AP English Language and Composition Summer Reading Requirement 2016-2017 The purpose for summer reading in this course is to prepare you for the level of reading, writing and thinking that is the hallmark for this course. The book selected for this year’s summer reading is as follows: Douglass, Frederick, William L. Andrews, and William S. McFeely. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass : authoritative text, contexts, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1996. Print. [ISBN 978-0393-96966-5]
Along with the required reading of pages 3-80 (the actual narrative), you must also carefully read the criticisms written by William L. Andrews and Deborah E. McDowell. After doing so, focus on the three following paragraphs as you carefully read and complete this assignment:
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines jeremiad as a prolonged lamentation or complaint; also as a cautionary or angry harangue. Keeping this definition in mind, read William L. Andrew’s criticism, pages 157-166, and use the specifically outlined commentary notes on the provided Analysis Chart to analyze and make connections between the narrative and Andrew’s arguments in terms of Douglass’ narrative serving as “a kind of American jeremiad.” “Students of the 1845 Narrative commonly designate the following as its key sentence: “You have seen how a man was made a slave, you shall see how a slave was made a man.” The clause that follows that pivotal comma- “you shall see how a slave was made a man”- captures with great prescience the focus of much contemporary scholarship on slavery. That focus is studiously on making the slave a man, according to cultural norms of masculinity. This accounts in part, as I will show below, for why Douglass is so pivotal, so mythological a figure.” Focusing on the opening paragraph of Deborah E. McDowell’s criticism that is referenced in the above paragraph, use the specifically outlined commentary notes on the provided Analysis Chart to analyze and make connections between the narrative and McDowell’s arguments in terms of Douglass being viewed simply “as a product of history…developed in response to a variety of social contingencies and individual desires.”
Using these comments to focus your thinking, your task is to read the assigned pages and to complete the following critical reading and writing activities:
1. Locate and highlight 12 examples that, in your understanding, illustrate commentaries (see chart) made by McDowell and Andrew. 2. Prepare a set of typed notes addressing each author’s (McDowell and Andre) commentary, its location (page number and paragraph/line numbers), its contextual situation, and analysis of how Douglass accomplishes each of the author’s critical comments. Each entry must be approximately 100 words total; include the word count for each as illustrated in the model on the following page. 3. Remember to use the literary present tense at all times. The contextual situation column identifies precisely what is happening at this point in the text, while the analysis/ connection column focuses on what Douglass is doing as the author as it related to McDowell and Andrew’s commentaries. 4. Use the chart in your Google Classroom assignment to complete the Analysis Chart. See directions provided below. 5. If you are uncertain about the concepts that appear in the “Author Commentary” column of the chart that follows, make certain to reread with care. You will be evaluated on how well you understand and analyze each author’s commentary as used in the context of the original work. 6. Failure to identify the author’s commentary and location will result in a nullification of any points for that row of the chart. 7. You will receive a total of approximately twelve points for each row. (100 point Test Grade)
The full set of notes will be due on the first day of school: Monday, August 22, 2016. In order to complete and submit the required chart, you will need to add this course to your Google Classroom. You will first need to sign in to your Google Classroom account through your SCHOOL G-MAIL account. Your username is
[email protected], and your password is more than likely your lunch code. Lastly, you will need to ADD THIS COURSE: AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION: SUMMER ASSIGNMENT. CLASS CODE: cbcw7ei. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or complications you may have when completing this task. The Norton Critical Edition also contains historical documents, contemporary perspectives and critical theories, a bibliography, and a chorology of the author’s life and work. You do not have to read this additional material prior to the first day of class. However, it is very important that you purchase and read this particular edition because we will be reading and working with those special documents as we discuss Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written By HImself. Most
bookstores do not carry the Norton Critical Edition on their shelves; you will need to special order this edition. If you have any questions about this requirement, please feel free to e-mail
[email protected] at home this summer.
