最新弗兰纳里奥康纳美国文学教学教案

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美国文学作文教学教案模板

美国文学作文教学教案模板

一、教学目标1. 培养学生对美国文学作品的阅读兴趣和鉴赏能力。

2. 提高学生的英语写作水平,使其能够运用英语表达对美国文学作品的看法和思考。

3. 增强学生的跨文化交际意识,了解美国文学背景和文化特点。

二、教学对象本教案适用于高中英语或大学英语专业学生。

三、教学课时2课时四、教学重点与难点1. 重点:对美国文学作品的阅读、理解、分析及英语写作技巧。

2. 难点:如何引导学生深入挖掘作品内涵,运用英语进行创作。

五、教学准备1. 教师准备:美国文学作品选读材料、PPT、作文评分标准。

2. 学生准备:预习美国文学作品,准备好相关笔记。

六、教学过程第一课时:1. 导入(1)教师简要介绍美国文学的发展历程,激发学生的兴趣。

(2)展示美国文学作品的相关图片,让学生对作品有一个直观的印象。

2. 阅读与讨论(1)学生分组阅读美国文学作品,如《老人与海》、《麦田里的守望者》等。

(2)各小组讨论作品的主题、人物形象、写作技巧等,分享阅读心得。

3. 课堂写作(1)教师根据作品内容,设定一个与作品相关的写作主题。

(2)学生运用英语进行作文创作,教师巡视指导。

4. 课堂展示与评价(1)学生展示自己的作文,其他同学进行评价。

(2)教师点评作文,指出优点和不足,给予修改建议。

第二课时:1. 复习与总结(1)教师回顾上一节课的内容,总结美国文学作品的写作特点。

(2)学生分享自己在写作过程中的心得体会。

2. 课后作业(1)学生根据所学知识,选取一部美国文学作品进行深入阅读。

(2)完成一篇关于该作品的作文,要求语言流畅、观点明确。

3. 课堂写作(1)教师根据课后作业内容,设定一个与作品相关的写作主题。

(2)学生运用英语进行作文创作,教师巡视指导。

4. 课堂展示与评价(1)学生展示自己的作文,其他同学进行评价。

(2)教师点评作文,指出优点和不足,给予修改建议。

七、教学反思1. 关注学生的阅读兴趣,引导学生深入挖掘作品内涵。

2. 注重培养学生的英语写作能力,提高学生的语言表达能力。

美国文学教案(1)

美国文学教案(1)

时间分配
Objectives:
1) To introduce students to fundamental questions in literary history and canon formation; 2) To trace the defining characteristics of various literary periods and movements; 3) To place literary texts and literary movements within their historical contexts; 4) To improve students’ abilities to read, write, speak publicly, and formulate analyses and arguments.
Lead-in:
1) What is literature in your mind? Why do you
教 学 personally read literature?
内 容 2) What sorts of literary works have you ever read?
的 重 3) What do you think is the function of literature? Or in
French, Warren. Twentieth Century American Literature. London: Macmillan,
1980. Hart, James D., ed. Oxford Companion to American Literature. 6th ed., New
or Statement, and Style

美国文学经典阅读教案教学设计

美国文学经典阅读教案教学设计

美国文学经典阅读教案教学设计一、教学目标通过本次阅读教学,学生应能够:1.了解美国文学经典作品的背景和意义;2.理解并分析美国文学作品的核心思想和文化特征;3.提升学生的阅读理解能力和文学鉴赏能力;4.培养学生对美国文学作品的兴趣和热爱。

二、教学内容1.美国文学经典阅读教案制定a.教学进度安排:根据学期时间,合理划分每个经典作品的阅读进度;b.教学资源准备:选择适合学生阅读的经典作品,准备相关辅助阅读资料;c.教学方法选择:采用多元化的教学方法,培养学生的主动学习能力;d.教学评价方式:设计合理的评价方式,评估学生的阅读理解和文学分析能力。

2.教学设计示例(以美国文学经典《傲慢与偏见》为例)a.导入环节:通过引入作品背景和作者简介,激发学生的阅读兴趣和好奇心;b.阅读指导:提供阅读指导问题,引导学生在阅读过程中理解并分析文本;c.课堂讨论:组织学生进行小组讨论,分享彼此的阅读体验和观点;d.文学分析:引导学生分析作品中的人物性格、情节发展等文学要素;e.作品评价:引导学生自主评价作品的价值和意义,激发批判性思维;f.延伸阅读:推荐其他与《傲慢与偏见》主题相关的美国文学经典作品。

三、教学方法1.合作学习法:通过小组讨论和合作学习活动,培养学生的合作意识和团队精神;2.问题导向法:通过提出问题引导学生主动思考和探索,促进深入学习;3.多媒体教学法:利用多媒体资源,丰富教学内容,提高学生的学习兴趣;4.批判性教学法:鼓励学生对经典作品进行批判性思考和评价,培养独立思考的能力。

四、教学评价1.阅读理解测试:定期组织学生进行相关阅读理解测试,评估学生的阅读理解能力;2.课堂表现评价:根据学生在课堂上的参与度、表达能力等进行评价;3.作品分析报告:要求学生针对指定的经典作品撰写分析报告,评估学生的文学分析能力。

五、教学资源1.经典文学作品:《傲慢与偏见》、《了不起的盖茨比》、《钢铁是怎样炼成的》等;2.辅助阅读资料:文学评论文章、作者简介、历史背景介绍等;3.多媒体资源:音频、视频、图片等多媒体资源,丰富教学内容。

外国文学史》课程教案

外国文学史》课程教案

《外国文学史》精品课程教案第一章:古希腊文学1.1 教学目标:了解古希腊文学的历史背景和发展脉络。

掌握古希腊文学的主要代表作家及其作品。

理解古希腊文学对后世文学的影响。

1.2 教学内容:古希腊文学的历史背景介绍。

荷马史诗:《伊利亚特》、《奥德赛》。

悲剧诗人:埃斯库罗斯、索福克里斯、欧里庇得斯。

喜剧诗人:阿里斯托芬。

1.3 教学方法:讲授法:介绍古希腊文学的历史背景、作家及其作品。

讨论法:引导学生讨论古希腊文学的特点及其对后世文学的影响。

1.4 教学评估:课堂讨论:评估学生对古希腊文学的理解和思考能力。

第二章:文艺复兴时期文学2.1 教学目标:了解文艺复兴时期的历史背景和文学特点。

掌握文艺复兴时期的主要代表作家及其作品。

理解文艺复兴时期文学对后世文学的影响。

2.2 教学内容:文艺复兴时期的历史背景介绍。

意大利文学:但丁、彼特拉克、薄伽丘。

英国文学:莎士比亚、培根、Marlowe。

2.3 教学方法:讲授法:介绍文艺复兴时期的历史背景、作家及其作品。

讨论法:引导学生讨论文艺复兴时期文学的特点及其对后世文学的影响。

2.4 教学评估:课堂讨论:评估学生对文艺复兴时期文学的理解和思考能力。

第三章:17世纪文学3.1 教学目标:了解17世纪文学的历史背景和文学特点。

掌握17世纪文学的主要代表作家及其作品。

理解17世纪文学对后世文学的影响。

3.2 教学内容:17世纪文学的历史背景介绍。

法国文学:莫里哀、拉辛。

英国文学:弥尔顿、德莱顿。

3.3 教学方法:讲授法:介绍17世纪文学的历史背景、作家及其作品。

讨论法:引导学生讨论17世纪文学的特点及其对后世文学的影响。

3.4 教学评估:课堂讨论:评估学生对17世纪文学的理解和思考能力。

第四章:18世纪文学4.1 教学目标:了解18世纪文学的历史背景和文学特点。

掌握18世纪文学的主要代表作家及其作品。

理解18世纪文学对后世文学的影响。

4.2 教学内容:18世纪文学的历史背景介绍。

美国文学教案

美国文学教案

外国语学院2012—2013学年第二学期课程教学大纲一、课程的性质、目的与任务本课程属于有关英语语言及运用的英语专业知识课,该课程是英语专业三年级的学生掌握了英语技能的基本综合训练后,旨在扩大英语语言文化方面的知识性课程。

美国文学课程的主要目的在于让学生熟悉现美国文学中重要作家有代表性的作品,了解自十八世纪至二十世纪涌现出来的有重要影响的文学流派和写作技巧。

通过学习、欣赏一些文学佳作,提高学生的文学鉴赏能力和阅读、写作等语言技巧,并且加强他们对文学本质的意识,即通过一个民族的文学作品来了解该民族的历史发展、各个时期的文化动态和价值取向。

同时,通过学习该课程,学生的思想认识水平和是非明辨能力将得到提高。

二、教学基本要求(1)熟悉各个历史时期的文学流派,包括启蒙主义,浪漫主义,超验主义,现实主义,自然主义,意象派和现代主义等。

通过梳理美国文学史的复杂成分和发展流变,使学生应对美国文学的发展过程有一定的了解,理解和把握美国文化所体现的精神传统。

(2)熟悉在各个时期文学流派诞生时的人文背景。

能了解一些主要文学现象产生的原因和背景,能读懂文字背后深刻的含义,提高阅读和鉴赏能力,进一步提高英语语言水平。

(3) 熟悉各位作家的作品及其代表作。

(4)基本能够独立地欣赏文学作品的思想和艺术魅力。

三、教材名称(编著者.名称.出版社,出版时间)刘荐波主编,《英美文学史概述及作品选读(美国部分)》,高等教育出版社,2010年3月版四、课程考核说明及要求测试与考核是了解学生学习情况、教师教学质量重要手段。

测试必须具有科学性、客观性和可行性。

测试应既有助于提高学生的语言运用能力,又有助于培养学生的思维分析能力。

在美国文学课的测试中,既要包括文学史方面的客观问题及对文学作品的语言方面的理解问题;同时应注重检验学生分析问题和解决问题的能力。

测试中的客观题和主观题应保持合理科学的比例。

闭卷笔试。

平时成绩占30%,期末考试成绩占70%目录引言教案引言讲稿内容Introduction to the CourceQuestion 1: What is literature?a. Literature includes many different types, such as drama (opera, play), poetry (sonnet, heroic couplet), prose, fiction, etc.b. Literature is a reflection of our life and the society. It is a part of history and culture. Try to think about everything in the cultural background. As a rule, there is something the writer tries to eulogize or praise in his or her writing.Question 2: Why should we learn literature?a. Literature is important in our life, and can help us, especially girls have strong mind. When you are in trouble, you can learn the optimistic life attitudes from the novel and know what you should do and what you should not do.b. Our major is English language and literature;Question 3: How do we appreciate literature?3.1. Analytical approachThe main concern of this approach is the basic elements of literary forms, such as a story, a poem, a play, or an essay.For example, the basic elements of fiction comprise plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, symbol, allegory, style, and tone.As for poetry, it also contains the critical terms of basic elements: meter, rhyme, stanza, form and etc. The basic elements in a drama include dialogue, story, character, and action. All these elements relate to each other and integrate into a whole.3.2. Thematic approachIt is mainly concerned with the ideas and the themes of a literary writing. We use this approach to dig out what is represented about life and society in a literary work, such as the meaning of existence, the nature of humanity, the reality of love, death, society, individual, and so on.3.3. Historical approachEvery literary work bears the unmistakable imprint of the period and culture in which it is written. Furthermore, we will be aware that in every historical period there is a dominant literary school or trend that influences the author‘s outlook on life and society, his writing style and techniques.Question 4: Basic information about the course?The function of this course is to teach the students how to explicate, that is, how to read literature. The mastery of this skill can teach students never to take for granted anything in words. At the completion of this course, you will be able to read the original literary works, comprehend English literature and culture, and improve the skills of literature criticism under the teacher‘s guidance.It includes lectures on a brief history of English literature, literature analysis and approaches of cultural criticism.Lecture One Historical Background(见PPT Lecture One)Lecture Two Basic Knowledge of LiteratureI. Definition of Literature1. Literature (narrow sense): all writings in prose or verse, especially those of an imaginative or critical character, distinguished from scientific writing.2. Literature (broad sense): printed matter of any kind.II. Forms or Types of Literature (Genre) (体裁)1. One way of classification1) poetrypoem 诗歌epic 史诗lyric poetry 抒情诗narrative poetry 叙事诗dramatic poetry 戏剧诗poetry in prose 散文诗ballad 民谣folk song 民歌pastoral 牧歌idyll 田园诗sonnet 商籁体ode 颂歌elegy 挽诗/挽歌2) prosetale 故事fairy tale/mythology 神话故事allegory 寓言fable (动物)寓言biography 传记autobiography 自传fiction 小说novel 长篇小说novellet 中篇小说short story 短篇小说science fiction 科幻小说non-fiction 非小说trilogy 三部曲essay 散文satire 讽刺文sketch 速写travels 游记detective story 侦探小说horror story 恐怖小说Gothic story 哥特式小说romance 传奇故事/浪漫故事legend 传奇historical novel/histories 历史小说3) dramacomedy 喜剧tragedy 悲剧tragicomedy 悲喜剧monologue 独角剧one-act play 独幕剧2. The other way of classification1) narrative literature 2) lyric literature 3) dramatic literatureIII. Elements of Literature1. Elements that make up a workgenre/form of literature/ type of literature 体裁subject matter 题材theme/motif 主题(writing) material (写作)素材plot 情节character 人物protagonist 主要人物hero 男主人公heroine 女主人公antihero 反英雄(a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose, and the like), antagonist 反面人物background 背景setting (地理)背景conflict 冲突climax 高潮prelude 序曲scene 场act 幕threads 线索verse 诗句canto 诗章stanza 诗节line 诗行rhyme/rime 韵rhyme scheme 韵律alliteration 头韵(体)Consonance (end rhyme) 尾韵heroic couplet 英雄偶句体rhythm 节奏meter/metre 节拍2. Ways of writingCharacterize (v.t.) 人物刻画characterization (n.)portray (v.t.) 描写portrayal (n.)description 描写narrate (v.t.) 叙述narration (n.) narrator 叙述人point of view 视角(first-person ~, second-person ~, third-person ~, intrusive/authoritative ~, unintrusive/impersonal/objective ~, omniscient ~)monologue/soliloquy 独白flashback 倒叙stream of consciousness 意识流allusion 典故rhetorical devices 修辞手法(rhetoric 修辞)figures of speech 修辞格intertextuality 互文性and hypertextuality 超文性:(Intertextuality is the shaping of texts‘ meanings by other texts. It can include an author‘s borrowing and transformation of a prior text.)Hypertextuality is a postmodern theory of the inter-connectedness of all literary works and their interpretation. The two are closely related to pastiche and parody. (―互文‖是局部的、个别的、零星的,―超文‖则是整体的、派生的、外化或异化的。

第5单元外国诗二首教案-2023-2024学年七年级语文下册同步教学

第5单元外国诗二首教案-2023-2024学年七年级语文下册同步教学
举例:如何让学生体会《假如生活欺骗了你》中作者对生活的感悟和对未来的希望。
(3)朗读技巧的运用:朗读技巧的掌握需要学生在实践中不断摸索,对于一些学生来说,这是一个难点。
举例:如何指导学生运用适当的语速、语调、停顿等朗读技巧,表达诗歌的情感。
(4)创意写作的展开:学生在进行创意写作时,往往不知道如何展开思路,这也是一个难点。
3.实践活动的组织:分组讨论和朗读体验环节,学生参与度较高,课堂氛围活跃。但在小组讨论过程中,我发现部分学生过于依赖教材,缺乏独立思考。为了培养学生的创新思维,我应在讨论环节加强引导,鼓励学生提出自己的观点。
4.学生小组讨论的引导:在讨论过程中,我尽量作为一个引导者,帮助学生发现问题、分析问题。但有时可能会过于关注讨论进程,而忽视了学生的个性化需求。在今后的教学中,我要更加关注学生的个体差异,给予他们更多关心和支持。
举例:通过朗读,感受诗歌的节奏和韵律;以诗歌为灵感,进行创意写作练习。
2.教学难点
(1)诗歌修辞手法的识别与分析:对于初中生来说,识别和理解诗歌中的修辞手法具有一定的难度。
举例:如何引导学生识别《未选择的路》中的象征、隐喻,并分析其作用。
(2)诗歌情感和哲理的把握:学生往往难以深入理解诗歌中所蕴含的丰富情感和哲理。
1.情境导入的有效性:在导入新课环节,通过提出与诗歌主题相关的问题,成功引发了学生的兴趣。但在实际操作中,部分学生可能对问题理解不够深入,导致课堂氛围略显紧张。在今后的教学中,我应更加注意问题的设置,使其更具启发性和趣味性。
2.诗歌案例分析的深度:在讲授诗歌案例时,我尽量引导学生深入分析诗中的象征、隐喻等修辞手法。然而,由于课堂时间有限,部分学生可能无法完全消化这些知识点。在以后的教学中,我应适当调整教学节奏,给学生更多思考和理解的空间。

评《好人难寻》屠珍译本中的得与失

评《好人难寻》屠珍译本中的得与失

评《好人难寻》屠珍译本中的得与失作者:李云龙来源:《校园英语·下旬》2020年第04期【摘要】本文简要评述了屠珍所翻译的A Good Man is Hard to Find的汉译本《好人难寻》。

文章从信息性维度指出了译本在人物刻画上的优点,同时,也从互文性维度指出了译本在还原文化意向中所存在的一些不足之处。

【关键词】翻译;信息性;互文性【作者简介】李云龙,武汉工程大学。

一、概述《好人难寻》的原作作者弗兰纳里·奥康纳(Mary Flannery O’Connor)是美国著名小说家、评论家,是美国文学的重要代言人。

奥康纳是南方作家,其作品具有南方哥特式风格,作品中常常审视道德伦理等方面的问题。

《好人难寻》这篇小说集中体现了奥康纳的南方情节、信仰和写作特点,是奥康纳的代表作之一。

本文以老奶奶的视角展开叙述,讲述了贝雷一家在旅行途中,在离开塔餐厅后,阴差阳错地遭遇逃狱的“不合时宜的人”及其同伙。

在小说中,作者对人物的刻画十分精彩到位,通过人物间平淡的对话来体现怪诞的社会现象,形成强烈的反差。

另外,小说中选用的地名具有特殊文化含义,一家人旅行途中地名的变化暗示了小说中人物的命运,以此构建出一个反讽的语境,并凸显小说人物最终的自我救赎。

本文将从信息性维度(informativity),简要分析屠珍译本中人物刻画之所得,分析译者是如何通过增译来显化原著中的隐含信息,从而实现更为生动鲜明的人物刻画,凸显社会环境和人物关系;以互文性(intertextuality)的角度,简要分析跨文化交际背景下屠珍译本在表现原著隐含的文化意向上之所失。

二、人物刻画之所得《好人难寻》原著使用了大量笔墨来描写人物的形态及对话,以此体现当时南方社会中的偏见、冷漠与怪诞。

但原著中大多将这样的信息作为二级信息隐含在人物对话或肢体语言中。

而屠珍译本在人物的刻画上,通过频繁地使用增译,将隐含的信息显化,以便于读者对原著人物刻画加以理解。

浅析弗兰纳里·奥康纳小说《流离失所的人》中“五十亩地”的多重象征意蕴

浅析弗兰纳里·奥康纳小说《流离失所的人》中“五十亩地”的多重象征意蕴

浅析弗兰纳里·奥康纳小说《流离失所的人》中“五十亩地”的多重象征意蕴作者:李静来源:《名作欣赏·评论版》 2017年第10期摘要:弗兰纳里·奥康纳的小说《流离失所的人》,用“五十亩地”贯穿了整个故事,“五十亩地”成为一种具有多重含义的意象。

该小说通过波兰难民古扎克一家在美国南方“五十亩地”做工的遭遇,揭示了地主麦克英特尔太太对于物质无止境的追求,最终结局就是丧失“五十亩地”。

同时,出现在小说中的种种对抗犹如时代大潮中湍急的漩涡,裹挟着人们身不由己,难以逃脱宿命的安排。

作品阴郁的语调中,闪烁着智慧的光芒,厚重的历史感和深刻的哲理性给人以深深的回味。

本文试从女性主义、工具理性批判、超人观念导致灾难等角度,浅析《流离失所的人》中“五十亩地”的多重象征意蕴。

关键词:五十亩地性别对立工具理性超人一、前言弗兰纳里·奥康纳,美国天才女作家,被誉为“南方的文学先知”。

她的小说风格怪诞、独树一帜。

她擅长描写美国南方乡村人物生活,对人性阴暗有着惊人的洞察。

她想要展示的是道德的沦丧、人性的丑陋、上帝的隐退、宗教的无能。

《流离失所的人》以美国南方20世纪40年代的社会现实为背景:当时美国涌入大量难民后,引起南方上至国会议员下至帮工农妇的反对和“颇有微词”。

在这篇小说中,作者通过波兰人古扎克一家逃难到美国“五十亩地”做工的遭遇,让读者看到疯狂追求物质利益的地主麦克英特尔太太、把精通技术的工具理性当作救世主的“伪”神父。

自以为“全能的主的被感召者”{1}的肖特利太太死去后,雇工肖特利重新返回“五十亩地”,仇恨的火焰被点燃,在众人无声的注视下,古扎克惨死在“五十亩地”。

于是,“五十亩地”上所有的人都变成了“流离失所的人”。

自古以来,土地就被认为是人类诞生最根本的原初意义的象征,在奥康纳的这篇小说中,“五十亩地”贯穿了整个故事,成为一种具有多重含义的意象。

本文试从各个角度,浅析《流离失所的人》中“五十亩地”的多重象征意蕴。

美国文学教案

美国文学教案

课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页◆Puritans wanted to “purify the church”to its original state, because they thought the church was corrupted and had too many rituals◆To be a Puritan: taking religion as the most important thing; living for glorifying God; believing predestination(命运天定), original sin(原罪,人生下来就是有罪的,因为人类的祖先亚当和夏娃是有罪的), total depravity(人类是完全堕落的,所以人要处处小心自己的行为,要尽可能做到最好以取悦上帝), limited atonement(有限救赎,只有被上帝选中的人才能得到上帝的拯救)◆Life style of Puritans: pious, austerity of taste, diligence and thrift, rigid sense of morality, self-reliance (John Milton is a typical Puritan.)⑵American Puritan◆On the one hand, American Puritans were all idealist as their European brothers. They came to the new continent with the dream that they would built the new land to an Eden on earth.◆On the other hand, American Puritans were more practical maybe because the severe conditions they faced.⑶Influence on literature◆Optimism(乐观主义): Basis of American literature: the dream of building an Eden of Garden on earth (Early American literature were mainly optimistic because they believed that God sent them to the new continent to fulfill the sacred task so they would overcome all the difficulties they met at last. Gradually Americans found that their dreams would not be successful, so lots of pessimistic literary works were produced.)◆Symbolism(象征主义): lots of American writers liked to employ symbolism in their works. (typical way of Puritans who thought that all the simple objects existing in the world connoted deep meaning.) Symbolism means using symbols in literary works. The symbol means something represents or stands for abstract deep meaning.◆Style: simplicity—simple, fresh and direct (just as the style of the Authorized Version of Holy Bible)3. Colonial Literature⑴Theme: Idealism; Pragmatism(2) General features◆Humble origins: diaries, histories, letters etc.◆In content: serving either God or colonial expansion or both (about voyage, adapt, deal with the relationship with Indian, and about region)◆In form: imitating English literary traditions⑵Captain John Smith: the first American Writer (P16) A Description of New England⑶Anne Bradstreet: first American woman poet; a Puritan poet; once called “Tenth Muse”; her poems mainly about religious experience, family life and early settlers’lives; her most famous poems—“Contemplations”(P17)⑷Philip Freneau (1752-1832)◆He is the most important poet in the 18th century.◆He was entitled “Father of American Poetry”.◆He was born in New York and graduated from Princeton University.◆He wrote lots of poems supporting American Revolution and human liberty.◆He was the most notable representative of dawning American nationalism in literature.◆His poems presented Romantic spirits but his form and taste were mainly influenced by Classicism.◆Most famous poems: “The Wild Honey Suckle”and “The Indian Burying Ground”◆Analyze and discuss the theme, rhyme scheme and some difficult dictions in “The Wild Honey Suckle”.课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页◆Representatives: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson etc.◆Influence on literatureIn form: imitating English classical(古典主义)writersIn content: utilitarian tendency (for political or educational purpose)2. Jonathan Edwards (1703—1758) (last important figure in Puritan tradition)⑴Life◆Born in a very religious New England family◆Graduated from Yale◆Worked as a minister and was an important figure in “Great Awakening”(a serious of religious revivals which occurred in the 1730s and 1740s on North America continent)◆Dismissed from his position because of fierce religious controversy at that time◆Lived and meditated in solitude; wrote some books (P29)⑵Analysis◆Influenced by the new ideas of Enlightenment, such as empiricism◆Still a pious Puritan◆His sense of God’s overwhelming presence in nature and in soul anticipated the Transcendentalism. (P32)◆First modern American and the country’s last medieval man3. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)⑴Life—Jack of all trades◆Born in a poor candle maker’s family in Boston◆No regular education◆Became a apprentice of a printer when he was 12◆A editor of a newspaper and published lots of essays when he was 16◆Went to Philadelphia when he was 17◆A successful printer and publisher◆Retired when he was 42◆A scientist with lots of inventions and a famous experiment (kite, electricity, thunderstorm) ◆A famous statesman (the only America who once signed all the four documents that created the new country) (P33)◆An example who made American Dream come true⑵Literary works◆Poor Richard’s Almanac《穷查理的年历》Modeled on farmers’ annual calendar; kept publishing for many years; includes many classical sayin gs, such as ―A penny saved is a penny earned.‖ (P34)◆The Autobiography—first of its kind in literatureWriting when he was 65An introduction of his life to his own sonIncluding four parts written in different timePuritanism’s influence, such as self-examination and self-improvement (timetable, thirteen virtues, life style)Enlightenment spirits (man’s nature good, rights of liberty, virtues includes ―order‖)Style: simple, clear in order, direct and concise (―Nothing should be expressed in two words tha t can as well be expressed in one.‖) (Puritanism’s influence)Popular, still well-read today, his values and style influenced lots of Americans课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页(5) Two periods and representativesA. 1770s to 1830s Early periodRepresentatives: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and New England poetsTwo famous poets: William Cullen Bryant (first distinctive American lyric poet; writing about nature, religion and life; famous poems - "Thanatopsis" and "To a Waterfowl")and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (balancing Romantic spirits with classical andChristian taste; famous poem - "A Psalm of Life")B. 1830s to 1860s Late periodFlowering of American literatureRepresentatives: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, Poe etc.(6) SignificanceCreative period of a native American culture and literature2. Washington Irving (1783 - 1859)(1) LifeA. Born in a rich merchant familyB. Learned law but more interested in writingC. Went to England for family businessD. Wrote to support himself after business failureE. Diplomatic work for a period(2) Major worksThe Sketch Book (a collection of essays and short stories)Two famous short stories in the collection: "Rip Van Winkle" (Read the plot on P48-P49) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (Read the plot on P49)(3) FeaturesA. Conservative (e.g. Rip felt into sleep before American Independence and woke after it.)(love of old world's tradition) ("an old gentleman speaking English not American)B. Style: gentle, refined, lucid, beautiful (classical in form though romantic in subjects)C. Aim of writing: entertainment, not moralizingD. Good at creating atmosphereE. Thin plotF. HumorG. Finished and musical languageH. vivid characters(4) ContributionsA. He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame.B. The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irving's The Sketch Book.3. James Fenimore Cooper (1789 - 1851)(1) Life storyA. born in a rich familyB. attended Yale but expelledC. five years at seaD. inherited fortune then a comfortable lifeE. wrote lots of novels because he oneday was disgusted by one novel(2) Major works Precaution"Leatherstocking Tales" (a series of five novels about the frontier life): The Pioneers, The Prairie, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The DeerslayerCentral character: Natty Bumppo (several names for same character: Hawk-eye, the Pathfinder, the Deerslayer, Leatherstocking) (a typical frontier man: honest, simple, innocent, generous) (represents brotherhood of man, nature and freedom)Theme: modern civilization advancing on the wilderness and the contradiction between them(3) FeaturesA. Good at inventing plots (Cooper had never been to the frontier area personally.)B. Style: powerful, yet clumsy and dreadfulC. Wooden CharactersD. Use of dialect, but not authentic (criticized by Mark Twain)(4) ContributionsFinding "the West" and "the frontier life" as materials for literary works Introducing Western tradition into American literature4. HomeworkPreview chapter 4.课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页Against ―total depravity‖ in Old Puritan doctrinesAgainst dehumanization of capitalist worldC. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit (Oversoul)Encouraging people to find goodness and beauty from natureAgainst materialism in the society and the actions which broke the harmony between human and nature only for profitsD. Brotherhood of man (equal and liberty)Interested in social reforms; endeavor to create an ideal society; against ―everything for money‖ in the capitalist world(3) SignificanceA. influenced a large group of writersB. summit of American RomanticismC. marked the independence of American literature2. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)(1) LifeA. born in a clergyman’s family in New EnglandB. graduated from HarvardC. a Unitarian ministerD. abandoned Unitarianism and went to Europe searching for truthE. founded a Transcendentalists' Club and published a journal DialF. traveled and gave lectures; quite influential(2) Major worksNature (1836) (a book which declared the birth of Transcendentalism)Some other essays preaching his thoughts: "The Poet", "Self-reliance" and "The American Scholar" (America's Declaration of Intellectual Independence)(3) Aesthetics and significanceA. AestheticsAbout poet, poetry, true art, writer.a. In Emerson's opinion, poets should function as preachers who gave directions to the mass.b. True poetry should serve as a moral purificationc. The argument (or his thought or experience) should decide the form of the poem instead of traditional techniques.d. The poets should express his thought in symbols.e. Poets should use words for their pictorial and imaginative meaning.f. As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to writer about peculiar American matters.B. Significance/ contributionEmerson's aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature in general and in American poetry in particular. It marked the birth of true American poetry and true American poets.(4)LimitationHis reputation fell in the 20th century because he firmly believed human and human society could be better. It seemed that he had no sense of evil and too optimistic about human nature and the society. Somebody once called this kind of optimism "Transcendental folly".3. Henry David Thoreau (1817- 1862)(1) LifeA. Born in a common family in New EnglandB. Graduated from Harvard, but only stayed at home and helped family businessC. A friend of EmersonD. Active in social life and had a strong sense of justice (Example: He once refused to pay a poll-tax of 2 dollars because he felt the tax was unfair, and thus he was jailed. And later he wrote an essay named "Civil Disobedience" which advocated passive resistance to unjustlaws and influenced Gandhi in India.)F. not successful as a writer and lived in obscurity all his life(2) Works1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River2) Walden3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)(3) point of view1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.2) He hated the human injustice as represented by the slavery system.3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being.4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.5) He was very critical of modern civilization.6) ―Simplicity…simplify!‖7) He was sorely disgusted with ―the inundations of the dirty institutions of men’s odd-fellow society‖.8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men. Comment on课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页Arthur Dimmesdale (a handsome and admirable young priest, contraditionary on the sin hemade with Hester, being a brave man at last)Theme: (Ask students: Is this a love story? No) The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin on people.Scarlet Letter is a cultural allegory, in which the author indirectly tells the future of Puritanism. Scarlet Letter is a sample in which American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism.(Because of the strong influence of Puritanism in American society, Hawthorne only expressed his ideas on the sin indirectly by employing symbolism.)(3) FeaturesA. sense of sin and evil (sin and punishment)B. tension between head (intellect) and heart (emotion)(Hawthorne held negative attitude towards science. Mostly, his intellectual characters are vallains.)C. ambiguity(复义性)D. good at depicting psychologyE. symbolismF. supernatural elementsG. excellent craftsmanship (delicate structure; refined language)3. point of view(1) Evil is at the core of human life, ―that blackness in Hawthorne‖(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation to generation (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.(4) aesthetic ideasA. He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which hismind grows to fruition.B. He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.(5) style – typical romantic writerA. the use of symbolsB. revelation of characters’ psychologyC. the use of supernatural mixed with the actualD. his stories are parable (parable inform) – to teach a lessonE. use of ambiguity terrorr in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of view2. Herman Melville (1819 - 1891)1. life2. works(1) Typee(2) Omio(3) Mardi(4) Redburn(5) White Jacket(6) Moby Dick(7) Pierre(8) Billy Budd3. point of view(1) He never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: His is the attitude of ―Everlasting Nay‖ (negative attitude towards life).(2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea ofprogress4. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4) His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5) He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页4. style: ―free verse‖(1) no fixed rhyme or scheme(2) parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3) phonetic recurrence(4) the habit of using snapshots(5) the use of a certain pronoun ―I‖(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7) use of conventional image(8) strong tendency to use oral English(9) vocabulary – powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10) sentences – catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines5. influence(1) His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2) He took over Whitman’s vision of the p oet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3) He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4) Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.II. Emily Dickenson1. life2. works(1) My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2) Because I Can’t Stop for Death(3) I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I died(4) Mine – by the Right of the White Election(5) Wild Nights – Wild Nights3. themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1) religion – doubt and belief about religious subjects(2) death and immortality(3) love – suffering and frustration caused by love(4) physical aspect of desire(5) nature – kind and cruel(6) free will and human responsibility4. style(1) poems without titles(2) severe economy of expression(3) directness, brevity(4) musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5) capital letters – emphasis(6) short poems, mainly two stanzas(7) rhetoric techniques: personification – make some of abstract ideas vividIII. Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1. Similarities:(1) Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of ―American Renaissance‖.(2) Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2. differences:(1) Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual.(2) Whereas Whitman is ―national‖ in his outlook, Dickinson is ―regional‖.(3) Dickinson has the ―catalogue technique‖ (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn’t have.课后总结年月日课时授课计划年月日教案年月日第页课后总结年月日。

美国文学教案

美国文学教案

美国文学教案History of American LiteratureFrom Washington Irving to Mark TwainI. Writings before the RomanticismImportant Social and Historical Events1.Jamestown Colony ( 1607 ) in the SouthThe first settlers from the Virginia Company, came to the New World for mercantile purposes.2.Plymouth ( 1620 ) in the North●他们双膝跪下,感激上帝带他们越过了浩瀚汹涌的大洋,把他们从危险和苦难中解救出来,使他们安全无恙地又一次踏上了坚实的大地……---威廉·布雷德福总督,1620,11●Although we have our differences, we are all God’s children and as such webe but specks in the vastness of this ocean, but precious unto our Lord and together we are voyagers, pilgrims, and look to Thine infinite mercy and providence.---- William Bradford, on the Mayflower●我要讴歌基督教创造的奇迹。

为逃避欧洲的腐败堕落,他们来到美洲的海滩;……感谢上帝的庇佑,把印第安人的荒芜之地变得辉煌灿烂。

---科顿·马瑟3. Massachusetts Bay ( 1630 )●我们将成为整个世界的山巅之城 ( a city set upon a hill ),全世界人民的眼睛都将看着我们。

Unit10 American literature 教案示例二 新课程 人教版 教案

Unit10 American literature 教案示例二 新课程 人教版 教案

Unit10 American literature 教案示例二Reading and Integrated skills(五)读前(Pre-reading)阅读课文改编自欧·亨利(O Henry)的一个短篇故事,在阅读之前,教师可以向学生介绍作者的有关情况。

“语言学习”部分有两篇文章介绍欧·亨利,以下信息可以成为该练习的补充。

●He was born on September 11, 1862 in North Carolina,where he spent his childhood.● An highly praised master of short stories and tales.● Starting in 1895 he wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post.● In early 1896 he was charged with embezzling funds.● O Henry wrote with rea listic detail based on his first-hand experiences both in Texas and in New York City.● In 1907.he published many of his Texas stories in The Heart of the West.●He moved to New York City.where over the next ten years before his death in 1910,he published over 300 stories and gained worldwide praise as America's favorite short story writer.●He died on June 5,1910 in New York City at the age of forty seven.An alcoholic,he died virtually penniless. (六)阅读(Reading)阅读课文改编自欧·亨利的《麦琪的礼物》(The gift of the Magi)。

大学美国文学教案设计

大学美国文学教案设计

课时:2课时教学目标:1. 了解美国文学的历史背景和主要流派。

2. 熟悉美国文学的代表作及其作者。

3. 培养学生对美国文学的兴趣和鉴赏能力。

教学重点:1. 美国文学的历史背景和主要流派。

2. 美国文学的代表作及其作者。

教学难点:1. 美国文学的历史背景和主要流派。

2. 美国文学的代表作及其作者。

教学准备:1. 教师准备:美国文学教材、多媒体课件、相关图片和视频资料。

2. 学生准备:预习教材,了解美国文学的历史背景和主要流派。

教学过程:第一课时一、导入1. 教师简要介绍美国文学的历史背景和主要流派。

2. 学生分享自己预习的心得体会。

二、课堂讲解1. 美国文学的历史背景(1)介绍美国独立战争、南北战争等重大历史事件对美国文学的影响。

(2)阐述美国文学的发展阶段,如浪漫主义、现实主义、现代主义等。

2. 美国文学的主要流派(1)浪漫主义:以惠特曼、朗费罗等为代表。

(2)现实主义:以马克·吐温、杰克·伦敦等为代表。

(3)现代主义:以海明威、福克纳等为代表。

三、案例分析1. 以《草叶集》为例,分析惠特曼的浪漫主义风格。

2. 以《汤姆·索亚历险记》为例,分析马克·吐温的现实主义风格。

四、课堂小结1. 总结美国文学的历史背景和主要流派。

2. 强调美国文学的代表作及其作者。

第二课时一、复习导入1. 回顾上节课所学内容,引导学生对美国文学有更深入的了解。

2. 学生分享自己对美国文学的感悟。

二、课堂讲解1. 美国文学的代表作及其作者(1)介绍美国文学的代表作,如《草叶集》、《汤姆·索亚历险记》、《老人与海》等。

(2)阐述代表作的作者及其代表作,如惠特曼的《草叶集》、马克·吐温的《汤姆·索亚历险记》、海明威的《老人与海》等。

2. 美国文学的特色(1)探讨美国文学的语言风格、题材选择、人物塑造等方面的特色。

(2)分析美国文学对美国社会和文化的影响。

三、课堂讨论1. 学生分组讨论,分析美国文学的代表作及其作者。

[英语学习]美国文学电子教案

[英语学习]美国文学电子教案

美国文学电子教案第一章:美国文学概述1.1 教学目标了解美国文学的发展历程掌握美国文学的重要时期和代表作品理解美国文学的特点和影响1.2 教学内容美国文学的历史背景和发展脉络美国文学的重要时期和代表作家美国文学的特点和影响1.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国文学的发展历程教师讲解:美国文学的重要时期和代表作品学生展示:美国文学的特点和影响1.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国文学发展历程的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第二章:美国独立战争与早期文学2.1 教学目标了解美国独立战争对美国文学的影响掌握美国早期文学的特点和代表作品理解美国早期文学的意义和价值2.2 教学内容美国独立战争对美国文学的影响美国早期文学的特点和代表作品美国早期文学的意义和价值2.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国独立战争对文学的影响教师讲解:美国早期文学的特点和代表作品学生展示:美国早期文学的意义和价值2.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国早期文学的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第三章:浪漫主义文学3.1 教学目标了解浪漫主义文学在美国的发展和特点掌握美国浪漫主义文学的代表作家和作品理解浪漫主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义3.2 教学内容浪漫主义文学在美国的发展和特点美国浪漫主义文学的代表作家和作品浪漫主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义3.3 教学活动引入讨论:浪漫主义文学在美国的发展教师讲解:美国浪漫主义文学的代表作家和作品学生展示:浪漫主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义3.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国浪漫主义文学的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第四章:现实主义文学4.1 教学目标了解美国现实主义文学的特点和代表作品掌握美国现实主义文学的重要作家和作品理解现实主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义4.2 教学内容美国现实主义文学的特点和代表作品美国现实主义文学的重要作家和作品现实主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义4.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国现实主义文学的特点教师讲解:美国现实主义文学的重要作家和作品学生展示:现实主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义4.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国现实主义文学的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第五章:现代主义文学5.1 教学目标了解美国现代主义文学的特点和代表作品掌握美国现代主义文学的重要作家和作品理解现代主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义5.2 教学内容美国现代主义文学的特点和代表作品美国现代主义文学的重要作家和作品现代主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义5.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国现代主义文学的特点教师讲解:美国现代主义文学的重要作家和作品学生展示:现代主义文学对美国文学的影响和意义5.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国现代主义文学的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第六章:当代美国文学6.1 教学目标了解当代美国文学的特点和发展趋势掌握当代美国文学的重要作家和代表作品理解当代美国文学对社会和文化的影响6.2 教学内容当代美国文学的特点和发展趋势当代美国文学的重要作家和代表作品当代美国文学对社会和文化的影响6.3 教学活动引入讨论:当代美国文学的发展趋势教师讲解:当代美国文学的重要作家和代表作品学生展示:当代美国文学对社会和文化的影响6.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于当代美国文学的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第七章:非裔美国文学7.1 教学目标了解非裔美国文学的历史和特点掌握非裔美国文学的重要作家和代表作品理解非裔美国文学对美国文学的贡献和意义7.2 教学内容非裔美国文学的历史和特点非裔美国文学的重要作家和代表作品非裔美国文学对美国文学的贡献和意义7.3 教学活动引入讨论:非裔美国文学的历史和特点教师讲解:非裔美国文学的重要作家和代表作品学生展示:非裔美国文学对美国文学的贡献和意义7.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于非裔美国文学的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第八章:美国戏剧和戏剧理论8.1 教学目标了解美国戏剧的发展历程和特点掌握美国戏剧的重要剧作家和代表作品理解戏剧理论对美国戏剧的影响和意义8.2 教学内容美国戏剧的发展历程和特点美国戏剧的重要剧作家和代表作品戏剧理论对美国戏剧的影响和意义8.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国戏剧的发展历程和特点教师讲解:美国戏剧的重要剧作家和代表作品学生展示:戏剧理论对美国戏剧的影响和意义8.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国戏剧的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第九章:美国诗歌和诗歌理论9.1 教学目标了解美国诗歌的发展历程和特点掌握美国诗歌的重要诗人和代表作品理解诗歌理论对美国诗歌的影响和意义9.2 教学内容美国诗歌的发展历程和特点美国诗歌的重要诗人和代表作品诗歌理论对美国诗歌的影响和意义9.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国诗歌的发展历程和特点教师讲解:美国诗歌的重要诗人和代表作品学生展示:诗歌理论对美国诗歌的影响和意义9.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国诗歌的短文学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点第十章:美国文学的研究方法10.1 教学目标了解美国文学研究的常用方法和理论掌握美国文学研究的学术资源和工具理解美国文学研究的意义和挑战10.2 教学内容美国文学研究的常用方法和理论美国文学研究的学术资源和工具美国文学研究的意义和挑战10.3 教学活动引入讨论:美国文学研究的意义和挑战教师讲解:美国文学研究的常用方法和理论学生展示:美国文学研究的学术资源和工具10.4 作业与评估学生写一篇关于美国文学研究方法的报告学生参与课堂讨论,提出问题和观点重点和难点解析在上述美国文学电子教案中,有几个环节是值得重点关注的。

大学美国文学教案设计方案

大学美国文学教案设计方案

一、课程名称美国文学二、课程目标1. 了解美国文学的发展历程,掌握美国文学的重要作家和作品。

2. 培养学生对美国文学的兴趣,提高文学鉴赏能力。

3. 增强学生的跨文化意识,拓宽国际视野。

4. 培养学生的批判性思维和创新能力。

三、课程内容1. 美国文学概述- 美国文学的起源与发展- 美国文学的流派与特点2. 美国文学重要作家与作品- 殖民时期文学- 殖民时期文学的产生背景- 代表作家:约翰·班扬、安妮·布拉德斯特里特等- 美国独立战争时期文学- 美国独立战争时期的文学特点- 代表作家:托马斯·潘恩等- 美国浪漫主义文学- 美国浪漫主义文学的起源与发展- 代表作家:沃尔特·惠特曼、纳撒尼尔·霍桑等- 美国现实主义文学- 美国现实主义文学的起源与发展- 代表作家:马克·吐温、亨利·詹姆斯等- 美国现代主义文学- 美国现代主义文学的起源与发展- 代表作家:欧内斯特·海明威、弗朗西斯·斯科特·菲茨杰拉德等 - 美国当代文学- 美国当代文学的起源与发展- 代表作家:托妮·莫里森、乔伊斯·卡罗尔·欧茨等3. 美国文学与文化- 美国文学与宗教- 美国文学与社会- 美国文学与种族- 美国文学与性别四、教学方法1. 讲授法:系统讲解美国文学的发展历程、重要作家与作品、文化背景等。

2. 讨论法:组织学生进行课堂讨论,提高学生的批判性思维和创新能力。

3. 案例分析法:选取具有代表性的作品,引导学生进行深入分析。

4. 角色扮演法:让学生扮演作品中的角色,提高学生的文学鉴赏能力。

5. 翻译与写作:让学生翻译美国文学作品,提高学生的语言表达能力。

五、教学进度安排1. 第1-2周:美国文学概述2. 第3-4周:殖民时期文学3. 第5-6周:美国独立战争时期文学4. 第7-8周:美国浪漫主义文学5. 第9-10周:美国现实主义文学6. 第11-12周:美国现代主义文学7. 第13-14周:美国当代文学8. 第15-16周:美国文学与文化六、考核方式1. 课堂参与:占总成绩的30%2. 课堂讨论:占总成绩的20%3. 期末论文:占总成绩的40%4. 平时作业:占总成绩的10%七、教学资源1. 教材:《美国文学史》2. 教学课件3. 美国文学作品选集4. 网络资源通过本课程的学习,使学生全面了解美国文学的发展历程,提高文学鉴赏能力,拓宽国际视野,为今后的学术研究和文学创作打下坚实基础。

大学美国文学教案模板范文

大学美国文学教案模板范文

课程名称:美国文学史授课对象:大学本科二年级课时安排:2课时教学目标:1. 了解殖民地时期美国文学产生的社会及文化背景。

2. 掌握新英格兰文学的特点和代表作品。

3. 深入理解清教主义思想对文学创作的影响。

4. 分析安妮·布拉德斯特里特和爱德华·泰勒的诗歌创作。

教学重点:1. 殖民地时期美国文学的社会及文化背景。

2. 新英格兰文学的特点和代表作品。

3. 清教主义思想对文学创作的影响。

教学难点:1. 清教主义思想在文学作品中的具体体现。

2. 安妮·布拉德斯特里特和爱德华·泰勒诗歌的鉴赏。

教学过程:一、导入1. 介绍殖民地时期美国文学的历史背景,引导学生了解殖民时期美国文学的重要性。

2. 提出问题:殖民时期美国文学产生的社会及文化背景有哪些?二、讲授新课1. 殖民地时期美国文学产生的社会及文化背景- 殖民地时期的地理环境、宗教信仰、文化传承等因素对文学创作的影响。

- 殖民地时期美国文学的独特性及其与欧洲文学的联系与区别。

2. 新英格兰文学- 新英格兰文学的特点:清教主义思想、宗教色彩浓厚、语言简练、注重道德教化。

- 代表作品:《弗吉尼亚日记》、《新英格兰诗集》等。

3. 清教主义思想对文学创作的影响- 清教主义思想对作家价值观、人生观的影响。

- 清教主义思想在文学作品中的具体体现。

4. 安妮·布拉德斯特里特和爱德华·泰勒的诗歌创作- 分析安妮·布拉德斯特里特的诗歌《致上帝的祈祷》和《致儿子》。

- 分析爱德华·泰勒的诗歌《基督徒的忧愁》。

三、课堂讨论1. 结合所学内容,讨论清教主义思想对殖民地时期美国文学的影响。

2. 分析安妮·布拉德斯特里特和爱德华·泰勒诗歌的异同。

四、总结1. 总结殖民地时期美国文学的特点及代表作品。

2. 强调清教主义思想对文学创作的影响。

五、课后作业1. 阅读安妮·布拉德斯特里特和爱德华·泰勒的诗歌,撰写一篇鉴赏文章。

弗兰纳里-奥康纳《好人难寻》主要内容简介及赏析

弗兰纳里-奥康纳《好人难寻》主要内容简介及赏析

弗兰纳里-奥康纳《好人难寻》主要内容简介及赏析(最新版)编制人:__________________审核人:__________________审批人:__________________编制单位:__________________编制时间:____年____月____日序言下载提示:该文档是本店铺精心编制而成的,希望大家下载后,能够帮助大家解决实际问题。

文档下载后可定制修改,请根据实际需要进行调整和使用,谢谢!并且,本店铺为大家提供各种类型的经典范文,如诗歌散文、原文赏析、读书笔记、经典名著、古典文学、网络文学、经典语录、童话故事、心得体会、其他范文等等,想了解不同范文格式和写法,敬请关注!Download tips: This document is carefully compiled by this editor.I hope that after you download it, it can help you solve practical problems. The document can be customized and modified after downloading, please adjust and use it according to actual needs, thank you!In addition, this shop provides you with various types of classic sample essays, such as poetry and prose, original text appreciation, reading notes, classic works, classical literature, online literature, classic quotations, fairy tales, experience, other sample essays, etc. if you want to know the difference Please pay attention to the format and writing of the sample essay!弗兰纳里-奥康纳《好人难寻》主要内容简介及赏析【导语】:作者简介弗兰纳里奥康纳(19251964)是美国南方女作家,1925年3月25日生在佐治亚州萨凡纳的天主教家庭,1964年8月3日死于红斑狼疮。

弗兰纳里·奥康纳《河》的宗教象征主义

弗兰纳里·奥康纳《河》的宗教象征主义

2016.05弗兰纳里·奥康纳(1925-1964)不仅是二战后美国极具影响力的宗教作家,也是继威廉·福克纳之后“南方哥特”最杰出的代表,享有南方哥特“女王”的美誉。

奥康纳是一名虔诚的天主教徒,她的宗教思想在其作品中有着深刻的体现和诠释。

对于“死亡”这一哥特小说的重要元素,奥康纳有着自己独特的见解。

奥康纳坦言,一个故事不在死亡或其先兆中结束是无法理解的。

死亡是通往救赎的唯一途径,肉体的死亡并非生命的终结,而是生命的延续和重生。

在奥康纳的两部短篇小说集中有多篇都以一个或多个人物的死亡结束,短篇小说《河》就是以主人公哈里·阿什菲尔德自溺而死而结束。

一、哈里之死:家庭悲剧奥康纳在其短篇小说中常选取家庭为背景来构筑小说人物和故事情节,如《河》、《瘸子应该先进去》、《树林风景》、《上升的一切必将汇合》、《审判日》和《家的慰藉》等。

在这些以家庭为情景的小说中,奥康纳都以一位家庭成员的重创或死亡来唤醒其他家庭成员的良知和警示那些同样愚昧的世人。

奥康纳笔下的这些家庭都弥漫着陌生、冷漠和疏离的气氛,家庭成员之间或缺乏交流或矛盾重重,处处充斥着不和谐的声音。

短篇小说《河》中的哈里(Harry)就是一个被父母忽视的孩子,父母的冷酷漠视也早已暗示了故事的悲惨结局。

故事的开头,哈里被父亲胡乱穿戴一番后,又被推到了门口交给保姆康宁太太。

当康宁太太指出哈里还没有穿戴好时,哈里的父亲或许因为“现在是早上六点”自己还要休息而要求她“看在基督的分上帮他穿整齐”。

当康宁太太和他确认哈里的返回时间时,他似乎更加急不可耐地将哈里送出家门,手指“敲着门板”,“说完就消失在卧室里”。

哈里母亲被神秘的疾病缠身,就在这个早上,在康宁太太和哈里父亲的交谈中,“卧室里传来了一个苍白无力的声音:‘给我拿个冰袋过来’”。

事实上,极具讽刺意味的是,哈里在接受洗礼时,不经意间向牧师吐露了实情:她有宿酒病。

可想而知,宿醉的母亲更是无法照顾可怜的哈里。

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最新弗兰纳里奥康纳美国文学教学教案American writer, particularly acclaimed for her stories which combined comic with tragic and brutal. Along with authors like Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor belonged to the Southern Gothic tradition that focused on the decaying South and its damned people. O'Connor's body of work was small, consisting of only thirty-one stories, two novels, and some speeches and letters."Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man, Freedom cannot be conceived simply." (from Wise Blood, 1952)Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family. The region was part of the 'Christ-haunted' Bible belt of the Southern States. The spiritual heritage of the region shaped profoundly O'Connor's writing as described in her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1969). O'Connor's father, Edward F. O'Connor, was a realtor owner. He worked later for a construction company and died in 1941. Her mother, Regina L. (Cline) O'Connor, came from a prominent family in the state - her father had been a mayor of Milledgeville for many years.When O'Connor was 12, her family moved to Milledgeville, her mother's birthplace. She attended the Peabody High School and enrolled in the Georgia State College for Women. At school she edited the college magazine and graduated in 1945 with an A.B. O'Connor then continued her studies at the University of Iowa, where she attended writer's workshops conducted by Paul Engle. At the age of 21 she published her first short story, 'The Geranium', in Accent. In the following year she received the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Literature. In 1947 she lived for seven months at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., an estate left by the Trask family for writers, painters and musicians.O'Connor published four chapters of Wise Blood in Mademoiselle, Sewanee Review, and Partisan Review in 1948 and 1949. The complete novel appeared 1952. It dealt with a young religious enthusiast, who attempts to establish a church without Christ. The Signet paperback version of the book advertised it as "A Searching Novel of Sin and Redemption". O'Connor's second novel, The Violent Bear It Away (1960), had a related subject matter. The protagonist is Francis Marion Tarwater who begins his ministry in his youth. He baptizes and drowns Bishop, his uncle's idiot son. Old Tarwater warns his grand-nephew: "'You are the kind of boy,' the old man said, 'that the devil is always going to be offering to assists, to give you a smoke or a drink or a ride, and to ask you your bidnis. You had better mind how you take up with strangers.'" Young Tarwater sets fire to his own woods to clean himself, and like his great-uncle, a mad prophet, he finally becomes a prophet and a madman. O'Connor once explained that "I can write about Protestant believers better than Catholicbelievers - because they express their belief in diverse kinds of dramatic action which is obvious enough for me to catch. I can't write about anything subtle."The young protagonist of Wise Blood, Hazel Mote, returns from the army with his faith gone awry. He founds the Church Without Christ, wears a preacher's bright blue suit and a preacher's black hat. He is accompanied by bizarre villains. Asa Hawks pretends to have blinded himself. Sabbath Lily, his daughter, turns into a monster of sexual voracity. The fox-faced young Enoch Emery steals from a museum a mummy, which he thinks of as "the new jesus." Enoch knows things because "he had wise blood like his daddy." Eventually Enoch finds his religious fulfillment dressed in a stolen gorilla costume. Hazel buys an old Essex automobile, his own religious mystery: "Nobody with a good car needs to be justified." Haze murders the False Prophet, his rival, by running over him with his second-hand Essex, and faces his cul-de-sac.John Huston read the novel in 1978 - he received a copy of it from Michael Fitzgerald, whose father was O'Connor's literary executor. Against all odds, Michael Fitzgerald got the money for the production, some $2,000,000; the screenplay was written by Michael and his brother, Benedict, and everyone worked for a minimum wage. Most of the film was shot in Macon, Georgia."There were seven outstanding performances in Wise Blood. Only three of those seven actors have any reputation to speak of: Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty and Harry Dean Stanton. The other four are unknowns. They are all great stars, as far as I'm concerned. Nothing would make me happier than to see this picture gain popular acceptance and turn a profit. It would prove something. I'm not sure what... but something." ( John Huston in An Open Book, 1988)In 1950 O'Connor suffered her first attack from disseminated lupus, a debilitating blood disease that had killed her father. She returned to Milledgeville where she lived with her mother on her dairy farm. In spite of the illness, O'Connor continued to write and occasionally she lectured about creative writing in colleges. "I write every day for at least two hours," she said in an interview in 1952, "and I spend the rest of my time largely in the society of ducks.""I am making out fine in spite of any conflicting stories," she wrote to Robert Lowell. "I have enough energy to write with and as that is all I have any business doing anyhow, I can with one eye squinted take it all as a blessing. What you have to measure out, you come to observe more closely, or so I tell myself." O'Connor read such thinkers as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-195), George Santayana (1863-1952), and Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). In New York she had befriended with Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, two other literary Roman Catholics. She lived and wrote in their house in Ridgefield, Connecticut until illness redirected her life in 1951. O'Connor named Robert Fitzgerald as her literary executor. He selected and edited with his wife a volume of O'Connor's occasional prose, which was published in 1969 under the title Mystery and Manners.From around 1955 O'Connor was forced to use crutches. An abdominal operation reactivated the lupus and O'Connor died on August 3, 1964, at the age of 39. Her second collection of short stories,Everything That Rises Must Converge, was published posthumously in 1965. The Complete Short Stories(1971) contained several stories that had not previously appeared in book form. O'Connor's letters, published as The Habit of Being(1979), reveal her conscious craftsmanship in writing and the role of Roman Catholicism in her life.O'Connor's short stories have been considered her finest work. With A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories (1955) she came to be regarded as a master of the form. The cover art of the 1956 Signet paperback edition featured an encounter with a man in a dark suit and voluptuous woman. In the title story a grandmother, her son and daughter-in-law and their three children, are on a car journey. They encounter an escaped criminal called the Misfit and his two killers, Hiram and Bobby Lee. The family is casually wiped out by them when the grandmother recognizes the Misfit from his ''Wanted'' poster. The hallucinating grandmother murmurs: "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" The Misfit shoots her and says: "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."'A View of the Woods' was a violent and perhaps pointless tale of the seventy-nine-year-old Mr. Fortune and his nine-year-old granddaughter, Mary Fortune Pitts, both selfish and mean. The story ends in a fight. The grandfather smashes Mary's head several times against a rock, killing her. Exhausted, he manages to take a few steps, has a final "view of the woods," and dies of a heart attack.In the story "Good Country People" a young woman with a sense of moral superiority experiences her downfall. The protagonist, Joy Hopewell, has an artificial leg as a result of a hunting accident. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy and she has changed her name legally from Joy to Hulga. Joy-Hulga tries to seduce a Bible salesman, a simple-seeming country boy, with the obvious phallic name of Manley Pointer. He turns out to be another 'Hazel Motes' and disappears with her artificial leg. "The Artificial Nigger" is a lesson about injustice. However, O'Connor's short stories have not so strong theological basis as her novels. They often focus on grotesque characters, have a crisp humor, and are open to interpretation. Recurrent images include the flaming suns, mutilated eyes, peacocks - she raised them in Milledgeville - colorful shirts, and bright blue suits and stern black hats of preachers.GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLEBESIDES the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings. Her forward expression was steady and driving like the advance of a heavy truck. Her eyes never swerved to left or right but turned as the story turned as if they followed a yellow line down the center of it. She seldom used the other expression because it was not often necessary forher to retract a statement, but when she did, her face came to a complete stop, there was an almost imperceptible movement of her black eyes, during which they seemed to be receding, and then the observer would see that Mrs. Freeman, though she might stand there as real as several grain sacks thrown on top of each other, was no longer there in spirit. As for getting anything across to her when this was the case, Mrs. Hopewell had given it up. She might talk her head off. Mrs. Freeman could never be brought to admit herself wrong to any point. She would stand there and if she could be brought to say anything, it was something like, “Well, I wouldn’t of said it was and I wouldn’t of said it wasn’t? or letting her gaze range over the top kitchen shelf where there was an assortment of dusty bottles, she might remark, “I see you ain’t ate many of them figs you put up last summer.”They carried on their most important business in the kitchen at breakfast. Every morning Mrs. Hopewell got up at seven o’clock and lit her gas heater and Joy’s. Joy was her daughter, a large blonds girl who had an artificial leg. Mrs. Hopewell thought of her as a child though she was thirty-two years old and highly educated. Joy would get up while her mother was eating and lumber into the bathroom and slam the door, and before long, Mrs. Freeman would arrive at the back door. Joy would hear her mother call, ‘Come on in,’ and then they would talk for a while in low voices that were indistinguishable in the bathroom. By the time Joy came in, they had usually finished the weather report and were on one or the other of Mrs. Freeman’s daughters, Glynese or Carramae. Joy called them Glycerin and Caramel. Glynese, a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers; Carramae, a blonde, was only fifteen but already married and pregnant. She could not keep anything on her stomach. Every morning Mrs. Freeman told Mrs. Hopewell how many times she had vomited since the last report.Mrs. Hopewell liked to tell people that Glynese and Carramae were two of the finest girls she knew and that Mrs. Freeman was a lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody they might meet. Then she would tell how she had happened to hire the Freemans in the first place and how they were a godsend to her and how she had had them four years. The reason for her keeping them so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people. She had telephoned the man whose name they had given as reference and he had told her that Mr. Freeman was a good farmer but that his wife was the nosiest woman ever to walk the earth. “She’s got to be into everything,”the man said. “If she don’t get there before the dust settles, you can bet she’s dead, that’s all. She’ll want to know all your business. I can stand him real good,” he had said, “but me nor my wife neither could have stood that woman one more minute on this place.” That had put Mrs. Hopewell off for a few days.She had hired them in the end because there were no other applicants but she had made up her mind beforehand exactly how she would handle the woman. Since she was the type who had to be into everything, then, Mrs. Hopewell had decided, she would not only let her be into everything, she would see to it that she was into everything —she would give her the responsibility of everything, she would put her in charge. Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people’s in such a constructive way that she had kept them four years.Nothing is perfect. This was one of Mrs. Hopewell’s favorite sayings. Another was: that is life! And still another, the most important, was: well, other people have theiropinions too. She would make these statements, usually at the table, in a tone of gentle insistence as if no one held them but her, and the large hulking Joy, whose constant outrage had obliterated every expression from her face, would stare just a little to the side of her, her eyes icy blue, with the look of someone who had achieved blindness by an act of will and means to keep it.When Mrs. Hopewell said to Mrs. Freeman that life was like that, Mrs. Freeman would say, “I always said so myself.”Nothing had been arrived at by anyone that had not first been arrived at by her. She was quicker than Mr. Freeman. When Mrs. Hopewell said to her after they had been on the place for a while, “You know, you’re the wheel behind the wheel,” and winked, Mrs. Freeman had said, “I know it. I’ve always been quick. It’s some that are quicker than others.”“Everybody is different,” Mrs. Hopewell said.“Yes, most people is,” Mrs. Freeman said.“It takes all kinds to make the world.”“I always said it did myself.”The girl was used to this kind of dialogue for breakfast and more of it for dinner; sometimes they had it for supper too. When they had no guest they ate in the kitchen because that was easier. Mrs. Freeman always managed to arrive at some point during the meal and to watch them finish it. She would stand in the doorway if it were summer but in the winter she would stand with one elbow on top of the refrigerator and look down at them, or she would stand by the gas heater, lifting the back of her skirt slightly. Occasionally she would stand against the wall and roll her head from side to side. At no time was she in any hurry to leave. All this was very trying on Mrs. Hopewell but she was a woman of great patience. She realized that nothing is perfect and that in the Freemans she had good country people and that if, in this day and age, you get good country people, you had better hang onto them.She had had plenty of experience with trash. Before the Freemans she had averaged one tenant family a year. The wives of these farmers were not the kind you would want to be around you for very long. Mrs. Hopewell, who had divorced her husband long ago, needed someone to walk over the fields with her; and when Joy had to be impressed for these services, her remarks were usually so ugly and her face so glum that Mrs. Hopewell would say, “If you can’t come pleasantly, I don’t want you at all,”to which the girl, standing square and rigid-shouldered with her neck thrust slightly forward, would reply, “If you want me, here I am —LIKE I AM.”Mrs. Hopewell excused this attitude because of the leg (which had been shot off in a hunting accident when Joy was ten). It was hard for Mrs. Hopewell to realize that her child was thirty-two now and that for more than twenty years she had had only one leg. She thought of her still as a child because it tore her heart to think instead of the poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times. Her name was really Joy but as soon as she was twenty-one and away from home, she had had it legally changed. Mrs. Hopewell was certain that she had thought and thought until she had hit upon the ugliest name in any language. Then she had gone and had the beautiful name, Joy, changed without telling her mother until after she had done it. Her legal name was Hulga.When Mrs. Hopewell thought the name, Hulga, she thought of the broad blank hull of abattleship. She would not use it. She continued to call her Joy to which the girl responded but in a purely mechanical way.Hulga had learned to tolerate Mrs. Freeman who saved her from taking walks with her mother. Even Glynese and Carramae were useful when they occupied attention that might otherwise have been directed at her. At first she had thought she could not stand Mrs. Freeman for she had found it was not possible to be rude to her. Mrs. Freeman would take on strange resentments and for days together she would be sullen but the source of her displeasure was always obscure; a direct attack, a positive leer, blatant ugliness to her face —these never touched her. And without warning one day, she began calling her Hulga.She did not call her that in front of Mrs. Hopewell who would have been incensed but when she and the girl happened to be out of the house together, she would say something and add the name Hulga to the end of it, and the big spectacled Joy-Hulga would scowl and redden as if her privacy had been intruded upon. She considered the name her personal affair. She had arrived at it first purely on the basis of its ugly sound and then the full genius of its fitness had struck her. She had a vision of the name working like the ugly sweating Vulcan who stayed in the furnace and to whom, presumably, the goddess had to come when called. She saw it as the name of her highest creative act. One of her major triumphs was that her mother had not been able to turn her dust into Joy, but the greater one was that she had been able to turn it herself into Hulga. However, Mrs. Freeman’s relish for using the name only irritated her. It was as if Mrs. Freeman’s beady steel-pointed eyes had penetrated far enough behind her face to reach some secret fact. Something about her seemed to fascinate Mrs. Freeman and then one day Hulga realized that it was the artificial leg. Mrs. Freeman had a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children. Of diseases, she preferred the lingering or incurable. Hulga had heard Mrs. Hopewell give her the details of the hunting accident, how the leg had been literally blasted off, how she had never lost consciousness. Mrs. Freeman could listen to it any time as if it had happened an hour ago.When Hulga stumped into the kitchen in the morning (she could walk without making the awful noise but she made it —Mrs. Hopewell was certain —because it was ugly-sounding), she glanced at them and did not speak. Mrs. Hopewell would be in her red kimono with her hair tied around her head in rags. She would be sitting at the table, finishing her breakfast and Mrs. Freeman would be hanging by her elbow outward from the refrigerator, looking down at the table. Hulga always put her eggs on the stove to boil and then stood over them with her arms folded, and Mrs. Hopewell would look at her —a kind of indirect gaze divided between her and Mrs. Freeman —and would think that if she would only keep herself up a little, she wouldn’t be so bad looking. There was nothing wrong with her face that a pleasant expression wouldn’t help. Mrs. Hopewell said that people who looked on the bright side of things would be beautiful even if they were not.Whenever she looked at Joy this way, she could not help but feel that it would have been better if the child had not taken the Ph.D. It had certainly not brought her out any and now that she had it, there was no more excuse for her to go to school again. Mrs. Hopewell thought it was nice for girls to go to school t o have a good time but Joy had “gone through.”Anyhow, she would not have been strong enough to go again. The doctors had told Mrs.Hopewell that with the best of care, Joy might see forty-five. She had a weak heart. Joy had made it plain that if it had not been for this condition, she would be far from these red hills and good country people. She would be in a university lecturing to people who knew what she was talking about. And Mrs. Hopewell could very well picture here there, looking like a scarecrow and lecturing to more of the same. Here she went about all day in a six-year-old skirt and a yellow sweat shirt with a faded cowboy on a horse embossed on it. She thought this was funny; Mrs. Hopewell thought it was idiotic and showed simply that she was still a child. She was brilliant but she didn’t have a grain of sense. It seemed to Mrs. Hopewell that every year she grew less like other people and more like herself —bloated, rude, and squint-eyed. And she said such strange things! To her own mother she had said—without warning, without excuse, standing up in the middle of a meal with her face purple and her mouth half full—Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not?God!” she had cried sinking down again and staring at her plate, “Malebranche was right: we are not our own light. We are not our own light!”Mrs. Hopewell had no idea to this day what brought that on. She had only made the remark, hoping Joy would take it in, that a smile never hurt anyone. The girl had taken the Ph.D. in philosophy and this left Mrs. Hopewell at a complete loss. You could say, “My daughter is a nurse,”or “My daughter is a school teacher,?”or even, “My daughter is a chemical engineer.”You could not say, “My daughter is a philosopher.”That was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans. All day Joy sat on her neck in a deep chair, reading. Sometimes she went for walks but she didn’t like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men. She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity.One day Mrs. Hopewell had picked up one of the books the girl had just put down and opening it at random, she read, “Science, on the other hand, has to assert its soberness and seriousness afresh and declare that it is concerned solely with what-is. Nothing—how can it be for science anything but a horror and a phantasm? If science is right, then one thing stands firm: science wishes to know nothing of nothing. Such is after all the strictly scientific approach to Nothing. We know it by wishing to know nothing of Nothing.”These words had been underlined with a blue pencil and they worked on Mrs. Hopewell like some evil incantation in gibberish. She shut the book quickly and went out of the room as if she were having a chill.This morning when the girl came in, Mrs. Freeman was on Carramae. “She thrown up four times after supper,”she said, “and was up twice in the night after three o’clock. Yesterday she didn’t do nothing but ramble in the bureau drawer. All she did. Stand up there and see what she could run up on.”“She’s got to eat,” Mrs. Hopewell muttered, sipping her coffee, while she watched Joy’s back at the stove. She was wondering what the child had said to the Bible salesman. She could not imagine what kind of a conversation she could possibly have had with him.He was a tall gaunt hatless youth who had called yesterday to sell them a Bible. He had appeared at the door, carrying a large black suitcase that weighted him so heavily on one side that he had to brace himself against the door facing. He seemed on the point of collapse but he said in a cheerful voice, ?Good morning, Mrs. Cedars!? and set the suitcase down on the mat. He was not a bad-looking young man though he had on a bright blue suitand yellow socks that were not pulled up far enough. He had prominent face bones and a streak of sticky-looking brown hair falling across his forehead.“I’m Mrs. Hopewell,” she said.“Oh!” he said, pretending to look puzzled but with his eyes sparkling, “I saw it said ‘The Cedars’ on the mailbox so I thought you was Mrs. Cedars!” and he burst out in a pleasant laugh. He picked up the satchel and under cover of a pant, he fell forward into her hall. It was rather as if the suitcase had moved first, jerking him after it. “Mrs. Hopewell!” he said and grabbed her hand. “I hope you are well!” and he laughed again and then all at once his face sobered completely. He paused and gave her a straight earnest look and said, “Lady, I’ve come to speak of serious things.”“Well, come in,”she muttered, none too pleased because her dinner was almost ready. He came into the parlor and sat down on the edge of a straight chair and put the suitcase between his feet and glanced around the room as if he were sizing her up by it. Her silver gleamed on the two sideboards; she decided he had never been in a room as elegant as this.“Mrs. Hopewell,” he began, using her name in a way that sounded almost intimate, ?I know you believe in Chrustian service.?“Well, yes,” she murmured.“I know,” he said and paused, looking very wise with his head cocked on one side, “that you’re a good woman. Friends have told me.”Mrs. Hopewell never liked to be taken for a fool. “What are you selling?” she asked.“Bibles,” the young man said and his eye raced around the room before he added, “I see you have no family Bible in your parlor, I see that is the one lack you got!”Mrs. Hopewell could not say, “My daughter is an atheist and won’t let me keep the Bible in the parlor.”She said, stiffening slightly, “I keep my Bible by my bedside.”This was not the truth. It was in the attic somewhere.“Lady,” he said, “the word of God ought to be in the parlor.”“Well, I think that’s a matter of taste,” she began, “I think…”“Lady,”he said, “for a Chrustian, the word of God ought to be in every room in the house besides in his heart. I know you’re a Chrustian because I can see it in every line of your face.”She stood up and said, “Well, young man, I don’t want to buy a Bible and I smell my dinner burning.”He didn’t get up. He began to twist his hands and looking down at them, he said softly, “Well lady, I’ll tell you the truth—not many people want to buy one nowadays and besides, I know I’m real simple. I don’t know how to say a thing but to say it. I’m just a country boy.”He glanced up into her unfriendly face. “People like you don’t like to fool with country people like me!”“Why!” she cried, “good country people are the salt of the earth! Besides, we all have different ways of doing, it takes all kinds to make the world go ’round. That’s life!”“You said a mouthful,” he said.“Why, I think there aren’t enough good country people in the world!”she said, stirred. “I think that’s what’s wrong with it!”His face had brightened. “I didn’t intraduce myself,”he said. “I’m Manley Pointerfrom out in the country around Willohobie, not even from a place, just from near a place.”“You wait a minute,” she said. “I have to see about my dinner.”She went out to the kitchen and found Joy standing near the door where she had been listening.“Get rid of the salt of the earth,? she said, “and let’s eat.”Mrs. Hopewell gave her a pained look and turned the heat down under the vegetables. “I can’t be rude to anybody,” she murmured and went back into the parlor.He had opened the suitcase and was sitting with a Bible on each knee.“I appreciate your honesty,” he said. “You don’t see any more real honest people unless you go way out in the country.”“I know,”she said, ‘real genuine folks!’Through the crack in the door she heard a groan.“I guess a lot of boys come telling you they’re working their way through college,” he said, “but I’m not going to tell you that. Somehow,”he said, “I don’t want to go to college. I want to devote my life to Chrustian service. See,” he said, lowering his voice, “I got this heart condition. I may not live long. When you know it’s something wrong with you and you may not live long, well then, lady?”He paused, with his mouth open, and stared at her.He and Joy had the same condition! She knew that her eyes were filling with tears but she collected herself quickly and murmured, “Won’t you stay for dinner? We’d love to have you!” and was sorry the instant she heard herself say it.“Yes mam,” he said in an abashed voice. “I would sher love to do that!”Joy had given him one look on being introduced to him and then throughout the meal had not glanced at him again. He had addressed several remarks to her, which she had pretended not to hear. Mrs. Hopewell could not understand deliberate rudeness, although she lived with it, and she felt she had always to overflow with hospitality to make up for Joy’s lack of courtesy. She urged him to talk about himself and he did. He said he was the seventh child of twelve and that his father had been crushed under a tree when he himself was eight years old. He had been crushed very badly, in fact, almost cut in two and was practically not recognizable. His mother had got along the best she could by hard working and she had always seen that her children went to Sunday School and that they read the Bible every evening. He was now nineteen years old and he had been selling Bibles for four months. In that time he had sold seventy-seven Bibles and had the promise of two more sales. He wanted to become a missionary because he thought that was the way you could do most for people. “He who losest his life shall find it,” he said simply and he was so sincere, so genuine and earnest that Mrs. Hopewell would not for the world have smiled. He prevented his peas from sliding onto the table by blocking them with a piece of bread which he later cleaned his plate with. She could see Joy observing sidewise how he handled his knife and fork and she saw too that every few minutes, the boy would dart a keen appraising glance at the girl as if he were trying to attract her attention.After dinner Joy cleared the dishes off the table and disappeared and Mrs. Hopewell was left to talk with him. He told her again about his childhood and his father’s accident and about various things that had happened to him. Every five minutes or so she would stifle a yawn. He sat for two hours until finally she told him she must go because she had an appointment in town. He packed his Bibles and thanked her and prepared to leave, but in。

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