English Lit.--新.pptVIP

Introduction Course Name: English Literature I Class Hour: 32X2=62 Credit: 2+2=4 Focus: History Anthology Class Style: Lecture Discussion Textbook: History Anthology of English Literature Class Rule: Absence Failure of Class and Homework Will Be Punished I. What Is Literature? Literature is writing, a particular organization of language, which expresses and communicates thoughts, feelings and attitudes towards life. The writing includes poetry, (play) drama, novel, prose, etc. Advertisements and travel booklets are not literature in the sense in which we are to explain the word now because they lack one of the qualities that make serious literature. The quality is permanence. Literature can give a kind of immortality to the writer, his subject, and his characters. II. Qualities of Literature 1.The 1st significant thing is the essentially artistic quality of all literature. All art is the expression of life in forms of truth and beauty; or rather, it is the reflection of some truth and beauty which are in the world, but which remain unnoticed until brought to our attention by some sensitive human soul. 2. The 2nd quality is its suggestiveness, its appeal to our emotions and imagination rather than to our intellect. It is not so much what it says as what it awakens in us that constitutes its charm. 3. The 3rd is its permanence. Any song or story could live to give delight in future ages. But literature is like a river in flood, which gradually purifies itself in two ways, ---the mud settles to the bottom, and the scum rises to the top. When we examine the writings that by common consent constitute our literature, the clear stream purified of its dross, we find at least two more qualities, which we call the tests of literature and which determine its permanence. III. Aims of Studying Literature Literature preserves the ideals of a people---love, faith, duty, friendship, freedom, reverence---the part of human life most worthy of preservation. Ideals of the Greeks