本单元具体教学内容、教学基本要求、单元重点与难点

第7次课: 爱伦·坡

1.教学内容

Edgar Allen Poe

I. Life

II. Works

1. short stories

(1) ratiocinative stories

(2) Literary theory

III. Themes

IV. Aesthetic ideas

V. Style – traditional, but not easy to read

VI. Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)

VII. His influences

VIII. Close reading and poems analysis

a.   A.The Masque of the Red Death

b. The Philosophy of Composition

c. The Poetic Principle

d. Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told Tales

e. The Raven

f. Annabel Lee

IX. Cross- cultural perspective: Plague writing in Poe, Defoe and Camus.

2.  教学基本要求

1)To make students acquire some basic information about the author Poe’s life, works, contribution.

2) To develop students’ understanding of the Poe’s aesthetic ideas on poetry and Gothic stories.

3) To improve students’ abilities to interpret and appreciate the Poe’s poems and Gothic story taking The Mask of The Red Death as an example.

4) To improve students’ language cross-cultural communication skills and competence

5) To cultivate students’ ability of exploring development of Gothic novels.

 

3. 单元重点、难点 

重点

1) Poe’s theory of effect and the application.

2) Appreciation of Poe’s poems The Raven, Annabel Lee and his Gothic story The Mask of The Red Death 

3) The development of the literary genre Gothic novel.

 

难点

1) Theory of Effect.

2) Gothic element

Edgar Allen Poe

I. Life

II. Works

1. short stories

(1) ratiocinative stories

a. Ms Found in a Bottle

b. The Murders in the Rue Morgue

c. The Purloined Letter

(2) Revenge, death and rebirth

a. The Fall of the House of Usher

b. Ligeia

c. The Masque of the Red Death

(3) Literary theory

a. The Philosophy of Composition

b. The Poetic Principle

c. Review of Hawthorne’s Twice-told Tales

III. Themes

1. death – predominant theme in Poe’s writing

“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.”

2. disintegration (separation) of life

3. horror

4. negative thoughts of science