English

The English curriculum is a literature-based program, serving as the foundation for intensive reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking. Students read from a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, including works of literary integrity that reflect historical dimensions as well as diverse cultures. Continuing emphasis is placed on the student's ability to express himself or herself in a variety of presentation forms.

Required Course

American Literature
This course focuses on the roots and evolution of American literature in conjunction with the thematic units taught in U.S. History. In this course, students explore what it means to be an American in relation to the following questions: How did we get here? Who has power? How do we identify/define ourselves? How do others identify us? Students read accompanying works of literature that respond to these questions, examine varying literary responses over the course of U.S. history, and analyze the literary trends and movements that accompany these responses. Students will conduct independent research, practice writing college-level compositions, and will learn to complete close readings of primary documents, literary essays, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose. Major projects include a research paper, literary analysis, poetry explication, and projects based on course themes.

Elective Courses

Advanced Composition
This course focuses on deep examination of the craft of writing within three broad genres: memoir, literary criticism, and short fiction. In this course students read numerous samples of writing from authors who specialize in these genres, understand the various approaches authors take when working within these genres, and compose pieces of their own using these generic traits.

African American Women's Literature
In this advanced elective course students receive a historical and multi-genre overview of African American women's writing in the United States. From slave narratives in the 19th century through the poetry, novels, and television/film of the 20th century, students explore the historical, political, social, and artistic forces that shape the writings of black women while also examining texts through the lenses of race and gender. Students engage in independent study of an author of their choice in order to understand one writer's work in depth.

Drama of Math and Science
In this course students study dilemmas and problems that arise when people work with math and science. Through an in-depth study of plays including Faust (Marlowe), Proof, Copenhagen and Breaking the Code, the class explores the nature of the genre of dramatic literature. The course involves thought-provoking reading, lively discussion, acting out sections of the plays, and regular writing.

Dramatic Literature: Conversations Between Plays
In this course, students study several plays in pairs. Among the plays we study are: Antigone by Sophocles and The Island by Athold Fugard; The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard; The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. Through wide-ranging reading, students will explore the nature of the genre of dramatic literature. Students engage in lively discussion, acting out sections of plays, and regular writing.

Existentialism
This course studies existentialist philosophy via multiple disciplines, including literature, psychology, religion and film. Students consider basic existential themes such as the meaning of human existence, freedom and responsibility, the limits of reason, the significance of death, the individual versus society, and the role of suffering. Students are also asked to contemplate questions of freedom and authenticity, and the extent to which they have the power to make a mark in the world through their actions and choices.

Historical Fiction
This course is an examination of epic novels based upon 19th- and 20th-century historical events. Students closely examine the larger historical forces that shape the fictional characters within each work, and carefully analyze each text using a range of literary elements. Students write both short and long interpretations of literature and history, and complete a final project that involves composing a piece of short historical fiction. The class reads literature about Africa, Latin America, East Asia, the Middle East, and the United States.

Home and Exile
The course title comes from a collection of essays written by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. The ideas it represents have a long history: What does "home" mean? Where is it exactly? What is it like to be exiled and away from home? What inspires or motivates people to find a new home? If you want to return home, can you really? If so, what does that require? If not, why not? Through short and long fiction from many different parts of the world, this course explores authors' answers to many of these questions.

Literature of Forgiveness
This course focuses on fundamental aspects of forgiveness. Through both writing and reading, students develop an understanding of how and why people forgive themselves and one another. They will read fiction, non-fiction, and drama to explore questions such as: What is forgiveness? How does it compare to mercy or reconciliation? What is the difference, if any, between forgiving oneself and forgiving another? Does forgiveness require forgetting or understanding or both? The literature presents characters who must wrestle with these same questions.

Mao to Now: Modern Chinese Literature
Modern Chinese Literature. Through literature and film, this course surveys the political, social, economic, and intellectual trends in China from the end of the Maoist era to the present. Students analyze characteristics of Chinese literature, understand elements of Chinese cinema that make it unique to the culture, and generate responses that communicate an understanding of the topics addressed in the course. Potential themes/topics include: Maoist/post-Maoist China's influences on literature/film, the role of censorship in Chinese literature and film, family and state, hierarchy and paternalism, gender roles and relations in Chinese society, the divide between urban and rural China as represented in literature and film, nationalism and cultural pride, popular culture and genres in contemporary China, the relationship between the center and the periphery, and Han majority vs. minority culture. This course is cross-listed as both a Mandarin course and a literature course. Students wishing to earn Foreign Language credit for this course should have completed Mandarin IV. Any junior or senior may choose this course as a literature course.

Money and Love
This course offers perspectives from King Lear by Shakespeare, Washington Square by Henry James, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and a play by Moliere. Is it true that "all you need is love"? Does "money make the world go 'round"? Students examine the complex intersection between money and love in the lives of characters from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. The course involves thought-provoking reading, lively discussion, and regular writing.

Myth and Literature in Ancient Greece
The mythic narratives of the ancient Greeks retain extraordinary richness, power, and relevance. This course pursues two objectives: 1) familiarity with the fundamentals of Greek mythology (cosmology, pantheon, world view) and 2) understanding of how this mythic vision is revealed and explored in works of enduring literary value. These works will include selections from the great dramatic trilogies of Sophocles (Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone and/or Aeschylus Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides) and The Odyssey of Homer).

Native American Fiction
This course focuses on fundamental features of Native American Literature. Through both writing and reading, students develop an understanding of how written tribal stories (short and long fiction) have various relationships to oral stories. Students read fiction from a variety of 20th-century tribal perspectives. The fiction includes characters who show courage and creativity in facing ethical dilemmas caused from inside and outside their tribal worlds.

Poetry: The Holy Trinity of Sound, Image and Metaphor
This course introduces and reinforces fundamental features of lyric poetry. Through both writing and reading poetry, students gain an understanding of how poetry differs from prose. They will read poems from a variety of forms, cultures, and time periods. The cultures represented include China, Japan, Europe, British Isles, North America, and Latin America.

Shakespeare
The course begins with the study of sonnets, followed by reading several of Shakespeare's best-known and most complex plays, plays whose concerns make them seem as if they were written yesterday. Othello deals with issues of race and jealousy that make a tragic end inevitable. The Merchant of Venice disturbs audiences today as in the past with its stereotypes. Much Ado About Nothing pokes fun, sometimes uncomfortably, at the differences between the sexes. In Twelfth Night, we discover ourselves laughing at the misfortunes of others. Whenever possible, the course examines, through live and video performance, how different productions and casting affect our interpretations of these timeless plays.

Short Fiction
Short stories are small miracles. Meant to be read at one sitting, they invite readers to live with a character or a dilemma for the brief time it takes to complete the story, yet often these characters and dilemmas haunt us long afterward. In this class, we read stories from different eras and different cultures. We will also explore a few works of short fiction, including Kafka's Metamorphosis. Expect lively, student-centered discussion, and writing.

Testing the Boundaries
IIn this course, focusing on the genre of fiction, students examine what happens when individuals cannot or choose not to live within conventional limitations. Expect thought-provoking reading, lively discussion, and regular writing as we focus on transgression in the novels Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the films Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou, and House of Games by David Mamet.

Vietnam: Changing Perspectives
America's experience in Vietnam remains a touchstone of our national discourse. This course examines Vietnam-both the war and the country-through poems, novels, memoirs, stories and letters from the US and Vietnam, and through stories and poems by Vietnamese-Americans. We will view documentaries and several films, including Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Regret to Inform, The Fog of War, and Daughter from Danang. Texts read as a class may include: The Quiet American by Graham Greene; The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien; In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War by Tobias Wolff; The Stars, The Earth, The River by contemporary Vietnamese author Le Minh Khue; and The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Vietnamese-American author Le Thi Diem Thuy.