文学史及选读教案.doc

精选闽 江 学 院 教 案课 程 名 称:主要英语国家文学史及文学作品选读 2 课 程 代 码: 31020022 授课专业班级 ： 英语本科, 英语师范, 英语专升本 授 课 教 师 ： 吴文南 系 别 ： 外语系 2010年3 月2 日IntroductionTeaching aid tool: a map of early AmericaTeaching aim: the students learn why and how to learn literature course, get the general idea of the colonial America and their literary forms.Key Points: a. learning aim;b.Learning method;c.Colonial American characteristics.I. Introduction of the course1. Why should we learn the course: a.One of the main reasons might be that literature offers a bountiful and extremely varied body of written material, which is “important in the sense that it says something about fundamental human issues and which is enduring rather than ephemeral. Its relevance moves with the passing of time, but seldom disappears completely the Shakespeare plays whose ending were rewritten to conform to late 17th century taste and which were later staged to give maximum prominence to their romantic hero figures are now explored for their psychoanalytic import. In this way, though its meaning does not remain static, a literary work can transcend both time and culture to speak directly to a reader in another country or a different period of history.Literature is authentic material. By that we simply mean that most works of literature are not fashioned for the specific purpose of teaching a language. Recent course materials have quite rightly incorporated many authentic samples of language-for example, travel timetable, city plans, forms, pamphlets, cartoons, advertisements, newspaper or magazine articles. Learners are thus exposed to language that is as genuine and undistorted as can be managed in the classroom context. In reading literary texts, students have also to cope with language intended for native speakers and thus we gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms and conventions of the written mode with irony, exposition, argument, narration and so on.b. Cultural enrichment:For many language learners, more indirect routes to understand a country must be adopted so that they gain an understanding of the way of life of the country: radio programmers, films and videos, newspapers and last, literary works. It is true of course that the “world” of a novel, play, or short story is a created one, yet it offers a full and vivid context in which characters from many social backgrounds can be depicted. A reader can discover their thoughts, feelings, customs, and possessions: what they buy, believe in, fear, enjoy; how they speak and behave closed doors. Reading the literature of a historical period is one of the ways we have to help us imagine what life was like in that other foreign territory. Literature is perhaps best seen as a complement to other materials used to increase the foreign learners insight into the country whose language is being learnt.c. language enrichment: we have said that reading literary works exposes the student to many function of the written language, but what about other linguistic advantages? Language enrichment is one benefit often sought through literature, while there is little a=doubt that extensive reading increases a learners receptive vocabulary and facilitates transfer to a more active form of knowledge, it is sometimes objected that literature does not give learners the kind of vocabulary they really need. It may be “authentic” in the sense already mentioned, but the language of literary works is not typical of the language of daily life, nor is it like the language used in learners textbooks. We would not wish students to think that Elizabeth Berret Brownnings “How Do I love Thee? Is the kind of utterance normally whispered into a lovers era nowadays! The objection to literature on the grounds of lexical appropracy has some validity, but it need not be an overriding one if teachers make a judicious choice of the text to be read, considering it as a counterpoise and supplement to other materials.On the positive side, literature provides a rich context in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. Reading a substantial and contextual zed body of text, students gain familiarity with many features of the written language -the formation and function of relines, the variety of possible structures, the different ways of connecting ideas-which broaden and enrich their own writing skills. The extensive reading required in tackling a novel or long play develops the students ability to make inferences from linguistic clues, and to deduce meaning from context, both useful tools in reading other sorts of material as well. Literature helps extend the intermediate or advanced learners awareness of the range of language itself. Literary language is not always that of daily communication, as we have mentioned, but it is special in its way. It is heightened: sometimes elaborate, sometimes marvelously simply yet, somehow, absolutely “right”.2. What should we learn?History and Anthology of American literature3. Some Literary works:Selected Reading in American Literature 扬岂深Selected Reading in American Literature 陶洁Selected Reading in American Literature 常耀信Contemporary American Literature with Collateral Readings 秦小孟High Lights of American Literature 钱青An Anthology of 20th Century American Fiction 万培德A Survey of American Literature 常耀信20世纪美国文学导论 李公昭二十世纪美国文学导读 张立新Part I The Literature of Colonial AmericaI. Teaching Time: 2 teaching hours.II. Teaching Aim: through introduction, the students should get an idea about the history and development of American nation and how did the American literature came into being and what is the characteristic of its early literature.III. Teaching method: Teachers Presentation.IV. Teaching Tool: multi-medium.V. Key points: the characteristics of early literature.IntroductionI. The native Americans and their culture: Before being explored by European adventurers the American Continent had long been inhabitated by the natives-American Indians. Physical characteristics of the American Indians are mongolocial or a mixture of that with something else. They probably first began coming from Asia to America during the Ice Age,8000-5999 BC. They crossed Berring Strait by raft. Through hundred and thousands of years these earliest inhabitants developed their own civilizations. They learned agriculture, basketry and pottery. The most striking achievements were in agriculture. Maize-“Indian Corn” was developed from a wild grass. The white potato, the cacao bean, tobacco were all developed by Indians. Indians remained in tribe society.II. The historical background of the Colonial Time:1. the first England settlement: Christophe Columbus (1451 he believed the world is round, find the route to East by sailing West, he asked the help from Queen of Spain to support him. On Aug. 3. 1492, three small vessels set sail with 100 crews, after several months of sailing they arrived at Balama Island-San Salvador on Oct. 12. 1492. He landed and in March 1493 returned. He had 4 voyages in his lifetime.2. English settlement: 1607 Captain Christopher Newport, three ships - Chesapeake BayJamestown Mayflower 1620 PlymouthPuritans New England area3. Conflicts with Indians and the founding of 13 colonies.III. The development of Literature: American literature emerged out of obscurity into history only some four centuries ago. It is the newest of the literatures of great nations, yet it is original in many aspects. It is original because it mirrors the history of America, and epitomizes the development of political and economics, social and psychological institutions. It is original because upon it has played most of those great historical forces and factors that have molded the modern world: immigration, nationalism, individualism, imperialism, religion, science, technology and democracy. In addition to its realistic and vivid reflection of the madding of the distinctly shaped character of American people, it is original in variety and cultural colors; such features of American literature may find expression in its products in the colonial period.John Smith a British soldier of fortune “A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as hath happened in Virginia” “New England Trials”“The General History of Virginia” Within a few decades a considerable number of learned people, such as Puritan clergymen and governors, produced a considerable body of writing of high literary quality, yet they were not literary people in the professional sense. Their writing included diaries, travel books, collections of letters, journals, histories, poetry, biographies, autobiographies and prose, to which the Puritans contributed much. In addition to being true believers of their religious doctrines, the early puritans generally have college education with a sound knowledge of the literary classics, and learned much about the basic qualities of literature from the ancient and contemporary authors in the old continent. Such responsible for the two essential characteristics of the early American literature: their religious subject and imitation of English literary traditions.(1) William Bradford (1590-1657)Of Plymouth Plantation (2) John Winthrop (governor of Massachusetts Bay)Journal 1790The History of New England(3)Edward Taylor The New England Quarterly(4)Cotton MatherMagnolia Christi AmericanaCharacteristics: In spite of the unique features that the colonial men of letters, reflected in their writings, some common characteristic run through almost all the principal works of the major literary figures of the colonial period, which mirrored the nature of colonial American literature and continued to be the subsequent development of American literature and of America itself. Puritanism was central to colonial American literature and its impact could find expression in almost all respects concerning literature. The conviction that all religious progress centered in the individual led colonial writers to make records of his spiritual development in the forms of diary and autobiography: a strenuous self-analysis and ceaseless searching of conscience in the writings of the Puritans was the result of their belief that “election” would show itself in the behavior and in the experiences of the inner life of the individual. In keeping with the belief that American literature should concern itself with spiritual and in the experiences of the inner life of the individual. In keeping with the belief that literature should concern with spiritual values, the sermon became the most highly developed and the most popular of Puritan and compact expression, and its avoidance of rhetorical decoration excellently illustrated Puritan aesthetic and moral theories. In accordance with their way of life, the Puritans preferred a style characterized by homeliness of imagery, simplicity of diction and an emphasis on the values most easily recognized by their readers. It is for the same reason that they disliked the sensuous appeal of certain types of imagery and favored the figures and images drawn from the common experiences of the New England settlers.Questions for discussion:1. What were the features of colonial America?2. What were the literary characteristics?3. What was the Puritanism?Reference Books: 1. 美国文学教程 第一章 常曜信2 美国文学的周期 E. Spiller3. 新编美国文学史 第二章 刘海平Part II The Literature of Reason and RevolutionI, Teaching time: 2 teaching hoursII. Teaching Aim: the students should know the reason and effect of American Revolution, and the characteristics of the literature. Through learning the selected works, the students get to know the writing style of them.III. Teaching Method: a. presentation, b. analysis of the contexts of the works, c. questions and discussion.IV. Key points: writing style of the prose works.Introduction:I. The Historical Background:a) two revolutions American Revolution Enlightenment(1) Europeans conflicts in the New Continent;(2) The cause of the Revolution;(3) The procedure of the Revolution;(4) The significance of the Revolution.II. The Development of Literature:(1) prose of Thomas Paine, Franklin and Thomas Jefferson;(2) Poetry of ByrantQuestions for Discussion:(1) What do you know about American Revolution?(2) What do you know about Washinton?(3) What is the main trend of literature?III. Authors and their writings in this period:(1) Benjamin Franklina.his life and works: Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant, industrious and versatile man. Starting as a poor boy in a family of 17 children, he became famous on both sides of the Atlantic as a statesman, scientist and author. Despite his fame, he always remained a man of industry and simple tastes.Franklins writings range from informal sermons on thrift to urbane essays. He wrote gracefully as well as clearly with a wit which often gave an edge to his words. Though the style he formed came from imitating two noted English essayists, Addison and Steele, he made it into his own. His most famous work is his Autobiography. Before his autobiography, his “Poor Richards Almanac(1733-1758) became popular readings which contain many proverbs like:Early to bed, and early to rise,Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Franklins Autobiography is many things. First of all it is an inspiring account of a poor boys rise to a high position. Franklin tells his story modestly, omitting some of his misdeeds, his errors as being much less than perfect. He is resigned to the fact that his misdeeds will often receive a punishment of one sort or another. Viewing himself with objectivity, Franklin offers his life story as a lesson to others. It is a positive lesson that teaches the reader to live a useful life. In fact the Autobiography is a how-to-do it book, a book on the art of self-improvement. In 1771, while living in England and serving as ambassador for most of the colonies, Franklin began his autobiography as a letter to his son, Willliam. He got as far as the year 1730(including his arrival in Philadelphia) being interrupted by “the affairs of the Revolution”. In 1784, while living at Passy, France, then a suburb of Paris, he extended his Autobiography through 1731. The bulk of the remainder of the work was added in 1788 and the final few pages were written in1790, the year of his death. None of this was published while Franklin lived. Shortly after his death, a French translation of his life to 1731 ( the first two section that Franklin wrote) was published. Though this was soon translated into English and published in London, the “official text did not appear until 1818, as part of the works of Benjamin Franklin,” edited by his grandson William Temple Franklin. The first “complete” Autobiography-with the pages written in 1790-did not appear until 1868, edited by John Bigelow, who had bought Franklins original manuscript from a Franklin family the previous year. The Autobiography covers Franklins life only until 1757 when he was 51 years old, well before his major accomplishments as a diplomat. The work as a whole was written by a man well beyond the normal age of retirement, yet it is not the less lively for that fact. Franklins mastery of a prose style characterized by clarity, concision, flexibility and order was central to his fame as a great man of letters. Such major features of his style was summarized by himself in a short paragraph: The words used should be the most expressive that the language affords, provided that they are the most generally understood. Nothing should be expressed in two words that can as well be expressed in one; that is, no synonyms should be used, or rarely, but the whole should be as short as possible, consistent with clearness: the words should be placed as to agreeable to the ear in reading; summarily, it should be smooth, clear, and short for the contrary qualities are displeasing.(2) Analysis of the Selected part:A.3 paragraphs: a. what interest did Franklin have as a child;a. Being an apprentice to his brother, Franklin began writing;b. Improving argumentation.Summary: Franklin was thirty to knowledge and trying to learn the language with practical methods.B a. the way of learning languages;b. Practice makes perfect;c. Relations to his relatives; d. Learning club.Summary: Franklin was a practical man. In learning languages we know he had a strong endurance and leaver mind.Part III The Literature of RomanticismI. Teaching Time : 8 periods.II. Teaching Aim: the students should know the characteristic of the origin and development of romanticism in American literature. Transcendentalism as a typical American literature trend developed in American land should be mastered. The students should know how to analyze Bryants two poems.III. Key Points: characteristic of American romanticism and their writers.Part One: Historical Introduction: We are now dealing with one f the most important periods in the history of American literature, the Romantic period, which stretches from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the Civil War. Here we see a rising America fast burgeoning into a political, economic and cultural independence it had never known before. Democracy and political equality became the ideals of the new nation. Radical changes came about in the political life of the country. Parties began to squabble and scramble for power, and a new system was in the making. The spread o