Unit six Pose Fiction and Jonathan Swift.docVIP

Unit six Prose Fiction and Jonathan Swift Warming-up 常识预习1. How much do you know about Gullivers Travels? 2. Have you ever seen the movie based on Gullivers Travels before?3. Are you familiar with Jonathan Swift?4. Do you know the original meaning of the word “Yahoo”?5. There are many movies about flying islands. Do you know who first described a flying island in a famous book?6. Can you guess the meanings of big-endian and little-endian?Lecturette专题讲座 Prose Fiction and Jonathan SwiftEnglish prose fiction first appeared as a series of collections of short tales, chiefly translated from Italian authors, to which tales the Italian name novella (novel) was applied. Most of the separate tales are crude or amateurish and have only historical interest. An Irish Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) was remembered for his works such as the satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language. His masterpiece, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, better known as Gullivers Travels. Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. For instance, the episode in which the giant Gulliver puts out the Lilliputian palace fire by urinating on it can be seen as a metaphor for the Tories’ illegal peace treaty; having done a good thing in an unfortunate manner. He paid a long-deferred visit to London, taking with him the manuscript of Gullivers Travels. During his visit he stayed with his old friends, including Alexander Pope, who helped him arrange for the anonymous publication of his book. First published in 1726 (amended 1735), it was an immediate hit, with a total of three printings that year and another in early 1727. French, German, and Dutch translations appeared in 1727 and pirated copies were printed in Ireland. It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery; since then, it h