Great Books, Great Art
AP English Literature Final Project
Objectives:
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To enrich understanding of a literary work through careful reading and analysis of selected key scenes
To recognize how arts media can be integrated into literature studies
To acquaint students with masterpieces of world art
To create a collage showing the focus and tone of key scenes
Part I:
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Select and read a book from the provided list.
After reading, select what you consider to be the five key scenes in the book; these should be scenes that are
critical to the work as a whole. Then, analyze each scene by…
o Determining what the major focus of the scene is. For example, is it plot development, character,
setting, etc.?
o Identifying the dominant sensory images in the scene, those scenes that appeal to the senses. Be sure
to note key visual elements.
o Determine the mood and tone of the scene. Choose two or three vivid adjectives to describe the mood;
do not merely say sad, but aim for precision in word choice, such as heart-wrenching or melancholy.
Use adjectives that reveal activity, sounds, and smells also, not merely emotion. Use a dictionary or
thesaurus to help.
o Select five key words that you feel embody the scene.
o Select three or four colors that you feel reflect the overall tone and mood of the scene; the colors need
not be mentioned in the scene.
You will complete one analysis chart for each scene.
Part 2:
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The Great Art
In very general terms, art can be divided in to two major types: representational art (art that attempts to
recreate faithfully the images found in the world around us) and abstract art (art that attempts to get to the
essence of the world around us but does not necessarily attempt to imitate its images). A representational artist
might paint a bustling street scene such as George Bellow’s Cliff Dwellers (from NMAA), while an abstract artist
might aim for something like Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie (from MOMA). Both are very effective in
conveying the same idea through different styles.
Examine the following sample works of art that include both representational and abstract pieces on a variety of
themes:
o Guemica, Picasso
o Emigrants Crossing the Plains, Albert
o The Scream, Edvard Munch
Bierstadt
o The Boating Party, Mary Cassatt
o Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vinci
o The K’ong-his Emperor’s Second Tour of
o Paul Revere, John Singleton Copley
the South, Wang Hui
o The Return of Ulysses, Romare Bearden
o The Figure 5 in Gold, Charles Demuth
Part 3:
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The Great Book
The Collage
Using your analysis of the five critical scenes in your chosen book, find one companion piece of great art to
complement each selected scene. Try to include both representational and abstract art in your collage. Be
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open-minded and stretch your imagination, but remember to be guided by the overall meaning and analysis of
each scene.
Websites for Art:
o Smithsonian American Art Museum:
o The Hermitage Museum:
http://americanart.si.edu/
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/w
o The Louvre: http://www.louvre.fr/en
ps/portal/hermitage/?lng=en
o The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
o Mark Hardin’s Artchive:
http://www.metmuseum.org/
http://www.artchive.com/
o Museum of Modern Art:
http://www.moma.org/
Your finished product should be no smaller than 8.5” x 11”. Use only one key word on your collage for each key
scene. You should have a total of five works of art, five key words to represent each scene, and the title of the
novel on the collage. How you present this information is up to you, but be creative.
Book Choices
1.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in
turns by each of the family members - including Addie herself - the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos
2.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
The first, shortest, and most approachable of James Joyce’s novels, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man portrays the Dublin upbringing of Stephen Dedalus,
from his youthful days at Clongowes Wood College to his radical questioning of all convention. In doing so, it provides an oblique self-portrait of the young Joyce
himself. At its center lie questions of origin and source, authority and authorship, and the relationship of an artist to his family, culture, and race. Exuberantly
inventive in style, the novel subtly and beautifully orchestrates the patterns of quotation and repetition instrumental in its hero’s quest to create his own
character, language, life, and art.
3.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of
his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling
Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton,
surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs
must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
4.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
In a remote Hertfordshire village, far off the good coach roads of George III's England, a country squire of no great means must marry off his five vivacious
daughters. At the heart of this all-consuming enterprise are his headstrong second daughter Elizabeth Bennet and her aristocratic suitor Fitzwilliam Darcy — two
lovers whose pride must be humbled and prejudices dissolved before the novel can come to its splendid conclusion.
5.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (You must purchase this book on your own.)
The Handmaid's Tale is not only a radical and brilliant departure for Margaret Atwood, it is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its
images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has
reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes
the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men of its population.
6.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
During a business visit to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania, a young English solicitor finds himself at the center of a series of horrifying incidents. Jonathan
Harker is attacked by three phantom women, observes the Count's transformation from human to bat form, and discovers puncture wounds on his own neck
that seem to have been made by teeth. Harker returns home upon his escape from Dracula's grim fortress, but a friend's strange malady — involving
sleepwalking, inexplicable blood loss, and mysterious throat wounds — initiates a frantic vampire hunt.
7.
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Albert Camus’s spare, laconic masterpiece about a Frenchman who murders an Arab in Algeria is famous for having diagnosed, with a clarity almost scientific,
that condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life. Possessing both the force of a parable and
the excitement of a perfectly executed thriller, The Stranger is the work of one of the most engaged and intellectually alert writers of the past century.
8.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders alone through the slums of St. Petersburg, deliriously imagining himself above society’s laws.
But when he commits a random murder, only suffering ensues. Embarking on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator,
Raskolnikov finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden prostitute, can offer the chance of redemption.
9.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna
rejects her passionless marriage and thereby exposes herself to the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century
Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family
happiness.