ENGLISH

BRITISH LITERATURE II: Shakespeare and Early Modern England

Cary Honig

There's this guy, see.  He tends to dress in black.  He should be in school, but he's just sort of hanging out.  He used to love his mom, but she's been pissing him off lately.  His step-dad thinks he can take his dad's place, but he smiles and smiles, and he’s still a villain.  You know the type.  There’s a lot of pressure to go into the family business, but with his step-dad now in charge, that’s not appealing.  There's this girl he likes, but lately, he's not so sure what she's after, and her dad's an annoying dork.  This guy used to enjoy his friends, but now they mostly seem like posers.  To top it all off, his father’s rare visits are very upsetting. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.  Everyone thinks he's either a slacker or a nutcase, but figuring out whether to be or not to be is just too, too difficult.  This guy’s name is Hamlet, and this trimester his play’s the thing. 

This is the second trimester of the six glorious trimesters of British Literature.  We will utilize literature to explore the developing English (and western) mindset from a cultural perspective, examining history, art, religion, government, social and sexual mores, science and philosophy.  This trimester, we will focus on Early Modern England, moving roughly from 1560 into the eighteenth century (and skipping a bit further ahead in search of a good, reasonably sized novel).  We will focus on Shakespeare for most of the trimester, reading a large selection of his sonnets, discussing his life and loading up on Hamlet, certainly the world's most quotable play.  We will also read part of Paradise Lost (featuring gorgeous poetry and a strangely attractive Satan), Aphra Behn's proto-novel Oroonoko (about a South American slave revolt somewhat like one she actually witnessed), and poetry from John Donne, Christopher Marlowe, Walter Ralegh, Katherine Phillips, Andrew Marvell and Ms. Behn.  We'll finish up by reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, her funniest, most romantic novel, which stands at the transition between eighteenth century neo-classicism and Romantic literature.  Expect to write a well thought out essay based on your reading almost every week. Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus. Punctuality of students and assignments, note-taking and willingness to voice opinions and ask questions will be vital to learning and earning credit.  As Hamlet says, “The readiness is all!

AMERICAN LITERATURE:  Modernity and the 20th Century   

Michael Fox

This trimester we leave behind the agrarian roots of American civilization and enter an age of bustling industrialism and the rise of the American city.  Life was transformed by new technologies like the automobile and the motion picture; increased mobility and the seemingly infinite reach mass communication frayed the cohesion of traditional communities.  The literature we will read wrestles with the identity crisis of the modern American life. We will read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Theodor Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. We will end the trimester with the study of modernist poetry through the works of Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, H.D., Marianne Moore and Edna St. Vincent Millay. This will be a lot of reading and writing, so be ready for the challenge if you sign up for the course. To earn credit, you will need to pass weekly reading quizzes and thoroughly complete all essay assignments with revisions. In addition, you will need to participate effectively in class discussions and online discussion boards.

PLAYWRITING                                                                              

Joanna Miller

In this yearlong course, we will explore the craft of playwriting by studying its form through close reading and analysis of texts and through the act of scene writing itself. We will therefore explore a variety of styles, time periods and perspectives as models upon which to base our discussions and our own writing. Some of the writers/titles you will likely encounter this trimester are Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, David Auburn’s Proof, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Fifteen Minute Hamlet, and Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project. We will also read selected artists and their one act plays as well as other writers and forms as source material. Students are required to present their own writing in our weekly workshops and to revise their scenes after feedback from those workshops. At the end of the trimester, students will perform one another’s scenes in a staged reading. In order to receive credit for the course, students will need to be punctual, engaged in our group discussions and responsible for all of the assignments, both reading and writing.  This class is available for English credit for students who have completed the Humanities Comp. and for elective credit for others.

WRITING ABOUT FILM                                                                

Michael Fox

In this course, students will have an opportunity to study movies as works of art. Because movies are popular culture, they are often viewed simply as entertainment; we do not always think about them as serious works of literature. This course invites students to think more critically about the cinema experience. We will work on developing “film literacy” as we break movies down into formal elements including editing, sound, image composition, and acting style.  Students will also learn about film history by watching some great movies from decades long past. When you successfully complete the course, you will proudly admit to your friends that you enjoy watching movies that are black and white, silent and/or foreign!

The course will be organized around film genres (or types of movies). Each month we will study a different genre. Trimester two will begin film noir, a series of darkly lit crime films that dominated Hollywood during the 1940s. We will also read stories from “pulp” magazines that inspired the films. We will then transition to a genre called “The Woman’s Picture,” which foregrounded female protagonists and themes expected to appeal to female audiences.  We will end the trimester thinking about films intended for male audiences as we explore the Wild West in films like Rio Bravo, High Noon, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Student research will be at the center of the course. For credit, students will be expected to produce an 8-10 page research paper. Additionally, students will need to complete written responses to the films and readings. Active class participation is essential for earning credit.

REVISITING FAIRYTALES                                                           

Hedy Dowd

Meet kind stepmothers who are also naked witches, a cat that helps his owner cheat at cards and the child raised by wolves, Wolf-Alice.  In this course, we will examine fairytales old and new. We will read several versions of Cinderella, from the well-known French retelling to the even older Chinese tale “Ye Shen” with origins in the 9th century.  Close reading and examination of the text will help us to explore parallels between stories. We will also be introduced to the work of Russian scholar Vladimir Propp, whose work Morphology of the Folktales introduced a way to formally analyze the characters and narrative structure of fairytales. We will explore his theories with an electronic fairytale generator. Forget childhood Disney films as we read Stepmother, Robert Coover’s postmodern novella, and are introduced to literary criticism of Coover’s work. We will read selections from Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and A.S. Byatt as well.  Students will write their own modern fairy tales.  Weekly grammar sheets will be completed in class. Essays will be based on selected readings and will include literary analysis. A formal book review will be completed during the term. Classroom discussion and participation is necessary for credit. Assignments must be completed on time, and revisions will be necessary to earn credit.

TRIALS V: Civil Rights                                                                      

Cary Honig

This is the fifth trimester of a two-year course designed for those of you who are interested in law and U.S. history as well as improving your English skills for the competency exam.  This trimester will begin our two-trimester focus on the Civil Rights Movement and issues of discrimination.  If you’re wondering why people have been so excited about having an African-American president, you should definitely take this trimester of this class.  We will be addressing the history and legal issues involved in the Civil Rights Movement while reading literature that will bring the history into focus.  Our literary selections will be The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s novel about an African-American woman’s search for love and community in the segregated south; A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s play about an African-American family facing discrimination in the north; and Free At Last, a text about the Civil Rights Movement prepared by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  We will also watch a number of episodes of Eyes On The Prize, a wonderful documentary about the Civil Right Movement with a lot of actual archival footage.  The trimester will culminate in an in-class trial relating to discrimination in which all students will participate as lawyers or witnesses IF we complete our work on time.  Students should expect to do regular homework, including reading the novel at home, to take careful notes and to write and revise at least five essays in a timely manner to earn credit.  We will review grammar at least once a week.  Careful, consistent work and strong attendance will lead to progress in English skills and historical and legal knowledge.  Punctuality of students and assignments will be necessary to earn credit. You can join this class now if you haven’t taken it before and aren’t chicken.

WRITING WORKSHOP                                                                  

Michael Fox

This course is designed to help you find your voice as a writer. Unlike most classes you will ever take, this one allows you to write about topics of your choice and for an audience other than a teacher. You will learn to compose articles, arguments, essays, reviews, stories and poems that are worth reading. Throughout the trimester, you will work on developing a portfolio of publishable writing.  By reading and analyzing model articles by professional writers, you will learn techniques to make your writing more lively and interesting. Your favorite original writings will be included in a magazine produced by the class at the end of each trimester. Since the class is imagined as a collaborative “workshop,” you will need to work as a team coming up with ideas for stories and articles. You will also edit and comment constructively on one another’s work. Students who feel uncomfortable sharing work will be accommodated in the class, so don’t be afraid to take the class if you truly want to work on your writing.  To earn credit, students will need to participate actively in class discussions and workshops, complete analysis sheets of model articles and compose at least five original pieces for their portfolios.

LITERARY GENRES: War Literature                                          

Michael Fox

The experience of war has generated some of the most terrible, beautiful and heartbreaking literature published on earth. In this course we will read and view a variety of documents that explore the human response to war.  These documents will include letters written by soldiers to family and loved ones, reflective personal essays and memoirs written by soldiers, novels protesting the inhumanity of war, and films that explore the complexity and horror of war. To earn credit, students will be expected to complete readings and questions, participate in discussions, demonstrate proficiency on vocabulary quizzes and complete all essays and revisions. Coursework will also include non-traditional and creative responses to the texts.  

CURRENT AFFAIRS                                                           

Siobhan Ritchie Cute

Will the Occupy movement change the national economic dialogue?  Who will become the Republican challenger to President Obama?  What will happen next in the highly unpredictable Middle East?  Can Rhode Island agree to a realistic long-term budget plan?   There’s no telling which issues we’ll cover this trimester because they haven’t happened yet. Hopefully, once we have learned about world events, they won’t seem quite as scary. This is a great chance for those of you concerned about the essay, business letter, reading, spelling, dictionary, U.S. history and punctuation sections of the competency exam. Each unit will feature looking up vocabulary, reading and answering questions about articles on one topic, discussing the topic, outlining, writing and revising a short essay. There will also be weekly usage/grammar exercises. Each student will have the opportunity to work directly with the teacher when s/he needs help. Careful, consistent work and good attendance will lead to progress in English skills and credit. Punctuality and meeting paper deadlines are vital. This class is by invitation only.