现代大学英语精读5professions_for_women

1、Professions for Women,Virginia Woolf,Discussions,What are the differences between men and women?,Men -are strong and independent - have an aggressive nature - seldom express feelings - are daring - are not excited by trivial matters - are more likely to “explode like a volcano” - make decisions easi

2、ly - are more dominating,Women -have an extremely strong need for security -are shy and obedient -like to talk -are loyal -easily express gentle feelings -are mild -are hesitating -are more sensitive,Discussions on Womens Issue,All over the world, women fight for equal rights. Do you think it necess

3、ary to do the same in China ? With your experiences from your family and other families around you, whose opinions, husbands or wifes, are likely to prevail ?,Research Topic,Chinese womens place at home Village women in China Chinese women in workplace Chinese girl in the class,Virginia Woolf,Years

4、might obscure her appearance, but not her creations, as well as their influence on world literature.,Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) : English novelist, critic, and essayist. One of the greatest writers of modernism; One of the pioneers of womens liberation from patriarchy.,Virginia Woolf was born in Lon

5、don on January 25,1882 Virginia was educated at home in her fathers library. She was keenly aware that if she had been a boy she would have gone on to Cambridge or Oxford. Later with this sense of injustice, she wrote two feminist works, A Room of Ones Own(1929) and Three Guineas (1938),The Early Da

6、ys,In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, a critic and writer on economics, with whom she set up the Hogarth Press in 1917. Their home became a gathering place for a circle of artists, critics, and writers known as the Bloomsbury group. As a novelist Woolfs primary concern was to represent the flow of o

7、rdinary experience.,Woolfs Innovation in Novel Writing,In her novels, emphasis is not on plot or action but on the psychological realm of her characters and the moment-by-moment experience of living, which are depicted by the techniques of interior monologue and stream of consciousness. Her books ar

8、e also noted for their poetic and symbolic quality, their subtle style and their rich historical and literary reference.,Her Works,出航（The Voyage Out） (1915年) 夜与日（Night and Day） (1919年) 雅各的房间（Jacobs Room） (1920年) 达洛维夫人（Mrs. Dalloway） (1925年) 到灯塔去（To the Lighthouse） (1927年) 奥兰多（Orlando: a Biography） (

9、1928年) 一间自己的房间（A Room of Ones Own ）(1929年) 海浪（The Waves） (1931年) 岁月（The Years） (1937年) 三个畿尼(Three Guineas)(1938年) 幕间（Between the Acts） (1941年),Tragic Ending,Virginia suffered from several breakdown. She remained in frail health all her life. During the second world war, her final breakdown made her

10、fill her pockets with stones and drown herself in the Ouse River.,Questions on the Guide to Reading,According to Woolf, what are the two problems that prohibit her from pursuing her career as a writer? What is the Angel in the House like? Can you find the her in the Chinese family?,Structure of the

11、Text,Para 1 fewer experiences in the profession of literature Para 2 The authors own professional experiences Para 3 Killing the Angel in the House: to get rid of the conventional role of women (the 1st experience) Para 4 Transitional para: what is a woman? Para 5 As unconscious as possible (the 2nd

12、 experience) Para 6 Sum up the two experiences Para 7 Concludes by raising Qs: new role of women，new relationship between men and women,Paragraph 1,According to Woolf, are there many peculiar experiences in the profession of literature for women? Why/why not? What kind of occupation is writing accor

13、ding to her? Why does the author say so? What is “the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in the other professions”,What is meant by “Your Society”? Does the author really want an answer by asking “what professional experiences have I had”?,My profession is literatu

14、re that are peculiar to women.,What are the implication through the sentence?,Women Writers before Woolf,Fanny Burney (1752 - 1840) Burneys four novels have earned her favorable comparisons to other giants -Austen, Richardson, Dickens and Virginia Woolfs declaration that she is the mother of English

15、 fiction.,Aphra Behn, (1640-1689),perhaps the first professional English woman writer and playwright Aphra Behns influence was later applauded by Virginia Woolf in A Room of Ones Own, but during her own time she was suspected of plagiarism and accused of lewdness because of her gender. Buried in Wes

16、tminster Abbey,Martineau, Harriet (1802-1876),English writer, whose writings, characterized by advanced views on social, economic, and religious questions, caused considerable controversy in her time. Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-1834), Poor Laws and Paupers (1833), and Illustrations of

17、Taxation (1834) Society in America (1837), Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848), Letters on the Laws of Mans Nature and Development (1851) a fervent abolitionist,Austen, Jane (1775-1817),English novelist, noted for her witty studies of early-19th-century English society. With meticulous detail, Aus

18、ten portrayed the quiet, day-to-day life of members of the upper middle class. Her works combine romantic comedy with social satire and psychological insight. Pride and prejudice, Sense and Sensibility Emma,Eliot, George (1819-1880),Pseudonym of Mary Ann or Marian Evans, English novelist, whose book

19、s, with their profound feeling and accurate portrayals of simple lives, give her a place in the first rank of 19th-century English writers. Her fame was international, and her work greatly influenced the development of French naturalism. Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Silas Marn

20、er (1861).,Thus, when I came to writethere were very few material obstacles in my way,What did she suggest with this statement? With the word “material”, she suggested that there are other obstacles in her way, probably obstacles opposed to material, that is, obstacles of a spiritual, mental or psyc

21、hological nature.,The family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen.,Whats meant by “family peace”?,No demand was made upon the family purse.,Whats meant by this sentence? What does “purse” refer to? Comment on the usage of “purse”？,Metonymy (转喻),A figure of speech in which the names of one

22、 thing is used in place of that of another associated with or suggested by it. For example, we use ? For “the President” and ? for “the king” or “the queen”.,More Examples on Metonymy,The pen is mightier than the sword. He succeeded by the sweat of his brow. He is too fond of the bottle.,If one has

23、a mind that way,What is the implied meaning of the sentence? Though everybody can afford the money to buy paper to write all the plays of Shakespeare, who has the kind of intelligence and talent that produced those great plays、,Pianos and models, Paris, are not needed by a writer.,What is the implie

24、d meaning of the sentence?,The cheapest of writing paper is, of course, the reason why in the other professions.,What is the tone of the sentence? Give its implied meaning. The sentence is sarcastic. It implies that in patriarchal society women have been forced into a lower financial status than men

25、.,Paragraph 2,What is the function of Paragraph 2? The author did not state her sentences in a straightforward way. List some examples of them.,But to show you how little I deserve to be called a professional woman with my neighbors.,What is meant by “bread and butter”, “butchers bill”? Comment on t

26、heir usages. Give the implied meaning of the sentence.,Paragraph 3 killing the angel in the house,Was Woolfs first article easy to write? What did she have to do battle with during the writing process? What is the Angel in the House like? What did the author do with the angel? Was the angel in the h

27、ouse easy to kill?,The phantom,This word is well chosen for the discourse. It has a literary meaning and a figurative meaning. The literary meaning: something that seems to appear to the sight but has no physical existence The figurative meaning: a vision, something feared or dread, something that e

28、xists only in the mind , an illusion, any mental image or representation Both meanings suits the context here. literarily, the phantom appears to the sight in the form of an angel; and figuratively, it is a mental representation of the stereotyped Victorian woman.,The angel in the house,Emily Ausust

29、e Patmore, The Angel in the HouseOil Painting by John Brett, B. A.,This four-part domestic epic celebrating married love as the highest form of love between a man and a woman was published over eight years, from 1854-1862. Though critics disparaged it, the poem was a great favorite with the reading

30、public, and was the most popular poem of its time. Perhaps more known than read, the poem contributed to Victorian rhetoric about a womans proper role and the cult of family life.,The Angel,What is meant by “angel”? A messenger of God A person regarded as beautiful, good, innocent, etc.,It was she w

31、ho used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews.,What does “paper” mean?,She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish.,What did the author intend to tell us through the sentence?,Victorian era,for much of this century the term Victorian, whi

32、ch literally describes things and events in the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), conveyed connotations of “prudish,“(过分规矩) repressed, and old fashioned. Although such associations have some basis in fact, they do not adequately indicate the nature of this complex, paradoxical age that was a seco

33、nd English Renaissance. Victorian England saw great expansion of wealth, power, and culture. As embodied by the monarchy, this era was represented by such 19th-century ideals as devotion to family life, public and private responsibility, and obedience to the law.,She excelled in the difficult arts o

34、f family lifesacrificed herself daily.,Excel: to do sth very well; to distinguish oneself.,If there is draught, she sat in it,Draught means a current of air in a room. As the English weather is typically chilly, it is not pleasant to sit in the draught. The most comfortable place in an English house

35、 is by the fireplace.,She was so constituted that she never had a mind or wish of her own.,Constituted? Do not mean physically she is built that way, but the traditional values that were so deeply planted in her mind deprived her a mind (independent opinions) of her own.,Above allI need not say it s

36、he was pure.,Of all the qualities, purity was the most important one. Pure: virgin, chaste, virtuous,In those daysthe last days of Queen Victoriaevery house had its angel.,The meaning of this sentence can be interpreted on two levels. On the first level: in the last day of Queen Victoria, every hous

37、e had a woman like that, who was sympathetic, charming, unselfish, charming and above all pure. On a deeper level, in the last period of the reign of Queen Victoria, the belief that every woman should have the above qualities, and above all, must be pure.,Be sympathetic; be tender;be pure.,These wor

38、ds said by the Angel in the house reflect the traditional Victorian values about gender roles. As soon as the author began to write her review, she seemed to hear a voice telling her what to do. To be sympathetic: to understand the mind of men and not to disagree with them To be tender: no be too ha

39、rsh in her criticism To flatter: to praise the book in an insincere way in order to please the reading public To deceive indicates that she could not write what she really thought; she would have to tell lies instead of telling the truth.,All the arts and wiles of our sex,Arts and wiles: the two wor

40、ds means the same thing “ the sly and cunning tricks”. The author is urged to use the tricks of the female sex because a woman has to do so in order to be successful in a men-dominated profession,Had I not killed her she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing.,To ki

41、ll the angel : to get rid of those Victorian attitudes and values completely To pluck the heart out of my writing: the Victorian conventions of being a woman will take the essence of her writing, which is, as explained in the next sentence, having a mind of your own, expressing what you think to be

42、the truth about human relations, morality, and sex.,She would have plucked the heart out of my writing.,What is implied in this sentence?,For, as I found, directly I put pen to paperabout human relations, morality, sex.,Put pen to paper: Explain the meaning of the sentence.,All these questions, acco

43、rding to the Angel in the House, cannot be dealt withto succeed.,What is implied in this sentence?,Thus, whenever I felt the shadow of her wing or the radiance of her haloflung it at her,What is implied in this sentence?,She died hard.,She didnt die easily. She had to be killed. the implied meaning

44、is that one had to fight against the Victorian traditions bravely and resolutely in order to get rid of them.,Her fictitious nature was of great assistance to her than a reality.,Is the phantom a real person? What is the rhetorical device used here?,She was always creeping back I had dispatched her.

45、,What is implied in this sentence?,Though I flatter myself that I killed her in the end in search of adventures.,Flatter myself: What is meant by this sentence?,But it was a real experience the occupation of a woman writer.,What did Woolf intend to tell us in this sentence?,Para 4 What is a Woman?,S

46、he had rid of herself of falsehood She had got rid of those wrong ideas and stopped telling lies.,I mean, what is a woman?,I mean, what is the identity of a woman? The seemingly simple question of what is a woman addressed the very basic question about the identity and the role of a woman in society

47、. When traditional values are criticized, it takes time for new values to be shaped and accepted. It is a long process.,I do not believe that anybody can know until human skill.,I believe that to know what is a woman, we women have to participate in all the arts and professions open to human knowled

48、ge and understanding and to give expressions open to human knowledge and understanding and to give expressions to our feelings in creative forms.,Express herself: to express oneself means to state ones thoughts; to give expressions to ones feelings, imagination, etc, in creative or artistic activity

49、 Human skill: here, “skill” means knowledge, understanding, judgment.,Para 5 men in women writers mind,Why did Woolf want to become a novelist? What is a novelists chief desire? Why does a novelist want life to proceed with the utmost quiet and regularity? Why does he want to do the same things day

50、after day and month after month? According to Woolf, what rouses a woman writer from her trance, her imagination? Do men allow women writer to talk about their body and passion?,The Mind as an Iceberg,Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, compared the human mind to an iceberg. The tip above

51、the water represents consciousness, and the vast region below the surface symbolizes the unconscious mind. Of Freuds three basic personality structuresid, ego, and superegoonly the id is totally unconscious.,Id , ego, superego,3 internal forces that govern a persons psychic life: The Id(本我）：the inst

52、inctual force of lifeunconscious, uncontrollable, and isolated The Ego(自我）：the external force that has contact with the real world; The superego(超我）： the governing force, or moral conscience, that seeks to control and direct the ego into socially acceptable patterns of behavior.,A novelists chief de

53、sire is to be as unconscious as possible?,Unconscious? First level of interpretation: Freudian concept, which reflect the ancient angers and anxieties Second level: dissatisfied with Henry James realistic ideas on fiction in “the Art of Fiction”, she explored the psychological nature of consciousnes

54、s.,In her psychological novels, the emphasis is not on plot or action but on the psychological realm occupied by her characters. For Woolf, the description of the immediate flow of her characters thoughts and their feelings of the moment was more important than the realistic depiction of their physi

55、cal behavior. Basically she conceives of the imagination as shy and hidden so that the writer can only draw the deepest inspiration by suspending everyday rational consciousness in order to liberate an imaginative expression of their deepest creativity. So the “unconscious” state would allow her to

56、bring her imagination into the fullest play, to see and express her ralit in stream of consciousness, fragmentation, or to develop her feminine writing.,He has to induce in himself a state of perpetual lethargy.,What is implied in this sentence?,He wants his life proceed with the utmost quiet and re

57、gularitythat very shy and illusive spirit, the imagination.,In the Freudian sense, Woolf is asking that the ego manage the external factors of her life-the routine, the predictable social events, etc.-so that the id (or unconscious) would be unrestrained. Therefore, in order not be distracted from h

58、er creative work of writing, a writer should reduce his everyday life to unchanging routine to avoid paying much attention to the people or the events.,The illusion in which he is living,The illusion: the fictional world a write is creating in words and living in his imagination. The fictional world

59、: the developing of the unconscious flow of the narrative, of the expression. If the author is deeply involved in listening to the unconscious and responding to it through language-new words and sentences, new images and characters-he does not want the routine of this ordinary life to interfere, and yet he needs these routines to maintain his life.,The image that comes to my mind when I think of this girl out over the water.,What does “the fisherman” mean?,She was letting her imagination sweep uncheckedour unconscious being.,She was letting her imaginati