1、Part Two The United States of American Unit Seven Literature A Fiction Task One Leading -inTalking : How much do you know about American literature?Not knowing yet, lets go and read for more information.Task Two Exchanging Pre-reading （自主交流）（自主交流）Exchange what you have learned about American Literat
2、ure. 1.The history of American Literature 2.Feature 3. Development 4. Famous writersTask Three Presenting new reading （自主探究） Skim to get the main idea of each paragraph by finding key words or topic sentences or using your own words. A. Fiction America did not have its fiction until Washington Irvin
3、g. Before Washington Irving, there had been essays, articles, pamphlets. By Franklin, Paine, Jefferson and so on, but there had been no fiction. From Irving, American fiction began to flourish, but it still somewhat followed European convention, though Irving ted his works with the local color of Am
4、erica. Then there rose the novelists of Romanticism, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hermen Melville, Edgar Allan Poe. The fiction that is typically American actually began from the novelist Mark Twain who employed the real American elements in his fiction impressed the readers greatly.
5、From the turn of this century, American fiction began to be more and more noticeable both in American literature and world literature. And there appeared many world famous writers such as Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, etc. After the Second World War, there appea
6、red a diversity of American fiction, such as the Jewish fiction, the Southern fiction ,the black fiction, etc. And it is hard to summarize it in uniformity. American contemporary literature has continued to undergo healthy development in producing new forms and new language suitable for expressing a
7、 vivid and varied sense about contemporary life. American modernism lasted from 1900 to about 1940, and postmodernism was in vogue from 1960s-1980s. American fiction became generally more conservative during the late 1980s. The new directions include the emergence of science fiction and its various
8、hybrid forms; critical literature, diversity of forms, voices and myths developed by women writers and by authors from other marginal groups( Blacks, Native Americans, gays, Chicano, etc); the recent flowering of the American short story, in particular the terse, cool-surfaced minimalist(or new)fict
9、ion. Once upon a time American writers appropriated European examples and principles, but they were never satisfied. For nearly three centuries they have been creating unique American literature of virtue and sensibility. In 1990s, American literature takes much newer directions varieties in quality
10、, Kings of Horror, Stephen King wrote a lot of horror novels and become top-selling author. His representative works include The Shining(1977) and Needful Things(1993). The love of a Good Woman, written by a female writer: Alice Muro, was awarded by National Book Award. Task Four Proceeding reading
11、comprehension（自主探究）Step One In groups the students try to prepare some questions and analyze the difficult sentence structures of each paragraph by questioning and answering, and design test items for other groups to do.Step Two Each group asks the neighbor group at least one question or one test to
12、 do including new words and expressions understanding, sentence structures, main ideas etc.Possible questions:1. When did American fiction begin to flourish ? And when did the typically American fiction begin ?2. List some novelists of Romanticism and some world famous writers.3. Give a brief descri
13、ption of American contemporary literature.4. When did American literature take much newer directions varieties in quality ?5. Whats the order of the text ?Task Five Performing induction 自主归纳自主归纳New words and expressionsImportant structuresReading skillsDetails about American FictionWhat you have learned from this course in this period?Task Six Producing output（体验参与）（体验参与） Ask the student groups to use the sentence structures, important words and expressions to describe Chinese Fiction .
