Summer Reading, AP English Literature and Composition (Seniors Only).

Students are expected to read at least four (4) of the following texts this summer to prepare for the school year. Students should read each text with attention to standard story elements (plot, setting, character, theme, conflict, tone, and point of view) and any other literary techniques featured prominently (i.e. symbolism, narrative structure, language, social commentary, genre elements). Students who have already read texts on this list should either reread them or choose others; the texts should be fresh in the students’ minds at the start of school. During the first week of classes in August, students will prepare a brief summary of each of the four texts and write an essay on one of them in response to a prompt taken from a recent AP exam.

Bronte, Jane Eyre

Chopin, The Awakening

Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Dickens, Great Expectations

Dostoevski, Crime and Punishment

Ellison, Invisible Man

Euripides, Medea

Faulkner, Sound and the Fury

Gardner, Grendel

Heller, Catch-22

James, Turn of the Screw

Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

McCullers, Ballad of the Sad Café

Momaday, House Made of Dawn

Morisson, Beloved

Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

Shakespeare, King Lear

Shakespeare, Macbeth

Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Williams, Streetcar Named Desire