So what I think we get from these two little readings today is a sense of where literature finds itself at a kind of crossroads.

所以我们今天要从这两篇短文里认识到,文学在十字路口所处的位置。

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

Now those of you who have taken English 125 or any course that has asked you to read Spenser will recognize almost instantly I think, I hope, Milton's literary depth.

你们中选修英文125或者其他让你们读斯潘塞的课程,的人应该能立刻认识到，弥尔顿的文学功底很深。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

Literary theory just takes those for granted as part of the sense experience, as one might say, of any reader and prefers, rather, to dwell on questions of description, analysis and speculation, as I've said.

文学理论把这些,当作是读者感性认识的一部分，它更喜欢讨论关于描述，分析和猜测的问题，正如我之前，说过的那样。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

It's kind of unsettling because we like to know what things are, but at the same time it's not really a big problem because as long as we know about the fact that a certain notion of literature exists in certain communities we can begin to do very interesting work precisely with that idea.

可能会有点让人不安，因为我们总想知道事物的定义，但知不知道,实际上问题不大,只要我们知道在特定群体中对文学有特定的认识,我们就能在这种认识上做文章。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选