AP Literature
Dr. Jamir
2015-16
SEMESTER I/MIDTERM OVERVIEW
Our exam is Tues., Dec. 15 8:30-10:30am. The room assignment is A-1 .
The exam will consist of two parts.
Part I will consist of the following question types: true or false, matching, multiple choice, and
short answer.
Part II will be a timed essay in which you will be asked to analyze one or more pieces of
literature we have discussed this semester.
You should bring pencil, pen, and several sheets of lined notebook paper.
AP Literature
Dr. Jamir
2015-16
MODERNISM & POSTMODERNISM GUIDE
Books, stories, poems
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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut *See
the PPT posted to Aug. 24.
“Sailing to Byzantium,” “The Second
Coming,” and “Leda and the Swan” by W.B.
Yeats
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot (*For Eliot’s
work, see the links posted to Sept. 8 and 9.)
“Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens
“The Red Wheelbarrow” and “Spring and all”
by William Carlos Williams
“Araby” by James Joyce
“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest
Hemingway
“Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield
Key Concepts for Modernism
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Subjectivity
Impressionism
Disillusionment (following
WWI)
Industrialization and
technological advancement
Urbanization
Chaos/disorder
the Victorian Era
*See the PPT posted to Sept. 14.
Key Concepts for Postmodernism
 Self-reflexivity (metafiction)
 Parody
 Pastiche
 Eclectic approach
 Genre play
 Unique visual formatting
*See the PPT posted to Aug. 17.
James Joyce and epiphany
In literature, an epiphany occurs at the end of a piece. The epiphany belongs to the main
characters. The content of an epiphany is a start realization (and one might say instead
revelation), usually that the world is not operating properly or well. The language of an epiphany
is often formal and/or eloquent.
Joyce writes, “Its soul, its whatness, leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of
the commonest object, the structure of which is so adjusted, seems to us radiant. The object
achieves its epiphany.”
-Joyce, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
AP Literature
Dr. Jamir
2015-16
EXISTENTIALISM GUIDE
Books, stories, films, and scholarship
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No Exit and The Flies by Sartre
“The Guest” by Camus
The Metamorphosis by Kafka
“The Myth of Sisyphus” and “An
Absurd Reasoning: Absurdity and
Suicide” by Camus
“Existentialism Is Humanism” by
Sartre
The Road to Freedom (documentary
on Sartre)- BBC, 1999
Historical figures & texts
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Jean-Paul Sartre (French)- 1905-80;
modern atheistic existentialism;
introduced the term existentialism; Le
Nausee (1938)
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Albert Camus (French)- 1913-60; The
Myth of Sisyphus (1942)
Key concepts for books and stories
 Sight/seeing
 Physical appearance
 Gender
 Guilt
 Imprisonment/being stuck or trapped
 Strangers (or *others)
 Memory
 Mystery
 Communication
 Family
 The supernatural/otherworldiness
 Death
 Change or transformation
Key concepts for existentialism
 essence
 existence existence precedes
essence!
 void/muck (le neant and le visqueux,
respectively)
 angst/nausea/dread
 passive vs. active
 choice existence
 the system (conforming to)
Formal traits
Characters in No Exit
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Biblical allusions
Postmodernism Retelling (Greek
myth), fragmentation
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Garcin
Inez
Estelle
the valet
Characters in The Flies
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Zeus (and fake name)
Orestes (and fake name)
Electra
Aegisthus
Clytemnestra
The three furies
The flies
Settings
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Hell
Argos
Algeria
Paris
Characters in The Metamorphosis
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Gregor Samsa
Grete Samsa
Mr. Samsa
Mrs. Samsa
The chief clerk
The three boarders
AP Literature
Dr. Jamir
2015-16
THE SOUND AND THE FURY GUIDE
*PPT on Modern Southern Lit. posted to Oct. 26.
Characters
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Quentin Compson
Candace/Caddy C.
Jason C.
Benjy C.
Jason C. IV
Jason C. III
Caroline Compson
(née Bascomb)
Uncle Maury
Damuddy
Dilsey
Roskus
Versh
Luster
T.P.
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Frony
Dalton Ames
S. Herbert Head
“little sister”
Shreve
Deacon
Gerald
Julio
Earl
Uncle Job
Lorraine
Miss Quentin
Man with the red
tie
Key Concepts
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Family
Community
Identity
Gender
Sexuality/Sex
Sin
Economic status/money
Ethnicity/race
Power/control
Loyalty
Time
Communication
Memory
Storytelling
Secrets
Escape
Luck
Symbols
Settings
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Golf course and balls
Red flag and tie
Fire
Fence and gate
Jackson
Trees (and other plants and flowers, e.g.
honeysuckle) *Benjy likes to hold a flower.
Water
Glass
Mirrors
Shadows
Bridge
Sparrows
Quentin’s watch
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The South
Jefferson, MS
(*Yoknapataphaw (“split
land”) County)
Jackson, MS (*mentioned
repeatedly)
HarvardCambridge, MA
Mottson
Key terms
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Southern grotesque
Prelapsarian
lapsarian
Synesthesia
Stream of consciousness
Flashbacks
Typography
Call and response
Other texts
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“Mississippi” by Faulkner