AP English Literature and Composition

About the Course

Learn how to understand and evaluate works of fiction, poetry, and drama from various periods and cultures. You’ll read literary works and write essays to explain and support your analysis of them.

Skills You'll Learn

Read a text closely and draw conclusions from details
Identify the techniques used by an author and their effects
Develop an interpretation of a text
Present your interpretation and make an argument for it in writing

Equivalency and Prerequisites

College Course Equivalent

An introductory college-level literature course

Recommended Prerequisites

None

Exam Date

Wed, May 3, 2023,
8 AM Local

AP English Literature and Composition Exam

This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP English Literature and Composition Exam.
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About the Units

The course content outlined below is organized into commonly taught units of study that provide one possible sequence for the course. Your teacher may choose to organize the course content differently based on local priorities and preferences.

Course Content

Unit 1: Short Fiction I

You’ll learn critical reading skills to help you critically read, interpret, and analyze prose.

Topics may include:

Interpreting the role of character in fiction
Identifying and interpreting setting
Understanding how a story’s structure affects interpretations
Understanding and interpreting a narrator’s perspective
Reading texts literally and figuratively
The basics of literary analysis

Unit 2: Poetry I

You’ll continue your critical reading exploration in poetry and learn to analyze similar elements within a wide variety of poems.

Topics may include:

Identifying characters in poetry
Understanding and interpreting meaning in poetic structure
Analyzing word choice to find meaning
Identifying techniques like contrast, simile, metaphor, and alliteration

Unit 3: Longer Fiction or Drama I

You’ll observe how the literary techniques you’ve explored in prior units unfold over the course of longer works and analyze how characters develop and interact over the course of a narrative.

Topics may include:

Interpreting character description and perspective
Character evolution throughout a narrative
Conflict and plot development
Interpreting symbolism
Identifying evidence and supporting literary arguments

Unit 4: Short Fiction II

You’ll delve deeper into the roles of character and conflict in fiction and explore how a narrator’s perspective can color storytelling.

Topics may include:

Protagonists, antagonists, character relationships, and conflict
Character interactions with setting and its significance
Archetypes in literature
Types of narration like stream of consciousness
Narrative distance, tone, and perspective

Unit 5: Poetry II

You’ll study different forms of poetry and examine how structure and figurative language can create and impact meaning.

Topics may include:

Traits of closed and open structures in poetry
Use of techniques like imagery and hyperbole
Types of comparisons in poetry including personification and allusion
Identifying and interpreting extended metaphors

Unit 6: Longer Fiction or Drama II

You’ll analyze how various literary techniques play out and shift over the course of longer works, charting how characters change (or don’t) as they’re affected by developments in the plot.

Topics may include:

Interpreting foil characters
Understanding and interpreting character motives
Understanding nonlinear narrative structures like flashbacks and foreshadowing
The effect of narrative tone and bias on reading
Characters as symbols, metaphors, and archetypes
Developing literary arguments within a broader context of works

Unit 7: Short Fiction III

You’ll examine how works of fiction interact with and comment on the world around them and the society their authors live or lived in.

Topics may include:

Sudden and more gradual change in characters
Epiphany as a driver of plot
Relationships between characters and groups
Character interactions with settings
The significance of the pacing of a narrative
Setting as a symbol
Interpreting texts in their historical and societal contexts

Unit 8: Poetry III

You’ll develop your interpretation of poetry further by examining how contrasts, ambiguous language, and various other techniques can add layers of meaning to a poetic work.

Topics may include:

Looking at punctuation and structural patterns
Interpreting juxtaposition, paradox, and irony
How ambiguity can allow for various interpretations
Identifying symbols, conceits, and allusions
Learning proper attribution and citation in literary analysis

Unit 9: Longer Fiction or Drama III

You’ll consider longer narratives in the context of the various techniques and interpretations you’ve learned in prior units and build a nuanced analysis of each complex work as a whole.

Topics may include:

Looking at a character’s response to the resolution of a narrative
Suspense, resolution, and plot development
Narrative inconsistencies and contrasting perspectives

AP English Literature and Composition

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