English

For both the Upper School and Lower School the objective of the English department is to encourage each student to develop her ability to read with insight, think logically, and express herself clearly. Class discussions, frequent papers, and regular meetings with teachers help achieve these goals.

English Courses 2007-2008

Class I

Strong reading, writing, and thinking skills are the focus of this course. Literature units are designed to help students make connections between texts and think about the layers of meaning in complex stories by authors such as Lois Lowry, Jerry Spinelli,Sharon Creech, and Christopher Paul Curtis. Students read and write numerous poems. They share ideas through class discussions, presentations, and group projects. The focus is on expository and creative writing, with an emphasis on editing. Students are encouraged to word-process their assignments and develop technology skills through units coordinated by the technology department and the library.

Class II

The course focuses on building reading, writing, and critical thinking skills through carefully chosen texts and writing projects. Units on mythology and mystery allow students to deepen their understanding of character, theme, plot, and setting. During the historical fiction unit, students gain research skills while learning the background of the texts they read. A poetry unit teaches close reading and creative writing skills. Narratives, dialogues, persuasive paragraphs, short essays and weekly journal writing are woven into the curriculum. Large and small group discussions enable students to develop their ideas. Throughout each unit students study vocabulary and grammar and practice editing, revising, and proofreading their work.

Class III

Students work on reading accurately and in depth by studying a variety of genres in this course. They learn terms of literary analysis and explore how plot, characters, and themes develop. Written assignments focus on developing an effective writing process and include analytical paragraphs and short essays, poems, and stories. There is also regular grammar study. Works include a collection of short stories, The Pearl, Animal Farm, a play, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Also included is a unit on biblical stories, which are alluded to in the literature examined this year and in later years.

Class IV

In this course, students develop reading skills through the analysis of fiction and poetry. Texts include Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, Homer’s The Odyssey, and Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. In analytical writing, students develop their ability to structure paragraphs and longer pieces, write thesis and topic sentences, and incorporate evidence. There is continued emphasis on the writing process, including brainstorming, outlining, and revising. Class IV writers study creative writing as well, including style imitations, point-of-view pieces, and writing in various genres. Grammar study continues with a review of parts of speech, functions of the noun, and phrases, followed by the study of clauses.

Class V

The first semester centers on expository writing. Students practice writing thesis statements and outlines as well as reading and writing different kinds of essays: descriptive, anecdotal, analytical and persuasive. The semester concludes with organizing and writing a major research paper. In the second semester, which focuses on literature, students study Jane Eyre, Macbeth, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, learning to read closely and write short reading responses, creative assignments and longer essays on the works.

Class VI

English VI covers literature of the United States from pre-European times to the present day. It is a full-year course taught in coordination with the history department’s U.S. History course. The first semester is a common curriculum covering the pre-European period to the end of the 19th century. Teachers take slightly different approaches to the literature of the 20th and 21st centuries in the second semester. There are three options:

American Society and the Individual
E pluribus unum, or “out of many, one,” was first proposed as an American motto in 1776, reflecting the dream that thirteen discordant colonies could unite as one nation. And yet, even as this phrase points toward an ideal concept of unity, it also implies inherent tensions between the “many” and the “one.” As a culture, America values both individualism and national unity, civil disobedience and sacrifice for the common good, the individual’s right to self-definition as well as the overarching notion that we are all, somehow, “Americans.” Our readings explore this uneasy relationship. Readings include The Crucible, The Bluest Eye, The Catcher in the Rye, and Tracks, as well as assorted poetry, short fiction and essays. 

American Space and Identity
Whereas American literature through the 19th century originated from a relatively small region of the present-day United States, American literature of the 20th century sprang from a wider geographic range. In what ways do place, space, and mobility contribute to the formation of an individual’s identity and a society’s identity? How do different environments enable or restrict the ability to set goals and pursue dreams? How do the goals and dreams of characters differ across the American landscape?  Among the texts we read are My Antonia, The Great Gatsby, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ceremony, and poetry and short stories from the Jazz Age.

Identity in Crisis
This approach explores the struggle to define self in a 20th-century America where “success” implies the acquisition of money and power and where race, class and gender matter. What happens to a dream deferred? Twentieth- century writers have traced the fault lines of an exclusionary American dream. Texts include Death of a Salesman, Praisesong for the Widow, The Bluest Eye, and Ceremony.

Class VII Electives

Indian Literature
Considering that “fiction” is a creation of the Western world, Indian writers are making quite a name for themselves, winning literary prizes and publishing more prolifically than ever before. When did India first encounter fiction? What kind of literature existed before this discovery? How has Indian literature evolved into what it is today, and why does the Western world value it? This course will examine these questions through readings ranging from devotional and philosophical texts to contemporary works geared towards international audiences. The course also includes a research component. Possible texts include The Ramayana, short stories by Tagore, Narayan’s The Guide, Desai’s Inheritance of Loss, and Mistry’s Swimming Lessons. (Fulfills the non-Western requirement.)

African Literature
Africa is a huge continent, consisting of over 40 nations. This course provides a glimpse of some of the best of the wonderful written literature that has emerged from sub-Saharan countries. Our study begins with an introduction to traditional oral storytelling, then considers the effects of colonialism, the early 20th century concept of Negritude, and the literature that emerged in the 1960s as many African countries gained their independence. Topics will include the clash between traditional and modern African ways of life, as well as the conflicts between Africans and Europeans and what happened to the high hopes for the new post-colonial societies. The reading includes a novel, two novellas, two plays, two films, and numerous short stories and poems. (Fulfills the non-Western requirement.)

Chinese Literature
(To be offered in 2008-2009 and subsequent years. Fulfills the non-Western requirement.)

Literature of the Islamic World
(To be offered in 2008-2009 and subsequent years. Fulfills the non-Western requirement.)

Irish Literature
In this course we study work by 20th-century Irish writers such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Synge’s Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World, Deane’s Reading in the Dark, and the poetry of Yeats and Heaney. Students explore the political and cultural contexts of the literature by conducting research, giving oral culture reports, and retelling an ancient myth.

Poetry Revisited
Poetry may be the most beloved and feared of literary genres. During his recent tenure as Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky urged contemporary readers to revisit poetry, and in this course we take up the laureate’s challenge. The book we use as our text, Poems to Read, examines major movements, forms, and themes in poetry. Many of the works we encounter are suitable for reading aloud, and the poetry ranges in period and style from Anne Bradstreet to Gwendolyn Brooks and from John Donne to Wallace Stevens. Writing assignments include analytical essays, journal entries and original poems.

19th-Century British Literature
From early Romanticism to fin-de-siecle decadence, 19th-century British literature ran the gamut from one intellectual extreme to another. We study poetry of the Romantics, dip into the Victorian poets and essayists and read Wuthering Heights, either Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Grey or Lady Windemere’s Fan and, if time allows, a Hardy novel.

The Novel
In this course we trace the development of the novel taking particular note of key 19th- and 20th-century themes: issues of identity, self-discovery, gender and social class. In particular we focus on how women combat, accept, transcend or fall prey to the roles imposed on them by their societies. Major texts may include Emma, The House of Mirth, To the Lighthouse, and perhaps Daisy Miller.

The American South
Living in Massachusetts, one is de facto part of a larger region known as New England. The American South is a similar, even larger, region, with a past that is just as rich and enigmatic. It is also a part of the country that has faced astonishing challenges with respect to race, war, and identity. This course explores a region that has produced an inordinate number of talented writers over a few short centuries. Names include Mark Twain, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Tennessee Williams, Toni Morrison, and others. Readings will include novels, short stories, poems, and plays.

Advanced Non-Fiction Prose
Students wishing to expand their ability to write well in prose will find this course both an excellent follow-up to expository writing in Class V and a welcome opportunity to try different forms from the analytical literary essay that they will have practiced in most of their English courses. Writing may include personal essays, travel writing, satire, studies of nature, scientific writing, reporting, book and film reviews, editorials, and other areas of interest to the instructor and the students. Come with your own ideas! The reading will consist of short examples of the various kinds of writing that will be attempted.

Class VIII Electives

British Literature of Empire
Much of Britain’s literature from the 19th and 20th centuries is infused with references to its empire, a vast web of military, economic, and cultural domination and influence. In this course, we examine some of the key 19th- and early 20th-century authors who helped define British imperial consciousness, from the Victorian high water mark of self-assurance to its gradual disintegration in the early modern period. We read a variety of works, including excerpts from the children’s adventure tales of Marryat and Stevenson, poetic works of Tennyson, Kipling’s Kim, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Forster’s A Passage to India, and Doyle’s A Star Called Henry.

Post-Colonial Literature
As the British Empire collapsed during the 20th century, Britain’s former colonies faced the challenge of sudden independence. Today, these same countries struggle with not only the residual effects of colonialism but also the values of the Western world. This course aims to explore the resulting paradoxes that have emerged from this series of transitions. What kind of commentary is contemporary literature making about the fate of these cultures? Texts may include Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day, Kiran Desai’s Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things and selected essays of V.S. Naipaul. Students write about a post-colonial country of their choice and read one work by a post-colonial author not listed in the course syllabus.

Creative Writing
This course offers students the opportunity to express themselves imaginatively in writing. They may write short stories, poems, travel pieces, editorials, one-act plays or the first chapters of a novel. We read some short pieces to look at various styles, but the emphasis is on student writing. In lieu of an exam, students polish and gather their work for presentation in a portfolio at the conclusion of the course.

Literature and Film
This course examines the interplay between two powerful genres. We read a number of paired works from literature and film, and examine the ways in which the conventions of each genre have influenced the other. Our reading is wide ranging, from Shakespeare and Austen to Woolf and Delillo. We also watch films, read screenplays, write analyses of both literature and film and experiment with screenplay writing.

Shakespeare
In this course we study a range of Shakespeare’s major works: sonnets, a tragedy, a comedy, and a history play. Reading may include Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Henry IV, Part One. We view Shakespeare in Love and other films as we seek to enter the theater and period of the person who is arguably our greatest writer of English. We also try to attend a local professional production of a Shakespeare play.

Tradition and Experiment in British Poetry
This course will trace the history of British poetry, from medieval texts to the works of the Romantics and the Victorians to British modernism. Our emphasis will be twofold: first, on the way earlier poets set the intellectual tone for those to follow; second, on the contributions not only of the major male poets, but also of their (often lesser-known) female counterparts. Besides honing their interpretive skills in several analytical essays, students will experiment with poetic form themselves. Authors may include: Shakespeare, Donne, Marvell, Lady Mary Worth, Wordsworth, Keats, Coleridge, Charlotte Smith, Amelia Opie, Anna Barbauld, Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats, Pound, Mina Loy, and H.D.

Autobiography
This reading and writing course for seniors uses the student’s individual life experience as the basis for a series of personal essays and narratives culminating in an autobiography. Each student will experiment with various styles and techniques as she works to develop her own voice, use her personal experiences in creative and original ways, and develop a clearer sense of self as she tells her own story. Readings may include Markham’s West With the Night, Carey’s Black Ice, Gantos’ Hole in My Life, Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, O’Brien’s If I Die in a Combat Zone, Shreve’s Dream Me Home Safely and Satrapi’s Persepolis.

Re-Imaginings
Based on literary pairings in which a twentieth-century writer has “re-imagined” an earlier-written text, this course will explore how texts written centuries ago remain relevant to modernity and why modern writers have chosen to adapt these texts. The course will explore the generic variations of each pair and their political/historical contexts. Why, for example, would a contemporary South African writer re-tell one of the first novels of the western canon? Possible pairs of texts include Heaney’s translation of Beowulf and Gradiner’s Grendel, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Coetzee’s Foe, and Donne’s Holy Sonnets and Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer-winning play, Wit. Included in the course will be an opportunity for students to “re-imagine” a piece of literature.

Literature and the Mind
In this course, we will explore literary representations of the mind’s workings and study the ways writers have sought to understand the psyche in different historical moments and different cultural contexts. We will pay particularly close attention to the philosophical and political aims of the writers—and, if time allows, also consider visual artwork contemporary to the literary texts. Our main focus will be on the 20th century. Authors may include Gilman, James, Stevens, Stein, Faulkner, Joyce, Woolf, Beckett, Breton, Eluard, Borges, Ishiguro, Morrison, and/or Satrapi.