american liteature-an overviewamerican literature-an overviewamerican literature-an overviewamerican literature-an overview.pptVIP

Homework Give a brief account of the history of American Literature in the form of flow chart. American Literature Foreign Language Faulty of XinXiang University By Zhao Xiaoxiao Email:zhaoxiao1980@126.com Mobile phone numberFeb. 2014 Lecture 1 Introduction Main Idea Part One Discuss some questions that relate to literature Part Two Make a brief introduction to this course Part Three Make a brief introduction to American literature Ⅰ.What is Literature? The History of Literature: The word “literature” came into English from the 14th century in the sense of polite learning through reading. From the mid-18th century, literature referred to the practice and profession of writing. Since the 19th century, literature has been the high skills of writing in the special context of high imagination.  The New Critics, who flourished in the US from 1920s to 1960s, thought that literature consisted of poetry, drama and fiction. Until the mid-20th century, many kinds of non-fictional writing—in philosophy, history, biography, criticism, science, and politics—were all counted as literature. The Definition of Literature Literature refers to writings that are valued as works of art, esp. fiction, drama and poetry. Language is artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Literature is characterized by beauty of expression and form and by universality of intellectual and emotional appeal. Forms (genres) of literature? Poetry, novel (fiction), drama, prose, essay, epic, elegy, short story, journalism, sermon, (auto) biography, travel accounts, novelette, etc. It contains fiction non-fiction. Fiction: (4 genres) poetry novel drama short story Non-fiction : Essay (4 categories) description narration exposition argumentation Ⅱ.Why do people read literature? 1. Reading for fun or pleasure 2. Reading for relaxation 3. Readi