Modern Literature

OFFERED 2023-2024

  • Time: Tuesdays, 1:45 – 3:15 pm
  • Tuition:
    • Seminar with writing tutorial: $75 per month (10 months, August through May)
    • Seminar only: $60 per month (10 months, August through May)
  • Location: Signal Mountain, Tennessee
  • Prerequisites: Writing II or equivalent writing skills; Also, because the ideas covered in Modern History and Literature need to be understood in light of the ideas of the previous historical eras, students must be able to demonstrate familiarity with ancient and medieval ideas before taking Modern History and/or Modern Literature.
  • Grades: 11-12 only; Students in the Humane Letters Diploma Program should take Moderns in their senior year
  • Pairing: You can pair this course with Modern History
  • Description: Through close reading of key works of modern literature (1500-1950), students deepen their understanding of the ideas that created modern culture – and did much to destroy it.
  • Assessment:
    • All: Students must complete all readings and daily-work/commonplacing as well as oral exams.
    • Writing tutorial only: Each semester, students write two essays and complete two other written pieces and one semester project. (Students in both history and literature courses only create one project per semester.) At the conclusion of each semester, students participate in Defense Day by giving a brief presentation on one of their essays and responding to questions from the audience.
  • Books Needed – FINAL BOOK LIST WILL BE POSTED SHORTLY – PLEASE CHECK BACK. THANKS! Books will be similar to or the same as those below: (Hard copies are required; recommended editions/translations are listed below)
    • Shakespeare, Hamlet (Recommended ISBN: 9781586172619, Ignatius)
    • Shakespeare, King Lear (Recommended ISBN: 9781586171377, Ignatius)
    • Shakespeare, The Tempest (Recommended ISBN: 978-0743482837, Folger)
    • Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (Recommended ISBN: 9780679420293, Pevear-Volokhonsky translation)
    • Lewis, That Hideous Strength (ISBN: 978-0743234924)
    • Enlightenment / Romantic Era: any novel by Jane Austen OR Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (Recommended ASIN: B008HJ1LHW)
    • Victorian Era: Dickens, Bleak House (Recommended ISBN: 978-0199536313 Oxford) OR Gaskell, North and South (Recommended ISBN: 978-0140434248, Penguin)
    • Dystopian movement: Huxley, Brave New World (Recommended ISBN: 978-0060850524, Harper) OR Orwell, 1984 (Recommended ISBN: 978-0451524935, Signet)
    • OPTIONAL (but fun!): Choose EITHER Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit OR Sayers, Gaudy Night