Transcript Document

Lesson 4
Professions for Women
Part I: pre-reading:
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General introduction;
Argumentation
Opinion or central idea
Demonstration
Conclusion
Teaching aims
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1.to analyze the structure of this argumentation
2.to appreciate the language features of Virgina Woolf
3. to learn the characteristics of Mordenist writers
4. to know something of the feminist movement
(Background)
 5. to understand the rhetorical devices: metaphor;
antithesis; parallelism; repetition…
 6. to learn some other language points
Virginia Adeline Woolf
The Author:
 Virginia Adeline Woolf (1882 - 1941) was an
English novelist and essayist, regarded as
one of the foremost modernist literary
figures of the twentieth century.
 She was one of the leaders in the literary
movement of modernism. This elite group
also included Gertrude Stein, James Joyce,
Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot.
Quote
 "Have you any notion how many books
are written about women in the course of
one year? Have you any notion how
many are written by men? Are you aware
that you are, perhaps, the most
discussed animal in the universe?"
----Virginia A Woolf
Literature Background
 Modernism as an artistic and cultural
movement is generally music and literature
emerging in the decades before 1914 as
artists rebelled against late 19th century
artistic traditions.
 The modernist movement emerged in the mid-19th
century in France and was rooted in the idea that
"traditional" forms of art, literature, social
organization and daily life had become outdated,
and that it was therefore essential to sweep them
aside and reinvent culture.
 It encouraged the idea of re-examination of every
aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy,
with the goal of finding that which was "holding
back" progress, and replacing it with new, and
therefore better, ways of reaching the same end.
Stream of consciousness
 “Stream of consciousness” means a
carefully modulated poetic flow. The author
always describes the possibilities of moving
between action and contemplation, between
specific external events in time and delicate
tracings of the flow of consciousness where
the mind moved between retrospect and
anticipation.
 确切地说，意识流是心理学家们使用的一个
短语。它是19世纪由美国实用主义哲学创始
人、心理学家威廉·詹姆斯创造的，指人的
意识活动持续流动的性质。詹姆斯认为，人
类的思维活动并不是由一个一个分离的、孤
立的部分组成，而是一条连续不断的、包含
各种复杂的感觉和思想"流"。
Part II While reading
 Language points study
 Literay apprecation
Language points--Para 1:
 In the profession of literature, the author
finds that there are fewer experiences
peculiar for women than in other professions
because many women writers before them
have made the road smooth.
 guiding me as I move forward
 material obstacles
 Spiritual/mental/psychological obstacles.
 Reputable: in a good repute; having a good
reputation; respectable
Language points
 do battle with: fight against;
 phantom: a ghost or a specter; sth exists only in
one’s imagination
 The Angel in the House: The popular Victorian
image of the ideal wife/woman came to be "the
Angel in the House," who was expected to be
devoted and submissive to her husband. The
Angel was passive and powerless, meek,
charming, graceful, sympathetic, self-sacrificing,
pious, and above all—pure.
 The phrase "Angel in the House" comes
from the title of an immensely popular poem
by Coventry Patmore, in which he holds his
angel-wife up as a model for all women.
 For Virginia Woolf, the repressive ideal of
women represented by the Angel in the
House was still so potent that she wrote, in
1931, "Killing the Angel in the House was
part of the occupation of a woman writer."
 torment: cause to suffer great pain in mind or body; to
annoy. (n. torment/torment)
 e.g. The knowledge of his guilt tormented him.
 as briefly as.
 draught: (A.E.) draft ( a current air in a room.)(fireplace is
warmer and more comfortable.)
 take credit to myself: 把功劳归于自己
 She was given the credit for what I had done.
 事情是我做的, 她却受到称赞。
 It’s used in the phrase `to your credit' in order to indicate an
achievement deserving praise
 turn upon: to suddenly attack someone without warning or
treat sb badly.
 have up: to take to court. (pass.)(have sb. up)
 Inversion.
 She would have plucked the heart out of my writing:
 the conventional attitudes would have taken away
the essence of my writing.
 pluck: to pull out sharply.
 put pen to paper: to write sth.
 conciliate: to win the support or friendly feeling of;
 to do sth in order to end an argument or make
someone feel less angry.
 (赢得好感；安抚，平息怒火)
 blunt: a. not sharp. (The knife is very
blunt. )
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b. speaking roughly and plainly
without trying to be polite or to hide
unpleasant facts. (直言不讳的，毫不客气的)
 fling: to throw quickly with lots of force.
 despatch: a. to send to a place or for a
particular purpose.
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b. (euph.) to kill officially or by
plan.
 befall: to happen to sb. as if by fate.
Para. 4
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rid: get rid of.
falsehood: an untrue statement,lie;lying.
What is a woman?
the identity and the role of women in the society.
human skill: human knowledge, or judgment.
我认为, 只有女性在人类知识所涉及的所有文艺和
专业领域真正表达自己的感情之后,她们才会知道女
性是什么.
Para. 5
 proceeds:(the money or profit gained from a
sale,business)
 lethargy: lazy state of mind; the state of
sleepy or inactive.
 disquiet: to make anxious.
 nose: to look closely and inquisitively.
 dart: move quickly or suddenly.
 trance: a sleeplike condition of mind in
which one does not notice the thing around.
 sweep: to spread or move quickly.
 Unchecked: not controlled or prevent from
happening.
 slumber: (lit.) to sleep.
 smash: a powerful blow.
 Metaphor.
Para 7
 Formidable: a. very great and frightening,
causing anxiety…
 e.g. Her mother is a most formidable lady.
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b. difficult to defeat or deal with;
 e.g. They climbed the last part of the
mountain in formidable conditions.
 (他们在恶劣条件下攀登山的顶峰．)
 hitherto: until this time; up to now
 A room of one’s own: freedom or position in
the society.
 Metaphor
 Rent; decorated; furnished; shared room
 terms: (pl.) conditions offered or accepted;
way of expressing oneself;
 be on good/friendly/bad/terms with sb: have
a good/bad relationship with…
 On (upon) …terms: under …conditions;
 Under the terms of agreement, Hong Kong
returned to China in 1997.
Part III Post reading
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Conclusion of the lesson (metaphor in use)
Key to exercises
Task for discussion
homework
Conclusion of the lesson
 Literature task: Mordenism and “stream of
consciousness”
 Language features of the text;
 Using of the key words
 Figures of speech
 Homework and exercises: (see the text book)
Key to the exercises
 2. those conventional attitudes would have taken
away the most important part, i.e., the essence or
core of my writing.
 5. It will take a long time for women to rid
themselves of false values and attitudes and to
overcome the obstacles to telling the truth about
their body and passions.
 7. Through fighting against the Angel, through great
labor and effort, you have gained a position or
certain freedom in a society that has been up to
now dominated by men.
Task for discussion
 What professions are suitable for Chinese
women in your mind? Why?
Homewrok: translation practices
 It is simple enough to say that since books have
classes fiction, biography, poetry—we should
separate them and take from each what it is right
that each should give us. Yet few people ask from
books what books can give us.
 Most commonly we come to books with blurred and
divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true,
of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it
shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce
our own prejudices. If we could banish all such
preconception when we read, that would be an
admirable beginning.
 Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be
his fellow worker and accomplice. If you hang back,
and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing
yourself from getting the fullest possible value from
what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as
possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible
fitness, from the twist and turn of the first
sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human
being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this,
acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find
that your author is giving you, or attempting to give
you, something far more definite.