【正文】 uati on i n a st or y. 4. The three par ts of a plot: abeginni ng ( exposit ion) , a middl e (suspense or a series of suspense … .for eshadowi ng… cr isis –a moment of hi gh t ensi on), and an end(a cli max, the m om ent of great est tension… the concl usion—fal ing acti on, resoluti on or denouement) . Plot a beginni ng a middle an end exposi ti on some other events cli max ( the moment (suspense, a ser ies of suspense, of great est ension, for eshadowi ng, cr isis) the concl usionf al ing acti on, resoluti on or denouement) II. Read t he stories of ?Ri p Van Winkle‘(Washi ngt on I rving) and ?Davi d Swan‘ (Nathaniel Hawthorne) II. Quest ions: (Finish readi ng t he t wo stor ies and point out the pl ot s of the two stori es, t he descri pt ive detail s, the exposit ion, charact er s) Rip Van Wi nkle 1. Descr iptive det ai ls: t he plot of the story? 2. What par t of the st ory seems like the exposit ion? 3. Where does the dramat ic confl ict? 4. What i s t he cli max of the st or y? David Swan 5. the pl ot of t he story? 6. How full y does the author draw t he characters in t he story? (Char acter tr ai ts ar e the qualit ies of a charact er ‘s per sonal ity. They ar e revealed t hr ough a char acter‘ s acti ons and words and through descript ion) . 7. More works t o do: something about the wri ters of the t wo st or ies. Chapt er Two Character In t he i nt roduction we have said t hat ficti on i s an i mage of people i n action, moving towar ds an undecl ar ed end. Thus charact er is always i nvolved i n ficti on, even in the st ory of t he simplest act ion. Someti mes char acter is at the center of our i nt er est because in char acter we may se many f acets of t he people we meet in our daily l if e and even of our selves. Fictional charact er i s always char acter in act ion and the charact er get s into acti on because it i s caught i n a sit uati on of confl ict and he/she i s al ways pr ovided with moti vati on: he/she has suff icient r easons t o act or behave as he / she does. The char acter i s doing something and t he r eader whi le r eadi ng f icti on wants to know t he ―why‖ as wel l as the ―what ‖ of t he aff ai rs. ( Sometimes a charact er ‘s moti ve f or an acti on i s not expl ai ned on acceptabl e gr ounds, for example, the vi lain i n Adgar Al lan Poe‘story ―The Tel Tale Heart, ‖ and t hus t he reader f els cheat ed. In t hi s case, t he wr it er of detect ive ficti on who makes the cr iminal a mere l unatic has cheated the reader by avoiding t he problem of moti ve.) And gener al ly, t he action it self is humanly signi fi cant and i t ends usualy i n a shif t i n or clari fication of human values, as displ ayed i n John Updike‘s ―A amp。 and how social concern is i nvolved i n a specif ic f or m of human i maginati on. In addit ion, student s shoul d el evat e to the level of culti vati ng a curiosity f or t he unknown, thinking cogentl y and logical y, expr essi ng t hemselves clearly and conci sely, and obser vi ng t he worl d ar ound them cr it cal y and obj ecti vely. But most st udent s ar e sti l at a loss as to how they can ef f ecti vely analyze a lit er ar y wor k by t hemsel ves in any of these respect s, even though they have r ead plent y of excer pts fr om repr esent at ive wor ks in t he Br it sh and Amer ican l iterary canon. And they tend t o have l it le i dea what role the beginning part plays i n the whole story, how the plot develops and es to resol ut ion, in what way point of view deter mines a r eader ‘s understanding of t he story, and how the i mages and symbol s ar e related to the theme. Upon consider at ion of these f actors, we have such course with t he i nt enti on of cul tivating bot h st udent s‘ li terary sensi bi lit ies and their /your cr it ical power when reading Engl ish shor t stor ies and novel s. I. Introduct ion about readi ng a story 1. What is Stor y? ―Yes –oh, dear , yes—the novel tel s a story.‖ This is Forster ‘s r emark, whi ch i s wor th speci al atention, f or he is someone in t he t rade and with r ich exper ience. I n hi s Aspects of the Novel he lists ―st or y‖ as the fi rst aspect . People r eading novel s f or stori es usualy ask questi ons li ke ―what happened next?‖ and ―an d‖ what woul d he do next?‖ These questions at test to t he two basi c el ment s of a st ory. The one is t he event and the ot her the time. A st ory is a ser ies of happenings ar anged i n the natural temporal or der as t hey occur. St or y is the basis of t he novel, and i ndeed t he basis of nar at ive wor ks of al l kinds. 2. The str ucture and functi ons of a story Plot。 how wri ters, t hr ough thei r creative impulses, convey to us t heir i nsight s into human desti ny and human l if e。 style 3. What is Fi ct ion? Fi ct ion, the gener al ter m for invented st or ies, now usual y applied to novels, shor t stori es, novel la, r omances, fables, and other nar rati ve works in prose, even though most pl ays and nar rative poems ar e al so f ictional . ( P. 83. Concise Dictionar y of Lit er ar y Ter ms) 4. The St or y and the Novel To r ead novels for st or y is not hi ng wr ong, but nothing profesional ei ther . ―One mar k of a secondr ate 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 only t o tel st or ies, it could as wel l r emai n unbor n, for newspaper s and hi st or y books are suf fi ci ent to sati sf y peopl e‘ s desi re for st or ies about bot h pr esent and past, and even about f ut ure. I n fact , many newapapermen have been di sat isfied wit h t hei r 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 success