AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION SUMMER READING 2015
“Withholding theory does no favor for students, who must not only read the texts assigned in courses, after all, but
find things to say about those texts that more or less sound like literary criticism. Sheltering students from
theoretical discourses and debates only deprives them of the generalized language that the literature course asks
them to produce—and penalizes them for not producing. This is not to deny that the reading and explication of
meanings should be central to the literature class. But we cannot begin to know which meanings to explicate without
an implicit theory about what things are worth talking about.”
–Gerald Graff, from the Foreword of Falling into Theory
The summer reading project for AP Literature and Composition course has two parts. For one,
you need to read the great Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles. Because it a text from
antiquity, Antigone should be easily locatable for free online. If you want a hard copy to make
notes in, I suggest this also. Usually, you can get a Dover Thrift edition for about $2.50 plus tax.
This would suffice.
Even though our course will be firmly anchored in British and Western European literature, we
must begin with the beginning: the classics. Themes that appear in Antigone appear again and
again throughout Western literature. Read critically with this fact in mind.
Nota bene: Don’t be alarmed that you have two readings this summer. Antigone is only about 50
pages long.
The second text you need to purchase is called Falling into Theory: Conflicting Views on
Reading Literature, Second Edition edited by David H. Richter. You will not be required to read
the entire text over the summer, but the following excerpts:
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Introduction, “Part One: Why We Read”
“What We Have Loved, Others Will Love” by Helen Vendler
“Disliking Books at an Early Age” by Gerald Graff
Introduction, “Part Two: What We Read”
The Richter book is a college-level text that we will be using for supplemental readings
throughout the year. While it is no longer in print, you can easily find a lightly used copy online
for under $5 including shipping. Check Amazon.com or Abebooks.com for a used copy, and be
sure to allow yourself enough time to receive the book in the mail in advance of the school year
beginning.
Background: In Vendler’s essay she insists that the teaching of literature inherently involves the
teaching of language, and that it is the instructor’s responsibility to impart their love of both to
the student. Conversely, in Graff’s essay, he claims that he never truly appreciated or understood
the study of literature until he was given the tools of critical theory, and the opportunity to hear
others’ voices interacting with the text to make him understand it fully. This dilemma is the crux
of our studies—what constitutes the study of literature? Is it the personal interaction with the text
or the critical?
Writing Assignment: Reflect on your English classes so far and think about how you have
developed your study and appreciation of literature. Describe a specific, revelatory moment
when meaning in a text became clear to you. Use this as a launching point to detail how you
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION SUMMER READING 2015
think you learn literature. Then, consider Antigone: this is an ancient text, devoid of all the usual
explanations of contemporary drama to which we’re accustomed. How do you think you could
best understand and appreciate this text? You don’t necessarily have to analyze it, but describe
what your approach to understanding it and gaining meaning from might look like. The final
reflection should be 3-5 typed, double-spaced pages in length.
Due: Monday, 3 August 2015.
AP Summer Reading Written Response Rubric
Essay Score
Address of Prompt
Grammar & Mechanics
Idea Development
Effective: 8-9
Commanding evidence that
the writer understood and
addressed the entire prompt.
Mature vocabulary,
sentence structure, and very
few errors in diction and
syntax.
Thorough development; a
strong voice willing to be
creative, analytical, and
sophisticated in its
reflection.
Adequate: 6-7
Evidence that the writer
understood and addressed
the prompt.
May contain some lapses in
diction or syntax, but prose
is generally clear.
Adequate development,
sufficient reflection, and
complete explanation.
Developing: 5
The writer understood and
addressed the prompt.
May contain some lapses in
diction or syntax, but
usually conveys the writer’s
ideas.
Developed position, but the
evidence or explanation
may be uneven or
inconsistent.
Inadequate: 3-4
The writer addressed the
prompt.
May generally convey the
writer’s ideas but may be
less consistent in
controlling the elements of
effective writing.
Inadequate development;
evidence or explanations
used may be inappropriate,
insufficient, or less
convincing.
Little Success: 1-2
Less clear attention to or
misunderstanding of the
prompt.
May demonstrate consistent
weakness in writing,
general grammatical errors,
or a lack of organization.
Undeveloped, simplistic
explanation, tangential or
unrelated explanation.
Questions: Feel free to send any questions, concerns, or requests for supplementary
summer reading (there’s more where this came from!) to me all summer long:
nelliott@nyos.org. See you in July!