【正文】 point of view。 charact er 。 point of view。 theme。 character。 and how social concer n is invol ved in a specif ic form of human i maginat ion. I n additi on, st udent s hould elevat e t o the level of cul ti vati ng a cur iosi ty f or the unknown, thinki ng cogently and logi cal y, expresing themselves clear ly and concisel y, and observing the wor ld around t hem cri ticaly and object ivel y. But most students are st il l at a l oss as t o how t hey can ef ecti vely analyze a lit er ar y wor k by t hemselves i n any of t hese r espects, even t hough t hey have read plenty of excerpts f rom r epresentative works in the Bri tish and American lit er ar y canon. And t hey tend to have lit tl e idea what role t he begi nning par t plays in th e whol e stor y, how t he plot devel ops and es to r esol ut ion, i n what way poi nt of vi ew determi nes a reader‘s understanding of the stor y, and how the images and symbols ar e related to the theme. Upon consider at ion of t hese f actors, we have such course wit h the intent ion of cul ti vati ng both st udent s‘ li terary sensi bi li ties and their /your crit ical power when readi ng Engl ish shor t stor ies and novel s. I. Introduction about readi ng a story 1. What is Stor y? ―Yes –oh, dear , yes—t he novel tels a story.‖ Thi s is For st er ‘s remark, which is wort h special at tent ion, for he i s someone in the tr ade and wi th ri ch experi ence. In his Aspect s of t he Novel he l ists ―story‖ as t he f ir st aspect. People reading novels for st or ies usual ly ask quest ions l ike ―what happened next? ‖ and ―and‖ what woul d he do next?‖ These questi ons at test to t he t wo basi c el ement s of a story. The one is t he event and t he other the t ime. A st or y is aseri es of happeni ngs ar anged in t he natural t emporal or der as they occur . Story i s the basi s of the novel, and indeed the basis of narati ve works of al kinds. 2. The st ructure and f unctions of a st or y Plot。 t heme。 style 3. What is Ficti on? Fiction, t he general term f or i nvent ed stori es, now usual ly appli ed t o novel s, short st or ies, novela, romances, f ables, and ot her nar at ive wor ks i n pr ose, even though most plays and nar at ive poems are also fi ct ional. (P. 83. Concise Di ct ionary of Literary Terms) 4. The Stor y and the Novel To r ead novel s for stor y is nothi ng wr ong, but nothing pr of esional ei ther . ―One mark of a secondrate mi nd i s to be al ways teli ng stori es.‖ The remar k by t he French wr iter jean de La Bruyere ( 1645~1696) is al so t rue of t he r eader. I f t he purpose of t he novel is onl y to tel st or ies, it could as wel l remai n unbor n, for newspaper s and hi st or y books are suf fi ci ent to sat i sf y peopl e‘ s desi re f or stories about both present and past, and even about future. I n fact , many newapaper men have been disatisfi ed wi th their job of r eporti ng and e into t he f ield of novel wri ting. Defoe, Di ckens, Joyce, Hemingway and Camus were among the most famous and t he most successf ul conver ts. Even histori ans may feel obl iged t o do more t han mere stories or f acts. Edwar d Gibbor n‘ s Decli ne and Fal of t he Roman Empir e is praised not onl y for its mult itudinous facts and r at ionali sti c analysi s, but mor e for its beauty of nar at ive st yl e. In teli ng stories, the novelist ai ms at something higher or he intends to add something t o the mere “fact s. ” As i ndi cated in t he defi ni ti on of the novel, what makes a novel is t he noveli st ?s style (personali zed presentati on of the story) and i nt erpretati on of the story. Chapt er One Pl ot I. What is Plot? 1. Accor di ng t o Ari stotl e what ar e the six element s of the st ructure of t ragedy? Tr agedy as a whole has j ust six consti tuent el ment s… and t hey are plot, characters, verbal expressi on, thought, vi sual adornment , and song—posit ion. For the el ment s by which they imit at e ar e t wo (verbal expresion and song—posi tion), the manner in which they imit at e is one ( vi sual ador nment), the things they i mitate are t hr e ( pl ot , char acters, t hought ), and there is not hi ng mor e beyond these . 2. What i s Pl ot under the pens of modern novelists and storyt el er s? And how to understand ―Pl ot‖ in a story? (―‖ppt: ?The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was t hr ough grief at the death of the ki ng.‘… P. 6 It suspends the ti me sequence, i t moves as f ar away f rom t he story as it s l imi taions wi l al low.) The story and the char acter al one can not make a novel ye. To make a novel, a plot i s pr er equisite. A look at the exampl e suggest ed by . For st er wil l help t o di sti nguish be tween the story and the pl ot . ―The king died and then the queen died‖ i s not a pl ot , but a story. If we make it ―The king di ed and then t he queen di ed of gr ief, ‘ we have a plot. Thi s causal phrase ―of gri ef ‖ i ndi cates our i nt er pr et ati on and thus ar angement of the happenings. I n the wor ld of r eali ty events take pl ace one af ter another in t he natural t emporal or der, but in t he worl d of f iction it is t he noveli st‘ s design that one par ti cular event occur aft er another parti cular event . The very word ―plot‖ impli es t he noveli st‘ s rebel ion against the nat ur al law and hi s endeavor to make meanings out of the happenings t hat may otherwi se be meani ngl ess. ―The happenings‖ may or may not be r eal happeni ngs.(So what plot is ) A plot i s a part icul ar arangement of happeni ngs in a novel t hat is aimed at reveali ng t heir causal relationships or at conveyi ng t he noveli st ‘s ideas. A pl ot is someti mes cal led a st or y line. The most impor tant of the traditi onal plot is that i t should be a plete or unif ied acti on, that is , somet hi ng wi th a beginning, a middle, and an end. 3. The dr amati c sit