AP Literature 2015-16 Summer Assignment
Mr. Falkinburg
Mrs. Clark
If Advanced Placement Language and Composition was the how then Advanced Placement Literature
and Composition is the why. Through studies in previous courses, students have mastered being able to
identify and demonstrate various writing styles and literary concepts. Students will now be focusing on the
next level of analysis of trying to understand why an author chose to write what he or she wrote and why they
chose everything from the format and style to the literary devices used to convey their message. Therefore it
is essential that you are able to identify literary devices and be familiar with them when you enter class in the
fall.
Expectations:
AP English Language and Composition deviates from the typical English class, so we have planned the
following summer assignments both to offer you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with this type of study
and to determine the prior knowledge and skills that you will bring to my class. Failure to complete all
summer assignments on time may be grounds for removal from the AP Language class.
Summer Assignment Due Date:
The third week of school 2015-16
Assignment 1: Read and analyze a novel.
You are to pick a novel or play from the following list to read over the summer, and complete a 2Part assignment to analyze the use of literary devices in that novel.
List:
Doctor Faustus, Invisible Man, Candide, Portrait of the Artist, Dubliners, Crime and Punishment, All the
Pretty Horses, A Doll’s House, Don Quixote, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, King Lear, The
Heart of Darkness, Gulliver’s Travels, The Canterbury Tales, The Brothers Karamazov, Merchant of
Venice, Jane Eyre, Metamorphosis, The Stranger.
Part 1:
Throughout the course of this novel, you will need to complete 20 entries in a Double-Entry Journal where
you choose 1 literary device and explain how the author used it in the text.
This Double-Entry Journal has one column titled “Quotes” and another column titled “Analysis which
includes a 2-4 sentence analysis of rhetorical strategies the author uses to convey his or her
purpose/argument. The analysis of rhetorical strategies should focus on literary devices (refer to your AP
literary terms list).
Some questions to consider:
1. Why did the author choose this literary device?
2. Is it effective?
3. What is the author trying to convey by using this device?
Finally, organize your Double-Entry Journal by inserting a table with columns using Microsoft Word and the
“Table” function above the toolbar, clearly cite your quotes using quotation marks and the page number(s)
where you found the quote, and bold/highlight literary devices (see graphic below).
Example:
Quotes
Analysis
1. “All happy families
1. Syntax: This is the famous opening line of the book and seems like it is
resemble one another, but
each unhappy family is
unhappy in its own way”
(1).
2. [Number each quote, use
quotation marks, and cite
page numbers]
setting up things to come. This quote uses antithesis to distinguish between
happy families and unhappy families. Moreover, it distinguishes between
different types of unhappy families. It seems that antithesis, or the contrast of
ideas, and family life will be prevalent throughout the book.
2. [Number each analysis to match the quote being analyzed]
Assignment #2: Essay
Once you have finished reading, you will need to write a 5-paragraph essay in which you pick a theme from
the novel and explain how the author reveals this theme through literary devices. You should demonstrate the
ability to include quotes from the novel as evidence in your body paragraphs.
Part 2:
Assignment #3: AP Literary Terms Flash Cards
Study the attached list of AP Terms. The study of terminology is a three-step process: 1) Learning the
definition, 2) Identifying the device when it appears in literature, and 3) Being able to discuss the effect or
purpose of the device. Knowing these terms will be very helpful throughout the year, but even more
important for the AP Exam in May.
For your first assignment, you will need to create flash cards for the AP terms. Each flash card must include
the term on one side and the definition and an example of usage on the other side; make sure the example of
usage you use is one you understand. Finally, flash cards should be neatly hand-written on 3x5 index cards,
and grouped together with a rubber band or hole punched and put on a ring.
Example:
F
Alliteration
Back Side of Flash Card
ront
Side
of
Flash
Card
Definition: The repetition of sounds,
especially initial consonant sounds in two or
more neighboring words (as in “she sells
seashells”). The repetition can reinforce
meaning, unify ideas, and/or supply a
musical sound.
Example: “Five miles meandering with a
mazy motion”
AP LITERARY TERMS
ALLEGORY
ALLITERATION
ALLUSION
AMBIGUITY
ANALOGY
ANAPHORA
ANECDOTE
ANTAGONIST
ANTIMETABOLE
ANTITHESIS
ANTIHERO
ANTHROPOMORPHISM
APHORISM
APOSTROPHE
ASSONANCE
BALANCE
CHARACTERIZATION:
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION:
DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
STATIC CHARACTER
DYNAMIC CHARACTER
FLAT CHARACTER
ROUND CHARACTER
CHIASMUS
CLICHÉ
COLLOQUIALISM
COMEDY
CONCEIT
CONFLICT
EXTERNAL CONFLICT
INTERNAL CONFLICT
CONNOTATION
COUPLET
DIALECT
DICTION
ELEGY
EPIC
EPIGRAPH
EPITHET
FABLE
FARCE
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
FLASHBACK
FOIL
FORESHADOWING
FREE VERSE
HYPERBOLE
IMAGERY
INVERSION
IRONY
VERBAL IRONY
SITUATIONAL IRONY
DRAMATIC IRONY
JUXTAPOSITION
LOCAL COLOR
LYRIC POEM
METAPHOR
IMPLIED METAPHOR
EXTENDED METAPHOR
DEAD METAPHOR
MIXED METAPHOR
METONYMY
MOOD
MOTIF
MOTIVATION (Character)
ONOMATOPOEIA
OXYMORON
PARABLE
PARADOX
PARALLEL STRUCTURE (parallelism)
PARODY
PERIODIC
PERSONIFICATION
PLOT
EXPOSITION
RISING ACTION
CLIMAX
TURNING POINT
RESOLUTION
POINT OF VIEW
FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW
THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW
OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW
OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW
PROTAGONIST
QUATRAIN
REFRAIN
RHYTHM
RHETORIC
RHETORICAL QUESTION
ROMANCE
SATIRE
SIMILE
SOLILOQUY
STEREOTYPE
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
STYLE
SUSPENSE
SYMBOL
SYNECDOCHE
SYNTACTIC FLUENCY
THEME
TONE
TRAGEDY
UNDERSTATEMENT
VERNACULAR
WRITING MOVEMENTS AND STYLES TO KNOW:
IMPRESSIONISM a nineteenth-century movement in literature and art which
advocated a recording of the artist’s personal impressions of the world, rather than a
strict representation of reality.
MODERNISM a term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that swept the
arts during the first third of the twentieth century.
NATURALISM a nineteenth century literary movement that was an extension of
realism and that claimed to portray life exactly as it was.
PLAIN STYLE Writing style that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression (but will
still utilize allusions and metaphors), and was the main form of the Puritan writers.
PURITANISM Writing style of America’s early English-speaking colonists.
emphasizes obedience to God and consists mainly of journals, sermons, and poems.
RATIONALISM a movement that began in Europe in the seventeenth century, which
held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying on the authority of
the past, on the authority of the Church, or an institution. ALSO CALLED
NEOCLASSICISM AND AGE OF REASON
REALISM a style of writing, developed in the nineteenth century, that attempts to
depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it.
REGIONALISM literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and that
reproduces the speech, behavior, and attitudes of the people who live in that region.
ROMANTICISM a revolt against Rationalism that affected literature and the other arts,
beginning in the late eighteenth century and remaining strong throughout most of the
SURREALISM in movement in art and literature that started in Europe during the
1920s. Surrealists wanted to replace conventional realism with the full expression of the
unconscious mind, which they considered to be more real than the “real” world of
SYMBOLISM a literary movement that originated in late nineteenth century France, in
which writers rearranged the world of appearances in order to reveal a more truthful
TRANSCENDENTALISM a nineteenth century movement in the Romantic tradition ,
which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition,
which transcends reasons and sensory experience.
TIME LINE:
Puritanism 1620 - 1770s
Neoclassic 1770s - early 1800s
Romanticism early 1800s - 1870s
Realism 1850s -early 1900s
Regionalism 1884 - early 1900s
Naturalism - late 1800s - mid 1900s
Modernism - 1920s - [1945]
[Post-Modernism - 1945 - ]
ESSAY TYPES TO KNOW:
ARGUMENTATION: one of the four forms of discourse which uses logic, ethics, and emotional
appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in
a certain way.
PERSUASION: relies more on emotional appeals than on facts
ARGUMENT: form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of
emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way.
CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP: Form of argumentation in which the writer
claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical
argument.
DESCRIPTION: a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or
EXPOSITION: one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something
is explained or “set forth.”
NARRATIVE: the form of discourse that tells about a series of events.
EXPLICATION: act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually
involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.