The senior English program offers students two options. Each requires close reading, critical thinking, and clear presentation of the student's views. Both courses emphasize skills that will ensure a successful transition to the demands of college reading and writing. The English requirement may be satisfied only by the options described below. No more than one may be elected.

2023-0 Advanced Placement English IV: In Search of Self—Tragic and Comic Visions

This course pursues philosophical implications of the question asked at the beginning of Hamlet: “Who’s there?” Through classical, modern, and contemporary works, we investigate ways in which great writers explore the elemental search for meaning and identity. We accompany characters as they struggle to define themselves within the contexts of their worlds and consider the relevance of their struggle to ours. Readings come from such writers as Homer (The Iliad), Shakespeare (Hamlet), Austen (Pride and Prejudice), Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway), Kafka (The Metamorphosis), and Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) with a variety of poems that pertain to themes from the major works. The course prepares students for an Advanced Placement English exam.