本教材是文学导论规划教材，较系统地介绍了文学的基本概念、文学关注的主要内容；较详细地介绍了诗歌、小说、戏剧等主要文学体裁的形式与内容；文学体裁的介绍与文学欣赏紧密结合，学生先赏析作品，再进行理论升华。

Unit One: Introduction

 What Is Literature?

 Why Should We Study Literature?

Unit Two: Fiction (1)

 What Is Fiction?

 Elements of Fiction

Unit Three: Fiction (2)

 Thomas Hardy: The Return of the Native

Unit Four: Fiction (3)

 Charles Dickens: Hard Times

Unit Five: Fiction (4)

 Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown

Unit Six: Fiction (5)

 William Faulkner: A Rose for Emily

Unit Seven: Poetry (1)

 What Is Poetry?

 The Origin and Development of Poetry

 Elements of Poetry

Unit Eight: Poetry (2)

 William Shakespeare: Sonnet 18

 Ben Jonson: TO Celia

Unit Nine: Poetry (3)

 John Keats: On the Grasshopper and the Cricket; To Autumn

 Edgar Allan Poe: Annabel Lee

Unit Ten: Poetry (4)

 Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken; Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening

 Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ode to the West Wind

Unit Eleven: Drama (1)

 What Is Drama?

 The Origin and Development of Drama

 Elements of Drama

Unit Twelve: Drama (2)

 William Shakespeare: Hamlet

Unit Thirteen: Drama (3)

 Ben Jonson: Volpone the Fox

Unit Fourteen: Drama (4)

 Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman

Unit Fifteen: Drama (5)

 Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie

Unit Sixteen: Critical Approaches to Literature