La società vittoriana e la letteratura inglese, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica La società vittoriana e la letteratura inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! BACKGROUND The Victorian age, a period defined by the nearly 64-year reign of queen Victoria. Progress in science, industry and technology as well as a rapid expansion of the British empire. EARLY VICTORIAN AGE: A CHANGING SOCIETY è QUEEN VICTORIA 1837-1901 Victoria ascended to the throne at the age of 18, she was inexperienced at first but found support in her prime minister Lord Melbourne o 1840 she married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Victoria was devoted to her husband, and she had nine children Victoria restored the reputation of the monarchy and shaped a new role for the royal family è SOCIAL REFORM With the industrial revolution Britain was becoming the workshop of the world thanks to supply of cheap coal and iron and growing prosperity and colonial markets o 1851 the urban population exceeded the rural for the first time in British History The nation’s growing prosperity with increasing urban poverty and social injustice o 1832 The reform bill had given the vote to the male middle class but done little for the working class o 1839 chartist movement presented parliament with a six point petition The People’s Charter demanding universal male suffrage and parliamentary reform o 1867 Reform Bill that extending suffrage to workers in towns o 1884 another Reform Bill that gave votes to agricultural workers and miners o 1833 first Factory Act that reduced working hours o 1870 Education Act made elementary education compulsory THE AGE OF OPTIMIST AND CONTRAST è INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE 1863 o Robert Trevithick’s first steam locomotive of 1803 was followed by George Stephenson’s steam locomotive for a coal mine o The first permanent rail passengers service was opened in 1829 of the railway age The railway was both a consequence and a cause of industrial prosperity o 1863 The transformation of London transport began with the metropolitan railway o 1837 invention of telegraph o 1840 introduction of the penny postal system è TWO NATION: THE RICH AND THE POOR The Victorian Era was a optimist age – peace, prosperity etc The growing middle class reaped the benefits of this growth and displayed their status with displays of religious observance and strict morality The poorer working class paid the price of this development. They unsanitary conditions and did not have access to clean water and healty food Victorian workhouses were separated from their families, forced to perform long hours of hard manual work with no pay, no freedom and no dignity è THE NEW POLITICAL PARTIES During the Victorian age the Whigs evolved into the Liberal Party -> major representative Gladstone the Tories became the Conservative Party-> major representative Disraeli o Gladstone was prime minister four times He attempted to give Ireland home rule o Disraeli had Victoria crowned Empress of India He was responsible for the second reform Bill o 1892 was formed the independent Labour party that preparing the way for the Modern British Labour Party founded in 1900 The optimism and confidence of the first 40 yeas of Victoria’s reign were confirmed by economic, political and military success of Britain and empire The Victorians er convinced of they superiority and of their moral duty to export their language, culture and traditions to the uncivilized lands -> often failing to realise the exploiting peoples, their lands and resources • Imperialismo non è positive ma una forma di sfruttamento è THE YEARS OF OPTIMIST The Victorian were aware of the social costs of industrialization Proud of their achievements in the fields of science and technology è WEALTH AND POVERTY The upper and middle class enjoyed this century as a period of wealth Wealth and poverty were considered indicators of moral value The wealthier classes sought to distinguish themselves by conforming to rigid standards of respectability, virtue, religion etc è EVANGELICALISM AND UTILITARIANISM 1. Victorian society was permeated by this religious movement from methodism The evangelicals were committed to social reform and welfare William Wilberforce the great evangelicals – abolisce schiavitù 2. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism Supported the idea that useful is good and all political and social actions should be directed to the greatest good – pensano al bene comune - Underline social injustices - Optimist attitude - Teacher entertainesr - Education funetion - Values of the middle class - Massage • Late Victorian age: - Underline the hypocrisy and ambiguity - Pessimistic attitude - Art for art’s sake Fine 800 si vede il distacco dell’intellettuale dal resto della middle class Perché non riesce più a comunicare dato che per la società stanno andando bene le cose invece l’intellettuale è l’unico che riesce a vedere l’ipocrisia della società Non è più importante la moralità delle opere d’arte From a stylistic and thematic point of view, Victorian novels are characterized by a series of common features: - Tend to satisfy the needs of their readers -> instructed, entertainment - Have a clear moral aim - Represent human conditions in a realistic way - Plots are adventurous and rich in characters - Stories are usually told by 3rd person omniscient narrator - Are structured in three volumes è EARLY VICTORIAN NOVELISTS The first phase included the works of writers who used prose to represent the society in which they lived in a realistic way. The authors belonging to this phase were conscious of the contradictions that characterized Victorian moral values and society This ambivalent attitude is exactly what stands at the core of the Victorian compromise is Charles Dickens that who explored and refined all the types of prose writing in his long career An authentic literary miracle is the one represented by the bronthe sisters, three women who do not fall easily into any of the traditional classification of Victorian literature Most talented were Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre These two novels represented an alternative to the triumph of mainstream Victorian novels o Focusing on social issues è LATE VICTORIAN NOVELISTS In the second phase -> criticism became stronger and realism more evident The writers belonging to this phase rejected the Victorian compromise and used prose to denounce the evils of society without any reticence Writers rejected about early Victorian literature was mainly its optimistic view of man and progress - Representation of the divided self and of the duality of human nature this is the case of Stevenson - The adoption of a pessimistic point of view, as shown by Thomas hardy - Aestheticism as demonstrated by Oscar Wilde in the picture of Dorian Gray -> considered the manifesto of English Aestheticism, an artistic and literary movement defending the principle that art needs no kind of external or moral justification - The revaluation of nonsense this is shown by Lewis Carroll, whose Alice’s adventures in wonderland is not only one of the classic of world children’s literature but also a piece of pure nonsense demystifying the strict moral and behavioral rules of the Victorian age; - The representation of the complex relationship between Britain and its colonies, as shown by the colonial novels written by the Bombay-born English author Rudyard Kipling.