AP Lit Agenda - Frankenstein - That English Teacher

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?"
-Paradise Lost, X, 743-745

How do we determine which traditions are worth keeping and which must be jettisoned for the sake of progress, and how do the old and the new overlap in the meantime?

Understandings:
Students will understand that...

When we don't take responsibility for our actions, we can impact others, possibly even on a global level.
Victor's lack of compassion for his creation causes the monster to seek revenge and cuts it off from any love or compassion it might have felt.
Scientific advancement can help us learn and prolong our lives, but when it clashes with moral issues and compromises our principles and our humanity, it is harmful.
This novel offers no answer to the question of the relationship between creator and creation; it can be a seen as metaphor for man's relationship to God, in which case, God is indifferent at best and cruel at worst. The novel does serve as a springboard to discuss such issues.
The relationship between nature and nurture is complex and remains the focus of debate as research shows both to be important in determining various aspects of humanity.

Essential Questions:

What consequences do we face when we don't take responsibility for our actions?
Can individuals transform society?
How can scientific advancement and exploration be both good and bad?
What happens when our ideals are realized?
What is the relationship between nature and nurture? Which is more important?
What is the tension between reason and intuition?
What is the ethical relationship between creator and creation?
In what ways can imagination and inspiration unleash the best and worst in man?
How do writers structure their work to reflect their message?
How is the feminist perspective demonstrated in Romanticism?

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Reading Schedule (ADJUSTED)

Frankenstein Reading Schedule (four parts)

Letters – Chapter 5 (pages 5-36): Primary Blog Post by Saturday, November 14th at 11:59PM AND 2 Secondary Blog Posts by Monday, November 16 at 11:59PM

Chapters 6 – 12 (pages 37-71): Primary Blog Post by Friday, November 20th at 11:59PM AND 2 Secondary Blog Posts by Sunday, November 22 at 11:59PM

Chapters 13 – 19 (pages 72-105): Primary Blog Post by Friday, December 4th at 11:59PM AND 2 Secondary Blog Posts by Sunday, December 6th at 11:59PM

Chapters 20 – 24 (pages 106 – 143): Primary Blog Post by Friday, December 11th at 11:59PM AND 2 Secondary Blog Posts by Sunday, December 13th at 11:59PM

Proposed Assignment Due Dates - subject to change based upon instructor's whimsy and class assimilation of literary content :-)

IGNORE SCHEDULE BELOW
(FOR REFERENCE ONLY)

1. Primary Blog Post Intro and Letters 1-4 - by Wednesday 11/11
-Secondary Blog Posts - by Friday Night! 11/13

2. Primary Blog Post Chs 1-3 - by Sunday 11/15
-Secondary Blog Posts - by Tuesday Night! 11/17

3. Primary Blog Post Chs 5-10 - by Friday 11/2
-Secondary Blog Posts - by Sunday Night! 11/4

4. Critical Essay Analysis # 1 (Turnitin 11:59pm) - Wednesday 11/7

5. Primary Blog Post Chs 11-16 - by Friday 11/9
-Secondary Blog Posts - by Sunday Night! 11/11

6. Critical Essay Analysis # 2 (Turnitin 11:59pm) - Wednesday 11/14

7. Primary Blog Post Chs 17-24 -by Friday 11/16
-Secondary Blog Posts - by Sunday Night! 11/18

8. Formal Harkness Discussion - Tuesday 11/20

9. Critical Essay Analysis # 3 (Turnitin 11:59pm) - Wednesday 11/21

10. Harkness Listening Evaluation due in class - Mon 11/

11. Frankenstein Literature Review Paper (Turnitin 11:59pm) - Wednesday 11/28

12. Frankenstein MWDS (Turnitin 11:59pm) - Sunday 11/

Daily Agenda

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Please view and consider:

The Heart of the Matter from americanacad on Vimeo.

Strunk & White: The Elements of Style

click on the book cover

This is a link to a classic writing refence book used in colleges and high schools to support higher level writing. Please read and use whenever you are inventing and composing a writing assignment and you have a question about grammar or mechanics.

Your Responsibilities During This Unit

->keep to the Frankenstein reading schedule
->as passages are introduced, prepare for MC Quizzes and Timed Essays
->complete the Frankenstein Study Guide Questions
->complete the Franky Mini-Research Project
->read through each of the resource links below
                                            ***
->read a critical essay of your choice related to Mary Shelley and/or Frankenstein and write a Critical Essay Analysis (2 essay analyses total)
                                            ***
->upon completion of both literary works, compose and write Literary Critique (5-10 pages)
                                            ***
->ONGOING-Vocabulary Take Home Quizzes due EVERY Wednesday

Downloadables and Resources

Unit Specific Handouts and Media Links

Click on Ada to explore "pen names"

In a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Philosophy Talk radio show hosts and Stanford philosophers Ken Taylor and Josh Landy were joined by Persis Drell, university provost and former dean of the School of Engineering, in a conversation about the responsibility of scientists to weigh the impact of their inventions.

In this event recording, Stanford faculty discuss Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, on the 200th anniversary of its publication. Panelists present the genesis of the book, cultural and media iconography, social issues of otherness, artificial intelligence, bioengineering and legal perspectives on personhood and creation.

"The Raft of the Medusa" by Theodore Gericault

"Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich

"Liberty Leading the People" by Delacroix

"Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon" by Caspar David Friedrich

"The Fighting Temeraire" by J.M.W. Turner

Click the link above to watch a short bio about Mary Shelley from Biography.com

Click the image above to go to a FASCINATING series of lectures, articles, scientific journals that Stanford University has gathered to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Click on the image above to see the video clip of Frankenstein's Monster as audiences in 1931 would have first seen him.

"From biotech to climate change, advances in technology raise significant moral questions. To engage responsibly, our next generation of scientists need training in the arts and ethics." Click the image above to read, "STEAM not STEM: Why Scientists Need Arts Training."

Click the image above to read, "Man as God" from NPR's The Week's Best Stories from NPR Books.

Click the image above to go to The Paris Review's story, "Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's Own Hand."

Click the image above to read "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein" from The New Yorker Magazine

Click on the Creature's face to go to a list of topics tracked in the text of Frankenstein collected by Stuart Curran of UPenn.

Click the image above to read The New York Times' article, "Facebook's Frankenstein Moment."

Dr. Sparky Sweets AKA Thug Notes (Trigger Warning!) - Frankenstein

Click on the image above to watch an SNL skit starring Helen Mirren as Mary Shelley.

Click on the image above to go to PhilosophyTalk.org and listen to brief audio discussion of the philosophical themes within Frankenstein.

Click the image above to read a Wikipedia entry for the X-Files episode, "The Post-Modern Prometheus".

->E-text of Frankenstein (1818)

->List of Critical Essays COMPREHENSIVE
please click on Critical Commentary

->Frankenstein in Pop Culture - Wikipedia

Click on the image above for a history and explanation of Phrenology.

romanticism_v_realism.pdf
File Size:	64 kb
File Type:	pdf

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?" -Paradise Lost, X, 743-745

How do we determine which traditions are worth keeping and which must be jettisoned for the sake of progress, and how do the old and the new overlap in the meantime?

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. ​- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Reading Schedule (ADJUSTED)

Proposed Assignment Due Dates - subject to change based upon instructor's whimsy and class assimilation of literary content :-)

IGNORE SCHEDULE BELOW ​(FOR REFERENCE ONLY)

Daily Agenda

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Please view and consider:

Strunk & White: The Elements of Style

Your Responsibilities During This Unit

Downloadables and Resources

Unit Specific Handouts and Media Links

Dr. Sparky Sweets AKA Thug Notes (Trigger Warning!) - Frankenstein

->E-text of Frankenstein (1818)

->Commentary, Background and Allusions

->Prometheus Myth

﻿->The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

->The Victorian Web

->Disease and the Industrial Revolution

->BBC History-Victorian Medicine

->Public Health in the 19th Century

->List of Critical Essays *COMPREHENSIVE* please click on Critical Commentary

->Frankenstein in Pop Culture - Wikipedia

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge

Professor Courtright Lecture Parts 1 to 4

Professor Courtright Lecture Parts 5 to 7

Frankenstein Document Resources

Frankenstein Assignments

Generic Handouts and Media Links

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?"
-Paradise Lost, X, 743-745

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

IGNORE SCHEDULE BELOW
(FOR REFERENCE ONLY)

->The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

->List of Critical Essays COMPREHENSIVE
please click on Critical Commentary