Discourse Analysis Teaching Method Applied in Literature Course—By taking The Snow of Kilimanjaro as a case study

Discourse Analysis Teaching Method Applied in Literature Course—By taking The Snow of Kilimanjaro as a case study

Ma Rui

Northwest Polytechnic University School of Humanities and Social Science 710048

Abstract: Using discourse analysis method to teach literature course is an effective way for promoting students language proficiency. Discourse analysis method stresses on understanding literature works from a discourse perspective. The following passage use Ernest Hemingway’s short novel The Snow of Kilimanjaro as an example to show how this method could be used in practice. After text analysis of this short novel, the author makes up a teaching plan which focuses on discourse structure and context.

Key words: Discourse Analysis Context Structure

Nowadays, more and more scholars have started to pay attention to the British and American literature courses opened for English majors in universities. Because as English majors, one of the most effective way of learning foreign language is to read the original works written by native speakers. Although comparably speaking the students majoring in English has a good language foundation, still they could come across many obstacles when they read literature works. So how to design their course and use scientific method to help students understand these literature works is of great importance.

The following passage will take Ernest Hemingway’s short novel The Snow of Kilimanjaro as an example to show how to teach English course by using discourse analysis method in literature courses.

1.Problems existed

Traditionally, English teaching in college still focus on the grammar like what the teachers do in middles schools. So the teaching material is often considered as the resources for grammar learning. Therefore, they focus on words explanation, sentence analysis, interpretation of the grammar rules and the linguistic phenomena, which separates the intrinsic link between sentences and paragraphs, ignoring the integrity of the article. Because the lack of text analysis, many students mistakenly believe that English learning is just a process of vocabulary and grammar learning. English course is just a review aims at consolidating the knowledge of vocabulary or grammar. The students will improve in vocabulary and grammar knowledge, however, many students’ oral and written communication skills are still at a low level.

2.Introduction of discourse analysis method

Hu Zhuanglin (1994), a professor from Peking University, once defined discourse as “ Langue that is not confined by any sentence patterns or grammar under certain context and has complete meaning.” M.A.K.Halliday gives a definition to discourse in his famous book Cohesion in English, “any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole”.（Halliday and Hasan, 1976）teaching literature course from a discourse perspective means taking the passage as a whole to grasp its meaning.

Generally speaking, there are two ways for human beings to process the information. They are the top-down process and bottom-up process. By using the first method, we could soon be familiar with the background of the passage and also the author's intention. And this overall understanding of the whole passage could help the students further understand the structure of the article or a specific sentence. The latter method goes the other way, i.e. try to understand the words and sentences first so as to clear grammatical obstacles and then goes to the passage level. Using discourse analysis teaching method to teach English in class is a very useful way in real teaching practice. It stresses on helping the students to understand the main idea from a discourse perspective. By analyzing the relationship between different chapters and their role in illustrating the theme, the students could improve their comprehension ability and it can also help the students further understand the practical use of language. So for the English majors who have studied English for more than six years this method is not suitable. Discourse analysis teaching follows this top down method should be advocated.

3.Theoretical basis for discourse analysis method

M.A.K. Halliday, the founder of the systemic functional linguistics, emphasizes on using specific context to discuss the nature of language and ask people to pay attention to the meaning and function of a discourse.In Halliday’s early writings, the word “context” is used in two ways. Firstly, it is used to replace “semantics”. For example, in the paper “Categories of the Theory of Grammar” published in 1961 and another book “Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching”. At that time, the word “text” is used to describe the relation between characteristics of language forms and its outside scenarios. The second use of “context” exists in the concept of “context of situation”. Halliday connect the syntax with semantics and thus make it become a part of linguistics theory. This “context of situation” has a close relationship with register,

which means “a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting”. (Halliday, 1978)

4.Ernest Hemingway’s The Snow of Kilimanjaro

4.1 Brief review

The Snow of Kilimanjaro is a short fiction which is based on the writer Ernest Hemingway’s knowledge and experience of hunting in Africa. Harry is a writer who led a very decadent and dissolute life. He married a widow who worshiped him. They travelled to Africa. One day when they were hunting their truck broke down and the bearing was burned out by the oil. Then Harry’s leg was hurt and he forgot to put iodine on it. So he developed gangrene. While waiting for the plane to save him, he recalled his whole life. He died in the end. The story focuses on the mental activity of Harry. The plot of the story is simple, but the way of telling this story is where Ernest Hemingway distinguishes himself from other writers. Just like the Secretary of Swedish Academy Anders Oesterling says: “When we talked about Ernest Hemingway’s works, we should never neglect his narrative techniques.” (Yang Hengda, 1999)

4.2 Characteristics of this novel

4.2.1 Shuttle between spaces

It is not difficult to find that The Snow of Kilimanjaro can be pided into several parts: the dialogues between the hero Harry and his lover, Harry’s own monologue, the memories Harry has when he is conscious and illusion he has when death is near. The whole story is made up of a series of spaces. So when we read it, we need to constantly shuttle between different spaces and then try to figure out the inner relation between different parts of the story.

4.2.2 The dramatic effect

In The Snow of Kilimanjaro, there’s a lot of descriptions concerning Harry metal activity, including his childhood, the war, the self-hypnotize， his visit to European countries, his dissipation and repeated self-examination of his decadent life. “But he would never do it, because each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised, dulled his ability and softened his will to work so that, finally, he did no work at all.”(Ernest Hemingway, 17) He went to Africa to “start again”, “in some way he could work the fat off his soul the way a fighter went into the mountains to work and train in order to burn it out of his body…”(Ernest Hemingway, 17) However, he developed gangrene. “He would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well.” (Ernest Hemingway, 7) So the reality shatters his dreams and he has to face up to death. All these mental activity doesn’t follow any logical orders and the readers have to focus their attention on a lot of details. So it is like different scenes appearing on the stage. The audiences need to connect these difference pieces of the story by himself so that he could understand this play.

4.2.3 Symbolism

In this novel symbolism is one of the most important characters. The symbolic meaning of the snow can be seen as the core of the novel. Throughout the novel, snow appeared six times in Harry’s recalling and illusion which become the background of the whole story. The snow on the top of the mountain is a symbol of life. In the novel, the symbolic meaning of snow contrast with the theme of death, i.e., the eternal life will defeat death; the noble pursuit of victory is higher than earthly comforts. Immortality and eternal life is the highest state of life and also Harry’s rebirth after death.

5. Analysis of applying discourse analysis in teaching

The Snow of Kilimanjaro is quite hard to illustrate for teachers because many scenarios are depended on imagination. So try to find the context of the speaker is crucial for understand the whole passage. The context here has two meanings. On the one hand, the teachers should help the students to think about the background of this story so that the students could understand why the hero had such illusion; on the other hand, the students should try to understand specific speaking context so as to know the hidden messages between lines.

For the first context, the teachers could ask the students to do some homework before class and do the presentation in class. Taking this novel as an example, the students should know that the intention of composing this short novel is closely related to Ernest Hemingway's own life experience. On the one hand, this novel is based on his real experience in Africa; On the other hand, his experience at the war has made a great impact on his writing. Hemingway experienced two world wars, during which he not only witnessed the madness of war and barbarism, but also felt the absurdness and cruelty of the reality. Especially after the war, he deeply felt the wound left on the young man's heart who went to the frontline with a all the passion. Such life experience led him to explore the way that could help these people out of their trouble and overcomes the alienation. Thus as the representative of Lost Generation, he used his work to tell people although he felt lost sometimes, he never give up hope.

In order to better understand the context of a story, there are several methods for the teachers. One of the most effective way is called role play. In The Snow of Kilimanjaro, there were six shattered stories describing Harry’s old days. He went to Karagatch, Paris, Constantinople, west part of German etc. Therefore, the teacher could select six students to mimic his different experiences. The students should be familiar with the period he was going to play. This is very important during the role play. Because the aim of this role play is to help the readers better understand the personality of our hero and his mental activities. The teachers could ask the students to retell the story he was going to play. This could help to create a good class environment and also by retelling the students could memorize the details of the story. Then the students could have several rehearsals.

6.Conclusion

Discourse analysis includes textual analysis, structural analysis, context analysis etc. It takes the discourse as the basic unit and tries to understand the passage as a whole. Discourse analysis teaching method is to analyze the text from both the form and content. It serves as guidance for students to appreciate and understand the different choices of the structure, sentences, vocabulary, grammar etc. Hopefully the students could improve their logic thinking and independent thinking ability.

References

Beaugrande, R.D & Dressler, W. M 1981, Introduction to Text Linguistics, Longman, London

Brown, G & Yule, G., M 1983, Discourse Analysis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Campbell, K.S.Coherence, M 1995, Continuity and Cohesion: Theoretical Foundations of Document Design. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey

Widdowson, H.G., M 1978, Teaching Language as Communication, Oxford, OUP

Ernest Hemingway, Hou Ping, The Snow of Kilimanjaro and other Stories, Li Lin Press, Beijing

Huang Guowen, M 1998, Introduction to Text Analysis, Hu Nan Education Press, Chang Sha

Hu Zhuanglin, M 1994, Coherence and Cohesion in the Discourse，Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, Shanghai

J.R.Martin, M 2004, English Text System and Structure, Peking University Press, Beijing

M.A.K. Halliday, Ruqaiya Hasan, M 1976, Cohesion in English, Longman Press, London

M.A.K M.A.K. Halliday, Ruqaiya Hasan, M 2007, Cohesion in English, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing

M.A.K Halliday, M 1978, Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Meaning. Arnold Press, London

Nunan D., J 2001, The Learner- Centered Curriculum: A Study in Second Language Teaching. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, Shanghai

Yang Hengda, M 1999, Hemingway—God Created a Tough Guy, Chang Chun Press, Chang Chun

本项目受到西安工程大学哲学社会科学研究项目资助（项目编号：2018ZXSK38）

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