本单元具体教学内容、教学基本要求、单元重点与难点

第9次课：自然主义

Chapter 9 American Naturalism

1.教学内容

I. Background

1. Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”

2. Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”

3. French Naturalism: Zora

II. Features

1. environment and heredity

2. scientific accuracy and a lot of details

3. general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the society

III. significance

It prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot.

IV. Stephen Crane

V. Theodore Dreiser

1. life

2. works

(1) Sister Carrie

3. point of view

4. Sister Carrie

(1) Plot

(2) Analysis

5. Style

VI. Close Reading and work analysis

1.Excerpts of Red Badge of Courage 

2.Poems “Richard Cory”

“Miniver Cheevy” by Allington Robinson

VII. World literature:

1) Tradition of antiwar stories in American literature and War literature in New China

2) Compare American naturalist writings with that of Yuhua and Moyan.

2.  教学基本要求

1)To make students acquire some basic knowledge of  some Naturalist writers and their works

2) To develop students’ understanding of the American Naturalism including its background, its feature and influence.

3) To improve students’ abilities to interpret and appreciate the literary works in the aspects of enjoy the literary works

4) To improve students’ language skills and competence to explore the element of naturalism in Contemporary Chinese writer such as Yuhua and Moyan.

5) To improve students’ critical thinking on American antiwar narrative tradition  

 

3. 单元重点、难点 

重点

1) American Naturalism

2) Naturalism and anti-war ideas represented in the novel Red Badge of Courage

3) Element of naturalism in Yuhua and Moyan

难点

1) Anti-war tradition in American literature and contemporary politics.

2) World literature, elements of naturalism in different culture.

American Naturalism

I. Background

1. Darwin’s theory: “natural selection”

2. Spenser’s idea: “social Darwinism”

3. French Naturalism: Zora

II. Features

1. environment and heredity

2. scientific accuracy and a lot of details

3. general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the society

III. significance

It prepares the way for the writing of 1920s’ “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot.

IV. Theodore Dreiser

1. life

2. works

(1) Sister Carrie

(2) The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic

(3) Jennie Gerhardt

(4) American Tragedy

(5) The Genius

3. point of view

(1) He embraced social Darwinism – survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless, survive.

(2) Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.

(3) No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.

4. Sister Carrie

(1) Plot

(2) Analysis

5. Style

(1) Without good structure

(2) Deficient characterization

(3) Lack in imagination

(4) Journalistic method

(5) Techniques in painting