Phillips Exeter Academy

English

American Political Literature
English

Seniors participating in the spring term Washington Intern Program may elect to enroll in this English seminar which focuses on political literature and American...

Literature and the Land
English

In this course, students will participate in outdoor excursions that prompt them to contemplate their relationship to the natural world. Drawing on an array of classical and contemporary environmental writers, including Edward Abbey, Gretchen Legler, Henry...

Shakespeare in Stratford
English

This course is the centerpiece of the Stratford Program. Students attend performances of the plays produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace. The reading list is designed around the offerings of the...

Beats, Rhymes and Narrative
English

Hip-hop music’s influence on popular culture, literature, entertainment and politics is undeniable. This course will examine the relationship between hip-hop and storytelling. Course texts will consist of weekly listening sessions, scholarly articles on...

Literature in Stratford
English

One of the advantages of the Stratford Program is the opportunity to study literature in the very places that inform the settings, themes, characters and concerns of the texts. The specific topic for this course varies from year to year and is dependent upon...

Literature of California
English

In his apocalyptic novel, The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West’s main character surmises that most people “had come to California to die.” The state’s literary inheritance, however, is alive and well, and this class will launch forays...

Art of Protest
English

From the grittiness of rap to the density of civil disobedience, this course examines a variety of literary-artistic protests. The approach is multicultural and interdisciplinary. Possibilities include poets of color, gay playwrights, feminist novelists and...

Queer Literature
English

This course explores the experience and self-definition of several major queer writers – in fiction, poetry and memoir. The course is intended for any students who want to deepen their understanding of queer identity as expressed in literature and film....

Children’s Literature
English

How did you come to be the reader you are? What ideas about the world and its characters did you gain from the stories you read as a child? Why did you read and reread some books? How did illustrations work with words to create the stories you saw and read?...

Spring in Love
English

Literary lovers, it seems, break the rules, exploring the boundaries set by family, society, religion or law. What can we learn from their defiance? Why does such love so often end in disaster? Is love socially constructed or universal? We will explore these...