1、英语短篇小说教程英语短篇小说教程Short Stories in English:A Reading CourseUnit OneIntroduction:The Short StoryReading:“Early Autumn”by Langston Hughes Comment on the following statement:Do you agree to this opinion?“Autobiography is fiction,for in the process of writing the author will have inevitably created a fict
2、itious character.”Comment on the following statement:Israel Zangwill,an English writer,says something about the“truth”of fiction.Do you agree to this opinion?“In Literature,everything is true except names and places;in history nothing is true except names and places.”The Random House Dictionary defi
3、nition of the word“fiction”:The class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration,esp.in prose form.The four main categories of literature:lfiction:novel,novella,short stories,myth,legend folktalelpoetry:ballad,epic,free verse,psalm,sonnet ldrama:play,opera,radio/TV/film scriptslprose:es
4、say,criticism,literary theory,(auto)biographySylvan Barnet:A Short Guide to Writing about Literature Perhaps the first thing to say is that it is impossible to define literature in a way that will satisfy everyone.And perhaps the second thing to say is that in the last 20 years or so,some serious th
5、inkers have argued that it is impossible to set off certain verbal works from all others,and on some basis or other to designate them as literature.It is an honorific word,or a body of work embodying eternal truth and eternal beauty.John M.Ellis:The Theory of Literary Criticism The word literature i
6、s something like the word weed.A weed is just a plant that gardeners for one reason or another dont want in the garden,but no plant has characteristics that clearly make it weed and not merely a plant.Robert Frost and Ezra Pound:lRobert Frost:Literature is“a performance of words.”lEzra Pound:Literat
7、ure is“news that stays news.”Essential differences between fiction and non-fictional writings:lThe former has two levels of understanding,the narrative level and the authorial level,or the surface level and the deep level of understanding;lThe former allows different interpretations;lThe former requ
8、ires imaginative participation on the part of the reader;lIn the former,the authors voice is generally disguised,speaking through a persona.Discussion:Is it literature?The old dog barks backward without getting up.I can still remember when he was a pup.Robert Frost:“The Span of Life”Discussion:Is it
9、 literature?坟是白馒头，井像黑窟窿，黄狗身上白，白狗身上肿。Discussion:Is it literature?Thirty days hath September,April,June and November;All the rest have thirty-one,Excepting February alone Which has twenty-eight in fine,Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.Reading and Textual Analysis Langston Hughes:“Early Autumn”Quest
10、ions 1.Even though we call it a“short story,”is there much“story”in the usual sense of the word?Is“story”an inevitable part?3.Is there a clear message?What is Marys problem?4.How does the story touch the reader if it is a touching one?5.What part does the setting play in the story?Henry James:lThe b
11、est fiction would not rely primarily upon plot,instead,would derive its impact from truth of detail.Jack London:l(Good literature)transcends the limits of particularity to reach universality.Isarael Zangwill:lArt deals with essences,not with accidents.Chekhov:It is not the business of a writer to an
12、swer the great questions but to state the questions correctly.英语短篇小说教程英语短篇小说教程Short Stories in English:A Reading CourseUnit TwoThe Author,the Narrator and the ReaderReading:l(1):“The Washwoman”by I.B.Singer l(2):“A Piece of Yellow Soap”by Frank Sargeson The Author The author is not the same as the n
13、arrator even when an author uses the first-person“I”.The author creates and chooses a narrator to tell a story and he might as well choose a totally different narrator to make a different story.A highly sophisticated author can choose a nave person,a child for example,to tell a story.The Narrator Wh
14、o is telling the story determines the storys point of view the vantage point from which events are presented.The implications of this choice are far-reaching.The perspective from which a story is told determines what details are to be included in the story and how they are to be arranged and present
15、ed.The narrator of a story may be:reliable or unreliable,objective or subjective,fair or partial,sympathetic or detached,simple-minded or sophisticated,ignorant or insightful.In other words,he may or may not present an accurate picture of events.The Reader:lSince the narrator does not always represe
16、nt the author,the reader can not take the narrators words for granted,but needs to weigh and decide how much he can trust the narrators story.lThe reading process is interactive,with the reader playing the role of both a receiver and a contributor,as meaning can only be discovered and constructed by
17、 the reader.lIt is a mistake to think that,for each story,there is one“correct”interpretation for all readers.The first-person narration:The first-person narration is provided by a narrator inside the story as the main character,or a participant,or an observer.This way of narration can present incid
18、ents more convincingly as the story is told by“I”personally.But the first-person narrator is,by definition,limited because he presents a situation as only one person sees it.The third-person narration:lThe omniscient narrator is a third person narrator who knows everything.This kind of narrator can
19、present an overview of events and characters,and can move in and out of the characters minds freely.lThe limited omniscient narrator gives a narration that focuses only on what a single person experiences.In other words,events are limited to one persons perspective,and nothing is revealed that the n
20、arrator does not see,hear,feel,or think about.The Nave Narrator A nave narrator is a story teller who does not fully understand the significance of the story he is telling,thus a special literary effect,which we call dramatic irony,is achieved between his limited understanding and the readers better
21、 understanding of the situation.Reading and Textual Analysis (1):I.B.Singer“The Washwoman”(2):Frank Sargeson“A Piece of Yellow Soap”Questions for Discussion:lIn this Unit,we have two stories about two washwomen.There are a lot of similar descriptions and common characteristics in the two stories.Fin
22、d and list them.lThe two first-person narrators tell two stories of two washwomen who share similar tragic fates.Discuss the differences in the narrators that result in the differences in the way the two short stories are told,and the different effect achieve.(Please make reference to“Reading Tips”on page 11 and page15)lDoes the piece of washing soap(in“A Piece of Yellow Soap”)have the“power”as the narrator tells us?What is the“power”that forces him to take off?
