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1、Introduction to Literature (For Post-graduates ),CAI Yuhui Ph. D Anhui Normal University,Chapter I General Introduction,Part One Objectives of the course To help those who take literature or language as a professional or academic subject for further studies develop a literary view. To help those maj
2、oring in literature or language build up a theoretical mind.,To help learners master some approaches to literary appreciation and interpretation. To help learners have a macro understanding of literature as a social phenomenon as well as an academic subject and a micro study of literary works as the
3、 artifacts of language.,Part Two The nature of literature,A survey of different ideas of literature Marxist interpretation- literature is the reflection of social life: Lenin: literature - a mirror reflecting social life; Mao Zedong-literature- originating from life but more refined than life.,Freud
4、: Literature is motivated by libido in the form of dream. Jung: Literaturecollective unconscious rather than personal unconscious. New Criticism: literature as “ a construction in language of reality, not an abstraction by analysis from reality”. David Lodge: Literature is mostly about having sex an
5、d not much about having children; life is the other way round.,Personal Definition of Literature,Literature is the representation of life, the mind and an art of language.,Definition Illustration,Representation: to make an image of or show (sth.) in a picture, sculpture or play ; or 再现、表象 in Chinese
6、.,Roger Chartier: On one hand, “representation” permits envisaging something that is absent, which supposes a radical distinction between what is doing the representing and what is being represented. On the other hand, “representation” exhibits a presence; it is like a public presentation of somethi
7、ng or someone. In the first sense, representation is the instrument of a mediated knowledge that makes an absent entity visible by substituting for it an “image” capable of recalling it to mind and picturing it as it is. Certain images of this sort are material and offer a likeness. - Cultural Histo
8、ry: Between Practices and Representations, Polity Press, 1988,p.7,As a representation of Life,Life remains the origin or sources of literature. e.g. The primitive men who were our ancestors could not even speak at first, but to work together they had to convey their ideas, and so gradually they lear
9、ned to utter complex sounds. Suppose they were carrying logs and found it hard work, but did not know how to express this; if one of them called out “Yo, heave, ho!” that was a literary creation. And if others, admiring him, took it up, this was a form of publication. If it were recorded by some met
10、hod it would become literature, and of course such a man would be an author or writer of the Yo-heave-ho school. - LU Xun,Life furnishes literature with the raw materials. Life makes the starting and ending point of literary creation and appreciation.,Differences: Literature and History,From the ang
11、le of the content; From the angle of objectives; From the angle of writing methods.,As the representation of the mind,Man has two worlds: physical and psychological, and the latter is even bigger or at least as big as the former; Based on the previous statement, the psychological world, or the world
12、 of the mind, takes up a large proportion of literary world in content.,As an art of Language,As an art of sounds: rhythm, Formalism; New Criticism, etc. As an art of structure: Structuralism As an art of meanings: constructivism, deconstruction, feminism, etc. As an art of codes or signals: cultura
13、l studies, post-colonialism, new historicism, etc.,Major Characteristics of Literature,Figurative in language; Fictitious and refined in content ; Allegorical in motif or objectives.,Major Functions of Literature,A survey of different interpretations of the function; Cognitive function; Entertaining
14、 function; Aesthetic function.,Chapter II Introduction to Poetry,What is poetry? - A survey of definitions Aristotle: For this reason poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history. - Poetics Samuel T. Coleridge: Poetry is not the proper antithesis of prose,
15、 but to science. Poetry is opposed to science, and prose to metre. - Lectures and Notes on 1818,P. C. Shelley: Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. - A Defence of Poetry W. Wordsworth: Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes
16、its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility. - A Preface to Lyric Ballads T. S. Eliot: Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. - Tradition and the Individual Talent.,Archibald Macleish: A poem should not mean, but be. - Ars Poetica Kelley Griffith: poetry is a genre of literature that combines conventions that convey ideas (diction, speakers, imagery, sym
