Introduction to Introduction to English and American English and American

LiteratureLiterature

Lin YupengLin Yupeng

August, 2004August, 2004

I Why Study English and American I Why Study English and American LiteratureLiterature

II How to Study English and II How to Study English and American LiteratureAmerican Literature

III The Scheme of This Course III The Scheme of This Course

I Why Study LiteratureI Why Study Literature

1 1 Literature has aesthetic and Literature has aesthetic and cognitive valuecognitive value

2 Literature has much influence on 2 Literature has much influence on the English languagethe English language

3 Literature can breed the students’ 3 Literature can breed the students’ sensitivity to the use of Englishsensitivity to the use of English

1 Literature has aesthetic and cognitive value Before my bed a pool of light, Is it hoarfrost upon the ground? Eyes raised, I see the moon so bright; Head bent, in homesickness I’m drowned.  

The widow-making unchilding unfathering deepsGerard M. Hopkins(1844-1889)

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages Shakespeare: Cymbeline, IV, ii

2 Literature has much influence on the English language 1) The English language is deep-rooted in

literature

2) The writings of great writers contributed to the development of the English language

3) Literature shows the history of the English language

1) The English language is deep-rooted in literature

A little learning is a dangerous thing. For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. To err is human; to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope The child is the father of man William Wordsworth A pound of flesh—Shakespeare Catch-22 by Joseph Heller(b.1923)

2) The writings of great writers contributed to the development of the English language

3) Literature shows the history of the English language

3 Literature can breed the students’ sensitivity to the use of English

1) Better late than the late

.2) Sea, sun, sand, seclusion—and Spain!

3) No cars are created equal. Ours are superb.

4) Buy this mattress for the rest of your life.

In the world of brand names, familiarity breeds content.(c.f. Familiarity breeds contempt

If the 1980s were the worst of times for critics of that debt-propelled decade, they were the best time for Wall Street Journal editor Robert Bartley( It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness—A Tale of Two Cities)

In this confusing New Europe, some were born to a minority, others had minority status thrust upon them(The Economist)( But be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them—Shakespeare: The Twelfth Night)

II How to Study English and American Literature

1 By “close reading” 2 Be familiarized with some literary terms 3 Information about the social and historical

background of the writers is also important. 4 Discussion and writing 5 Groundwork of language training

1 By “close reading”

close reading :The study of literature should be

based upon the strict analysis of the literary text, mainly of its linguistic code and medium

Close reading(1): Hardy

Across these minute pools the reflected stars flitted in a quick transit as she passed; she would not have known they were shining overhead, if she had not seen them there--- the vastest things of the universe imaged in objects so mean.

Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Close reading(2):Hemingway(1)

In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plains to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels.

Close reading( 2) :Hemingway(2)

Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw troops marching along the road the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.

Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms

III The Scheme of This Course

1 The first semester: English literature 2 The second semester: American literature 3 The focus will be on literary works 4 A paper for each semester 5 A final exam for each semester