Villains, Lovers, and Fools: An Introduction to Shakespearean Tragedy | English | Fulfills one-third 12th Grade English Requirement (Offered in Fall Term). What makes a villain truly terrifying? What drives a lover to ruin? What wisdom hides behind a fool’s laughter? In this course, students enter the world of Shakespeare’s tragic stage through close study of Othello , Macbeth , and Romeo and Juliet , three plays that together map the full terrain of human ambition, desire, and self-destruction. Through careful reading of Elizabethan English, student-led discussion, and analytical writing, students will move beyond surface-level moral judgments to grapple with the genuine complexity of Shakespeare’s characters and the social forces of gender, race, and class that shape their fates. By the end of Fall Term, students will have developed the critical vocabulary and literary confidence to read demanding texts on their own terms, and the self-awareness to recognize something of themselves in every hero, villain, and fool they encounter.
The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Literature | English | Fulfills one-third 12th Grade English Requirement (Offered in Winter Term). What does the legend of King Arthur reveal about the cultures that kept retelling it? This course traces the Arthurian tradition from its roots in the medieval imagination through its culmination in the Elizabethan era. Students work through seminal texts of the tradition — including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , The Alliterative Morte Arthure , Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot , and portions of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene — alongside film adaptations and selected secondary readings that illuminate the broader cultural and literary history of the legend. Throughout, the course situates each work in its historical moment, asking students to consider how ideals of chivalry, loyalty, honor, and political power were constructed, tested, and contested across centuries of storytelling. Students develop close reading, analytical writing, and discussion skills through sustained engagement with some of the most enduring narratives in the English literary tradition.
Greek Myth and Literature | English | Fulfills one-third 12th Grade English Requirement (Offered Fall & Winter Terms).
This course takes a literary approach to the mythology of the Ancient Greek world. Students will explore some of the most lasting and powerful narratives ever created: stories of the creation of the world, the fall of Troy, the travels of Odysseus, the sins of Oedipus, and the rage of Medea. These texts examine some of the most disturbing and violent of human experiences, as well as some of the most moving — encounters with community, family, war, death, and love. Students will explore the way in which these narratives have shaped the ethical and social codes that underpin Western culture, and devote attention to how these texts are reinterpreted by later authors. Through careful study of these works, students will develop and refine their reading, writing, speaking, and critical-thinking abilities, ultimately acquiring a deeper understanding of the legacy of Greek myth, literature, and culture in the modern world.
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