Introduction to English and American Literature

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Introduction to English and American Literature

• Lin Yupeng
• August, 2004

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• I Why Study English and American Literature
• II How to Study English and American Literature
• III The Scheme of This Course

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I Why Study Literature

• 1 Literature has aesthetic and cognitive value
• 2 Literature has much influence on the English
  language
• 3 Literature can breed the students sensitivity
  to the use of English

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1 Literature has aesthetic and cognitive value

• Before my bed a pool of light,
• Is it hoarfrost upon the ground?
• Eyes raised, I see the moon so bright
• Head bent, in homesickness Im drowned.
•  

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The widow-making unchilding unfathering
deepsGerard M. Hopkins(1844-1889)

• Fear no more the heat o the sun,
• Nor the furious winters rages
• Thou thy worldly task hast done,
• Home art gone, and taen thy wages
• Shakespeare Cymbeline, IV, ii

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2 Literature has much influence on the English
language

• 1) The English language is deep-rooted in
  literature
• 2) The writings of great writers contributed to
  the development of the English language
• 3) Literature shows the history of the English
  language

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1) The English language is deep-rooted in
literature

• A little learning is a dangerous thing.
• For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
• To err is human to forgive, divine.
• Alexander Pope
• The child is the father of man
• William Wordsworth
• A pound of fleshShakespeare
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller(b.1923)

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• 2) The writings of great writers contributed to
  the development of the English language

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• 3) Literature shows the history of the English
  language

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• 3 Literature can breed the students sensitivity
  to the use of English

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1) Better late than the late

• .2) Sea, sun, sand, seclusionand Spain!
• 3) No cars are created equal. Ours are superb.
• 4) Buy this mattress for the rest of your life.

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In the world of brand names, familiarity breeds
content.(c.f. Familiarity breeds contempt

• If the 1980s were the worst of times for critics
  of that debt-propelled decade, they were the best
  time for Wall Street Journal editor Robert
  Bartley( It was the best of times, it was the
  worst of times it was the age of wisdom, it was
  the age of foolishnessA Tale of Two Cities)

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• In this confusing New Europe, some were born to a
  minority, others had minority status thrust upon
  them(The Economist)( But be not afraid of
  greatness some men are born great, some achieve
  greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon
  themShakespeare The Twelfth Night)

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II How to Study English and American Literature

• 1 By close reading
• 2 Be familiarized with some literary terms
• 3 Information about the social and historical
  background of the writers is also important.
• 4 Discussion and writing
• 5 Groundwork of language training

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1 By close reading

• close reading
• The study of literature should be based upon the
  strict analysis of the literary text, mainly of
  its linguistic code and medium

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Close reading(1) Hardy

• Across these minute pools the reflected stars
  flitted in a quick transit as she passed she
  would not have known they were shining overhead,
  if she had not seen them there--- the vastest
  things of the universe imaged in objects so mean.
• Thomas Hardy Tess of the
  DUrbervilles

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Close reading(2)Hemingway(1)

• In the late summer of that year we lived in a
  house in a village that looked across the river
  and the plains to the mountains. In the bed of
  the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry
  and white in the sun, and the water was clear and
  swiftly moving and blue in the channels.

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Close reading( 2) Hemingway(2)

• Troops went by the house and down the road and
  the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the
  trees. The trunks of the trees were dusty and the
  leaves fell early that year and we saw troops
  marching along the road the dust rising and
  leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the
  soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and
  white except for the leaves.
• Ernest Hemingway A
  Farewell to Arms

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III The Scheme of This Course

• 1 The first semester English literature
• 2 The second semester American literature
• 3 The focus will be on literary works
• 4 A paper for each semester
• 5 A final exam for each semester