精简英国文学教案Week

1、Week11目的：理解批评现实主义以及迪更斯(mirror)Realism, a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflecting faithfully an actual way of life. It is not a direct or simple reproduction of reality( a slice of life)but a system of conventions producing a lifelike illusion of some real world outside t

2、he text. The earliest Realist work began to appear in the 18th century, in a reaction to the excesses of Romanticism and Neoclassicism.WHAT IS THE STRENGTH AND WEEKNESS OF ENGLISH CRITICAL REALISM？Three periods of Charles Dickens literary career.(英国文学简史)4. Features of Dickens novelsA.Dickensnovels o

3、ffer a most complete and realistic picture of the English bourgeois of his age.B. Dickens is a petty bourgeois intellectual. He could not overstep the limits of his class. He believed in the moral self-perfection of the wicked propertied classes. He failed to see the necessity of a bitter struggle o

4、f the oppressed against their oppressors.C. Almost all his novels have a happy ending.D. His novels tell much of the experiences of his childhood.F. Dickens is a great humorist. His novels are full of humor and laughter.5Key Facts ofOliver Twistfull title Oliver Twist: The Parish Boys Progressgenre

5、Childrens story; detective story; novel of social protestnarrator Anonymous narratorpoint of view The narrator is third person omniscient, and assumes the points of view of various characters in turn. The narrators tone is not objective; it is sympathetic to the protagonists and far less so to the n

6、ovels other characters. When dealing with hypocritical or morally objectionable characters, the narrative voice is often ironic or sarcastic.tone Sentimental, sometimes ironic, hyperbolic, crusadingsetting (time) 1830ssetting (place) London and environs; an unnamed smaller English city; the English

7、countrysideprotagonist Oliver Twistmajor conflict Although Oliver is fundamentally righteous, the social environment in which he is raised encourages thievery and prostitution. Oliver struggles to find his identity and rise above the abject conditions of the lower class.rising action Oliver is taken

8、 care of by a gang of London thieves, but refuses to participate in their thievery. An upper-class family takes him in, but the thieves and a mysterious character, Monks, continue to pursue him.climax Nancy is murdered for disclosing Monkss plans to Olivers guardians. Mr. Brownlow gets the full stor

9、y of Olivers origins from Monks.falling action Fagin is executed and Sikes dies; Oliver and his new family live out their days in happiness.themes The failures of charity; the folly of individualism; purity in a corrupt city; the countryside idealizedmotifs Disguised or mistaken identities; hidden f

10、amily relationships; surrogate families; Olivers faceforeshadowing The truth about Olivers parentage is foreshadowed by the portrait in Mr. Brownlows house, by the locket that Old Sally has stolen, and by Monkss pursuit of Oliver. Why did you kill Nancy off? I thought she was a very strong character

11、 who was a great asset to the books moral.(Virginia, aged 11-16 from St Marys Academy)Nancy is the most complex case, because although she is a prostitute, a member of Fagin抯 gang, and Sikes抯 mistress, she also has virtuous sentiments, which prompt her to defend Oliver and to betray Fagin. But her g

12、ood qualities also underpin her loyalty to Sikes, and that loyalty is the direct cause of her tragic fate at his hands. According to the novel抯 logic, it is miraculous that Oliver抯 goodness survives in such an environment, whereas it is virtually inevitable that goodness such as Nancy抯 is destroyed.

13、6.Analysis of Major CharactersOliver Twist As the child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities. On many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised in corrupt surroundin

14、gs, his purity and virtue are absolute. Throughout the novel, Dickens uses Olivers character to challenge the Victorian idea that paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt environment is the source of vice. At the same time, Olivers incorruptibility undermines s

15、ome of Dickenss assertions. Oliver is shocked and horrified when he sees the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates pick a strangers pocket and again when he is forced to participate in a burglary. Olivers moral scruples about the sanctity of property seem inborn in him, just as Dickenss opponents thought

16、that corruption is inborn in poor people. Furthermore, other pauper children use rough Cockney slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper Kings English. His grammatical fastidiousness is also inexplicable, as Oliver presumably is not well-educated. Even when he is abused and manipulated, Oliv

17、er does not become angry or indignant. When Sikes and Crackit force him to assist in a robbery, Oliver merely begs to be allowed to “run away and die in the fields.” Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between good and evilinstead, he is goodness incarnate.Even if we might fee

18、l that Dickenss social criticism would have been more effective if he had focused on a more complex poor character, like the Artful Dodger or Nancy, the audience for whom Dickens was writing might not have been receptive to such a portrayal. Dickenss Victorian middle-class readers were likely to hold opinions on the poor that were only a little less extreme than those expressed by Mr. Bumble, the beadle who treats paupers with great cruelty. In fact, Oliver Twist was criticized for portrayin