Honors English 9: Identity & Society

Students recommended by the Department for Honors English 9 are confident enough in their writing and analytical skills to pursue coursework at a more complex level. This complexity will be evident in the nature of the questions posed in formative and summative assessments and in the expectation of independent engagement in inquiry and research about multiple aspects of literature (e.g., literary criticism, intertextual analysis, historical context). Honors students will read supplemental texts and perform more extensive tasks. Honors assignments and assessments will be evaluated using Honors-specific criteria that articulate expectations for greater conceptual and technical complexity and abstraction.

Prerequisite: None Credit: ENG Period: Full Year

*English 9 is a heterogenous course, including students enrolled in both the core English curriculum and Honors English. In consultation with their advisor and the course faculty, students can take English 9 at the Honors Level. 9th Grade students will engage in the Honors placement process at the Semester I Interim. Students will not be able to register for Honors following that deadline. They may drop the Honors designation at any time. However, previously graded work will not be reassessed.

Honors English 10: American Studies - Literature

Students recommended by the Department for Honors English 10 are confident enough in their writing and analytical skills to pursue the course work at a more complex level. This complexity will be evident in the nature of the questions posed in formative and summative assessments and in the expectation of independent engagement in inquiry and research about multiple aspects of literature (e.g., literary criticism, intertextual analysis, historical context). Honors students will read supplemental texts and perform more extensive tasks. Honors assignments and assessments will be evaluated using Honors-specific criteria that articulate expectations for greater conceptual and technical complexity and abstraction.

Prerequisite: English 9 Credit: ENG Period: Full Year

*English 10 is a heterogenous course, including students enrolled in both the core English curriculum and Honors English. The English Department faculty will determine students' 10th Grade Honors placements in May of the 9th Grade year. Students will not be able to register for Honors following the course change deadline for Semester I. They may drop the Honors designation at any time. However, previously graded work will not be reassessed.

Contemporary Global Literature

This course will seek to understand the most pressing issues and greatest challenges we face according to contemporary authors. In an effort to capture a truly global perspective, we will read a plethora of authors, focusing on culture, historical context, and theme. While we will treat each novel as a standalone text, we will also seek to make connections across texts as we consider the growing interconnectedness of our world. Through substantial writing assignments (informal and formal), projects, and opportunities for interdisciplinary study and collaboration, students will sharpen their skills as readers, writers, and thinkers. Texts for this course may include: Shuggie Bain, Half a Yellow Sun, Never Let Me Go, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones, Waiting for the Barbarians, and Exit West. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Looking Through Lenses: Language & Power

At its core, this class asks critical questions: How do we create meaning out of our lives? Is a work of art ever innocent? What is the relationship between language and power? In what ways does literature both reflect and critique society? Philosophers and scholars have tried to answer these questions since the time of Plato and Aristotle. This course attempts to answer them too. And in answering these questions, students will be asked to step outside themselves to consider other visions of the world. To this end, students approach texts by employing a variety of critical theories including psychoanalytic theory, Marxist theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, and queer theory. Students should expect to think deeply and engage with each other vigorously as they gain an introductory knowledge of literary theory and immerse themselves in classic and contemporary texts—both literary and cinematic.  Authors students may encounter include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Henrick Ibsen, Justin Torres, and Alice Walker.  Films include Good Will Hunting, Fight Club, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Literature of the American West

Through literary texts, films, and historical sources, this course will examine the various identities and myths as well as the ethos of the American West. Often characterized by Native Americans, cowboys, Manifest Destiny, frontier mythology, and violence, the West holds a unique place in our history and collective imagination. To this end, we will explore themes fundamental to understanding the region, such as people, communities, borders, resources, and conflict. There will be ample opportunity for interdisciplinary work and collaboration in this course. Texts and films for this class might include the following: True Grit, Killers of the Flower Moon, O Pioneers!, Train Dreams, The Night Watchman, The Searchers, and more.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Diploma Program Credit: Sustainability

Borders and Walls: A Literary & Social Analysis

How has the expansion of commerce, media, and migration paradoxically resulted in the increase of borders and walls around the globe? What enables or limits one’s mobility in a globalized world? Where do autonomous zones fit into the discourse of borders? We will consider how borders are invisible yet enforceable structures with real, lived impacts on cultures, people, and environments and how walls are actual, physical structures with just as much impact. By reading texts from geography, anthropology, ethnic studies, and political theory, we will gain a nuanced understanding of the varied approaches and responses to borders and walls. Students will build upon their written, creative, and data analysis skills to complete both individual and group projects including a podcast and a museum exhibition. Regions of study may include: US-Mexico border and wall; the Berlin Wall; the Kashmir border dispute/conflict; colonial, postcolonial, and post-partition South Asia; Kurdistan; the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle; and Guantanamo Bay. 

Prerequisite: History 10, English 10 Credit: ENG or HIST/SOC Period: Full Year Diploma Program Credit: Sustainability

*This course is cross-listed between the English and Social Sciences programs. When registering, students must select the credit for which they would like the course to be registered. Students should consult with their advisor and review their graduation requirements. 

Russian Literature: The Golden Age

Lest we write off Russian literature in our reactions to current political happenings, we should start out by stressing that Russian writers have historically been characterized by fierce and brave resistance to the political orthodoxies of their day, risking their very lives to speak out. They are the anti-Putins. And in the course of doing so, from the mid-1800’s through the early twentieth century, Russia’s authors became foundational icons in literature read across the world, producing some of the most extraordinary writing the world has ever seen. Infinitely rich in its psychological acuity, profoundly nuanced in its understanding of our capacity to behave in ways that are flawed, contradictory, unexpected, and deeply human, the writing offers supreme exemplars of that creative artistry that John Keats termed “negative capability.” In this course, we will discover those voices that have played such a formative role in our understanding of what writing can aspire to do, from Turgenev, to Gogol, to Dostoevsky, to Tolstoy, to Chekhov to Garshin and Gorky. At the same time as we recognize the degree to which they are impacted by their sociocultural context, we will discover works that timelessly speak in the deepest way to the human condition. Student work will include formal literary analysis as well as creative response options that may be cross-disciplinary, and have ranged in the past from short stories, to visual art, to fully-realized video games conceived within the narrative context of Crime and Punishment. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester 

Gothic and Horror Literature

What lurks in the shadows and the forgotten corners of our lives? Why do we like being scared so much, and what are we really afraid of, anyway? Gothic literature emerged in the eighteenth century and tells us a lot about who we are, what we are, and what we, individually and culturally, are afraid of.  In this course, students will read several gothic classics and think about what they reveal about how we embody and manage our fears. Students will read, analyze, and critique works of horror as an exploration of their literary merit, using critical lenses to discuss how authors develop fear and discomfort in their audience while simultaneously addressing social issues. While the majority of writing required will be analytical, students will be asked to create their own work of gothic or horror writing as a final assessment. Possible texts include Carrie, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Haunting of Hill House, and Dracula along with various short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, and Joyce Carol Oates and the films Get Out and Parasite. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester 

Contemporary Plays and Playwriting

This is a workshop course that invites students to explore dramatic literature from a variety of perspectives—as reader, as audience, as critic, and as writer.  Students will study the work of some of our most influential and innovative contemporary American playwrights to discover the most effective ways to tell stories in dramatic form.  Writing critiques of celebrated plays will help students understand and appreciate methods of developing character, dialogue, and narrative structure.  Students will attend live theatre and have opportunities to speak with successful playwrights.  As beginning playwrights, students will be encouraged to write swiftly, fluidly, and fearlessly.  With constructive feedback from their instructor and their peers, students will revise their work frequently.  The final project of the semester will be a public reading of completed works.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG or ART Period: Semester

*This course is cross-listed between the English and Arts programs. When registering, students must select the credit for which they would like the course to be registered. Students should consult with their advisor and review their graduation requirements. 

Creative Writing 

This class asks students to play with language and to take their voices seriously.  We will study and practice both creative nonfiction and fiction in order to build clarity, persuasion, and meaning. Along the way, we’ll read model essays and stories, discussing their craft and how they may inform the sound and sense of students’ drafts. By and large, students will devise their own topics for the given genre as they write essays about experiences they love, societal critiques, and formative moments from their lives. They will also engage in the world-building activities of fiction writing, toying with one-off writing prompts and constructing character-driven stories. Drafts will develop through workshops, when students share their work and constructive commentary with each other. Authors read in this course may include Elizabeth Gilbert, Colson Whitehead, George Orwell, Zadie Smith, Molly Young, Russell Banks, Junot Diaz, Miranda July, and Yiyun Li. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Word and Image - Literature Seminar

This one-semester elective brings together three subjects—in this case, Art, History, and Classics—under a thematic umbrella of "Word and Image: Ancient and Modern." (Students can choose which discipline for which they will get course credit, though the three will be integrated throughout.) Participants will begin the class together before rotating into separate tracks for units centered on each of these subjects and then coming back together in the final weeks of the course.

The theme for the 2024-2025 edition of Word and Image is "Ancient & Modern" (variously defined – or more specific, like the Roman and American empires).  The course will consist of three units. The first will examine the career and legacy of Julius Caesar from a variety of perspectives. This “life” unit will be followed by a “times” unit in which we explore a notable moment in the history of the ancient world, such as Periclean Greece or Augustan Rome. In the third unit, students will undertake the production of a piece of artwork that embodies the themes and issues we have been exploring. Through a series of projects that they complete in conversation with each other, students will acquire multi-dimensional perspectives on one of the most powerful forces in their everyday lives—and their futures. 

Prerequisite: English 10, History 10 Credit: ENG, HIST/SOC, ART Period: Semester 

*This course is cross-listed between the English, Social Sciences, and Arts programs. When registering, students must select the credit for which they would like the course to be registered. The title of the course will reflect the credit selected (eg. "Word and Image - Literature Seminar" for English credit). Students should consult with their advisor and review their graduation requirements. 

British Literature: An Introduction

British literature has performed a role in the modern world analogous to that the Ancient Greeks: it is the foundation of a vast proportion of our understanding and ethos, and has played a seminal role in creating our American consciousness. Just as the historical and political origins of the United States are inextricably connected with the British vision of a land of infinite potential, so the roots of American literature and thought are profoundly entrenched in the British sensibility from which it sprang. Our understanding of morality, of aspiration, of imagination, of aesthetics, are all rooted in a richly revelatory and ongoing conversation with our British intellectual ancestors; it is an intellectual empire on which the sun has still not set. With a literature as vast and historic as that of Britain, any single course is necessarily an introductory one, but we will seek to familiarize ourselves with some of the iconic voices in British literature, from Beowulf through Shakespeare, Milton, and Donne, from Jane Austen to Dickens, to Graham Greene and Zadie Smith. Potential texts: Beowulf; Macbeth; Paradise Lost; Pride and Prejudice; A Christmas Carol. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester 

Women's Literature

What does it mean to identify as a woman in this world? How do gendered identities develop over time and space? In this course, students will read selected women writers spanning from various racial, cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. We will explore how women are “written” and will contemplate the aspirations and realities of women’s lives during various time periods throughout history. With an emphasis on themes gleaned from the study of intersectionality, we will consider how social issues such as class, race, etc. affect women writers and the characters they create. Students will write frequently, think critically, and showcase their learning through several choice-based projects. Possible texts include: The Bluest Eye, The Yellow Wallpaper, Little Fires Everywhere, The Handmaid’s Tale, Sister Outsider, Know My Name, The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, and the Barbie film. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester 

Diploma Program Credit: Sustainability

The Literature of War

“War is hell,” said General Sherman. It is a hell that over the centuries has been a terrible but defining experience for generations of soldiers and civilians, an experience which those who have gone through it have fought fiercely to convey in verse and prose, resulting in some of the most extraordinary literature we have. What is it that constitutes a hero? What drives the quest for “a crown of unfading glory”? (Euripides) This semester elective explores and queries this theme as it has been presented in Western Literature from Biblical and Ancient Greek texts, through Beowulf, and all the way to modern classics of war by Remarque and O’Brien. Intertext will include film and poetry, as we investigate how various works and mediums can offer insight into a crucible of experience that is by its very nature at the same time both unimaginable, and profoundly woven into our understanding of our role in the world.

Potential texts: Iphigenia; Why We Fight; Beowulf; Coriolanus; All Quiet on the Western Front; The Things They Carried. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester 

Text and Technology

Technology lives alongside us in all facets of our lives, yet how often do we stop to consider the complicated implications of technology on humanity and society? This course seeks to explore the representation of technology in literature through many genres, time periods, and authors. In our discussions and analyses, we will examine the cultural impact of science and technology on the human experience as we navigate and interrogate the relationships between human and machine. Authors may include Ishiguro, Bradbury, Swift, Eggers, Butler, and many more. In addition to rich project work, students will write creatively, critically, and analytically about the impact and implications of technology on our contemporary world. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

The Short Story: Past, Present, and Future

The short story is a form that only became recognized as such in the nineteenth century, and at the same time is as old as our very understanding of literature and life. As provocative as the claim may sound, the short narrative is how we make sense of life; it is the root of our conceptions of morality, justice, and the way the world works. This course will explore the form’s origins in folktale, up through its growth and potential for social commentary in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the experimentation in story-telling that continues to the present. The voices that come through are by turns reaffirming, subversive, innovative and iconoclastic. Texts will include authors ranging from the Brothers Grimm and de Maupassant to Kafka and Borges, from Joyce Carol Oates and Flannery O’Connor all the way to contemporary “instant fiction” and film intertext, and student writing will include both analytical and creative work.

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

The Holocaust and Human Behavior 

In this humanities course, students will examine the history of the Holocaust through literary, historical, ethical, and cultural lenses. Drawing upon narratives, primary sources, eyewitness testimonies, personal reflections, poetry, and images, students will be asked to think critically and write analytically about human nature and how human behavior often drives the course of history. By focusing on the choices of individuals who experienced this history as victims, witnesses, collaborators, rescuers, and perpetrators, students come to recognize our shared humanity—which, according to historian Doris Bergen, helps us to see the Holocaust not just as part of European or Jewish history but as “an event in human history,” confirming the relevance of this history in our lives and our world today. Students will use their exploration of memory, legacy, conformity, and justice to ask themselves how they might make connections across time in order to participate in helping transform our current society into one that is more just and compassionate. The course will culminate in a multimodal project asking students to interact with their learning and communicate their larger takeaways to the outside world. Texts may include: Night, Maus, Man’s Search for Meaning, and Sarah’s Key.  

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Diploma Program Credit: Sustainability

Money, Morals, and Mobility - Literature Seminar

Team taught by faculty in History, Economics, and English, this one-semester course will look at literature and economics as forms of storytelling–specifically at stories of wealth, poverty, and upward mobility around the contemporary world. Students will explore best-selling works of fiction and memoir and consider them in light of contemporary economic theory. In the process, they will literally and figuratively get a better sense of where they are in American society, as well as where they stand globally in contexts that include Asia and Africa. 

Prerequisite: English 10, History 10 Credit: ENG, HIST/SOC Period: Semester

Diploma Program Credit: Sustainability

*This course is cross-listed between the English and Social Sciences programs. When registering, students must select the credit for which they would like the course to be registered. The title of the course will reflect the credit selected (eg. "Word and Image - Literature Seminar" for English credit). Students should consult with their advisor and review their graduation requirements. 

People and the Planet

This course will leverage well-crafted literature – both fiction and non-fiction -- to explore the tenuous, interdependent, and possibly restorative relationship between humans and the environment. We will begin with an audit of some of the most pressing climate issues. From here, we will read short stories and poems and discuss their ranging ontologies and reflections upon people and the planet. We will read novels (and excerpts thereof) that will, by turns, explore the meatpacking industry, the oil industry, and ominous new world orders. We will read essays about anything from Native American notions of agriculture to environmental justice to the role of the individual in effecting change. And we’ll also watch films and clips that particularly explore our relationship with other animals with whom we share this planet. Through seminar-style discussions (sometimes outdoors), research, presentations, debates, and writing workshops, students will gain discrete skills as they write argumentative essays, open letters, and reflective personal narratives. Possible visits from environmental activists, scientists, and journalists will remind students of the greater ways they can make use of class content. Authors in the course may include David Wallace Wells, Douglass Rushkoff, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Doris Lessing, Isabel Allende, Robert Frost, Alice Walker, Shirley Jackson, Upton Sinclair, Imbolo Mbue, and Lydia Millet. 

Prerequisite: English 10, History 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Diploma Program Credit: Sustainability

Modern Fiction

In an era marked by rapid cultural and technological change, contemporary fiction serves as a mirror reflecting the complexities, challenges, and innovations of our time. This course will take you on a thought-provoking journey through the pages of recent novels, short stories, and essays that capture the essence of the modern human experience. Examine how contemporary fiction addresses pressing social and cultural issues, from identity and politics to environmental concerns and the impact of technology on our society. Students will read a diverse selection of texts from modern authors, focusing on multicultural perspectives and specific narrative techniques used to create powerful stories that will impact generations to come. Through a variety of creative and analytical writing assignments, students will discover the profound ways in which literature continues to illuminate our present and future. Texts may include: The Kite Runner, Unbroken, Americanah, Homegoing, Salvage the Bones, and Everything Here is Beautiful. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

The Unreliable Narrator

Can or should we trust the narrators of the stories we read?  Is there such a thing as a trustworthy narrator? What tools do readers use to determine whether to believe a narrator’s story? Some narrators deceive us deliberately, while others deceive us without intending to do so. This course will examine questions of “honesty,” “truth,” and “objectivity” pertaining to some of literature’s most famous unreliable narrators. Authors read in this course may include the following: Vladimir Nabakov, Kazuo Ishiguro, Emily Brontë, Ian McEwan, Graham Greene,  and Sylvia Plath, among others. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Irish Literature: Celtic Rebels

For a small island on the Western fringe of Europe, Ireland has had a wildly disproportionate influence on modern literature. The country became world-famous as a literary voice during the so-called Celtic Renaissance of the early twentieth century, fueled by the stylistic innovations and startling cultural depth offered by W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge and Sean O’Casey, but Ireland’s troubled history and complex cultural currents have produced legendary writers both before and after who remain icons to this day, from Jonathan Swift and Edmund Burke, to James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. An introductory course, this class will start by situating the work in its historical and cultural context, so that the allusions and implications of the work are immediately accessible to all students, including those who may not be familiar with its background. We will then look at some of the most extraordinary literature that has emerged from this multilayered melting pot, and explore why, and how, the texts speak to the world at large in a way that far transcends their time and place. Pending timeline and student interest, we may also look at the other Celts of the United Kingdom, with Welsh and Scottish voices such as Dylan Thomas, Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Potential texts: A Short History of Ireland; Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama; Modern Irish Short Stories; Everyman Irish Poems; The Butcher Boy. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Coming of Age in a Complex World

We’re often told that teenagers in the 21st century have been shaped primarily by social media. But the true substance of the high school years has nothing to do with Instagram or Snapchat. For hundreds of years, adolescents have experienced the drama, the emotion, the pressure, and the search to find a place in the world that defines the sometimes painful, sometimes joyful transition from child to adult. In fact, there is an entire literary genre dedicated to this kind of tale: the bildungsroman or the coming-of-age novel.  In this class, we will begin by reading a classic example of this genre, then move on to examine a wide variety of texts–novels, plays, poems, short stories, and films–all of which will offer variations and alternative approaches to the genre.  Selected texts will feature characters who ask questions like: What does it mean to grow up? How do you learn about the world around you? What kind of person do you want to be? We will pay particular attention to characters who perceive themselves to be different in some way and thus do not feel like they have a clear place in the world.  As students analyze characters’ experiences of growing up, they will reflect on their own coming-of-age experiences.  Projects will invite both critical and creative writing. In addition to group texts, students will examine one novel or film of their choice. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

This course takes its title from the book by the critic Harold Bloom, whose thesis that Shakespeare in a sense has created our understanding of who we are might seem preposterous in its claim, but is true in practice to an extent that is matched only by the Ancient Greeks. This course pushes vehemently against the idea that Shakespeare should in some way be approached as a static or stultifying icon; to the contrary, his work has endured as it has because it is so profoundly humanly true, and speaks to us today with the vividness of tomorrow. Approached as this work should be, Shakespeare can make us laugh, weep, startle us, and recoil in our recognition of ourselves; he embraces our human contradiction and presents our living truth with a complexity that Keats, as so many others, viewed as the summit of creative art. This is an introductory course designed specifically to invite students into the brilliance and passion of what is arguably the most extraordinary literature ever written. If you have had only the barest familiarity with Shakespeare up to now, do not be intimidated, and you will find that the richest treasure trove in English literature is waiting to be explored; if you are already a Shakespeare scholar, you will discover the endless depth and nuance that enabled this extraordinary work to soar to preeminence throughout the world over more than four centuries. Our reading will be informed by a belief that Shakespeare belongs in the deepest sense to all of us, and should be simultaneously wholly accessible, and filled with joy and discovery; we will look at his works both as written texts and in the performance context. Student work will range from formal literary analysis to performance and creative response options (these can include cross-disciplinary work and group projects) and will also rely on deep daily discussion. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Gods, Heroes, and Monsters

This course offers a comprehensive survey of classical mythology. It investigates the legends, myths, and stories which the Greeks and Romans used in explaining their own cultures and historical/religious beliefs. The class will analyze both the art and literature of the ancients, asking students to draw parallels to modern culture/society in the hopes of better understanding the influence that this mythology has had on our own times. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester Diploma Credit: Classics

The Rom Com, Past & Present

This course will explore the origins and the current state of the romantic comedy genre. How has the romantic comedy genre traditionally portrayed gender relations, courtship, and true love? Has the representation of these ideas shifted or evolved over time? In an effort to answer these questions and more, we will be reading both classic and contemporary texts, as well as watching a number of films. Throughout the course, we will consider the conventions of the romantic comedy genre to gain a better understanding of its evolution and current form. Texts covered in this course may include the following: The Taming of the Shrew, Emma, The Marriage Plot, High Fidelity, Romantic Comedy, Clueless, and Ten Things I Hate About You. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Americans Abroad

This course will explore American identity and culture through the lens of those who leave their country behind. We will encounter spies, missionaries, scholars, and expatriates.  What compels Americans to leave their homeland? What do they hope to find for themselves and their families? How do their travels shape their perceptions of their national identity and their country’s role at large? For some, a foreign country means escape and freedom. For others, it means duty and obligation. This course will delve into these themes and more. Our texts will include, novels, memoirs, and films. Texts read in this course may include the following: Me Talk Pretty One Day, The Quiet American, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Poisonwood Bible, The Mosquito Coast, and The Sun Also Rises. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG Period: Semester

Tragedies of the Greeks

The playwrights, philosophers, and creative minds of classical Athens significantly shaped the thought and culture of the Western world. While theater has historically served as a medium for societies to mirror their own beliefs, the plays performed during the fifth-century BCE Golden Age of Athens challenged its citizens to think about the evolving relationship between humans and their gods at a time when their world was rapidly undergoing serious change. The works of the tragedians Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus stand as invaluable literary treasures from antiquity. In this semester course, students will explore 7-8 distinct Greek tragedies with the aim of learning more about the societal roles of the ancient Greeks and how things like warfare, class, politics, and religion were played out on the stage. Moreover, each text will be contrasted with a modern societal counterpart to better illuminate that our connection to the Greeks stretches far beyond the extension of ‘democracy’. All texts and excerpts will be read in English. 

Prerequisite: English 10 Credit: ENG, HIST/SOC Period: Semester

*This course is cross-listed between the English and Social Sciences programs. When registering, students must select the credit for which they would like the course to be registered. Students should consult with their advisor and review their graduation requirements.

AAE: Advanced Literary Analysis

Advanced Studies in Literature explores a single theme through texts drawn from a range of genres (drama, epic and lyric poetry, novel, short story, graphic novel, narrative nonfiction), regions, and historical contexts. This course will operate as a college-level seminar, involving intensive reading, frequent discussion, interdisciplinary projects, oral presentations, quizzes, and significant writing assignments. Students should expect to focus on written composition and critical theory as part of a rigorous introduction to reading, writing, thinking, and speaking about literary texts. This course is open to juniors and seniors only. Possible texts include The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Between the World and Me, All the Light We Cannot See, The Underground Railroad, A Visit From the Goon Squad, The Laramie Project, In Cold Blood, and The Road.  

Prerequisite: Department Approval Credit: ENG Period: Full Year

AAE: Major Literary Movements in American Literature

In this survey course, students will explore the profound impact and importance of major literary movements (Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, and Postmodernism) spanning from the 18th century to the present day. Through the readings of various seminal texts of varying genres (fiction, poetry, essays, and drama) students will engage in rich discussions, hone their critical thinking and writing skills, and gain a comprehensive understanding of how these movements reflect and continue to shape the cultural, social, and philosophical ethos of American life. Authors read in this course may include: Whitman, Dickinson, Wharton, Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Morrison, Vonnegut, and more. 

Prerequisite: Department Approval Credit: ENG Period: Full Year

AAE: Iconic Novels

This course will feature some of the most famous, and arguably some of the greatest, novels of the western canon of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Anticipated works include Great Expectations, Anna Karenina, Middlemarch, The Stranger and Ulysses, works that, as well as being iconic in themselves, trace an arc in the development of narrative and narrative voice. This is an advanced-level course, whose expectations will include challenging reading, an accelerated pace, daily in-depth discussion, and advanced analytical writing.

Prerequisite: Department Approval Credit: ENG Period: Full Year