Unit+6+20th+Century

Unit 6 European Literature: 20th Century

Overview:

 * Through the close reading of “dystopian” works such as //Pygmalion//, //1984//, and //Rhinoceros//, students consider the problems inherent in fashioning a perfect society or perfect individual. At the same time, they also consider how authors of the twentieth century affirm the possibility of beauty and meaning—for instance, in Eliot’s //Four Quartets//, Federico García Lorca’s //Poem of the Deep Song//, or Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush.” To gain a deeper appreciation of the role of beauty in twentieth-century literature, they appraise connections between poetry and music: for instance, the relation of Eliot’s //Four Quartets// to a Beethoven quartet, and the relation of Federico García Lorca’s poetry to the rhythms of flamenco music. Examining how authors rework classical stories and themes (e.g., in Anouilh’s //Antigone// or Camus’ //Caligula//), students ponder how historical context affects an enduring story or theme. Students complete research papers in which they consult literary criticism and historical materials. They engage in discussions resembling college seminars, where they pursue focused questions in depth over the course of one or two class sessions. At the close of the unit, students have the opportunity to research the literature they have read over the course of the year and the concepts they have studied.

Focus Standards:

 * **RL.11-12.3:** Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).**RL.11-12.6:** Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
 * **RL.11-12.10:** By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
 * **RI.11-12.5:** Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
 * **W.11-12.7:** Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
 * **W.11-12.8:** Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
 * **SL.11-12.1(a-d):** Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on //grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues,// building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
 * **L.11-12.6:** Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Suggested Student Objectives:

 * Read works of the twentieth century, focusing on the earlier decades.
 * Consider aspects of modernism (such as anxiety) in their historical context.
 * Explain both the breakdown and affirmation of form and meaning in modernist literature.
 * Analyze dystopian literature, considering the problems inherent in fashioning a perfect person or society.
 * Consider how poems in this unit reflect on poetry itself and its possibilities.
 * Write research papers in which they consult literary criticism and historical materials.
 * Consider the implications of modern versions of classical works.
 * Examine the musical allusions and their meanings in twentieth-century poetical works in seminars.
 * Pursue focused questions in depth over the course of one or two class sessions.
 * Understand absurdist and existential philosophy as it applies to literature and theatre.
 * Research the literature they have read over the course of the year and the concepts they have studied.

Literary Texts

Novels
 * Brave New World Aldous Huxley
 * 1984 George Orwell
 * The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
 * Lord of the Flies William Golding
 * Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
 * V for Vendetta Alan Moore
 * Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
 * Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro

Short story
 * "Harrison Bergeron" Kurt Vonnegut

Drama
 * "The Tempest" Shakespeare (Paired with Brave New World)
 * Antigone (Jean Anouilh)
 * Mother Courage and Her Children (Albert Camus)
 * King Lear (Shakespeare
 * Hamlet (Shakespeare)

Poetry  Informational Texts  Speech
 * "The Darkling Thrush" (Thomas Hardy)
 * "The Second Coming" (William Butler Yeats)
 * Poem of the Deep Song (Frederico Garcia Lorca)
 * Various TS Eliot Poems
 * Four Quartets/The Wasteland
 * "Conversation with a Stone" Wislawa Szymborska)
 * "Suicide in the Trenches" (Siegfried Sassoon)
 * "Counter-Attack" (Siegfried Sassoon)
 * "The Old Huntsman" (Siegfried Sassoon)
 * "Dreamers" (Siegfried Sassoon)
 * "The Daffodil Murderer" (Siegfried Sassoon)
 * //Thus Spoke Zarathustra //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (Nietzsche)
 * //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Letters to a Young Poet //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (Rainer Maria Rilke)
 * //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">The Courage to Be //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (Paul Tillich)
 * //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">The Ego and the Id //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (Freud)
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif;">"Their Finest Hour" (House of Commons, June 18, 1940) (Winston Churchill) (EA)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif;">Essays <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> Art, Music, and Media <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">"The Crisis of the Mind" (Paul Valery)
 * <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">"The Fallacy of Success" (G.K. Chesterton) (E)
 * <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Pablo Picasso, //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Reading at at Table //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (1934)
 * <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Henri Matisse, //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Blue Nude //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (1952)
 * <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Georges Brawue, //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;">Candlestick and Playing Cards on a Table //<span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms',sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 1.5;"> (1910)
 * Joan Miro, // The Potato // (1928)
 * Kurt Schwitters, // Untitled // (Oval Construction) (1925)
 * Piet Mondrian, // Composition No. III, // (1921, repainted 1925)
 * Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op, 132 (1825)
 * Flamenco guitar music (e.g., Carlos Montoya, Paco Pena)
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">*Gattaca
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">*V for Vendetta
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Children of Men
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Island
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Matrix (good pairing with Brave New World)
 * <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">The Serenity (good with BNW - medicating society and the consequences)