Your assignments this summer are as follows:

1)  Look over the literary terms listed below.  Define those terms with which you are unfamiliar or uncertain.  You may find it helpful to type in “literary terms dictionary” if you go to the internet as a resource; otherwise, use a dictionary of literary terms (M.H. Abrams Glossary of Literary Terms is one of the best).  You will be quizzed on your knowledge of these terms during the first five weeks of the course.

2)  Read through Mortimer Adler’s essay, “How to Mark a Book.”  I strongly encourage you to practice his suggestions on the required summer novel.  Read actively looking for things that puzzle you, disturb you, or resonate with you.  Mark them.  Ask questions in the margins and underline things that interest you.    If you’re using a book you don’t own, use post-it notes to create a response log as you read. You can also use folded blank paper or cardboard as a bookmark to take notes on along the way. Link to essay: http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~pinsky/mark_a_book.htm

3)  Purchase (recommended) or borrow a copy of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. As you read Adler’s “How to Mark a Book”, please write your responses to the following questions on separate pieces of paper.  I will collect this on the first day of school.  We will be thoroughly analyzing Beloved during the first quarter, so ensure you have a copy for class. Beloved is a difficult text on many levels. I have significantly shortened the summer reading assignment to give students more time to focus on the novel.

A.  Identify and explain Morrison’s style. What makes her writing unique? Find three passages that best illustrate her style. Consider diction, syntax, and tone and write a paragraph about Morrison’s style.   You do not have to copy every word of the passages. Use an ellipsis and cite the page numbers.  

B.  What are some illuminating quotes or passages? (Select 4). Paraphrase them—DON’T QUOTE— and cite page numbers.  State in one  paragraph that discusses all selected passages the reason(s) you think these quotes or passages are illuminating to the meaning of the work as a whole.

C.  What themes are presented in the novel?  Remember that a theme is a statement (a complete sentence)—not a word.  Briefly explain why you’ve selected these themes.  (3 to 5 themes are sufficient.)

4) REFLECTION: Review Beloved and prepare to discuss.  When you’ve finished the novel, please review your markings, notes/comments, questions, and so on.

 Ask yourself, and briefly respond to the questions below:

• How does the point-of-view impact character development, tone, and audience perception of the protagonist?  (You are the audience.)
• How does Morrison use setting to develop character and theme?
• How do Morrison’s plot choices impact the themes presented in the novel?

Keep your responses to these questions SEPARATE FROM your responses to questions A-C from assignment #3. These will serve as discussion notes.

* Be prepared to write a timed essay response on the novel within the first five weeks of school. You will be able to use these notes.

5) (Optional but recommended) If you have little knowledge of Greek/Roman mythology, obtain a copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (from the library or bookstore) and familiarize yourself with the Greek and Roman gods, goddesses, and myths covered.  Many works of literature assume knowledge of this subject. Also, be sure to look up any biblical allusions when reading Beloved. Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Like a Professor is another great resource if you are looking to get a head start on literary analysis.

Literary Terms — Drama/Fiction

• Antagonist (the most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist)/Protagonist (the central character of the story who initiates the main action of the story)
• Archetype
• Bildungsroman
• Catharsis (a purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience)
• Character (dynamic, flat, round, static, stock)
• Comedy/Tragedy
• Comic relief
• Conflict
• Crisis
• Deus ex machina (literally, “a god from a machine” – the phrase now refers to any forced or improbable device in plot resolution)
• Episodic
• Epistolary Novel
• Farce
• Frame Tale
• Foil
• Hubris (overweening pride, outrageous behavior, or the insolence that leads to ruin)
• Monologue/Dialogue/Soliloquy/Aside
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Point-of-view
  first-person/third-person
  (limited) omniscient
• Prologue/Epilogue
• Plot (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Denouement)
• Tragic Flaw
• Unreliable Narrator

Literary Terms — Common elements

• Allusion
• Apostrophe
• Diction
• Epiphany
• Euphemism
• Flashback
• Foreshadowing
• Hyperbole
• Irony
  dramatic (the reader/audience knows information characters do not)
  verbal (the meaning intended by the speaker differs from the meaning understood by at least one other character – note: sarcasm is a subtype of verbal irony, not the same thing)
  situational (or cosmic) (where fate or destiny appears to play a cruel joke on human hopes)
•  Metaphor
• Mood
• Prose
• Satire
• Symbol
• Theme
• Tone
• Understatement
• Verse

Literary Terms – Poetry

• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Blank verse
• Cacophony/euphony
• Caesura
• Conceit
• Connotation/denotation
• Consonance
• Couplet
• Dirge
• Dramatic monologue
• Elegy
• End-stopped line/enjambment
• Epic
• Foot
• Free verse
• Iamb
• Image
• Imagery
• In medias res (literally, “in the middle of things” – a narrative device of beginning a story midway in the events it depicts, usually at an exciting or significant moment)
• Lyric
• Meter
• Octave
• Ode
• Pentameter
• Quatrain
• Refrain
• Repetition
• Rhyme:
  end/internal
  masculine
  feminine
  exact (a full rhyme in which the sounds following the initial letters of the words are identical in sound (follow & hollow, go & slow)
   slant (a rhyme in which the final consonant sounds are the same but the vowel sounds are different (letter & litter, bone & bean)
  eye (or visual) (rhyme in which the spelling of the words appears alike but the pronunciations differ (laughter & daughter, idea & flea)
• Scansion
• Sonnet (English & Italian)
• Stanza
• Stress