Bancroft School
A. P. English Literature 12
Mr. Taylor
June 2008
Summer, Summer, Summer
Reading List
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
A goofy guide to English punctuation, featuring an author who goes about London
marking up public places with her editor's pen and such terminology as "The Greengrocer's
Apostrophe" and "The Oxford Comma."
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Praised by The New York Times for “its rendering of a particularly American numbness,”
White Noise tracks the lives of the extended family of Jack Gladney, a professor at an
institution resembling some of our favorite college towns in Western Mass. DeLillo’s ironic
narrative is notable for its post-modern commentary on contemporary American society and
individuals.
World poetry
You select a book of poetry not originally written in English. If you are a linguist, try to
find a dual language collection. Poets you might consider include Baudelaire, Rimbaud,
Neruda, Alvarez, Seneca, Catullus.
Assignments
1. Document five examples of butchered punctuation, explaining briefly each flaw. Feel free to
bring in photos of billboards, photocopies of documents, newspaper clippings, or other graphic
representations of butchery, with your criticisms included. (Avoid e-mail or website faux pas.)
2. Write a focused essay (approx. 500 words), organized around a central assertion, or thesis, on
a key theme in White Noise. Use the following questions, or groups of questions, to guide your
choice of topic:
Is there any authenticity in the novel? If so, where does it exist, what has created it and how
is it sustained? If not, what has replaced it? Are authenticity and reality the same concept?
Choose one parent-child relationship in the text between either Jack or Babette and one of
Denise, Steffie, Heinrich or Wilder. Who is in control? What statement is DeLillo making
about family? Aging? Maturity? Responsibility? How and why do the relationships take the
course that they do?
3. Find an important theme or idea that your world poet explores in her or his poetry, and write
an essay (approx. 500 words) exploring the ways in which that theme or idea surfaces in the
poetry. What is the poet trying to reveal about the theme or idea you have identified? Organize
your essay around a central assertion, or thesis, and use specific examples from the poems to
illustrate and support your thesis.
4. Start reading for your senior thesis. Read four sources covering at least two possible topics.
Hand in an annotated bibliography describing those four sources.