Read the stories on the Run Down. Then write a 500 word analysis of a story of your choice. You may take a variety of approaches, perhaps one inspired by our Literary Theory Unit. You may also use one of the below questions as a basis for your essay.
1. For the Magic Barrel and/or Conversion of the Jews: Compare and contrast those themes that are particular to Jewish culture and religion and those that are "universal"; i.e. which texts relate themes that are unique/singular to the Jewish experience, and which texts relate experiences shared by everyone?
2. For Conversion of the Jews: the 2008 Free Response Question: In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play(that is, Conversion of the Jews), explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
3. For the Shawl: First explain what Theodor Adorno meant when he said, "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." Explain how the ambivalence/tension of making art out of the Holocaust in expressed in the story "The Shawl.”
4. Write an essay on your reading of the Shawl that follows the following thesis:"Ozick's use of imagery and figurative language throughout the story expresses the tension created by the extreme nature of the subject matter."
Hint: your essay can use, if necessary, the following sentence:
...the reader is situated within a series of experiences so horrifying that they resist conventional language. Ozick's extensive use of figurative language suggests the desperation of a mind (both Rosa's and that of the implied narrator) striving to make sense of a bleak world...
...Magda's eyes are called "blue tigers," her legs are called "scribbling pencils"..."ash-stippled wind"..."Magdas mouth was spilling a vicious rope of clamour."
etc.
5. Consider a feminist analysis of "Rape Fantasies" that suggests that the narrator both complies to and resists traditional gender roles when faced with the issue of male dominance and aggression.
6. For Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” : Write an essay in which you explore and explain the multiple levels of the metaphor of blindness in this story.
7. Discuss the cultural mythologies evident in the story "Chixcilub". How is the story a myth of suburban fears? How are the plot and characters archtypical?
First Quarter Story Analysis Essay.
Read the stories on the Run Down. Then write a 500 word analysis of a story of your choice. You may take a variety of approaches, perhaps one inspired by our Literary Theory Unit. You may also use one of the below questions as a basis for your essay.
1. For the Magic Barrel and/or Conversion of the Jews: Compare and contrast those themes that are particular to Jewish culture and religion and those that are "universal"; i.e. which texts relate themes that are unique/singular to the Jewish experience, and which texts relate experiences shared by everyone?
2. For Conversion of the Jews: the 2008 Free Response Question: In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play(that is, Conversion of the Jews), explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
3. For the Shawl: First explain what Theodor Adorno meant when he said, "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." Explain how the ambivalence/tension of making art out of the Holocaust in expressed in the story "The Shawl.”
4. Write an essay on your reading of the Shawl that follows the following thesis:"Ozick's use of imagery and figurative language throughout the story expresses the tension created by the extreme nature of the subject matter."
Hint: your essay can use, if necessary, the following sentence:
...the reader is situated within a series of experiences so horrifying that they resist conventional language. Ozick's extensive use of figurative language suggests the desperation of a mind (both Rosa's and that of the implied narrator) striving to make sense of a bleak world...
...Magda's eyes are called "blue tigers," her legs are called "scribbling pencils"..."ash-stippled wind"..."Magdas mouth was spilling a vicious rope of clamour."
etc.
5. Consider a feminist analysis of "Rape Fantasies" that suggests that the narrator both complies to and resists traditional gender roles when faced with the issue of male dominance and aggression.
6. For Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” : Write an essay in which you explore and explain the multiple levels of the metaphor of blindness in this story.
7. Discuss the cultural mythologies evident in the story "Chixcilub". How is the story a myth of suburban fears? How are the plot and characters archtypical?
representations in fiction
In feminism and post-colonial criticism, we look at the way the OTHER is represented. Here's a sample critique of T. Boyle's Chixculub, from, of all people, the American Association of Nurses.
Questions for the Magic Barrel
"Magic Barrel" plot/theme/point of view questions
1. The first paragraph introduces Leo Finkle--what is his profession and why is he calling on Pyne Salzman? Describe Salzman.
2. Determine the story's point of view.
3. Why does Finkle reject Sophi P.? Lily H.? Ruth K.?
4. What is Finkle's state of mind after he dismissed Salzman?
5. Why does Salzman return? Describe his conversation with Finkle.
6. How did Finkle's date with Hirschorn go?
7. What is the realization Finkle gradually comes to? What other things does he begin to realize?
8. Describe the worst week of Finkle's life. What does he resolve to do?
9. Salzman returns and identifies his own weakness--what it is that makes him a poor man. What is it?
10. What does Salzman leave with Finkle? How does Finkle respond to it?
11. Why does Finkle "let out a cry"? Take careful notice of how Malamud describes the features of the woman in the picture. What is Finkle's reaction? Enumerate Finkle's frustration in trying to track Salzman.
12. Why doesn't Salzman want to tell Finkle who the picture is of?
13. After hiding himself under the covers, what does Finkle decide to do?
14. Describe the meeting between Finkle and Stella. Do you think Salzman planned it? Why is he around a corner chanting prayers for the dead?
1. The first paragraph introduces Leo Finkle--what is his profession and why is he calling on Pyne Salzman? Describe Salzman.
2. Determine the story's point of view.
3. Why does Finkle reject Sophi P.? Lily H.? Ruth K.?
4. What is Finkle's state of mind after he dismissed Salzman?
5. Why does Salzman return? Describe his conversation with Finkle.
6. How did Finkle's date with Hirschorn go?
7. What is the realization Finkle gradually comes to? What other things does he begin to realize?
8. Describe the worst week of Finkle's life. What does he resolve to do?
9. Salzman returns and identifies his own weakness--what it is that makes him a poor man. What is it?
10. What does Salzman leave with Finkle? How does Finkle respond to it?
11. Why does Finkle "let out a cry"? Take careful notice of how Malamud describes the features of the woman in the picture. What is Finkle's reaction? Enumerate Finkle's frustration in trying to track Salzman.
12. Why doesn't Salzman want to tell Finkle who the picture is of?
13. After hiding himself under the covers, what does Finkle decide to do?
14. Describe the meeting between Finkle and Stella. Do you think Salzman planned it? Why is he around a corner chanting prayers for the dead?
What is Literature?
Use the following resources to give a 5 minute presentation on a school of literary criticism.
Terry Eagleton's What is Literature?
Introduction to Modern Literary Theory
See pp. 1328-1338 in our Short Fiction anthology
Consider these guidelines:
P: The 5-10 minute presentation includes a brief handout, perhaps no more than a page,OR a powerpoint which explains the method of criticism, provides key theorists, and then demonstrates the theory in action by example. The presentation may also discuss the strengths and weaknesses, or major assumptions, of their approach to studying literature.
Josh T Hannah New Criticism Wednesday, 9/8
Josh B Shana Mythological criticism/archetypal criticsm Wednesday 9/8
Tal Rachel Lazer psychoanalytic Mon 9/13
Aaron Keenan Emily Marxism Mon 9/13
Danny Hillary Ayelet feminism Mon 9/13
Rami Noah Sami post colononialsim Tues 9/14
Dena Sam Sharona structuralism Tues 9/14
Jared Ilan reader response Wed 9/15
Terry Eagleton's What is Literature?
Introduction to Modern Literary Theory
See pp. 1328-1338 in our Short Fiction anthology
Consider these guidelines:
P: The 5-10 minute presentation includes a brief handout, perhaps no more than a page,OR a powerpoint which explains the method of criticism, provides key theorists, and then demonstrates the theory in action by example. The presentation may also discuss the strengths and weaknesses, or major assumptions, of their approach to studying literature.
Josh T Hannah New Criticism Wednesday, 9/8
Josh B Shana Mythological criticism/archetypal criticsm Wednesday 9/8
Tal Rachel Lazer psychoanalytic Mon 9/13
Aaron Keenan Emily Marxism Mon 9/13
Danny Hillary Ayelet feminism Mon 9/13
Rami Noah Sami post colononialsim Tues 9/14
Dena Sam Sharona structuralism Tues 9/14
Jared Ilan reader response Wed 9/15
Another Hint
Okay, think of a minor character--Hindley, Isabella, Lockwood, Joseph--again, basically anyone not named Heathcliff or Catherine, you could say. Look at the way the minor characters are characterized against the main. The differences may illuminate the main character's strengths, flaws, weaknesses, desires...For example. Hindley torments Heathcliff, in large part because of a perceived status--Heathcliff has no name, no family history, a man without an identity. You could develop how that relationship(Hindley vs. Heathcliff) shaped the monsterous, relentless side of Heathcliff, meanwhile Hindley slowly and surely descended into a kind of nihilistic wastrel, dying broke and in obscurity. In general, for this kind of essay, we want to reveal, discuss, CHARACTER(in my example, Heathcliff's character) and looking at the relationship with a minor character, a foil, can just be another way of doing it. If "compare and contrast" seems a prompt you're more comfortable with, why, go with that.
A hint...
A brief search of the term foil might render this definition:
characters whose actions and traits contrast each other in a way that gives us a better understanding of both of their characters.
One asks, who is a lesser character? Anyone but Heathcliff and Catherine, really. While it might be difficult to differentiate the VOICE of the various narrators--Nelly, Lockwood, Isabella, etc--they have "contrasting actions and traits" that help readers understand the central characters. You might build a response exploring the way Nelly reacts to both Heathcliff and Catherine, to give them greater relief(i.e. definition, resolution).
Good luck! I'll take questions.
characters whose actions and traits contrast each other in a way that gives us a better understanding of both of their characters.
One asks, who is a lesser character? Anyone but Heathcliff and Catherine, really. While it might be difficult to differentiate the VOICE of the various narrators--Nelly, Lockwood, Isabella, etc--they have "contrasting actions and traits" that help readers understand the central characters. You might build a response exploring the way Nelly reacts to both Heathcliff and Catherine, to give them greater relief(i.e. definition, resolution).
Good luck! I'll take questions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)