英美文学选读教桉以及复习要点.docVIP

Lecture 1 William Shakespeare 1. Introduction of the course (1) This course is called Selected Readings in English and American Literature, a compulsory course for you. It will be finished in 12 weeks. And in each week well meet each other two times. (2) In this course, you will have to read some original works taken from English and American classics. It may be a little bit difficult for you. However, its also a chance for you to know some great treasury in world literature and Ill help you understand them. (3)Comparing with the literary history courses, this course mainly focuses on original productions. The course book is a nice one with classical works and detailed notes. (4) For the final test, 10% will be decided by your attendance, 20% by your homework and 70% by the test paper. About the homework, after we finish each writer, Ill give you a name list of recommended works written by the writer. In the whole semester, you should choose at least one piece of English writers works and one piece of American writers works recommended by me. And then you should write a small paper on the piece of works you chose. That means you should turn in two papers in the whole semester. (5) A very important suggestion: preview the productions before the class; otherwise itll be very difficult for you to catch me in the class. 2. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) (1) Historical Background A. Queen Elizabeth I: a powerful England with the fast development of capitalism B. Renaissance: an intellectual movement sprung first in Italy in the 14th century and gradually spread all over Europe. Two features are striking of this movement. The one is a thirsting curiosity for the classical literature. Another is the humanism, which means the new feeling of admiration for human beauty and human achievement. C. Shakespeare lived in such a period and also such a period made him the most famous and most important English writer. (2) Life (Read paragraph 1 and 2 on page 1 after class. Thes