AP English Syllabus/Assignments
Our business here is to be Utopian, to make vivid and credible, if we can, first this facet and then that, of an imaginary whole and happy world. H.G. WELLS, A Modern Utopia
My students will start off the school year with the summer assignment to read 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and write an essay regarding the implications of those dystopian novels on the world they know today. This assignment is meant to set the foundation for a curriculum based on the utopian/dystopian topic. A description of these two novels, as well as some of the other book titles that may be used during the course of this year are listed below:
Also, several of the following movies may be used to support this theme like “Matrix,” “Blade Runner,” “Metropolis,”to show dystopian societies and “Dead Poets Society” to illustrate conformity. I would also like to incorporate Thoughtcrime, the literary game found on Western Michigan University’s Literary Worlds website. Other short stories, nonfiction articles and Internet sites will also be used to support research and writing for this theme. I will also continue to use the textbook Everything’s an Argument by Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, and Walters to teach students how language and rhetoric is used visually, verbally and in writing to persuade audiences in preparation for the AP exam and for college.
- 1984 by George Orwell After a limited nuclear war in the 1950's, the superpower of Oceania is run as a brutal police state under the control of the Party (the other two superpowers are Eurasia and Eastasia). Freedom of speech is ruthlessly suppressed, torture is rife, spies are everywhere and "Big Brother is watching you!" The technique of "newspeak" is being developed to further facilitate thought control, and "doublethink" is commonplace in state slogans like "Freedom is Slavery." The methods of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia are taken to new depths in this dystopian novel.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley This is a stark, dystopic warning against the perils of unchecked technology and government control. In the distant future, the conditions of life are superficially idyllic, except that the universal happiness is mainly a product of elaborate sports and entertainment programs and a happiness pill called "soma." Controlled genetics ensures that sufficient dull-witted drones are produced to perform the less agreeable manual jobs, as well as in-vitro conditioning of individuals for specific tasks and personality types.
- Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach This book was the first of the ecotopia sub-genre. In a future independent American Northwest, the free-thinking, creative and energetic citizens make selective use of technology to optimize the social, medical and ecological health of their society.
- Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman This is a feminist utopia about an isolated society composed solely of Aryan women who reproduce by asexual parthenogenesis. It is a clean, peaceful, prosperous land and in every way superiour to the male-dominated status quo elsewhere. The book posits the idea that gender is purely a social construct.
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood In the fictional Republic of Gilead, the dramatic decrease of birthrates makes the society's fundamental goal to control reproduction. Written from Offrend's first person point of view, the novel adds to the reader's connection with a Handmaid, her tormented feelings, and hatred toward this new totalitarian regime. Gilead is based on the precept that giving birth is women's religious and moral duty and those who do not fulfill it will be sent to hell (aka the Colonies) where the "unwomen" are left to die.
- Feed by M.T. Anderson This dystopian novel of the cyberpunk genre is a dark satire about corporate power, consumerism, information technology, and data mining in our society. The characters lives completely revolve around advertising and the knowledge and will that the Feed not only provides them with information on demand, but manipulates their decision-making.
- Utopia by Sir Thomas More, Part II This fascinating and imaginative work is based on accounts of the accounts of the New World from the Vespucci expeditions. This work defines the utopian genre.
- “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut This dystopian science fiction short story demonstrates the dangers of governmental control and ignorance through showing what a true equality could lead to.
- Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy A young aristocratic Bostonian falls asleep under hypnosis in 1887 and awakens in Boston of the year 2000, a city of beauty and grace and undreamed-of prosperity. In 2000, there are no rich and no poor, but a happy, healthy population of equals. A national government runs all industry much more efficiently than the old private enterprise system and everyone is given an equal monthly allowance which they can spend on housing, food or travel. There are no armed forces, no police force, no lawyers, bankers, or salesmen.
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Set in the (then) near-future of 1990, the book is narrated by the protagonist Alex in a mixture of English and "Nadsat", an invented street language. Alex is the leader of a gang of dissolute "droogs" who roam the night looking for opportunities for "ultraviolence" in a lawless and unruly city Once caught for his crimes, Alex is subject to brutal aversion therapy, after which he falls easy victim to some of his own one-time prey. Throughout the book, Burgess questions the high-tech, corrupt, authoritarian society, rife with violence.
Also, several of the following movies may be used to support this theme like “Matrix,” “Blade Runner,” “Metropolis,”to show dystopian societies and “Dead Poets Society” to illustrate conformity. I would also like to incorporate Thoughtcrime, the literary game found on Western Michigan University’s Literary Worlds website. Other short stories, nonfiction articles and Internet sites will also be used to support research and writing for this theme. I will also continue to use the textbook Everything’s an Argument by Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, and Walters to teach students how language and rhetoric is used visually, verbally and in writing to persuade audiences in preparation for the AP exam and for college.