【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 and es to resolution, in what way point of view determines a reader’s understanding of the story, and how the images and symbols are related to the theme. Upon consideration of these factors, we have such course with the intention of cultivating both students’ literary sensibilities and their /your critical power when reading English short stories and novels. II. Introduction about reading a story 1. What is Story? “Yes –oh, dear, yes—the novel tells a story.” This is Forster’s remark, which is worth special attention, for he is someone in the trade and with rich experience. In his Aspects of the Novel he lists “story” as the first aspect. People reading novels for stories usually ask questions like “what happened next?” and “and” what would he do next?” These questions attest to the two basic elements of a story. The one is the event and the other the time. A story is a series of happenings arranged in the natural temporal order as they occur. Story is the basis of the novel, and indeed the basis of narrative works of all kinds. 2. The structure and functions of a story Plot。 character。 point of view。 theme。 style 3. What is Fiction? Fiction, the general term for invented stories, now usually applied to novels, short stories, novella, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose, even though most plays and narrative poems are also fictional. (P. 83. Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms) 4. The Story and the Novel To read novels for story is nothing wrong, but nothing professional either. “One mark of a secondrate mind is to be always telling stories.” The remark by the French writer jean de La Bruyere (1645~1696) is also true of the reader. If the purpose of the novel is only to tell stories, it could as well remain unborn, for newspapers and history books are sufficient to satisfy people’s desire for stories about both present and past, and even about future. In fact, many newapapermen have been dissatisfied with their job of reporting and e into the field of novel writing. Defoe, Dickens, Joyce, Hemingway and Camus were among the most famous and the most successful converts. Even historians may feel obliged to do more than mere stories or facts. Edward Gibborn’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is praised not only for its multitudinous facts and rationalistic analysis, but more for its beauty of narrative style. In telling stories, the novelist aims at something higher or he intends to add something to the mere “facts.” As indicated in the definition of the novel, what makes a novel is the novelist’s style (personalized presentation of the story) and interpretation of the story. Chapter One Plot I. What is Plot? 1. According to Aristotle what are the six elements of the structure of tragedy? Tragedy as a whole has just six constituent elements… and they are plot, characters, verbal expression, thought, visual adornment, and song—position. For the elements by which they imitate are two (verbal expression and song—position), the manner in which they imitate is one (visual adornment), the things they imitate are three (plot, characters, thought), and there is nothing more beyond these. 2. What is Plot under the pens of modern novelists and storytellers? And how to understand “Plot” in a story? (“”ppt: ‘The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king.’…P. 6 It suspends the timesequence, it moves as far away from the story as its limitations will allow.) The story and the character alone can not make a novel ye. To make a novel, a plot is prerequisite. A look at the example suggested by . Forster will help to distinguish between the story and the plot. “The king died and then the queen died” is not a plot, but a story. If we make it “The king died and then the queen died of grief,’ we have a plot. This causal phrase “of grief” indicates our interpretation and thus arrangement of the happenings. In the world of reality events take place one after another in the natural temporal order, but in the world of fiction it is the novelist’s design that one particular event occur after another particular event. The very word “plot” implies the novelist’s rebellion against the natural law and his endeavor to make meanings out of the happenings that may otherwise be meaningless. “The happenings” may or may not be real happenings.(So what plot is ) A plot is a particular arrangement of happenings in a novel that is aimed at revealing their causal relationships or at conveying the novelist’s ideas. A plot is sometimes called a story line. The most important of the traditional plot is that it should be a plete or unified action, that is, something with a beginning, a middle, and an end. 3. The dramatic situation in a story. 4. The three parts of a plot: a beginning (exposition), a middle (suspense or a series of suspense ….foreshadowing… crisis –a moment of high tension), and an end(a climax, the moment of greatest tension…the conclusion—falling action, resolution or denouement). Plot a beginning a middle an end exposition some other events climax (the moment (suspense, a series of suspense, of greatest tension, foreshadowing, crisis) the conclusionfalling action, resolution or denouement) II. Read the stories of ‘Rip Van Winkle’(Washington Irving) and ‘David Swan’ (Nathaniel Hawthorne) III. Questions: (Finish reading the two stories and point out the plots of the two stories, the descriptive details, the exposition, characters) Rip Van Winkle 1. Descriptive details: the plot of the story? 2. What part of the story seems like the exposition? 3. Where does the dramatic conflict? 4. What is the climax of the story? David Swan 5. the plot of the story? 6. How fully does the author draw the characters in the story? (Character traits are the qualities of a character’s personality. They are revealed through a cha