Traditional foreign literature teaching is often based on appreciation and reading, introducing national and genre literature in the form of history, supplemented by the appreciation and intensive reading of famous works, and benefiting students through "text meal". However, with the development of the times, high-tech means have transformed the world's famous works from one-dimensional texts into multi-dimensional digital, and have been continuously adapted into movies, TV series and even comics and animations, language has been replaced by rich images, and the depth of content has been replaced by formal exaggeration and deformation.
Various new multimedia teaching methods deliver "image fast food" to curious students in a timely manner. When the "text meal" encounters the "image fast food", many students abandon the time-consuming and laborious traditional reading, and tend to save time and effort, convenient and easy "reading the picture" learning. In the "Internet age" and "cyberspace", they did find another "short way" to the foreign literary world, but missing the "avenue" of reading is also equivalent to missing the beautiful scenery in the process of text taste.
"Image fast food" as the inevitability of teaching catering
The "inconclusivity" of Chinese and Western literary cultures has led to students being confused when studying foreign literature courses. Although they are the same themes and themes in literature, they are hindered by differences in countries, languages, historical backgrounds, social customs, etc.
Although in teaching, teachers will use vivid language to depict exotic scenery, unique customs, complex religious beliefs, naked emotional confessions, etc., but for students, it is still a fog to see flowers, look at the moon in the water, and cannot fully grasp the sensibility. Therefore, it is undeniable that foreign literature needs more image information than other disciplines to fill the gap in cultural differences, so "image fast food" such as famous movies, famous drama animation, and famous comics came into being.
"Film art is the use of modern science and technology, the collection of literature, performance, directing, sculpture, painting, architecture, music, dance, martial arts, acrobatics, drama and other elements of the collection, through photography computer imaging and editing, reflection means, the narrative time art and the presenting space art fused in one furnace audio-visual combination, time and space composite dynamic plastic art." While bringing people a kind of audiovisual enjoyment, it also reflects life from a highly comprehensive point of view, and presents an artistic real-world scene in front of the viewer.
Film and television materials cultivate students' interest in learning through direct and rich visual and auditory impact. Foreign famous films can condense a large time span through pictures in two hours, involving many themes and events. Transform the diachronic story in the original book into a synchronic conflict, and transform the slowness of time into a tight montage plot. This strengthens the story logic and saves time. Students gain more information per unit time, stimulating interest in foreign literature studies.
For example, the film and television work "Anna" makes simple and effective arrangements for multiple clues and characters, which not only omits the protracted branches, but also highlights the theme story. The BBC Shakespeare series of cartoons is all about twenty minutes, and Shakespeare's dozens of works can be clearly understood in a few hours. Discovery's works such as "Jesus Turn", "The Biography of Buddha", and "Peter the Great" are also taught in history, stating a grand history with personal experience, comprehensively showing the background of the times, which is conducive to students to grasp in a short period of time.
Famous image films and television can show foreign culture in an all-round and multi-angle way. For example, a series of emotional pictures such as scenery, clothing, geography, customs, etiquette, habits, and behaviors. Students can learn to accept in a short period of time, replacing untouchable "imaginary objects" with perceptible scene events.
The esoteric concepts of "individualism", "heroism", "honor", "love", and "rationality" that are difficult to fully describe in teaching can be fully transmitted through some films and television. For example, the movie "Troy" shows the tragic consciousness of Greek heroes; "Braveheart" shows the essence of freedom and heroism; "Romeo and Juliet" performs the love of eternity.
Some of the pictorial works also show Western customs and beliefs. When talking about gothic style, movies such as "Guillotine Valley" and "Zombie Bride" can be played, and the eerie atmosphere and quirky and mysterious dialogue make students immersed in the scene. The firm religious beliefs in "The Prince of Egypt"; the Victorian fashion in "Jane Eyre"; the court life in "Spring Dreams in Paris"; and the gentlemanly demeanor in "The Pianist of the Sea" can all show the cultural characteristics of Western civilization from one side. The expressive techniques in films such as "The Seven Seals" "abandon the 'linear narrative structure' of conventional films, and make extensive use of stream-of-consciousness techniques to present different levels of consciousness such as dreams, illusions, free associations, and memories." ”
Such film and television students can understand the styles of the stream of consciousness, the new novel genre and the absurd. At the same time, the origin of knowledge such as clothing, architecture, etiquette, music, and daily communication in the film can be subtly subtle. This edutainment approach is perfectly reflected in the film.
"Image fast food" can also improve aesthetic appreciation. Film and television is "the marriage of science and technology, communication and artistry, and the interpenetration of popular culture, education and entertainment; in the process of dissemination, new ideas and new knowledge are constantly transmitted to enhance people's cultural literacy and aesthetic taste." ”
In this way, passive knowledge reception is transformed into active emotion and understanding, thus exposing students to Western culture in all aspects. Compared with the traditional compulsory indoctrination, the psychological affinity of film and television culture can penetrate more into the ideology and lifestyle of college students.
Excellent film and television culture can complete the shaping of people in content and spirit; guide people to pursue wisdom, internalize moral beliefs, establish ideals in life, and cherish limited life. The strength and self-reliance of the heroine in "Jane Eyre" highlights feminist ideas; "Tolstoy" allows us to understand a noble soul, a great heart.
With the diversification of society, simple knowledge structures cannot adapt to today's teaching needs. Expanding the scope of knowledge and making the trainees more and more knowledgeable, "generalists" is a prominent sign of our implementation of quality education.
Famous film and television are "participatory responses" and the most effective and abundant mass communication medium. Benjamin had worriedly proclaimed the age of mechanical reproduction, the "age of the second medium." The traditional text art form may quietly disappear, and the "charm" of original works will evaporate, and will gradually be replaced by the emerging electronic media and video art.
Mark Twain once joked: "The so-called masterpiece is something that everyone thinks should be read but has not read." This contempt for reading is particularly evident in foreign literature courses. Faced with the impact of the tide of the times, our life and learning will inevitably be involved in the "image era".
Therefore, in the teaching of foreign literature, "image fast food" must and must exist. It has advantages and disadvantages, the key is to see how to use and control, as a meal it is crucial, can stimulate students' good "appetite" and desire to conquer, can be more intuitive, more emotional presentation of foreign information. But it must not be forgotten that text reading and appreciation are the "meals" in teaching.
The necessity of "textual meals" as the main means of teaching
Foreign literature courses are the basic courses of Chinese language and literature majors in colleges and universities, and play a vital role in broadening students' horizons and improving their ability to appreciate texts. Therefore, foreign literature teachers in colleges and universities cannot ignore the cultivation of students' reading ability and independent research in order to pursue fast and direct information transmission.
Foreign literary classics are a treasure trove of the human spirit. By supplementing students with a "text meal", students' ability to be active, imaginative, creative, etc., can be strengthened, which is irreplaceable in any other way.
The narration, dialogue, and literary works used in "Image Fast Food" highlight colloquialism and contextualization, and are not as beautiful as the language in literature. In order to save time and make the conflict clearer, film and television works should cut out plots and characters. Life perceptions, psychological changes, etc. are also difficult to express digitally. The fixed image and performance mode of the director and actor will also form a "role hegemony", which makes the student's brain inert and weakens the student's imagination.
In addition, when famous works are adapted into films and television, they will be reinterpreted, or even subversively recreated. "A thousand people have a thousand Hamlets", and the director and actors will form ideas and expressions different from the author's, thus modifying the image in the text. Like the prominent depiction of love in the movie "Troy"; the Russian cultural background in "The Red and the Black" and the expressionist factor in "Faust", etc., they are far away from the original work, making students misinterpret and misread.
Therefore, the use of famous films and television is only an auxiliary means for foreign literature courses and cannot be completely relied upon. Only by adhering to the teaching method based on reading appreciation can students savor the beauty of words and form unique feelings and aesthetics.
The biggest regret of "image fast food" is that the rapid replacement of light and shadow causes the extreme flickering of the eyeballs and brains, but ignores the long-term retention of the beauty of art, the beauty of humanities and the shock of the soul. "Education is not simply cultural transmission, education is education, precisely because it is the awakening of personality and soul, which is the core of education."
If the teaching method is completely replaced by "image fast food", and students are only satisfied with the stimulation of visual images and the psychology of exotic hunting, but ignore the human beauty and moral charm of excellent writers' works, then education will lose its fundamental significance.
Therefore, in teaching, teachers must use the text as a carrier to highlight the spiritual pursuit and personality charm of the masters. Molière gave up a superior life in pursuit of the ideal of life, even if he went to prison, he did not regret it for life; Dickens persevered in his predicament and paid lifelong attention to the fate of small people with a broad mind; Tolstoy gave up his family property and actively explored ways out and happiness for the Russian people, etc. These deep meanings cannot be given by "image fast food".
♥ The editor has a word
It cannot be denied that in today's environment of the arrival of the "era of reading pictures", foreign literature teaching must change the traditional teaching mode and appropriately "add meals" to students, otherwise students will lose the valuable opportunity to effectively learn foreign literary knowledge and improve literary literacy and writing ability. However, teaching pays more attention to the growth of knowledge, the cultivation of ability and the stimulation of perfect humanity and morality, and the realization of this goal is inseparable from the independent reading appreciation practice of students, the nourishment of "text meal" and the guidance and inspiration of teachers' classroom language.
In the era of "fast food", people's lives can become fast, convenient, fashionable and exquisite, but teaching cannot be slackened and paralyzed. When the teaching of foreign literature encounters the conflict between "image fast food" and "text meal", teachers and students should correct the position between the two in the attitude of teaching each other and promoting each other, and actively face the challenge.
"Image fast food" can only be a teaching meal, adding "seasoning" to teaching in a timely manner, enriching the classroom content, supplementing the imagination space where language and writing cannot be deeply explored, it cannot be noisy, replacing the traditional explanation, reading and text appreciation, which seems outdated but indispensable and important" "text meal".