为英语"文学道路"正名

近年来,在我国高校英语教学中,"文学道路"成了贬义词.在这一现象背后,潜伏着这样一种普遍的假设:英语教育旨在摄取信息,掌握技巧,获得实际知识和技能,而文学则仅仅是一件饰物--只能用来点缀以市场经济这个硬核为主导的课程表而已.为了抵制这种趋势的蔓延,有必要首先弄清楚以下几个问题:我国英语系的基本任务是什么?英语文学教学是否与当今市场经济存在关联性?它们又是怎样相互关联的?我们怎样才能使当代中国人确信学习乔叟和莎士比亚等人的作品--倾听那些既非本国人,又非现代人的声音--是有益处的呢?在重新认识这些问题的同时,有必要改进当前仍在流行的一些教学方法,以确保文学在英语教学中应有的地位.

Let "The Road of Literature" Be Rehabilitated

The road of literature" has recently become a pejorative term. Behind such a phenomenon lurks a prevalent assumption: that English education is a matter of ingesting information, of mastering technique, of acquiring facts and know how, whereas literature is a soft option, an indulgence or a mere trimming to decorate the hard center of the market oriented syllabus. In order to counter such a trend, we need first of all to address the following theoretical issues: What is the primary task of an English department in China? Is the teaching of English literature relevant to the Chinese market economy today? If yes, in what way is it relevant? How does one persuade a member of modern Chinese society that there is a profit in reading, say, Chaucer and Shakespeare in harkening to any non Chinese and, "worse", non modern non Chinese voices? While re examining those questions, we need to improve some of our teaching methods that are still prevalent today, in order to make sure that literature is given its due status in English teaching programs.