On the afternoon of May 23, the fourth lecture of the English Language and Literature Series of the School of Foreign Languages was held in the lecture hall of the Foreign Languages Building, with Professor Wu Jianguo of the School of Foreign Languages invited to give the lecture, hosted by Vice President Guo Haixia, and attended by 2018 undergraduate students of English major.
The title of this lecture was Literary Narrative Discourse, and Professor Wu introduced the students to the strategies of using literary narrative discourse and the corresponding skills needed in practice by combining theory and practice in a full English lecture. First, Professor Wu asked the students the question of what is literature and pointed out that the top of human civilization is literature. Then, Professor Wu introduced the five genres of literature and talked about narratology in literature. Narrative has both real and fictional meanings, and the meaning of words in literary narrative discourse needs to be paid attention to, as words have two layers of meaning, one is literal, which can be found in the dictionary, and the other is derived, which is the extended meaning. Finally, based on the knowledge of literary narrative pavement, Professor Wu introduced the three levels of structure of narrative texts: the first is the content of the text, the second is the potential level, and the third is the level of intertextuality. The essay allows the reader to experience the hierarchical structure through factors such as plot, characters, story setting, the narrator of the story, i.e., the perspective of the characters in the story, and the narrative perspective. In the history of literature, the novel is the most widespread and influential form of narrative.
This lecture, in which Professor Wu shared his experience with the students without reservation, was insightful and humorous, and the students benefited from a deeper understanding of literary narrative discourse.
(Reported by the College of Foreign Languages office; Written by Song Chundi and Ouyang Shu; Translated by Li Huixian)
