英国文学史及作品选读教案 Lecture 14

Lecture 14The Modern Period (II)ⅠTeaching ContentModernism; the Stream of Consciousness; James JoyceⅡTime Allotment2 periodsⅢTeaching Objectives and Requirements1 Help the students know about modernism.2 Help the students know the characteristics of the novels of the Stream ofConsciousness.3 Help the students know clearly about James Joyce.ⅣKey Points and Difficult Points in Teaching1Modernism2 The Stream of Consciousness3 James JoyceⅤTeaching Methods and MeansLecture; Discussion; Multi-mediaⅥTeaching Process1 Modernism●Modernism is a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range ofexperimental and avant-garde trends in literature of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of the unaffiliated writers.●Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as itstheoretical base. It is a reaction against realism. It rejects rationalism which is the theoretical base of realism; it excludes from its major concern the external, objective, material world, which is the only creative source of realism; by advocating a free experimentation on new forms and new techniques in literary creation, it casts away almost all the traditional elements in literature such as story, plot, character, chronological narration, etc., which are essential to realism. As a result, the works created by the modernist writers can often be labeled as anti-novel, anti-poetry or anti-drama.(See Chang Yaoxin, 380-381)2 The Stream of consciousness●The tradition of the stream of consciousness can be traced to various sources. Theearliest attempt to concentrate the subject matter of fiction on the innerconsciousness of the c haracter can be found in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.● Stream of Consciousness is a literary technique which was pioneered by DorthyRichardson, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce. Stream of consciousness is characterized by a flow of thoughts and images, which may not always appear to have a coherent structure or cohesion. The plot line may weave in and out of time and place, carrying the reader through the life span of a character or further alonga timeline to incorporate the lives (and thoughts) of characters from other timeperiods. It was represented by James Joyce (Ulysses), Virginia Woolf (To the Light house, The Waves) and William Faulkner (The Sound and Fury).●Writers, who create stream-of-consciousness works of literature, focus on theemotional and psychological processes that are taking place in the minds of one or more characters. Important character traits are revealed through an exploration of what is going on in the mind.3 James Joyce (1882-1941)3.1 Life and achievements● James Joyce is an Irish novelist, noted for his experimental use of language in suchworks as Ulysses(1922) and Finnegans Wake(1939). During his career Joyce suffered from rejections from publishers, suppression by censors, attacks by critics, and misunderstanding by readers. From 1902 Joyce led a nomadic life, which perhaps reflected in his interest in the character of Odysseus. Although he spent long times in Paris, Trieste, Rome, and Zürich, with only occasional brief visit to Ireland, his native country remained basic to all his writings.“But when the restraining influence of the school was at a distance I began to hunger again for wild sensations, for the escape which those chronicles of disorder alone seemed to offer me. The mimic warfare of the evening became at last as wearisome to me as the routine of school in the morning because I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”(From Dubliners)●Joyce’s life’s work was to write only and always about his hometown Dublin. Hetreated it in such a way that in fact he was writing about all of human experience.His works include Dubliners, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake.3.2 Comments on James Joyce●He was serious with both his thematic and technical concerns.◆In Thematic terms, he never forgot to promote spiritual freedom of his nativecountry with his writings. Irish nationalism features prominently in his work.The theme of Irish discontentment and struggle for freedom always appear asa clear narrative thread. Furthermore, he loves the common people. He findsthe great value in love and passion. He loves life itself and believes that love makes life worth living and makes man invincible. Finally, there is his preoccupation with art and its mission in life. All of his major works related to art and artist and their bearing on life.◆With regarded to his formal features, Joyce is noted for his frankrepresentation of reality. He embraces realism against romanticism. H e is outspoken on important social issues, and insists on portraying all the aspects of man—the good as well as the evil side. For him, characterization matters more than does plot. He is also well renowned for his adroit use of the stream-of-consciousness technique and his contribution to its subsequent popularity as an effective stylistic medium. In addition, Joycean language has always been a topic of immense interest to people. It is poetic, accurate, forceful, connotative, rhythmic, musical, picturesque, aptly polyglottic, and humorous beyond description.●By pushing both thematic and formal boundaries infinitely further back, he hasbecome “the writes’ writer” in literary history. His influence over the writers of his own and later generation can never be overstated.3.3 Discussion of “Araby”●In “Araby,” the allure of new love and distant places mingles with the familiarityof everyday drudgery, with frustrating consequences.◆Mangan’s sister embodies this mingling, since she is part of the familiarsurroundings of the narrator’s street as well as the exotic promise of the bazaar.She is a “brown figure” who both reflects the brown façades of the buildings that line the street and evokes the skin color of romanticized images of Arabia that flood the narrator’s head.◆Like the bazaar that offers experiences that differ from everyday Dublin,Mangan’s sister intoxicates the narrator with new feelings of joy and elation.His love for her, however, must compete with the dullness of schoolwork, his uncle’s lateness, and the Dublin trains. Though he promises Mangan’s sister that he will go to Araby and purchase a gift for her, these mundane realities undermine his plans and ultimately thwart his desires. The narrator arrives at the bazaar only to encounter flowered teacups and English accents, not the freedom of the enchanting East. As the bazaar closes down, he realizes that Mangan’s sister will fail his expectations as well, and that his desire for her is actually only a vain wish for change.●The narrator’s change of heart concludes the story on a moment o f epiphany, butnot a positive one. Instead of reaffirming his love or realizing that he does not need gifts to express his feelings for Mangan’s sister, the narrator simply gives up.He seems to interpret his arrival at the bazaar as it fades into darkness as a sign that his relationship with Mangan’s sister will also remain just a wishful idea and that his infatuation was as misguided as his fantasies about the bazaar. What might have been a story of happy, youthful love becomes a tragic story of defeat. Much like the disturbing, unfulfilling adventure in “An Encounter,” the narrator’s failure at the bazaar suggests that fulfillment and contentedness remain foreign to Dubliners, even in the most unusual events of the city like an annual bazaar.● The tedi ous events that delay the narrator’s trip indicate that no room exists forlove in the daily lives of Dubliners, and the absence of love renders the characters in the story almost anonymous. Time does not adhere to the narrator’s visions ofhis relationship. The story presents this frustration as universal: the narrator is nameless; the girl is always “Mangan’s sister” as though she is any girl next door, and the story closes with the narrator imagining himself as a creature. In “Araby,”Joyce suggests that all people experience frustrated desire for love and new experiences.ⅦReflection Questions and Assignments1. Self study Virginia Woolf.2. What is the function of Big Ben in Mrs.Dalloway?3. How does the bazaar experience become an epiphany for the boy in “Araby”?ⅧMajor References1 Abrams, M. H. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, (6th edition),Norton: 1993.2 Baugh, Albert C. A Literary History of England. 1967.3 Drabble, Margaret.The Oxford Companion to English Literature. OxfordUniversity Press and Foreign language and Research Press, 1998.4 陈嘉.《英国文学史》. 北京：商务印书馆，1986.5 陈嘉.《英国文学作品选读》. 北京：商务印书馆，1982.6 侯维瑞. 《英国文学通史》. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1999.7 刘炳善. 《英国文学简史》. 郑州：河南人民出版社，1993.8刘洊波. 《英美文学史及作品选读》（英国部分），北京：高等教育出版社，2001.9 罗经国. 《新编英国文学选读》. 北京：北京大学出版社，1997.10 孙汉云. 《英国文学教程》. 南京：河海大学出版社，2005.11 王佩兰等. 《英国文学史及作品选读》. 长春：东北师范大学，2006.12 王松年. 《英国文学作品选读》. 上海：上海交通大学出版社，2002.13 吴伟仁. 《英国文学史及选读》（第二册）. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1990.14 杨岂深，孙铢.《英国文学选读》. 上海：上海译文出版社，1981.15 张伯香.《英国文学教程》. 武汉：武汉大学出版社，2005.16 张伯香.《英美文学选读》. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1998.17 张定铨. 《新编简明英国文学史》. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002.。