Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Summer Assignment
A high score on the AP Literature and Composition test indicates that a student has
college-level knowledge of interpretive strategies and the Western literary canon.
Accordingly, the AP Lit and Comp course will be rigorous and demanding, and the
instructor’s expectations will be very high. Students who exert their utmost effort will
be rewarded with high school credit, college credit, and, ideally, a profound
appreciation and understanding of mankind and its most treasured texts.
To prepare, students entering AP Lit and Comp in the fall will be expected to complete
the Summer Assignment. This assignment will be due to the instructor on the first day
of class. The instructor will grade the Summer Assignment before the first progress
report is released. The student who completes the assignment will have demonstrated
the work ethic necessary to complete this course, and the student who completes the
assignment successfully and joyfully will have indicated a developing mastery of the
skills and the motivation necessary to truly succeed in this course and, likely, on the AP
test.
Part One—Read
Select three novels and two plays written by an author listed below. When you select a
text to read, use the 5 finger rule: open the book to a random full page. Read the page.
While you read, hold up a finger whenever you find a word you don’t understand. If
you have 5 fingers up at the end of the page, you are in the wrong book. The book is
right for you if you are holding up 2 or 3 fingers—1 finger indicates no challenge, and 4
might be a stretch. If at any time you feel discouraged or overwhelmed by your book,
put it down and try a new one.
Novelists:
Playwrights:
Julia Alvarez
Margaret Atwood
Italo Calvino
Truman Capote
Michael Chabon
Stephen Crane
Don DeLillo
E.L. Doctorow
Louise Erdich
Jane Hamilton
Kazuo Ishiguro
Joy Kogawa
Milan Kundera
Beth Henley
Tom Stoppard
Brian Friel
Edward Albee
Amiri Baraka
Eugene O’Neill
Thornton Wilder
Lorraine Hansberry
Lillian Helman
David Henry Hwang
Arthur Miller
Luigi Pirandello
Tennessee Williams
Cormac McCarthy
Toni Morrison
Bharati Mukherjee
Cynthia Ozick
Kurt Vonnegut
Alice Walker
Richard Wright
August Wilson
Part Two—Write
In a typed, double-spaced, formal essay that conforms to the MLA Style Guide’s rules
for citation and formatting, complete one of the following assignments.
Option A: Twentieth-century mythologist and literary theorist Joseph Campbell argued
that world religions and myths share many symbols and motifs, and that these
intersections reveal profound, universal truths. In The Hero With a Thousand Faces
(1949), he establishes his definition of the archetype, or monomyth, of the hero:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural
wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero
comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his
fellow man.”
Using all five texts as examples, compare and contrast four examples that would
conform to, disprove, or qualify Campbell’s definition of the archetype of the hero.
Option B: Complete a work of fiction or poetry that alludes to the four works you read.
Include an essay in which you explain what your text means and how you impart that
meaning through your allusions and your literary and rhetorical devices.
Option C: Write a book review for each book you read. What sort of reader would this
book be best suited for? Do you recommend this book to other readers? Why or why
not? (Check newspapers, in print or online, and magazines like Time for examples of
book reviews.)
Option D: This is the open option. The only guideline is that the essay must engage all
five works that you read.