English

"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” Franz Kafka

FORMS OF LITERATURE

Literature occurs in discrete forms across cultures and histories. This course introduces the three major forms of literature: prose, verse and drama. Students read texts from a variety of cultures and time periods, focusing on how formal elements–the building-blocks of literary expression–work together to shape meaning and convey unique perspectives on the world. By undertaking formal analysis, students perfect their critical vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and they learn to articulate thematic understandings of texts anchored in close-reading practices. Students practice the art of collaborative, open-ended discussion and write regularly, honing their ability to share literary-critical insights with clarity, substance, and nuance.
AMERICAN LITERARY MOVEMENTS

Literature arises as part of a larger cultural narrative. This narrative is often sequenced as a historical progression of beliefs known as “literary movements.” In English 210, students read key texts from the living American canon, develop an understanding of the characteristic features of each literary movement, and refine their study of form. Central to these texts, movements and forms is the recurrent question: What does it mean to be an American? In partnership with History & Social Sciences, students study the writers, scholars, activists, and dissidents who have articulated their answers to this question throughout American history. Students come to terms with the inclusionary and exclusionary tactics of each movement and explore how we can read with and against these tactics in forming our own understanding of Americanness. Movements include Colonial and Puritan writing, the Enlightenment, Transcendentalism, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, and Postmodernism. Daily discussion and regular writing assignments reinforce and build on the critical vocabulary from English 110. Students continue to practice longform writing as a process that includes drafting, peer workshopping, and revision, this time making arguments that situate literature within its historical and cultural context.
ADVANCED AMERICAN STUDIES

Literature and history develop within a larger cultural narrative. This narrative is often sequenced as a historical progression of beliefs, arising from the culture’s economics, politics, geography, religions, literature, music, visual arts, social institutions and popular culture. In keeping with the Humanities Department mission, students in this course develop an integrated understanding of historical, literary and cultural ideas to explore questions such as: What does it mean to be an American? How has the pursuit of freedom unfolded for diverse groups of Americans? What is the role and responsibility of citizens in an American republic? How does the larger cultural narrative inform our interpretation of historical and literary texts? Students learn in a double-period, co-taught, discussion-based format, emphasizing close reading of challenging texts and primary sources. Students demonstrate their knowledge through daily discussions to which all are expected to contribute, essays requiring analysis and synthesis, and in-class presentations. The major writing assignment of the course is a research essay on a topic of the student’s choosing.

This is a double-period class that provides two credits, one each in English and History & Social Sciences, for sophomore year.
RESEARCH SEMINAR: CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

In literature courses, students often read texts produced decades or centuries before they were born. This course invites students to turn their critical attention to works produced both in and for the present. Students delve into global literature from the past 40 years to discuss how these texts raise a mirror to the contemporary world, illuminating the diversity of our experiences and revealing deeper truths about individual freedom, human dignity and civic responsibility. The course introduces students to literary scholarship on these texts and supports them in crafting original arguments in dialogue with the ongoing debates. Through their investigations, students harness the power of contemporary literature not only to respond to the present, but also to imagine and create new and hopeful futures.
RESEARCH SEMINAR: LITERATURE AND AI

How can artificial intelligence help us understand what it means to be human? In this digital humanities research seminar, students use innovative, AI-based research methods to illuminate classic literary texts in new ways. At the same time, by reading and discussing literature that grappled with the prospect of synthetic beings long before AI was invented, they confront the profound ethical and philosophical questions that are reshaping our society in real time. The course follows the shared English 11 Research Seminar structure while differentiating itself through its use of AI tools for tasks such as pattern-tracking across large bodies of text. Students write a traditional research paper grounded in human-authored argumentation but supported by AI-assisted data-gathering, and the year culminates in creative, public-facing research projects that use AI tools to bring literary scholarship to life.
RESEARCH SEMINAR: WOMEN IN LITERATURE

Half the world identifies as female, yet much of what we read, watch, and study still centers on male experiences. This discussion-driven seminar invites students to flip that script by exploring intellectually provocative literature, drama, film, and cultural criticism by and about women. From plays that stage the silence imposed by gendered expectations to critical analysis of Barbie and the stereotypes that pervade reality TV, students investigate how stories shape and challenge the ways we see identity, power, and belonging. This course empowers students to find their voice, be bold, and explore how gender intersects with race, class, and sexuality in our society. Students create original research projects, sharpen their skills in discourse, and delve into textual topics of their choosing, all the while experiencing what it looks like when we shift perspective.
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE

Grade 11: Literary criticism keeps literature alive; texts evolve through scholarly conversations that interpret, intensify and interrogate their meanings. This advanced course empowers English students to join these conversations while simultaneously preparing them for the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Exam. Building on the skills acquired in 10th-grade English and history, the course begins with an accelerated introduction to the craft of research-based literary criticism, culminating in a midyear research paper on a text from the Anglophone canon. The second semester develops these skills through the introduction of more complex research methods, while simultaneously preparing students for the AP English Literature exam.

Grade 12: This year-long class is for students who plan to take the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition Exam. It is the equivalent of a first-year college English course. In a seminar format, students engage in a close study of verse, drama and prose. The course focuses heavily on timed, in-class writing assessments that ask students to formulate thematic arguments supported by close textual analysis s. Through analytical exercises, daily discussion and frequent writing, students explore a wide variety of classic and contemporary texts.
AMERICAN SHORT FICTION

This course explores contemporary American short fiction with a literary studies approach. Students explore a wealth of important pieces by a diverse selection of writers. Each week, students examine thematic pairings of short fiction with various critical methodologies (including gender studies, psychoanalytical criticism, formalism, new criticism, and biographical criticism). Students study and apply these critical methodologies through weekly roundtable discussions, presentations and written reflections. In examining these texts, students wrestle with current social issues and moral and ethical questions. In addition, students write analytical responses in the course of their study. Finally, they complete a passion project, which gives them the opportunity to explore a passion in greater depth while connecting that passion to the deeper research-based study of one text and social issue of their choosing. Passion projects have taken a number of different forms, from websites and films to short stories and artistic interpretations, and serve as a culminating assessment.
CREATIVE WRITING: PERSONAL NARRATIVE

This course explores and practices forms of non-fiction writing with an emphasis on personal narrative. Students start with the nuts and bolts of the writing craft, reading and discussing chapters from William Zinsser's On Writing Well in order to develop technique. Then, in workshops and small groups, students share and discuss their nonfiction works and the works of their peers in an atmosphere that is supportive and challenging. Exercising listening and response skills is an essential part of the democratic workshop practice. Students read and analyze the works of published authors and also watch video clips of acclaimed authors discussing the writing process. Students learn to think and read like writers and, in so doing, are exposed to writing as a culture. The course intends to spark students’ creative passions. Some of the themes and topics developed include self-portrait, personal statement, humor, the experience of nature, daily routine, travel, family and local culture.
CREATIVE WRITING: POETRY AND SHORT FICTION

This creative writing workshop asks students to engage in the artistic practice of poetry and short fiction writing. Students, through creative explorations in voice and framing, will explore varied techniques, forms and traditions available to the working writer. Students receive and offer feedback on their writing in a workshop setting and produce chapbooks that reflect their personal interests and knowledge of creative approaches. This workshop ascribes to the burgeoning idea within literary studies of creative practice as research; thus, students scrutinize their work as both process and product, a method of creative and critical discourse that fosters both the imaginative ingenuity of the writer and the elements by which their works have been ultimately constructed.
CREATIVE WRITING: SCREENWRITING

Students in this course study narration as a mode of thought and mode of writing through the genre of screenplays. By studying classic screenplays, students enhance their ability to read and understand the relationship between visual images and written/spoken language that is prevalent in much of our modern media. Students deepen this understanding by writing their own one-act screenplays. In exploring the process of screenwriting, students practice the art of storytelling and enhance their understanding of storytelling techniques such as character development, plotting and sequencing. The writing workshop is an important methodology of the class; students’ own work is at the center of discussion. Students also work in groups to create a short film from one of their screenplays.
DIGITAL NARRATIVE

It's tempting to think of digital technology as the enemy of literature. In her trailblazing study Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, the media scholar Janet H. Murray argues quite the opposite: the computer is “the child of print culture,” a powerful representational medium of its own that promises to continue the evolution of storytelling and “reshape the spectrum of narrative expression.” In this course, students think about how the unique affordances of digital technology (e.g. its ability to create an inhabitable virtual world, or its ability to invite the participation of the “player”) allow for different modes of storytelling. What kinds of stories can we tell using digital technology that we wouldn't have been able to tell as effectively using the linear medium of print? In particular, we focus our attention on critical analysis of video games, a medium that is culturally significant, aesthetically complex, yet not often subjected to deep analytical scrutiny. How do games work as narrative artifacts? How do they use their unique form to convey philosophical or political ideas – about identity, human nature, social structures, violence, etc.? How might we extract meaning and insight from what they allow us to do and where they allow us to be? In the latter part of the course, students put these questions and ideas into practice by writing and coding their own interactive fiction project using the platform Twine.
ECO-LITERATURE

Eco-Literature examines how narratives, both real and fictional, reveal the ecological interconnectedness of natural, technological, and human systems. The course follows explorers, humanitarians, and everyday people displaced from their ‘normal lives’ as they navigate unfamiliar or destabilized environments: astronauts contemplating Earth from orbit; survivors responding to disaster; and advocates shaping public action. Rather than focusing on environmental adventure alone, Eco-Literature interrogates how resilience, perception, and responsibility are constructed through language in moments of uncertainty and crisis. Students analyze how communication can clarify, distort, or mobilize understanding, especially when ethical stakes are high and information is incomplete. Through unique projects including humanitarian relief campaigns, examinations of nonhuman intelligence, and simulated disaster responses, students explore what it means to be a voice of environmental stewardship, asking: How can we use words to promote survival, trust, and collective action?
FILM THEORY AND METHOD

Over the past century, cinema arose as the dominant form of storytelling. This course explores the dominance of cinema through close attention to its history, its technical qualities and its thematic meanings. By discussing four major genres (Blockbuster, Experimental, Documentary and Animated) within units organized around dominant cinematic techniques (sound, cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing), students analyze film in order to generate arguments about what it means to be human. Students write short response papers in addition to two major writing projects: a film review; and, a research-based film analysis paper. Our guiding text is Jon Lewis’s Essential Cinema, and we read a wide variety of theoretical articles, including Laura Mulvey’s seminal “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” and excerpts from Gilberto Perez’s The Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium.
GRAPHIC NOVELS

If "a picture is worth a thousand words," what creative and intellectual opportunities arise when pictures and words work together? This course explores what makes the graphic novel a powerful form of storytelling and moral inquiry, examining how the fusion of image and text expresses human experience in ways that transcend the limits of either medium alone. Students encounter writers and artists who use the panel and the page to move us, challenge our preconceptions, and open windows into the experiences of others, using art (and sometimes text) to instill literary empathy. The course begins with a foundation in visual literacy and comics theory before moving into close analysis of how formal design—layout, color, line, and sequencing—shapes meaning across fiction, memoir, and nonfiction. In the latter half of the semester, students produce original or adapted graphic narratives that demonstrate how visual choices make arguments about identity, morality, and the world around us.
SCIENCE FICTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Science Fiction is the genre of ‘what ifs,’ of endless possibilities: What if we could change the past in order to change the future? What if we heeded, or failed to heed, the warnings of those who came before us? What forms of chaos might arise if we follow our curiosity? But the genre also creates unique opportunities to reflect on the choices we’ve made and the world we live in now. A discussion-based class, Science Fiction and Social Change brings students into contact with a wide variety of texts–including literature, film, music, and music videos–that grapple with these ‘what if’ scenarios and open up deep, philosophical dialogue. The course gives seniors the flexibility to choose the modes of assessment through which to demonstrate their understanding, including creative and critical approaches. Like the genre itself, it opens up a space to ask questions without clear answers.
VOICES FROM THE INSIDE

This course provides students with the means to think critically about an array of social issues related to mass incarceration. Through a study of fiction and non-fiction written from within and/or about prison, students explore various ways in which societies discipline their members, and how the values of society are reflected by their systems of discipline and rehabilitation. Students examine how race, class and gender relate to carceral systems by reading texts representing multiple voices and experiences. Throughout the course, students produce a variety of modes of writing–ranging from analysis, to reflection, to research–as they explore the enduring centrality of the prison.
LITERARY THEORY

How is meaning created? What is language? How does it work? What happens when it doesn’t? Through an exploration of these seemingly obvious questions, students discover that the functioning of language and the world are precarious, structural, encoded, hegemonic and beautiful. In their pursuit of method, students interrogate core thinkers from the past 3,000 years and learn how to adopt and evolve their approaches. Central to this capstone course is the production of a substantial research paper on a topic of the student’s choice from the position of one school of literary theory.

RE founder Paul Ransom, circa 1903

School Curriculum

English

FORMS OF LITERATURE

AMERICAN LITERARY MOVEMENTS

ADVANCED AMERICAN STUDIES

RESEARCH SEMINAR: CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

RESEARCH SEMINAR: LITERATURE AND AI

RESEARCH SEMINAR: WOMEN IN LITERATURE

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE

AMERICAN SHORT FICTION

CREATIVE WRITING: PERSONAL NARRATIVE

CREATIVE WRITING: POETRY AND SHORT FICTION

CREATIVE WRITING: SCREENWRITING

DIGITAL NARRATIVE

ECO-LITERATURE

FILM THEORY AND METHOD

GRAPHIC NOVELS

SCIENCE FICTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

VOICES FROM THE INSIDE

LITERARY THEORY

Department Faculty

Select a School Level and Department

Middle School

Upper School

Accreditations and Memberships