As a survey of American literature, this course explores how the United States has defined itself through its literature, film, and music following the cultural history of the country from the 17th century to the present. Students are introduced to literary essays, political documents, sermons, and slave narratives. The course focuses on advanced critical thinking and the further development of writing skills as well as a deeper understanding of the language of film.

Courses offered for the 2020-21 school year are:

The Vietnam War, which lasted twenty years from 1955-1975, played a significant role in the explosive 1960s. On the home front there were protests, riots, and assassinations, there were experiments with drugs and “free love,” and all the while, there were tens of thousands of Americans fighting and dying in a tiny, tropical, southeast Asian country ten thousand miles away. This seminar will look at the war stories that came out of that conflict, the literature and film that sprang from the ordeal of it (e.g., Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Herr’s Dispatches, and Stone’s Platoon).

This course explores how cities are designed and how their design impacts our lives. Literature of the city and theories of urban planning will be the lens used to examine the urban condition. We will cover fictional texts such as Teju Cole’s Open City and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, as well as the work of urban theorists such as Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. The nearby city will serve as our laboratory where we will travel to explore physical space and the people who live and shape the urban community. Ms. Davis will be a regular contributor to the class.

One Semester
½ credit
We are all familiar with the prominent portrayals of evil in popular media, but what happens when we choose to let the devil take the wheel? In this course we explore the other side of the story (playing the devil’s advocate, if you will) and problematize one-dimensional depictions of temptation and temptor alike. This is not to say that we will focus solely on the Christian models of devilish behavior. Tricksters, witches, and perhaps even a supervillain or two will feature in the course of our study, and together we can assess whether they truly deserve their wicked reputations, or whether we are just projecting our own mischief onto handy scapegoats. Come for the corruption, stay for the philosophy as we pick and choose among the stories of Cain, The Gospel of Loki, Mephistopheles of Faust fame, and several takes on Lucifer, the Devil Himself.

One Semester
½ credit
What do we think of as being the true essence of consciousness? We say that some of our closer relatives in the animal kingdom share similar levels of sentience with us, we note other species with tool use or something apparently approximate to language, and we fantasize almost constantly about the opinions and feelings of inanimate objects. (Toy Story, anyone?) We talk about these things in terms of cognitive, social, or emotional intelligence, but in this class we are going to be more forthcoming about what we are actually talking about: the boundaries of personhood. After all, what do we say about someone that has gone too far in ascribing human qualities to non-humans: that they anthropomorphize - that they make this nonhuman too human. But so many of our stories exploring these concepts are precisely about intelligences that are inhuman (curiously often they are inhumane as well) that it’s worth considering why we are so fascinated. Therefore, students are invited to explore alternative intelligences: organic, inorganic, and several things in between, and the role such entities play in our understanding of what makes a person a person. Expect to see animals with opinions, killer computers, exasperated aliens, cyborgs with issues, plants bent on world domination, and maybe even some story characters that have had about enough of being the pawns of careless writers.

Students analyze the rise of detective fiction from the source through the Golden Age, matching wits with such classic detectives as Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey, etc. Readings include detective works by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Sayers. For the final project students create a presentation on a recent work of detective fiction. Films include Hitchcock’s classic Shadow of a Doubt as well as episodes of the popular contemporary Holmes television series, Sherlock.

One Semester
½ credit
Ever heard someone say after seeing a film, “Yeah, but I preferred the book.” Well, this seminar will explore three novels and their film adaptations: E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. The first takes us to Italy in the early 20th century with a “proper young woman” on vacation from England; the second explores the nature of faith; and the third wonders what humanhood is in a materialistic society.

One Semester
½ credit
This course will explore relevant issues of social justice and how we can address them and raise awareness through theater and other forms of performance. The early part of the course will focus on researching social issues and learning the basic elements of theater. In the latter part, the class will work as a collective to create performance pieces and an original theater piece to share with the larger school community. Mr. Fodrie, Ms. Jagodowski, and Mr. Wade will be regular contributors to the class.