英美短篇小说选读 what is literature
Introduction to English literature英美文学选读张伯香 PPT
v 文学是指以语言文字为工具形象化地反映客观现实的艺 术，包括诗歌、散文、小说、剧本、寓言、童话等，是 文化的重要表现形式，以不同的形式（称作体裁）表现 内心情感和再现一定时期和一定地域的社会生活。
Fiction 小说
❖ Elements of Fiction
❖ Theme ❖ Plot & structure ❖ Character ❖ Point of view ❖ Setting ❖ Tone ❖ Language & style ❖ Irony ❖ Symbol
revolution.
Recommended Novels for Reading
a romantic story a revenge story a tragedy of social inequality
a poor, plain governess struggling for self-dignity and
personal happiness
Recommended Novels for Reading
A Novel Without a Hero
tragic fate of a “pure” young peasant woman at the time of capitalist invasion
into the country in the 19th-century England
Training one’s thinking
Fostering one’s connoisseurship (the ability to appreciate a work of art)
Enjoying oneself
Aims
Introduction to English literature英美文学选读张伯香
Test after each chapter
Assessment General performance 30%
Class attendance 40% Assignment ( class participation, homework,
presentation, book report)
Voice声音: Speaker & tone Diction Imagery Figures of speech: Simile and Metaphor Symbolism Syntax Sound: Rhyme, Alliteration头韵, Assonance腹韵 Rhyme节奏 and meter韵律
Recommended Novels for Reading
Swift’s masterpiece, it gives an unparalleled satirical depiction of the vices of his age.
an account of the process of the building of the British Empire in the 18th century; diary-like detailed description and narration;
Types of Poetry
Narrative poetry
Lyric poetry
Epic 史诗 Ballad 民谣 Romance传奇
Epigram 警句诗 Elegy 挽歌 Ode 颂 Aubade 黎明别歌 Sonnet 十四行诗
Elements of Poetry
英美文学选读完美中英对照版
英美文学选读完美中英对照版(总24页)--本页仅作为文档封面，使用时请直接删除即可----内页可以根据需求调整合适字体及大小--英美文学选读复习要点中英文对照Part one: English Literature Chapter1 The Renaissance period （14世纪至十七世纪中叶）文艺复兴1. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance.人文主义是文艺复兴的核心。
2. the Greek and Roman civilization was based on such a conception that man is the measure of all things.人文主义作为文艺复兴的起源是因为古希腊罗马文明的基础是以“人”为中心，人是万物之灵。
3. Renaissance humanists found in then classics a justification to exalt human nature and came to see that human beings were glorious creatures capable of individual development in the direction of perfection, and that the world they inhabited was theirs not to despise but to question, explore, and enjoy.人文主义者们却从古代文化遗产中找到充足的论据，来赞美人性，并开始注意到人类是崇高的生命，人可以不断发展完善自己，而且世界是属于他们的，供他们怀疑，探索以及享受。
4. Thomas More, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are the best representatives of the English humanists.托马斯.摩尔，克利斯朵夫.马洛和威廉.莎士比亚是英国人文主义的代表。
Introduction to English literature英美文学选读张伯香
Literature
•
What’s Literature? The word ―literature‖ came into English from the 14th
century in the sense of polite learning through reading. Thus a man of literature, or a man of letters, meant what we would now describe as a man of wide reading. So, this word corresponds mainly to the modern meaning of the word ― literacy精通文学,有文化.‖ From the mid-18th century, literature referred to the practice and profession of writing. This appears to be closely connected with the heightened self -consciousness of the profession of authorship. Since the 19th century, literature has been the high skills of writing in the especial context of high imagination.
Recommended Novels for Reading
A Novel Without a Hero
tragic fate of a ―pure‖ young peasant woman at the time of capitalist invasion into the country in the 19th-century England
英美文学主要内容
英美文学作品选读Selected Readings of British LiteratureThis subject is about the historical development of British literature, it describes the lives and careers of the great and major writers, especially their representative works.英国1. 中古英国文学（8世纪-14世纪）2. 文艺复兴时期（14世纪-17世纪中）3. 新古典主义时期（17世纪中-18世纪）4. 浪漫主义时期（18世纪中-19世纪中）5. 维多利亚时期（1836- 1901）6. 现代主义时期（19世纪末-20世纪）Mediaeval times (the 8th ~ 14th century)1)The Anglo-saxon period:About Teutons: before the invasion of Britain, the Teutons inhabited the central part of Europe as far as the Rhine, a tract which in a large measured coincides with the modern Germany. The Jutes, Angles and Saxons were different tribes of Teutons. These ancestors of the English dwelt in Danmark and in the lands extending southward along the North Sea.The literature form of this period falls into two divisions –pagan and Christian. The former represents the poetry which the Anglo-Saxons probably brought with them in the form of oral saga. The latter represents the writings developed under the teaching of the monks. Two important poets in this period are Caedmon and Cynewulf.The Song of Beowulf: the poem can be justly termed England’s national epic, its hero Beowulf is one of the national heroes of the English people. Thematically, the poem presents a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles again the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.2)The Anglo-Norman period: the literature of this period is remarkable for its bright, romantic tales oflove and adventure, in contrast with the strength and somberness of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the representative. Its theme is a series of the tests on faith, courage, purity and human weakness for self-preservation. The story presents a profoundly Christian view of man’s character and his destiny. By placing self-protection before honour, and deceit before his trust in the love of God, Gawain has sinned and fallen and become an image of Adam. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is undoubtedly a romance told with the purpose of portraying ideal character in action.3)Geoffrey Chaucer,the ‘father of English poetry”and one of the greatest narrative poets of England.Chaucer greatly contributed to the founding of the English literary language, the basis of which was formed by the London dialect, so profusely used by the poet. Chaucer’s masterpiece is the Canterbury Tales, one of the most famous works in all literature, which has given us a picture of contemporary English life, its work and play, its deeds and dreams, its fun and sympathy and hearty joy of living such as no other single work of literature has ever equaled. These people include young squire, yeoman, forester, Prioress, miller, ploughman, etc.文艺复兴时期文学The Renaissancethe 16th century in England was a period of breaking up of feudal relations and the establishing of the foundations of capitalism. New social and economic conditions brought about great changes in the development of science and art, this period is marked by a flourishing of national culture known as the Renaissance, which originally indicated a revival of classical (Greek and Roman) arts and sciences after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism (vagueness).In Elizabethan period, English literature developed with a great speed. The most distinctive achievement of Elizabethan literature is drama. Next to drama is the lyrical poetry, remarkable for its variety and freshness and romantic feeling. In the renaissance period, scholars began to emphasize the capacities of human mind and the achievement of human culture. So humanism became the keynote of English renaissance.1. William Shakespeare is one of the most remarkable playwrights and poets in the world. He has also been given the highest praises by various scholars and critics the world over. His greatest tragedies are: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. His greatest comedies are: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Merchant of Venice, as you like it and Twelfth Night. In them, he portrayed young people just freed from feudal fetters. He sang of their youth, love and ideal of happiness. They trust in themselves and their efforts are crowned with success. The general spirit is optimism.The Merchant of Venice: A moneyless young man Bassanio loves a rich beauty Portia. He wants to marry to her, so he appeals to his friend Antonio for help. To aid Bassanio in his courtship, he borrows money from Shylock the Jewish usurer. Shylock agrees to lend the money on the condition that if the loan is not paid in three months, he may cut a pound of flesh from Antonia’s body. Unfortunately, Antonio can’t pay the money because his ship doesn’t return on time. Shylock demands his pound of flesh and Antonio is in danger now. At the critical moment, a young doctor of law comes to help him. He asks Shylock to take no more or no less than one pound of flesh and spilling no drop of blood. Shylock can’t do this, so Antonia is saved. The man who saves the life of Antonio is no other than Portia in disguise! Portia: she is one of S hakespeare’s ideal women--- beautiful, cultured, courteous（谦恭）and capable of rising to an emergency. Shylock: he is an avaricious money-lender and a Jew of pride and deep religious instincts. He has suffered much in the hands of the Christians. His revolting bond is counterbalanced by Antonio’s arrogant treatmen t of him. We can see his loud protest against racial discrimination.Hamlet is considered the summit of Shakespeare’s art. The whole story shows how hamlet, who represents good and justice, fights against his uncle in whom all the evil things can be seen. The famous line in the play “to be or not to be” by hamlet is often quoted by people. He is a hero of the renaissance. He loves good and hates evil. He is a scholar, soldier and statesman. His learning, wisdom, noble nature, limitation and tragedy are all representative of the humanists at the turn of the 16th and the 17th century.Othello is a splendid Moorish general in Venice. He marries to a beautiful girl and they live happily together. Iago is a very bad man and he envies his happiness. He tells Othello that his wife betrayed him. He believes him and kills his wife. But at last he knows the truth and regrets very much, so he killed himself. It is a tragedy of humanism and a tragedy of the colored people in a society of racial prejudice. Othello is a great warrior and too noble-minded to suspect those whom he loves. Though his kin is dark, he has great moral beauty. He loves Desdemona dearly because he finds her to be the embodiment of integrity, sincerity and loftiness of mind. Their tragedy shows that noble-minded people maybe led astray by evil forces in an evil society and commit mistakes if they can not distinguish falsehood from truth, and evil from good.King Lear: Lear is the king of Britain and he is a self-wild old man, intends to divide his realm among his three daughters by asking them how much they love him. The two elder daughters win his trust by fine words. But his little daughter Cordelia says she loves him according to her duty, not more or less. Her father is angry and decides to give her nothing.Sonnet: the sonnet is a poem in 14 lines with one or the other rhyme scheme.Francis Bacon:an outstanding prose writer in time. His works may be divided into three classes, the philosophical (the Advancement of Learning), the literary (Essays - Of Truth, Of Death, Of Friendship), and the professional (Reading on the Status of Uses) works.17世纪文学(The Period of Revolution and Restoration)The 17th century was one of the most tempestuous periods in English history. It was a period when absolute monarchy impeded the further development of capitalism in England and the bourgeoisie could no longer bear the sway of landed nobility. The contradictions between the feudal system and the bourgeoisie had reached its peak and resulted in a revolutionary outburst.1. John Milton is the greatest writer of the 17th century. He is often considered the greatest English poet after Shakespeare. In his life and literary career the two dominant historical movements of renaissance and Reformation combine and receive their most intense and intelligent expression. His works include paradise lost, paradise regained and Samson Agonistes. Milton has noble thought and splendid imagery. He is a great stylist. His poetry has a grand style. His poetry is noted for sublimity of thought and majesty of expression. Milton is a great master of blank verse. He is the glorious pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry. He has used it as the main tool in his masterpiece Paradise Lost. His blank verse is rich in every poetic quality and never monotonous. His works are marked by cosmic themes and lofty religious idealism. Paradise lost is his masterpiece and the greatest English epic. In the poem, god is no better than a selfish despot, who is cruel and unjust in punishing Satan, the rebel. Adam and Eve embody his belief in the powers of man. Satan is the real hero of the poem.2. John Bunyan. The Pilgrim’s Progress.The story starts with a dream in which the author sees Christian the Pilgrim, with a heavy burden on his back, reading the Bibble, from which he learns that the city in which he and his family live shall be burnt down in a fire. He tries to convince his family and his neighbours of the on coming disaster and asks them to go with him i search of salvation, but most of them simply ignore him. so he starts off with a friend Pliable. Pliable turns back after they stumble into a pit, the Slough of despond. Christian struggles on by himself. Then he is misled by Mr. Worldly Wiseman and is brought back onto the right road by Mr. Evangelist. There he joins Faithful, a neighbor who has set out later but has made better progress. The two go on together through many adventures, including the great struggle with Apollyon, who claims them to be his subjects and refuses to accept their allegiance to God. After many other adventures, they come to the Vanity Fair where both are arrested as alien agitators. They are tried and Faithful is condemned to death. Christian, however, manages to escape and goes on his way, assisted by a new friend, Hopeful. Tired of the hard journey, they are attempted to take a pleasant path and are thn captured by Gelestial City at last. There they enjoy eternal life in the followship of the blessed.The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most successful religious allegory in English language. Its predominant metaphor –life as a journey –is simple and familiar. The objects that Christian meets are homely and commonplace, and the scenes presented are typical English scenes, but throughout details. Here the strange is combined with familiar and trivial joined to the divine, and at the same time, everything is based on universal experiences. Besides, a rich imagination and a natural talent for story-telling also contribute to the success of the work which is at once entertaining and morally instructive.Th secret of its success is probably simple. It is, first of all, not a procession of shadows repeating theauthor’s declamations, but a real story, the first extended story in English. The Puritans may have read it because they found in it true personal experience told with strength, interest humour, in a word, with all qualities that cuch a story should possess. Young people have read it, first, for its intrinsic worth, because the dramatic interest of the story lured them on to the very end; and second, because it was their introduction to true allegory. It was the only book having an story interest in the great majority of English and American home for a full century.18世纪文学(the age of Enlightenment in England)After the tempestuous events of the 17th century, England entered a period of a comparatively peaceful development.Enlightenment: it was an expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against feudalism. They thought the chief means for bettering the society is enlightenment or education for the people.Realism. The eighteenth century was the golden age of the English novel. The novel of this period spoke the truth about life with an uncompromising courage. What the writers described in their works were social realities and the main characters were usually common men. The writers and philosophers of the Enlightenment held that man is good and noble by nature but many succumb to an evil environment.1. Daniel Defoe has been regarded as the discoverer of the modern novel. Defoe was a very good story-teller. He had a gift for organizing minute details in such a vivid way that his stories could be both credible and fascination. His sentences are sometimes short, crisp and plain, and sometimes long and rambling, which leave on the reader an impression of casual narration. His language is smooth, easy, colloquial and mostly vernacular.Robinson Crusoe was one of the forerunners of the English realistic novel. Crusoe was a sailor, a merchant and a slave-owner. On the voyage to Africa, he met a shipwreck and found himself cast by the sea waves upon the shore of an uninhabited island. He managed the livelihood there by himself. Finally, he was saved and got married in England. At last, he sailed back to the island and established a colony there.2. Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s travels ; A Modest Proposal3. Joseph Addison. Sir Roger at Church; Sir Roger at the Assizes.3. Henry Fielding The History of Tom Jones4. William Blake songs of innocence, songs of experience- the chimney-sweeper, London and the tiger. It shows the poet’s eyes are open to the evils and vices of the world.5. Robert burns a red, red rose. He wrote poems to express his hatred for the oppression of the ruling class and his love for freedom.浪漫主义时期The Romantic Period1. William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet. His major poets include I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and The solitary reaper. His poetry is distinguished by the simplicity and purity of its language.2. George Gordon Byron is one of the most excellent representatives of English romanticism. His literary career was closely associated with the struggle and progressive movement of his age. She walks in beauty and Don Juan. Don Juan is a Spanish youth of aristocratic birth. T he long poem describes Don Juan’s adventures in many countries.3. Percy Bysshe ShelleyHis short poems on nature and love form an important part of his literary output. His best love lyrics are Ode to the west wind and to a skylark. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” is a famous line in ode tothe west wind.4. John KeatsHis famous works are ode to a nightingale, ode on a Grecian Urn and ode to autumn. Ode is his main form of poetry. He sought to express beauty in all his poems. His leading principle is beauty in truth, truth beauty. His poetry is distinguished by sensuousness and the perfection of form.5. Walter ScottWaverley, Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. He is the first novelist to recreate the past. In his novels, historical events are closely interwoven with the fates of individuals. He is always mindful of the role and fates of the ordinary people.In a sense, his literary career marks the transition from romanticism to realism in English literature of the 19th century.6. Jane AustenHer major works are Pride and prejudice, Emma, sense and sensibility. She was popular all through the 19th century. Pride and prejudice is his masterpiece. The central character is Elizabeth Bennet, one of the daughters in the Bennets. Elizabeth meets a young man Darcy and has prejudice against him because she thinks he has nothing but pride. After many twists and turns, misunderstandings disappear and they are happily united. The plot is simple, but Austen has woven vivid pictures of everyday life of English country society. Her novels show a wealth of humor, wit and delicate satire. Her dialogues are admirably true to life. 维多利亚时期文学The Victorian AgeCritical realism appeared during this period. Dickens is the representative writer. With striking force and truthfulness, he pictured bourgeois civilization, showing the misery of common people. The 19th century critical realists made use of the form of novel for full and detailed representation of social and political events, and one of the fate of individuals and of whole social class.1. Charles Dickens is the greatest representative of English critical realism. He wrote lots of famous works, such as a tale of two cities. David Copperfield, Hard times and.Oliver Twist,Oliver Twist is one of the best works of Dickens. Oliver Twist is an orphan boy. He is born in a workhouse and brought up under cruel conditions. Then he runs to London and meets a gang of thieves. They try to convert Oliver into a thief. He is rescued by a rich man, but the thieves kidnap him, make him join them again. At last, he is saved and adopted by the kind man. His vivid description of the thieves’ den and the underworld of London shows the sympathy for the lower classes. Among the characters of the lower strata, Oliver is the only one who emerges happy and successful in the end. This happy issue shows his optimistic belief in the inevitable triumph of good over evil.2. William Makepeace Thackeray is a representative of critical realism in 19th century. He is a realist, a satirist and a moralist.Vanity fair: the title was taken from Bunyan’s pilgrim’s Progress. The main characters are Amelia and Becky. Amelia is a simple but kind girl and Becky is a craft and resourceful girl. Becky is an orphan and tries to make her way into the upper society. She is a classic example of those who grub money by all means.3. Charlotte Bronte:Jane Eyre is a story about an orphan girl called Jane Eyre. Maltreated by her aunt, she goes to a charity school. Later she becomes a governess of Mr. Rochester. He loves her. Before their wedding, she learns that he has got a mad wife. Shocked by the news, she left him. When she heard that his house is destroyed in a fire and he becomes blind, she returned to him and became his wife. In the novel, Jane Eyre maintains that women should have equal rights with men. Charlotte also aims to criticize the bourgeoisie educational system.4. Emily Bronte:Wuthering Heights it deals with the story of the hero Heathcliff who is a gipsy. He ispicked up by Me. Earnshaw and brought up together with his children. Healthcliff and the daughter Miss Catherine have loved each other since childhood. When he grows up, he joins the army and three years later he becomes a rich man. When he comes back, he finds his lover has been married to another man. Later, he becomes the master of the family and takes revenge upon the next generation. It’s a powerful attack on the bourgeoisie marriage system.5. George Eliot: has three remarkable novels: Adam Bede, The mill on the floss, silas marner. The hero of Adam Bede is a village carpenter, an honest young man. He falls in love with a girl, but the girl gives her heart to a selfish squire. Later the girl is put into prison for deserting her own child. Adam and a woman preacher get married.7. Alfred Tennyson was recognized as the greatest poet of Victorian England. His main poetical works include Ulysses; break, break, break; Crossing the Bar. He has a total mastery of the sounds and rhythms of the English language. He has genius for evoking moods and states of mind in his poems. No poet could surpass him at linking descriptions of nature to the state of the mind.8. Robert Browning is realistic, optimistic and believes in the progress of mankind. His contribution to poetry is his dramatic monologues.现代作家—twentieth century literature.In modernist writers concentrate more on the private and subjunctive than on the public and the objective, mainly concerned with the inner being of an individual. The major themes of the modernist literature are the distorted, and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, man and himself. 1. John Galsworthy is one of the greatest novelists in the early 20th century. He was born in a wealthy family. After graduation from Oxford, he began to devote himself to literary work. His style is noted for its strength and elasticity. His language is simple, clear and straightforward.The forsyte saga has been regarded as his masterpiece. It includes three novels and two interludes. And the man of propert y marks the peak of critical realism in all Galsworthy’s works. Forsyte is the central figure of the story, who is the man of property. He has married a girl, but pays no attention to her thoughts and feelings, regarding her as a piece of his property. Then his wife loves another who is killed by a car.2. Bernard Shaw was a greatest dramatist in the 20th century. He used stage to criticize the evils of capitalism. He is a critical realist writer and a humorist. His play deals with contemporary social problems. His major plays include widowers’ houses, the apple cart, Major Barbara, Mrs. Warren’s profession and heartbreak house. Widowers’ houses satirizes bourgeois businessmen whose ill-gotten money is squeezed out of poor, suffering people. An English businessman Mr. Sartorius and his daughter meet a young doctor Harry Trench while traveling in Germany. The two youth fall in love with each other and plan to get married. Then Trench finds that his future father-in-law makes his money by renting slum housing to the poor, so he refuses to marry her daughter. Later, Sartorius reveals that Trench's income is as dirty as the money made by Sartorius. At last, Harry and Blanche reunite.3. David Herbert Lawrence was an English author, poet, playwright and literary critic. In his works, he confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct. He is best known for his novels Sons and Lovers, the Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover. Within these Lawrence explores the possibilities for life and living within an Industrial setting. In particular Lawrence is concerned with the nature of relationships that can be had within such settings. Though often classed as a realist, Lawrence's use of his characters can be better understood with reference to his philosophy. His use of sexual activity, though shocking at the time, has its roots in this highly personal wayof thinking and being. It is worth noting that Lawrence was very interested in human touch behavior and that his interest in physical intimacy has its roots in a desire to restore our emphasis on the body, and re-balance it with what he perceived to be western civilization's slow process of over-emphasis on the mind.Sons and Lovers is Lawrence’s semi-autob iographical novel. It tells the story of a coal miner’s family with the son Paul as the central character. The thread of the story evolved around Paul’s love for the two girls Miriam and Clara as well as his love for his mother Mrs. Morel.4. James Joyce was born in Dublin. His major novels include: a portrait of the artist as a young man, Ulysses and Dubliners. James Joyce is the founder of stream of consciousness.He tried not merely to describe how a character might think, but also to present a record of the character’s thoughts.5. Thomas Hardy1)The underlying theme of Hardy’s writing is the struggle of man against the mysterious force which rulesthe world, brings misfortune into his life and predetermines his fate. 2) fatalism is strongly reflected in his writings. 3) Hardy has a strong sense of humor and often describes nature with charm and impressiveness.Tess of the D’Urbervilles, His masterpieces are Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the major of Casterbridge, far from the madding crowed and Jude the obscure. Tess is a poor dairymaid who has been seduced by Alec D’Urbervilles, a wealthy villain, and gives birth to a child. Later she falls in love with a man called Clare. On their wedding night, she confesses to her husband that she has been seduced and given birth to a child. He husband can not accept the fact and goes abroad. Some years later, he comes back and wants Tess to come back to him. Tess murders her seducer and is arrested and hanged. The tragedy of Tess is an exposure of the wicket oppressors represented by Alec.The son’s veto。
英美散文选读 课后部分答案整理
UNIT 1 Of Marriage and Single Life Francis Bacon 弗兰西斯。
培根1.What are the advantages and disadvantages of a married life according to Bacon? Advantages:1.Be responsible for family and careful;2.Hortative, put men in mind of their wives and children ,for soldiers;3. A kind of discipline of humanity , grave natures led by custom are commonly lovinghusbands;4.Wives are young men’s mistress , companions for middle age , and old men’s nurses Disadvantages:1.giving hostages to fortune2.impediments to great enterprises3.an abatament of a man’s riches and a family will bing a man bonds and shacklesUNIT 4 Letter to Lord Chesterfield Samuel Johnson 塞缪尔。
约翰逊2.What is the importance of this letter in the history of English literature?1.John’s letter has been described as literature’s “Declaration ofIndependence”;Independence of writers2. It’s a poor writer to the big man’s indictment-like , showing contempt for the writer ofthe elite.3. It has been the subject of critical comment over since in the literary world.4.It represents the English new bourgeoisie(资产阶级)’ resistance against feudalism（封建主义）.5.It embodies the author’s rebellion.*6、事实上，此后英国文坛上的保护制度（Patronage）在英国，在欧洲大陆逐渐消失了。
Notes of Selected Readings of English Literature
NOTES：Selected Readings of English Literatureblank verse无韵体；aside旁白；acrostic poem藏头诗；nursery rhymes童谣；magic spells咒语；in light of this考虑到；councilor大臣；ogre怪物；so the epic goes消息传开；free sb. from释放；fire-breathing dragon火龙；appear in print出版；couplet(岳阳楼对：到前门买前门，前门无前门，后门有前门；To China for china, China with china, dinner on china.) Professor Wang will meet his class(lass情妇，ass驴)tomorrow moning.1、Why read literature?For pleasure(basic) or just to pass(kill) the time, for information and knowledge or for proper solution to problems, to understand situations we could not otherwise understand in real life, or for the enjoyment we get from the arrangement of words.Literature can give us indirect experience and make our life meaningful and make us clever.2、Why TV instead of movies or novels etc.?On the one hand, one needn’t think or imagine, say, about the appearance of the character as reading novels do; on the other hand, paintings and the like are still and only express a person’s state of spirit of a slice of life; last but not least, aside (words said by an actor to help audience understand something) is quite necessary in drama.3、What is literature?In its broadest sense, everything that has ever been written is ~. In a narrower sense, it’s various; say, literature written in a certain language, of a particular area or field, etc. In fact, literature writings valued as works of art, especially fictions, drama and poetry.4、written works with artistic value以语言文字为工具，形象化地反映客观现实的艺术。
英美文学选读(美国文学部分)
《英美文学选读》（美国文学部分）American LiteratureChapter one : The romantic periodI. Emerson’s transcendentalism and his attitude toward nature:1.Transcendentalism—it is a philosophic and literary movement that flourish in New England, as a reaction against rationalism and Calvinism. It stressed intuitive understanding of god without the help of the church, and advocated independence of the mind.2. Emerson’s transcendentalism:The over-soul—it is an all-pervading power goodness, from which all things come and of which all are a part. It is a supreme reality of mind, a spiritual unity of all beings and a religion. It is a communication between an individual soul and the universal over-soul. And he strongly believe in the divinity and infinity of man as an individual, so man can totally rely on himself.3.His toward nature:Emerson loves nature. His nature is the garment of the over-soul, symbolic and moral bound. Nature is not something purely of the matter, but alive with God’s presence. It ex ercise a healthy and restorative influence on human beings. Children can see nature better than adult.II. Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man:1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puristans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England.2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another.3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and na?ve Brown is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night, and then he becomes distrustful and doubtful. Brown stands for everyone ,who is born pure and has no contact with the real world ,and the prominent people of the village and church. They cover their secrets during daily lives, and under some circumstances such as the witch’s Sabbath, they become what they are. Even his closed wife, Faith, is no exception. So Brown is aged in that night.III. The symbolism of Melville’s Mobby-Dick1.The voyage to catch the white whale is the one of the mind in quest of the truth and knowledge of universe.2. To Ahab, the whale is an evil creature or the agent of an evil force that control the universe. As to readers, the whale is a symbol of physical limits, or a symbol of nature. It also can stand for the ultimate mystery of the universe and the wall behind which unknown malicious things are hiding.IV. Whitman and his Leaves of Grass :1. Theme: sing of the “en-mass” and the self / pursuit of love, happiness, and ***ual love / sometimes about politics (Drum taps)2. Whitman’s originality first in his use of the poetic form free verse (i.e. poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme),by means of which he becomes conversational and casual.3.He uses the first person pronoun “I” to stress individualism, and oral language to acquire sympathy from the common reader.Chapter two : The realistic periodI. The character analysis and social meaning of Huck Finn in Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainHuck is a typical American boy with “a sound heart and a deformed conscience”. He appears to be vulgar in language and in manner, but he is honest and decent in essence. His remarkable raft’s journey down on the Mississippi river can be regarded as his process of education and his way to grow up. At first, he stands by slavery, for he clings to the idea that if he lets go the slave, he will be damned to go to hell. And when the “King” sells Jim for money, Huck decides to inform Jim’s master. After he thinks of the past good time when Jim and he are on the raft where Jim shows great care and deep affection for him, he decide to rescue Jim. AndHuck still thinks he is wrong while he is doing the right thing.Huck is the son of nature and a symbol for freedom and earthly pragmatism. Through the eye of Huck, the innocent and reluctant rebel, we see the pre-Civil War American society fully exposed. Twain contrasts the life on the river and the life on the banks, the innocence and the experience, the nature and the culture, the wilderness and the civilization.II. Daisy Miller by Henry James1. Theme: The novel is a story about American innocence defeated by the stiff, traditional values of Europe. James condemns the American failure to adopt expressive manners intelligently and point out the false believing that a good heart is readily visible to all. The death of Daisy results from the misunderstanding between people with different cultural backgrounds.2. The character analysis of Daisy: She represents typical American girl, who is uninformed and without the mature guidance. Ignorance and parental indulgence combine to foster he assertive self-confidence and fierce willfulness. She behaves in the same daring naive way in Europe as she does at home. When someone is against her, she becomes more contrary. She knows that she means no harm and is amazed that anyone should think she does. She does not compromise to the European manners.3. The character analysis of Winterbourne: He is a Europeanized American, who has live too long in foreign parts. He is very experience and has a problem understanding Daisy. He endeavors to put her in sort of formula, i.e. to classify her.III. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser:1. Theme: The author invented the success of Carrie and the downfall of Hurstwood out of an inevitable and natural judgment, because the fittest can survive in a competitive, amoral society according to the social Darwinism.2. The character analysis of Carrie: She follows the right direction to a pursuit of the American dream, and the circumstances and her desire for a better life direct to the successful goal. But she is not contented, because with wealth and fame, she still finds herself lonely. She is a product of the society, a realization of the theory of the survival of the fittest.3. The character analysis of Hurstwood: He is a negative evidence of the theory of the survival of the fittest. Because he is still conventional and can not throw away the social morals, he is not fitted to live in New York.Chapter Three: The Modern PeriodI. Ezra Pound and his theory of Imagism1. The principles: a. direct treatment of the thing; b. to use absolutely noword that does not contribute to the presentation; c. to compose in the sequence of the musical; d. to use the language of common speech and the exact word; e. to create new rhythms; f. absolutely freedom in the choice of subject.2. Imagism is to present an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. An imagistic poem must present the object exactly the way the thing is seen. And the reader can form the image of the object through the process of reading the abstract and concrete words.II. Frost and his poetry on nature:Frost is deeply interested in nature and in men’s relationship to nature. Nature appears as an explicator and a mediator for man and serve as the center of reference of his behavior. Peace and order can be found in Frost’s poetical natural world. With surface simplicity of his poems, the thematic concerns are always presented in rich symbols. Therefore his work resists easy interpretation.III. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his The Great Gatsby1. Theme: Gatsby is American Everyman. His extraordinary energy and wealth make him pursue the dream. His death in the end points at the truth about the withering of the American Dream. The spiritual and moral sterility that has resulted from the withered American Dream is fullyrevealed in the article. However, although he is defeated, the dream has gave Gatsby a dignity and a set of qualities. His hope and belief in the promise of future makes him the embodiment of the values of the incorruptible American Dream .2. The character analysis of Gatsby: Gatsby is great, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life. He has the desire to repeat the past, the desire for money, and the desire for incarnation of unutterable vision on this material earth. For Gatsby, Daisy is the soul of his dreams. He believe he can regain Daisy and romantically rebels of time. Although he has the wealth that can match with the leisured class, he does not have their manners. His tragedy lies in his possession of a naive sense and chivalry.IV. Ernest Hemingway’s artistic features:1. The Hemingway code heroes and grace under pressure:They have seen the cold world ,and for one cause, they boldly and courageously face the reality. They has an indestructible spirit for his optimistic view of life. Whatever is the result is, the are ready to live with grace under pressure. No matter how tragic the ending is, they will never be defeated. Finally, they will be prevail because of their indestructible spirit and courage.2. The iceberg technique:Hemingway believe that a good writer does not need to reveal every detail of a character or action. The one-eighth the is presented will suggest all other meaningful dimensions of the story. Thus, Hemingway’s language is symbolic and suggestive.V. The character analysis of Emily in A Rose for Emily:Emily is a symbol of old values, standing for tradition, duty and past glory. But she is also a victim to all those she cares and embrace. The source of Emily’s strange ness is from her born pride and self-esteem, the domineering behavior of her father and the betrayal of her lover. Barricaded in her house, she has frozen the past to protect her dreams. Her life is tragic because the defiance of the community, her refusal to accept the change and her extreme pride have pushed her to abnormality and insanity.。
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What is Literature?College of Foreign LanguagesZheng BorenDefinition of Literature⏹For centuries, writers, literary historians, and others have debated bout butfailed to agree on a definition for this term.⏹Some assume that literature is simply anything that is written, therebydeclaring a city telephone book, a cook book, and a road atlas to be literary works along with David Copperfield and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.⏹Derived from the Latin littera, meanin g “letter,” the root meaning of literaturerefers primarily to the written word and seems to support this broad definition.However, such a definition eliminates the important oral traditions on which much of western literature based, including Homer’s Ili ad and Odyssey, the English epic Beowulf, and many Native legends.⏹To solve this problem, others choose to define literature as an art, therebyleaving open the question of its being written or oral. This further narrows its meaning, equating literature to works of the imagination or creative writing.⏹Whether one accepts this definition, many argue that a text must have certainpeculiar qualities before it can be dubbed literature. For example, the artist’s creation or secondary world often mirrors the au thor’s primary world, the world in which the creator lives and moves and breathes. Because reality or the primary world is highly structured, so must be the secondary world. To achieve this structure, the artist must create plot, character, tone, symbols, conflict, anda host of other elements or parts of the artistic story, with all of these elementsworking in a dynamic relationship to produce a literary work.⏹Some would argue that it is the creation of these elements—how they are usedand in what context—that determines whether a piece of writing is literature.⏹What literary work may contain is a peculiar aesthetic quality—that is, someelement of beauty—that distinguishes it as literature from other forms of writing.⏹Still other critics add the test-of-time criterion to their essential components ofliterature. if a work withstands the passage of time and is still being read centuries after its creation, it is deemed valuable and worthy to be called literature.Functions of Literature (1)⏹Literature helps us grow, both personally and intellectually;⏹it helps us connect ourselves to the broader cultural, philosophic, and religiousworld of which we are a part;⏹it enables us to recognize human dreams and struggles in different places andtimes that we would never otherwise know;⏹it gives us the knowledge and perception needed to appreciate the beauty oforder and arrangement, just as a well-structured song or a beautifully done painting can;⏹it provides the comparative basis from which we can see worthiness in the aimsof all people, therefore helping us see beauty in the world around us;Functions of Literature (2)⏹it exercises our emotions through interest, concern, tension, excitement, hope,fear, regret, laughter, and sympathy.⏹Through cumulative experience in reading, great literature shapes our goals andvalues by helping us clarify our own identities, both positively, through acceptance of the admirable in human beings, and negatively, through rejection of the sinister. It helps us shape our judgments through the comparison of the good and the bad.⏹Both in our everyday activities and in the decisions we make as individuals andas citizens, it enables us to develop a perspective on the events that occur around us and in the world at large, thereby enabling us to gain understanding and control.Types of Literature: the Genres⏹1) narrative,⏹2) poetry,⏹3) drama,⏹4) nonfiction prose⏹All are art forms, each with its own internal requirements of structure and style. Narrative⏹ A narrative is an account of a series of events, usually fictional, althoughsometimes events in fiction may also be historical.⏹The two kinds of narrative fiction you will read most often are s hort stories andnovels. Myths, parables, romances, and epics are also part of the genre.Short Story⏹ A short story is usually about one or two characters undergoing difficulty orfacing a problem.⏹The relationships among the characters are described briefly, for the shortenedform of the story does not permit leisurely or extensive development of gradual changes in character.Novel⏹the full and sometimes exhaustive development of interactions, for it is adeliberately longer form.⏹Like the short story, the novel usually focuses on a small number of characters. Poetry⏹Poetry is a broad term that includes many subtypes, such as sonnet, lyric,pastoral, ballad, song, ode, drama, epic, and dramatic monologue.⏹Poetry is a compressed, and often deeply emotional, form.⏹It is this compactness of expression, combined with the broadness of application,that makes poetry unique.Drama⏹ A drama or play is designed to be performed on a stage by living actors.⏹Drama presents speech and action which render the interactions that causechange in the characters and resolve the conflicts among the characters.⏹The dramatic types are tragedy, comedy, and farce.⏹Tragedy: human disasters/ elevate human values/ show the most admirablequalities of human beings⏹Comedy: treats people as they are/ laughing at them or sympathizing with them/showing them to be loving and successful.⏹Farce: exaggerates human foolishness/ gets the characters into improbable andlunatic situations, and laughs at everyone in sight.Nonfiction Prose⏹This is a broad term including short forms like essays and articles and alsolonger non-fictional and non-dramatic works.⏹The essay or article is a form for idea, interpretations, and descriptions.⏹The topics are unlimited; they may be on social, political, artistic, scientific, andother subjects.Literary Studies⏹Literary Study is not innocent, but sophisticated. It includes following threeaspects:⏹Study of Literary history⏹Study of Literary works⏹Study of Literary criticismLiterary History⏹It traces the development of literature in a chronological order from a historicalpoint of view.⏹Every individual writer exists in a certain milieu—the political and economiccontext, the social institutions, the emotional and intellectual climate.Literary Works⏹A work of literature is written by an individual, marked by his special personalityand personal past.⏹The literary work represents in a deep way the writer’s attempt to confront andfind meaning in his experience.Literary Criticism⏹“Three R’s”—the writer, the writing, and the reader⏹Relationships: complex rather than simple, dynamic rather than static⏹Assumption 1: there is no such thing as an innocent reading of a text.⏹Whether our responses to a text are emotional and spontaneous or will-reasonedand highly structured, all such interactions are based upon some underlying factors that cause us to respond in a particular fashion. What elicits these responses and how a reader makes sense out of a text is what really matters. And it is the domain of literary theory to question our initial and final responses, our beliefs, our feelings, and our overall interpretation.⏹Assumption 2: Since our responses to a text have theoretical bases, I presumethat all readers have a literary theory.⏹Consciously or unconsciously, we as readers have developed a mind-setconcerning our expectations when reading any text (be it a novel, a short story, a poem, or any other type of literature). Somehow, we make sense out of printedmaterial. The methods we use to frame our personal interpretations of any text involve us in the process of literary criticism and theory, and automatically make us practicing literary critics whether we know it or not.⏹My third assumption rests on the observation that each reader’s literary theoryand accompanying methodology is either conscious or unconscious, complete or incomplete, informed or ill-informed, eclectic or unified.⏹Since an unconscious, incomplete, ill-formed, eclectic literary theory morefrequently than not leads to illogical, unsound, and disorganized interpretations, I believe that a well-defined, logical, and clearly articulated theory will enable readers to develop their own methods of interpretation, permitting them to order, clarify, and justify their personal appraisals of any text in a consistent and rational manner.Can a story have multiple meanings?(can a text have more than one interpretation?)⏹Not all readers interpret texts in the same way. In fact, they voiced theirunderstandings of the story gave fundamentally different interpretations.⏹Our response to any text is largely a conditioned or socially constructed one; thatis, how we arrive at meaning in fiction is in part determined by our past experiences. Consciously or unconsciously, we have developed a mindset or framework concerning our expectations when reading a novel, short story, poem, or any other type of literature. In addition, what we choose to value or uphold as good or bad, moral or immoral, or beautiful or ugly within a given text actually depends on this ever-evolving framework. When we can clearly articulate our mental framework when reading a text and explain how this mindset directly influences our values and aesthetic judgments about the text, we are well on our way to developing a coherent, unified literary theory.⏹The relationship between literary theory and a reader’s per sonal worldview isbest illustrated in the act of reading itself. When reading, we are constantly interacting with the text.⏹According to Rosenblatt’s text The Reader, the Text, the Poem (1978), during theact or event of reading, “A reader brings to the text his or her past experience and present personality. Under the magnetism of the ordered symbols of the text, the reader marshals his or her resources and crystallizes out from the stuff of memory, thought, and feeling a new order, a new experience, which he/she sees as the poem.This becomes part of the ongoing stream of the reader’s life experience, to be reflected on from any angle important to him or her as a human being.”⏹Accordingly, Rosenblatt declares that the relationship between the reader and thetext is not linear, but transactional; that is, it is a process or event that takes place at a particular time and place in which the text and the reader condition each other. The reader and the text transact, creating meaning, for meaning does not ex ist solely within the reader’s mind or within the text, Rosenblatt maintains, but in the transaction between them. To arrive at an interpretation of a text, readers bring their own “temperament and fund of past transactions to the text and live through a process of handling new situations, new attitudes, new personalities,[and] new conflicts in value. They can reject, revise, or assimilate into the resource with which they engage their world.” Through this transactional experience, readers consciously and unconsciously amend their worldview.How to Analyze and Approach an English Poem?⏹I. Suggestions:⏹ 1. Read not only once⏹ 2. look into reference books (dictionary, Bible, etc.)⏹ 3. Read so as to hear the sound yourself⏹ 4. Pay a careful attention to what the poem is saying⏹ 5. Read affectionatelyII. A Number of Questions :⏹ 1. Who is the speaker? What kind of person is he?⏹ 2. To whom is he/she speaking?⏹ 3. What is the occasion?⏹ 4. What is the setting in time?⏹ 5. What is the setting in place?⏹ 6. What is the central purpose of the poem? State a central idea.⏹7. Discuss the theme of the poem.⏹8. How does it achieve?⏹9. a. Outline the poem so as to show the structure of the poem/ b. Summarize theevents of the poem⏹10. Paraphrase the poem⏹11. Discuss the diction of the poem. Point out words that are particularlywell-chosen and explain why.⏹12. Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kind of imagery is used?⏹13. Point out examples of metaphor, simile, personification, and metonymy;explain their appropriateness.⏹14. Point out and explain any symbols. Explain allegory⏹15. Point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement& irony. What are their functions?⏹16. Compare the poetic language involved in a poem with the common language.⏹17. What have you learned from the poem in terms of its moral, aesthetic andartistic value?⏹18. Do you like or dislike the poem? Give a brief account for your response.⏹19. Could you liken/ compare this English poem to certain Chinese poetic work?⏹20. Try to translate the English poem into Chinese.How to Read Novels (6 Parts)⏹I. Narrator: Two types1. First person narrator (First Person Point of View)⏹1). First Person as Central Character: David Copperfield⏹2). First Person as Secondary Character: The Great Gatsby2. Third Person⏹1). Omniscient narrator⏹2). Narration limited to the point of view of major characterII. Plot + Structure:⏹Is there a direction? Where is it going? How does it develop? (Four Patterns) III. Character⏹How are characters introduced? (age, name, appearance, morality, etc.)⏹Who is the central character? (protagonist vs. antagonist)⏹What are his or her distinguished characteristics?⏹By what means the author demonstrate?⏹To what extent is the character defines by contrast with minor characters? Orby conflict with his or her environment?⏹Does the novel or story show the growth of change of character?⏹How much of the meaning (theme) depends on the growth of change?IV. Theme/ Purpose⏹Does the novel or story make a general statement about life or experience?V. Techniques:⏹What techniques or devices has the author employed? Any symbols? Anyallusions?⏹ 1. allusion- The Bible, the Greek or Roman Mythology, the Classical works⏹ 2. Stream of consciousness⏹ 3. Rhetoric devices (metaphor, simile)IV. Language + Style⏹What is the style of the novel?⏹What are the characteristics of the language? (simple words?/bigwords?/repetition?/ colloquial or formal?)。