首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Purposes of Literary Analysis I. Introduction Literary analysis is in itself a universal necessity. —reason 1: enables rea
The Purposes of Literary Analysis I. Introduction Literary analysis is in itself a universal necessity. —reason 1: enables rea
admin
2018-04-10
40
问题
The Purposes of Literary Analysis
I. Introduction
Literary analysis is in itself a universal necessity.
—reason 1: enables readers to fully grasp the core【T1】______ of【T1】______
literary works
—reason 2: relates literature to both the individual’s own life
and the universal human condition
II. Purposes of literary analysis
A. to discover the author’s basic【T2】______【T2】______
—the problem authors face:
—floating abstractions are detached from the empirical
observation and the detailed logical【T3】______【T3】______
—ways to solve the problem:
—offer a lucid【T4】______【T4】______
—【T5】______【T5】______
All knowledge is derived from【T6】______ experience and【T6】______
observation.
—the author:
—begins at the abstract level
—crafts the concretes of his【T7】______【T7】______
—the reader:
—begins at the concrete level
—reaches the level of abstraction via literary analysis
B. to attain【T8】______ from the literary work【T8】______
—literature offers a valuable insight, principle, or【T9】______【T9】______
—insight: positive or negative
—models: to【T10】______ or not to apply【T10】______
—【T11】______ or ideas of desirable conduct: can be rejected【T11】______
—the reader【T12】______ with the premises【T12】______
C. to derive knowledge concerning the universal human condition
—the author: might hold views【T13】______ but potentially【T13】______.
relevant to the general human beings
—e. g., George Orwell’s 1984
—the task of the reader:
—to discover the pathway to【T14】______ relevant to humans【T14】______.
in general
—the reader of a different opinion:
—pinpoints【T15】______ he disagrees with it【T15】______.
【T5】
The Purposes of Literary Analysis
Good morning, everyone. Today I’d like to talk about literary analysis, and specifically, its three purposes.
For the millennia during which literature has existed, scholars, intellectuals, and lay people have unceasingly engaged in the act of analyzing it. Whatever the variety of analytical approaches to literature might be, literary analysis is in itself a universal necessity when approaching a text, and cannot be escaped on some level, (1) because literary analysis enables readers to fully grasp the core abstractions which an author has bestowed upon his work. Furthermore, it is indispensable in rendering the literature relevant, both to the individual’s own life and to an understanding of the universal human condition.
(2) Now let’s look at the first purpose of literary analysis: to discover the author’s basic premises.
When any author creates a work of literature, he does so starting with a set of basic intellectual premises, foundational assumptions that permeate the entirety of his work. The author has chosen to create a work of literature as a vehicle for transmitting those premises to his readers. On their own, (3) as floating abstractions are detached from the empirical observation and the detailed logical reasoning, the author’s premises cannot be readily communicated to a reader who does not grasp them yet. An author who holds individualism as a basic premise, for example, will find difficulty in communicating it by simply stating, "I believe in individualism." If, however, (4) he offers a lucid analysis of the superiority of individualism over the alternatives, which is filled with realistic examples of why this is so, then his convictions become far more persuasive. (5) Better yet, he might write a story, a series of rationally structured fictional events, which a reader could approach as if it were a concrete experience. (6) All knowledge, at its root, is derived from sensory experience and observation. Thus, a work of literature, by recreating an environment of observation through the events and descriptions within it, aims to allow the reader to tap into the source of the premises the author seeks to communicate. Thereby, the reader is given the foundation from which to proceed to understand and identify with the author’s abstract ideas.
When the reader sees a literary text before him, the author has already done the work of translating his guiding premises into a concrete presentation. The task of the reader, then, becomes to fathom the concrete presentation in such a manner as to derive the abstract premises from it, thereby participating in an act of intellectual discovery which the author has facilitated for him. All literary analysis is, in essence, such a process of discovery. It aims toward an understanding of the author’s guiding abstractions by identifying literary concretes—the characters, events, descriptions, dialogues, and stated ideas of a narrative—and discerning their relevance to the work as a whole and its central themes. (7) Whereas, in writing a work of literature, the author begins at the abstract level and, from it, crafts the concretes of his narrative, the reader must begin at the concrete level and reach the level of abstraction via literary analysis.
(8) The second purpose of literary analysis is to attain individual value from the literary work.
(9) A work of literary merit must offer an insight, principle, or example valuable to the individual reader. Aside from discovering the author’s intentions and guiding principles in writing a work, the reader must inquire of himself, "What benefits to my own life and understanding might I extract from this text?" The insights the reader might seek to derive through literary analysis can be positive or negative. (10) A text can offer models to emulate, or examples of what not to apply to one’s own life. (11) The reader can even disagree with the author’s world view or ideas of desirable conduct and, through literary analysis, discover the root of his divergence from the author. In this respect, the undertaking of literary analysis is necessarily didactic, even if the author did not create his text with a didactic purpose. Literary analysis is a process of cognitive discrimination, in that the reader must be selective in what he does and does not derive from the author’s premises. (12) In analyzing a text, the reader interacts with these premises by filtering them through his own.
Now let’s move to the third purpose of literary analysis: to derive from it knowledge concerning the universal human condition.
Aside from individual relevance, a worthy work of literature has a universal relevance, either to an aspect at the core of the general human condition, or at the root of some widespread field of human endeavor. The author, as a human being, enters the writing process with certain assumptions, implicit or explicit, regarding a set of universal human themes, including the nature of life, consciousness, volition, and human action, the meaning and possibility of success and happiness, and the status of the individual himself. In addition, (13) the author might hold a set of views which are more narrowly targeted, but still potentially relevant to a wide variety of human beings. While the conflict between the individual and the almighty totalitarian state in George Orwell’s 1984, for example, is not a universal history, Orwell used it to arrive at an understanding of the meaning of a universal human concept, freedom. He then used this understanding to analyze, through the eyes of Winston Smith, the manner in which a totalitarian state necessarily robs an individual of his freedom and, by implication, his very humanity. (14) The task of the reader in conducting literary analysis becomes to discover the pathway by which the specifics of a given literary presentation can arrive at truths which are relevant to humans in general. The truths thus discovered will transcend the accidents of time, culture, history, and geographical location. Furthermore, such a comprehensive universal understanding is valuable, irrespective of the reader’s agreement with the author’s approach to the human condition. (15) If the reader is of a different opinion, he can simply use his knowledge of the author’s world view to pinpoint where and how he disagrees with it. Thus, the reader, through literary analysis, will still attain his own positive understanding of the essential and inescapable issues pertaining to man.
OK, today we have discussed three purposes of literary analysis: to discover the author’s basic premises, to attain individual value from the literary work, and to derive from it knowledge concerning the universal human condition. Literary analysis, like any other systematic approach to things, offers the demystification of ideas and of reality. Instead of being perpetually confined by a set of irresolvable questions and dilemmas, man can obtain the answers through literary analysis, by means of a deliberate, targeted, rational treatment of the text. If the reader finishes a text with greater knowledge, erudition, and confidence in his world view than he had upon starting it, then literary analysis has fulfilled its most essential role. Thank you for listening.
选项
答案
write a story
解析
根据句(5)可知,更好的方法是作者可以写一个故事,写一系列结构合理的小说似的事件。因此答案为write a story。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/QhoK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
(1)Proponentsofdifferentjazzstyleshavealwaysarguedthattheirpredecessors’musicalstyledidnotincludeessentialchara
(1)InordertotellwhatIbelieve,Imustbrieflysketchsomethingofmypersonalhistory.(2)Theturningpointofmylife
PASSAGEONEInmanypeople’view,what’sthemaincauseofmen’saggressivebehavior?
(1)Nothingattractsmetoacityasmuchasanexaggeratedbutpervasivegeneralizationthatdiscouragestimidtravelers,keeps
(1)SomethingaboutNaplesjustseemsmadeforcomedy.Thenamealoneconjuresuppizza,andlovable,incorrigibleinnocentswarb
CulturalDifferencesbetweenEastandWestI.FactorsleadingtotheculturaldifferencesA.Differentculture【T1】______【T1】___
A、Becauseshetriestobeinformative.B、Becauseshehasnothingtodolateron.C、Becauseshewantstobeimpressive.D、Because
“人们的生活越来越富裕,但却远不如以前那样快乐了”,这个现象似乎早已成为现代生活永恒的矛盾之一。一个可能的答案就潜藏在我们的心理因素中,即如何才能够满足。我们对于地位、财富的需求从来都不是孤立定位的,而是在与参照组——通常是那些我们自认为与其地位相当的人—
A、HarvardUniversity.B、YaleUniversity.C、ReadCollege.D、MIT.C在谈到PrincetonReview的大学排行第一位时,主持人提到是ReadCollege,故选C项。
PassageThreeWhyarethecontrolsofamoderncarcriticized?
随机试题
《搜神记》作者干宝的字是【】
一次能源
猪发生丹毒时,疹块部皮肤可整块脱落,是因为皮肤发生了
A.通风、干燥处B.通风、阴凉处C.阴凉、干燥处D.密闭贮藏于缸罐中E.石灰缸内含挥发油多的饮片应贮存于(.)。
关于德尔菲法的缺点,表述错误的是()
某一类高层商住楼地上30层、地下2层,总建筑面积85694.81m2。地下一层至地上四层为商场,建筑面积37275.0lm2,地上四层以上为普通住宅,地下二层为汽车库。该商住楼内的防烟楼梯间及其前室、消防电梯间前室和合用前室,靠外墙布置具备自然排烟条件。商
下列矩阵中,正定矩阵是()
WhatdoesMissGaodo?
TheSnake’sForkedTongue1.Oneofthemostintriguingphysicalcharacteristicsofsnakesistheirforkedtongues.Whilethi
GeneticallyModifiedFoods—FeedtheWorld?Ifyouwanttosparkaheateddebateatadinnerparty,bringupthetopicabou
最新回复
(
0
)