SUMMER READING 2016
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION
AP ENGLISH SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
Dear AP English Students,
The summer reading assignment is designed to prepare you for the level of critical reading and
the depth of conversation required in AP English. We will begin the year with a series of
canonical works which explore representations of gender, sexuality, and social mobility. As a
critical frame for our analysis of these texts, we will use feminist theory/gender studies, one of
several critical approaches that you will study in AP English. The feminist theory selections vary
in focus and cultural context; however, they all provide a series of critical terms and concepts to
use as tools for examining both literature and life. As you complete the summer reading, please
also prepare Parts I, II, and III below to submit on the first day of class. During the first week of
classes, you will also be asked to complete an in-class essay based on one or more of the primary
summer reading texts.
Challenging literature commands your full intellectual attention. Therefore, begin your reading
early in the summer so that you have plenty of time to enjoy and carefully contemplate the
complexities and nuances of the literature.
In addition to the All-School read, I Am Malala, please read the required AP selections listed
below, and complete the written assignment in preparation for the first day of classes (Tuesday,
August 30, 2016).
I look forward to learning with you!
All Upper-School Read (grades 9-12)
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala
Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was
shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected
her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey
from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At
sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for
the Nobel Peace Prize.
I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls'
education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to
write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a
SUMMER READING 2016
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION
society that prizes sons. I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to
inspire change in the world.
AP English Required Drama and Fiction:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Four Major Plays by Henrik Ibsen (read 2 or more)
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Sula by Toni Morrison
Selections of Literary Criticism and Theory:
Read/view and annotate four (4) texts from the list below. One (1) of your selections may be
video/audio if you choose.
Adichi, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists (2013). TEDxEuston: Online text.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Excerpt from La Frontera (Borderlands): The New Mestiza (1987).
“Beyoncé Feminism.” The Huffington Post. (Choose 1 article).
Cixous, Hélène. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Signs. 1.4 (1976). 875-893.
De Beauvoir, Simone. “Introduction: Woman as Other,” The Second Sex (1949).
Fey, Tina. Bossypants (audiobook) (2013). Available through Audible and iTunes
Friedan, Betty. “The Problem that Has No Name.” The Feminine Mystique (1963).
Gay, Roxanne. Confessions of a Bad Feminist. TED Talk. (2014).
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. (1892).
Greer, Germain. The Female Eunuch. (1970). (Choose 1 Chapter).
Hill Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought. (1990). (Choose 1 Chapter).
hooks, bell. Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics (2000). (Choose 1 Chapter).
Kim, Yoonj. #NotYourAsianSidekick is a civil rights movement for Asian American women.
The Guardian. (2013).
SUMMER READING 2016
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION
Lorde, Audre. “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” Sister Outsider:
Essays and Speeches (1984).
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” (1979).
Millet, Kate. “Theory of Sexual Politics” Sexual Politics (1969).
Monhanty, Chandra Talpade. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial
Discourses. Feminist Review 30. 1988. 61-88.
Mulvey, Laura. Excerpt from Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. (1973).
Sandberg, Sheryl. Barnard College Commencement Address. (2011). (Listen and take notes).
Slaughter, Anne Marie. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The Atlantic. July/August 2012.
Somerville, Siobhan. Excerpt from Queering the Colorline. (2000).
Thelma and Louise (available through amazon video) and Set It Off (available through amazon
video and iTunes).
Warner, Michael. Queer and Then: The End of Queer Theory? The Chronicle of Higher
Education. (2012).
Wolf, Naomi. Excerpt from The Beauty Myth (1991).
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. (1792). (Choose 1 Chapter).
Woolf, Virginia. Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own (1929).
AP ENGLISH SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
Part I: Reader Reflection & Response
Reflect….before you begin any of the reading for this summer, craft a well-written
profile of yourself as a critical reader and writer. Keep in mind that “reading”
includes critically engaging not only with written text, but also with “cultural text”
(images/advertisements and other popular media).
Please discuss your strengths as a reader and writer and your areas of challenge.
Additional questions to consider:
SUMMER READING 2016
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AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION
What do you read?
How do you read?
What are your interests?
What would you like to accomplish in AP English this year?
Suggested length: approx. 200 words.
AFTER: Respond…after you have completed the required texts, write a reader
response in which you comment on your personal reaction to one or more of the
texts. Discuss the elements of the text/s which struck you as particularly evocative,
compelling, or thought-provoking. Feel free to write about text that you didn’t like—
explain your response either way. Suggested length: approx. 300 words.
Part II: Reading Journals
For each of the novels (Austen, Flaubert, Kingston, and Morrison), please respond to the
following prompts in short essay format (approx. 1 fully developed paragraph per bullet).
● Identify the point-of-view from which the text is written, and discuss the effect of any
significant shifts in the narrative voice.
● Explore the significance of setting in the text. In other words, to what extent does setting
affect character development and/or thematic threads in the novel or play?
● Select 2 quotations from the text, and discuss their significance in terms of mood/tone,
symbolism, and figurative language.
● Identify one (1) major theme or motif that you discover, and then explain how it
contributes to the broader meaning of the text.
● Compose 2 open-ended questions which invite further discussion about the text and
respond to them.
Part III: Applications of Critical Theory
Please read/view four (4) selections of critical theory from the list provided. Then, in a short
essay of approx. 2 pages, respond to 1 (one) of the following prompts. Please incorporate
specific evidence from 1-2 of these selections to support your response. Yes, you may write
in first-person.
CHOOSE 1:
SUMMER READING 2016
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION
1. How/in what ways does feminist critical theory enhance your understanding of the
summer reading?
OR
2. Based on your reading, how do you define “feminism”?
The summer reading assignment will be assessed for organization, development, depth of
insight, and clarity of expression.
See you in August!