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Background: I teach a high school literature class. This year we've studied American literature. I'm thinking about teaching a literature class next year where the theme is literature of the western world showcasing literary time periods.

 

So, I am anxious for all of your great feedback. I haven't read many of these works yet and would be happy to substitute things that you think might work better.

 

Throughout the year: Bullfinch Mythology & Sound and Sense Poetry

 

Greek tragedy: Oedipus the King

Latin Epic: Aenid (Maybe only portions of this?)

English epic poem: Dante's Divine Comedy

Medieval Allegory (1350)-Decameron

16th Cent-(epic poem) Spenser Faere Queen

Elizabethan: Shankespeare Romeo & Juliet and sonnets

1700 (satire/parody) Swift's Gullivers Travels

Romantics Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Gothic Novel-Poe Fall of the House of Usher & the Telltale Heart

Naturalism-The House of Mirth-Edith Wharton

Modernist-F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Post Modernist-Asimov, Bradbury

Fantasy Mac Donald-The Princess and the Goblin

Allegory/Dystopia Lord of the Flies

 

Which important periods did I miss? (PS-Some of the kids have already read Chaucer and Beowulf so I did not include those.)

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Background: I teach a high school literature class. This year we've studied American literature. I'm thinking about teaching a literature class next year where the theme is literature of the western world showcasing literary time periods.

 

So, I am anxious for all of your great feedback. I haven't read many of these works yet and would be happy to substitute things that you think might work better.

 

Throughout the year: Bullfinch Mythology & Sound and Sense Poetry

 

Greek tragedy: Oedipus the King

Latin Epic: Aenid (Maybe only portions of this?)

English epic poem: Dante's Divine Comedy

Medieval Allegory (1350)-Decameron

16th Cent-(epic poem) Spenser Faere Queen

Elizabethan: Shankespeare Romeo & Juliet and sonnets

1700 (satire/parody) Swift's Gullivers Travels

Romantics Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Gothic Novel-Poe Fall of the House of Usher & the Telltale Heart

Naturalism-The House of Mirth-Edith Wharton

Modernist-F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Post Modernist-Asimov, Bradbury

Fantasy Mac Donald-The Princess and the Goblin

Allegory/Dystopia Lord of the Flies

 

Which important periods did I miss? (PS-Some of the kids have already read Chaucer and Beowulf so I did not include those.)

 

I agree with the previous poster regarding reading Homer's Iliad before Virgil's Aenid, as Virgil expanded on Homer's earlier writings on Aeneas & connected the character to the founding of Rome.

 

The Inferno is not an English Epic, but is Spanish; however, Spenser's Faere Queen is an English Epic.

 

I also do not consider Lord of the Flies Dystopian in nature at all--allegorical yes, but not dystopian. Here are a few titles that fall under the dystopian genre:

1984

I Am Legend (was just out at theatres--great book--doesn't end like movie)

Anthem

The Giver

Brave New World

Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)

 

For an allegorical title what about a play like The Crucible by Arthur Miller?

 

For Shakespeare, I'd choose MacBeth or A Midsummer Night's Dream or other Shakespearean play--R&J is sometimes read in middle/J.R. high these days--and is well, boring. You could use R&J to compare to something like Westside Story, though.

 

The Princess and the Goblin may be too juvenile for this age group (thinking of my own ds & what he'd think about the title)--maybe something by Le Guin or even Stoker's Dracula. I'd also would consider Shelley's Frankenstein in the same fantasy genre. Oh, T.H. White's Once & Future King (King Arthur)

 

The list quite extensive for a school Literature class--amounting to one selection every 2.25 weeks-- not taking into consideration that some of the works need at least 3-6 weeks to get the most out of them analytically.

 

If it were me, I'd use Norton Anthologies to cover most & select 6-8 titles to read throughout the year IF this is an honors or higher class, if not, then 4-5 unabridged and the rest from Norton, another anthology, or a textbook.

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I really like your list, but what do I know, I'm a math teacher. ;) My ds 14 read Dante this year in his Great Books class (they used the 3-volume Sayers translation) and I was surprised how much he enjoyed it. It took them about 6 weeks to read it all and write a few essays, though, if I remember correctly. You'll have to move quickly to get through your whole list.

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Echoing earlier comments:

 

My husband recently read The Decameron and would agree that it is bawdy. Whether this is appropriate may depend upon your students.

 

A couple of people on the old board highly recommended Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Book I of Faerie Queen which is published by Canon Press. Considering your already lengthy list, this might be an option to consider. The book is well annotated and should appeal to students. My son and I will be using it in the weeks ahead. (He is rounding out his school year with The Prince; Richard II; King Henry IV, part one; and Fierce Wars.)

 

Jane

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Throughout the year: Bullfinch Mythology & Sound and Sense Poetry

 

Greek tragedy: I prefer Antigone to Oedipus for high school work (but Oedipus is the standard selection)

 

Latin Epic: If they haven't already covered them, I'd do the Iliad or the Odyssey instead.

 

English epic poem: Dante is Italian, not English, Beowulf is the only significant English epic poem I can think of other than FQ which you have below.(I think the whole Divine Comedy would be more than could be done well in the time you have, given everything else you're planning to cover.)

 

Medieval Allegory (1350)-The Decameron is very bawdy, perhaps the (not completely free of s*xual allusions, but not directly bawdy) Romaunt of the Rose.

 

16th Cent-(epic poem) Spenser Faere Queen - this is quite long, but it breaks out well into episodes.

 

Elizabethan: For this level, I would do Lear or Hamlet

1700 (satire/parody) Swift's Gullivers Travels - a fun choice!

 

Romantics: I would do the poems of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Blake - they were much more significant and more representative than Frankenstein, imho.

 

Gothic Novel- Poe's stuff is all short stories, but that might be best since you have so many wonderful things to cover!

 

Naturalism- I'd be more inclined to do Portrait of a Lady or, for a different style of naturalism, a Jack London (I assume they've already done Red Badge of Courage) Though, honestly, I think it would be even better to do Realism instead and read Middlemarch.

 

Modernist-F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

 

Post Modernist-I wouldn't classify Asimov or Bradley as postmodern - Fahrenheit 451 is definitely dystopian, and Asimov is sci-fi. I'm having trouble thinking of a postmodern work I would hand to a teen... perhaps Waiting for Godot? Beckett, Vonnegut, Nabokov, Reed, and Marquez are the big names which come to mind.

 

Fantasy I think the Princess and the Goblin is a lovely book, but both a little young for high school and a little short on stuff to actually study from it. LOTR has the most potential for real study, imho - and, despite its length, many students have probably already read it for pleasure.

 

 

Allegory/Dystopia Animal Farm, 1984, or the Brave New World are all, imho, better selections. For something quite modern, you could do The Plot Against America or Jo Walton's amazing Farthing (there are sequels, but the books stand on their own.)

 

Just a few comments on your comments :)

 

I was a little stumped on Naturalism as my students read Red Badge and Call of the Wild this year. Maybe Realism is the place to go next. I'm not familiar with Middlemarch, so I'll have to put it on my reading list.

 

As far as post-modernist, I'm not sure why the sci fi guys are included on the list that I picked up. I found it really difficult to pick appropriate books (for the current class I'm teaching) once I hit the 1930/40's. The language, subject matter.....you know what I mean! I'll have to check out your suggestions because hopefully they will work better than the stuff I was finding!!! I do have Animal Farm so I may start with that.

 

As you can probably tell from the list as a whole, I'm working around a few selections many of the kids have already read: Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf etc. Thanks so much for the help! I'm copying all of the replies to a file so I can head to the library!

Holly

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I also do not consider Lord of the Flies Dystopian in nature at all--allegorical yes, but not dystopian. Here are a few titles that fall under the dystopian genre:

1984

I Am Legend (was just out at theatres--great book--doesn't end like movie)

Anthem

The Giver

Brave New World

Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)

I am going to check out your dystopian suggestions. I didn't really enjoy I Am Legend in the movies. I'm glad to hear the book is different. I've never made it through Anthem :D I guess I'll try again:D:D.

 

For an allegorical title what about a play like The Crucible by Arthur Miller?

Good idea!

For Shakespeare, I'd choose MacBeth or A Midsummer Night's Dream or other Shakespearean play--R&J is sometimes read in middle/J.R. high these days--and is well, boring. You could use R&J to compare to something like Westside Story, though.

I didn't know that it was used in jr. hi now.

 

The Princess and the Goblin may be too juvenile for this age group (thinking of my own ds & what he'd think about the title)--maybe something by Le Guin or even Stoker's Dracula. I'd also would consider Shelley's Frankenstein in the same fantasy genre. Oh, T.H. White's Once & Future King (King Arthur)

Yes-maybe too juvenile. I thought it might provide some reading relief after a long year of heavy reads. Are any of LeGuin's appropriate for younger high schoolers?

 

The list quite extensive for a school Literature class--amounting to one selection every 2.25 weeks-- not taking into consideration that some of the works need at least 3-6 weeks to get the most out of them analytically.

 

Yes! I totally agree. When I sit down and read all of them over the summer, I'll end up cutting some shorter or cutting them out totally. I also find the "appropriateness" factor does the cutting for me.

If it were me, I'd use Norton Anthologies to cover most & select 6-8 titles to read throughout the year IF this is an honors or higher class, if not, then 4-5 unabridged and the rest from Norton, another anthology, or a textbook.

 

Good idea about Norton!

Thanks for your great ideas and suggestions.

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I really like your list, but what do I know, I'm a math teacher. ;) My ds 14 read Dante this year in his Great Books class (they used the 3-volume Sayers translation) and I was surprised how much he enjoyed it. It took them about 6 weeks to read it all and write a few essays, though, if I remember correctly. You'll have to move quickly to get through your whole list.

 

Yes-we will have to move pretty fast. I bet the list will be pared down (quite a bit) by next fall. Thanks Maverick!

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Echoing earlier comments:

 

My husband recently read The Decameron and would agree that it is bawdy. Whether this is appropriate may depend upon your students.

 

A couple of people on the old board highly recommended Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Book I of Faerie Queen which is published by Canon Press. Considering your already lengthy list, this might be an option to consider. The book is well annotated and should appeal to students. My son and I will be using it in the weeks ahead. (He is rounding out his school year with The Prince; Richard II; King Henry IV, part one; and Fierce Wars.)

 

Jane

 

Oops-Scratch the Decameron. Thanks for the warning!

 

I'm going to check out the Canon Press book! Thanks for the recommendation.

Holly

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Elizabethan: For this level, I would do Lear or Hamlet

1700 (satire/parody) Swift's Gullivers Travels - a fun choice!

...

Allegory/Dystopia Animal Farm, 1984, or the Brave New World are all, imho, better selections. For something quite modern, you could do The Plot Against America or Jo Walton's amazing Farthing (there are sequels, but the books stand on their own.)

 

If not Gulliver's Travels - at least Swift's letter on solving the "Irish Problem"!!!!

 

And I heartily agree on Animal Farm!!!!

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I'm not sure what postmodernist books really are, but if you want the 1940-1950's period, what about Alas, Babylon and Fail Safe? Both deal with nuclear bomb stuff. (Oh, that's terribly clear...)

Also, Lord of the Flies would fit here--it's supposed to be a societal allegory set in an apocalyptic world. Nice to contrast the romantic ideal of the noble savage, with the idea that the natural man must be tamed.

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A couple of people on the old board highly recommended Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Book I of Faerie Queen which is published by Canon Press. Considering your already lengthy list, this might be an option to consider. The book is well annotated and should appeal to students. My son and I will be using it in the weeks ahead.

 

A second vote for Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves. My teen enjoyed it very much.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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  • 4 weeks later...
Background: I teach a high school literature class. This year we've studied American literature. I'm thinking about teaching a literature class next year where the theme is literature of the western world showcasing literary time periods.

 

So, I am anxious for all of your great feedback. I haven't read many of these works yet and would be happy to substitute things that you think might work better.

 

Throughout the year: Bullfinch Mythology & Sound and Sense Poetry

 

Greek tragedy: Oedipus the King

Latin Epic: Aenid (Maybe only portions of this?)

English epic poem: Dante's Divine Comedy

Medieval Allegory (1350)-Decameron

16th Cent-(epic poem) Spenser Faere Queen

Elizabethan: Shankespeare Romeo & Juliet and sonnets

1700 (satire/parody) Swift's Gullivers Travels

Romantics Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Gothic Novel-Poe Fall of the House of Usher & the Telltale Heart

Naturalism-The House of Mirth-Edith Wharton

Modernist-F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Post Modernist-Asimov, Bradbury

Fantasy Mac Donald-The Princess and the Goblin

Allegory/Dystopia Lord of the Flies

 

Which important periods did I miss? (PS-Some of the kids have already read Chaucer and Beowulf so I did not include those.)

 

Sorry for not seeing the PM until now!!!!

 

I LOVE Sound & Sense for poetry! I just isn't organized into time periods, and a lot of what you want to cover would be better done with a lot of poetry and less longer works.

 

For time's sake, I'd probably go with Edith Hamilton's Mythology instead of Bullfinch's. :-/

 

I liked Antigone better than Oedipus Rex, but I think your choice is the right one there! If you could squeeze in The Odyssey, that'd be great. I'd be tempted to replace The Aeneid with that because it's so much more widely known today.

 

I'd keep the Divine Comedy but skip the Decameron and do Beowulf instead--you really get your English epic in there. :-)

 

The Faerie Queene got on my nerves by the end, to be honest, and I have a high tolerance for early lit of various types. I'd be more tempted to do a couple of Spenser's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight instead.

 

Frankenstein is significant more in its impact upon speculative fiction than as a great work of literature....but it's just about a sure-fire hit with the kids. I'd be more inclined to do Jane Eyre for romantics! The Sorrows of Young Werther or Faust are really the START of the romantic movement, and by pulling in more non-English lit, you'd make it more truly Western there, too.

 

What about Don Quixote? That's a CRITICAL Western work! Or a Candide or a Victor Hugo novel or Tartuffe--something from 18th or 19th-c France.

 

For fantasy--The Princess and Goblin is really a little kid book. Alice in Wonderland is, too, but Alice is HUGELY referenced in past and present culture and literature--you can't be literate in English without reading that.

 

Middlemarch is really essential for the 19th century. If you have time, a shorter work of Dickens' would be good.

 

There's a good chance everyone had read Romeo and Juliet. I'd go for one of the other tragedies or comedies, instead.

 

Naturalism-The House of Mirth-Edith Wharton -- I think Wharton is a realist. (So is Henry James, another option...) She's fabulous, just not a neturalist. For naturalism, try something by Crane. The Open Boat (short story) gives you enough of a feel of it without forcing you through too much--really, naturalism ranged from awful (in terms of reading experience, now writing quality) to ridiculous (the strong man always dies!). So you don't want to wallow much in that!

 

Try to put in Mother Courage and Her Children for modernism. Also, what about Sartre for existentialism?

 

I back up the others on the dystopian comments. Brave New World deals with a lot of sex and has a very negative portrayal of religion, FWIW. 1984 also has some sex. Both are misogynist to some degree, BNW more so. Add Fahrenheit 451 to that list!

 

Asimov and Bradbury weren't actually modernists. Asimov also wasn't a very good writer. They both wrote scifi. I'd go with Hemingway--a short story--for modernism, as well as some of the other regionalist American short stories. Vonnegut or Pynchon would be good for postmodernism.

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Throughout the year: Bullfinch Mythology & Sound and Sense Poetry

 

Greek tragedy: Oedipus the King

Latin Epic: Aenid (Maybe only portions of this?)

English epic poem: Dante's Divine Comedy

Medieval Allegory (1350)-Decameron

16th Cent-(epic poem) Spenser Faere Queen

Elizabethan: Shankespeare Romeo & Juliet and sonnets

1700 (satire/parody) Swift's Gullivers Travels

Romantics Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Gothic Novel-Poe Fall of the House of Usher & the Telltale Heart

Naturalism-The House of Mirth-Edith Wharton

Modernist-F.Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Post Modernist-Asimov, Bradbury

Fantasy Mac Donald-The Princess and the Goblin

Allegory/Dystopia Lord of the Flies

 

Which important periods did I miss? (PS-Some of the kids have already read Chaucer and Beowulf so I did not include those.)

 

Suggestions:

-Hamilton's Mythology instead of Bulfinch

-Antigone instead of Oedipus Rex

-The Odyssey instead of the Aeneid, unless you want an epic that was written in Latin rather than Greek

-Maybe read just Inferno or Purgatorio instead of the whole of the Divine Comedy? It seems to me that otherwise that's going to eat up a quarter of the school year.

-Perhaps Macbeth or Hamlet instead of Romeo & Juliet

-I adore Swift, but perhaps also consider Voltaire's Candide. It was the highlight of my sophomore year.

-Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse 5 instead of Asimov and Bradbury

-The fantasy category seems superfluous to me.

JMO

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