The Upper School

English Department Course Descriptions

The English Department of Trinity School believes that reading and writing are the core enterprises that make possible all intellectual growth and exploration. With that belief in mind, we employ a relatively simple pedagogical model: we ask our students to read important literature of gradually increasing complexity and depth; we discuss these texts together in a way that teaches our charges how to dig for understanding and interpretive meaning; and we ask our students to practice various modes of writing in order to learn to express themselves clearly and thoughtfully. In this way we provide our students the tools they need to explore the creative and intellectual possibilities of their world and to know themselves in it.

So we read, we discuss, we write, we read some more...and so we go. Every grade level makes its way through the year in the same manner. Every child in every class is challenged by what she is asked to read, nurtured by the collective conversation about it, and pushed to expand her particular writing capacities. Every year introduces and then reintroduces and then expands the same fundamental skills of reading and writing, reaching backward to years past and forward toward lessons to come. We teach in these dynamic loops of new idea anchored in familiar lesson because our students grow not linearly but exponentially. They grow like trees, deepening their solid foundational roots even as they grow sturdy trunks and learn to send out wild shoots that will blossom.

English 9

Students in Grade 9 are introduced to the art of close reading, the pains and pleasures of careful writing, the foundations of literature and the fundamentals of grammar. All ninth graders read Homer’s Odyssey, Shakespeare’s, Julius Caesar or Othello and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as additional texts chosen by individual teachers.

English 10

10th grade English refines and develops students’ skill in reading and writing through continued extensive study of various literary forms and genres, with particular focus on poetry. Core texts include either Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

English 11

English 11 students continue to develop the reading and writing skills practiced in previous years. Core texts include, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

Modern Asian Literature

East Asia’s one hundred and fifty year experience of political disintegration, revolution, forced modernization, cultural dislocation, fascism, communism, war, migration and, finally, a kind of provisional and uneasy prosperity has fostered rich literary traditions in China, Japan, Korea and the United States. Questions include the following: What is the role of the writer in a post-Confucian society? How does the modern Asian writer draw on indigenous and western traditions to create compelling modern works? How is the self configured and how is gender performed in modern Asian and Asian American texts? And is there such a thing as a transnational Asian modernity?

Conspiracy and Knowledge

This course will consider the literature of conspiracy in all its forms, from fiction about conspiracy by Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, and Muriel Spark to actual conspiracy theorists, both past and present. At its core, this class will ask you to think about how we produce narratives about the world from what we see.

Gothic Transgressions

The late British writer Angela Carter famously observed, “We live in Gothic times.” To be sure, after the strange and unsettling days of pandemic, we’re all too familiar with the sense of creeping terror the Gothic evokes. Indeed, at its heart, the Gothic has always been about contagion, from shape-shifting vampires prowling the alleys of London to arabesques metastasizing in ancient wallpaper. In the Gothic we confront our most basic and pervasive fears.

Shakespeare: Comedy and Tragedy

In this course, we will read Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear and Othello. All semester long, we will return to basic questions of Shakespearean genre. What do we mean by “comedy” and “tragedy,” and when do these genres overlap? Our discussions will cover intellectual contexts, Shakespeare’s language, Shakespeare’s theatrical practice and Shakespeare’s ever-renewed spirit of artistic innovation.

War and Peace

In this course, we will journey together through Tolstoy’s epic War and Peace and experience for ourselves the book that so many critics have called the greatest novel ever written.

Literature of Celebrity

In 1677, eminent philosopher Baruch Spinoza set out to quash the public’s fixation on celebrities once and for all. Celebrities, he explained, are forced to “direct [their] lives in such a way as to please the fancy of men, avoiding what they dislike and seeking what is pleasing to them.” Spinoza’s admonition notwithstanding, our fixation has not been quashed. This course will help us understand why. With help from novelists, sociologists, psychologists, and entertainment industry professionals, we will examine the questions: What’s it like to be famous? Why do we venerate celebrities and lust after fame? How is celebrity constructed? And how can you write literary works about celebrities without getting into legal trouble? Authors studied will include Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Ernest Becker, and Max Weber.

Jimmy and Friends

We will closely read and robustly discuss the word-world of James Baldwin and other bold writer-friends who share his love of words and the courage to use them. Through the particular lens Jimmy offers us—a deeply analytical perspective rooted in the African-American prophetic tradition—we will confront this central question: how, why and at what costs does an individual wrest a personal identity and voice out of the sometimes heavy burden of legacy?

The Bible as Literature

Beginning with a close reading of Genesis, we will approach the Bible as a thematically consistent extended narrative that rewards the kind of attention other literary masterpieces traditionally attract. While we will touch on archaeological, literary historical and religious contexts for our readings, our concern will be primarily with the words on the page. We will develop reading strategies unique to the Bible (analysis of repetition, sensitivity to textual lacunae, “type scenes,” etc.) even as we build on our already formidable array of close reading skills.

The Painted Word

According to the ancient maxim, “painting is silent poetry; poetry is painting with the gift of speech.” In this course, we’ll explore the (not always congenial) relationship between poetry and the visual arts through an exploration of a single masterpiece: Songs of Innocence and of Experience, by William Blake. A true revolutionary, Blake believed that words and images have the power to help liberate humanity from its “mind-forg’d manacles,” the self-imposed constraints--intellectual, social, political--on our true nature as creative and spiritual beings. Equally revolutionary was Blake’s artistic practice--what he termed “the Infernal Method”--involving the use of corrosive acids, colored ink and watercolor to produce works of great power and beauty. Though Songs will be our primary focus, we’ll take a look at earlier illuminated manuscripts of Europe and Asia, as well as attempts to couple images and words in the work of contemporary painters and poets. Student work will include both analytical and creative writing.

Studies in Shakespearean Genre

In this course, we will look at three works by Shakespeare in different genres: comedy, tragedy and romance. We will have discussions of the text and occasionally students will be called upon for dramatic interpretations of the text. Also, I will bring in outside readings including Machiavelli and Michel de Montaigne. Our plays this semester will be As You like It, Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest. We will discuss Shakespeare’s understanding of the genres comedy, tragedy and romance, and we will also be investigating Shakespeare’s use of the ancient world as a setting for his plays. If possible, we will attend a performance of a Shakespere play, depending upon what is available.

Englishes: History of Language and Dialect

Why is grammar difficult? Why do we often seem to speak differently from how we write? Why do we consider some kinds of English “correct” and others “incorrect”? In this course, we will think in depth about what the English language really is: where it comes from, how and why it has changed over time, and how its complicated history is reflected in every word we use in our daily lives. This course will begin with a linguistic history of English, in which we will learn about the dizzying variety of modes of expression that “English” contains--the dialects, creoles, and pidgins spoken by different groups both within this country and worldwide. We will then explore how authors use standard and nonstandard representation for various reasons— aesthetic, anthropological, moral, and political–and consider how literary representation intersects with class, race, and region. Authors will include: Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Burns, Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Zora Neale Hurston, Peter Carey, Junot Diaz, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Dickens

In this class we will luxuriate in two of Charles Dickens novels: Oliver Twist, written early in Dickens’ career, and Great Expectations, written at the height of Dickens’ artistic powers. Both novels are moving, skillfully written, funny and completely unforgettable. We will be discussing the mindset of the Victorians and the ways that each of these novels reflects Victorian obsessions. I think you will find these novels great fun to read and inspiring to think about. We will also discuss the life of Dickens the brilliant author, famous public speaker and notorious insomniac. Studying Victorian culture is a great way to enter into discussions of the literary culture of our own world.

Personal Narrative

In an age where artificial intelligence threatens to make human writing obsolete, we will immerse ourselves in the intimately and authentically human endeavor of reading and writing personal narrative. Sixteenth-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, commonly credited as the inventor of the personal essay, spoke to the universality of even the most mundane of human experience when he wrote: “Every man bears the whole form of the human condition.” After sampling forebearers of the genre in Greco-Roman antiquity and medieval Japan, we will study the birth of the personal essay in the European Renaissance, its cultivation in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England, and its ultimate flourishing in modern Asia and the Americas. We will anchor our focus on the specific genre of the personal essay, while we also explore an eclectic mix of personal narrative forms–mediations and memoirs, diatribes and diaries, lectures and letters, portraits and poems, reportage and reveries–as we examine ways writers speak of themselves and of their lives to their readers, to us. The works that we read (by Seneca, Shonagon, Montaigne, Turgenev, Lu Hsun, Woolf, Tanizaki, Orwell, Baldwin, Fuentes, Rich, Didion, Pemberton, and others) will serve both as subjects of analytical writing and as models in the creation of our own personal narratives.

Cultural Criticism

Who are the mysterious and powerful overlords who have the pleasure of reviewing books, movies, and albums for a living? I don’t know, but what I do know is how to teach you to do what they do. This course will teach you the basics of cultural criticism. You’ll learn how reviews are constructed, how to persuade others that certain cultural artifacts are worth paying attention to, and how to diagnose and describe broader trends in the arts.

Poetry Workshop

Want a structured environment in which to develop your poetry writing skills? Whether you’re an experienced creative writer or you’ve never written a poem in your life, this class will provide you with a space in which to learn about poetic techniques, to write, and, most importantly, to share and receive feedback on your work. At the end of this class, you will have produced 17 poems. You will also have experienced at least one workshop of your work, wherein everyone reads and critiques your work while you stay silent and take notes on their feedback.

Morrison and Faulkner

“Slavery and its aftermath remain the disaster coiled at the core of American history,” writes comparative literature scholar Phillip Weinstein. “Faulkner and Morrison are among our greatest writers for understanding this disaster…and how it seethes through the American experience of race relations.” And these two artists–progenitors of exquisitely beautiful and complicated narratives, Nobel laureates, are deeply concerned with the hunger of memory that clings to and shapes private and public life in this country–will be the focus of our work this semester. Above all, we will delve into their respective texts, “breaking the backs of words,” as Morrison puts it at the end of Beloved, coming face-to-face with the nation’s deepest caverns of history and identity, and working together to understand what Faulkner calls the “devious intricate channels of decorous ordering, which enemies as well as lovers know because it makes them both.” If that last sentence in particular somehow thrills you, then this is your class! In terms of writing, we will spend a good deal of time studying these authors’ respective craft (very similar and yet so distinct!) as we compose and workshop our own creative and analytical pieces. Longer texts will include Morrison’s Sula and Faulkner’s The Unvanquished. Shorter texts will include essays and short stories by both authors, including Faulkner’s “Go Down, Moses” and Morrison’s “Recitatif.”

Some Great (Not American) Novel(s)

If “Great American Novels” such as The Great Gatsby and Beloved can be thought to reflect the essential cultural values and anxieties of the America that produced them, can we come to similar conclusions using some truly seminal novels from other cultures? In this course, we will make our way to South America by way of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, to 19th century Russia via Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, to the France of Albert Camus’s The Stranger and, time permitting, to Jane Austen’s England as portrayed in Persuasion. Along the way we will invite some guest speakers (from within Trinity and without) to help us use these novels as spyglasses into some foreign literary worlds. Come ready to read some of the greatest (not American) novels ever written!

History Department Course Descriptions

The history program helps our students better understand the relationship of the past to the world in which they live by introducing them to a variety of historical narratives. In our history classes, students consider how the larger social, political, and economic significance of historical events affected the lives of the people about whom they are learning. Our students deepen their skills of analysis, inquiry, and verbal and written expression by reading primary sources and scholarly works, by writing analytical and response papers, and by participating in frequent seminar-style discussions. By connecting the past to the present, our students grasp the commonality of experience between themselves and the history they are studying. The students are therefore better able to strengthen their capacity for understanding the views of others and for fostering greater compassion for each other and those they may encounter.

Graduation requirement: three years of history (three credits): Global History I, Global History II, American History

History 9

Global History I is a full-year discussion-based course that investigates the history of Afro-Eurasia from the eleventh through the seventeenth centuries. The course will trace regions in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and their contact with the Americas. The course will focus on the economic, social, cultural, and political developments of these regions individually and through their interactions with each other.

History 10

Global History II (Nicknamed “MoGlo”) is a full-year survey that considers political, economic, and cultural exchanges in regions in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Islamic Empires from the seventeenth through the twentieth century. Over the course of the year, we will investigate the meaning and impact of these interactions on the regions under study.

History 11

This is a discussion-oriented seminar on the history of the United States from roughly the seventeenth century through the mid-twentieth century. We will focus a great deal on what is called social history, an approach that focuses on how people from various racial, ethnic, religious, gender and class backgrounds experienced urbanization, civil rights movements, political and social revolutions, wars, and more.

The Modern Middle East

The Modern Middle East is a one semester, discussion based course that investigates the history of the Middle East from the late eighteenth century to contemporary times. The course will look at the central Middle East, mainly focused on the geographical areas that comprise modern Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine, though we may also look at other nearby areas. The course will focus on the economic, social, cultural, religious and political developments of the various parts of the region individually and through their interactions with each other, colonial powers, and cold war superpowers. (This course is open to 11th and 12th grade students)

Understanding Gotham

This course will examine the interaction between people, place, and architecture using New York City as a “case study” for experiencing and understanding the impact of the built environment in an urban context. The goals of the course are to help students evaluate and respond to the qualities that define a city and to those that are unique to the character of New York. Among the major themes that will be covered are historical transformation, livability, economic viability, and aesthetic quality. Our starting point will be experiencing the city’s man-made environment, thus on-site visits to New York’s buildings, parks, and infrastructure form an integral component of the class.

Art History I: Prehistory - 1300

This is a college level course designed to introduce you to the major themes, issues, and approaches to art history. The emphasis will be on western art from Antiquity to the Renaissance; selected non-western cultures will also be explored. Major goals of the course include recognizing and analyzing individual works, major styles and artistic movements from a variety of periods throughout history, thinking critically about artistic meaning, and understanding art’s role within a broader historical context. Museum and gallery visits--looking at original works of art—are an essential component of the class. (open to 11th and 12th)

Global Bodies: Gender & Sexuality in a Global Context

In this seminar, we will take a transnational and intersectional approach to the study of gender and sexuality. We will examine issues faced by heterosexuals and queers, cisgender and transgender men and women, in relation to the body, the state, rights, labor, love, sex, and more.

Mass Incarceration Crisis in America

The United States has one of the largest prison populations in the world, with over two million people currently incarcerated. African Americans and Latinos comprise a disproportionate number of these prisoners, and youth incarceration is at the highest rate in the world. This course will be an in-depth study of how policing and the carceral state emerged from slavery and have grown to become, what Angela Davis has called, the “prison industrial complex.”

The Supreme Court and the 14th Amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, fundamentally altered the Constitution. With its guarantees of “equal protection,” “liberty,” and “due process,” it has become the bulwark of some of our most important personal and civil liberties. The amendment established birthright citizenship and is the basis for women’s right to vote, interracial marriage, contraception, same-sex marriage, and federal civil rights protections. Until recently, it was also the Constitutional basis for women’s right to reproductive freedom. This class will explore Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence, focusing on key cases. After learning about the history of the amendment, we will learn about various approaches to Constitutional interpretation. We will then begin our study of landmark cases, including Lochner, Wong Kim Ark, Brown I & II, Loving, US v. Virginia, Bakke, Griswold, Roe, Casey, Obergefell, and Dobbs.

Visual Politics: Reframing the Canon

The first semester will consider the reexamining, revising and rewriting of history through art, as well as how artists confront cultural histories and attempt to take control of their identity. The voices in history that are deemed important are shaped by the particularities of those in privileged positions. The same is true with art - from which narratives should be told, to which genres are significant, to the mediums themselves, to who is recognized and represented in galleries and museums. Art can reveal and magnify one’s understanding of the world; yet unveiling this truth is difficult when the art historical canon favors people of European heritage. Artists of color and female artists are dramatically underrepresented and undervalued - throughout history and even in museum collections today. Narratives are tightly controlled by those in authoritative positions. Some accounts continue to be told over time while others are lost. This first semester course will explore artists of various backgrounds who use different approaches to tell a story, express their identity, or vocalize an often-silenced past.

Art History II: Renaissance to the Present

This is a college level course designed to introduce you to the major themes, issues, and approaches to art history. The emphasis will be on western art from the Renaissance to the present; selected non-western cultures will also be explored. Major goals of the course include recognizing and analyzing individual works, major styles, and artistic movements from a variety of periods throughout history; thinking critically about artistic meaning; and understanding art’s role within a broader historical context. Museum and gallery visits--looking at original works of art--are an essential component of the class.

China Today

China is one of the fastest growing, most dynamic countries in the world. In this class we will try to get a handle on the most salient issues facing China today - environmentalism, political freedom, censorship, urbanization - and many more. The class will begin with a brief historical background of China since WWII and an overview of the major issues facing China today. Students will then break up into working groups based on their interests and lead classes based on these topics. The class will culminate in individual student projects drawn from the research done over the course of the semester.

Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Cultures

Media, including film, music and advertising, is a powerful force in shaping, reflecting and reproducing ideas of gender and sexuality. Immersed in technology, we are bombarded with messages, both overt and subtle, about what constitutes ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine,’ ‘straight’ and ‘queer.’ In this interdisciplinary course, we will spend a good deal of time viewing and interrogating media towards the goal of deconstructing the messages they contain, and the impact such messages have on social dynamics, power, privilege and our own identities.

History of Modern Africa

Modern Africa is a semester-long discussion-based course that investigates the history of Africa from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. The course will study African countries and regions, as well as study African interaction with the rest of the globe from the perspective of the many peoples of the continent.. The course will focus on the economic, social, cultural, and political developments of African regions and states individually and through their interactions with each other, colonial powers, and cold-war superpowers.

Modern Media

This course will examine how we communicate within the public sphere. We will evaluate the current state of media, focusing on print journalism but also touching on broadcast journalism and social media, beginning with a discussion of the history and the purpose of the press in the United States. Among the issues we address are what “journalism” means today and how our understanding of news information has evolved over time.

The Roberts Court

The Supreme Court of the United States, under Chief Justice John G. Roberts (appointed 2005), has delivered tremendously consequential decisions on matters including gun rights, same-sex marriage, campaign finance regulations, abortion, voting rights, and more. In this class, we will explore key decisions in several of these arenas, including: McDonald v. City of Chicago, District of Columbia v. Heller, Citizens United v. F.E.C., Shelby County v. Holder, Obergefell v. Hodges, and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center. First, however, we will learn about various methods of—and debates over—Constitutional interpretation. We will also discuss debates over Court reform, and we will have the opportunity to learn from some outstanding scholars of Constitutional Law. Readings and materials will include: selections from Corey Brettschneider’s Civil Rights and Liberties: Cases and Readings in Constitutional Law and American Democracy (New York: Wolters Kluwer, 2013); podcasts (Amicus and Strict Scrutiny); newspaper and scholarly articles.

Visual Politics: Culture and Conflict

Art is integral to activism and facilitating change. The second semester will focus more specifically on the use of art as a form of direct protest. We will consider how art engages politics, inequality, and some of the many conflicts that besiege the world today. How do artists use their work to investigate issues such as misery, turmoil, and injustice? We will examine the ways in which artists picture war, express outrage, and empathize with the suffering of others. We will consider how art records, publicizes and politicizes crises and public epidemics, including immigration, gun violence, and climate change. Students will consider what people have protested for and against - on a local, national and global scale. And we will consider the ways in which governments and people use art to project and propagandize power.