The course of English and American literature is designed for advanced learners of English major. Its purpose is to introduce students to the discipline of English studies, familiarize them with the topics and themes in the history of English and American literature and cultivate in them a commitment to the spirit of humanity. This course organically combines the history of English and American literature with a critical examination of selected works. In practice, we pay special attention to the basic knowledge and major approaches of literary criticism with a commitment to develop the student’s language competence as well as critical thinking.
英美文学（English and American Literature）
Shanghai University of International Business and Economics via XuetangX
Overview
Syllabus
- Unit 1 An Introduction to English Literature
- 1-1 The History of English Literature: A Brief Survey
- 1-2 Understanding Literature
- Unit 2 Shakespeare
- 2-1 Introduction to the age of Renaissance and Shakespeare’s Sonnets
- 2-2 A Textual Analysis of Hamlet’s Soliloquy
- 2-3 An Ethic Approach to Hamlet’s Dilemma
- Unit 3 John Milton: Paradise Lost
- 3-1 Life and Times
- 3-2 Paradise Lost: textual analysis
- 3-3 Style and Characterization
- Unit 4 Daniel Defoe and Robinson Crusoe
- 4-1 An Introduction to the Age of Enlightenment
- 4-2 On Characterization
- 4-3 From Capitalism to Imperialism:A Cultural Critique of Robinson Crusoe
- Unit 5 William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”
- 5-1 “Tintern Abbey”: General Remarks
- 5-2 Beauty in Nature and Pleasure in the Poet
- 5-3 Sublimity in Nature and Elevation and Love in the Poet
- Unit 6 John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
- 6-1 A Tormented Soul: The Short and Unfulfilled Life of John Keats
- 6-2 A Textual Analysis of “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
- 6-3 Romantic Acceptance of Ancient Greek Culture
- Unit 7 Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
- 7-1 Jane Austen and Her “Little Bit of Ivory”
- 7-2 Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice
- 7-3 Jane Austen’s Achievements and Her Legacy
- Unit 8 Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
- 8-1 Life and Times
- 8-2 Jane Eyre: Text and Context
- 8-3 Critical Approaches and Style
- Unit 9 Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist
- 9-1 Life and Times
- 9-2 Great Expectations as A Social Critique
- 9-3 Great Expectations: Form and Style
- Unit 10 James Joyce and “Araby”
- 10-1 Key Features of English Modernist Literature
- 10-2 Themes in Araby: Spiritual Paralysis and Disillusioned Love
- 10-3 Artistic Innovations in “Araby”
- Unit 11 An Introduction to American Literature
- 11-1 The History of American Literature: Defining Americanness (I)
- 11-2 The History of American Literature: Defining Americanness (II)
- 11-3 The History of American Literature: Defining Americanness (III)
- Unit 12 Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nature (1836)
- 12-1 Emerson and the Fragmentary Life
- 12-2 Emerson’s Transcendentalism and Concept of Self-Reliance
- 12-3 Emerson’s Prose Style: Unity, Flux and Polarity
- Unit 13 Three Ways of Reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden
- 13-1 Walden as a Nature Book
- 13-2 Walden as a Work of Literary Art
- 13-3 Walden as a Spiritual Guidebook
- Unit 14 Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
- 14-1 Nathaniel Hawthorne and Puritanism
- 14-2 The Empowering Woman in The Scarlet Letter
- 14-3 Historical Relevance of The Scarlet Letter to the 19th Century Feminism
- Unit 15 Mark Twain: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
- 15-1 Mark Twain and Literary Regionalism
- 15-2 Plot and Themes of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
- 15-3 “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”: Gambling the Identity in the Far West
- Unit 16 William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury
- 16-1 William Faulkner and the Southern Renaissance
- 16-2 A textual analysis of The Sound and the Fury
- 16-3 Benjy Compson in Focus: Where Is the Sound? Where Is the Fury?
- Unit 17 Robert Frost: “Love and A Question”
- 17-1 Traditionalism in the Dawn of Modernism
- 17-2 “Love and a Question”: Themes and Context
- 17-3 “Love and a Question”: American Hospitality and New England Shield
- Unit 18 Tennessee William: A Streetcar Named Desire
- 18-1 The Southern Belle in Trouble: Tennessee Williams’s Predicament
- 18-2 A Textual Analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire, Scenes 7 & 8
- 18-3 Two Conflicting Musical Motifs: Music in A Streetcar Named Desire
- Unit 19 Arthur Miller and Death of a Salesman
- 19-1 The Great Arthur Miller: the American Dream “realized”
- 19-2 A Textual Analysis of Death of a Salesman, Act II
- 19-3 The Haunting Weight of the Great Depression
- Unit 20 Toni Morrison: Beloved
- 20-1 Understanding Toni Morrison
- 20-2 Beloved: The Unspeakable Thing Unspoken
- 20-3 Subversion of “Canonicity” by Toni Morrison
- Achievement Test
Taught by
Wang Yu, Chen Hao, Hu Yijun, Zhou Xiaojin, Chen Xiaoming, and Xia Rui
