Scribd
Upload
65 views2 pages

Unit 1 Introduction To Literature

The Introduction to Literature course focuses on practical lessons to help students understand the defining features of literature, language registers, context, and the functions of language in both literary and non-literary texts. It is designed for individuals in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) who lack prior training and offers clear instructions for self-study. Students should have an upper-intermediate level of English proficiency to effectively engage with the course material.

Uploaded by

estevaomondlane44
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
65 views2 pages

Unit 1 Introduction To Literature

The Introduction to Literature course focuses on practical lessons to help students understand the defining features of literature, language registers, context, and the functions of language in both literary and non-literary texts. It is designed for individuals in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) who lack prior training and offers clear instructions for self-study. Students should have an upper-intermediate level of English proficiency to effectively engage with the course material.

Uploaded by

estevaomondlane44
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

1.

Introduction to Literature
Welcome to Introduction to Literature

We would like to establish at the outset that due to the nature of the contents of the introduction
to literature course, the lessons are more practical than theoretical. However, lets start by
defining literature.

See how different writers define literature:

1 Literature is defined as imaginative or creative writing in the sense of fiction (Eagleton,


1983).
2 Literature is a body of writing by people or by people using the same language
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1993).
3 Literature is the name of a set of attitudes people take towards a stretch of discourse, not
a name of an internal property of the stretch of discourse (Searle, 1975).
So, what is literature?

Apparently, there is no straightforward answer to this question. Therefore, in order to familiarise


the student with the basic concepts of literature we have divided the course in two sections as
follows:

Unit 1: The Defining Features of Literature

 In this section, literary texts are compared to non-literary texts in an attempt to answer the
question ‘What is literature?’ The analyses focus on:

Unit 2: Language and register

 What is register and how to distinguish different registers.

Unit 3: Context

 How the context surrounding a particular text or utterance affects understanding:

 How the absence of a specific context for literary texts affects interpretation?

Unit 4: Comparative Study of the participants in literary and non-literary texts


 Who are the participants (sender, addresser, addressee and receiver) in literary and non-
literary texts?
 What are the differences in the participants of literary and non-literary texts?

Unit 5: Functions of language in literary and non-literary texts


 What the writer/reader intend should happen as a result of reading different types of texts.
 The transactional, interactional and aesthetic functions.
 The functions of literary texts compared to the functions of non-literary texts.

This course is designed to address the needs of people who are working in the field of ELT with
no prior training and with no possibility of doing so on a class based course. This means that,
wherever necessary, instructions are given clearly so you know what to do although there is no
teacher to ask. The course gives you an opportunity to practise many of the skills you will need
in order to study a subject in English. It does not contain traditional language exercises. Make
sure you have a good dictionary and a good grammar book to refer to when existing knowledge
is not enough.

You should be an upper- intermediate (the level of the Cambridge First Certificate in English)
user of English and need either to learn the skills of study or to learn how to use familiar skills in
the unfamiliar medium of English to handle the material in this module satisfactorily.

You might also like