PART 1

教师导入该部分话题

Q: Here are three names for you, O. Henry, Chekhov and Maupassant. You must have heard their names in your middle school. Yes, they are the “three giants of short-length novel”. Today we are going to explore novel and make acquaintance of some new novel writers. I believe this unit will be fun for all of you.

● What is your understanding of novel?

● What is novel?

A (Students’ answers might be): novel is a story which can be real or fictional.

Well, part of it is right. Novels are really stories, but they are much more complicated than the so called “story”. The novel, as a genre, shares some characteristics with short story, for instance, plot and character. However, the novel does have something that short story cannot boast. That is why a novel is called a novel, not a long story. So what is the definition of novel? If we want to know it well, we have to know who it is. Now let’s come to the definition.