Render the following text into English.

Антония Сьюзен Байат – признанный классик современной английской литературы. Она родилась в1936 году в Шеффилде. Ее настоящая фамилия Дреббл. Она закончила Кембриджский университет. Ее диссертация была посвящена английской литературе 17-го века. Ее первая опубликованная работа называлась «Вордсворт, Кольридж и их эпоха».

В 2001 году опубликован роман «История жизни биографа» -своеобразный сплав интеллектуальной игры и детектива, а также сборник эссе «Об историях настоящих и выдуманных». Произведения сразу разошлись по Европе миллионными тиражами. 

Вот отрывок из интервью, которое писательница дала в день своего 70-летнего юбилея.

- Нуждается ли информационное общество в искусстве? Удастся ли информационной глобализационной сети «убить» книгу?

- Это очень интересный вопрос. Я пока работаю над рецензией на книгу Виктора Пелевина «Шлем ужаса», в котором интерпретируется миф о Тезее и Минотавре и проведена параллель между современной интернет реальностью и чатами. Пелевин начинает книгу с цитаты Ф. Скотта Фицджеральда о том, что мы все время идем в прошлое. Пелевин считает, что наше сознание компьютеризировано, а мифы - это его встроенные автоматические программы. Чтение такого произведения отличается от чтения обычной книги, которую можно читать в кровати, перечитывать, перелистывать страницы. Процесс чтения и восприятия изменился из-за инфомационных технологий. Мне кажется, молодежь много времени уделяет именно компьютерам, а не книгам, она боьльше общается посредством мобильных телефонов, нежели вживую. Но каждый раз, когда я путешествую по Европе, я встречаю много страстных читателей всех возрастных категорий.

- Нужна ли будет литература в 3000 году?

- Я не знаю, что будет в 3000 году. Об этом даже догадаться невозможно. Я не могу представить человеческое существование без искусства, но это уже могут быть и не книги.

- Госпожа Байат, ваши романы «Собственность» и «Тень солнца» хорошо известны европейскому читателю. В чем их успех?

- Я не могу ответить на этот вопрос. Мой роман «Собственность» - это слияние двух моделей: современной постмодерной литературы и поэзии Викторианской эпохи. Я использовала элементы детективного жанра и романтических исторических романов. После публикации роман имел огромный успех. И свидетельство тому – Букеровская премия. Его перевели на 26 языков. Сейчас тот роман изучают в университетах всего мира. Мне известно о множестве диссертаций в Голландии, Японии, Дании и Италии на тему викторианских мотивов.

Write an essay on the topic “The Future of Books”.   

WATCHING AND LISTENING

1. Listen to the interview of Terry Pratchett [61].

Answer the questions about the interview.

1) On what occasion was the interview given?

2) When was the “project” of Discoworld started?

3) What was the first motivation to start the work?

4) Why did Terry Pratchett call his writing the longest serial?

5) What kind of place is Discoworld?

6) Who are the inhabitants?

7) What famous book did Terry Pratchett compare his work with?

8) What are the main problems of the population?

9) Who are the main characters?

10) What phenomena became fantasies in his books?

3. Watch the video “Nobel Prize Winners” [62]

Match the names of Nobel Prize winners with the years when they got the prize.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Bob Dylan, Alice Munro, Kazuro Ishiguro, Toni Morrison, John Steinbeck

1957, 1962, 1982, 1993, 2013, 2016, 2017

5. Answer the questions:

1) What’s the difference between the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize?

2) Why is a literary prize important for the authors?

3) Do you agree with the speaker that all prizes are political and biased in some way?

4) What prompted the speaker the choice of the authors?

5) What objections are there against Bob Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize?

6) What genre did Alice Munro succeed in?

7) What does the speaker appreciate most of all in writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

8) What is the speaker’s favorite book written by E. Hemingway?

9) What was the major contribution of A. Camus as it was defined by the Nobel Prize committee?

10) Why was the speaker personally offended by the criticism against John Steinbeck?

 

SPEAKING

Dramatize an extract from the play of Samuel Becket (1906-1989) Waiting for Godot (1954). While reading think over the following questions:

 

- Is there any difference between the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon? Notice how they behave to the boy.

- Look at the stage remarks/stage directions. Can you suggest the gestures they might use? Act them out so that the others can guess their meaning.

Pozzo and Lucky are just going to leave the stage.

BOY: (off stage) Mister!

Estragon halts. Both look towards the voice.

ESTRAGON: Off we go again.

VLADIMIR: Approach, my child.

Enter boy, timidly.

BOY: Mister Albert…?

VLADIMIR: Yes.

ESTRAGON: What do you want?

VLADIMIR: Approach.

The boy does not move.

ESTRAGON: (forcibly) Approach when you’re told, can’t you?

The boy advances timidly.

VLADIMIR: What is it?

BOY: Mr Godot…

VLADIMIR: Obviously… Approach.

ESTRAGON: (violently) Will you approach? What kept you so late?

VLADIMIR: Have you a message from Godot?

BOY: Yes, sir

VLADIMIR: Well, what is it?

ESTRAGON: What kept you so late?

VLADIMIR: (to ESTRAGON): Let him alone.

ESTRAGON: You let him alone. (Advancing to the boy) Do you know what time it is?

BOY: It’s not my fault, sir.

ESTRAGON: And whose is it? Mine?

BOY: I was afraid, sir.

ESTRAGON: Afraid of what? Of us? Answer me!

VLADIMIR: I know what it is, he was afraid of others.

ESTRAGON: How long have you been here?

BOY: A good while, sir.

VLADIMIR: You were afraid of the whip.

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR: The roars.

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR: The two big men.

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR: Do you know them?

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR: Are you a native of these parts? Do you belong to these parts?

BOY: Yes, sir.

ESTRAGON: That’s a pack of lies. (Shaking the arm of the boy)Tell us the truth!

BOY:  But it is the truth, sir.

VLADIMIR: Will you let him alone. What’s the matter with you?

ESTRAGON: I’m unhappy.

VLADIMIR: Since when?

ESTRAGON: I’d forgotten.

VLADIMIR: Extraordinary the tricks that memory plays! (to the boy) Well?

BOY: Mr Godot…

VLADIMIR: I‘ve seen you before, haven’t I?

BOY: I don’t know, sir.

VLADIMIR:   You don’t know me?

BOY: No, sir.

VLADIMIR:  It wasn’t you came yesterday?

BOY: No, sir.

VLADIMIR:  It’s your first time?

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR: Words, words. Speak.

BOY: Mr Godot told me to tell you he won’t come this evening but surely tomorrow.

VLADIMIR:    Is that all?

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR: You work for Mr Godot.

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR:  What do you do?

BOY: I mind the goats, sir.

VLADIMIR:  Is he good to you?

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR:  He doesn’t beat you?

BOY: No, sir. Not me.

VLADIMIR:  Whom does he beat?

BOY: My brother, sir.

VLADIMIR:  Ah, you have a brother.

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR:  And what does he do?

BOY: He minds the sheep, sir.

VLADIMIR:   And why doesn’t he beat you?

BOY: I don’t know, sir.

VLADIMIR:  He must be fond of you.

BOY: I don’t know, sir

VLADIMIR:  You’re not unhappy? (the boy hesitates) Do you hear me?

BOY: Yes, sir.

VLADIMIR:   Well?

BOY: I don’t know, sir.

VLADIMIR: You don’t know if you’re unhappy or not?

BOY: No, sir.

VLADIMIR:  You’re as bad as myself. Where do you sleep?

BOY: In the loft, sir.

VLADIMIR:   With your brother?

BOY: Yes, sir.

 

1. Imagine you want to perform “Waiting for Godot”. What would you do with the stage? What kind of setting would you choose? Would you have any stage props? Discuss.

2. How do you want the characters to be dressed?

3. Observe carefully how Vladimir and Estragon communicate, how they ask and answer.

4. Do you agree that the ultimate question might be: What is the sense of it all?

5. How do you feel towards Vladimir and Estragon?

6. Samuel Beckett (awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969), like many dramatists of the period, suggests that there are no reasons for doing anything, the truth is relative (if there is any) and ultimately everything is relative. The universal truths of the past no longer exist. This is “the theatre of absurd”. “Waiting or Godot” was premiered in Paris. Is this relevant information? What does it signify?

7. Can you think of similar plays?

8. Make presentations about the playwrights you studied. 

 

Additional texts

1.  The biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald characterized the atmosphere of the 1920s – the time he depicted so well in histories – as the time when “America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history”. He himself was both a prototype and observer of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Knowing both regions and their style of life, he could write about the Midwestern values of his childhood and the glamour and fast life of the East. He was as well known for his frivolous, scandalous and careless life as for his literary work. He was born in in1896, in St. Paul in Minnesota into a middle-class family, was sent to study at an Eastern prep-school, and later to Princeton University. He was intelligent, good-looking and charming. After two year he left university and joined the army. At this time he was already determined to become a writer. Hemet Zelda, his future wife and the model for the heroine of many of his future stories. His first novel, “This Side of Paradise”, about his years in Princeton was published in 1923 and immediately made him famous. To make enough money to cover the expenses for frequent traveling to Europe and wild parties he supplied various magazines with his short stories – he wrote about 160 in all. Apart from these, he wrote his ”The Great Gatsby” in 1925 and “Tender is the Night” in 1925. In the 1930s, his wife’s mental illness and his own ill health became very serious. They did not have enough energy and money to keep up their lifestyle they were accustomed to. Fitzgerald went to Hollywood, hoping he would make money by writing film scripts. Commercially unsuccessful, ill and destroyed by alcohol, he died in 1940. His last unfinished novel, “The Last Tycoon”, was published posthumously in 1941.

Glossary:

Gaudiest – the most brightly colored, lacking taste

Spree – intensive short period of time for some activity

 

2. ”Lucky Jim” (1954) by Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)[63]

As Welch again seemed becalmed, even slowing further in his walk, Dixon relaxed at his side. He’s found his professor standing, surprisingly enough, in front of the Recent Additions shelf in the College Library, and they were now moving diagonally across a small lawn towards the front of the main building of the College. To look at, but not only to look at, they resembled some kind of variety act: Welch tall and weedy with limp whitening hair, Dixon on short side, fair and round-faced, with an unusual breadth of shoulder that has never been accompanied by any special physical strength or skill. Despite this over-evident contrast between them, Dixon realized that their progress, deliberate and to all appearances thoughtful, must seem rather donnish tom passing students. He and Welch might well be talking about history, and in the way history might be talked about in Oxford or Cambridge quadrangles. At moments like this Dixon came near to wishing that they really were. He held on to this thought until animation abruptly gathered again and burst in the older man, so that he began speaking almost in a shout, with tremolo imparted by unshared laughter:

“There was the most marvelous mix-up in the piece they did just before the interval. The young fellow playing the viola had the misfortune to turn over two pages at once, and the resulting confusion … my word…”

Quickly deciding on his own word, Dixon said it to himself and then tried to flail his features into some sort of response to humour.

Mentally, however, he was making a different face and promising himself he’d make it actually when next alone. He’d draw his lower lip in under his top teeth and by degrees retract his chin as far as possible, all this while dilating his eyes and nostrils. By these means he would, he was confident, cause a deep dangerous flush to suffuse his face.

Welch was talking yet again about his concert. How had he become Professor of history, even at a place like this? By published work? No. By extra good teaching? No in italics. Then how? As usual. Dixon shelved this question, telling himself that what mattered was that this man had decisive power over his future, at any rate until the next four or five weeks were up. Until then he must try to make Welch like him, and one way of doing that was, he supposed, to be present and conscious while Welch talked about concerts. But did Welch notice who else was there while he talked, and if he noticed did he remember, and if he remembered would it affect such thoughts as he had already?

Glossary:

weedy – with a thin weak body

donnish - like someone who is concerned with academic rather than practical matters

quadrangles – square enclosed yards at universities

imparted - interrupted

flail - force

dilating - widening

flush – a blush

to suffuse - to turn red all over

 

3. George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)

British playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw produced more than fifty plays and three volumes of music and drama criticism. Many critics consider him the greatest English dramatist since William Shakespeare (1564–1616).

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland. Shaw was tutored in classics by an uncle, and when he was ten years old, he entered the Wesleyan Connexional School in Dublin. Shaw hated school but loved reading and writing. He also learned a great deal about music and art from his mother, a music teacher and singer.

In 1876 he joined his mother and two sisters in London, where they ran a music school. At the age of sixteen Shaw had started writing criticism and reviews for Irish newspapers and magazines; in four years only one piece was accepted. 

Between 1876 and 1885 Shaw wrote five novels. The first, remained unpublished for fifty years, and the other four appeared in various magazines. 

In 1879 Shaw had joined a socialist discussion group, and he joined the socialist Fabian Society in 1884. His book The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism, published in 1928, remains a major volume of socialist thought.

Between 1888 and 1894 Shaw wrote for newspapers and magazines as a music critic. He married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow socialist, in 1898. She died in 1943.

Widowers' Houses, Shaw's first play, was produced in 1892. He called this and his other early plays as "unpleasant." The productions at the Royal Court Theater in London of the works of Shaw between 1904 and 1907 increased Shaw's popularity; eleven of his plays received 701 performances.

Shaw's plays explored such topics as marriage, parenthood, and education, the evils of capitalist society.. 

Shaw was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize for literature. He continued writing drama until 1947, when he was ninety-one. His most famous play is “Pygmalion”.

[1] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Britain/History/Early.htm

[2] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://www.caerleon.net/history/arthur/page3.htm

[3] Текст переработан, оригинал взят с сайта https://profakty.ru/zagadochnye-istorii/korol-artur-i-rycari-kruglogo-stola-2/

[4] Аудио адаптировано, взято с сайта: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc

[5] Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBsY88Lir-A

[6] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Britain/History/Middle.html

[7] Текст адаптирован, взят с сайта https://www.bsu.by/Cache/pdf/328763.pdf

[8] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://www.biography.com/writer/geoffrey-chaucer

[9] Текст адаптирован, оригинал http://religionip.ru/europa-w/britain/city.html

[10] Видеоматериал взят с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owf5Uq4oFps

[11] Материал адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxqAwT5IpL8

[12] Текст адаптирован, исходная версия взята с сайта: https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/renaissance

[13] Текст адаптирован, исходная версия взята с сайта: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Marlowe

[14] Текст взят с сайта https://www.thoughtco.com/top-renaissance-writers-4156665

[15][15] Аудио адаптировано, взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w95Zmb3nB80

[16] Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_cTCdkCAcc

[17] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://brewminate.com/feudalism-the-social-and-economic-fabric-of-medieval-society/

[18] From The Tale of Sir Gawain by Neil Philip

[19] Текст взят с сайта https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-age-of-enlightenment/

[20] Текст адаптирован и был взят с сайта: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Daniel_Defoe

[21]Аудио взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_xVwrQi5bs

[22] Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8k_f3PFq8

[23] [23] Текст адаптирован. Исходная версия взята с сайта https://www.britannica.com/art/Romanticism

[24] Текст адаптирован. Исходная версия взята с сайта https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/what-is-romanticism

[25] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://myfilology.ru/

[26] Аудио взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn1sS9kz2ms&t=138s

[27] Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiRWBI0JTYQ

[28] Текст адаптирован и взят с сайта https://study.com/academy/lesson/characteristics-of-romanticism-in-american-literature.html

[29] Текст адаптирован и взят с сайта https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/eng372/intro.htm

[30] Аудио взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLPazL-wcwM

[31] Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okPFcJntqFA&t=1s

[32]Текст взят с сайта http://mayflowerhistory.com/voyage

[33] Текст взят с сайта https://www.livescience.com/55327-the-enlightenment.html

[34] Macmillan Literature Guide for Russia, Oxford, Macmillan Publishers, 2005. P. 39-40

[35] Текст взят с сайта https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/english-literature-19th-cent-biographies/charles-dickens

[36] Текст взят с сайта https://www.natgeokids.com/nz/discover/history/monarchy/ten-facts-about-queen-victoria/

[37]Аудио взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3UORVJEfD8

[38]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgHGYyeYLlI

The Victorian Era – an introduction

[39] Текст взят с сайта https://www.history-journal.ru/index.php?request=full&id=269

[40] Текст взят с сайта https://biography.yourdictionary.com/jane-austen

[41] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://gaskellsociety.co.uk/elizabeth-gaskell/

[42]Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/the-history-and-importance-of-womens-literature

[43] Текст взят с сайта Macmillan Literature Guide for Russia, Oxford, Macmillan Publishers, 2005. P. 76-77

[44] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://e-libra.ru/read/171566-gorodok.html

[45]Аудио взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_MHHz3RI4w

[46]Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTuZ984AsGI

[47] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта www.longwood.edu

[48] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://tonail.com/%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D1%82-jack-london-1876-1916/

[49] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-Darwinism

[50] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://www.papmambook.ru/catalog/persons/332/

[51]Аудио взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTCjHZWmgG0

[52]Видео взято с сайта https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRFix4HEPis

[53]Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/literature-1991/the-rise-of-realism-1860-1914/frontier-humor-and-realism.php

[54] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00011697/00001

[55] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят из книги MacMillanLiterature Guide, p. 114.

[56] Текст адаптирован, оригинал взят с сайта http://www.epwr.ru/quotauthor/412/

[57] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAw9NMqL9T8

[58] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovCmh4P6n9E

[59] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HtMGs9Gm5o

[60] NicholaTetlow, M.A. English Literature, University of Exeter (2009)

[61] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDF4AHZFQdw

[62] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHz6rcZJPNw&t=7s

[63] Macmillan, p. 135