Week 4: notes_ Charlotte's Web (children literature)

Week 4	Charlotte’s Web (Quiz 2)
Charlotte’s Web	Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in 1952 by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Dramatic Structure	Exposition Complication Climax Conflicts: 1. borrowing/ sharing (major conflict) 2. darkness 3. bad habits Falling action Resolution
The elements of Fantasy	Plot, theme, and setting
Character	Imaginative creature
	•Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter, who loves life, even that of Zuckerman’s barn. He sometimes feels lonely or fearful.
	Charlotte is a spider who befriends Wilbur; she at first seems bloodthirsty due to her method of catching food.
	•    Fern Arable, daughter of John Arable and Mrs. Arable, is the courageous eight-year-old girl who saves Wilbur in the beginning of the novel.
	•    Templeton is a gluttonous rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
	•    Avery Arable is the brother of Fern. He appears briefly throughout the novel.
	•    Homer Zuckerman is Fern’s uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife, Edith, and an assistant named Lurvy who helps out around the barn.
	•    Other animals living in Zuckerman’s barn with whom Wilbur converses are a disdainful lamb, a goose who is constantly sitting on her eggs, and an old sheep.
	Henry Fussy is a boy Fern’s age of whom Fern becomes very fond.
	•    Uncle is Wilbur’s rival at the fair, a large pig whom Charlotte doesn’t consider to be particularly refined.
Rabbit	Bossy
Characterization	Donald Duck: 口齒不清 愛生氣
Tigger	Timid
Jump	跳一次 (很高)
Bounce	跳很多次 (小跳)
Science fiction (Scientific theme)	Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas". Science fiction has been used by authors as a device to discuss philosophical ideas such as identity, desire, morality, and social structure.
Horror fiction	Macabre
Dramatic structure	Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with Aristotle in his Poetics (c. 335 BC). This article focuses primarily on Gustav Freytag's analysis of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama.

After reading a story, ask yourself these questions below…
What would you do?
How do you feel? Do you like the story?
Which episode or character you like the most?
What would you do if you were him or her in the story?
The difference between “fictional” and “fictitious”
Fictitious & fictional	Of, relating to, or characterized by fiction; imaginary.
Fictional tends to be used in talking about fiction in the sense of creative writing: Alice in Wonderland is a fictional character created by the mathematician Charles Dodgson.	Fictitious tends to carry a negative connotation and is used to denote fiction associated with dishonesty: The man used a fictitious resumé to obtain the job.
	(source: Daily Writing Tips)
Ramayana	The Ramayana (Sanskrit: रामायणम्, Rāmāyaṇam, pronounced [rɑːˈmɑːjəɳəm]) is one of the great Hindu epics. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu literature (smṛti), considered to be itihāasa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of Hinduism, the other being the Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana ("going, advancing"), translating to "Rama's Journey". The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story of Rama (an avatar of the Hindu Supreme-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by Ravan, the king of Lanka. Thematically, the Ramayana explores human values and the concept of dharma.
Journey to the West	Journey to the West is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In English-speaking countries, the work is widely known as Monkey, the title of Arthur Waley's popular abridged translation. The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the "Western Regions", that is, India, to obtain sacred texts (sūtras) and returned after many trials and much suffering. It retains the broad outline of Xuan Zang's own account, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions but the Ming dynasty novel adds elements from folk tales and the author's invention, that is, that the Buddha gave this task to the monk and provided him with three protectors who agree to help him as an atonement for their sins. These disciples are Sun Wukong, a monkey with fabulous powers; Zhu Bajie, a miraculous pig; and Sha Wujing, the "Sand Monk"; together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang's steed, a white horse.
The Lord of Rings	The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II. It is the second best-selling novel ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
Matter of Britain	e.g. King Arthur The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain, and sometimes Brittany, and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. Together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne, and the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the three great literary cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature.
King Arthur	King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians.[2] The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.
The First Knight	First Knight is a 1995 medieval film based on Arthurian legend, directed by Jerry Zucker. It stars Richard Gere as Lancelot, Julia Ormond as Guinevere, Sean Connery as King Arthur and Ben Cross as Malagant. The film follows the rogue Lancelot's romance with Lady Guinevere of Leonesse, who is to marry King Arthur of Camelot, while the land is threatened by the renegade knight Malagant. The film is noteworthy within Arthurian cinema for its absence of magical elements, its drawing on the material of Chrétien de Troyes for plot elements and the substantial age difference between Arthur and Guinevere.
Twelve Knights of the Round Table	The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table.
Holy Grail	The Holy Grail is a dish, plate, stone, or cup that is part of an important theme of Arthurian literature. A grail, wondrous but not explicitly "holy," first appears in Perceval le Gallois, an unfinished romance by Chrétien de Troyes: it is a processionalsalver used to serve at a feast. Chrétien's story attracted many continuators, translators and interpreters in the later 12th and early 13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who makes the grail a great precious stone that fell from the sky. The Grail legend became interwoven with legends of the Holy Chalice. The connection with Joseph of Arimathea and with vessels associated with the Last Supper and crucifixion of Jesus, dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Great Britain. Building upon this theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and how he founded a line of guardians to keep it safe in Britain. The legend may combine Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.

(source: http://goo.gl/A0R5Qp)