金涛 lecture 1 英国文学 课程介绍.ppt

金 涛 Tel:Email: jt@jstu.edu.cn Office room: 50-304 Selected Readings in British Literature Lecture one Introduction Outline 1. Whose literature is it anyway? (What is literature? ) 2. Three values of the study of literature 3. Course descriptions 4. teaching objectives 5. requirements 6. assessments Whose literature is it anyway? Literature is imaginative writing. Imaginative writing attempts to reflect the whole of human experience, in all of its various dimensions. Writers strive to convey not simply information or factual knowledge, but also emotional knowledge, and often even what we call wisdom, or vision. Plato(ca.427-347B.C.)Republic, Book X Plato identifies art as imitation, positing that what artists do is hold the mirror to nature: They copy the appearance of men, animals, and objects in the physical world. But if this is the case, then the artistic object is merely an image, slightly but not more meaningfully permanent than a reflection in a pool of water. And the intelligent that went into its creation need involve nothing more than conjecture. Ideas (Mathematical Forms)—Material Things—Images Sir Philip Sydney, (1554-1586)Apology for Poetry (The Defence of Poetry) “Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done—neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too much loved earth more lovely. Her world is brazen, the poets may deliver a golden.” Three values of the study of literature First value: The study of literature is an invitation to come along and explore the territory each writer guides us through, and to make discovery there. It is a journey of the head and of the heart. Access literature=access life Second value: When we reading literature, we are encouraged to think, interpret, discuss, compare ideas, and do our own writing about we discover, which will sharpen our analytical skills. Third value: the study of literature provides a wido