5 The Brief Introduction to the Study of English Literature

5.1 What is literature? 5.2 How do we learn English Literature

efficiently? 5.2.1 Literary periods 5.2.2 Great and major writers the writing features

the analysis of their representative works 5.2.3 Literary terms

What is literature?

It is an art that uses language as a medium. This art is something imaginative, fictional and created to reflect life or record human dreams or human ideas .

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5.2.1 Literary Periods

The social, political and ideological conditions of each period of English Literature

The prevailing literary trends and schools of the time

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5.2.3 Literary Terms

Example : genre---a type or class of literature In English literature, the main generic

division today is into poetry, drama and the novel, but in earlier times the major genres were recognized as epic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire.

(Literary Terms and Criticism by John Peck and Martin Coyle)

mode---a recognized type or kind of work within a genre, such as the sonnet or the realistic novel.

5.2.3 Literary Terms

Do you agree that these definitions of the genres or of the modes can help us to identify what is distinctive about specific works of literature? Why or why not?

5.2.3 Literary Terms

Another popular division. 1 Fiction: it is referred to as creative or

figurative expression of life. four genres ---novels, short stories, plays

and poems. 2 non-fiction (essay): it is referred to a literal

expression of life or discursive writing. description, narration, exposition , and

argumentation.

6.2 Types of Poetry

6.2.1 lyric poetry

It expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet

elegies, odes, and sonnets 6.2.2 Narrative Poetry

It tells a story or presents a narrative 6.2.3 Dramatic Poetry

It is written in the form of a speech of an individual character to an imaginary audience

6.3 How do we read a poem?

6.3.1 The process of reading a poem read the poem once straight through,

with no particular expectations. read for the exact sense of all the words.

read the poem aloud--discover meanings you didn’t perceive in it before .

try to paraphrase the poem as a whole .

6.3 How do we read a poem?

6.3.2Two main ways of thinking about poetry. The first approach:

concentrate on the poet

shortcomings of the first approach:

can’t see what the feeling are /more concerned with the mind and personality behind the poem than with the text itself

The second approach:

concentrates on discussing the poem itself .

英国文学史及选读 吴伟仁 编 北京：外语教学与研究出版社 （共两册 ）

1988 年版

Reading List for This Course

1 《英国文学简史》，刘炳善，郑州：河南人民出版社 2 A Brief History of English Literature 《英国文学简史》， John Peck and Martin Coyle ，北京：

高等教育出版社 . 3 《现代英国文学简介》， Booz,E 上海：上海外语教育出

版社 4 《英国文学教程 》 ( 上下册 ) ，张伯香 武汉：武汉大学出

版社， 20045 《英国文学选读》，王守仁，北京：高等教育出版社， 2001 。

6 The Norton Anthology of English Literature, M.H. Abrams, London: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd.