一个英语生的文学导论课笔记.doc

An introduction to literatureLiterature一、What is literature?n Literature comes from Latin litterae, meaning letter in English.n The word literature literally means acquaintance with letters and the term letters is sometimes used to signify literature, as in the figures of speech arts and letters and man of letters.n General meanings?published writings in a particular style on a particular subject (publications, books, brochures and so on)creative writing of recognized artistic value (artistic and literary writings) the profession or art of a writer (vocation)the humanistic study of a body of literature (subject)musical productknowledge or learningreading (supplementary literature)A Crazy Actw Literature is about writing in a particular country of a period, all over the world in general.w Literature is a writing which has claimed to consider underground of beauty of form, and emotional effect. (Aestheticism)w Literature is all the writings that have permanent value, excellent form and great emotional effect.w Literature is a writing having excellence of form or expression, and expressing ideas of permanence of universal interest. (critical mind)w A developing term.AestheticismAestheticism (or the Aesthetic Movement) was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design.Generally, it represents the same tendencies that symbolism or decadence represented in France, and may be considered the British version of the same style. It was part of the anti-19th century reaction and had post-Romantic origins, and as such anticipates modernism. It was a feature of the late 19th century from about 1868 to about 1900.The artists and writers of Aesthetic style used the slogan Art for Arts Sake(艺术是纯粹的), tended to profess that the Arts should provide refined sensuous pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages. Instead, they believed that Art did not have any didactic purpose; it need only be beautiful. The Aesthetes developed a cult of beauty, which they considered the basic factor of art. Life should copy Art, they asserted. They considered nature as crude and lacking in design when compared to art.In Britain the best representatives were Oscar Wilde and Algernon Charles Swinburne, also including John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, greatly influenced by the French Symbolists.Oscar Wilde (1856-1900): a. an Irish playwright, an aesthete advocating “art for arts sake”. b. His language is concise, witty and sharp. He criticizes the hypocrisy and corruption of the upper class. His attacks are more like jokes.c. Lady Windermeres Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being EarnestA developing term.What is literature?1) The definition of 14th century: It means polite learning through reading. A man of literature or a man of letters = a man of wide reading, “literacy”2) The definition of 18th century: practice and profession of writing3) The definition of 19th century: the high skills of writing in the special context of high imagination4) Robert Frosts definition: performance in words5) Modern definition: We can define literature as language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Literature is characterized by beauty of expression and form and by universality intellectual and emotional appeal.Different Ideasw Literature is imitation.w Literature is function.w Literature is an expression of emotions. (imagism意象派)w Literature is literature.（pay attention to its form）Imagism1) It is a Movement in U.S. and English poetry characterized by the use of concrete language and figures of speech, modern subject matter, metrical freedom, and avoidance of romantic or mystical themes, aiming at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.2) It grew out of the Symbolist Movement in 1912 and was initially led by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others. 3) The Imagist manifesto came out in 1912 showed three Imagist poetic principles: direct treatment of the “thing”（no fuss, frill, or ornament）, exclusion of superfluous words（precision and economy of expression）, the rhythm of the musical phrase rather than the sequence of a metronome（free verse form and music）. 4) Pound defined an image as that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time, and later he extended this definition when he stated that an image was “a vortex or cluster of fused ideas, endowed with energy.” 5) Generally an Imagists image represents a moment of revealed truth, truth revealed by a physical object presented and seen as such. An Imagist poem, therefore, often contains a single dominant image, or a quick succession of related images. Its effect is meant to be instantaneous. For example: In a Station of the MetroThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.人群中幽然浮现的一张张脸庞，黝黑的湿树枝上的一片片花瓣。6) About the above poem:v The “Metro” is the underground railway of Paris. In this brief poem, Pound uses the fewest possible words to convey an accurate image, according to the principles of the “Imagists”. v He tries to render exactly his observation of human faces seen in an underground railway station. He sees the faces, turned variously toward light and darkness, like flower petals which are half absorbed by, half resisting, the wet, dark texture of a bough.v The word “apparition”, with its double meaning, binds the two aspects of the observation together: Apparition meaning “appearance”, in the sense of something which appears, or shows up; something which can be clearly observed. Apparition meaning something which seems real but perhaps is not real; something ghostly which cannot be clearly observed.This is perhaps the most famous poem written by Ezra Pound. 1.His Life:1) Born in Idaho in 1885 and raised in Pennsylvania, Ezra Pound spent most of his life in Europe and became one of the 20th centurys most influential - and controversial - poets in the English language. 2) Pound was undoubtedly a genius. Before he graduated from university, he had mastered 9 languages as well as English grammar and literature. After college in Pennsylvania and a brief stint as a teacher, in 1908 Pound travelled to Venice and then to London, where he refined his aesthetic sensibilities and edited the anthology Des Imagistes (1914). 3) Pound championed the likes of T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams and James Joyce and, influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry, advocated free meter and a more economical use of words and images in poetic expression, leading the Imagist Movement of poetry.4) He moved to Paris in 1920 and got acquainted with Gertrude Stein and her circle of friends (which included Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso), then settled in Italy in 1924. 5) Enamored with Benito Mussolini, Pound made anti-American radio broadcasts during World War II. He was arrested as a traitor in 1945 and initially confined in Pisa. He was then sent to the U.S., where he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for treason. 6) Pound was confined for 12 years in a hospital (actually prison) for the criminally insane in Washington. During this time he translated works of ancient Greek and ancient Chinese literature. While in prison, he was awarded a prestigious poetry prize in 1949 for his last Cantos.7) In 1958 he returned to Italy, where he continued to write and make translations until he died in 1972. 2. His works:1) Pound wrote 70 books and over 1500 articles in his life.2) His major work of poetry is The Cantos, a long poem which he wrote in sections between 1915 and 1945.3. His masterpiece: The Cantos1) In this poem, he traces the rise and fall of eastern and western empires, the destruction caused by greed and materialism. 2) He deplores the corruption of America after the heroic time of Jefferson,3) The last part, produced from his own suffering, is the most moving.7） There existed great influence of Chinese poetry on the Imagist movement. Imagists found value in Chinese poetry was because Chinese poetry is, by virtue of the ideographic and pictographic nature of the Chinese language, essentially imagistic poetry. 天净沙秋思马致远枯藤、老树、昏鸦，小桥、流水、人家，古道、西风、瘦马，夕阳西下，断肠人在天涯。AutumnEvening crows perch on old trees wreathed with withered vine,Water of a stream flows by a family cottage near a tiny bridge.A lean horse walks on an ancient road in western breeze,The sun is setting in the west,The heart-broken one is at the end of the Earth.二、Why should we study literature?w It can nourish our emotional life.w It can broaden peoples perspectives on the world and offer them knowledge in the form of information.w It can help people to escape from reality.w For nothing but the aesthetic pleasure of observing good artistry form.w It can help students to write a paper or pass an examination.三、How to study literature?Literature is not literature.Historical Perspectives: Biographical-Historical and Moral-Philosophical.(Diverse Types of Historicisms: including Feminist, Sociological or Marxian Studies of Language, Literature and Translation)Structuralist Perspectives: Looking for Systematic Deep Structures both in Form and Content.(Semiotics, TG Grammar, Systematic/Functional Grammar, Narratology, Freudian psycho-analysis, Russian Formalism, Anglo-American New Criticism, Archetypalism, Myth Criticism, Structural Marxism, Ideology)Poststructuralist or Postmodern Perspectives: Deconstructing Structuring Binaries (No Clear Distinction between Form and Content)Postmodern Feminism, Postcolonialism, Postmodern Narratologies, New Historicism, Ideological Studies, Discourse Analysis, Reception Theories, Trauma Studies, Trans-Atlantic Studies, Transnationalism, Eco-criticism, Cultural Pathology, and other Postmodernisms1. The Traditional Approaches:1) Analytical Approach Be familiar with the elements of a literary work, eg: plot, character, setting, point of view, structure, style, atmosphere, theme, etc; answer some basic questions about the text itself.2) Thematic Approach “What is the story, the poem, the play or the essay about?”3) Historical - Biographical Approach4) Moral - Philosophical Approach.2. The Formalistic Appoach Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Semiotics3The Psychological Approach: Freud4. Mythological and Archetypal Approach5. Feminist Approaches6. Sociological Approach7. Deconstruction8. Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory9. Cultural Criticism American Multicultualism The New Historicism, British Cultural Materialism10. Additional Approaches: Aristotlian Criticism Genre Criticism Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Stylistics The Marxist Approach Ecological Criticism Post ColonialismFictionI. What is fiction?n Fiction refers to any narrative which has not actually occurred in the history or in the historical or real world, usually written in prose. It is often associated with novel.n The term novel probably comes from the Italian word novella, meaning a little new thing and tale. n 纪实小说？n Novel: a long work of prose fiction.n Novel, as a more realistic literary genre, is sometimes distinguished in academic literary criticism from the romance, but this distinction is not maintained by all critics.n Novel is different form romance in that it is more realistic, secular, social, psychological, character-centered, and so on.n Romance consist of the Constant Loves and invincible Courages of Heros, Heroins, Kings and Queens, Mortals of the first rank. (imagination) Novels, however, are of a more familiar Nature; Come near us, and represent to us Intrigues in Practice, delight us with Accidents and odd Events, but not such as are wholly unusual or unpresidented, such which being not so distant from our Belief bring also the pleasure nearer us. Romances give more Wonder, Novels more Delight. (William Congreve)n All in all, fiction is an imaginary but usually plausible and comparatively truthful prose narrative which dramatizes changes in human relationship. The author draws his materials from his experiences and observation of life, but shakes them to his purposes which include illumination of human experience.Romance (heroic literature) As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers and hearers tastes, but by c.1600 they were out of fashion. Still, the modern image of medieval is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval invokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes. Modern usage of term romance usually refer to the romance novel, which is a subgenre that focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people; these novels must have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Despite the popularity of this popular meaning of Romance, other works are still, occasionally, referred to as romances because of their uses of other elements descended from the medieval romance, or from the Romantic Movement: larger-than-life heroes and heroines, drama and adventure, marvels that may become fantastic, themes of honor and loyalty, or fairy-tale-like stories and story settings. Shakespeares later comedies, such as The Tempest or The Winters Tale are sometimes called this romances. Modern works may differentiate from love-story as romance into different genres, such as planetary romance or Ruritanian romance. Science fiction was, for a time, termed scientific romance, and gaslamp fantasy is sometimes termed gaslight romance.II. Types of fiction Character: the Kunstlerroman, the spy novel, the Bildungsroman (initative novel) Setting: the historical novel, the campus novel Plot: the detective novel Structure: the epistolary novel, the picaresque novel Length: novel, novella, short story, novellet . (Stream-of-consciousness novel, hypertext novel, Saga novel .)Knstlerroman艺术家成长小说 A Knstlerroman, meaning artists novel in German, is a narrative about an artists growth to maturity. It may be classified as a specific sub-genre of Bildungsroman; such a work, usually a novel, tends to depict the conflicts of a sensitive youth against the values of a bourgeois society of his or her time.p 1909 Jack London Martin Eden p 1913 D. H. Lawrences Sons and Lovers p 1914 James Joyces A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man p 1920 F. Scott Fitzgeralds This Side of Paradise p 1927 Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse Bildungsroman成长小说，教育小说Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, or apprenticeship novel, or novel of education, arising in Germany, is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age), and in which character change is thus extremely important. The term coming-of-age novel is sometimes used interchangeably with Bildungsroman, but its use is usually wider and less technical.There are many variations and subgenres of Bildungsroman that focus on the growth of an individual. An Entwicklungsroman (development novel) is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An Erziehungsroman (education novel) focuses on training and formal schooling, while a Knstlerroman (artist novel) is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self.A Bildungsroman tells about the growing up of a sensitive person who is looking for answers and experience. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest son going out in the world to seek his fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on his journey. In a Bildungsroman, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty. The genre often features a main conflict between the main character and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the protagonist and he is ultimately accepted into society the protagonists mistakes and disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity.p Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (1847) p David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (1850) p Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (1860-1861) p Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1884) p The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (1890) p The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger (1951)p Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth (1959)Eepistolary Novel书信体小说 An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic documents such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use. The epistolary form can add greater realism to a story, because it mimics the workings of real life. It is thus able to demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the device of an omniscient narrator. Saul Bellows novel Herzog (1964) is largely written in letter format. These are both real and imagined letters, written by the protagonist Moses E. Herzog to family members, friends and famous figures.