【正文】 orm at ion and devel opi ng l it er al under st anding. Adm it edl y, such cour ses hel p t hem/ you a lot i n thei r/ your acquisit on of t he Engli sh l anguage. But t he f unct ion of Engl ish lit er at ure reaches f ar beyond t hat. I n r eading Engli sh li teratur e, a st udent shoul d have t he power t o di scer n how hum an bei ngs tr anslate t hei r exper ience into art ist ic expr essi on and repr esent ati on。 how wr it er s, through t heir creat ive impul ses, convey t o us t heir insi ght s i nt o human dest iny and hum an li fe。 charact er 。 t heme。 P, ‖ and the m ot ivat ion of a charact er i n a st or y—one of t he answers to t he questi on ―why‖—is of fundam ental i mpor tance. I. What is Charact er? Closel y r el at ed wi th t he story i s t he char acter. Henr y Jam es sai d, “What is character but he det ermi nati on of i ncident ? What i s i nci dent but he il ust rati on of character?‖ (The Art of Ficti on‖) When we read a novel, we read about our fel ow beings, and t hat i s one of t he m oti ves in r eadi ng at al l. The “fel ow bei ngs” i n the novel is t erm ed char acters. By “fel ow bei ngs” i s meant not only “human beings” but also “other bei ngs, ” such as animals . Gee Orwel l uses anim al s to r epresent hum an bei ngs i n hi s novel Ani mal Farm. Lewis Car ol cr eat es m any l ovel y animal s i n hi s 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 s peak human language or t hat he is a translat or betwen ani mal s and humans. No sensible reader, aft er readi ng Orwel l‘s Animal Farm, woul d go t o the pi gsty t o look f or a t al ki ng boar . This proves the agreed on f icti onal it y of charact er s in novels. So broadly, a character i s an i nvented personal ity t o resemble but never to equal a real person in li fe. I t i s not di fi cult t o see that charact er s in novels resemble people in r eal lif e in many ways. They have names used in t he same way our s are used, they have hat red and love, and t hey have desi res and fears. Above al, they act the way we act or t he way we can under st and (l ike or disli ke). But we must bear in mind that he char acters are not r eal persons, but merely i nvent ions, however ingenious. Compare t he physical li fe and spi ri tual li fe of the characters and ours. We have t o answer the nature‘s cal several tim es a day, but char acters sel dom do this, even i n the most real istic or naturali st ic novels. We have to l ive our li fe hour by hour and day by day, but I nt r oduction I. Why do we have such course? English li terature is one of the pulsor y and most impor tant cour ses. However , t he English li ter ature courses off er ed are merely t aught at he l evel of lear ni ng general informati on and developing li teral understanding. Admit tedl y, such courses hel p them/ you a lot in t heir /your acqui si tion of t he English language. But the functi on of Engli sh l iterature r eaches far beyond that . I n reading Engl ish lit er at ur e, a st udent should have the power to discern how human beings translate t heir experience i nt o ar tisti c expresion and represent at ion。 and how social concer n is invol ved in a specif ic form of human i magination. 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 objectively. But mos t students are st il l at a loss as t o how t hey can ef 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 r epr esentat ive wor ks i n the Brit ish and Amer ican l it er ar y canon. And they tend t o have lit tle i dea what role t he beginning par t plays i n the whole story, how t he plot develops and es to resol ut ion, in what way poi nt of view determines 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‘ lit er ar y sensi bi lit ies and thei r /your cr it ical power when reading Engl ish shor t stori es and novels. I. Introduct ion about reading a story 1. What is Story? ―Yes –oh, dear, yes—t he novel t el ls a st ory.‖ Thi s i s For ster ‘s remar k, which is worth special at enti on, for he i s someone in the tr ade and wi th ri ch experi ence. In his Aspect s of the Novel he l ist s ―story‖ as t he f ir st aspect. Peopl e reading novels for st or ies usual y ask quest ions l ike ―what happened next ?‖ and ―and‖ what woul d he do next?‖ These questions at test to the two basi c element s of a st or y. The one is the 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 nar r at ive works of al ki nds. 2. The st ruct ur e and funct ions of a st or y Pl ot 。 poi nt of vi ew。 st yl e 3. What i s Fi ct ion? Ficti on, the gener al term for invent ed stori es, now usualy appl ied to novels, short stori es, novel a, romances, fabl es, and other nar rative works in prose, even t hough most plays and nar at ive poems ar e al so f ict ional . ( P. 83. Concise Di ct ionar y of Lit er ar y Terms) 4. The St or y and the Novel To r ead novel s for story i s nothing wr ong, but nothing pr of essi onal eit her. ―One mark of a second rate mi nd i s t o be always t el li ng stori es.‖ The r emark by the French wr iter jean de La Br uyere ( 1645~1696) i s al so t rue of the reader. If the pur pose of the novel i s only t o tel st or ies, it could as wel l r emain unborn, for newspapers and history books are suf ficient t