本课程为非学位课程，其教学目的是为了考察研究生对文学理论的认知程度，并在相关理论下对世界，特别是英美名著和中国古典文学，进行欣赏或研究，了解语言与文学作品之间的关系，旨在提高研究生在文学方面的修养。

本课程要求研究生熟知文学欣赏的基本方法与文学欣赏中常见的主题阐释，并根据所分析的文学名著，通过国内外比较流行的文学欣赏方法，写出一篇符合文学评论格式的论文。在尽可能的情况下，在国内相关的期刊上发表。

Organizer: Li Changlei   changleilee@hotmail.com 

Classhours: 10: 10-11:40 AM. Tus.  Office hours: by appointment via 7740 or 6276  

I Major objectives of the course:

1. To develop an appreciation for the humanistic and aesthetic values of literature;
2. To develop an awareness of the influence of some masterpieces in world literature, especially in China, Great Britain and the U. S. A;
3. To foster the ability to read literary works with understanding and insight;
4. To develop the ability to think, speak, and write with insight and clarity.

II Expectations of students

1.  To read assigned material carefully and critically

2. To attend class, and to contribute significantly to class discussion
3. To practice formal and informal written responses to literature through response paper, a research paper, and a final examination

Cell phones and other communications devices should be turned off while class is in session. Occasionally, in an emergency situation, you may be expecting a critical call. In such circumstances, inform me of the situation before class begins, and sit in a seat near the exit so you can excuse yourself unobtrusively when the call arrives.

III Course Requirements and Basis for Student Evaluation

 A. Twice additional written or oral presentations (30 point; 15 points for each)

 B. Class attendance and participation (20 points)  

 C. Research paper (50 points)  

For the presentation, each student will sign up for two 15-minute presentations on different topics useful to your understanding of the texts under discussion on a particular day.

The research paper will be an independent project focusing on the novel you like best. I encourage you to begin reading the novel as soon as possible, because there is not time set aside in the semester for this work. You will be responsible for reading, discussion, analyzing, researching, and writing about the novel on your own. I will set aside special office hours for consultations on this project, but it is primarily meant as an opportunity for you to show what you can do independently of me.

IV Textbooks:

Listed in the course content

V. Contents

Week 1 Introduction to Course and Policies

         Basic Approaches in Literature Appreciation

Week 2 New Criticism

      Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Week 3 Traditional Approaches: Historical-biographical, and Moral-Philosophical

      The Dream of Red Mansion

Week 4 Psychological Approach

Hamlet and the Oedipus complex

Week 5 National Holiday

Week 6 Hemingway and Suicide Complex

Week 7 Jacque Lacan and His Mirror Theory

Week 8 Mythological and Archetypal Approaches

Ulysses

Week 9 William Faulkner and the Bible

Week 10 Feminist and Gender Approaches

A Rose for Emily

Week 11The Scarlet Letter

Week 12 Cultural Approach

      The Dream of Red Mansion

Week 13 Postcolonialist Approach

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 

Week 14 Socialism in the United States

        The Grapes of the Wrath

Week 15 Existentialist Approach

Sister Carrie

Week 16 Ecocritical Approach

        “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor

Weeks 17 -18 Research Paper

VI Guide to Reading Fiction

Persons (characters; developing or static)

Place (Setting: time and location)

Plot (action + conflict: with person[s], environment, or self)

Point of view (e.g., Omniscient, focused Omniscient Neutral Omniscient, first person, Scenic)

Purpose (theme)

Study Questions:

1. Identify the setting.
2. Summarize the plot or action.
3. List and identify the major characters
4. Determine to what extent (if any, and how, the characters change in the course of the story.
5. Identify the various conflicts in the story.
6. Identify the point of view, that is, the perspective camera angle) from which the author chooses to tell the story.
7. Identify now or more dominant themes.

VII Some possible critical approaches:

Bibliographical or Textural (which text or version do we read)

Biographical (relation to author’s life)

Historical (relation of work to its historical period)

Psychoanalytical (Freudian interpretations)

Mythic (parallels to ancient or contemporary cultural myths)

Reader’s response (individual readers’ reaction to text)

Feminist Criticism

Structural Criticism

Post-structural Criticism

Existentialist Criticism

Marxist Criticism

Phenomenological Criticism