APEnglish Literature: March 21-25

Hello Seniors,

I hope you are well rested and ready to read and think (and write).
Don't neglect or forget to check my Moodle for due dates and to upload Major Works Data Sheets.

This week we meet three days, so I am hoping we can get a great deal accomplished. As you know, we completed our reading/discussion of The Glass Menagerie last week, so it's time for an essay. You will write a timed, in-class essay on either the play as a whole or an excerpt from it. I would also advise you, if you are not already doing so, to review the prompts for question three from previous tests and think about which books or plays you have in your repertoire that could have been used to answer those questions. Also, think about which prompts could fit with each text we read.

In addition to the timed essay, we will also be reading another play: The Importance of Being Earnest. This play will give you a glimpse of the satirical nature of the comedy of manners. It would probably serve you well to dig up a copy of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, or some other Austen novel for a more in-depth look at this genre. 

I hope for us to finish this play in one week and write about it the next. Don't forget that you should be reading Heart of Darkness and taking notes on it for homework. After our paper on The Importance of Being Earnest, I will expect you to be ready for some deep discussion of this very deep novella.

The coming weeks don't bring much relief, I am afraid, but I think I have selected texts that you will both enjoy and that you may be able to use on the exam should you take it.  Look forward to the following:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Dr. Faustus
And Pygmalion if time permits
Plus POETRY, POETRY, POETRY!