“The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived
and not as they are known.” - Victor Shklovski
«La valeur de l’homme ne réside pas dans la vérité qu’il possède, ou qu’il
croit posséder, mais dans la peine sincère qu’il assume en la cherchant.» -
Lessing (quoted by Tzvetan Todorove in his Poetique de la Prose)
(A man’s value does not reside in the truth that he possesses, or he thinks
he possesses, but in the sincere pain that he takes when searching for it.) (My
translation)
This course is designed to provide a theoretical, thematic introduction to
English fiction, with particular emphasis on the works of the nineteenth-
century. Each lecture will be divided into two parts; the first will be focused
on the analysis of selected texts and the approaches that help shape the meaning
of the text in question; the second will be on the important intellectual,
cultural and literary currents that bear directly or indirectly upon the
literary production.
Tentative Schedule:(欲修習本課程的同學，開學前三周，請勿缺席)
Week 1 Introduction and orientation
Week 2-3 Beginnings - Definitions and expectations; literariness; "a threshold"–
selected readings
Week 4-8 Subjects – Organic community and country Life; Modern Conditions and
bourgeois Life – selected readings
Week 9-10 Mid-term response reports (oral and written)
Week 10-12 Characters and gossips - How to introduce a character; ways of
communication; Modern Conditions and Bourgeois Life – selected readings
Week 13-15 Appearances and portraits- Descriptions, representation and the
urban scenes - selected readings
Week 16 Final Presentation + term paper
*This schedule is susceptible to change.
Main Readings:
[主要閱讀用書]Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (New York: Norton).
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Oxford: Oxford UP, Oxford Worlds
Classics).
*Themes and readings are tentative.
Evaluation:
class attendance and participation + learning attitude 40 %
mid-term report/paper 25%
final presentation + term paper 35%
References (*Our readings could be selected from the following works):
I. Main readings:
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Oxford: Oxford UP, Oxford Worlds
Classics).
The Art of Fiction by David Lodge (London: Penguin).
II. Supplementary readings (passages, sections or chapters selected from the
following works):
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (New York: Norton).
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R. L. Stevenson.
Our MutualFriends by Charles Dickens.
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster (London: Penguin)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (extracted from The Norton Anthology of
English Literature-The Major Authors, 8th ed.).
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (Oxford UP, Oxford World’s Classics, 2008).
A Useful Website:
Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/