AP English Literature and Composition

AP English Literature and Composition is designed to provide students with a college-level approach to reading, writing, and critical analysis in advance of the National Exam in May. Students will examine a wide range of genres and periods, ranging from Antiquity to the 21st Century, in order to consider how and why authors create meaning in various texts. They will read poetry, prose, drama and satire, as well as philosophical works and literary theory in order to provide insight into questions of textual production, authorship, theme, and symbolism. Students will be asked to consider how certain topics, such as identity, power, trust, love, oppression, isolation, and struggle are interpreted by authors in different cultures and time periods. Moreover, they will be encouraged to reflect upon how these universal ideas relate to their own lives. Through their writing assignments and projects (including a longer research paper), members of the class will get the opportunity to engage with broad questions by means of close analysis. In other words, they will use their interpretations of specific texts as a way to think about universal dilemmas.

View the College Board AP English Literature and Composition Course Description.