文学阅读与欣赏网上辅导Unit.doc

文学阅读与欣赏网上辅导Unit1 （ 2004年09月15日）浏览人次54251. Word List Genre 文学作品的体裁， 种类Poetic license 诗的破格， 指诗歌不按一般语言规则行文的自由Setting （小说、戏剧等的）背景Relevance 重大关系， 意义Subject matter 主要题材， 内容Metaphorically 用比喻地Spontaneous overflow 自然流露Quaint 小巧别致的Shroud 隐藏Demographic 人口的Not in session （议会）休会Deviate 偏离Symmetry 对称性Resonate 回荡Aesthetic 美学的Frantically 发狂地Gumption 精明， 老练Affinity 亲和， 相像Delineate 勾画出2. Review KitFigurative language Any language which deviates from literal language so as to furnish novel effects or fresh insights into the subject being discussed. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. As. If you were to say “john runs like the wind and is as strong as an ox,” you would be using similes. You would be indicating comparisons between johns speed and the speed of the wind, and johns strength and the strength of an ox. One important thing to remember is that statements that compare things that are essentially alike are not similes. Sentences such as “he looks like his father” or “he skates as well as i do” are not similes. A simile reveals a similar quality in two elements that are otherwise very different. Hyperbole Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement used to heighten effect. When you say, “i could eat a horse,” you are deliberately exaggerating in order to let your listener know that you are extremely hungry. In the following lines, hyperbole is used to signify how deep a love the speaker has for the “ bonnie lass”. So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,so deep in love am i:And i will love thee still, my dear,till all the seas go dry. Setting The time and place in which the events of a narrative occur. The place may be a region, a city or town, or even a house or room. The time may be a period in history, a particular time of year, or perhaps, a certain time of day. The setting may be specific and detailed, and introduced at the very beginning of the story, or it may be merely suggested through the use of details scattered throughout the story. an author can suggest the setting by references to articles of clothing, famous historical figures, well-known landmarks, or through the dialect and speech patterns of the characters which he created. Not all stories have a setting in which both the time and place are identifiable. In some stories, the setting is vital to the narrative; it may have an effect on the events of the plot, or reveal character, or create a certain atmosphere. in other stories, the setting is relatively unimportant; the story could have happened almost anywhere or at any time. Saint joan Was written when he was sixty-seven. In his eighties and nineties he was still producing interesting plays. Like such artists as the sculptor and painter michelangelo and the opera composer giuseppe verdi, he continued to be creative even when he was a very old man. Shaws plays make enjoyable reading because the author supplies not only the dialogue but much connecting material. There are full descriptions of the characters, vivid descriptions of the scenes, and numerous comments by shaw which are often very entertaining. Shaw was the first playwright to do this. He felt that the ideas in his plays should be spread as widely as possible. Therefore he wanted to cultivate a reading public as well as a theatre-going public. With this in mind, he made his plays as attractive to read as he could. The Pygmalion ythShaw takes the title of his play from a well-known greek myth. There are two versions of it. In one pygmalion is a king who falls in love with a beautiful statue. He prays to aphrodite, the goddess of love, for a wife as beautiful as the statue. aphrodite brings the statue to life. Pygmalion marries her. In the other version of the story, pygmalion is a sculptor. He makes the beautiful statue himself. He falls in love with his own creation and prays that life may be granted to it. The gods give him his wish. The statue becomes a living girl named galatea, and pygmalion marries her. Shaw uses the latter version. In the play, professor higgins is pygmalion. Eliza doolittle is the woman he creates and gives life to. As in the myth, higgins creates a beautiful object out of crude raw materials, but the last great gift of a living soul is more than he has power to give by himself. We do not quite know how it comes to eliza, although higgins has something to do with it and so does the courteous behavior of colonel pickering. Eliza herself is concerned in its creation. whether pygmalion is to marry galatea after the play is ended is not clear, and it is the subject of disagreement among readers, critics, and audience. The Purpose of PygmalionPygmalion is, as shaw put it, a didactic playthat is, a play meant to teach. It has been an enormous success all over the world. Its popularity, said shaw, bears out his theory that all great art must teach, and that art need not be unattractive just because it teaches. Here shaw makes a passing reference to one of his most earnestly held belief. Shaw began his professional theatrical career as a dramatic critic in the 1890s. At that time, the great majority of popular plays were spectacular historical plays or unrealistic melodramas or ridiculous farces. Most of them were absurd and almost completely lacking in intellectual content. No person seeking something to satisfy his mind would go to the theatre, except possibly to see a play by shakespeare. And even these were so cut and changed that they bore little relation to the plays as shakespeare had written them. Shaw soon became convinced that the theatre would become entirely worthless unless it began to deal with ideas. Plays should not simply entertain: they should stimulate, even trouble, the audience. They should discuss the problems of society. Shaw carried out these theories himself when he began his playwriting career. His earliest play is about poverty and slum landlords. He never changed his conviction that a play could not be important unless it handled some issue of contemporary life; as he went on, however, he changed his treatment of such issues from serious to comic. Thus, he produced his characteristic work, the play that has witty dialogue, very funny situations, and, at the same time, a serious point of view. Shaw states that changes in speech as higgins teaches eliza are not unusual in real