The English language and literature program at Episcopal is devoted to studying the most influential works of the writers who, by their power and originality, have formed the character of great literature through the ages.
EHS wants its students to develop a lifelong love of reading and encourages participation in class discussions to give the student confidence in their own responses and intellectual discoveries.
2008–09 Courses:
English 1
English 2
Honors English 2
English 3
AP English 3
English 4
AP English 4
Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
African-American Literature
Creative Writing
Ethics and Aesthetics
Film and Literature
Hard-boiled Detective Fiction
Jazz Age: Literature and Culture
Leadership in Literature
Nobel Authors
Shakespeare
Southern Literature and Ethics
English 5
Faculty:
J. Mason New, M.A., Chair
Anne T. Carver, M.H.S. and M.A.T.
Craig M. Cetrulo, M.A.
Richard S. Dixon, Ph.D. and M.A.
W. Perry Epes III ’65, M.F.A. and M.A.
William E. Hannum, Ph.D. and M.A.
Dan. P. Hatfield
Timothy C. Jaeger, M.S.
J. Whittelsey Morgan, M.A.T.
Bradley C. Park, M.A.T.
Molly W. Pugh, M.A.
Robert J. Rogers, Jr. ’79, M.F.A.
John M. Walker, Jr., M.A.L.S.
English 1
Fundamentals of grammar, syntax, rhetoric, and punctuation, as well as basic literary forms (essay, short story, drama, novel, and poetry) are covered. Students are guided through the process of composing a short research essay. Texts include Perrine's Sound and Sense (poetry and short story anthologies); Homer's Odyssey; Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye; and a Shakespeare play. (one credit)
English 2
Students review fundamentals of the English language, write essays of a personal and critical nature, and prepare a research paper. Students read and trace themes through broad divisions of drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, such as Shakespeare's Macbeth, Sophocles' Antigone, Fugard’s “Master Harold” . . . and the boys, and Dante's Inferno. (one credit)
Honors English 2
Follows English 2 with additional reading and writing requirements. By department permission. (one credit)
English 3
A survey of American literature. Autobiographical writing and readings from nineteenth- century literature comprise the first semester's work. Advanced expository writing and readings from twentieth-century fiction comprise the second semester. Texts include Othello,Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and poems or stories by Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Hemingway, and others. (one credit)
AP English 3
Students are prepared for the Advanced Placement Examination in English Language and Composition. By department permission. (one credit)
English 4
This one-semester course emphasizes critical thinking and writing in response to British writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton. A central feature of this course is a study of Greek and Elizabethan tragic drama including the Oedipuscycle and Hamlet, and a research paper based on this study. (one-half credit)
AP English 4
Prepares student for AP Exam in English Literature and Composition, emphasizing critical thinking and writing in response to writers from Chaucer to T. S. Eliot. Study of tragic drama, including Oedipus the King and Hamlet, with a research paper. Independent critical interpretation is fostered by parallel reading of novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and To the Lighthouse. By department invitation. (one-half credit)
Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
By application to Folger Shakespeare Library. By department permission.
African-American Literature
This course examines the most influential artists in the African-American literary tradition from its folkloric and musical origins to date. Students study the highly influential stylistic accomplishments of the most admired and enduring African-American writers. There is also an introduction to spirituals, blues, and folktales. Writers include Langston Hughes and selections from the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature. (one-half credit)
Creative Writing
This one-semester course is designed to familiarize students with fundamentals of writing fiction and/or poetry, using classic and contemporary works as models that afford students a better understanding of the creative process. Through regular writing assignments, students can demonstrate their writing skills as well as experiment with various strategies. Students must provide a writing sample. By department permission. (one-half credit)
Ethics and Aesthetics
This course centers on evaluating the relationship of literary beauty to philosophic truth. Is the truth, even the so-called ugly truth, beautiful when it is seen in its proper perspective? The course does not provide formulaic answers to this type of question but wrestles with them, using Aristotle's Poetics and Ethics and drawing on a host of philosophers and literary works in the place and function of case studies in ethics. Meets English or theology requirement. (one-half credit)
Film and Literature
This course examines the translation of literature into film. Students will analyze texts and films to discover the techniques behind both art forms. Classroom discussion will examine how film and literature handle the expression of, and differ in their ability to capture, emotional and physical states; how authors and directors employ similar methods of characterization and plot development; and will attempt to identify techniques that belong solely to the author and those that belong solely to the director. (one-half credit)
Hard-boiled Detective Fiction
This course will look at the development of the crime-solving genre in fiction. The students will use novels, screenplays, and films to study the development of the detective character. Emphasis will be on American fascination with the detective (Phillip Marlowe, Kinsey Millhone) as anti-hero. Authors may include Poe, Doyle, Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard, and Raymond Chandler, among others. (one-half credit)
Jazz Age: Literature and Culture
This course is a study of the literature and culture of America in the 1920s. The arts in America flourished as never before or since in the years between the end of World War I and the stock market crash of 1929. This course will study representative work from such writers as Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Damon Runyon, Langston Hughes, and others. (one-half credit)
Leadership in Literature
This course examines principles of leadership contained in various literary texts. The course is constructed in three parts — philosophy of leadership: an examination of the ethics that good leaders possess; literary action: an examination of the leader's actions within a fictional text (along with historic examples); rhetoric: an examination of the language used by various leaders to persuade and convince. (one-half credit)
Nobel Authors
This course exposes students to Nobel prize–winning authors from around the world. By reading these novels, poems, and stories, the student will experience the authors' views of the world in which they live and write; gain a clearer understanding of the reasons for the universal recognition of the Prize; and will be introduced, through literature, to the words and cultures of other peoples. (one-half credit)
Shakespeare
This course allows students who have developed an appreciation of Shakespeare's work the opportunity to delve into his genius for an entire semester. The goal is a fuller understanding of his entire body of work, including his development as an artist. Special emphasis is given to Elizabethan Jacobean staging, and students are encouraged to "play director." Plays likely to be covered are part I of Henry VI, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, andThe Tempest. (one-half credit)
Southern Literature and Ethics
This course will explore how modern Southern literature achieved a new realism and ethical importance by turning away from sentimental escapism and glorification of the past, to meditate truthfully on the South's social history. Modern Southern writers also played a crucial role in framing twentieth-century critical standards in ethical and aesthetic terms. Meets English or theology requirements. (one-half credit)
English 5
This course is designed as a small-group or individual seminar, yearlong for students who have already completed English 4, or as a semester course in place of an English 4 second-semester elective, or as a semester elective in addition to English 4 or 4 AP if desired. The course can be adapted for regular or Advanced Placement credit. The teacher consults with individual students to arrange a reading list of suitable literary works that will enable them to pursue particular interests of their own. Emphasis on development of skills in vocabulary, grammar, and composition continues. (one-half credit for each semester)