AP English Literature and Composition

Course: 550

Course Description:

*Note: The recent average PSAT Reading score for AP students has been 32.

AP English Literature and Composition is a college-level course designed to engage students in the critical analysis of literature. It requires students to interact analytically through intensive study of representative texts from various genres and periods, concentrating on works of recognized literary merit. Through the close reading of selected texts, students should deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers through a work’s structure, style, and themes, as well as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, tone, etc. In the spring, students will complete the AP English Literature and Composition exam. Summer reading and written work (due the first week of class) are required to maintain enrollment.

Textbook/Class Resources:

9781462796656, Conrad, edited by Prior, Heart of Darkness, B&H Books, 2020

9780679732259, Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, Vintage, 1991

9780743273565, Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby: Based on the Cambridge Critical text, Scribner & Sons, 1925

9781319182694, Hacker, The Bedford Handbook: Eleventh ed., Bedford St. Martin’s, 2020

(The Bedford Handbook will be used throughout the year, and subsequent years, for many purposes. The eleventh edition is absolutely essential for classroom use.)

or 9781319361082, Hacker, The Bedford Handbook with 2020 APA Update: Eleventh ed., Bedford St. Martin’s, 2020

(This book was previously purchased for use in 9th grade and 10th grades.)

9780061120060, Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Perennial Library, 1937

9780393664522, Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature: 13th High School Edition,  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2019

9780743477550, Shakespeare, Othello (Folger Shakespeare Library), Simon & Schuster, 2017