English Classical LiteratureEnglish Classical LiteratureAppreciation & AnalysisAppreciation & Analysis

English Classical LiteratureEnglish Classical LiteratureAppreciation & AnalysisAppreciation & Analysis

Lectured by Li BaojieLectured by Li Baojie

Shandong UniversityShandong UniversitySept. 6Sept. 6

What is literature?

one of the principal forms of art, the art of the word. The term “literature” also designates any product of human thought set down in writing and having social significance, for example, scientific, publicistic, reference, or epistolary literature. But in the ordinary and narrower sense literature refers to works of artistic writing.

The term “literature” arose with the development of printing, which gave primacy to the “literary,” that is, “letter,” form of verbal art. Earlier, particularly as a result of the very limited number of manuscript books, verbal art had existed primarily for hearing, for public delivery, and was conceived as a skillfully performed poetic action through a special poetic language.

Types and constituents Literature is divided into two basic forms — poetry an

d prose —and into three types, the epic, lyric, and drama. Although the boundaries between the types cannot be drawn precisely and there are many transitional forms, the chief characteristics of each type have been adequately defined. Moreover, there are common features in works of different types.

Depending on their content and form, works belong to different genres, for example, the epic, novella, novel, short story, sketch, and fable. In every age various genres develop, although those that best correspond to the general character of an era predominate, for example, the leading place of the novel in modern literature.

In every literary work there are characters, or protagonists, appearing in specific circumstances, although in lyric poetry these categories, like several others, possess a number of distinctive features. The aggregate of characters and circumstances in a work is called the theme (tema), and the resolution of the work, which evolves from the juxtaposition and interaction of the characters, is the artistic idea.

Finally, the form of a work is artistic speech, the sequence of sentences, which the reader perceives directly by reading or hearing.

Why are classical works classical? The subject of art is man’s worldman’s world, man’s multifaceted relatio

nship to reality, the actual world from man’s point of view. Every work of art is an act of intellectual and emotional comintellectual and emotional com

munication among peoplemunication among people. It is also a new object, a new phenomenon, something “made” by man, as well as something learned and discovered by him. (These functions—communication, creation, and knowledge—are equally typical of all forms of artistic activity, but in the different forms of art different functions predominate. )

Literature has been called “artistic investigation” or “the study of man” (M. Gorky) because of the problems it treats, its analytic nature, and its revelation of man’s knowledge of the very depths of his soul.

Lasting significance of classics

BeowulfThe Merchant of VeniceJane Eyre

Beowulf

Written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., Beowulf describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century.

A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature.

The first page of the manuscript, housed in the British Library, London.

Story of Beowulf

The main protagonist, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a sword, which giants once used, that Beowulf found in Grendel's mother's lair.

Later in his life, Beowulf is himself king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a fire dragon whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon and followed it into its lair at Earnanæs. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded. He is buried in burial mound, by the sea.

Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts.

Modern version of the story is different from the epic in its original form.

The Merchant of Venice

Set in 16th century Venice, Shakespeare's timeless comedy/drama follows the fates and fortunes of a group of Christian noblemen and their interactions with the Jewish moneylender Shylock. Antonio borrows money from Shylock to help his young penniless friend Bassanio in his quest to win the hand of the fair Portia. Bitter at Antonio's insults, Shylock stipulates very specific terms if he defaults on the loan. As Antonio's shipping business is devastated by storms, Shylock is further angered by his daughter's elopement with the nobleman Lorenzo . The loan falls due and Shylock claims his forfeit in the form of a pound of Antonio's flesh. As Bassanio desperately tries to save Antonio from this fate, miraculous help comes from an unexpected quarter.

How to understand the characters in modern perspectives

Shylock: What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? You have among you many a purchased slav

e, Which, like your asses and your dogs and mul

es, You use in abject and in slavish parts, Because you bought them: shall I say to you,

Let them be free, marry them to your heirs? Why sweat they under burthens? let their bed

s Be made as soft as yours and let their palates Be season'd with such viands? You will answ

er 'The slaves are ours:' so do I answer you: The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, Is dearly bought; 'tis mine and I will have it.

SHYLOCK To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. HathI am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passionsdimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

If you prick us, do we not bleed?If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poisonif you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we notus, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we willrevenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Questions? In addition to the traditional topics of love, wisdom, friendship,

wealth, marriage(s), (Christian) mercy v.s. (Jewish) cruelty and revenge, do you have your own understanding of the story?

Traditionally inteprated, the main difference between the Christian characters and Shylock appears to be that the Christian characters value human relationships over business ones, whereas Shylock is only interested in money. The Christian characters certainly view the matter this way. Merchants like Antonio lend money free of interest and put themselves at risk for those they love, whereas Shylock agonizes over the loss of his money and is reported to run through the streets crying, “O, my ducats! O, my daughter!” (II.viii.15).

Shylock as stereotypeDictionary definition (explaination) of Shylock:

夏洛克（莎士比亚《威尼斯商人》中的犹太放高利贷者）；冷酷无情的高利贷者 ( 有道）

夏洛克（莎士比亚《威尼斯商人》中的狠毒的放高利贷者（陆谷孙：《英汉大词典》）

shylock: someone who lends money at excessive rates of interest.

Images of Shylock

Any Alternative Analyses? Prejudice: Shakespeare gives reasons for Shylock's actions

---if they take bear hatred, it is not an unfounded hatred. Instead, Antonio, as the representative of upright Christian, has given Shylock ample reasons to seek the revenge. Antonio spits and kicks Shylock whenever he comes in contact with him. He gives no reason for this, beyond the fact that Shylock is not a Gentile. Further, many of the Christian characters exhibit the same behaviors which they persecute Shylock for.

It is not Shylock's Jewishness which is being criticized, but the hypocrisy shown by the Christian characters.

"Treated as something inhuman, a 'dog' or a 'cur,' Shylock not unnaturally responds...with tooth and claw“(Anne Barton)

Antonio drives down the interest rates in town by lending money without interest-he knowingly takes away the only livelihood which Shylock is permitted (1.3.42).

White SupremacyShylock is portrayed as a greedy character in

the play, another un-Christian attribute. Yet, it is the Christians in the play who are in the position to judge him in this respect.

Shylock is criticised as greedy, while Lorenzo’s craving for Shylock’s daughter as well as his money is judged as correct.

Lorenzo explains the plan to Gratiano: "She hath directed/ me how I shall take her from her father's house/ What gold and jewels she is furnish'd with" (2.4.30).

Examples of the Prejudice and Supremacy?

Slavery“Jim Crow” social policySegregationHolocaust

Jim Crow laws

State and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated “de jure racial segregation” in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy, with, starting in 1890, a "separate but equal" status for African Americans.

De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern United States. Northern segregation was generally de facto, with patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades.