AP Literature and Composition 2015-2016
Mrs. Loux (jloux@pway.org)
Summer Project
Core Texts:
 The Oedipus Cycle by Sophocles (translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)
 Aristotle’s “Poetics” (http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html)
Resource Texts:
 Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor
(http://www.sparkascreen.com/files/APFiles/HowToReadLiteratureLikeAProfessor.pdf)
 Perrine’s Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry
 Stunk and White’s The Elements of Style (http://www.bartleby.com/141/)
______________________________________________________________________________
PART I: Aristotle’s “Poetics”
Directions: Read Aristotle’s “Poetics (Part I-Part XXVI) and take close reading notes. You can
access the document via http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html. Keep in mind the below
questions and be prepared to discuss in class.





What does Aristotle mean when he says “poetry is a mode of imitation”?
What are the three differences/categories of imitation? Define each one.
What are the most popular distinctions between tragedy and comedy?
According to Aristotle, what qualities make a “perfect” tragic plot?
Although the audience may be moved by pity, fear, and associated emotions, why might
they also have a feeling of exhilaration and hope?
 Aristotle says, “Even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with
horror and melt to pity at what takes Place. This is the impression we should receive from
hearing the story of the Oedipus”. Did this happen for you as the reader?
______________________________________________________________________________
PART II: Vocabulary
Directions: Define the following vocabulary words using Aristotle’s text and any other scholarly
online sources. Record the definitions and keep in your notebook.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Tragedy
Comedy
Melodrama
Farce
Imitation
Prologos
Parados
Episodes
Choric Ode
Exodus
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Sophocles
Third Actor/Chorus
Tragic Hero
Tragic Flaw
Human Fallibility
Unity of Action
Unity of Time
Unity of Place
Crisis of feeling
Hubris
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
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Hamartia
Anagnorisis
Peripeteia
Pathos
Catharsis
The best tragic plots
Plot
Complication
Denouement
Chief characters
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
Thought
Diction
Song
Spectacle
Protagonist
Deus ex machina
Six characteristics
of the archetypical
tragic hero and story
PART III: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster
Directions: Read Chapter 5 and Chapter 22 from Thomas Foster’s text, How to Read
Literature Like a Professor. Access these chapters online via
http://www.sparkascreen.com/files/APFiles/HowToReadLiteratureLikeAProfessor.pdf or
download them from our class website under “Class Handouts”. Make annotations on the
two chapters and answer the below questions on a separate piece of paper or type your
responses on the computer. Bring to class and be prepared to discuss!
1. Chapter 5 “Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?”
 What does Foster mean when he writes, “there is no such thing as a wholly
original work of literature” (29)?
 Why does Foster say, “there is only one story” (32)? What is that story? How
does T.S. Eliot explain this?
 In your own words, define “intertextuality” (34).
 How can Foster’s theory of “intertextuality” help us understand The Oedipus
Cycle on a deeper and more analytic level?
 Give one example of how you can “connect the dots” between:
o The Oedipus Cycle and another piece of literature (Text-to-text
connection)
o The Oedipus Cycle and our world today (Text-to-world connection)
2. Chapter 22: “He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know”
 Why might a writer introduce a blind character in his or her story?
 In literature, what is just as challenging—but equally important—as finding
answers?
 Describe Foster’s “Indiana Jones Principle”
 According to Foster and what you know about Oedipus, what did he acquire later
in life? Why?
________________________________________________________________________
PART IV: Essay
Read all three plays in the trilogy: The Oedipus Cycle (translated by Dudley Fitts and
Robert Fitzgerald)
One definition of madness is “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it.”
However, Emily Dickenson’s poem offers a more philosophical interpretation of madness.
Carefully close read the following Dickenson poem, using Perrine’s Sound and Sense as a
guide for poetry analysis and apply the TPCASTT strategy:
Much Madness is divinest Sense –
To a discerning Eye -Much Sense -- the starkest Madness –
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail -Assent -- and you are sane -Demur -- you're straightway dangerous –
And handled with a Chain –
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The Prompt:
Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a “discerning Eye.” In the
Sophocles trilogy, the characters’ apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an
important role. Think of their behavior in these plays in terms of Dickenson’s
philosophical meaning of madness. Then write a well-organized essay in which you
analyze how Sophocles’ “discerning eye” illustrates Dickenson’s of madness and explain
how this madness or irrational behavior might be judged reasonable.
Use The Elements of Style by Strunk and White as a resource for writing concisely and
precisely. This text may be found online (http://www.bartleby.com/141/).
Submission:
Essays are due via Google Docs no later than Monday, August 24 2014 at 11:59pm. Share
a Google Doc FOLDER with mrslouxphs@gmail.com. Title the folder with your first and
last name (Ie: Jessica Loux). Inside the folder include your summer reading essay titled
“Sophocles Summer Essay”.
**Please be sure that you upload your essay as a GOOGLE DOC (not a Microsoft Word
Document). This will allow me to comment and edit your paper directly on the document.
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Essay Rubric: Your essay will be scored using the AP Literature and Composition 9point rubric. See descriptions of scores and numerical grade below.
9-8 Superior papers are specific in their references, cogent in their definitions, and free of
plot summary that is not relevant to the question. These essays need not be without flaws,
but they demonstrate the writer's ability to discuss a literary work with insight and
understanding and to control a wide range of the elements of effective composition. At all
times they stay focused on the prompt, providing specific support--mostly through direct
quotations--and connecting scholarly commentary to the overall meaning.
7-6 These papers are less thorough, less perceptive or less specific than 9-8 papers. They
are well-written but with less maturity and control. While they demonstrate the writer's
ability to analyze a literary work, they reveal a more limited understanding and less
stylistic maturity than do the papers in the 9-8 range.
5 Safe and “plastic,” superficiality characterizes these essays. Discussion of meaning may
be formulaic, mechanical, or inadequately related to the chosen details. Typically, these
essays reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing. They usually demonstrate
inconsistent control over the elements of composition and are not as well conceived,
organized, or developed as the upper half papers. However, the writing is sufficient to
convey the writer's ideas, stays mostly focused on the prompt, and contains at least some
effort to produce analysis, direct or indirect.
4-3 Discussion is likely to be unpersuasive, perfunctory, underdeveloped or misguided.
The meaning they deduce may be inaccurate or insubstantial and not clearly related to the
question. Part of the question may be omitted altogether. The writing may convey the
writer's ideas, but it reveals weak control over such elements as diction, organization,
syntax or grammar. Typically, these essays contain significant misinterpretations of the
question or the work they discuss; they may also contain little, if any, supporting
evidence, and practice paraphrase and plot summary at the expense of analysis.
2-1 These essays compound the weakness of essays in the 4-3 range and are frequently
unacceptably brief. They are poorly written on several counts, including many distracting
errors in grammar and mechanics. Although the writer may have made some effort.
9=95
8=90
7=85
6=80
5=75
4=70
3=65
2=60
1=55
0=50
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PART V: Poetry Close Reading
Directions: Choose five poems from the following list and annotate each of them. You must
choose at least one from each category. Answer the questions for EACH of the poems you
choose. Read the poem more than once BEFORE you begin analysis. Challenge yourself!
Select poems of different lengths, time periods and authors; the higher the category, the more
challenging the poems become.
Category 1:
“As I Walked Out One Evening” –W.H. Auden
“They Flee From Me” –Thomas Wyatt
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” –Dylan Thomas
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” –Emily Dickinson
“There Are Birds Here” –Jamaal May
“Testimonial” –Rita Dove
“A Display of Macarel” –Mark Doty
“Carnival” –Rebecca Lindenberg
“To the Desert” –Benjamin Alire Saenz
“The Death of Allegory” –Billy Collins
“How I Discovered Poetry” –Marilyn Nelson
“In the Waiting Room” –Elizabeth Bishop
“Siren Song” –Margaret Atwood
“Mending Wall” –Robert Frost
“Safe in their Alabaster Chamber” –Emily Dickinson
Category 2:
“somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond” - e e cummings
“Poem about People” - Robert Pinsky
“And Soul” - Eavan Boland
“The Lost Land” - Eavan Boland
“Camouflaging the Chimera” - Yusef Komunyakaa
“Pride” - Yusef Komunyakaa
“The Universe as Primal Scream” - Tracy K. Smith
“Banneker” - Rita Dove
“Beat! Beat! Drums!” - Walt Whitman
“To His Coy Mistress” –Andrew Marvell
“Sunday Morning” –Wallace Steve
“How We Made a New Art on Old Ground” - Eavan Boland
Category 3:
“The War Horse” - Eavan Boland
“Duende” - Tracy K. Smith
“I Am Waiting” - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” –John Keats
“The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” –T.S. Eliot
“Ulysses” –Alfred Lord Tennyson
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Questions for close reading:
1. Analyze the TITLE of the poem. Is it symbolic? Descriptive? Ironic? Why do you think the
author chose this title? How does it relate to the overall poem?
2. PARAPHRASE the poem. Provide a brief summary in your own words. What is the poem
about? Are there any conflicts?
3. Is there a SETTING? If so, how does the author make use of the setting?
4. Analyze the FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE in the poem. (ie: simile, metaphor,
personification, imagery). How does the author use these elements to convey meaning?
5. Does the poem use ALLUSIONS? How does the use of other works of literature relate to or
add to the meaning of the poem?
6. Identify the TONE in the poem. What is the author’s attitude toward the subject matter?
7. Is there a SHIFT in the poem? A change in tone, point of view, speaker, meaning? How does
the shift relate to the overall meaning?
8. Read the poem out loud. How does the SOUND contribute to the meaning? Does the
RHYTHM affect the meaning of the poem?
9. Identify the THEME of the poem. What is the overall message? What does the author expect
the reader to learn or experience from the poem? Is there a historical (world event, period of
time) or cultural (gender, race, class) aspect?
10. How does the poem make YOU feel?
Category
Annotation
Identification
Analysis
Limited
Proficiency
50-59
No annotation for the
majority of the poem
Partially
Proficient
60-69
Limited annotation of
the poem
Identifies little to no
boldfaced elements in
questions
Provides little to no
explanation/
interpretation of
identified elements
Identifies some but
ignores or misses
many
Provides limited or
partial explanation,
often with varying
levels of
misinterpretation
Attempts connections
beyond the text but
lacks full
understanding
Shows limited
comprehension of the
text; primarily on a
literal level
Insight
Makes no
connections beyond
the text
Overall
Comprehension
Shows a lack of
comprehension or
misinterprets
message of the text
Proficient
70-79
Basic annotation of
the poem. Some
major elements
included, but some
missing
Above
Proficient
80-89
Clear and specific
annotation; all major
elements covered
Identifies many with
some level of detail
Identifies most
elements thoroughly
Provides sufficient
and mostly accurate
analysis of many
elements
Accurately explains
and interprets most
elements of the text
Few connections and
limited understanding
beyond the text
Makes connections
and shows some
understanding
beyond the text
Shows
comprehension of the
text with evidence of
understanding and
limited understanding
of connotative
meaning
Shows
comprehension of the
text with some
evidence of
figurate/connotative
meaning
Highly
Proficient
90-100
Analytical
annotation, including
questions that
facilitate discussion
and analysis of the
poem
Identifies all bold
faced elements
thoroughly
Gives thorough,
precise, and accurate
analysis of almost all
identifiable elements
Extends
understanding and
connections beyond
the text
Shows command of
comprehension with
evidence of accurate
interpretation and
connotative meaning
Submission:
Close reading and questions are due in YOUR Google Doc folder NO LATER than Tuesday,
September 1, 2015 by 11:59PM. **Please be sure that you upload your close readings and
questions responses as a GOOGLE DOC (not a Microsoft Word Document). This will allow me
to comment directly on the document.
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