1. Reading Exercises:

Exercise 1. Read and memorize using a dictionary:

Contemporary, unattractiveness, adventure, severe, decadence, reject, appear, aestheticist, joke

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1. What caused the appearance of the two trends of literature in the second half of the 19^th century?

2. What are the most popular works of Lewis Carroll?

3. What themes did the writers of Neo-romanticism?

4. What social motives does Oscar Wilde introduce in his tales?

Exercise 3. Match the left part with the right:

1 Oscar Wilde’s great gift lies	a) riddles, puns, unanswered questions and jokes
2. Lewis Carroll loved	b) to the class of books which are at once existing for boys and fascinating for adults.
3. The Novel “Treasure Island” belongs	c) the traditions of such writers as Dickens, Thackeray, Brontë sisters and others.
4. The representatives of the progressive trend continued	d) in his ability to express contradictions to life in paradoxes.

Exercise 4. Open the brackets choosing the right word.

Lewis Carroll corresponded widely and had (many/a lot of) friends in the literary and (academic/theoretic) Victorian(word/society).

THE SPEAKING MODULE

II. Speaking Exercises:

Exercise 1. Describe the following words using suggested words and expressions.

merit	ideal	personage	dream
quality praise deserving of	conception image mental	playful any amusement diversion	action event saying is intended amusement laughter answers

Exercise 2. Ask questions to the given answers:

1. Question: ___________________________________________ ?

Answer: Aestheticists rejected both the social and moral functions of art.

2. Question: ___________________________________________ ?

Answer : Nothing is certain in wonderland except that nothing is what it seems to be.

3. Question: ___________________________________________ ?

Answer: Oscar Wilde attracted the attention of the audience by the brilliance of his conversation, the scope of his knowledge, and the force of his personality.

THE WRITING MODULE

III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Fill in the gaps with the suggested words:

Describes, touches, contemporary, art, portrait, handsome, inner, created, spiritual, important

“The picture of Dorian Gray”________ the life of a young man. The author_________on many_______problems of _______life. Morality _________,and beauty in particular. Dorain Gray’s portrait is symbolic. It shows not only a_________, but also the________world of the artist, who created it, and the______life of the sitter.

Exercise 2. Pick out synonyms from the text and explain the differences between them.

Exercise 3. Make up a plan to the text.

Exercise 4. Find derivatives in the text.

Exercise 5. Compose a story on one of the topics:

1. The theory of “pure art”.

2. Stevenson’s place in English literature.

3. The contribution of Oscar Wilde to the development of English literature.

Lesson 7

The Reading Module

Read the text: English Literature in the 20^th century

In the early 20^th century the traditions of critical realism that had developed in the late 19^th century were continued and developed. Three names were prominent among the writer who continued the traditions of critical realism along their own individual lines.

They sought for new ways and means of revealing the truth of life in their works. The narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy and stupidity are merciless criticized in the works of George Bernard Shaw.

John Galsworthy excels in revealing the characters from a psychological point of view.

Of great interest are the works of Herbert George Wells. He is a new type of writer who thinks about the future of mankind. The leading genre of the above mentioned period of time was the novel.

The years between 1917-1930 form the first period in English 20^th century literature. These were years of changes Basic religions and political beliefs were questions by more people. The writers of this period were greatly influenced by various decadent philosophical theories which led to the creation of works marked by great pessimism. There were writers who refused to acknowledge reality as such. They thought reality to be superficial. They were sure that everything that happened – that led to events – was the irrational the unconscious and the mystical in wean. These writers called the inner-psychological process “the stream of consciousness” and based a new literary technique on it.

The most important author who used this new literary technique was James Joyce. Decadence marks his works. He influenced many writers. Remoteness from actuality is clearly seen in the works of Virginia Woolf. Mystification on contemporary society are to be traced in the works of Aldous Leonard Huxley, Thomas Stearns Eliot belongs to the same trend of writers for whom individualism and pessimism became the most characteristic traits.

The thirties are marked by an acute struggle of the writers who were realists who represented different generations against decadent and modernist tendencies in English literature. While the works of some writers are imbued with progressive ideas there are many writers who take a neutral position of noninterference.

Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) began his career as a journalist and wrote music and dramatic critiques for various periodicals he also set out to become a novelists, he wrote five long novels which were rejected by all publishes. Thus he gave up writing novels and turned to dramatic writing. By 1900 Shaw had established his reputation as a playwright. Shaw’s plays deal with various problems: politics, science, religion, education and economics.

“The most powerful among his plays are “Pygmalion”, “Apple car”, “Too true to be good” Shaw`s way of writing is very peculiar, grotesque, he chose satire as a weapon to fight for his ideals.

Bernard Shaw was at the peak of his fame (1925) when he received the International Nobel Prize for literature.

John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was a novelist, dramatist, short story writer and essayist. He created brilliant realistic pictures of life and typical characters. He gained his popularity after the publication of “The man of Property” – the first part of “The Forsyte saga”, which is followed by “A modern comedy”, also a trilogy. Galsworthy’s mastery lies in his realistic depiction of life and characters and exciting plot.

Galsworthy gave a comprehensive and vivid picture of contemporary English realistically and objectively.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) is often called the great English writer who looked into the future.

The First World War brought a crisis in the outlook of the great writer. He expressed his ideals in a series of articles. During the Second World War Wells wrote against fascism. Herbert Wells was the author of more than forty novels and many short stories, articles and social tracts. His novels are of three types: science fiction, realistic novels on contemporary problems and social tracts in the form of novels. His famous works are: “The time machine”, “Invisible man”, “The war of the worlds”, “The first man in the moon”, “The war that will end war”, “Russia in the shadows”, and many others.

Wells’ aim was to show today through what might happen tomorrow.

One must admire his courage and his faith in writing word. “We are going to write about the whole of life”, he announced and so he did.

After text activity