English 12-2

Last year's American Literature class taught us that literature does not exist in a vacuum; instead, it often grows from the ideas and circumstances of the time period.  For that reason, we can see cultural parallels between different forms of artistic expression.  Historical conditions often influence philosophical ideas.  The year, we will be studying very different time periods whose writing shares links with the historical, philosophical and cultural ideas of the time.  That is not to say that artists don't have unique interpretations, so will will look at the ways that different writers reflect their time periods and depart from it.  Dickens clearly reflects the Victorian tradition, but can be said to embody earlier Romantic ideas and even to anticipate the dark humor of modernism.  Shakespeare has obvious links with the Renaissance, but Hamlet also suggests the existentialism of the modernist period.  Our units of study include: Dickens and the Victorian period, Hamlet and the conflicts of the Elizabethan period, and Modernism.

Texts: Great Expectations, Hamlet, The Metamorphosis, modernism booklet (photocopy), "The Palace Thief"

Telephone: extension #2448

Email: rschuman@jbha.org

Grading Policies: Students earn a numerical average.  Late papers are graded down one half grade for each day they are late.

Behavioral Guidelines:  Students should follow guidelines in the Student Handbook.

Assignments: We are working on modernism. Students should be working on their group presentations.  They should also complete the following reading assignments for next week:

Monday, March 1 - Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and Existentialism

Tuesday, March 2 - Woolf's "The New Dress"

Wed., March 3 - Joyce's "The Boarding House"

Friday, March 5 - Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Chapter One

Handout:

Modernism Assignments