适合大学二年级精读学习

A Dill PickleKatherine Mansfield

适合大学二年级精读学习

A Dill PickleKatherine Mansfield

适合大学二年级精读学习

Retelling: reconstruct the story by chronological order ---- how the hero and the heroine fell in love and then broken up. ----what are the fatal cracks that lead to the falling apart of their relationship. The author ---- stream of consciousness ---- characters’ psychological activities with detailed descriptions and symbolism Questions for thinking Style: writing technique The title ----why is the story titled “A Dill Pickle” ---- how is it relevant to a love story? ---- what might it represent symbolically, if it does? The theme Text analysis Paras1-12 Paras13-25 Paras26-43 Paras44-60 Paras 61-66

适合大学二年级精读学习

Warming up Objectives1.

Understand the story: theme & character.

2.

Appreciate literature:read between the lines; read the story from a particular perspective: feminism; interpret the symbols.

3. Learn to describe a scene or object with accuracy: verbs.

适合大学二年级精读学习

Background

AuthorKatherine Mansfield (1888-1923) rebellious, dangerously witty, and lonely

creative years burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy and alienation: bitter depiction of marital and family relationships died of TB—the “romantic disease”

Her Life

适合大学二年级精读学习

Background

Author

In a German Pension (1911) The Garden Party: and Other Stories (1922) The Doves’ Nest: and Other Stories (1923) Bliss: and Other Stories (1923) Stream of consciousness

Her Works

Characters’ psychological activities with detailed descriptions and symbolism

适合大学二年级精读学习

Background

Author

Her Influence

Revolutionized the English short story; Marked the maturity of English short story; Was often compared to Dickens and Chekhov.

适合大学二年级精读学习

Background

History

1. Women’s condition at the time: Women were advocated to cultivate such qualities as “tenderness of understanding, unworldliness and innocence, domestic affection, and above all, submissiveness in various degrees.” 2. “The Woman Question”: rising wave of feminist movement (late Victorian age to the early 20th century)

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis

Theme

Questions for thinking:1.

Do you think the character of the two lovers plays an important role in their relationship? What do you think results in the failure of their love and communication? How would you describe the two characters’ relationship as presented in the story? Do you think this is a typical love story? If not, why does the writer choose to tell it this way? Or what is her real purpose in writing such a story?

2.

3.

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis

Theme

1. Man-Woman relationship:

sexual politics (ideas and activities that are concerned with how power is shared between men and women, and how this affects their relationships) 2. Feminist concern: What does a woman want?It was her “born duty to reckon everything subordinate to his comfort and pleasure, and to let him neither see nor feel anything coming from her, except what is agreeable to h

im.” —J. S. Mill, The Subjection of Women

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis Sexual politics1.2. 3.

Theme

The man talks while the woman listens.The man controls the conversation, demanding attention. The man is tantalizing, offering hopes that he withdraws at wish. The woman’s reaction: contradiction compromise rebellion

4.

5.

The woman’s desire to be heard and understood

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis Style1. Characteristics of modernist writing:

symbolic images fragmented plot trivial subjects psychological insight—internal monologues, “stream of consciousness” Many of the images in the story are deliberately symbolic. For example, the flowers. Can you find out the implication of the flowers? Do they take on a second meaning in the story? Why is the story titled “A Dill Pickle”? How is it relevant to a love story? What might it represent symbolically, if it does?

2.

3.

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis Character

AnalysisVera

Questions for thinking:1.

How did Vera feel when she saw her former lover? Was she still attached to him?

2. 3.

Why did Vera break up with the man six years earlier?Do you think Vera left the man again for the same reasons as the first time?

4.

What indeed did Vera want? Why had she been so lonely? Was it because, as the man said, she was an egoist?

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis Character

AnalysisVera

5. What does the “strange beast” stand for? Why does the author describe it as a “strange beast”? Is this image conventionally associated with women? 6. How do you understand that Vera was “born out of her time”?

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text AnalysisCharacter

AnalysisThe man

Questions for thinking:1. 2.

What is the man’s name? Why isn’t he given a name? Was the man still in love with Vera? If not, why did he seem so happy talking to her and ask her to stay? Why did he “let it go at that” when Vera told him she had sold her piano?

3.

4.

In what tone did he mention the break-up letter? Do you think he really understood now what Vera had written about him? Do you agree with what the man said about Vera? Did he understand her to some extent?

5.

适合大学二年级精读学习

Text Analysis

Structure2 Paras. 13-51 His story and her story 3 Paras. 52-66 The second breakup

1 Paras. 1-12 A chance reunion

适合大学二年级精读学习

Should you watch a movie in the theater or wait to see it on DVD?

1) multiplex at the mall makes a person feel like he's a part of the action. 2) Spoiler is nasty. 3) It's not a solitary experience like a movie ticket affords you. 4) It’s more expensive to what movies at home since the sound system is expensive. One can get many tickets for the same price.

1) HDTV and surround sound system at home make it comfortable to watch movie. 2) Some action movies are predictable. 3) you can rewind and rewatch it. 4) it's more fun to watch movies at home with friends