English

The English program is about learning to love to read and write.

It is also about mastering the poetics of media and culture. We seek to produce introspective and informed young women who can express their views effectively. While establishing a firm foundation of reading and writing skills, our courses expose students to a broad range of works in traditional print literature. Students are also trained in critical analysis from the perspective of psychology, philosophy, history – any discipline that uses interpretive texts.

The literature component draws from classics and new world literature, especially works by and about minorities. We also capitalize on our all-girl status by choosing many books by and about women. Active participation through discussion is a main focus. A variety of writing assignments ensures that each student will have the skills needed for college and later life. Although assignments stress expository writing and clear, informed analysis, informal writing assignments are included in our core courses, the sophomore poetry workshop, and the senior electives. Our four-year study of vocabulary serves students on SATs while enhancing their broader verbal ability. We offer special instruction to Honors students, for whom the desire to learn exceeds course requirements, as well as intensive preparation for Advanced Placement.

students attending a talk by Wilkinson poet in the library The Writers’ Club publishes a literary magazine of student work, and each spring, in addition to a workshop led by our poet-in-residence Janet McNally, the Elizabeth McNulty Wilkinson '25 fund enables us to invite a nationally recognized poet to work with sophomore classes and present to the school.

Departmental requirements: 4 years

English Department Head:
Alison Wright

Course Descriptions

Includes electives, though not all elective courses are offered each year or trimester. Students may also enroll in additional electives and AP's offered through 十大彩票平台's membership in the Online School for Girls.

English I - Community and Self

This year-long course introduces students to the concepts, skills, and vocabulary that they will build upon throughout the rest of their high school careers. It gives students both a technical and intellectual foundation in the study of English literature, developing grammar and usage skills as well as the ability to analyze and critique a wide variety of literary texts. Students will develop their reading comprehension, literary analysis, and essay-writing skills in a discussion-centered classroom. Thematically, readings explore the literary representation of self and community. The course begins with an introduction to linguistics, then turns to studying short stories, essays, and poetry. Students will be introduced to writing the 十大彩票平台 Critical Analysis essay following Toulmin’s method of argumentation. The year ends with an intensive reading of Romeo and Juliet and completing an additional essay about the text.

English II - American Literary Expressions

American Literature is a year-long course that uses American literary fiction and nonfiction to further develop the reading and writing skills necessary for post-secondary success. In trimester one, students learn the basics of literary analysis, reading beyond the surface to analyze the ways texts uphold or challenge ideologies. In trimester two, students become more critical consumers of information and strengthen their persuasive writing by learning about logic, rhetoric, and cognitive bias. Finally, in trimester three, students study personal essay writing, particularly the ways in which the creative writing strategies used in fiction will make them strong essay writers in any genre.

English II - Honors American Literature

English II Honors - American Literature is a year-long, reading- and writing-intensive version of American Literary Expressions. This course is designed for students who have established academic skills and a desire for rigorous literary study. To take this course, students must have superior grades, established work ethic, advanced analytical and writing skills, and a recommendation from their freshman teacher. The goals and themes of this course are similar to American Literary Expressions, but the course moves more quickly, and requires the students to read, discuss, and reflect upon more complex texts.

English III - Exploring the Literary World

In this year-long course, students examine the principal authors and genres in world literature that ranges in time period, but is chiefly contemporary. We will discuss formal/stylistic attributes and literary value as well as seek to understand how cultural and historical values shape literature. While focus on every culture proves impossible, class texts are as different from each other as the peoples and places they bespeak; of course, influence of one author on another, cultural cross-pollination, and potential for new cultural identities are topics of interest to our Harkness Table discussions. Designed to prepare students for college writing as well, this course requires drafting and revision of formal papers on poetry and prose; a completed piece of original research will round out the year, as well as creative writing for potential submission to college admissions senior year.

11th and 12th Grade Trimester Electives

AP English Literature

The AP English Literature and Composition course is designed and taught thematically with an emphasis on core readings along with modern and contemporary selections that illuminate and expand upon a variety of themes. AP English Literature and Composition closely follows the requirements described in the AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description (CED), including the fundamentals of literary analysis and introductory college composition. Each week students discuss and engage in a variety of writing activities focusing on argumentation, interpretation, analysis, rhetorical strategies, exposition, structure, and style. Students read and study a variety of novels, plays, poems, and short stories from the 16th century to the present. The course focuses on the experience of literature, the interpretation of literature, the evaluation of literature, and writing to develop stylistic maturity and sophistication. Students practice their writing via numerous timed essays, which are revised several times, as well as longer essays that require outside research and MLA formatting. Students also practice oral communication skills, through regular classroom discussions and acting as discussion facilitators.

West African Literature

The Brontes

In this reading intensive course, we will read three classic works of English literature by the Brontës: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), and Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). In our discussion of these texts, we will explore the world of early Victorian England, developing insights into societal expectations and roles of women. We will also explore the limitations of the publishing world and the necessity of pseudonyms during the publication process. This course explores the world of the Brontës, the impact of their work on English and global literatures, and the influence society has in determining who can and cannot create art. Furthermore, we will delve deeply into early Victorian England history, the role of women within Victorian society, and explore why the Victorian era continues to fascinate readers.

Autobiography

This course asks students to consider what it means to write their own experience. How do we understand the narratives of our lives? How do we tell our own stories in a way that satisfies both the truth and our readers’ narrative expectations? Students will read selections from memoirists and autobiographers in addition to nonfiction texts about how to write about their own lives and will, over the course of the trimester, produce a single longform autobiographical essay.

Creative Non-Fiction

Creative Non-Fiction is a one-trimester upper-level English elective that focuses on both the consumption and production of various forms of non-fiction media. As a whole class, we will sample exemplary published texts in several of the major genres of creative non-fiction, including the personal essay, the lyric essay, and literary journalism. As students become familiar with the features of each text type, they will write their own versions and offer constructive feedback to each other in a workshop setting. As the trimester continues, students will investigate additional genres and subgenres that are of particular interest to them on an individual basis, ultimately creating a portfolio of both annotated published works by other authors as well as their own works in the genre or genres of their choice. Students will analyze the connection between genre and form in order to guide the production of their final portfolio, as we will sample a variety of media and forms throughout the course. Assessment will be based on a series of short original creative non-fiction assignments, timely and constructive feedback for peers, and a final portfolio assignment.

Femininity and Literature

The word “femininity,” like the word “woman,” is what theorists might call a floating signifier--it is so loaded with meaning, it means so many (contradictory) things in so many (confusing) ways, that it almost ceases to have any fixed meaning at all. For example, women are expected to be both quiet and demure and garrulous and gossipy; a woman should be her husband’s domestic helpmeet and a modern #girlboss. This course will interrogate the pleasures and perils of femininity through theory, personal narrative, and fiction. Sample texts include Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and excerpts from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing and Laurie Penny’s Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies, and Revolution.

Medieval Romance Literature

This course will introduce students to medieval literature and allow them to become familiar with the genres and tropes of chivalric romance. Chivalric romance, which includes Arthurian legends and stories about knights, ladies, wizards, and monsters, is a staple of the Western literary tradition, and continues to this day. Students will learn about courtly love, the formal social code that detailed proper courtly behavior. Courtly love was enormously influential on medieval literature. The core of the course will be a thorough reading of Marie de France’s Breton Lais, and we will supplement our understanding of the genre with selections from Andreas Capellenus’ De Amore. In addition to a meticulous formalist reading of the text, we will also use a variety of theoretical approaches to understand this literature. We may also look at contemporary portrayals of chivalric romance, either in popular novels or other media. Student assessment will include writing assignments (analytical papers) and class discussion.

Introduction to Critical Theory: Queer Theory

This course serves as an introduction to critical and literary theory through the lens of queer theory. Using Jeffrey Nealon and Susan Searls Giroux’s The Theory Toolbox, it begins with an introduction to some of the foundational concepts of theory and philosophy. The course aims to historicize notions of identity in general (and sexual identity specifically) and to denaturalize our understanding of ‘culture,’ ‘identity,’ and ‘biology.’ We will read some of the foundational texts of the academic school of queer theory, including Gayle Rubin’s “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex.”

Science Fiction and Society

Science fiction is a literary genre that allows readers to imagine the future—to imagine progress. This course will examine the depiction of progress in (and through) science fiction, covering several short stories and novels in the genre. At the end of the trimester, students will use what they’ve learned to write a science fiction short story inspired by exemplary science writing. Sample texts include Dawn by Octavia Butler, “Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu, and a selection of Ursula Le Guin short stories. Our reading (or watching) will be shaped in part by student interest.

Short Story

This course will focus on the craft of storytelling. Our guiding questions will be how a writer composes a story and why stories are told and listened to. Throughout the trimester, as we read and discuss a number of key short stories, we will be focusing primarily on the formal elements of narrative such as plot, characterization, setting, and pacing. In a sense, we will be taking apart these narrative machines to see how they work. Each of the stories we read will be accompanied by at least one short writing assignment intended both to stimulate the imagination and to practice certain structural elements of fiction writing. Along with these weekly small writing assignments, we will each be working on one major short story. All of this writing will be shared with the rest of the class in workshop and peer review formats. By the end of the trimester, we will all become better storytellers and have enriched our appreciation for the vital role that narrative serves in our lives.

Shakespeare and History

This course will introduce students to Shakespeare’s England, focusing specifically on the conditions of the theatre in London, gender, politics, and religion, and how that history can help us understand Shakespeare’s texts more completely. The first half of the trimester will be focused on the history; the second half will involve a close study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The trimester will end with an introduction to New Historicism (also known as Cultural Poetics), a method of critical inquiry that foregrounds the social and contingent nature of literary production and interpretation. Students will give presentation and write a research essay in the style of New Historicism at the end of the trimester.

Poetry

This course introduces students to a wide range of poetry, poets, and poetic forms. Students will read and discuss poetry covering several centuries with a focus on understanding how the elements of a given poem contribute to its meaning and sense. Students will write several short essays or poems and will write one longer comparative essay about a poem chosen from our reading list and a text of their choice.

Existential Literature

It is a quintessentially human pursuit to ask, “What is the meaning of life?” In this reading-intensive and discussion-based course, students will explore the ways in which authors have grappled with this question, specifically authors who have come to the conclusion that there may not be an intended purpose to our existence. While fiction will be our primary focus, the class will also read non-fiction works by existentialist thinkers. Students will be expected to write frequent reflections and one long-form essay.

Ghosts in Literature

The prevalence of ghost stories in cultures and civilizations throughout recorded history indicates that there is something uniquely human about the supposition of a spirit world. This reading-intensive and discussion-based course is driven by the thesis that ghost stories are almost always about the living, revealing anxieties about identity, loss, memory, and mortality. Students will additionally explore the historical and sociological factors that influenced the post-industrial revolution ghost story.

New Weird Literature

Harlem Renaissance Literature

Introduction to Moral Philosophy

Reel Narrative I

Reel Narrative II

Reel Narrative II explores the history of the horror genre in film. Beginning with the 1920 German expressionist silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and ending with the contemporary horror film Get Out, this class analyzes the evolution of horror over the past 125 years. Furthermore, we will learn film terminology, such as mise-en-scène and cinematography, which we will incorporate into our film responses and analytic paper. By the end of the class, we will have foundational knowledge of cinematic analysis and vocabulary. Reel Narrative I is not a requirement to take this class.

Greek Drama

Reading and Writing Punk Lit

Punk is a music-based subculture that began in the 1970s, evolving over the decades into many related subcultures. For this course, we will be reading and discussing non-fiction texts that illustrate the successes and failures of these movements (with a focus on the feminist movement), and we will be using the music as a point of departure to strengthen our writing skills — via creative writing exercises and essays.

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