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Reading with Tim (our second year!)

Literature of Retellings 

(Summer reading - start the Lewis first 100 pages over the summer) 

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis with Cupid and Psyche Myth

The literature of the story and space  

Mythology, poetry and sacred writings 

Linda Sue Park A Single Shard (children’s literature) 

Dave the Potter poetry (Slavery and literature // pottery and poverty)

John Steinbeck The Pearl

The literature of recovery/text loss

Optional: opportunity to work with Mrs Walsh and terra cotta 

Optional: Worcester Art Museum is free October 13th (we are off) - can see ancient pieces

The King Must Die by Mary Renault 

Paired with Theseus Myth (Green’s Tales of Greek Heroes)

The literature of the macabre, gothic (spooky season // saints) 

Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” (+ one more example)

The Complete Short stories by Flannery O’Connor (The violent bear it away // Wise Blood)

Optional: Viewing of Poe short stories at JMAC November 12

The literature of place  

Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksandr Afanasyev 

A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

The Cherry Orchard or Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov 

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card 

The literature of the English master(s) retold 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare 

Performance of Hamlet (JMAC on April 14th) 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Grendel by John Gardner

Beowulf (ed. Heaney) 

Optional: performance of Hamlet at JMAC

Of Saints (optional)

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Twain)

Saint Joan (George Bernard Shaw)

When retellings collide (optional)

John Myers Myers Silverlock

Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes 

Optional idea for writer’s teas - rewrite or retelling 2x during the year 

Calendar: 

Readings: 

History with Jackie Penny

Early American history 

Text: American Origins (volume 2)

Spring semester 2025

February 27

Reading due: Chapter 29

Question: 1

In-class we will be discussing chapters 25-26 // partial lecture

March 6

Reading due: Chapter 30

Questions: 1, 4, 9

In-class we will be discussing chapter 31

March 13

Reading due: Chapter 32

Questions:

March 20 

March 27

April 3

April 10

May 1

May 8

May 15

May 22

May 29

2025 classes 

[To be added]

Second Term (Spring 2025) proposed trips:

American Antiquarian Society 

Reading with Tim

 Reading List for American Literature class for 2024-2025

Library List: https://holden.cwmars.org/MyAccount/MyList/13619

Text: Writing New England: An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present (WNE) ed. by A. Delbanco (can get on used market too) Amazon link

Pre-American roots 

• 9/9, 9/16, John Bunyan one edition here The Pilgrim’s Progress 
• 9/23, Indigenous Writers (mostly Nipmuc and Wampanoag) reference From Dawnland Voices pages 374-375, 423-424, 435-438 packet “Chief Powhatan's Address to Captain John Smith” pages 5-6 “Big Mouth, Onondaga Chief to De la Barre, Governor of Canada”(from Great American speeches for young) pages 7-8 packet 
• 9/30, 10/7, Pocahontas by Joseph Bruchac
  

Seventeenth century

• 9/23, William Bradford (selections - take out of Humanitas) Of Plymouth Plantation selection on page 139-154 (no page 143, is timeline) - email 
  
• 10/21, John Winthrop (in WNE) Model of Christian Charity and Letter to His Wife p. 3 p. 259
• 10/21, Anne Bradstreet  (in WNE) Poetry:  Before the Birth of One of her Children p. 115, --(will email copies of following): The Prologue, The Author to her Book, The Flesh and the Spirit, To My Dear and Loving Husband, Upon the Burning of Our House 
• 10/28, Mary Rowlandson A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson (library?)
• 11/4, 11/18, Elizabeth George Speare here Witch of Blackbird Pond (library?)
• 11/25, Lydia Maria Child Selections from: Hobomok (supplied) 

Eighteenth century 

• 12/2, Olaudah Equiano Interesting Narrative (library?)
  
• 12/9, Benjamin Franklin Autobiography (library?)
• 12/16, William Apess (in WNE) Eulogy on King Philip (selection) p. 346
• 12/16, Phillis Wheatley Poetry: On being brought from Africa to America, On the Death of a young And Lady of Five Years of Age, Letter to John Thornton (finish Ben Franklin Autobiography and Writer's tea)

Revolution and First Fruits 

• January 13 and January 27: Jean Lee Latham Carry on, Mr. Bowditch

• February 3: George Washington “First Inaugural Address” (Living Book press - pdf will be provided) and “Observe Good Faith and Justice towards all Nations”
  
  
• February 3: Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin excerpt 
• February 10: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetry “Jewish Cemetery,” “Hiawatha,” “Evangeline” “Wreck of Hesperus” and “the Village Blacksmith" (Harp & Laurel)

• February 24, March 3 and March 10: James Fennimore Cooper Selection from Leatherstocking Tales (eg Last of the Mohicans). 
  
   
• March 17: Ralph Waldo Emerson (in WNE) from Nature + poems: Earth-Song and Fable (from Boston History book) or selections from his Essays 
  
  
• March 17: Henry David Thoreau Walden selections
  
  
• March 24: Washington Irving Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow
  
  
• March 24, March 31, April 7, April 28: Louisa May Alcott Eight Cousins
  
  
• May 5:  Nathaniel Hawthorne Twice Told Tales or/with “Young Goodman Brown”
  
  
• May 5/12: Herman Melville “I and my Chimney” (TBD)

Planned Dates (Mondays 12:45-2:15 in the Fall; in the Spring term 2:30-4): 

September 9, 16, 23, 30

October 7, 21, 28

November 4, 18, 25

December 2, 9, 16

Monday holidays, 10/14, 11/11 could be field trip dates (if open)

January 13, 27

February 3, 10, 24

March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

April 7, 28

May 5, 12 (snow date)

Monday holiday/Field trip dates: 1/20, 2/17, 4/14 and possible End of Year wrap up Lunch May 12th or 19th.