【導(dǎo)讀】IntroductionI.Whydowehavesuchcourse?Englishliteratureisoneofthepulsoryandmostimportantcourses.However,theEnglishliteraturecoursesofferedaremerelytaughtatheleveloflearninggeneralinformationanddevelopingliteralunderstanding.Admittedly,suchcourseshelpthem/youalotintheir/youracquisitionoftheEnglishlanguage.ButthefunctionofEnglishliteraturereachesfarbeyondthat.InreadingEnglishliterature,astudentshouldh

　　

【正文】 mes caled a st or y li ne. The most important of the tr adit ional pl ot is t hat it shoul d be a plete or unif ied acti on, t hat i s, something with a begi nning, a mi ddle, and an end. 3. The dramat ic si tuat ion in a story. 4. The thr e par ts of a plot: a beginning (exposi tion), amiddle (suspense or a seri es of suspense … .f or eshadowi ng… cr isis –a moment of hi gh t ension) , and an end( a cl imax, the moment of great est ension… the conclusion—fal ing action, r esolution or denouement) . Plot a beginni ng a middle an end exposi tion some other event s cli max ( the moment ( suspense, a ser ies of suspense, of great est ensi on, foreshadowing, cri si s) the concl usion fal ing acti on, resoluti on or denouement) II. Read the stori es of ?Rip Van Wi nkl e‘ (Washington Ir vi ng) and ?David Swan‘ (Nathani el Hawt hor ne) II. Questi ons : ( Fi ni sh r eading the two st ories and poi nt out t he plots of the t wo st or ies, the descr ipti ve det ai ls, t he exposi tion, char acters) Rip Van Wi nkl e 1. Descr ipti ve detai ls: t he plot of t he story? 2. What part of t he story sems li ke the exposi tion? 3. Where does t he dramat ic conf lict? 4. What i s the cl imax of the st or y? David Swan 5. the pl ot of the stor y? 6. How ful ly does the aut hor dr aw the charact er s i n the st or y? ( Character t raits are t he qual it es of a char acter‘ s personali ty. They are r evealed through 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 the intr oduct ion we have said that f icti on i s an image of people in action, moving towar ds an undeclared end. Thus char acter is always invol ved in f icti on, even i n the st or y of t he simplest a ct ion. Someti mes character i s at the center of our interest because in character we may see many f acet s of t he people we meet in our daily l ife and even of our selves. Fi ct ional charact er is always char acter i n acti on and the char acter gets i nt o acti on because it is caught in a sit uati on of confli ct and he/she i s always pr ovided wi th moti vati on: he/she has suff icient reasons t o act or behave as he /she does. The character i s doing something and the reader whi le readi ng f iction want s to know t he ―why‖ as wel as t he ―what ‖ of the afair s. (Sometimes a charact er ‘s motive for an action is not explained on accept able grounds, f or example, t he vil lain in Adgar Al an Poe‘ st or y ―The Tel Tal e Heart ,‖ and t hus the reader f els cheated. In t hi s case, t he wr iter of det ecti ve f iction who makes t he cri minal a mere l unat ic has cheated the reader by avoiding the probl em of moti ve.) And general y, the act ion itsel f is humanl y si gnif icant and it ends usual ly in a shift in or cl ar if icat ion of human val ues, as di splayed in John Updike‘ s ―A amp。 P, ‖ and the mot ivat ion of a character i n a st or y—one of t he answers to t he questi on ―why‖—is of fundamental impor tance. I. What is Charact er? Closely r elat ed wi th t he story is t he char acter. Henry James sai d, “What is character but he det ermi nati on of incident ? What is i ncident but he il ustration of character?‖ (The Art of Ficti on‖) When we read a novel, we read about our felow beings, and that i s one of t he moti ves in readi ng at al l. The “felow beings” in t he novel is termed charact er s. By “felow beings” is meant not only “human bei ngs” but also “other beings,” such as ani mal s. Geor ge Or wel l uses ani mal s t o represent human bei ngs in his novel Animal Farm. Lewis Car rol cr eates many lovel y animals in his Ali ce’s Advent ures i n Wonderland that appeal to bot h chil dr en and adults. Orwel does not i nt end to convince the reader t hat animals can speak human language or t hat he i s a t ranslator between animals and humans. No sensibl e reader, aft er readi ng Orwel l‘s Animal Farm, would go to the pigst y to look for a t al ki ng boar . This proves the agr ed on ficti onalit y of char acters in novels. So broadl y, a character is an invented personal it y to resembl e but never t o equal a real person in l ife. I t is not di f icul t o see that characters in novels r esemble people in r eal li fe in many ways. They have names used in t he same way our s ar e used, they have hat red and l ove, and t hey have desires and f ears. Above al , t hey act the way we act or t he way we can understand ( like or di sli ke) . But we must bear in mi nd t hat the char acter s are not r eal persons, but m er el y invent ions, however i ngeni ous. Compare t he physical l ife and spir itual ife of the charact ers and ours. We have to answer the nat ure‘s cal several ti mes a day, but charact ers eldom do t hi s, even in the most realisti c or nat ur al istic novels. We have t o live our li fe hour by hour and day by day, but characters never do this. They choose to li ve some t ime more f ul ly than ot hers, and ar e able t o skip over per iods on ten mont hs or twent y year s without seming wei rd, a feat which we can never at tempt . In our li fe, our m i nds ar e a gr ay mat er even to sci enti st s. We can not know what i s going on i n other‘s mind. But in novel s, the minds of the charact ers are open or can be made open to t he reader if t he novelist so chooses. The r eader does not onl y see thei r clothes, but also see t heir mi nds. One charact er may be enemy to othe r char acters, but he i s fri end to t he reader, before whom he can t hi nk aloud, t o borrow Emerson‘s words. Charact ers do not l ive, but act . When we wat ch act or s speak aloud t o themsel ves on the stage as if t hey wer e al one, we know they are act ing and they ar e di f er ent from what hey represent i n real li fe. The chara