Early Autumn英文讲义

Selected Readings of English Literature

What Is Literature?

The Random House Dictionary

definition of the word “

literature

”:

?

writing regarded as having permanent worth through its intrinsic excellence;

?

the entire body of writing of a specific language, period, people etc.;

?

writing dealing with a particular subject;

Comment on the following statements

Israel Zangwill:

In Literature, everything is true except names and places; in history nothing is true except names

and places.

Ezra Pound:

Lite

rature is “news that stays news.”

Picasso:

Art

is

not

truth.

Art

is

a

lie

that

makes

us

realize

truth…The

artist

must

know

the

manner

whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.

Robert Frost:

Literature is “a performance of words.”

Franz Kafka:

Literature “must be an ice

-

axe to break the sea frozen inside us.”

Jack London:

(Good literature) transcends the limits of particularity to reach universality.

Thomas Gray:

Literature is “thoughts that breathe and words that burn.”

Robert Scholes:

The sources of pleasure in literary discourse(

叙述

) can be defined as matters of communicative

capacity.

Literary

works

offer

readers

a

chance

to

use

a

fuller

range

of

their

interpretive(

解释的

)

abilities than do non-literary texts.

Brainstorming activity

?

What is behind your choice of the elective,

Selective Readings of English Literature

?

?

What do you think of literature reading?

Or why are you fond of reading literature?

Forms of Literature

In

the

more

specialized

sense

of

the

word,

literature

is

the

art

that

uses

language

as

a

medium.

Literature contains fiction and non-fiction. Under fiction there are four genres ---- novels, short stories,

plays, and poems.

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Purpose and Means of the Four Genres

with the Use of Words

?

words are used to create imaginary persons or events in stories or plays.

?

words are used to show ideas and feelings in essays or poems.

?

words are addressed directly to the reader in stories and essays.

?

words are overheard by the reader in plays or poems.

The ways literary forms are communicated to the reader

?

A story, basically a narration through the report of a storyteller to the reader

?

An essay, persuasion

?

A poem, meditation

?

A play, creation of action through the dialogue of imaginary persons

What do we read for in western literature?

(the first level)

?

The most primitive approach to western literature, especially novels, is to read them for emotional

satisfaction. Students at this level look for what’s going on and what’s happened to the characters they

can

identify with. All they care about is the “story.” To these readers, novels are recreational at least

and therapeutic(

有益健康的

) at most.

(the second level)

?

The

second

level

on

which

literature

exists

is

what

can

be

called

the

didactic

one.

Literature

is

regarded

as

a

depositor

of

human

experience

of

considerable

variety

and

scope.

It

gains

access

to

questions

of

moral

philosophy

----

questions

of

value

and

of

normative(

规范的

)

judgment.

In

such

belief, readers try to read as many meanings as they can into literary pieces. Literature is read for its

hermeneutic(

诠释的

) function.

(the third level)

?

Advanced readers of literature have a distinctive concern over matters beyond didacticism. They are

not satisfied with “what is going on,” or “what is said.” They look for “how it is said.” Readers at this

level are also aware of artistic weaknesses. They even read texts closely as texts and not to move into

the general context of human experience or history.

How to approach literature?

?

One must be both inside and outside of the work. One must allow himself be carried away by the

work, and at the same time, on reading again and again think about the way the end is connected to the

beginning. Eliot says that one has to give himself up, and then recover himself, and the third moment

is having something to say, before one has wholly forgotten both surrender and recovery. And the self

recovered is never the same as the self before it was given.

Short story

?

People tell stories to entertain or to instruct.

?

Maupassant and Chekhov are two great writers of the later nineteenth century who can be taken as

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representatives of the two kinds of literature respectively ---- one of resolution, the other revelation.

?

Much of the best short fiction from Chekhov onward is less concerned with what happens than with

how character

feels about the happenings. The emphasis is not on external action but in inner action,

feeling.

Reading I

Early Autumn

by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes African-American Writer, Poet, (February 1, 1902 ---May 22, 1967)

About the writer

Langston

Hughes

(1902-1967):

a

poet,

playwright,

novelist,

songwriter,

biographer,

editor,

newspaper columnist, translator and lecturer.

Born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, Langston Hughes lived the first twelve years of

his

life

in

Kansas,

Colorado,

Indiana,

and

New

York

State.

He

graduated

from

high

school

in

Cleveland,

Ohio,

where

in

his

senior

year

he

was

elected

class

poet

and

editor

of

the

yearbook.

Hughes’

other

travels

included

trips

to

Europe

and

Africa,

and

the

character

of

his

adventurous,

wandering life was reflected in such works as his novel,

Not Without Laughter

(1930), his short stories,

and his autobiography.

By 1925, Hughes, together with other Negro writers, had formed a group in the Harlem section of

New York City for the purpose of exchanging ideas, encouraging one another, and, eventually, sharing

in the triumph created by the sudden popularity of their work. As spokesman for the group, Hughes

published

an

article,

“The

Negro

Artist

and

The

Racial

Mountain,”

which

amounted

to

a

public

declaration of the intent of Hughes and his contemporaries to break from their literary heritage and to

initiate a new trend in Negro literature. For new black writers, Harlem and its people were to provide

the inspiration for much of their artistic work.

In

later

ye

ars,

Hughes

became

known

as

the

“O.

Henry

of

Harlem”

and

wrote

countless

short

stories,

a

number

of

volumes

of

poetry,

seven

novels,

and

six

plays.

In

his

poetry,

he

successfully

caught and projected scenes of urban Negro life, and his sketches in verse with their undertones of

bitterness, humor, and pathos became also a form of social protest.

Questions for discussion

1.

In the first paragraph, it reads “Then something not very important had come between them, and

they didn’t speak…” which finally led to

their separation from each other. How do you think of both

of their attitudes to this matter?

2.

Can you discern any pair of contrast in the way the two protagonists treat with each other in their

unexpected encounter?

3.

Why did Mary not give an answer

to Bill’s question “And your husband?” and instead said, “We

have three children …”?

4.

Why did Mary desperately reach back into the past?

5.

We

know

that

Mary

impulsively

married

a

man

she

thought

she

loved. Then why

is

it

that

we

know the name of Bill

’s wife, Lucille, but that of Mary’s husband has never been revealed?

6.

How do you look at the description of the falling leaves in Washington Square?

7.

How did it come that the lights of the Fifth Avenue turned out to be chains of

misty

brilliance?

And later, how it came that “the lights on the avenue blurred, twinkled, blurred”?

8.

Note that soon after Mary gave her answer to what Bill said about his family, that he had two

kids, the narrative following is, “A great many people went past them thro

ugh the park. People they

didn’t know.” And how do you feel about the scene that Mary saw from her leaving bus, “People came

between them outside, people crossing the street, people they didn’t know. Space and people.”

9.

What effects does the conclusive sentence achieve?

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