Thank you!
Comment on the following statement:
Israel Zangwill, an English writer, says something about the “truth” of fiction. Do you agree to this opinion?
“In Literature, everything is true except names and places; in history nothing is true except names and places. ”
John M. Ellis: The Theory of Literary Criticism
The word literature is something like the word weed. A weed is just a plant that gardeners for one reason or another don’t want in the garden, but no plant has characteristics that clearly make it weed and not merely a plant.
The former has two levels of understanding, the narrative level and the authorial level, or the surface level and the deep level of understanding;
The former allows different interpretations; The former requires imaginative participation on the
(auto)biography…
Sylvan Barnet: A Short Guide to Writing about Literature
Perhaps the first thing to say is that it is impossible to define literature in a way that will satisfy everyone. And perhaps the second thing to say is that in the last 20 years or so, some serious thinkers have argued that it is impossible to set off certain verbal works from all others, and on some basis or other to designate them as literature. It is an honorific word, or a body of work embodying eternal truth and eternal beauty.
Isarael Zangwill:
Art deals with essences, not with accidents.
Chekhov:
It is not the business of a writer to answer the great questions but to state the questions correctly.
3. Is there a clear message? What is Mary’s problem? 4. How does the story touch the reader – if it is a touching one? 5. What part does the setting play in the story?
Reading and Textual Analysis
Langston Hughes: “Early Autumn”
Questions
1. Even though we call it a “short story,” is there much “story” in the usual sense of the rt?
Robert Frost: “The Span of Life”
Discussion: Is it literature?
坟是白馒头， 井像黑窟窿， 黄狗身上白， 白狗身上肿。
Discussion: Is it literature?
Thirty days hath September, April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone Which has twenty-eight in fine, Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.
Do you agree to this opinion?
“Autobiography is fiction, for in the process of writing the author will have inevitably created a fictitious character.”
fiction: novel, novella, short stories, myth, legend folktale…
poetry: ballad, epic, free verse, psalm, sonnet …
drama: play, opera, radio/TV/film scripts… prose: essay, criticism, literary theory,
Robert Frost and Ezra Pound:
Robert Frost: Literature is “a performance of words.”
Ezra Pound: Literature is “news that stays news.”
Essential differences between fiction and non-fictional writings:
Henry James:
The best fiction would not rely primarily upon plot, instead, would derive its impact from truth of detail.
Jack London:
(Good literature) transcends the limits of particularity to reach universality.
The Random House Dictionary definition of the word “fiction”:
The class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, esp. in prose form.
The four main categories of literature:
英语短篇小说教程
Short Stories in English: A Reading Course
Unit One
Introduction: The Short Story Reading: “Early Autumn” by Langston
Hughes
Comment on the following statement:
part of the reader; In the former, the author’s voice is generally
disguised, speaking through a persona.
Discussion: Is it literature?
The old dog barks backward without getting up. I can still remember when he was a pup.