http://cdis.missouri.edu/exec/data/courses/2306/public/overview.aspx
I am so glad to find more and more info.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17797/17797-h/17797-h.htm
ebook A MEMOIR OF JANE AUSTEN.
http://labrocca.com/ja/index.html
1/31/2011
another site for studying Jane Austen
1/29/2011
history of Novel
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/default.htm
FOCUSING ON THE LITERARY ELEMENTS
SETTING 地點
Austen sketches the settings of the novel very briefly, leaving it to readers to visualize the places in which the events occur.
Divide the class into groups, assigning each group one specific location in the novel. Have groups collect details from the text as they read so the group can produce visual representations, such as drawings or models.
• Netherfield Park, Bingley’s residence
• Pemberley House, Darcy’s estate
• The Derbyshire countryside
• Rosings, the home of Lady Catherine
Other settings students may select include Longbourn, Hansford, and Meryton.
Afterwards, you may want to show clips from a film adaptation of the novel to allow students to compare their models or drawings to the representation of the setting in the film.
Discuss:
How do the film representations differ from those the students produced? What details are significant in both? How do the details of setting give a sense of the characters that inhabit them? As an alternative to film, you may use the following link to photographs of places used as models for the settings or as settings for film adaptations: http://www.pemberley.com/jasites/jasites.html.
Have students locate details from the novel that place the story firmly in 18th century England and provide hints about cultural values different from their own. For example, Miss Bingley derides Elizabeth’s “brown and coarse” complexion (257).
Note that at this time ladies protected their skin from the sun, so working class women were often more easily distinguishable by their complexion.
Discuss how such details provide important information about class difference, such as the difference between the Bennets’ lifestyle and the lifestyle of more wealthy families, such as the Bingleys.
What details convey a lifestyle of leisure? Consider how little mention is made of work (even by Mr. Bennet) and how much time is spent in leisure-time activities, such as playing games and musical instruments?
Which of the cultural differences between the Regency Period of the novel and today seem merely superficial? Which point to significant differences of values and lifestyle?
POINT OF VIEW 觀點角度
1. As students begin to read the novel, review the different choices authors can make concerning point of view, such as first or third person, objective or editorial, and total or limited omniscience. Ask students to locate evidence of Austen’s choice of point of view for this story.
2. During the close reading of the first four chapters, ask students to locate the passage at which they pinpoint the protagonist (or heroine) of the story. Discuss with students:
• How does Austen shift the focus to Elizabeth? (10)
• Why does the author wait to introduce Elizabeth herself until the second chapter?
• What clues in earlier dialogue hinted at Elizabeth’s importance in the story?
This novel is told in third person with limited omniscience, and readers are most often presented with Elizabeth’s perspective and experiences.
As they read, ask students to note in their journals examples of the occasional shifts from Elizabeth’s perspective to brief insights into Darcy’s thoughts and feelings.
In pairs, have students locate examples of passages that clearly present Elizabeth’s point of view through third-person narration and passages that present Darcy’s perspective.
In their reading journals, ask students to discuss the effect the author produces by allowing readers, but not Elizabeth, an early glimpse into Darcy’s abrupt change of feelings toward her.
CHARACTERIZATION個性
Austen provides few details of the characters’ physical characteristics.
Elizabeth, notes Darcy at first, is “tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me” (11), and only later does he remark on her “pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman” (25). Darcy is described as a “fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien” (10).
Instead, the characters become real through their dialogue, thoughts, and actions. Assign one of the characters (such as Elizabeth, Jane, Darcy, Mrs. Bennet, Lydia, Wickham, Collins, Charlotte Lucas, Lady Catherine de Bourgh) to groups of three or four students and have them build a character sketch based on the character’s actions, words, thoughts, the responses of others to the character, and the narrator’s description.
You may suggest they use a graphic organizer, filling in the different kinds of details posted in separate quadrants:
What the character says What the character thinks
What the character does What other characters say about the character
Divide students into groups of 3-4 and assign each group one of the pairs of couples in the novel: Jane and Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth and Wickham, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, and Lydia and Wickham.
Ask students to collect details about the relationship of the couple and how it develops and changes over time. Students can create and post a chart for the class representing the stages in each couple’s relationship. These charts can provide useful review and opportunities for anticipation questions as the class continues to read the novel.
TONE口氣
The ability of readers to recognize tone is central to understanding a novel.
Choose one or more passages from the selection assigned to make students aware of clues to the tone of the speaker or the narrator. Possible examples for whole-class discussion:
• Mr. Bennet’s reaction to Elizabeth’s refusal to marry Collins (107).
• Collins’ preparation for meeting Lady Catherine (155).
• The exchange between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth concerning the possibility of an engagement (336-338).
In their journals, ask students to identify and record lines of dialogue that produce an effect, intentional or not, on the audience. They should describe the impact of the conversation, note passages that seem to have an intended meaning that differs from the literal meaning of the words, describe the effects the words have on the characters, and describe the effects of the words’ meaning on readers’ understanding of the characters.
For example, Mr. Bennet tells his daughter, “An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents—Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do” (107). Rather than presenting her with a dilemma, he is actually surprising his wife and relieving Elizabeth by making clear his distaste for such a marriage. Elizabeth smiles at her father’s agreement with her decision, but her mother is “excessively disappointed.”
These lines remind the reader that Mr. Bennet often takes his daughter’s side in disagreements against his wife. He supports her rejection of the proposal, preferring Elizabeth’s happiness to a miserable security.
Have students reword selected passages, transforming the scene to a modern situation without changing the tone.
Here is one example:
“And is this all?” cried Elizabeth. “I expected at least that the pigs were got into the garden, and here is nothing but Lady Catherine and her daughter!” (153).
“Is that what all the fuss is about?”cried Elizabeth. “I expected to find the house was on fire, not just Mrs. de Bourgh and her daughter.”
After discussing the selected passages, you may wish to show clips of the scene from the film version of the novel to compare student interpretation to the actors’ interpretation.
法國革命和英國
http://www.sanmin.com.tw/DMForTeacher/%E6%AD%B7%E5%8F%B2/%E4%B8%96%E6%96%87%E5%8F%B2%E4%B8%8A%E5%82%99%E7%AC%AC%E5%9B%9B%E7%AB%A0.htm
漢諾威王朝－首相及內閣體制的出現
斯圖亞特王朝的最後一位女王安妮(Anne,1702-1714)過世後，日耳曼的漢諾威選侯繼任，是為喬治一世(George I,1714-1727在位)，開啟英國漢諾威王朝。由於他資質平庸，而且不善與人交往，一直學不好英語，於是政治權力旁落到當時擔任行政首長，屬於惠格黨的華爾波(1676~1745)手中。華爾波強力主導政府重要官職的任命和決策，結果由現實轉變成制度，漢諾威王朝從喬治一世、喬治二世(1727-1760在位)到喬治三世(1760-1820在位)出現了首相及內閣的體制，雖然王權尚未完全虛級化，但是實際上英國已擺脫專制王權，繼承古代雅典民主和羅馬共和精神，尊立現代民主式民族國家的規模。
Facts about Pride and Prejudice
Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/facts.html
Key Factsfull title · Pride and Prejudice
author · Jane Austen
type of work · Novel
genre · Comedy of manners
language · English
time and place written · England, between 1796 and 1813
date of first publication · 1813
publisher · Thomas Egerton of London
narrator · Third-person omniscient
climax · Mr. Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth (Volume III, Chapter XVI)
protagonist · Elizabeth Bennet
antagonist · Snobbish class-consciousness (epitomized by Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Miss Bingley)
setting (time) · Some point during the Napoleonic Wars (1797–1815)
setting (place) · Longbourn, in rural England
point of view · The novel is primarily told from Elizabeth Bennet’s point of view.
falling action · The two chapters of the novel after Darcy’s proposal
tense · Past tense
foreshadowing · The only notable example of foreshadowing occurs when Elizabeth visits Pemberley, Darcy’s estate, in Volume III, Chapter 1. Her appreciation of the estate foreshadows her eventual realization of her love for its owner.
tone · Comic—or, in Jane Austen’s own words, “light and bright, and sparkling”
themes · Love; Reputation; Class
motifs · Courtship; Journeys
symbols · The novel is light on symbolism, except on the visit to Pemberley, which is described as being “neither formal, nor falsely adorned,” and is clearly meant to symbolize the character of Mr. Darcy.
1/26/2011
mona lisa's smile and other stories
mona lisa's smile
- http://www.mightybook.com/MightyBook_free/books/king_breakfast/king_breakfast.html
- http://www.mightybook.com/MightyBook_free/books/pirates2/pirates2.html
- http://www.mightybook.com/MightyBook_free/books/stuttering_stan/stuttering_stan.html
- How the cow
- http://www.mightybook.com/MightyBook_free/books/how_cow_ate/how_the_cow_ate_cabbage.html
Jan Vemeer
http://www.mightybook.com/art_and_music.html This is the site including all the above links. Wonderful site.
Electronic Books and Online Reading
http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/Links/esl_reading.htm
http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm
Electronic Books and Online Reading
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/onlinestory.htm#talk
Online Talking Stories
Interactive elements in a story
邊緣系統（Limbic System)
我很意外是如此平凡的一個譯名
邊緣系統（Limbic System）à基底核（Basal Ganglia）à視丘、下視丘、海馬回（長期記憶à三歲前未發育成熟à不記得三歲前發生事情）、杏仁核（情緒à一出生就有功能à情緒記憶很小就發生）、殼核（程序記憶、小腦cerebellumà前運動皮質）、尾狀核（人類本能à記錄在基因上的記憶à前額葉知覺區）à邊緣系統à潛意識運作\
人類的大腦只是神經系統的一部份
整體神經系統（nervous system）可以分成中樞神經系統（central nervous system）和週邊神經系統（peripheral nervous system）；
而中樞神經系統又可以再細分成大腦和脊髓（spinal cord），
週邊神經系統可以再細分成身驅神經系統及自律神經系統。
大腦可分成左右兩半球：左邊主司理性處理歷程，這包含思考邏輯、理性分析的工作；右邊是負責較藝術創意的運作。
大腦皮質（cerebrum或cortex）可分四區：
- 前額葉（frontal lobe或motor cortex）負責運動、語言表達、個人的時空概念，
- 頂葉（parietal lobe或somatosensory cortex）是處理身體感官的訊息，這包含觸覺、溫度、等外在物理的剌激，
- 枕葉（occipital lobe或visual cortex）則是接收並解釋視覺訊息，最後
- 顳葉（temporal lobe或auditory cortex）是處理聽覺的訊息，也是與人類情緒及記憶的儲存有很大的關係。
- 除了皮質，大腦內也有一些明顯不同的重要部位，且負責獨特的功能：
- 1. 小腦cerebellum：身體平衡及姿勢、動作的順暢
- 2. 視丘thalamus：處理進來的感覺訊息與外出運動訊息的傳輸及整合
- 3. 下視丘hypothalamus：身體內的均衡、調節體內的溫度、新陳代謝、性行為等
- 4.邊緣系統limbic system：情緒、動機、學習與記憶的功能，
- 主要的兩個部位是
- 杏仁核扁桃體amygdala（情緒記憶，攻擊性行為）及海馬迴hippocampus（空間記憶，短期及長期記憶）。
1/25/2011
小說創作技巧
小說創作技巧 費啟宇
我最近才對小說的研究和傳寫發生興趣
中文的資料竟然不少
關於「小說」一詞，或許每個人都有不同的見解，但整體而言小說是一種文學創作。
http://bassavg.com/lgpps7/topic.php?id=1362249020&mark=yes
如何寫好一篇小說
http://www.nightcats.net/html/yung/yung34.html?action=reload
臺灣現代小說的誕生─歷史源流篇
http://blog.xuite.net/ming1115/blog/11655153
http://www.videal.org/F.f/C-5.htm
寫作技巧期
memoir writiing workshop
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writeit/memoir/index.htm
Step-by-step help on brainstorming, drafting, reviewing, revising, and polishing your writing!
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/13-FE-AnnetteFix.html
Drawing From Your Life to Create
Excerpt:
Why Memoir?
With the continuing explosion of reality television, there is a good argument for the belief that audiences want to know about the emotions, experiences, and reactions of real people. This is what memoir delivers.
Naysayers may point their fingers at the me-me-me of memoir and brush it off as an egomaniacal romp into reverie and self-reflection. And some of the memoirs out there are exactly that. Just as some fiction is a forum for an author’s pseudoliterary pontification. Thankfully, that is not the case with all memoirs and novels. Good stories exist in both genres. Strive to be one of the good ones.
The “Who Cares” Question
"Who cares" is the most basic question every writer should ask before even writing a book—it's not relegated only to memoirs. It's about knowing your audience and having elements in your story that are universal.
The reader of a how-to guide, a cookbook, or a computer manual, is in search of useful information. The reader who chooses a novel or memoir wants to be entertained. Offer an interesting premise and deliver an entertaining story and you will have solved the “who cares” question.
“It’s about knowing your audience and having elements in your story that are universal.”
Begin at the Beginning
If you want to write a memoir and you don’t know where to start, begin by taking a look at your life. Ask yourself these basic questions to help find the direction of your story. Pull out a piece of paper (or open a blank document) and answer these questions.
•How did I get to where I am now?
•What experiences in my life have shaped my character?
•What do I believe from the core of my being? And why?
•If I could tell only one story about my life, what would it be?
The questions are designed to be broad enough to help you identify a throughline that can be used as the first step to discovering if you have a story you truly want to tell.
The next step is to go on a scavenger hunt for old photos, diaries, or the memory box full of trinkets, letters, and souvenirs from your past that you have tucked in a corner of the garage. Sort through these treasures, keeping a notebook and pen handy to jot down the memories and story ideas as they come to you.
Crafting a memoir doesn’t necessarily require you to dive into your past. You can begin your story with an incident that is still warm and recent. Mine the details of your lifestyle, career, culture, family life, or anything unique to your experience that can be used as the base for your memoir.
Did you grow up on a ranch in a rural area or a tiny apartment in a big city? Are you a police officer or the wife of one? Have you escaped from an abusive relationship? Are you languishing in an unfulfilled life? Is your family hug-me sweater dysfunctional or Norman Rockwell perfect? No matter what your situation is, past or present—there is something in your life that is story worthy.
Readers will be drawn to your story for different reasons: some may identify with you and your experiences; some will want to live vicariously through your story to see a way of life, culture, or career they’ve never experienced; some, like rubber-neckers at an accident, will want to see what happened in your train wreck of a life....
Excerpt: 'How to Write a Memoir'
Excerpt: 'How to Write a Memoir'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5340618/
by William Zinsser
Most people embarking on a memoir are paralyzed by the size of the task. What to put in? What to leave out? Where to start? Where to stop? How to shape the story? The past looms over them in a thousand fragments, defying them to impose on it some kind of order. Because of that anxiety, many memoirs linger for years half written, or never get written at all.
What can be done?
You must make a series of reducing decisions. For example: in a family history, one big decision would be to write about only one branch of the family. Families are complex organisms, especially if you trace them back several generations. Decide to write about your mother's side of the family or your father's side, but not both. Return to the other one later and make it a separate project.
Remember that you are the protagonist in your own memoir, the tour guide. You must find a narrative trajectory for the story you want to tell and never relinquish control. This means leaving out of your memoir many people who don't need to be there. Like siblings.
****
My final reducing advice can be summed up in two words: think small. Don't rummage around in your past — or your family's past — to find episodes that you think are "important" enough to be worthy of including in your memoir. Look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you still remember them it's because they contain a universal truth that your readers will recognize from their own life.
That turned out to be the main lesson I learned by writing a book in 2004 called Writing About Your Life. It's a memoir of my own life, but it's also a teaching book — along the way I explain the reducing and organizing decisions I made. I never felt that my memoir had to include all the important things that ever happened to me — a common temptation when old people sit down to summarize their life journey. On the contrary, many of the chapters in my book are about small episodes that were not objectively "important" but that were important to me. Because they were important to me they also struck an emotional chord with readers, touching a universal truth that was important to them.
One chapter is about serving in the army in World War II. Like most men of my generation, I recall that war as the pivotal experience of my life. But in my memoir I don't write anything about the war itself. I just tell one story about one trip I took across North Africa after our troopship landed at Casablanca. My fellow GIs and I were put on a train consisting of decrepit wooden boxcars called "forty-and-eights," so named because they were first used by the French in World War I to transport forty men or eight horses. The words QUARANTE HOMMES OU HUIT CHEVAUX were still stenciled on them. For six days I sat in the open door of that boxcar with my feet hanging out over Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It was the most uncomfortable ride I ever took — and the best. I couldn't believe I was in North Africa. I was the sheltered son of Northeastern wasps; nobody in my upbringing or my education had ever mentioned the Arabs. Now, suddenly, I was in a landscape where everything was new — every sight and sound and smell.
The eight months I spent in that exotic land were the start of a romance that has never cooled. They would make me a lifelong traveler to Africa and Asia and other remote cultures and would forever change how I thought about the world. Remember: Your biggest stories will often have less to do with their subject than with their significance — not what you did in a certain situation, but how that situation affected you and shaped the person you became.
As for how to actually organize your memoir, my final advice is, again, think small. Tackle your life in easily manageable chunks. Don't visualize the finished product, the grand edifice you have vowed to construct. That will only make you anxious.
Here's what I suggest.
Go to your desk on Monday morning and write about some event that's still vivid in your memory. What you write doesn't have to be long — three pages, five pages — but it should have a beginning and an end. Put that episode in a folder and get on with your life. On Tuesday morning, do the same thing. Tuesday's episode doesn't have to be related to Monday's episode. Take whatever memory comes calling; your subconscious mind, having been put to work, will start delivering your past.
Keep this up for two months, or three months, or six months. Don't be impatient to start writing your "memoir," the one you had in mind before you began. Then, one day, take all your entries out of their folder and spread them on the floor. (The floor is often a writer's best friend.) Read them through and see what they tell you and what patterns emerge. They will tell you what your memoir is about and what it's not about. They will tell you what's primary and what's secondary, what's interesting and what's not, what's emotional, what's important, what's funny, what's unusual, what's worth pursing and expanding. You'll begin to glimpse your story's narrative shape and the road you want to take.
Then all you have to do is put the pieces together.
From The American Scholar, Volume 75, No. 2, Spring 2006. Copyright 2006 by William Zinsser. This essay is adapted from a new chapter for the forthcoming 30th-anniversary edition of On Writing Well.
What is a Memoir?
I am going to take a class about writing memoir, so I decide to write here very day about my readings and thoughts. First is the definition of Memoir.
Source : http://www.suite101.com/content/what-is-a-memoir-a50315
What is a Memoir?
Memoir comes from the Latin word "memoria" meaning memory. A memoir is an evolution of the autobiography. An autobiography is a story written by yourself about your life. Your life story so far. A memoir, in the style which the publishing market are flooded with at the moment, tends to deal with a more specific period or theme in your life.
Read more at Suite101: What is a Memoir?: What This Autobiographical Genre of Literature is All About http://www.suite101.com/content/what-is-a-memoir-a50315#ixzz1C4drnAkc/
What Sort of Events are in a Memoir?
Anything and everything can be in a memoir and they can be in any emotional range however the most saleable style in 2007 and 2008 so far has been the inspirational memoir and the Mis Lit (Misery Literature) memoir, with memoirs of war survivors and adults who were abused as a child flying off the shelves.
Why Write a Memoir?
Some reasons to write a memoir are:
- You feel you have an important story to tell. Maybe you are the sole survivor of a disaster or have been treated badly by a big company. Maybe you have been misrepresented in the press or worked for a famous recluse. Whatever the story if you feel that a particular part of your life is an interesting story then write it in a memoir.
- For future generations. Maybe you are struggling through a divorce and want your children to understand in their adulthood what had happened. Maybe you want your grandchildren to know you better. Maybe you have emigrated and you want future generations to know what their heritage is. A memoir can be like a piece of you reaching out to your descendants long after you have gone.
- To document your success. Your rags to riches struggle. Your journey from crackpot inventor to innovative millionaire. Your struggles as a freelance writer leading eventually to that one best seller. Both inspirational and interesting everyone likes to read how people triumph in the face of adversity.
- To document how you handle an illness. Whether you have an illness which will reduce your mobility, sight or attention span or have been diagnosed with a degenerative disease a memoir can be a good way to document your illness and treatment for others in a similar situation to read or to help their relatives understand how they may be feeling.
- As therapy. Writing or talking about your feelings and past events can be an excellent way to work through them in your head and find some peace or resolution.
- To remember. Writing a memoir can help to unlock memories you had forgotten you had and as a result can help you to understand yourself better
1/13/2011
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