AP/ECE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 1 AP Lit and ECE Summer Assignment
Part I:
Literature Analysis Background Assignment for AP Lit and ECE
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Foster’s text is often used by English teachers as a spring board into literary analysis. It is written
in an engaging style which may have you chuckling or scratching your head in curiosity. We are
including it here to further deepen your background knowledge of how readers grapple with the
complex literature found in an AP or college-level English course. This summer assignment is
deceptively simple, but please be aware that what you learn through this work will be the
foundation for a far more sophisticated assignment given in the fall.
Your Foster Assignment:
Carefully read Thomas Foster’s work, How to Read Literature Like a Professor. You can find
this work as a pdf file by simply searching the title and “pdf” on Google. You can also find this
text in any library and Barnes and Noble will have ample copies as this resource is frequently
added to many academic summer reading lists.
Please complete the following the questions for submission on the first day of school:
http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/sites/www.zcs.k12.in.us.zhs/files/docs/studyguide.pdf
*Please note that this source is a shared document from another high school in the country and
that we are aware that you may find the “answers” online. In order to dissuade thoughts of
plagiarism, please be aware that your answers must be completed and submitted to us by hand
in a hard copy (on paper) version as well as an electronic file which will be uploaded to
Turnitin.com in the fall.
Part II:
Allusions Assignment for AP Lit and ECE
The following is a list of allusions (page 3). Allusions are famous references and authors will
often use allusions to increase the depth and complexity of their work. As a student taking a
college-level literature course, it is imperative to be able to recognize, understand, and apply
your understanding of allusions in order to gain a more complete analysis of the work you are
reading.
Over the summer, you are to become familiar with the allusions on this list. They are grouped as
Mythological Allusions, Literary Allusions, Biblical Allusions, Historical Allusions, Arthurian
Allusions, and Fairy Tale Allusions. We have provided a suggested list of websites and texts to
AP/ECE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 2 begin your search for defining each allusion. Remember this: at times the allusions are listed as a
word we use in English referencing a common allusion (e.g.: Jovial, referencing the god Jove).
Be sure that, as you become familiar with each allusion, your definition gets to the root of the
allusion itself.
Your assignment will then be to take five allusions in total, spanning at least three of the
categories, and apply them to a novel of your choice from the list we have provided (page 2).
Name the allusion, define the allusion as well as citing the source for your definition, explain
where and how it shows up in your novel of choice, and then analyze how an understanding of
that allusion deepens your understanding of the significance of the novel as a whole. We have
provided a sample chart you can use to format your assignment.
Please also be acutely aware that when class commences in August, you will be given a new
assignment that will focus on your application of allusions to your chosen text, so make sure that
you are, indeed, truly familiar with the allusions on the list given to you as well as being truly
familiar with your chosen text. This assignment is just an initial step for the assignment as a
whole.
Allusion:
Definition of Allusion
and cite your source
for the definition
(website or book title):
Where and How the
Allusion shows up in
the text (page number
and summary of
moment):
Analysis of how the
Allusion deepens your
understanding of the
significance of the
novel as a whole:
*Please note that parts of this assignment can be found online. In order to dissuade thoughts of
plagiarism, please be aware that your analytical assignment of the five allusions should be
submitted to us by hand in a hard copy (on paper) version as well as an electronic file which will
be uploaded to Turnitin.com in the fall.
Allusions Assignment Book List
If your last name begins with a letter from A- M, please select one of the following books:
•
•
Ken Kesey – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Toni Morrison – The Song of Solomon
If your last name begins with a letter from N-Z, please select one of the following books:
•
•
William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury
Cormac McCarthy – All the Pretty Horses
AP/ECE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 3 Here is a suggested list of websites and texts to begin your search for defining each allusion. This
is not a comprehensive list by any means; this is just a reference point to get you started.
Greek Mythology: General Information & Where to Start
<http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48479>
Bulfinch's Mythology
< http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/bulfinch.htm>
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
<http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=childrensbooks&cdn=par
enting&tm=16&gps=220_30_1001_557&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_p504.1.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bt
s=1&zu=http%3A//hca.gilead.org.il/>
Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
<http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=childrensbooks&cdn=par
enting&tm=9&gps=123_729_1001_557&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_p504.1.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bt
s=1&zu=http%3A//www-2.cs.cmu.edu/%7Espok/grimmtmp/>
Fairly Tales Reading & Research
<http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48473>
Bulfinch The Age of Fable: King Arthur and His Knights
<http://www.bartleby.com/182/index.html#1>
Literature Network: The Bible
<http://www.online-literature.com/bible/bible.php>
The Bible Story Finder
<http://www.dg.dial.pipex.com/articles/educ16.shtml>
Timeless Myths (Classical & Arthurian) http://www.timelessmyths.com/ Internet Public Library Pathfinder: http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48473 (good start for looking at Fairy Tales) Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (synopses of Greek and Roman myths) Britannia.com (good initial site for Arthurian allusions) AP/ECE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 4 MYTHOLOGICAL ALLUSIONS
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
Achilles' Heel
Adonis
Aeolian
Apollo
Argus-Eyed
Athena/Minerva
Atlantean
Aurora
Bacchanalian
Calliope
Cassandra
Centaur
Chimera
Cupidity
Eros
Furor
Gorgon
Halcyon
Harpy
Hector
Helen (of Troy)
Herculean
Hydra-Headed
Iridescent
Jovial
Junoesque
Jupiter
Lethargy
Martial
Medea
Mentor
Mercurial
Mercury/Hermes
Mnemonics
Morphine
Muse
Narcissism
Nemesis
Neptune
Niobe
Odyssey
Olympian
Paean
Pandora's Box
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
Parnassus
Pegasus
Phoenix
Plutocracy
Promethean
Protean
Psyche
Pygmalion
Pyrrhic Victory
Saturnalia
Saturnine
Sibyl
Sisyphean
Stentorian
Stygian
Tantalize
Terpsichorean
Titanic
Volcanoes
Vulcanize
Zeus
The Hero’s Journey (see Joseph
Campbell)
LITERARY ALLUSIONS
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
Babbitt
Brobdingnagian
Bumble
Cinderella
Don Juan
Don Quixote
Panglossian
Falstaffian
Frankenstein
Friday
Galahad
Jekyll and Hyde
Lilliputian
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Lothario
Malapropism
Milquetoast
Pickwickian
Pollyanna
AP/ECE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 5 LITERARY ALLUSIONS CON’T
‐ Pooh-bah
‐ Quixotic
‐ Robot
‐ Rodomontade
‐ Scrooge
‐ Simon Legree
‐ Svengali
‐ Tartuffe
‐ Uncle Tom
‐ Uriah Heep
‐ Walter Mitty
‐ Yahoo
BIBLICAL ALLUSIONS
‐ 33 (age)
‐ 3:00 (time)
‐ Absalom
‐ Alpha and Omega
‐ Cain
‐ Daniel
‐ David and Bathsheba
‐ Eye of the Needle
‐ Filthy Lucre
‐ Goliath
‐ Good Samaritan
‐ Handwriting on the wall
‐ Ishmael
‐ Jacob
‐ Job
‐ Job's comforters
‐ Jonah
‐ Judas
‐ King Ahab and Jezebel
‐ Manna
‐ Original Sin/The Fall
‐ Pearl of Great Price
‐ Philistine
‐ Prodigal Son
‐ Ruth and Naomi
‐ Samson and Delilah
‐ Scapegoat
‐ Sepulcher
‐ Sodom and Gomorrah
‐ Solomon
‐ Twelve Tribes of Israel
HISTORICAL ALLUSIONS
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
‐
Attila
Berserk
Bloomer
Bowdlerize
Boycott
Canopy
Casanova
Chauvinist
Derrick
Donnybrook
Dungaree
El Dorado
Hackney
Horatio Alger
Laconic
Limerick
Machiavellian
Marathon
McCarthyism
Meander
Mesmerize
Nostradamus
Platonic
Sardonic
Shanghai
Spartan
Stonewall
Swiftian
Sybaritic
Thespian
Uncle Sam
Utopia
Wagnerian
Waterloo
AP/ECE SUMMER ASSIGNMENT 6 ARTHURIAN ALLUSIONS
FAIRY TALE ALLUSIONS
-Uther, Igraine, and the story of Arthur’s
birth
-Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot
-Sir Gawain and “Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight” (story in verse)
-Merlin
-Morgan le Fay
-Nimue alias Vivienne, Lady of the Lake
-Mordred
-Places: Avalon and Camelot
-Objects: Excalibur, the Sword in the
Stone, the Holy Grail
-The Ugly Duckling
-Snow White
-Rumpelstiltskin
-The Princess and the Pea
-The Pied Piper of Hamelin
-Little Red Riding Hood
-Hansel and Gretel
-The Frog Prince
-The Fisherman and His Wife
-Cinderella
-Blue Beard
-Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
-Aladdin