Essential Question:
How are European and Russian literatures both timeless and affected by historical events?
How are European and Russian literatures both timeless and affected by historical events?
Unit Goals & Objectives
Through partner, small group, and class discussions; writing exercises; independent reading and reasearch; projects; and presentations, students will be able to . . .
- identify the intrinsic qualities and the influence of historical context in works of literature.
- analyze the motives, qualities, and contradictions of various characters.
- describe the effect of narrative structure, pacing, and tone.
- offer insightful inferences regarding the themes of a text.
- use precise language.
- analyze how historical events influence literature.
- analyze how literary devices help convey theme.
Terms & Concepts
the absurd
allusion hero antihero monologue |
digression
fantasy mythology fate soliloquy |
irony
persona narrator reliability oxymoron contradiction |
repetition
verse blank verse iambic pentameter motive |
Reading List
Mythology
selections from Edith Hamilton's Mythology
Antigone
"The Bet" by Anton Chekhov
"No News From Auschwitz" by A.M. Rosenthal
"The Butterfly" by Pavel Friedmann
"All the Unburied Ones" & "I Am Not One Of Those Who Left" by Anna Akhmatova
"Typhoid Fever" excerpt from Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt
"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes
Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare
"Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare