《英语短篇小说选读》讲义(第一周)

Today‟s Agenda
—about the instructor
—about the course —class website
—Chapter 1 Plot (I)
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Instructor: Esther Lv
15th September, 2014
Week 1
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What are the elements of a novel or a short story?
Reading and writing assignments and activities are designed to prepare each student for mastering the skills.
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A woman is sitting in her old, shuttered house. She knows that she is alone in the whole world; every other thing is dead. The doorbell rings.
Story? Essay? Poem? Play?
A woman is sitting in her old, shuttered house. She knows that she is alone in the whole world; every other thing is dead. The doorbell rings.
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Welcome to my class!
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I. Definition of plot
Plot is the deliberately arranged sequence of interrelated events that makes up its basic narrative structure. Plot reveals events to us, not by recounting them in their temporal relationships, but by making us aware of the intricate pattern of cause and effect in a story. Causality becomes the most important feature of fictional plots.
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Read again and find the elements of a story
Novel
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Read the following paragraphs
It tells us something imagined rather than real. It has something to do with an image of people we meet in our daily life. It has a character and the character does something in a certain place at a certain time.
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Unit 1 Plot (I)
Warm-up question: Brainstorm anything when mentioning a novel. What are the basic elements of a novel?
Unit 1 Plot (I)
I. Definition of plot II. Conflict III. Stages of short stories IV. The arrangement of the plot
ຫໍສະໝຸດ Baidu
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Suspense, wonder, deep thought:
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Why do you think it is a story?
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Class Website
Each week, you can download the PPT for this class at the following website: http://estherlvenglish.weebly.com If you must miss a class, you can review what we learned by downloading the PPT. Reviewing the PPTs will help you do better on the final exam. Of course, you should also take notes during class, especially when we analyzing the literary works.
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About the course
Expected duration: 16 weeks Overview Selected readings of English short stories is a class that uses famous short stories in both American and British literature to help students enhance their reading ability, get to know the cultures of foreign countries, and most importantly, master the basic literary criticism skills. Students in this course will focus on the function and significance of basic elements of the short stories upon various selected readings.
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I.Definition of plot
Which one is more like a part of the plot? The king died and then the queen died. The king died and then the queen died of grief.
Usually we have Plot (情节) Point of view (视角) Character (人物) Setting (情景) Style (风格) Theme (主题) Symbol (象征) Irony (反讽)
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(5) Why does the author select the word “dead” in ending the paragraph? (6) Why does the author arrange another paragraph with just three words? (7) What is the moral sense of the story?
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Suspense, wonder, deep thought:
(1) Who rang the bell? (2) Why is the character a woman rather than a man? (3)Why is the house old and shuttered? (4)Who is recounting the story?
What‟s the difference between “plot” and “story”?
What‟s the difference between “plot” and “story”?
E.M. Forster made a helpful distinction between story and plot. A story is „a narrative of events in their timesequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality.‟ A story arouses only curiosity; a plot demands some intelligence and memory. Thus plotting is the process of converting story into plot, of changing a chronological arrangement of incidents into a causal and inevitable arrangement.