AP Literature Classical Foundations Exam Questions

1. Some critics feel that Beowulf is a text that glorifies the culture of the Norse, while others believe that it is a stern condemnation of their value structure. Make an argument that one of these ideas is correct, or argue for a nuanced middle ground.

2. Other than Antigone, which work best exemplifies the idea of catharsis? Why?

3. Discuss feminist criticism. What are its major objections with traditional literature?

4. Contrast the attitude towards pride demonstrated in The Iliad, The Ramayana, and Beowulf.

5. How does Beowulf illustrate the Norse concepts of Wyrd and lof?

6. How do the three parables we read illustrate the message of the New Testament? (not on the test)

7. The Qu’ran argues for submission to God, as does the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament.  Compare and contrast these messages.

8. How are the Greek concepts of arete and the Hindu concept of dharma similar? How do they differ?

9.  Why is knowledge of the Bible essential to understanding of Western culture? Make an argument that provides at least one literary example.

10. Explain the significance of the argument in the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayan that one must reject over-reliance on the senses and desires.

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Ap Novel Choices Survey

Done

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Summer Reading for AP Literature

  • For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
  • The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
  • The Iliad
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Daisy Miller by Henry James

Don’t worry if you didn’t see this list. For some reason, the one on the Helena High web page didn’t get updated. Just make sure to have read something of value from one of the lists.

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Seniors: Some Parting Words From Uncle Walt

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body… .

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Or Oedipus, Maybe

“Nomore shall ye behold such sights of woe, deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see those ye should ne’er have seen; now blind to those whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know.”

“Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud,
Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.
Ah me, ah me! What spasms athwart me shoot,
What pangs of agonizing memory?”

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