3 литература семинарские АН

Семинарское занятие №1.

Тема: Anglo-Saxon literature, literature after the Norman conquest

1. The Anglo-Saxon period (Anglo-Saxon invasions, Anglo-Saxon civilization, the beginnings of English literature);

2. Anglo-Saxon epic poetry: “Beowulf” (composition, the system of characters, linguistic peculiarities);

3. Anglo-Saxon lyric poetry (The Seafarer);

4. Norman rule in England. Chivalric life in Medieval England (chivalry novels);

5. Allegoric poems. W.Langland’s allegoric poem “The Vision of Piers the Ploughman”;

6. Storytelling in the Middle Ages. J.Chaucer as the creator of the English literary language. Chaucer’s “Canterbury tales”. King Arthur’s romances. The folk ballads;

7. Drama in the Middle Ages (mystery plays, morality plays).

Семинарское занятие №2.

Тема: W. Shakespeare: sonnets, early comedies

1. History of a sonnet as a literary genre; the traditional and the new in Shakespeare's sonnets;

2. Composition of Shakespeare's sonnet cycle;

3. The nature of the dramatic conflict in the sonnet cycle;

4. Shakespeare's comedies: nature of the comic in Shakespeare;

5. The system of characters in "The twelfth night, or what you will"; Renaissance humanism of Shakespeare's comedies.

Семинарское занятие №3.

Тема: W. Shakespeare: tragedies

1. Main characteristics of the third and the late period in Shakespeare’s creative work;

2. Nature of the tragic in Shakespeare;

3. The specificity of the conflict in “Hamlet”, its development and solution;

4. The system of characters; Hamlet, his character, the problem of will;

5. The creation and stage history of "The Tempest";

6. The nature of conflict in "The Tempest" (Cf. the conflict in "Hamlet");

7. The system of characters and means of characterization;

8. Symbolic character of the play.

Семинарское занятие №4.

Тема: W. John Milton: “Paradise Lost”

1. Epic as a genre. Types of epic;

2. Historical background for the poem "Paradise Lost";

3. The composition of the poem;

4. The system of characters in the poem; the overlapping of Christian and Renaissance traditions in the author's treatment of characters;

5. The role of scientific knowledge in the poem;

6. The peculiarities of the poem's style

Семинарское занятие №5.

Тема: English Enlightenment: D.Defoe and J.Swift

1. The ideology of Enlightenment; the conception of man in Enlightenment;

2. The biographical background: are D.Defoe and J.Swift alike or different?

3. Compare the genre of the books;

4. Compare Robinson and Gulliver: active/passive role in the narration; capacity for self-development; capacity for embodying of the author's ideal man;

5. Social message of Swift’s novel; targets for his satire;

6. The narrative manner of D.Defoe and J.Swift.

Семинарское занятие №6.

Тема: Enlighment Realism and Sentimentalism in England

1. S.Richardson’s democratic reform;

2. The concept of the novel in H.Fielding’s works;

3. The genre of essays and pamphlets: J.Addison and R.Steel;

4. L.Stern’s novels;

5. R.Burns: a pre-Romantic and a precursor tjWordsworth. Sentimental poetry of R.Burns.

Семинарское занятие №7.

Тема: G.G.Byron “Don Juan”

1. The atmosphere in the European society after the French Revolution of 1789-1794;

2. The Romantic movement in England;

3. Characteristic features of romantic aesthetics;

4. An overview of Byron’s life and literary work;

5. The form of the poem: its composition, its stanza form;

6. The thematics of the poem, the genre, the main objects of criticism, romantic and realistic elements of the poem.

Семинарское занятие №8.

Тема: Ch.Dickens “Oliver Twist”

1. Realism as a literary trend: its main characteristics and features;

2. The periodization of Dickens' work; the aesthetic creed of the author and its realization in his novel;

3. Peculiarities of the plot development; the main conflict of the novel;

4. Themes and ideas of the novel;

5. The system of characters;

6. Dickens’s language and style.

Семинарское занятие №9.

Тема: James Joyce “A portrait of the artist as a young man”

1. Modernism as a cultural and literary phenomenon; its main characteristics as a literary trend;

2. James Joyce: the background, creative output, emotional dominant of his writing;

3. “A portrait of the artist as a young man”: genre specificity of the novel;

4. The composition of the novel; the significance of each episode for the formation of S. Dedalus' character;

5. The problem of art and artist’s role in the novel; S. Dedalus as a generic artist;

6. Language and style of J. Joyce's novel.

Семинарское занятие №10.

Тема: G. Orwell “1984”

1. Utopia vs. anti-utopia: similarities and differences;

2. J.Orwell, his background, creative output, opinions, status in the literary world;

3. Social and political background for creating "1984"

4. Structure of Engsoc society; metaphorical meaning of Big Brother;

5. The main principles of Engsoc ideology;

6. The main conflict of the novel: man vs. system;

7. Linguistic utopia: the functions of Newspeak.

Семинарское занятие №11.

Тема: John Fowles “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”

1. Postmodernism as a literary phenomenon;

2. An overview of Fowel’s work and his main themes.

3. The chronotope of the novel.

4. The genre of the novel. How does the author break away from the established conventions of realism?

5. Why does the author supply alternative endings? Which expresses your view of things best?

6. Dwell upon the realization of the main concepts of postmodernism in the novel.

Семинарское занятие №12.

Тема: Romanticism and Realism in American literature of XIX century

1. W.Irwing as the creator of the genre of American novel. “Rip Van Winkle” (genre peculiarities, forms of presentation, the origin and the functions of the supernatural);

2. “The Fall of the House of Usher’ by E.Poe (genre, elements of symbolism, mysticism, the principle of the totality effect in the tale);

3. M.Twain’s “Adventures of Tom Soyer” (aesthetic ideal, composition, system of characters);

4. Antibourgeois pathos of M.Twain’s novels. Artistic peculiarities of the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

Семинарское занятие №13.

Тема: Theodor Dreiser “An American Tragedy”

1. The peculiarities of America’s development at the turn of the 20^th century;

2. Naturalism as a form of realism;

3. Th. Dreiser: his background, creative output;

4. The implication of the title;

5. The specifics of the composition of the novel; the genre peculiarities of the three books of the novel;

6. Psychological and social types of the characters.