Class Notes

1. Literary realism

Literary realism is part of the realist art movement beginning with mid nineteenth-century French literature (Stendhal), and Russian literature (Alexander Pushkin) and extending to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Literary realism, in contrast to idealism, attempts to represent familiar things as they are. Realist authors chose to depict everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of using a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_realism#The_novel

2. Initiation

Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Hindu diksha, Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society or religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called an initiate.

Initiation ceremony, Korogo Village, Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, 1975. Franz Luthi

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Initiation&redirect=no

 

3. Confirmation 

In Christianity, Confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in Holy Baptism. In some denominations, Confirmation also bestows full membership in a local congregation upon the recipient. In others, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Confirmation "renders the bond with the Church more perfect", because, while a baptized person is already a member, "reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace".

Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and many Anglicans view Confirmation as a sacrament. In the East it is conferred immediately after baptism. In the West, this practice is followed when adults are baptized, but in the case of infants not in danger of death it is administered, ordinarily by a bishop, only when the child reaches the age of reason or early adolescence. Among those Catholics who practice teen-aged Confirmation, the practice may be perceived, secondarily, as a "coming of age" rite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation

 

4. Picaresque novel

The picaresque novel (Spanish: "picaresca," from "pícaro," for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction that depicts the adventures of a roguish hero/heroine of low social class who lives by his or her wits in a corrupt society. Picaresque novels typically adopt a realistic style, with elements of comedy and satire. This style of novel originated in 16th-century Spain and flourished throughout Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It continues to influence modern literature.

According to the traditional view of Thrall and Hibbard (first published in 1936), seven qualities distinguish the picaresque novel or narrative form, all or some of which an author may employ for effect:

1. A picaresque narrative is usually written in first person as an autobiographical account.
2. The main character is often of low character or social class. He or she gets by with wit and rarely deigns to hold a job.
3. There is no plot. The story is told in a series of loosely connected adventures or episodes.
4. There is little if any character development in the main character. Once a picaro, always a picaro. His or her circumstances may change but they rarely result in a change of heart.
5. The picaro's story is told with a plainness of language or realism.
6. Satire is sometimes a prominent element.
7. The behavior of a picaresque hero or heroine stops just short of criminality. Carefree or immoral rascality positions the picaresque hero as a sympathetic outsider, untouched by the false rules of society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresque_novel

 

5. Don Quixote

Don Quixote , fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha ), is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published, such as the Bokklubben World Library collection that cites Don Quixote as authors' choice for the "best literary work ever written".

Don Quijote (Don Quixote) Illustration by Gustave Doré, depicting the famous windmill scene.

The story follows the adventures of a hidalgo named Mr. Alonso Quixano who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his sanity and decides to set out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs, and bring justice to the world, under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthy wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood. Don Quixote, in the first part of the book, does not see the world for what it is and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story. Throughout the novel, Cervantes uses such literary techniques as realism, metatheatre, and intertextuality. It had a major influence on the literary community, as evidenced by direct references in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers (1844), Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), as well as the word "quixotic". Arthur Schopenhauer cited Don Quixote as one of the four greatest novels ever written, along with Tristram Shandy, La Nouvelle Héloïse and Wilhelm Meister.

 

Don Quixote -  The novel’s tragicomic hero. Don Quixote’s main quest in life is to revive knight-errantry in a world devoid of chivalric virtues and values. He believes only what he chooses to believe and sees the world very differently from most people. Honest, dignified, proud, and idealistic, he wants to save the world. As intelligent as he is mad, Don Quixote starts out as an absurd and isolated figure and ends up as a pitiable and lovable old man whose strength and wisdom have failed him.

Sancho Panza -  The peasant laborer—greedy but kind, faithful but cowardly—whom Don Quixote takes as his squire. A representation of the common man, Sancho is a foil to Don Quixote and virtually every other character in the novel. His proverb-ridden peasant’s wisdom and self-sacrificing Christian behavior prove to be the novel’s most insightful and honorable worldview. He has an awestruck love for Don Quixote but grows self-confident and saucy, ending the novel by advising his master in matters of deep personal philosophy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/donquixote/

 

6. The Lord of the Rings

The first single volume edition (1968)
Volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King
Author	J. R. R. Tolkien
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy Adventure
Publisher	George Allen & Unwin (UK)
Published	29 July 1954 11 November 1954 20 October 1955
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Preceded by	The Hobbit
Followed by	The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

 

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.

Characters

Frodo Baggins

Frodo Baggins is the main protagonist of The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom. 

Samwise Gamgee

Samwise is one of the main characters of The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the primary protagonist, Frodo Baggins. Sam is a member of the Fellowship of the Ring.

• Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry), Frodo's cousin and friend
• Peregrin Took (Pippin or Pip), Frodo's cousin and friend
• Gandalf the Grey, a wizard, leads the Fellowship until his fall in Moria, returns from death as Gandalf the White to lead the armies of the West against Sauron
• Aragorn, descendant of Isildur and rightful heir to the thrones of Arnor and Gondor
• Legolas Greenleaf, an Elf prince and son of King Thranduil of the Silvan Elves of Northern Mirkwood
• Gimli, son of Glóin, a dwarf
• Sauron, the Dark Lord and titular Lord of the Rings, a fallen Maia who helped the Elves forge the Rings of Power in the Second Age.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings

 

The Lord of the Rings (film series)

The Lord of the Rings (also promoted as The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy) is a film series consisting of three high fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson. They are based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). They were distributed by New Line Cinema.

Considered to be one of the biggest and most ambitious film projects ever undertaken, with an overall budget of $281 million (some sources say $310-$330 million), the entire project took eight years, with the filming for all three films done simultaneously and entirely in New Zealand, Jackson's native country. Each film in the series also had special extended editions released on DVD a year after their respective theatrical releases. While the films follow the book's general storyline, they do omit some of the novel's plot elements and include some additions to and deviations from the source material.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(film_series)

 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived.

 

Characters

Tom Sawyer -  The novel’s protagonist. Tom is a mischievous boy with an active imagination who spends most of the novel getting himself, and often his friends, into and out of trouble. Despite his mischief, Tom has a good heart and a strong moral conscience. As the novel progresses, he begins to take more seriously the responsibilities of his role as a leader among his schoolfellows.

 

Aunt Polly -  Tom’s aunt and guardian. Aunt Polly is a simple, kindhearted woman who struggles to balance her love for her nephew with her duty to discipline him. She generally fails in her attempts to keep Tom under control because, although she worries about Tom’s safety, she seems to fear constraining him too much. Above all, Aunt Polly wants to be appreciated and loved.

 

Huckleberry Finn -  The son of the town drunk. Huck is a juvenile outcast who is shunned by respectable society and adored by the local boys, who envy his freedom. Like Tom, Huck is highly superstitious, and both boys are always ready for an adventure. Huck gradually replaces Tom’s friend Joe Harper as Tom’s sidekick in his escapades.

 

Joe Harper -  Tom’s “bosom friend” and frequent playmate. Joe is a typical best friend, a convention Twain parodies when he refers to Joe and Tom as “two souls with but a single thought.” Though Joe mostly mirrors Tom, he diverges from Tom’s example when he is the first of the boys to succumb to homesickness on Jackson’s Island. As the novel progresses, Huck begins to assume Joe’s place as Tom’s companion.

 

Sid -  Tom’s half-brother. Sid is a goody-goody who enjoys getting Tom into trouble. He is mean-spirited but presents a superficial show of model behavior. He is thus the opposite of Tom, who is warmhearted but behaves badly.

 

Injun Joe -  A violent, villainous man who commits murder, becomes a robber, and plans to mutilate the Widow Douglas. Injun Joe’s predominant motivation is revenge. Half Native American and half Caucasian, he has suffered social exclusion, probably because of his race.

 

The Widow Douglas -  A kindhearted, pious resident of St. Petersburg whom the children recognize as a friend. Tom knows that the Widow Douglas will give him and Becky ice cream and let them sleep over. She is kind to Huck even before she learns that he saved her life.

 

Judge Thatcher -  Becky’s father, the county judge. A local celebrity, Judge Thatcher inspires the respect of all the townspeople. He takes responsibility for issues affecting the community as a whole, such as closing the cave for safety reasons and taking charge of the boys’ treasure money.

 

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel".

Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. After an apprenticeship with a printer, Twain worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to the newspaper of his older brother, Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. In 1865, his humorous story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published, based on a story he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention, and was even translated into classic Greek. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Though Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he invested in ventures that lost a great deal of money, notably the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter, which failed because of its complexity and imprecision. In the wake of these financial setbacks, he filed for protection from his creditors via bankruptcy, and with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, though he had no legal responsibility to do so.

Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it", too. He died the day after the comet returned. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tomsawyer/characters.html

http://www.books.com.tw/products/0010355027

 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (or, in more recent editions, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

• Huckleberry Finn ("Huck" to his friends) is a boy about "thirteen or fourteen or along there" years old. (Chapter 17) He has been brought up by his father, the town drunk, and has a difficult time fitting into society.
• Widow Douglas is the kind woman who has taken Huck in after he helped save her from a violent home invasion. She tries her best to civilize Huck, believing it is her Christian duty.
• Tom Sawyer is Huck's best friend and peer, the main character of other Twain novels and the leader of the town boys in adventures. He is "the best fighter and the smartest kid in town".

Huckleberry Finn, as depicted by E. W. Kemble in the original 1884 edition of the book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn

 

The Secret Garden

1911 cover
Author	Frances Hodgson Burnett
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	Frederick A. Stokes (US) Heinemann (UK)
Publication date	1911
Pages	375

 

The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was initially published in serial form beginning in 1910, and first published in its entirety in 1911. It is now one of Burnett's most popular novels, and considered a classic of English children's literature. Several stage and film adaptations have been made.

Mary Lennox  -  One of the novel's two protagonists, Mary Lennox is a ten-year-old girl who, after the death of her parents in India, is sent to live with her uncle in Yorkshire, England. Mary changes drastically over the course of The Secret Garden: she evolves from a spoiled, unloved and unloving creature to a girl who is full of spirit and surrounded by friends. She begins the book as its central character, but is later displaced by Colin.

Colin Craven  -  The other of the novel's protagonists, Colin Craven is Archibald Craven's ten-year-old son and heir. He was born shortly after the death of his mother, and his father could not bear to look at him because of his resemblance to her. It is feared that he will grow to be a hunchback like his father, and he has been treated as an invalid since his birth. Colin's childhood has been entirely bedridden, and his servants have been commanded to obey his every whim. As a result, Colin is extremely imperious and gloomy; when we first meet him, he is certain he is going to die. By novel's end, however, he too will have undergone a transformation: he will have become a vigorous optimist, and will have won his father's love. Both his and Mary's conversions are effected by the magical properties inherent in the secret garden.

Major themes

• Rejuvenation
• Sensibility
• Overcoming trauma
• Magical realism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Garden

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secretgarden/characters.html

 

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was an English-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Hodgson_Burnett

查看原文 >>