Intro to Literary Theory

Comic from XKCD:


AP English Lit is mainly a survey of British (and some European) literature.  What that means is that we will be engaging in literary criticism about major works of literature from England.  The course is a "survey" because it covers select works of literature from England and those works are selected from the most influential and periods of British lit.


The term "literary criticism" is somewhat harder to define.  Google tells me that it is "The art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of literary works."  Which is true, but doesn't capture the complexity of the field.


The Purdue "Online Writing Lab" (OWL) provides a more complete overview  of literary theory at this link.  We will be using some of these approaches to analyze the works that we will be reading in AP Lit.


A brief timeline (from OWL) of the major fields of literary theory can be found inside this post.

What's the difference between Lit and Lang?

One of the questions we get most in the English department is "what's the difference between AP English Literature and Composition and AP English Language and Composition?


The short answer is that AP Lit focuses mainly on analyzing fiction and drama, and that AP Lang focuses mainly on analyzing non-fiction and on making effective arguments.


The longer answer comes in when you ask about the AP English exams and what the difference is between the AP English exams and the exams for almost every other subject?