英语短篇小说赏析 教学大纲2013-2014

英语短篇小说赏析

教学大纲与教学计划

英美短篇小说赏析是一门专业素质教育任选课，供英语专业高年级学生选读。通过阅读和分析英语小说，促进学生语言基本功和人文素养的提高，增强学生对英语文学和西方文化的了解。

David LIN – Associate Prof, Master of ARTS 2014/2/23

目录

Course Introduction (1)

Course Objectives (1)

Course Related Information: (1)

Teaching Schedule: (2)

Recommended Text Book (3)

Assessment Summary (3)

Assessments (7)

Assessment 1. Contrast Two Short Stories (7)

Stories Analysis Worksheet (8)

Marking Guide (9)

Assessment 2 Read, study and analyse short Stories (10)

Assessment 3. Story Writing (14)

Course Introduction

A short story is usually a brief fictional narrative in prose concentrated on a single effect, for example, the creation of mood rather than the telling of a story, which is conveyed in a single significant episode or scene and involving a limited number of characters, sometimes even only one, with words of 3000 to 20000 in general. Whether long or short, a work of fiction is usually made up of certain identifiable devices or elements, each of which contributes to the making of an integrated and unified whole. In relation to the major elements of fiction, we generally refer to plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, style, tone, symbolism and allegory.

This course is designed to introduce these fundamental elements to the students who major in English Literature in detail with illustrative readings provided so that they may be better able to analyse, understand and appreciate what they are reading.

Course Objectives

-Apply Fiction approaches to contrast two different short stories. The approaches may include but not limited to: plot, characters, setting, point of view, theme, style, tone, symbolism, and allegory.

-Apply Fiction approaches to analyse a short story.

-Write a short story (a slice of life) applying the approaches.

Course Related Information:

Course Code 41070103 Course Name: Appreciation of English Short Stories Credits 1.5 Teaching Hours 24

Major English Course Feature Elective

Revised Feb 2014

Teaching Schedule:

Week Content

Fiction Studies

Home Readings Title Author(s)

1 Plot The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Stephen Crane Christmas Day in the morning (Pearl S. Buck)

2 Characters Two Kinds Amy Tam The Catbird Seat (James Thurber)

3 Setting To Build a Fire Jack London A Horseman in the Sky (Ambrose Bierce)

4 Point of view A Clean, Well-lighted Place Ernest Hemingway The Broken Globe (Henry Kreisel)

5 Theme Yellow Woman Leslie Silko Rain (W. Somerset Maugham)

6 Assessment 1: Contrast two short stories from the home readings by analysing plot, characters, settings, point of view and themes. 30%

7 Style My Oedipus Complex Frank O’Connor Haircut (Ring Lardner)

8 Tone The Horse Dealer’s Daughter D. H. Lawrence Luck (Mark Twain)

9 Assessment 2. Analysing Mark Twain’s story – Luck. Write an analysis essay discussing the story’s plot characters, setting, point of view,

theme, style and tone. Word limit: 1200 (30%)

10 Symbolism The Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck The Egg (Sherwood Anderson)

11 Allegory Old Rogaum and his Theresa Theodore Dreiser Everything that Rises must converge (F. O’Connor)

12 Assessment 3. Write a short story based on your own slice of life, applying the fiction approaches of plot characters, setting, point of

view, theme, style, tone, symbolism, and allegory. Length: two pages of A4 size, 40%

2