English Through Literature

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English Through Literature Unit One

Li Feng
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Unit letter
Introduce you to the course 1. It is not the
intention of this course to study literature as a
subject. 2. Not all literature is difficult. 3.
You have been provided with notes.
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• Why we think literary texts are such a good
  language learning resource.
• The language of literary texts is generally much
  more carefully and artfully used than for most
  other kinds of texts.
• Literature is also the vehicle for cultural
  information and for knowledge about the world.
• Literature touches our lives as people.

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• Suggestions
• Read a lot.
• When you read, try to use your dictionary with
  discretion.
• Listen to English as often as you can.
• Keep a personal learning journal.
• Form the habit of formulating questions.
• Review what you have read and studied.

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section 1 Read two fables
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• Objectives
• To expose you to some simple narrative texts.
• To demonstrate that you can read literary texts
  they are not necessarily too difficult.
• To demonstrate the close connection between
  literature and life.

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Fable a short tale to teach a moral lesson,
often with animals or inanimate objects as
characters
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Text 1 A Test of Friendship
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• Try to understand
• the surface meaning of the story.
• The underlying message

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• Questions
• When and where did the story take place?
• Who took part in the story?
• Was animal involved in the story?
• What were they doing when the story began?
• What happened to them?

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Questions 6. What did they do? 7. Did they
survive? 8. What did the bear say to the man? 9.
What moral lesson does the story tell?
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Text 2 Author James Thurber, famous humorist
and director
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Vocabulary Entangle Devour Buzz Alight Light
Settle down Flypaper Stick
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• Questions
• Who took part in this story?
• Who is/are the main character/s?
• Whats the purpose of the spiders net?
• Why is the fly an intelligent one?
• Whats the function of the flypaper?
• Do you think the fly is really intelligent?
• What lesson does the story tell?

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Section 2 Task 1 A short story A Paring
Knife Pare To remove the outer covering or
skin of with a knife or similar instrument.
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• Questions
• Who is telling the story?
• Is he the only character in the story?
• What are they doing when the story took place?
• What happened?
• Do you think the discovery is very important for
  the development of the story?

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• Narration order
• Recent past
• Distant past (central event)
• What happened?
• Why did the man go into the kitchen?
• What did he do in the kitchen?
• How did the man feel?
• What did his wife do at that time?
• What was the result of this event?
• 3. Recent past

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• Questions
• Did the wife recall the past event?
• Why did she slide the knife back?
• What is the theme of the story?

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Task 2 rearrange the sentences Author Ernest
Hemingway
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• Section 3 Literature is all around us
• Objectives
• To introduce you to the playfulness of language
  use both in literature and in life.
• To show how features of literature can also be
  found in many ordinary everyday texts.
• To off a brief explanation of how some of these
  literary devices work.
• Playful full of fun humorous

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A proverbs is a piece of folk wisdom which has
become crystallized as a fixed set of
words. Proverbs use a range of literary devices.
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alliteration repetition of consonants at the
beginning of words. He who laughs last, laughs
longest. Time and tide wait for no man.
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parallelism the same structure is
repeated. Least said, soonest mended. He who
laughs last, laughs longest.
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Assonance repetition of vowels. Time and tide
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Aphorisms is a clever witty saying. Aphorisms
are different from proverbs because we usually
know who invented the aphorism in the first
place. With proverbs we dont know who first
spoke them.
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How can I tell what I think till I see what I
say? Parallelism what I think/what I
say Alliteration see say Paradox statement that
seems to say sth. Opposite to common sense or the
truth, but which may contain a truth.
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Oscar Wilde Work is the curse of the drinking
class. (Drink is the curse of the working
class.) Assonance work/curse
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• George Bernard Shaw
• The minority is sometimes right the majority is
  always wrong.
• parallelism
• The grammatical structures are identical.
• The contrasts match perfectly.

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Graffiti are slogans painted on walls. They are
usually something to do with protest but they are
also used to exhibit a kind of popular features.
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1. I am anonymous. Help me! (paradox) 2. Start
the day with a smile-and get it over with!
(anti-climax) 3. Think-maybe the Joneses are
trying to keep up with You! (Keeping up with the
Joneses.) (intertextuality)
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Newspaper headlines Too Old to Work. Too Young
to Die. Parallelism Tooto Contrast old/young
work/die)
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1.Down with Chat Up with Talk Parallelism Contra
st 2. Nothing Left but Theft Assonance 3.Twice
upon a Time Alliteration Intertextuality
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advertisement 1.Drink a pinta milk a
day. (rhythmical repetition) 2. Twice as nice
not twice the price. (rhyme and assonance)
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3. Animals dont smoke. Animals dont
drive. Animals dont wear make-up.
Animals dont use paint. Animals dont drink
alcohol. Animals dont drop bombs.
Because you do Why should they suffer?
(Parallelism and surprise)
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4. Mondaily Tuesdaily Wednesdaily
Thursdaily Fridaily Saturdaily
How often do you follow the daily turn of
events? (Parallelism, blending words)
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• Quotations from famous writers
• The quick and the dead.
• For better or worse
• Slings and arrows
• Once more into the breach

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• Quotations from famous writers
• The quick and the dead.
• For better or worse
• Slings and arrows
• Once more into the breach