英语短篇小说教程本科课件(上)
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part of the reader; In the former, the author’s voice is generally
disguised, speaking through a persona.
Discussion: Is it literature?
The old dog barks backward without getting up. I can still remember when he was a pup.
The Random House Dictionary definition of the word “fiction”:
The class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, esp. in prose form.
The four main categories of literature:
In other words, he may or may not present an accurate picture of events.
The Reader:
Since the narrator does not always represent the author, the reader can not take the narrator’s words for granted, but needs to weigh and decide how much he can trust the narrator’s story.
Do you agree to this opinion?
“Autobiography is fiction, for in the process of writing the author will have inevitably created a fictitious character.”
英语短篇小说教程
Short Stories in English: A Reading Course
Unit Two
The Author, the Narrator and the Reader
Reading: (1): “The Washwoman” by I.B. Singer (2): “A Piece of Yellow Soap” by Frank
Robert Frost: “The Span of Life”
Discussion: Is it literature?
坟是白馒头， 井像黑窟窿， 黄狗身上白， 白狗身上肿。
Discussion: Is it literature?
Thirty days hath September, April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone Which has twenty-eight in fine, Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.
Comment on the following statement:
Israel Zangwill, an English writer, says something about the “truth” of fiction. Do you agree to this opinion?
“In Literature, everything is true except names and places; in history nothing is true except names and places. ”
Isarael Zangwill:
Art deals with essences, not with accidents.
Chekhov:
It is not the business of a writer to answer the great questions but to state the questions correctly.
Robert Frost and Ezra Pound:
Robert Frost: Literature is “a performance of words.”
Ezra Pound: Literature is “news that stays news.”
Essential differences between fiction and non-fictional writings:
The reading process is interactive, with the reader playing the role of both a receiver and a contributor, as meaning can only beБайду номын сангаасdiscovered and constructed by the reader.
英语短篇小说教程
Short Stories in English: A Reading Course
Unit One
Introduction: The Short Story Reading: “Early Autumn” by Langston
Hughes
Comment on the following statement:
The narrator of a story may be:
reliable or unreliable, objective or subjective, fair or partial, sympathetic or detached, simple-minded or sophisticated, ignorant or insightful.
3. Is there a clear message? What is Mary’s problem? 4. How does the story touch the reader – if it is a touching one? 5. What part does the setting play in the story?
fiction: novel, novella, short stories, myth, legend folktale…
poetry: ballad, epic, free verse, psalm, sonnet …
drama: play, opera, radio/TV/film scripts… prose: essay, criticism, literary theory,
The former has two levels of understanding, the narrative level and the authorial level, or the surface level and the deep level of understanding;
The former allows different interpretations; The former requires imaginative participation on the
The Narrator
Who is telling the story determines the story’s point of view – the vantage point from which events are presented. The implications of this choice are far-reaching. The perspective from which a story is told determines what details are to be included in the story and how they are to be arranged and presented.
It is a mistake to think that, for each story, there is one “correct” interpretation for all readers.
Sargeson
The Author
The author is not the same as the narrator – even when an author uses the first-person “I”. The author creates and chooses a narrator to tell a story and he might as well choose a totally different narrator to make a different story. A highly sophisticated author can choose a naïve person, a child for example, to tell a story.
Reading and Textual Analysis
Langston Hughes: “Early Autumn”
Questions
1. Even though we call it a “short story,” is there much “story” in the usual sense of the word? Is “story” an inevitable part?
Henry James:
The best fiction would not rely primarily upon plot, instead, would derive its impact from truth of detail.
Jack London:
(Good literature) transcends the limits of particularity to reach universality.
(auto)biography…
Sylvan Barnet: A Short Guide to Writing about Literature
Perhaps the first thing to say is that it is impossible to define literature in a way that will satisfy everyone. And perhaps the second thing to say is that in the last 20 years or so, some serious thinkers have argued that it is impossible to set off certain verbal works from all others, and on some basis or other to designate them as literature. It is an honorific word, or a body of work embodying eternal truth and eternal beauty.
John M. Ellis: The Theory of Literary Criticism
The word literature is something like the word weed. A weed is just a plant that gardeners for one reason or another don’t want in the garden, but no plant has characteristics that clearly make it weed and not merely a plant.
disguised, speaking through a persona.
Discussion: Is it literature?
The old dog barks backward without getting up. I can still remember when he was a pup.
The Random House Dictionary definition of the word “fiction”:
The class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, esp. in prose form.
The four main categories of literature:
In other words, he may or may not present an accurate picture of events.
The Reader:
Since the narrator does not always represent the author, the reader can not take the narrator’s words for granted, but needs to weigh and decide how much he can trust the narrator’s story.
Do you agree to this opinion?
“Autobiography is fiction, for in the process of writing the author will have inevitably created a fictitious character.”
英语短篇小说教程
Short Stories in English: A Reading Course
Unit Two
The Author, the Narrator and the Reader
Reading: (1): “The Washwoman” by I.B. Singer (2): “A Piece of Yellow Soap” by Frank
Robert Frost: “The Span of Life”
Discussion: Is it literature?
坟是白馒头， 井像黑窟窿， 黄狗身上白， 白狗身上肿。
Discussion: Is it literature?
Thirty days hath September, April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone Which has twenty-eight in fine, Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.
Comment on the following statement:
Israel Zangwill, an English writer, says something about the “truth” of fiction. Do you agree to this opinion?
“In Literature, everything is true except names and places; in history nothing is true except names and places. ”
Isarael Zangwill:
Art deals with essences, not with accidents.
Chekhov:
It is not the business of a writer to answer the great questions but to state the questions correctly.
Robert Frost and Ezra Pound:
Robert Frost: Literature is “a performance of words.”
Ezra Pound: Literature is “news that stays news.”
Essential differences between fiction and non-fictional writings:
The reading process is interactive, with the reader playing the role of both a receiver and a contributor, as meaning can only beБайду номын сангаасdiscovered and constructed by the reader.
英语短篇小说教程
Short Stories in English: A Reading Course
Unit One
Introduction: The Short Story Reading: “Early Autumn” by Langston
Hughes
Comment on the following statement:
The narrator of a story may be:
reliable or unreliable, objective or subjective, fair or partial, sympathetic or detached, simple-minded or sophisticated, ignorant or insightful.
3. Is there a clear message? What is Mary’s problem? 4. How does the story touch the reader – if it is a touching one? 5. What part does the setting play in the story?
fiction: novel, novella, short stories, myth, legend folktale…
poetry: ballad, epic, free verse, psalm, sonnet …
drama: play, opera, radio/TV/film scripts… prose: essay, criticism, literary theory,
The former has two levels of understanding, the narrative level and the authorial level, or the surface level and the deep level of understanding;
The former allows different interpretations; The former requires imaginative participation on the
The Narrator
Who is telling the story determines the story’s point of view – the vantage point from which events are presented. The implications of this choice are far-reaching. The perspective from which a story is told determines what details are to be included in the story and how they are to be arranged and presented.
It is a mistake to think that, for each story, there is one “correct” interpretation for all readers.
Sargeson
The Author
The author is not the same as the narrator – even when an author uses the first-person “I”. The author creates and chooses a narrator to tell a story and he might as well choose a totally different narrator to make a different story. A highly sophisticated author can choose a naïve person, a child for example, to tell a story.
Reading and Textual Analysis
Langston Hughes: “Early Autumn”
Questions
1. Even though we call it a “short story,” is there much “story” in the usual sense of the word? Is “story” an inevitable part?
Henry James:
The best fiction would not rely primarily upon plot, instead, would derive its impact from truth of detail.
Jack London:
(Good literature) transcends the limits of particularity to reach universality.
(auto)biography…
Sylvan Barnet: A Short Guide to Writing about Literature
Perhaps the first thing to say is that it is impossible to define literature in a way that will satisfy everyone. And perhaps the second thing to say is that in the last 20 years or so, some serious thinkers have argued that it is impossible to set off certain verbal works from all others, and on some basis or other to designate them as literature. It is an honorific word, or a body of work embodying eternal truth and eternal beauty.
John M. Ellis: The Theory of Literary Criticism
The word literature is something like the word weed. A weed is just a plant that gardeners for one reason or another don’t want in the garden, but no plant has characteristics that clearly make it weed and not merely a plant.