An Introduction to Literature Course Description

Course Title: An Introduction to Literature

Course Prerequisites: The History of Western Civilization

Course Follow-ups: American Literature, British Literature

Credit: 2.0

Total Semester Credit Hours: 32

Lecture Hours: 32

Experiment/ Computer Hours: 0       

School: School of Foreign Studies

Major: English

Course Description:

An Introduction to Literature is a platform course for students majoring in English. It plays a vital role in the program of students’ development. The course textbook is composed of five parts: fiction, poetry, drama, literary criticism, and an appendix. Representative twentieth-century works are selected for analysis of literary characteristics and features of the schools. Learners study the necessary techniques for appreciating and analyzing literature by means of further reading and commentaries. Importantly, the course establishes and broadens students’ theoretical perspectives of English literature. Through the course’s brief introduction to twentieth-century literary theory, students’ ability to evaluate texts is considerably strengthened.

Textbooks and Course Materials:

1.      李维屏、张定铨. 英国文学思想史. 上海外语教育出版社，2012. (Li, W., Zhang, D. A History of British Literary Thought. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2012.)

2.      陶洁. 美国文学选读. 北京大学出版社，2012. (Tao, J. Selected Readings in American Literature. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2012.)

Written by: Jing Xingmei