British and American Literature

The students from 12e & 12zh have made their contribution to the resources previous classes have compiled. We hope you find them both interesting and useful!

Our Literature Channel

What is harder - to make modern teenagers read a fiction book or read a book about fiction? Believe me, inspiring them to learn a bit about the history of British and American literature is a mission next to impossible! Especially when they need to research a whole literary period in groups, with all of its historical ups and downs, its main literary trends, important authors and their works, and to top it off, its influence on the next generations. Then they should present a lesson in front of their classmates and, as if it’s not enough, create a teaching resource anyone can use to learn a bit more about the said literary period. Well, there’s always a shortage of time, everyone procrastinates as long as possible, then it’s all very hectic and last-minute, but here we are - crossing the finish line - successfully at that!

From a debate about Beowulf and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, through The Canterbury Tales and Medieval ballads, Shakespearean drama and sonnets, after escaping from a desert island just like Robinson Crusoe to the poetry of the Romantics and the Victorian novel, through the stream-of-consciousness maze, we have come back to the dystopian graphic and magic reality of our postmodern world. 

We hope our Literary Channel will inspire you not only to learn more, to read more often and more widely, but also to search for and find the answers to the questions that matter - the ones that, by making us look back, keep driving us forward.

You can start your adventure here - our island awaits! There are hidden treasures all around. Seek, and you will find them!

Nina Patterson and her lovely students from 12d, class of 2023