TRI-CITIES HIGH SCHOOL
2015 Summer Reading
List ‐Incoming AP English
Literature and Composition
Required: Students
must read ALL of the following text:
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster
Invisible Man by Ralph
Ellison
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (or) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
***** NOTE: It is your responsibility to purchase
these books*****.
(ASSIGNMENT
MUST BE SUBMITTED TYPED)
Dr. Dan A. Sims
Principal
Tri-Cities
|
High School
Administrative Team
Ethel Lett
Clifton Spears
Dr. Mulanta Wilkins
W. Pearl Taylor
2575
Harris Street • East Point • Georgia 30344 • (404) 669-8200 • FAX (404) 669-8158
May 2015
Dear Future
Advanced Placement English Literature & Composition Student:
Congratulations on
being recommended by your previous English/Language Arts instructor and/or your decision to enroll in our Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition program. You will be expected to do a great deal of reading
and writing in AP English Literature, and the summer
reading assignment is tailored to prepare you for this rigorous college-level course. This assignment will introduce the college-level
interpretive strategies that we will develop over the course of the school year in a manner
that emphasizes depth rather than breadth.
In total you will read
three (3) texts: How to Read Literature Like a Professor
by Thomas C. Foster, Invisible
Man by Ralph
Ellison and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri or The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. As you read all
three texts over summer
vacation, you will answer
an array of substantial analytical questions in which you will thoughtfully apply Professor Foster’s
concepts to Ellison’s and Lahiri’ s or Hosseini’s texts. The purpose of this task is two-fold: To gain a deeper understanding
of the various ways that seasoned literary experts
like Professor Foster approaches
a text and to apply Foster’s tools
and techniques to Invisible Man and The
Namesake in order to enrich your own personal investigation of both literary works. Your responses to these analytical questions
will be due the first day of school typed in a portfolio and must be submitted to your scheduled instructor at
the time.
The overarching concepts and interpretive tools that you glean from this AP Summer Reading process will serve as the foundation
for your Advanced Placement English Literature experience. During the first week of school,
you will display
your newfound knowledge
and analytical prowess through an in-class
timed writing in which you will synthesize your
understanding of all three summer
reading texts in one coherent essay. From there, the course curriculum will begin
with a re-examination of all three works, delving into a more nuanced understanding through
class activities and discussions. Just like summer reading assignments at the university-level, your AP Summer Reading curriculum will directly set the stage for your first weeks in AP English. AP English is a college-level class, and we
do not take this label
lightly. We are dedicated to offering you a program of the highest caliber that will prepare
you for college-level analysis and composition.
Lastly,
we want to remind you that as of April 30, 2015 due to scheduling restrictions, you will not be allow to withdraw from this course. In addition, do not forget to sign up via
Edmodo.com for continuous communication during the summer. The Edmodo code is cb9g4q.
We look forward
to working with you in the fall and hearing your feedback regarding the novel selections of our AP Summer Reading curriculum.
Respectfully,
Tammie
West Jones & Aisha Moore Webb
12th Grade Advanced Placement English Literature
& Composition Instructors
Tri-Cities High School English Department
How to Read Literature Like a Professor Summer Reading Questions
As you read HTRLLAP, answer the
following questions. Be prepared to submit
them on the first day of school to
your scheduled instructor. When you
are asked to use texts to provide examples, use the summer
reading books (Invisible Man and The Namesake). Type up your responses and number
each response
Introduction (xi-xvii)
1. What is a Faustian bargain? Give an example of a
Faustian bargain from either
summer reading text.
2. What is a “grammar of literature”?
3.
In what ways do
professors use symbols and patterns to interpret a text?
Ch. 1 (1-6) “Every Trip is a Quest (Except
When It’s Not)”
4. What are the five characteristics of
the quest?
5.
What is the usual reason behind a quest?
6. Choose either summer reading book
and explain its “quest,” identifying the key characteristics. Use
Foster’s explanation of the setup in The
Crying of Lot 49 on pages 4-5 as your
guide (meaning your explanation
should be as detailed and clear as
his).
Ch. 2 (7-14) “Nice to Eat With You: Acts of
Communion”
7. Complete
this sentence about communion
“… breaking
bread together is an act
”
8. Why does Foster assert that a meal scene in literature is almost always
symbolic?
9. List the things, according to Foster, that eating in literature can represent.
10. Think of an example of a positive
“communion” scene in either summer reading book. Briefly describe
the scene and explain its symbolic
meaning.
11. Think of an example of a negative
“communion” scene in either summer
reading book. Briefly describe the scene and explain its symbolic meaning.
Ch. 3 (15-21) “Nice to Eat You: Acts
of Vampires”
12. What are the essentials of the vampire story?
13. What are some things besides vampirism that vampires and ghosts represent in literature? Use either summer reading book to exemplify this
concept.
Ch. 5 (28-36)
“Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?”
14. How does O’Brien’s Going
After Cacciato’s Paul Berlin embody every
author’s “creative process”?
15. Name
two different allusions to other stories
we see in Going After Cacciato. Consider why author
Tim
O’Brien would utilize these allusions in his novel.
16. Why would
Professor Foster prefer the
eel metaphor to describe
literature as opposed to T.S. Elliot’s
monument metaphor?
17. Define intertexuality. In what way does
one of the summer reading books draw upon familiar
works?
Ch. 6 (37-46) “When
in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare…”
18.
List the reasons Professor Foster
believes that an author would
allude to or draw from a
Shakespearean work.
Ch. 7 (47-56) “…Or the Bible”
19. What do Biblical allusions do for a piece of literature?
20. What is the connection between a “loss of innocence” and the Biblical “Fall”?
21. In what
ways do both summer reading books incorporate biblical elements?
Ch. 8 (57-63) “Hanseldee and Greteldum”
22. What
is the literary canon?
23. What does Foster suggest on
pg. 59 as the reason so many writers
choose to allude to fairy tales in
their works?
24. For what purpose do writers often use “readerly knowledge of source texts”?
25. Explain how one of the summer reading
books draws parallels to a familiar fairy tale. Briefly describe
the plot and how the fairy tale allusion plays out. To what
effect? (e.g.: To be ironic? To invert
the
original meaning of the source text or emphasize
it?) Explain.
Ch. 9 (64-73)
“It’s Greek To Me”
26. How does Foster
define “myth”?
27. What are the four great struggles of the human being? Find
concrete examples of at least three of these struggles from either
summer reading book.
Ch. 10
(74-81) “It’s More Than Just Rain or
Snow”
28. Foster
says “weather is never just weather.”
What are some things rain can represent in literature?
29. What does/can a rainbow represent in literature? What does/can fog
represent in literature? What
does/can snow represent in literature?
30. Detail the ways in which weather functions in each summer
reading book: Describe one scene from
each
book and explain its significance in detail.
Interlude (82-86) “Does He Mean That?”
31. What are Professor Foster’s
arguments behind his claim
that all writers consciously evoke other writers’
works in their own writing?
Ch. 11
(87-96) “…More Than It’s
Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence”
32. What are the implications of violence
in literature?
33. What
are the two categories of violence in literature? Describe and define each.
34. What are the four reasons that authors kill off characters in literature?
35. What questions should readers ask themselves when they encounter
an act of violence or a death in a piece of literature?
36. Choose an act of violence or a death from
each summer reading book and,
using the information in this
chapter, identify its literary purpose. Be
sure to include specific details to make your
answer clear and complete.
Ch. 12
(97-107) “Is That a
Symbol?”
37. What is the difference between symbolism and allegory?
38. What
are the tools we must use to figure out what a symbol might mean?
39. Why is symbolic meaning different for each individual
reader? What are some of the factors that influence what
we understand in our reading?
40. Symbols in literature can be both objects
and
41. What are the questions readers should ask of the text when trying to determine symbolic meaning?
42. Symbolism in
Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and Orwell’s Animal
Farm is obvious, but
what about the “problem
of the caves” in Forster’s A Passage to India? What kind of tools does Professor Foster offer
when exploring this kind of symbolic ambiguity?
43. What
different interpretations of this cave
does Professor Foster offer?
44. How do
affect, instinct, and imagination come into play when dissecting symbols?
45. Dissect
a significant symbol from
each summer reading book using
the tools Foster recommends.
Ch. 13
(108-116) “It’s All Political”
46. On page 115 Foster explains why most literature can be called “political.” Summarize his
argument.
47. Give an example proving
Foster’s statement
is true in terms from each summer
reading text.
48. What
kind of social criticism underscores the warmth
and fuzziness of Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol?
49. What are the political implications of Poe’s “The Masque of Red Death”? Irving’s Rip Van Winkle?
Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus?
Ch. 14 (117-124) “Yes, She’s a Christ
Figure, Too”
50. Foster writes
on pg. 118 “… to get the most out of your reading of European and American
literature, knowing is
essential. Similarly, if you undertake to read literature from an Islamic
or a Buddhist or a Hindu culture,
.” Why is this the case? Explain.
51. Foster asserts that a character need not have all of the distinguishing characteristics of Jesus Christ in order to be considered a Christ figure in
literature. Why? Explain.
52. The list of characteristics on pages 119-120 is very important, and you should take
the time to learn it. I
would write them out by hand as a mnemonic aid. Choose one character from either summer reading book that can legitimately be considered
a Christ figure and briefly explain which of these characteristics apply and
what purpose the author likely had in creating the character this way.
53. How is
reading a piece of literature a
conversation with the author? (even if the
author has been dead for a thousand years)
Ch. 15
(125-134) “Flights of Fancy”
54. What does it mean when literary characters
fly?
55. Does a character always have to actually fly in order for there to be “flying”
in a piece of literature?
Explain.
Ch. 16
(135-142) “It’s All About Sex…”
56. In what
way did Sigmund Freud change reading, writing, and
literary criticism?
57. What are some things that can
represent male sexuality in
literature? Use either summer reading book to exemplify this
concept.
58. What are some things that can
represent female sexuality in literature? Use either summer reading book to
exemplify this
concept.
Ch. 17
(143-151) “… Except Sex”
59.
Foster writes, “When they’re
writing about other things, they really
mean sex, and when they write
about sex, they really mean
something else.”(144) What
are some of the other things
that a sex scene can mean? Take one sexual scene from either summer
reading text and analyze the
deeper significance.
Ch. 18
(152-162) “If She Comes Up,
It’s Baptism”
60. What are some of the things that
baptism (or immersion in water) can mean in literature?
61. What
are some of the things that drowning can mean in literature?
62. Identify
and briefly explain the meaning
of a baptism or drowning scene from one
of the summer reading books.
Ch. 19
(163-174) “Geography Matters…”
63. What are some of the roles
geography plays in literature and what are some
of the effects of geography on
literature?
64. What does it mean when an author sends a character south?
65. How
can a writer’s personal geography inform his or her work?
Ch. 20
(175-184) “…So Does Season”
66. What are the symbolic meanings of the seasons?
67. Choose a
scene from one of the summer reading books in which season is important
or symbolic. Briefly describe and explain the deeper significance of the symbolic season.
Interlude (185-192) “One
Story”
68. Summarize Foster’s point
in this section of the book.
69. If there is only one story, what have we all been writing about over
the years?
70. Professor
Foster returns to the idea of
intertextuality. How
does he define this term? What else does he add or emphasize on
the subject?
71. How is
the avoidance of previous texts in your own
writing a way of actually speaking with
these texts in?
your work?
72. What is an archetype?
73. Why can we
never find the original
archetypes or myths?
Ch. 21
(193-200) “Marked For Greatness”
74. For what reason(s), do authors give
characters deformities,
scars or other physical markings in literature?
75. Choose
a character from one of the summer reading books
who has some kind of physical marking.
Describe and explain the deeper significance of that
physical trait.
Ch. 22
(201-206) “He’s Blind for a Reason,
You Know”
76. For
what reason(s) do authors choose to make characters blind in literature?
Ch. 23
(207-212) “It’s Never Just Heart Disease…”
77. What things can “heart
trouble” signify in literature?
Ch. 24
(213-225) “…And Rarely Just Illness”
78. What are the “principles
governing the use of disease in works
of literature”?
Ch. 25
(226-234) “Don’t Read With Your Eyes”
79. Explain how reading Sonny’s
Blues with contemporary eyes can
change the meaning of the story.
80. So if we don’t read literature with our own
eyes, whose eyes do we use?
81. In
what way do Deconstructionists
read a text? How does that differ from Professor
Foster’s method?
82. According to Professor Foster, how would our own cultural
influences affect our reading of the
Ancient
Greek’s literature?
83. What is the danger, according to Foster, in trying
to empathize with the worldview during the
time
that a text was written?
84. In what
ways have William Shakespeare and Ezra Pound sparked controversy through their writing? What are Professor Foster’s thoughts on each?
Ch. 26
(235-244) “Is He Serious? And Other Ironies”
85. What does Professor Foster mean when he proclaims, “Irony trumps
everything”? How does he define it?
86. Foster defines irony on pg. 240 like this: “What irony chiefly
involves, then, is
“
” Explain what he means by this.
87. Explain what literary theorist Northrop Frye means
when he says an entire work functions in “ironic
mode”?
88. How is
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
ironic?
89. How is
Hemingway’s A Farewell to
Arms ironic? What
has probably inspired his sense for irony?
90. How does Anthony Burgess manipulate
irony in A Clockwork
Orange to convey a particular theme?
91. Name
the three types of irony in literature and give a brief example of each from the summer
reading books.
Ch. 27
(245-277) “A Test Case”
92.
Selecting one of the summer reading
books, complete the task that
Foster sets out for you
on pgs. 265-266 (also, play close attention to his example: 267-271). For “What does the story signify?” create a thesis statement. For “How does
it signify?” defend that thesis statement
in 200-300 words. Don’t go overboard.
Envoi (278-281)
93. How does Foster
suggest that readers learn to
identify trends? Why
are trends important?
94. What is Foster’s parting advice for his reader
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