【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 ear in m ind t hat t he char act er s are not r eal per sons, but m er el y i nventi ons, however i ngenious. Com pare t he physi cal li fe and spirit ual l ife of the characters and ours. We have to answer the nature‘s cal l several ti mes a day, but char act er s sel dom do t his, even i n the m ost reali stic or natur alist ic novel s. We have to l ive our li fe hour by hour and day by day, but I nt r oduct i on I. Why do we have such course? Engl ish l it er atur e is one of the pulsory and m ost i mport ant cour ses. However , the Engli sh li terat ur e courses of f er ed are mer ely t aught at he level of l ear ning gener al infor mati on and developing lit eral under st andi ng. Admi t edl y, such cour ses help them/you a lot in t hei r/ your acquisit ion of the Engl is h language. But the f uncti on of Engl ish l it er atur e reaches f ar beyond that. I n reading Engli sh li terat ur e, a st udent shoul d have t he power t o discern how human bei ngs t ranslate t heir exper ience into ar ti st ic expression and repr esentati on。 how wr i ters, thr ough their creati ve impul ses, convey to us t hei r insights i nto human destiny and human l if e。 and how social concern is i nvolved i n a speci fi c for m of human i magination. I n addi ti on, student s shoul d elevat e to the l evel of cul ti vat ing a curi osi ty for the unknown, t hinking cogent ly and l ogi cal ly, expr esing themsel ves cl ear ly and conci sel y, and obser vi ng the wor l d around them cr it ical y and obj ect ively. But most st udents ar e st il l at a l oss as t o how they can ef ect ively analyze a li ter ar y wor k by t hemselves in any of t hese r espect s, even though they have read plenty of excerpts f r om r epr esentati ve works i n t he Bri ti sh and Am eri can l it er a ry canon. And they tend t o have l it tl e idea what rol e the beginning part pl ays i n the whol e story, how t he plot develops and es to r esol ut ion, in what way poi nt of view det er mi nes a reader ‘s understanding of the st or y, and how the i mages and symbols are relat ed to t he theme. Upon considerat ion of these factor s, we have such course wi th the i nt ent ion of cult ivati ng bot h students‘ li terar y sensibil it ies and their / your cr it ical power when r eading Engl ish shor t st ori es and novel s. II. Int roducti on about reading a st ory 1. What i s Stor y? ―Yes –oh, dear, yes—t he novel tel s a stor y. ‖ This i s Forster ‘s r emark, which i s wort h speci al at ent ion, for he i s someone in the t rade and wit h r ich exper ience. I n his Aspects of the Novel he li st s ―st ory‖ as the f ir st aspect . People r eadi ng novel s for stori es usual y ask questi ons l ike ―what happened next ?‖ and ―and‖ what woul d he do next ?‖ These quest ions at est to the two basi c el ements of a stor y. The one is the event and the ot her t he ti me. A story is a seri es of happeni ngs ar ranged in t he nat ural tempor al or der as they occur . Stor y is t he basis of t he novel, and i ndeed the basis of nar at ive wor ks of al l kinds. 2. The st ructur e and functi ons of a stor y Plot 。 character 。 poi nt of vi ew。 t hem e。 styl e 3. What is Fict ion? Fict ion, the gener al t erm for i nvented stor ies, now usual y appl ied t o novel s, short stori es, novel la, rom ances, f abl es, and other nar rati ve works i n prose, even t hough most plays and nar rati ve poem s ar e also f icti onal . (P. 83. Concise Di cti onary of Liter ary Ter ms) 4. The St or y and t he Novel To r ead novels f or st ory i s nothing wr ong, but nothi ng pr ofessi onal eit her . ―One mark of a second rate mind i s to be al ways tel ing st or ies.‖ The r emark by the French wr it er j ean de La Bruyere (1645~1696) is also t rue of t he reader . If t he pur pose of the novel is only t o t el l st ori es, it could as wel l r emain unborn, f or newspaper s and histor y books ar e suf fi cient to sati sf y peopl e‘s desi re for stori es about bot h pr esent and past , and even about f uture. I n fact, many newapaper men have been dissat isfi ed wit h t hei r job of r epor ting and e i nto t he fi eld of novel wr it ing. Defoe, Dickens, Joyce, Hemingway and Camus wer e among the most famous and the m ost succesf ul conver ts. Even histori ans may feel obl iged t o do mor e than mer e stori es or f act s. Edwar d Gi bbor n‘s Decli ne and Fal l of t he Roman Empi re i s prai sed not onl y f or i ts m ulti tudi nous f act s and r ati onal isti c anal ysis, but more f or it s beauty of nar rati ve st yle. In tel ing st ori es, t he noveli st ai ms at somethi ng higher or he int ends to add somet hing t o t he mere “f acts.” As indicat ed in the defi nit ion of t he novel , what m akes a novel is t he novel ist?s styl e (personali zed present ati on of the st ory) and i nt erpretat ion of t he story. Chapter One Pl ot I. What is Pl ot ? 1. Accor ding t o Ar istotl e what ar e t he si x elements of t he st ructur e of tr agedy? Tragedy as a whole has just si x const i t uent el ements… and t hey are pl ot, characters, verbal expressi on, thought, visual adornment, and song—posit ion. For t he elements by whi ch they im it at e are t wo ( verbal expr ession and song— posit ion) , t he manner i n which t hey imi tat e is one ( vi sual ador nment) , the thi ngs t hey im itat e are t hree ( pl ot, char act ers, thought ), and there is nothi ng more beyond these. 2. What is Pl ot under t he pens of modern noveli st s and st oryt el ler s? And how to underst and ―Pl ot ‖ in a story? (―‖ppt : ?The queen di ed, no one knew why, unti l i t was discovered t hat i t was through gr ief at he deat h of the king. ‘… P. 6 I t suspends the t im e sequence, it moves as far away fr om the stor y as its lim it at ions wi l al ow.) The stor y and the character al one can not make a novel ye. To make a novel , a plot is pr ere