1、IntroductionI. Why do we have such course?English literature is one of the compulsory and most important courses. However, the English literature courses offered are merely taught at the level of learning general information and developing literal understanding. Admittedly, such courses help them/yo
2、u a lot in their/your acquisition of the English language. But the function of English literature reaches far beyond that. In reading English literature, a student should have the power to discern how human beings translate their experience into artistic expression and representation; how writers, t
3、hrough their creative impulses, convey to us their insights into human destiny and human life; and how social concern is involved in a specific form of human imagination. In addition, students should elevate to the level of cultivating a curiosity for the unknown, thinking cogently and logically, ex
4、pressing themselves clearly and concisely, and observing the world around them critically and objectively. But most students are still at a loss as to how they can effectively analyze a literary work by themselves in any of these respects, even though they have read plenty of excerpts from represent
5、ative works in the British and American literary canon. And they tend to have little idea what role the beginning part plays in the whole story, how the plot develops and comes to resolution, in what way point of view determines a readers understanding of the story, and how the images and symbols ar
6、e related to the theme. Upon consideration of these factors, we have such course with the intention of cultivating both students literary sensibilities and their /your critical power when reading English short stories and novels.II. Introduction about reading a story1. What is Story? “Yes oh, dear,
7、yesthe novel tells a story.” This is Forsters remark, which is worth special attention, for he is someone in the trade and with rich experience. In his Aspects of the Novel he lists “story” as the first aspect. People reading novels for stories usually ask questions like “what happened next?” and “a
8、nd” what would he do next?” These questions attest to the two basic elements of a story. The one is the event and the other the time. A story is a series of happenings arranged in the natural temporal order as they occur. Story is the basis of the novel, and indeed the basis of narrative works of al
9、l kinds. 2. The structure and functions of a storyPlot; character; point of view; theme; style3. What is Fiction?Fiction, the general term for invented stories, now usually applied to novels, short stories, novella, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose, even though most plays and nar
10、rative poems are also fictional. (P. 83. Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms)4. The Story and the NovelTo read novels for story is nothing wrong, but nothing professional either. “One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.” The remark by the French writer jean de La Bruyere (16
11、451696) is also true of the reader. If the purpose of the novel is only to tell stories, it could as well remain unborn, for newspapers and history books are sufficient to satisfy peoples desire for stories about both present and past, and even about future. In fact, many newapapermen have been diss
12、atisfied with their job of reporting and come into the field of novel writing. Defoe, Dickens, Joyce, Hemingway and Camus were among the most famous and the most successful converts. Even historians may feel obliged to do more than mere stories or facts. Edward Gibborns Decline and Fall of the Roman
13、 Empire is praised not only for its multitudinous facts and rationalistic analysis, but more for its beauty of narrative style. In telling stories, the novelist aims at something higher or he intends to add something to the mere “facts.” As indicated in the definition of the novel, what makes a nove
14、l is the novelists style (personalized presentation of the story) and interpretation of the story.Chapter One PlotI. What is Plot? 1. According to Aristotle what are the six elements of the structure of tragedy?Tragedy as a whole has just six constituent elements and they are plot, characters, verba
15、l expression, thought, visual adornment, and songcomposition. For the elements by which they imitate are two (verbal expression and songcomposition), the manner in which they imitate is one (visual adornment), the things they imitate are three (plot, characters, thought), and there is nothing more b
16、eyond these. 2. What is Plot under the pens of modern novelists and storytellers? And how to understand “Plot” in a story? (“”ppt: The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.P. 6 It suspends the time-sequence, it moves as far away from
17、 the story as its limitations will allow.)The story and the character alone can not make a novel ye. To make a novel, a plot is prerequisite. A look at the example suggested by E.M. Forster will help to distinguish between the story and the plot. “The king died and then the queen died” is not a plot
18、, but a story. If we make it “The king died and then the queen died of grief, we have a plot. This causal phrase “of grief” indicates our interpretation and thus arrangement of the happenings. In the world of reality events take place one after another in the natural temporal order, but in the world
19、 of fiction it is the novelists design that one particular event occur after another particular event. The very word “plot” implies the novelists rebellion against the natural law and his endeavor to make meanings out of the happenings that may otherwise be meaningless. “The happenings” may or may n
20、ot be real happenings.(So what plot is -) A plot is a particular arrangement of happenings in a novel that is aimed at revealing their causal relationships or at conveying the novelists ideas. A plot is sometimes called a story line. The most important of the traditional plot is that it should be a
21、complete or unified action, that is, something with a beginning, a middle, and an end.3. The dramatic situation in a story.4. The three parts of a plot: a beginning (exposition), a middle (suspense or a series of suspense .foreshadowing crisis a moment of high tension), and an end(a climax, the mome
22、nt of greatest tensionthe conclusionfalling action, resolution or denouement).Plot a beginning a middle an end exposition some other events climax (the moment(suspense, a series of suspense, of greatest tension,foreshadowing, crisis) the conclusion-fallingaction, resolution or denouement)II. Read th
23、e stories of Rip Van Winkle(Washington Irving) and David Swan (Nathaniel Hawthorne)III. Questions: (Finish reading the two stories and point out the plots of the two stories, the descriptive details, the exposition, characters)Rip Van Winkle1. Descriptive details: the plot of the story?2. What part
24、of the story seems like the exposition? 3. Where does the dramatic conflict? 4. What is the climax of the story?David Swan5. the plot of the story? 6. How fully does the author draw the characters in the story? (Character traits are the qualities of a characters personality. They are revealed throug
25、h a characters actions and words and through description).7. More works to do: something about the writers of the two stories.Chapter Two CharacterIn the introduction we have said that fiction is an image of people in action, moving towards an undeclared end. Thus character is always involved in fic
26、tion, even in the story of the simplest action. Sometimes character is at the center of our interest because in character we may see many facets of the people we meet in our daily life and even of ourselves. Fictional character is always character in action and the character gets into action because
27、 it is caught in a situation of conflict and he/she is always provided with motivation: he/she has sufficient reasons to act or behave as he /she does. The character is doing something and the reader while reading fiction wants to know the “why” as well as the “what” of the affairs. (Sometimes a cha
28、racters motive for an action is not explained on acceptable grounds, for example, the villain in Adgar Allan Poestory “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and thus the reader feels cheated. In this case, the writer of detective fiction who makes the criminal a mere lunatic has cheated the reader by avoiding the p
29、roblem of motive.) And generally, the action itself is humanly significant and it ends usually in a shift in or clarification of human values, as displayed in John Updikes “A & P,” and the motivation of a character in a storyone of the answers to the question “why”is of fundamental importance.I. Wha
30、t is Character?Closely related with the story is the character. Henry James said, “What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?” (The Art of Fiction”) When we read a novel, we read about our fellow beings, and that is one of the motives in
31、reading at all. The “fellow beings” in the novel is termed characters. By “fellow beings” is meant not only “human beings” but also “other beings,” such as animals. George Orwell uses animals to represent human beings in his novel Animal Farm. Lewis Carrol creates many lovely animals in his Alices A
32、dventures in Wonderland that appeal to both children and adults.Orwell does not intend to convince the reader that animals can speak human language or that he is a translator between animals and humans. No sensible reader, after reading Orwells Animal Farm, would go to the pigsty to look for a talki
33、ng boar. This proves the agreed-on fictionality of characters in novels. So broadly, a character is an invented personality to resemble but never to equal a real person in life. It is not difficult to see that characters in novels resemble people in real life in many ways. They have names used in th
34、e same way ours are used, they have hatred and love, and they have desires and fears. Above all, they act the way we act or the way we can understand (like or dislike).But we must bear in mind that the characters are not real persons, but merely inventions, however ingenious. Compare the physical li
35、fe and spiritual life of the characters and ours. We have to answer the natures call several times a day, but characters seldom do this, even in the most realistic or naturalistic novels. We have to live our life hour by hour and day by day, but characters never do this. They choose to live some tim
36、e more fully than others, and are able to skip over periods on ten months or twenty years without seeming weird, a feat which we can never attempt. In our life, our minds are a gray matter even to scientists. We can not know what is going on in others mind. But in novels, the minds of the characters
37、 are open or can be made open to the reader if the novelist so chooses. The reader does not only see their clothes, but also see their minds. One character may be enemy to other characters, but he is friend to the reader, before whom he can think aloud, to borrow Emersons words. Characters do not li
38、ve, but act. When we watch actors speak aloud to themselves on the stage as if they were alone, we know they are acting and they are different from what they represent in real life. The characters in novels exist in a similar manner.II. Kinds of CharactersUsually, a novel has more than one character
39、. They interact with each other and make up the story. But they are not equally important or have the same function to the novelist. By their roles in the novel, the characters can be grouped as heroes, main characters and minor characters, and foils.The character on whom a novel is called the hero
40、or heroine when it is a female character. The word “hero” originally refers to a man, in mythology and legend, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his hold exploits, and favored by the gods. In the novel, the word “hero” is freed of such noble req
41、uirements and any central characters can be labeled as heroes. Jonathan Wild is the hero in the novel of the same name by Henry Fielding, though he is a notorious highwayman. Some critics, annoyed by the connotation of “hero,” prefer the word “protagonist,” which sounds neutral. The enemy or rival o
42、f the protagonist is called “antagonist.”The main or major characters are those in close and dynamic relation with the hero or heroine. Close relation does not mean good relation. Pablo in For Whom the Bell Tolls is constantly finding trouble with the hero Jordan, yet he is a main character as his w
43、ife Pilar is. Minor characters are those in remote and static relation with the hero. It is wrong to think that minor characters are all unimportant. In some novels, one or some of the minor characters may serve a critical role, structurally or interpretationally.Foil characters are ones that help e
44、nhance the intensity of the hero by strengthening or contrasting. They may be main characters or minor characters. In a word, they serve as foils to the hero or heroine. Cohn in The Sun Also Rises is a good example. He is one of the main characters. Like Jake, he is also “lost,” trying vainly to esc
45、ape the past by courting women and drinking. But during their stay in Spain, Cohn displays qualities in contrast to those cherished by Jake, which makes Jake realize his own problems and finally find a solution, though temporarily. Cohn works mainly by contrast. Wilson in The Great Gatsby works by p
46、resenting. Gatsby lost his lover to Tom and Wilson lost his wife to Tom. By presenting Wilsons case the novelist intends to point out the profound cause of Gatsbys tragedy. Dr. Watson in the stories of Sherlock Holmes serves as a foil to the hero, rendering the detective smarter than he would otherw
47、ise appear to the reader.By the degree of their development, characters can be grouped as round characters and flat characters. This division is proposed by E.M Forster. Round characters are fully developed while flat characters are not. Or we can say that round characters grow while flat characters
48、 do not. Usually the reader is allowed access to the inner life of the round character and permitted to learn about many sides of the round character. The flat character is a “closed” character to whose inner thoughts the reader is denied access. Usually one side of the flat character is shown in th
49、e novel. Most heroes are round characters who grow emotionally or spiritually.Chapter Three ThemeAristotle in Poetics lists six basic elements of tragedy. Melody (song) and diction (language) fall in the general category of style, and spectacle is relevant to setting in our discussion of fiction. The other three aspects are mythos or plot, ethos or character, and dianoia, which we gene
