Model essay for master's thesis in British and American literature 1
On British and American Feminist Literary Criticism
British and American feminist literary criticism is an important school of contemporary western feminist literary criticism, which pays attention to the social and cultural context of literature, emphasizes re-examining the history of traditional literature from the perspective of women, criticizes the literary standards of male-centrism, and demands studying the particularity of female works and writing the traditions of female writers. Focusing on feminist literary criticism, this paper deconstructs the male-centered literary framework, establishes feminist poetics, and points out the practical guiding significance of British and American feminist criticism in the feminist movement.
Keywords British and American literature; Feminism; Male-centered literature
Feminist literary criticism is a new army of western literary criticism that rose with the feminist movement in the 1960s. It takes feminism as the theoretical basis, gender and social gender as the basic starting point, and from the periphery to the center as the action program. Its distinctive feature lies in its strong political and personal color. The reason why British and American literature is combined into one is that they pay special attention to the social and historical factors in women's issues. In addition, as an English-speaking country, the literary traditions and artistic images that feminist critics are trying to find are concentrated in similar classics.
First, the deep background and reasons of British and American feminist literary criticism
In the past, the so-called literary tradition was always centered on men, and the history of literature and literary criticism were also dominated by male chauvinism. Faced with this situation, feminist critics believe that literary criticism should have universal significance and effectiveness, and female consciousness should be included in it anyway, so as to resolutely shake and deconstruct the traditional male-centered literary framework, criticize the existing culture and system as a whole, and organize and provide a feminist cultural revolution. British and American feminist literary criticism begins with deconstructing the traditional male-centered literary framework.
This is mainly through the investigation, analysis and examination of the old female images in male literature. In fairy tales created by men, women always appear as illusory, beautified or distorted images. They are the ivory maiden, Andromeda, Eve and Pandora. They are stunners created for men's enjoyment, and they are passive inferior things lacking autonomy. In the book Gender Politics, Mielle is particularly interested in D? h？ Lawrence and Henry? Miller, Norman? Mailer and Jean? The ideology of male writers such as Genette has been sharply criticized and analyzed, pointing out that many details in these writers' novels dehumanize women. The scenes and processes described in the novel are all from the perspective of the protagonist. The female role is always in a controlled position, while the male role is an absolute manipulator.
Mielle's analysis shows that it is through this exaggerated description that male writers show the sexual relationship between men and women as a normal political relationship, which makes women in a subordinate and affiliated position. Sandra. Gilbert and Susan? In the book Crazy Woman in the Attic, Geba pointed out that the dominant patriarchal ideology of19th century (even today) regards artistic creativity as a fundamental quality of men. Because creativity is defined as male, the result is inevitably the dominant female literary image and the product of male fantasy. Female writers are deprived of the right to create their own images, but they must strive to follow the standards imposed on them by patriarchy.
Gilbert and Geba explained how the immortal women in the19th century were imagined by men as ethereal, gentle and beautiful angel images, from Beya Trizzi of Dante, Gleiter of Goethe, tears of Margain to Coventry. In Patmore's Angel at Home, the ideal woman is always regarded as the most self-sacrificing creation. They also pointed out that the image of an angel hides the image of a witch, and their fear of women corresponds to men's idealization of women. She brings satisfaction and disgust to men.
Feminists believe that male-centered literature pushes gender to the edge and makes women the recipients of culture. The function of criticism is to expose the true face of male chauvinism hidden in works. Therefore, the primary task of feminists is to critically examine the female myths created by men, make an antagonistic interpretation, and eradicate the male consciousness rooted in women's hearts. Once literary criticism reveals the political meaning of these images and gender discrimination in the text, it can help readers get rid of ideological control, thus shaking the foundation of patriarchy and achieving the goal of transforming the world.
Secondly, some practices of feminist critics who established feminist poetics.
Feminist critics try to deconstruct the traditional framework of male-centered literature by investigating, analyzing and examining many female images written by male writers, but they are not satisfied with this. They strive to expand the scope of criticism, expand new areas of criticism, establish principles of feminist criticism, build their own literary halls, explore female literary traditions neglected by men and society, and focus their criticism on female writers and their works. They want to broaden the theme of women's life and create new and energetic female literature, which is completely different from male literature; They systematically expounded the principles of feminist criticism in order to affirm women's literary experience and social experience; Construct feminist poetics, make a new evaluation of traditional literary works and rewrite the history of literature; In addition, they also made a pioneering exploration of the differences between male and female writers in literary tradition, made a preliminary study of the different tendencies of female writers in creative experience, imagination and creative techniques, and deeply reflected and examined the existing critical concepts and the moral nature of literature.
The specific way is to find the tradition of female literature and dig up the buried female writers and works. American feminist critic Lena? Bem pointed out that from the published literary history or anthology, there is hardly a great female writer in the United States, and it is easy to find the main novels that female writers began to be active as early as the immigration period. By the middle of19th century, female writers had occupied an important position in the history of American literature in terms of sales volume and variety, and even famous writers like Hawthorne were inevitably worried that their readers would be attracted by female writers. However, these women writers are unknown in the history of literature, because the history of literature ignores them and thinks that women can't be writers, and their works can't reach the standard of being famous in history.
It is this male-centered literary criticism standard that has long abandoned female writers from the history of literature. Therefore, one of the tasks of feminist critics is to re-examine the whole history of literature from the perspective of women, explore the works of buried or indifferent female writers, correct the misunderstanding of male tradition, find the tradition of female literature and recast the methods of literary criticism. In My Room, Woolf acknowledged the existence of the tradition of female literature, but this tradition was interrupted from time to time, and the development of female literature was intermittent. It was not until the19th century that we clearly saw the historical continuity of women's literary tradition in literary creation.
Compared with the development of world literature, this tradition of female literature is undoubtedly very short-lived, and Afora? The female creation represented by Bain at the beginning of19th century was excluded from the literary category by male literary criticism, which made it difficult to find the female literary tradition. Despite all kinds of difficulties, there is no doubt about the existence of female literary tradition. Woolf believes that her own creation is also carried out along the road pioneered by female ancestors, which was fanny? Bern, Abla? Ben and Harry? Martino, Jane? Austin, George? Elliot. Many famous women, as well as many unknown and forgotten women, have built this road before me, making it smooth and adjusting my pace.
Therefore, when I write, there are only some physical obstacles in front of me. Elaine? Showalter is one of the most active and influential theorists in contemporary western feminist literary criticism. She advocates the establishment of an independent history and classics of female literature.
Third, the reflection on feminist criticism theory.
Feminist literary criticism flexibly absorbs various popular criticism methods in the west, accommodates knowledge and theories in the fields of physiology, anthropology, modern psychology and aesthetics, and presents a pluralistic and open system. Feminist criticism is not dominated by a single method. It deconstructs the male-centered ideology from various angles such as language, psychology and culture, thus establishing women's own value standards and unique culture.
However, Mary? In the article Feminism and Deconstruction Criticism, Park Wei claimed: Women? It is only the product of society, and has no natural basis, namely? Woman? Is it a term? The definition of this term depends on the context in which it is discussed, not on some sexual organs or social experience? , female? Can not reflect the complete self, because the characteristics are related. Woman? Is it the same? A man? A temporary location obtained when taking pictures. ? If gender roles are totally dependent on constantly changing and deconstructing words, and the meaning of both sexes lacks stability, then feminist critics and theorists will lose the fulcrum of existence. If the definition of gender is abandoned, the struggle for women's legitimate rights and interests will lose its theoretical cornerstone.
Therefore, she called on feminism not to ignore the social reality of discrimination against women, not to dissolve the subject, but to strengthen the study of realistic struggle strategies.
To sum up, feminist literary criticism is a part of the new feminist discourse that rose in Europe and America in the late 1960s. It plays an important role in the theory and practice of contemporary western literature. Not only sharply criticized the patriarchal culture; Moreover, it also broke through the usual expression in theoretical discourse, so that the feminist thought that experienced vicissitudes finally theorized and entered the center of theoretical discourse in the second half of the 20th century, which made feminist literary criticism get rid of heresy and marginal position, became an important dimension of contemporary theoretical discourse, and promoted the transformation of western theoretical discourse. Of course, the research and discussion in this area need us to do further in-depth exploration.
References:
[1] British and American feminist literary criticism Mo, Seeking Roots, 2005(02).
[2] On the 20th century British and American feminist literary criticism theory and its influence "Journal of North University for Nationalities" 2002(02).
[3] The localization process of feminist literary criticism and its problems [J]. Wei Tianwu studies foreign literature, 20 1 1(06).
Model essay on master's thesis in British and American literature II
British and American Literature in English Teaching
With the rapid development of society, in order to adapt to the development of British and American literature teaching in the new century and meet the needs of foreign language talents in the 2 1 century, colleges and universities must change the traditional teaching mode of British and American literature, continuously strengthen the teaching reform of British and American literature and form a reasonable discipline echelon. This paper discusses the important role of British and American literature in English teaching, the present situation of British and American literature teaching for English majors and the teaching methods of British and American literature.
Keywords: British and American literature; ELT
First, the important role of British and American literature in English teaching
(A) effectively improve students' practical application ability of English knowledge.
Literary works are artistic expressions of language, and they are written language forms that originate from life and are higher than life. Language and writing, processed and brewed by masters, have vivid vitality and become classics and valuable spiritual and cultural wealth in social life. Because literary works are full of life breath, they are more acceptable to people and become the model of teaching and the object of imitation. Appropriate introduction of appreciation of British and American literary works in English teaching can further improve students' understanding of English language background and strong interest in English language art. In the process of English teaching, we can make full use of these classic British and American literary works, combined with beautiful sentence paragraphs, so that students can feel the practical application of words and grammar in a specific context and get good teaching results.
(B) can enhance students' personal accomplishment and comprehensive quality.
Under the influence of British and American literary works, students not only learned basic English knowledge, but also further broadened their cultural horizons by understanding the contents of the works, and learned different social life scenes displayed by literary works under different cultural backgrounds, thus further improving their personal cultivation and cultural sentiment, and further enhancing their ability to appreciate and learn different cultures. By studying excellent British and American literary works, we can understand the development process of British and American countries to varying degrees and feel the reality of life of British and American people, which can improve students' thinking mode and self-cultivation level to varying degrees.
(C) to cultivate students' critical thinking ability
Literary works are the crystallization of the author's excellent ideas. By reading the works, we can communicate with the author across time and space. Excellent literary works, the content is pinned on words but the spirit is infinitely extended. In the process of appreciating literary works, we develop rich imagination and try to figure out the central idea expressed by the author from different angles, thus enriching our emotional experience, nourishing our hearts and further broadening our horizons. In English teaching, reading British and American literary works and appreciating their contents can enhance students' creative thinking ability and improve their understanding of English language.
Students may have different understandings of the same job. Teachers can guide students to discuss their works and express their opinions. In the process of discussion, the teacher leads the students into a text space with unknown answers. Because there is no standard answer, students can understand what they think is right through their works and take the initiative to judge the author. They take the initiative to talk to the author, questioning or even denying the author. In the in-depth and meticulous analysis and discussion of the works, we gradually develop a keen perception, master rigorous analysis methods, and form an accurate expression. This is also the real significance of introducing the appreciation of British and American literary works into English teaching.
Second, the status quo of English literature teaching for English majors
In the teaching of English majors in China, the teaching of British and American literature still maintains the traditional extensive reading teaching method. The written materials are mainly aimed at textbooks. In English class, the teacher focuses on the textbook and lists the key points on the blackboard. Students' reading is secondary. English teachers are often burdened with heavy teaching goals, and the explanations of textbooks are only a passing one. However, the selection of British and American literature in textbooks is also limited by space, and a certain paragraph is often extracted, and the classification and evaluation of British and American literature are often chaotic.
In the course of British and American literature, the integrity and central idea of English literary works can not be fully displayed because of the large amount of information in teaching materials, the long span of historical years and the different literary genres and creative styles. This makes students' reading effect greatly reduced, and teachers can't fully display the valuable spiritual wealth contained in the works during the explanation process, so they can only focus on a few key words and language points.
Therefore, in the real English and American literature, teachers often talk aimlessly on the podium, students listen mechanically and memorize vocabulary numbly. With the continuous expansion of non-governmental international exchanges, it has become common academic knowledge to guide students to improve their English learning effect and enhance their reading appreciation ability by reading British and American literature in English major teaching.
There are still many problems in the current teaching mode of British and American literature. First of all, it is reflected in teachers' teaching methods. In class, the teacher's description of the theoretical part of British and American literature in the textbook is too lengthy, which leads to students' lack of interest in learning. Students only passively accept this part of the class content and will not think about the problems related to the work. The works selected in the textbook and the theory of literature and history are also not conducive to effective classroom teaching. Secondly, due to the limited space of teaching materials, the English and American literature course can't extract a literary work completely, but can only selectively extract key paragraphs from the work, which damages the integrity of the work and makes the background and introduction of the characters of the work incomplete. It is difficult for students to read works for the first time, and the teaching effect can be seen.
Third, the scientific teaching methods of British and American literature.
(1) Step by step
The course of British and American literature needs a certain English foundation, and the course arrangement should follow the teaching law step by step and run through the whole English teaching process. In the specific teaching methods, we should take into account the students' mastery of English, and combine the students' vocabulary and reading level to gradually improve the teaching level. For example, students can choose some simple English reading books to cultivate their English reading habits when they first enter school. After they have good reading habits and reach a certain reading level, they will be arranged to enjoy the original reading of English works. Only reading the original works of British and American literature can be regarded as the real education of British and American literature. Students have some original reading experience, so they can increase their reading in class and gradually improve their English reading level.
(2) Read through the original text.
The purpose of offering English and American literature reading course is to fully grasp the central idea of English and American literature works and the author's writing characteristics. Only by reading through the original English works can we fully appreciate the language features, ideological context and profound truth contained in the works. At present, English and American literature textbooks in China are only extracts from a certain chapter of the works, which are taken out of context and are not conducive to students' overall understanding of the works. Therefore, teachers should create conditions for students to read the full text of the original work as much as possible, fully understand the ideological core of the work, expand horizontally if possible, read more relevant works, and try to understand the work from a broader perspective, which will certainly receive unexpected reading results. Therefore, teachers should emphasize the importance of reading the whole book to students, and sort out students' feelings after reading, so as to urge students to complete the task.
(3) Recommend works to students When teaching British and American literature, English teachers should not only extract from textbooks, but also actively expand students' knowledge and recommend some works of British and American literature that are easy to understand and readable. For example, the British classic Bible, the British epic Beowulf and the classic novel Robinson Crusoe. They are all excellent English literary works, which make people very interested in reading. Students can go deep into it for intensive reading after class.
Ask the students to write a review.
Reading British and American literary works can't be just a pastime. Teachers should ask students to write their own ideas after reading each work. Only in this way can students strengthen their experience in the process of reading, and review their personal understanding of the works when writing their reflections, so as to deepen their understanding of most works. The teacher can tell whether the students have fully mastered the work from their feelings after reading. Is the understanding angle appropriate? Point out their shortcomings, guide students to reread the relevant chapters of the works, correct their misconceptions, and further improve students' English reading and analysis ability. In addition, the examination of British and American literature courses can take the form of writing papers to promote students to read through the works and deepen their understanding.
(5) Let students actively participate in curriculum design.
In classroom teaching, teachers can reverse their roles, let students dominate classroom teaching and play the role of teachers in explaining and analyzing teaching materials on the podium. This can enliven the classroom atmosphere, arouse students' learning enthusiasm, let students participate in curriculum design, change passivity into initiative in learning, and strengthen the memory of learning process. So as to avoid the inertia of passively accepting knowledge. On the one hand, it strengthens the learning atmosphere of classroom teaching, on the other hand, it enables students to actively learn and memorize the contents of the works, further deepens their impression of the works, and urges them to collect and retrieve relevant information about the works themselves or the authors through various channels after class, which is a useful supplement to the teaching materials, and students' autonomous learning ability has been effectively improved.
Four. conclusion
With the deepening of education reform, English teaching mode and teaching concept are facing brand-new challenges. In the teaching of British and American literature, only by changing educational concepts, innovating teaching modes, reforming teaching contents, improving teaching methods, exploring effective teaching methods in educational practice, rationally using modern teaching methods, and investing in education with a warm and sincere heart can we really help students improve their English learning ability and meet the needs of foreign language talents in the new era.
References:
[1] Hu Heng. English Literature Teaching Design Based on Network Environment [J]. English Square (Academic Research), 20 12, (5).
[2] Dong Mei. Innovative Teaching Research on Introducing Classical Literature Reading into English Teaching [J]. Frontier, 20 12, (10).
[3] Zhang Chunkai. On the Infiltration of British and American Literature in Senior High School English Teaching [J]. English Teachers, 20 12, (4).
[4] Zhang. On the embodiment of literariness in comprehensive English class [J]. Journal of Ningbo Institute of Education, 20 12, (2).