英美文学选读教案以及复习要点.doc

Lecture 1 William Shakespeare
1. Introduction of the course
(1) This course is called Selected Readings in English and American Literature, a compulsory course for you. It will be finished in 12 weeks. And in each week we'll meet each other two times.
(2) In this course, you will have to read some original works taken from English and American classics. It may be a little bit difficult for you. However, it's also a chance for you to know some great treasury in world literature and I'll help you understand them.
(3)Comparing with the literary history courses, this course mainly focuses on original productions. The course book is a nice one with classical works and detailed notes.
(4) For the final test, 10% will be decided by your attendance, 20% by your homework and 70% by the test paper. About the homework, after we finish each writer, I'll give you a name list of recommended works written by the writer. In the whole semester, you should choose at least one piece of English writer's works and one piece of American writer's works recommended by me. And then you should write a small paper on the piece of works you chose. That means you should turn in two papers in the whole semester.
(5) A very important suggestion: preview the productions before the class; otherwise it'll be very difficult for you to catch me in the class.
2. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
(1) Historical Background
A. Queen Elizabeth I: a powerful England with the fast development of capitalism
B. Renaissance: an intellectual movement sprung first in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. Two features are striking of this movement. The one is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. Another is the humanism, which means the new feeling of admiration for human beauty and human achievement.
C. Shakespeare lived in such a period and also such a period made him the most famous and most important English writer.
(2) Life
(Read paragraph 1 and 2 on page 1 after class. These two paragraphs are the introduction of the great writer's life.)
A. His complete works include 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets.
B. He is mainly famous for his great plays, especially the outstanding "Four Great Tragedies". ("Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello" and "Macbeth") He is also the author of some other famous plays, such as "Romeo and Juliet", but today we'll learn the excerpt from one of his great comedies - "The Merchant of Venice", which we'll talk about a little bit later.
C. Shakespeare's sonnets are also very good. We'll first introduce Sonnet 18, the most famous sonnet written by Shakespeare.
(3) Sonnet 18
A. A sonnet is a lyric poem consisting of a single stanza of fourteen iambic pentameter lines linked by an intricate rhyme scheme. It was introduced to England from Italy by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. (It is a very popular poem form and used widely in English literature. In the Elizabeth era, Edmund Spenser was also famous for his sonnets. And later, John Milton, Byron and Keats all contributed excellent sonnets.)
B. Though the sonnet is a fixed form, but the rhyme scheme of the sonnet is not fixed. (few minutes for students to find out this poem's rhyme scheme.)
Answer: abab cdcd efef gg. This is a typical rhyme scheme used by Shakespeare in all his sonnets.
C. Explain the poem sentence by sentence.
temperate: moderate or mild; rough winds: strong winds; darling: lovely; lease: 租约;complexion: appearance; dim: darken with cloud; brag: boast;
D.(discuss) Theme: expressing the deep love to his friend
(4) The Merchant of Venice
A. Famous comedy written by Shakespeare in his youth
B. Setting: Venice, the Middle Age
C. Characters: Bassanio, Antonio, Shylock, Portia (let students discuss the characters)
Portia: Shakespeare's ideal woman, beautiful, intelligent, cultured, gracious, independent, a daughter of Renaissance
Shylock: most successful character, a Jew, a greedy and merciless usurer and also a victim of racial discrimination and religious persecution (sympathy)
D. Plot: Read the introduction from P3 to P4.
E. (Discuss)Theme: Mercy wins over malice.
F. The selection is the most famous scene of the whole play and also the climax of the play. (Ask students to read it thoroughly after the class.) In the class, we'll learn a short part taken from the scene. (P10 to P11, the famous statement about mercy made by Portia)
G. (the last but not least) form of the play: verse drama written in blank verse mostly
blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. Soon after blank verse was introduced by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey in his translation of Virgil's works, it became the standard meter for Elizabethan and later poetic dramas and some poets, such as John Milton, also employed this form to write their long poems.
(5) Recommended Reading
Sonnet 29; Sonnet 73; Sonnet 116; Four great tragedies; Romeo and Juliet; A Midsummer Night's Dream
3. Homework
1. Preview the next chapter about John Milton.
2. Find out the form and rhyme scheme of the poem "To Cyriack Skinner" on P23.

Lecture 2 John Milton (1608 0 1674)
(Comparing with William Shakespeare, few people read his great productions today. However, he is also a classical writer in English Literature.)
1. Historical Background
(Discussion: Any important event happened during Milton's life time in Britain )
English Bourgeois Revolution
The conflicts between King (James I and then Charles I) and the Parliament
Profound conflicts: the Old Feudalism and New Capitalism
In religion: The Anglican Church and the Puritan
The consequence of those contradictions: the Civil War (1642 - 1649)
The King was executed in 1649 and monarchy was abolished.
Oliver Cromwell's dictatorship (1649 - 1660)
The Restoration: Charles II and then James II
Glorious Revolution (1688)
2. Life
born in a rich and cultured family - handsome and hardworking - graduated from Cambridge University and got master degree - six years' private study and the most knowledgeable poet in Britain - writing pamphlets for the Commonwealth - blind in 1652 - arrested and fined after restoration - produced three great poems in plain life
Most important works - three great poems: Paradise Lost (1667); Paradise Regained (1671); Samson Agonistes (1671) (poetic drama)
Besides three great poems in his late years, he also wrote some excellent sonnets including the one we'll learn today.
3. To Cyriack Skinner
(Ask the questions of homework) (Answer: Sonnet; abba abba cdcdcd)
(1) Form: Sonnet
(2) Rhyme scheme: abba abba cdcdcd (different with William Shakespeare's sonnets)
(3) Explain the poem sentence by sentence
(4) (Discussion) Theme: the author's positive attitude towards his blindness (another sonnet on blindness seems more discouraged.)
4. Paradise Lost (《失乐园》)
(1) Milton's masterpiece; greatest epic written in the English language
*epic(史诗): it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. Notice the differences between traditional epics and literary epics. Paradise Lost is a literary epic.
(2) It's a long epic including 12 books. The plot is taken from the Old Testament of Holy Bible.
*Holy Bible对于理解西方文化最重要的经典,分为《旧约》(The Old Testament)和《新约》(The New Testament)两部分,这两部分写于不同的时期,而且使用的文字不同,《旧约》主要用希伯莱语写成,《新约》则用希腊文写成.圣经最早曾被翻译成希腊文,然后是拉丁文,在欧洲各国通行.《圣经》英译始自8世纪,但各种版本都不算通行,直到Martin Luther宗教改革之后,1611年出现的Authorized Version至今通行,对英国的语言和文学影响极大.推荐阅读英文版《圣经》节选或房龙《圣经的故事》中文版.
Plot: (paragraph two on P24) revolt of Satan and some other angels 0 their defeat and throwing into the Hell 0 temptation of Adam and Eve 0 expulsion of Adam and Eve
(3) Theme: "to justify the ways of God to man" (submission to the Almighty) (Discussion: Is this the real theme of the poem )
Real theme: praising the rebellious spirits against the despot
(4) Characterization
God: the despot, selfish, cruel and unjust (King of Britain)
Satan: real hero, dare to revolt against the despot, persevering but not discouraged after the failure (Republicans including Milton)
(Milton is a pious Christian. This epic is the production of the conflicts between his religious belief and political belief. )
(5) (P26 Learn a short excerpt from Paradise Lost) Form: blank verse
(6) Explain the excerpt sentence by sentence.
(7) (Do you think John Milton's works difficult ) Miltonic style: to express the sublimity of thought, sonority, eloquence, majesty and grandeur style
(Latin words and Latin sentence structure, inversion, archaism, long sentence and mostly formal words, thus the style formed and his English rather difficult)
5. Recommended Reading
John Milton's two sonnets: On his blindness; On his deceased wife
6. Homework
Preview the next chapter including the life of Daniel Defoe, the introduction of Robinson Crusoe and the excerpt Chapter VIII from P33 to P37.

Lecture 3 Daniel Defoe (1660 0 1731)
(He is a very famous novelist around the world because of his popular novel Robinson Crusoe.)
1. Historical Background
(1) Comparing with the 17th century, the 18th century is a period for peaceful development.
(2) The constitutional monarchy has been set up by parliament in 1688. After the Glorious Revolution, the monarch was deprived of ruling power and in his place Parliament became the actual leader of the country. The Tory and the Whig, as two major parties in England, competed with each other in politics. (Discussion: What do you know about the Whig and the Tory )
* 辉格党(Whig)和托利党(Tory)是17世纪末在英国出现的两个正在形成中的政党.1679年,当议会讨论詹姆士公爵(即后来的詹姆士二世)是否有权继承英国王位时,议员们展开了激烈争论.赞成的人被对方称为"托利",反对的人则被对方称为"辉格".渐渐地,双方各自都以此自称.后来,双方的观点都发生了变化,辉格党对君主不再持完全的否定态度,因为"光荣革命"后英国君主的权力已经受到种种限制;托利党也逐渐改变了坚决拥护专制君主制的立场,因为他们几次恢复旧王朝的企图都因遭到了大多数人的反对而失败.久而久之,国王发现,无论是辉格党还是托利党,当其中一个在议会中占多数时,就最好任命这个党的成员为内阁大臣,内阁就不会同议会闹矛盾.18世纪上半期,辉格党在政治上占优势,是议会多数党,故此,辉格党执政近半个世纪.18世纪后半期,托利党才得以执政.工业革命以后,两党的主张发生一些变化.大约在19世纪30年代,托利党改称保守党(Conservative),辉格党改称自由党(Liberal).不过在现在的英国自由党的势力已经衰落了,现在英国的两个主要党派是保守党和工党,英国现任首相布莱尔即是来自工党(Labor Party)的.
(3) England grew from a second rate country to a powerful naval country in this century. In a series of wars, England proved her power of naval force.
(4) (Discussion)With the ascent of the bourgeoisie cultural life had undergone remarkable changes: A. Political writing: depending on patrons to working for either party in order to help them win more votes;
B. Newspapers and journals: for parties and also for the rising middle class
C. Due to the development of science and philosophy, (Issac Newton) reason rather than emotion played a more important role in the age. Thus the age was called the Age of Reason. Church's influence was greatly weakened.
(5) The rise of the English novel
① The modern European novel began after the Renaissance, with Cervantes' "Don Quixote". (西班牙,塞万提斯,《唐吉诃德》)
② The rise and growth of the realistic(现实主义作家,以描写现实生活为主要目的) novel is the most prominent achievement of the 18th century English literature. And from Defoe, the pioneer novelist in English literary history, we will meet several great novelists in the following chapters. (Forerunner of English realistic novels)
2. Life (P29 Paragraph 1 and 2)
(1) born in a butcher's family; father was a dissenter
(2) graduated from a dissenting academy but did not want to be a clergyman
(3) once a prosperous merchant; bankrupt and got into a heavy debt
(4) writing all kinds of books including political pamphlets and trade books for a living
(5) questionable political character because served both parties
(6) versatile person contributing a lot to journalism ("The Review"; father of modern journalism) and trade
(7) When he was 60 years old, he published Robinson Crusoe and then a series of novels which made him a major novelist in English literary history.
3. Major works: Robinson Crusoe; Captain Singleton; Moll Flanders etc. (P30)
most important: Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders (1722)
Moll Flanders: Defoe introduces, for the first time, a lowly woman as the subject of literature. And it anticipates many later novels that take women as the center of attention in order to expose how the social system victimized them. The heroine is a woman living by stealing and cheating. It is also a tradition in English novel but the author's purpose is not showing her tricks. His purpose is satirizing the social system.
4. Robinson Crusoe《鲁滨逊漂流记》
(1) Background: a real incident; 1704, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was thrown onto a desolate island by the mutinous crew of his ship. He lived there alone for 5 years. Defoe read about his adventures in a newspaper and went to interview him to get first-hand information.
The first translation wad done by Lin Shu in 1905 and became quite popular in China.
(2) Plot: run away from home → become a sailor → a planter in Brazil → to an uninhabited island because of shipwreck → made a living there all by himself → save a negro named Friday who became his servant → back to England → visit the remote island again and Friday was killed
Original name of the novel: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
a picaresque novel with a little change (main character is different)
(3) (Discussion) Robinson Crusoe's characterization: typical of the rising English bourgeois class, practical, diligent, a restless curiosity to know more about the world and a desire to prove individual power in the face of social and natural challenges; shrewd, care about money and good at managing; courageous and intelligent to overcome all kinds of obstacles
(4) (Discussion) Theme: praising labor and man's courage and effort to conquer nature, but at the same time he beautifies colonialism and slavery (Friday)
(5) (Ask some questions about the excerpt)
What is the first thing mentioned in the excerpt done by Robinson (The first paragraph) (keeping his calendar)
How Robinson made a home for himself step by step on the remote island
(Finding some useful thing from the wrecked ship - making a little pale around his tent - making a hut with the roof - enlarging his cave and making it like a storehouse - making a chair and a table - making large shelves - keep everything in order
(6) (Discussion) Style: journalistic truth with many vivid details, simple and plain sentence structure and language, first person point of view, natural order in narration, making the story intimate to the readers and become popular among lower classes
5. Recommended Reading: Robinson Crusoe (the complete novel)
6. Homework
Preview the next chapter, especially the Chapter VIII from P50 to P56. Try to answer question 4 and 5 on P59 after your preview.

Lecture 4 Jonathan Swift (1667 0 1745)
(He is a master satirist famous for his Gulliver's Travels.)
1. Life
(He lived in the same age with Danie