Contrasting England & South Africa: Celebrating Hybridization in 'The Woodlanders' & 'DH', Dispense di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Contrasting England & South Africa: Celebrating Hybridization in 'The Woodlanders' & 'DH' e più Dispense in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! The concept of nation and national identity in British literature. The nation and national identity, literature can be seen as propaganda and an instrument of criticism. Ernest Renan → historian and philosopher who published this essay “what is a Nation?” in 1892 (at the end of the 19th century).: after the French revolution, nation was a synonym of people/race. Nation was not necessary associated to politic, with the French revolution began a new chapter and the modern idea of revolution was born. Gradually this new political idea of nation begun to spread because the French revolution spread in Europe, German philosophers started to think what the German nation meant. In Spain they started the resistance. Thanks to the France the idea of the nation spread in other countries. 19th century: bourgeoisie, industrial revolution, unification, revolution, age of empires, nationalism; countries begun to think of themselves not only as states (monarchy) but also as nations, the problem is what is a nation? A Soul a spiritual principle, something rational, a sentiment of belonging. This spiritual principle is made of two parts: one in the past → rich legacies of remembrances (the memories that we share) and one in the present → consent/agreement (the desire to live together and to continue the past in the present). The nation is the result of devotion and work, it is based on the glories of the past which reinforces the common will in the present. Second paragraph: the great achievements and results, negative events in the past are necessary to the development (common suffering is greater than happiness), in the past we suffered together, national sorrows are more significant. A nation is a feeling that unifies us, a way of remembering together (the good and the bad). Third paragraph: nation is solidarity constructed by the sentiment of sacrifice. In a nation everybody can vote to expire their desires. He saw something similar to the European union: in the future the nation of Europe will all form the European confederation instead of competing among them; this could improve the human condition → idealism (the nation contributes to peace). They started to increase competition which lead to the first world war. Glossary: nation/ nationalism, national/ patriotism, patriot/ state/ country/ identity/ community/ to share/ to form part of/ empire, imperial, imperialism, imperialistic/. 1978: Walker Connor “a nation is a nation, a state, is an ethnic group, is a….”: in the usual language very often, we use State and Nation interchangeably but they’re different. State is a geographical and political term, a quantitative category, a state has boundaries and has several kilometres. Defining the nation is much more complicated because the essence of the nation is rational, it is based on subconscious convictions. The nation is a sense, a feeling, it is not definable. This feeling is of homogeneity, sameness, everybody being one, the awareness that we all belong to the same group. He tries in the essay to illuminate this feeling. consanguinity → share the same blood. sharing the same origin in the 19th century was associated to race and soon it was transformed in racism. The word nation came from born → natio → nasci (Latin). We are a nation because we share the same culture and language, art, religion, territorial unity, the geographical elements reinforce the homogeneity. the language is not homogeneous (there are dialects), territorial unity: the boundaries are not clearly separated, they can be cross. THOMAS HARDY Drummer Hodge “They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest they refers to the soldiers who buried Hodge without Uncoffined—just as found ceremonies. His landmark is a kopje-crest That breaks the veldt around; veldt is the African dry land And foreign constellations west Each night above his mound. Young Hodge the Drummer never knew— Hodge has never travelled, he was born in Fresh from his Wessex home— Wessex. The meaning of the broad Karoo, Karoo African desert area The Bush, the dusty loam, Bush, low vegetation; loam soil which form the And why uprose to nightly view landscape Strange stars amid the gloam. Yet portion of that unknown plain Will Hodge for ever be; His homely Northern breast and brain Grow up a Southern tree, the tree grown out of his body means conjunction And strange-eyed constellations reign between the boy from the northern hemisphere and His stars eternally.” South Africa. Analysis This poem was written shortly after the outbreaks of the second Anglo Boer war in south Africa, in 1899-1901, this territory was interesting because of the mines. The bores were not a primitive people, so Britain lost many soldiers. It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic rat, As I pull the parapet’s poppy poppy is a symbol of the first world war To stick behind my ear. Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew the rat is a vector of irony Your cosmopolitan sympathies. Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between. It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, Less chanced than you for life, Bonds to the whims of murder, Sprawled in the bowels of the earth, sprawl in the ground: this image is related to the The torn fields of France. Beginning of the drummer Hodge. What do you see in our eyes At the shrieking iron and flame Hurled through still heavens? What quaver—what heart aghast? Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins poppy colour related to blood Drop, and are ever dropping; But mine in my ear is safe— Just a little white with the dust. World war the first was a traumatic event for English empire, until this point England had fought many wars, but they had been short wars fought by a limited number of soldiers in which Britain had technological superiority. England had the sense to be the largest empire and they thought the war would end very quickly. Isaac Rosenberg was a plain worker, he joined the army as a soldier, he was Jewish, so he was from a marginalized social group. The poem is written from the trenches, so from inside the war, not the outside like Brooke. The place is the one of the trenches where soldiers were in bad hygienic and psychological conditions, there’s nothing idyllic in this situation, it’s the harsh reality. The poem presents a series of striking characteristics: - Irony: it is a tragic poem but there’s a kind of ironic smile (funny rat, the rat is described as peculiar and sardonic, it has a kind of smile in his face). There are also features linked to the rat: droll, green, sardonic, he seems to smile at human beings. The rat is cosmopolitan, he goes from the English to German trenches, but this kind of cosmopolitanism is not allowed in war because they’re enemies. The rat is a vector of irony, a tragic/dark irony. The rat is smiling darkly at these men because he has a higher chance to survive than them, he knows that they all will probably die. - Violence: the poem has a familiar tone, but in some moments, it is violent in a biblical way, is somehow apocalyptic (the rat sees fire raining out in the eyes of the soldiers). - Poppy: this poem is one of the reasons why the poppy has become a symbol of the WW1, it was the only flower to grow in this line of the front. It is a symbol of beauty, fragility, its colour is associated with blood, a symbol of rebirth and regeneration, a sign of nature starting again. The poet pics a poppy up and sticks it behind his ear, this is an everyday gesture, that doesn’t belong to war but to the countryside, this action can be interpreted as a desire for normality even in this situation. The poppies are cut by the bullets, like the soldiers but the poppy in the poet’s ear is safe, so it became a symbol of the war, a symbol of attachment to life, survival, resilience, the desire to not to be overwhelmed by war. This is a poem written in action, it is a very vivid poem from the point of view of its images, there’s no idealisation at all. The glorification, the celebration is gone, the poets describe this catastrophe with new expressions, they try to present the truth as directly as possible, they try not to betray the reality. These young men are enslaved in the logic of murder. WILFRED OWEN ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH 1917 What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, — The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. DULCE ET DECORUM EST 1918 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; In 1914-1915 Ireland is still a part of the United Kingdom and the British empire. The Irish were a rebellious people. The last strong rebellion was in 1798 at the time of the French revolution (14th July 1789). A strong rebellion broke out, it was organized by a subversive secret society known as “the united Irishmen”, which made an alliance with the French but they didn’t manage to help them, so the revolution was quashed out by the English and the leaders were hanged for taking part at the rebellion. In the 19th century the Irish parliament was closed out, the Irish representatives participated in the Westminster parliament. One of the strongest Irish leaders was Thomas Parnell, he was part of the largest political party “the Irish home rule party”, they wanted to have an independent rule. Parnell was involved in a sexual scandal and was obliged to step down and leave the parliament. 1912 a small independence was given to Ireland, but in 1916 a new rebellion broke out, the Irish begun to demand more independence, the Easter rising broke out in 1916, once again unsuccessfully. This event is the symbolic beginning of the Irish war of independence. 1919 war in Ireland broke out, 1919-1921 Irish free state. This law contained an opt-out clause for the county of Ulster, if the Northern Ireland people voted for remaining in England, they could divide Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland. In the north they were protestants, while in the south they were catholic. JAMES JOYCE He was born in 1882 and died in 1941. He lived a part of his life away of Ireland. In Ireland he experienced the history of his country, when he was away, he heard indirectly about his country. He was born in a catholic family in Dublin, his father was a drifter, he changed job regularly and the entire family changed home constantly. Joyce became like him, he was instable: he went to Paris, Zurich, Trieste…he had a catholic education, he studied English, French and Italian at university. He lived in Trieste as an English teacher until WW1, he continued to write, there he finished Dubliners (1914) and he wrote Ulysses (but all came out in 1922), in Trieste he also completed “The portrait of an artist as a young man” 1916. He, at the beginning of the war, moved to Switzerland, then he moved to Paris where he stayed until his death in 1941. He had a wife Nora Barnacle, she was a simple woman without higher education, she was from Galway (western Ireland), in the countryside, that was the most traditional part of Ireland; they met on the 16th of June 1904, which is the day on which all the actions in Ulysses take place. They had a very strong relationship, because Nora represented a link to Ireland (she also spoke Gaelic). Joyce constantly wrote about Ireland, he said he was obliged to write about Dublin, because Dublin is not only Dublin, but it is any city in the world. When Joyce write about Ireland, he follows a double channel: - Ireland - Something more in general Features of Joyce’s works: - Paralysis - Authorial neutrality - Epiphany - Stream of consciousness The Dead: this is the last short stories contained in Dubliners, it was written as a separated story and then added to it, because all the themes present in Dubliners are condensed in The Dead, themes such as the epiphany and the stream of consciousness, this work can be considered as a modern work thanks to this two concepts. There is not a plot, we’re in Dublin, during the Christmas holidays, there’s snow falling, the Morkan sisters organised a party, like every year, they invited friends and family, but also acquaintances related to the music world. Among the guests there are Gabriel from Dublin and his wife Gretta from Galway. Gabriel give a speech to celebrate the event. When Gabriel and Gretta are about to leave, he notices that his wife is listening to a song “the lass of Aughrim”, a traditional Irish song. In the end Gabriel realise, while looking out of the window, that he has never known his wife. The plot here is banal, what is important is the symbolism. Central questions: - Theme of paralysis of individuals and of the nation: individual and collective paralysis, according to Joyce paralysis means immobility, it is a problem that affects Ireland and Dublin. The paralysis is also political, because London has the central power; the paralysis is also religious, spiritual, the Catholic Church influences people, the nation is emotionally blocked. All of this are translated in an atmosphere of monotony and stillness. - Neutrality: the author must disappear from his work, he must be detached, he must be ‘like the God of creation’. - Epiphany: this is a moment of instantaneous illumination, where the meaning of reality becomes clear, it is a concept elaborated by Joyce, but we can also find it in Woolf works (moment of being). - Stream of consciousness: a technique that reproduces an endless flow of ideas, sensations, feelings, emotions, memories, written without following the rules of punctuation, logic. There is no narrator in Joyce, while Woolf mixes the character’s flows of ideas with the narrator’s voice. Joyce stays out because of the principle of neutrality. The Dead is a transitional work, it has no plots, all the meaning relies on the symbolism, there is a symbolic leitmotif. The symbols: - Snow; it is present when Gabriel arrives, it become a symbol at the end of the story. It is a symbol because it means paralysis (it covers and block everything, under it everything looks the same), it also symbolizes the lack of movement of the nation. Snow: stagnation and movement, liberation from paralysis. - Music: there is music in all the story. The Morkans are music teachers, there is music played by the piano. Music is a symbol of cultural paralysis. The lass of Aughrim song is a traditional Irish song, it represents the musical heritage of Ireland, the song expresses the Ireland past and its traditions, it represents Ireland’s imprisonment in the past, but also means transformation, hear it changes Gretta who becomes a symbol in this moment. - The horse: an anecdote of a horse is narrated, this horse went around and round, it represents Ireland inability to move away from the past, it represents Ireland’s immobility. Several characters represent the possibility for a new beginning. Miss Ivors who believes in national independence. At the end Gabriel decides to go to Galway to learn Irish, in this way he is reconnected both to his wife and to Ireland WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Born in 1864, died in 1949, he lived between the Victorian and the modern periods, he wrote poetry and drama inspired by the Celtic tradition of Ireland, in 1899 he published his first book “the wondering of voicing”. Near the end of the century he met lady Gregory, a patron of art, they begun to collaborate, and they opened the Irish theatre and the Abbey theatre in Ireland, which is the home of this national traditional drama. Then his poetry become more realistic, he begun to adopt the features of modernism. 1916 Easter rising, the rebellion in Ireland. 1917 he married a woman that was interested in the subconscious and in psychology, she believed we have a connection with spirits and in the automatic writing. He was attached to the Irish national identity. In 1921 the Irish free state was created, and he became a senator of his nation, he had a political role; in 1923 he was awarded with the Nobel prize. Easter 1916 I have met them at close of day Coming with vivid faces From counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century houses. I have passed with a nod of the head Or polite meaningless words, Or have lingered awhile and said Polite meaningless words, And thought before I had done Of a mocking tale or a gibe To please a companion Around the fire at the club, Being certain that they and I But lived where motley is worn: All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. That woman's days were spent In ignorant good-will, Her nights in argument A terrible beauty is born. It is a poem about resurgence of the spirit of believing in the national identity. It is historically based. The poem is divided into four stanzas, all of them have a final refrain which is the same, or more or less the same, the third one is different, it has no final refrain. The idea of the terrible beauty that was born is contradictory, the terrible beauty is the transformation that is happening in Ireland, 1916 is the origin of this terrible beauty. Terrible because of violence, destruction…Beauty because of it’s the beginning of a journey to independence that Yates deeply wanted. First stanza: introduction to the leaders of the rebellion that he knew, he is surprised because he didn’t expect that these people were able to organise this rebellion. Second stanza: it contains short descriptions of all these figures, the first one is a woman, three other men, one of them is major John McBride husband of the woman he had loved. Third stanza: it explained how they have changed, and Yeats says that their hearts became fixed in one idea, starting the rebellion. The rest of the stanza describes the natural elements which were transforming and changed minute by minute, there is a contrast between the movements of nature which changes and the fixed stone, still, which represents the fixity of the aim of these people. Fourth stanza: concludes by saying that this transformation and the fixity of their aims have involved violence, but it hasn’t been useless. Their names will always be remembered. It is a simple poem, not obscure, his patriotism was hopeful, but it is also a poem haunted by the oxymoron of the contrast. It introduces us to many questions of Irish national identity; it gives a snapshot of the fight to achieve independence. It is also a poem of the contradictions of the process, he tells us that the new must come with destruction. Hopeful and dark poem. MODERNISM Term that describes several trends in arts during the 20th century. The modern is not the present, always beyond of what is about to come, to be modern is not only in the present, but also in the future, a modernist must change constantly tending to the future, to new art. It is divided into early modernism (1890s), high modernism (1920s) and late modernism (1940s-1950s). General features: - Anti-romanticism - Anti-Victorianism - Rediscovery of mythology - Freud’s theories - Irrationality Modernism stands for technical experimentalism. The Bloomsbury group: started in 1910 at Virginia Woolf’s house, was a very multiform group composed by a variety of intellectuals. They had no common manifesto, it was a group for discussion, they had a solid intellectual background, they reacted against the restrictions of the Victorian era. This group was about the introduction of new ideas and experimentalism in every sphere of human activity. VIRGINIA WOOLF Born in London in a very talented family. She was a gifted woman, she survived mental breakdowns when her father, sister and two brothers died. She moved to Bloomfield and she created the Bloomsbury group with other intellectual artists. She dedicated her life to writing, in 1941 she committed suicide, she was terrified by the war, her husband was Jewish. As writer she rebelled against the tradition, a modernist has to look inside: interior monologue. From 1922 she started publishing experimental novels: Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Between the Acts. She felt concerned about the women’s conditions, in particular women as writers and artists who were in a patriarchal society. Essay A room for one’s own about women’s condition. Between the Acts: it was written in 1939, she constantly rewrote it. This book in English literature has been called “the longest suicide note”. The title is theatrical, it refers to the acts that make up a play, it also refers to a phase of transition and instability, also an historical transition: 1939 WW2 was about to happen. The novel is about a play, a pageant: a mixed entertainment made up of a sequence of sketches, music. The novel is modernist, very experimental: no real plot, no chapters, no sections…it can be described as a mixture of lyric, drama and narration. It is symbolic, the prose is imagistic, it does not narrate, it suggests through its images. There is no plot, the actions take place between one evening and the evening of the following day. We are in England’s countryside, in a very old house called ‘points call’ which belongs to Oliver’s family, the house is just outside of a little village. The pageant is organised every year in the old garden of Oliver’s house, the villagers from the lower classes are the actors, the others are the audience: there’s a class distinction. This year the pageant has been written by miss Latrobe. We follow during the novel the dialogue of the characters, the preparation of the show and also the show. Handout Five blocks from the second half of the novel: the village pageant is underway. First block: the beginning of the pageant, Virginia introduces the mixed technique by reproducing parts of the play and the dialogues between members of the audience. Virginia establishes the situation: we are readers, but also spectators, we are watching the audience, who is watching the play. In this block the theme is England, its insularity, its story: there is a little girl on the stage who represents England, this girl is replaced by an older girl as the passage develops, each character presents a different period of England’s development, from origins to the Elizabethan era. In the meantime, something happens: a machine (for the theatre) begins to function in the background, it makes a noise like ‘chuff, chuff’, this symbolises the passing of time during the entire pageant. The sound of this machine represents the time of future, the time of history and its development. Second block: the pageant is interrupted; the audience walks around chatting. The theme here is that of the community, Virginia introduces a repeated sentence: “dispersed are we”, so this community is not unified, there is the theme of disunity, reinforced by using the image of the broken wave and by the word ‘stranded’ (lost, isolated). The community is not unified by the pageant, there is only one moment in which they’re unified, during the moment of being. Third block: in this block there is a contrast between the present and the past, there are references to the present (1939-1940), references to dictators like Mussolini and Stalin and the persecution of Jewish. The past corresponds to the myth of England in the 18th century, to the great commercial development. The past and the present are in contrast: the present is characterised by war, tragedy; the past represent the golden age, the glorification of the nation. Fourth block: here the characters are on stage, there is a man wearing a bobby’s costume (London policeman), he’s a figure of fun, but this policeman also embodies the Victorian age and his speech is a long list of all the things associated to Victorian England, but especially the elements of the empire, the imperial greatness of England. At this time the Victorian England was represented by a policeman, but in 19th century England was the predominant power in the world, so the policeman represents a global policeman. Fifth block: this is the end, where the director introduces the coup of theatre: impressive moment, all the actors are on stage together, they speak all at the same time, there’s no harmony, only confusion. After this all the character stop speaking and turn the object they have in their hands towards the audience, the objects are mirrors; in this way the audience suddenly go from a passive position to an active one. They all have similar reactions: some laugh, some turn away, they didn’t want to see themselves as part of the pageant. The effect she wanted to achieve is explained by a voice: miss Latrobe is trying to made the audience take responsibility to see themselves as a part of that history shown in the pageant, and that they all lives and believes in lies, in all these constructions, in all these images which belong to an idealization that has nothing to do with the present, completely detached with the terrible events in the world. Therefore, the following pages are about an accusation, Virginia accuses the audience to believe in lies, that collective identity is based on lies. The finale is open ended: there’s no real conclusion, typically modernist. She focuses on “we” because she wanted to question the way collective identity is constructed through the repetition of mythologies and idealization, that are sentimental and incorrect but they can foster in individuals a certain idea of national, greatness that can stimulate aggressive behaviours. Virginia looks at how national identity can turn into nationalist politic. The novel finally wants to ask us to look at ourselves in the mirror of reality and reach a moment of illumination to get the awareness that ours believes in these constructions is not the eternal truth, but a constructive image that has serious consequences in history. Scottish poetry HUGH MCDIARMID Scottish poet. Real name: Christopher Mary Greve, born in 1892 and died in 1978. He’s one of the authors that marked the transition between the 19th and 20th century. He started as a teacher, then became a journalist, after this he dedicated himself to literature and at the same time, he dedicated himself to political activeness. He oscillated between Scottish nationalism and communism. He was a complicated figure, an oppositional character, but there was one fixed point in his life as an intellectual: the attachment to Scottish national identity and to the cause of Scottish literature; he was a promoter of the importance of giving Scotland a precise cultural and literal identity, separated from the past and from the romantic idea of Walter Scott. From the 1920s he was one of the promoters of the movement called “Scottish renaissance”. Within the Scottish renaissance, the idea of language was particularly sponsored. He supported the idea that the Scottish literature needed to find a language that reflects its variety, he did not believe that Scottish literature should be written in standard English. He explored the variety of languages spoken in Scotland and begun to experiment with a kind of a synthetic scots that is a language which mixes all the varieties. misconceives other characters: they’re friends but they do not completely understand the other friend’s culture, Smith focuses on the intercultural conflict. There are negative features on the plot such as the racist attack on the Bangladeshi migrants in London. In the foreground there is a hybridised and multiracial England. The novel contains painful history, linked to migration, immigration in a post-colonial setting, it contains passages from colonial time, but at the same time Smith also discloses/reveals the promise of new mixture of identity, new transitional communities coming into being. The novel is set-in north-western London, a multi ethical area. It is about three families: Jamaican, Bangladeshi and Jewish. They are working class. The essence of this novel is that no one is purely English, the major characters embody a questioning of the category of identity, presented in the novel as unstable, impure. The novel is influenced by the novels of other authors belonging to black British literature. The novel is also influenced by Victorian fictions and Dickens because of the many plots and subplots. There are also many characters with many plots. The novel is complex because its structure is based on intersecting time, on different chronologies; the past is inextricably linked with the present, the importance of the time is clear from the epigraph taken from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and it says that what happened in the past is the prologue of all that’s happening now. The prehistory of the character is crucial, each character in the present is formed by his past. The novel is divided into four section, each section has the name of the character and then dates, all the dates are hugely significant. The novel plays with time, it begins with an episode that reads like an ending: it’s an ironic beginning; Archie tries to commit suicide because he’s depressed, he’s about to gas himself inside the car, but he fails. He goes to a party where he meets Clara, they fall in love. In this novel there are interracial contacts, but also conflicts and hybrid identities. The theme of fate and chance: - Archie decides to kill himself, but by chance someone sees his car and they help him, then he meets Clara. Something starts from an ending. - Also, a new child born by chance (Archie and Clara). - Throughout the novel Archie cannot decide anything without flipping a coin, he leaves the decision to fate. - Archie and Samad went to the pub, but also this is a place where people gamble for money and in a gambling place chance reign supreme. Zadie Smith invites to see a world where multiplicity predominates. The passages in the handout. Themes: multiculturalism and hybridization. First passage: here the two themes are illuminated by the image of plants, the focus is on Joyce Chalfen, who is a scientist and a botanist, it is an extra form Chalfen’s book. In this passage Smith uses the language of science to explain the advantage of cross-pollination over self-pollination. Joyce opposes the disadvantages of self-pollination (that creates weaker species) with the advantages of cross-pollination. In this way hybridization produces stronger individuals, this transformation is inevitable and unstoppable, it introduces the theme of hybridization through the metaphors of the world of plants, that is similar to human society. Second passage: it moves to another image, that of the playground, Zadie here describes a playground in northern London where children of mixed ethnic origins are playing together. She begins by saying that the century which is about to finish (20th) has been the century where people of different colour have mixed, where migrations were predominant. She describes children who have a name and surname that don’t belong to the same tradition. Inside these names there’s a story, an exodus.it is also a problematic reality: it is difficult to admit that this multiculturality is the reality (racism), some people don’t accept this hybridization. The names are symbolic: they symbolize the multicultural identity. Third passage: O’Connell pool house, a peculiar place because it is not a pool house, people don’t play billiards, it is also an Irish pub, but not Irish anymore. It is a comic moment. It contains different symbols: paintings of horses in an English style, but also fragments of some foreign eastern scripts. There’s no table to play pool. There’s an Arabic man who is preparing an English breakfast. O’Connell is not a place for strangers, it is a very peculiar place, it is a community, a place run by Arabs who hosts a great variety of individuals, it is a community where you must accept hybridization. It is the place for Archie and Samad because it reflects their mixed friendship. The man that runs this place is called Mickey (Irish nickname), his real name is Abdul, the conversation reveals that the Arabic family call all the members ‘Abdul’, but they also have a English name in order to differentiate themselves one from the other. Named are mixed to mix personal identity. Fourth passage: comedy and irony, with some serious elements, the twins have been divided, one went to Bangladesh and one remains in London (because they’re family hadn’t enough money to send both in Bangladesh and grow up as a real Muslim). The child is nostalgic about England and therefore he becomes more English than the English, while living in Bangladesh. Melati instead, begins to reject England and with his gang they begin to become Muslim fundamentalists, they have a uniform, but they dressed like a lot of English people, and they’re westernised, but they have eastern Muslim ideas, they are very ignorant. Their language is mixed: English slang, cockney and some words from their original language (bengoli), they mention Allah, they want to imitate religious fundamentalism. Smith describes this as a reaction against the exclusion/discrimination that they suffered at school from white boys. Melati with his gang go to kings’ cross station in London in order to catch the train for Yorkshire, to join a protest against the “dirty fucking book”, they don’t know what this book is, they haven’t read it, it is Rushdie’s “Satanic verses” considered to be offensive to Muslims authorities, because invents the story that certain verses on the Curran were not dictate by God to Allah but by Satan. The boys have not read the book, but they don’t have to do it because they’re not protesting for the book, but for not being considered important in the English society. The entire episode is comic because of their ignorance, but they’re also serious because it gives voice to a kind of reaction among certain groups of people at the fact that they don’t feel integrated, accepted, they’re victim of racism abuse. Fifth passage: here Zadie retells the paradox of the philosopher Zeno D’elea, migrants cannot escape from their history anymore. In Zeno’s paradox Achilles and a tortoise run a race, we have a strong and fast hero from the Iliad and a small and slow animal, Achilles gives the tortoise the chance to run first. This story means that in a circular race the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest because the pursue must first reach the point from which the pursue started, in the end the slower always holds a lead. The meaning in the novel: just like Achilles cannot overtake the tortoise so the two brothers try to move into the future away from their family’s history, but they cannot because what they do is constantly relive the past always catches up with them even when they try to abandon it. We cannot escape history; we can try to forget but we automatically fail because it is stuck to us like our own shadow. Conclusions: themes, origins, danger of integralism, mixed identity, genetics. Also, a character is a botanist and in the leitmotiv of teeth, present in the title and in some parts of the novel, teeth are symbolic to share humanity: we all have the same teeth, all are white unlike our skin. But teeth are not only a symbol of our common heritage but also a symbol of individuality, teeth are genetically unique, everyone has different teeth, they have roots like individuals who have their roots/histories. SHAKESPEARE Shakespeare’s production is divided into tragedies (Romeo and Juliet), comedies (The Merchant of Venice), romances (The Tempest) and history plays. The history plays are based on English history, this was a new genre in the Elizabethan culture, but it was a very popular one, in them we can find a conflict between two different ideas of history: on one hand there’s the medieval idea of history as dominated conditions decreed by the divine providence, by god, at the same time there’s a new humanistic view of history as magistrate vitae, pragmatic and political lesson. The history play is a genre that has no precedents in classical literature, so it is a modern type of drama that emerged in the renaissance drama. It comes out of the combination of medieval morality plays, but also the new historiography of the renaissance. Shakespeare wrote ten history plays, there are two separates ones: King John and Henry VIII, there are also two tetralogy (eight different plays divided into groups of four), they are usually considered together because they cover the period known as the war of the roses (a dynastic war that brought Henry VII to the throne, beginning of Tudor’s dynasty). The plays are not chronological, they start by the end of the war: - Richard II, Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2, Henry V; - Henry VI part 1,2,3, he became king when he was a child, he had a very long reign which was extremely disastrous; the second tetralogy ends with Richard III. England’s problem began with Richard III, the two tetralogies are a narration made up of episodes of tribulation, division, straight. This is not historically reliable, this is drama. Shakespeare modifies historical figures for dramatical purposes, Henry V was not the perfect king, Richard III was not a criminal. Richard II was a central figure for the tetralogies, because the problem starts with him. His cousin Henry IV replaced him, he was a modern king who did not believe that his power was by divine nature, he is very ambitious and this excessive ambition transformed him into a bad king, here there is the figure of Heal, the prince of Wales, who dedicates his life to pleasure, he was a rebel. Sir John Falstaff adopts him, he organises all the pleasures for prince Heal, but he also represents love for life aside from every religious restraint. However, when Henry IV dies, Heal become king and he starts his transformation: he repudiates Falstaff and become responsible, a true king obsessed with France, he wants to reconquer his rights as king not only of England, but also of France. The play “Henry V” represents him as a hero, a patriot king. Henry V: it is a major work in the development of the theme of national identity, because it is a play about forming the nation, creating the national community, but also investigating the problems. During WW2, the famous actor Laurence Olivier, shot a film on Henry V in 1944, it was conceived as a major instrument for the reinforcement of the sense of English national identity in one of coined by a sociologist, the basic idea is that a nation is not an object, something that we can measure, but is an imaginary construct, it is a socially constructive community imagined by the people who perceive to be part of it. Conclusions: we have to be careful when we use the term nation in this play, because the idea of nation is a very recent one, it developed in the 18th century with the French revolution, talking about nation in the contest of a Shakespearian play is an anachronism, however let’s use it in the sense that what we can see in Henry v are ideas in embryo that already announce the actual discourse of the nation that will emerge. The play is important because of this kind of preparation of the ground: idea which will become important. Films: Henry V on screen and on stage (1989-2019): almost every English actor in their 20s has performed Henry V on screen and on stage. - Kenneth Branagh 1989 Henry V, he is standing on the top of the white cliff of Dover (very symbolic and he’s looking at France), he’s wearing the costume with the lion in on side and the Lilliput on the other (symbol of France); - Michael Sheen 1997 Henry V on stage - Jude Law 2013 Henry V (same type of costume) - Tom Hiddleston 2012 film series: The Hollow crown, a series of films which adapted the entire two Shakespearian tetralogies. - Timothée Chalamet 2019 the king on Netflix. 1944 film by Laurence Olivier: an adaptation of the play, the spoken dialogues came from Shakespeare, however Olivier constructs a metafilm frame. The first thing we see is the global theatre in 1600 while a performance of Shakespeare’s play is getting ready. The audience is very noisy, we see the actors backstage getting ready. Boys wearing female costumes as it was at those times. From the beginning we understand that is a complex film, Olivier received the Oscar. Historical context: the year when the war was coming to an end, but England was still feeling the effect of the war, it is a film shot under war time conditions. The film was shot in Ireland because England was dangerous at the time. The film was not created to support the war, which was near the end. It created connections with the present: - Connection with Normandie also in the play, it is the location of act 3 - The globe theatre and London, the audience has seen a panoramic scene of London at the beginning of the film and, it is important because London during this period was suffering for the war, it became a symbol of resistance, people could see themselves in the play, and they identify themselves with the play. The play does not only represent something historical, something from the past. - A process of solidification of the sense of unity in period of war, the warriors of the past are like the warriors of the present. This represents a sense of devotion for soldiers. It was a powerful remainder of what England was defended: sense of freedom and nation. Two main speeches: 1. One small unto the breach, from act 3 2. Saint Crispin’s day speech, from act 4 just before the battle of Agincourt. In both speeches there’s a crescendo of intensity, same in Olivier’s ones. The first ends with the final shouted and Henry was on a horse, in the second on the crescendo is different: Olivier’s Henry begun to speak with just a few generals, but little by little some soldiers join this group and listen to him, as the speech becomes more public Olivier begins to move up, he claims on top of a court and begins is final conclusion from the top of his court. Symbolism: horse and court. Battle of Agincourt: in the play there’s no general vision of the battle, Shakespeare cannot reproduce a mass battle, but the film can do it. Part of the play that the film leaves out: (ideologically interesting) Olivier leaves out the parts where Henry is violent, inhuman like in the speech to the governor. The blitz spirit: sense of indomitable sticking together that London had, and all that people in Britain had shared while London was being attacked. How the film was constructed in order to work as good jingoism? The king had to be sanitized by deleting all his war crimes. Structure of the film: vision of London at the beginning, the popular area, the globe theatre. There’s no collective vision of the battle in Shakespeare. Oscillation between realism and fantasy in the film: there are realistic elements in the new way the story is narrated, but there are also elements of fantasy where Olivier moves away from that similitudes in order to make his film more effective. The film is considered one of the best Shakespearian adaptation, it was created as propaganda, also Churchill had some responsibility in inspiring Olivier. The response to this film was ambivalent, when it came out not everybody was enthusiastic about it. The propaganda did not always work with this film, there were some voices of disagreement. Someone sees the imperialistic theme in it: in anticipation of the anti-imperialism in Kenneth’s film. Why is the film interesting? It is not an obvious film, it is complicated, Henry is not just one superficial hero, he is a deep character. The French are not presented as one-sided antagonist. JOHN OSBORNE British drama: first half of the 20th century, the theatre until the 1950s was dominated by well-made plays: plays in upper classes environment and which do not talk about the reality, they were written in standard English. The language of drama during the 20th century underwent significant changes from Oscar Wilde comedies in 1890s was elevated in stylish, Laurence Sing introduced dialect, a lower-class accent. The West End, England’s Broadway tended to produce the (Greenblatt 1844) musical comedies and well-made plays, while smaller theatres and Irish venues took a new direction. The new direction was political, satirical and rebellious. Common themes, in the new early 20th century drama, were political, reflecting the unease or rebellion of the workers against the state, philosophical, delving into the who and why of human life and existence, and revolutionary, exploring the themes of colonization and loss of territory. Their language is more naturalistic, dramatic language remains different from everyday conversations, because it remains stage language. 1956: on this date John Osborne opened the Royal Court in London. Look Back in Anger stimulated a generation to write, this play caused an initial excitement only due to the trailer on BBC. It was initially seen as a political protest because it shows the disillusion of the post war society, therefore it is an emblematic state of the nation play, that means a play that reflects the nation upon the stage. It was seen as a social document. In 1956 the visit of a German company to the theatre in London, Brecht’s notion of epic theatre, had a huge impact on British drama. Epic theatre: didactic in nature. This visit provided a shock. Becket: new kind of theatre, the theatre of absurd 1961, innovative, universe as meaningless and selfish people (also present in Eliot’s poetry). Becket refused to explain his works and was quite ambivalent about that. His most important play was “Waiting for Godot, 1955” it was originally written in French and then Beckett translated it in English. In this period a movement called the angry young men was born. Osborne was born in London in 1929 and died in 1994, he was the son of a commercial artist and a barman, Look Back in Anger is dedicated to his father. He was expelled in 1954 from school because his headmaster stuck him listening a Sinatra’s broadcast. The school certificate was the only formal qualification he acquired. After school he started journalism, then a company of young actors introduced him to the theatre and become involved as a stage man. 1994: “Damn England”. In 1997 he became sick and died. Look Back in Anger Staged in London in 1956. The action takes place in the midlands, the time is Osborne’s present, the play is divided in three acts. At that time something complex was happening both among the society and the theatre: a shift in the power balance, conservatism in contrast with the emerging new culture. The Tories were still in office in 1954. The country became a more violent place, in the late 50s Britain became two nations, there were contrast between aged and youth, the youngers started to imitate unsuccessfully the American manners. The genesis of the play: in august 1954 George Divine published an advert saying that English stage company has been formed in order to produce new plays by new writers. The actors had no posh accent, each one of the mains characters was described by Osborne. Pusillanimous: timid of mind The image of the most important colony in the British empire is a romanticised one. Pag.70 a sort of monologue: the colonel left England in 1914 and stayed in India until 1947 (independence of India), he loved that world. Jimmy hates Nigel and he says that he’s not smart enough to be a politician. This work was significant because it represented a break with the past. The play becomes a message about what action was needed, thanks to the BBC broadcast it became popular. The plot is simple, is a love triangle. Jimmy and Cliff represent the working class. The theme is the relationship between husband and wife. The play opens in April, a reference to T.S. Eliot’s line from “The Waste land”: “April is the cruellest month”. Eliot is mentioned other times in the play, like when, in Act 3 scene 1, Jimmy talks about a new travelling act, he talks about the name of this act which is ‘T.S. Eliot and Pam’. Born in 1969 and grew up in Saint Osborne. Tom, his older brother, was his mentor. He has always been a collaborative artist: he cowrote many of his texts. He had success with his play “Mojo” which opened at the Royal Court Theatre on the main stage, it was also staged in south Africa and Australia. 2012 “The river” Jerusalem 2009. The prologue stages one of the most important character: Phaedra a fifteen years old girl, her name is evocative, it came from the Greek and means right. She sings a hymn: a poem from William Blake, known as hymn of Jerusalem. The cross of Saint George is a very important symbol for the glory. English stage company: founded by George Divine in the early 50s. The first appearance of Phaedra is accompanied by folk music, wandering up a bucolic atmosphere. Plot: The play begins with Phaedra, a fifteen-year-old girl dressed as a fairy singing in allusion that Jerusalem has been built on dark grounds. We are brought to St. George's Day, which is also the day of the local county fair and a woman Fawcett and man, Parsons come to Johnny 'Rooster' Byron's mobile home in order to serve him with a notice of eviction. Byron does not come out, instead pretends to have a dog inside growling at them. They leave the eviction notice. Byron comes out to make himself a breakfast of milk, vodka, speed and an egg which he guzzles down. The rest of the scene we are introduced to multiple characters that we learn come to Johnny in order to party and get drugs. Ginger, Lee--who is leaving for Australia the next day at 6am, the Professor who is still searching for his dead wife, and Tanya and Pea who crawl out from underneath Johnny's trailer covered in badger faeces. We learn that Phaedra the Queen of last year’s fair has run away after being rejected from entering a bar a few nights before. Byron's mobile home in the forest is a place where the youth of the community come to party, which he allows. Wesley, who operates a local bar comes to Byron's camper in order to tell him that the police are gearing up to evict him forcefully if they have to, and everyone knows it. There have been town hall meetings where people have given their testimony about why Johnny should be evicted. We are then introduced to Marky, Johnny's six-year-old son and Dawn, the mother of Johnny's child. Johnny has forgotten that he was meant to take Marky to the fair today, and Dawn must take him. Which she does but not before she does a couple of lines of cocaine. After Dawn leaves, we learn from Lee that there are ley lines running through the forest, and then Johnny challenges everyone to a game of Trivial Pursuit for money. Johnny answers all of the questions, sometimes before they are even asked. We learn that Johnny once was a motorcycle stuntman and broke every bone in his body, he even died trying to jump semi-trucks. The coroners pronounced him dead and even covered him with a sheet. He then got up and walked his broken body to buy himself a beer. Johnny then tells everyone that he once met a 90-foot giant who built Stonehenge. And the giant left him a drum, said that if he ever needed help to play it and all of the ancient giants would come to help him. Ginger doesn't believe him, but when Johnny tells him he's sitting on the drum he dares him to bang it. Ginger won't, but Lee wants to. Troy, Phaedra's stepfather then shows up before he can and demands to know where Phaedra is. Johnny tells him he doesn't know, but Tony believes she's staying with him. Johnny then recalls a story about how Troy used to come around until they did a ceremony with cards with devils on them and wine which scared Tony so bad, he never came back. Troy then counters Johnny's tale with one about how Johnny had passed out and everyone started pissing all over him and in his mouth, and Davey, one of Johnny's friends filmed the whole thing. And, everyone that has been hanging with Johnny has seen the photos and no one has said anything. Johnny goes quiet and walks off. We learn the story is true. Lee and Davey return later, at 5 o'clock. Lee is there to apologize to Johnny, but he doesn't come to the door. Johnny then appears and Wesley comes back from working at the bar to raise hell about how he is being treated by the people he works with. Once he clears off, Fawcett and Parsons return with their video camera in order to give Johnny one last chance to leave peacefully before the police come down and evict him by force. Johnny won't go, he burns their eviction notice. They leave, and the police are preparing their batons to seize the property from Johnny. Phaedra exits from Johnny's mobile home and wants him to dance with her. She is only going to be Queen of the fair for another five minutes. Johnny initially refuses, but then agrees. As he is dancing with Phaedra, Troy appears with two men, a blow torch and a brand. They take Johnny into the trailer against his will and brand an 'x' on each of his cheeks and leave. Ginger saw Johnny being dragged inside and ran away, only to return after they branded him. Johnny makes it clear to Ginger that they are not friends and Ginger leaves. Marky appears and Johnny brings his son near in order to tell him some very important things. He says that he has a rare blood type, Romany blood, the rarest. And, doctors pay him 600 pounds every six weeks to get this blood from him. He tells him this so that if he is every in a pinch or his back's up against a wall, he will have that to rely on. Johnny then tells his son as much as he can about life, that "School is a lie. Prison's a waste of time. Girls are wondrous...Don't listen to no one and nothing but what your own heart bids. Lie. Cheat. Steal. Fight to the death. Don't give up..." He hugs Marky and tells him to go find his mother. Alone, Johnny begins to pour fuel on the mobile home to burn it. he then, in a ritual, begins to call out a curse upon any person who is about to take his blood. He calls on every one of his ancestors to rise up from the forest with him as he begins to relentlessly bang on the drum from the giant. The play is divided into 3 acts: - Act 1. Time: 25th of April a crucial date. Both Saint George’s day and Shakespeare’s birthday. It took place near the fictional village of Flintock. This first act offers a symbol of England heritage, a sort of cultural struggle: modernity vs tradition. Byron shows some iconic objects of the past: the old Wessex flag and a rusted metal railway sign, both are symbols of success, but also contemporary objects like coca cola plastic chairs, television etc… Byron is quite evocative, he is a unreliable narrator, he is habitually drunk and he is vulgar, he’s a person of the past, he represents the nostalgia for the past. Byron has a romantic blood and this blood gives him an outsider state, but he is not a foreigner. Ginger: red hairs, wannabe DJ, page 10 he sang the Padstow morning song which is normally sing at the ‘Obby’Oss festival. * - Act 2. Theme of storytelling, Byron associates himself to mythology and tells about his Christ-like conception. His first dialogue with his mum is about England. The professor embodies the tradition, fusion with landscape/nature. While the professor pleased the audience, Byron is a master at telling irresistible stories dealing with deeper England. The relationship with between Byron and the British folklore become stronger here (giant and the golden drum). - Act 3. Magical realism. Microcosm and macrocosm are always connected, family is one of the pillars of society and in contemporary British drama, playwrights frequently stage the collapse of the family, so dysfunctional family: Johnny here is an absent father. Byron evokes different mythical creatures using a war language. *The festival is a folk custom held on May Day in Padstow, Cornwall. It involves two separate processions making their way around the town, each containing an eponymous hobby horse known as the ‘Obby’Oss in Cornish. The title comes from a poem by William Blake. New millennium British drama: it can be considered an enviable instrument to examine the problems of the Britain and at the same time to interpret the deepest aspects of human experience. British dramatist shows that humans are vulnerable. The communication is more dysfunctional and entered in the everyday domestic sphere, where the society seems to be on the point of collapsing. That tradition of nation’s stability seems to be in doubt. The early 21st century stage has offered a particularly purchase for the questioning not just about the national identity. Critical essay: Re-Imagining England- Myths of Identity and community in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem The theme of storytelling: even before Jerusalem begins, the audience see the curtain that is emblazoned with “the faded Cross of Saint George”, a symbol of glory of one’s proud traditions, which are personified in the play’s protagonist. His name situates him in-between the roles of mythical hero (Byronic hero) and self-important braggard. He is a person of the past and the first scene sets up the principal conflict of the play, that between tradition and change. The clearing in the wood in which Johnny lives became the battleground between old and new, between the enchanted wood full of the ‘lost gods of England’. When the authorities try to evict him, he doesn’t move and, in his defence, he summons various markers of traditional Englishness, fashioning himself not only as the spiritus loci of this particular area, but of all England. His spirited if is accompanied by “A hundred distant voices” singing the Padstow morning song, suggesting that the voices of the past seem to have united between behind him. Even Ginger provides an insightful interpretation of what is the fair: he enters the stage singing along with the final of the Padstow morning song, which he seamlessly follows up with a rap on the Fair. Ginger contrasts this free-wheeling consumerism with memories of former glory. In his enterprise, he is supported by a bunch of airheads and loiterers, who in themselves could be said to undermine a quintessentially English myth. Apart from Ginger there is the Professor, who provides his own variation on the theme of the exploitation of traditions, when he sings the song “Money’s worth”, he ends the song with a line of his own linked to Saint George’s day to accommodate it to the topic of the day. The glue that binds the characters to Johnny is their desire for stories, apart from the drugs, stories which might explain or justify their station in life. When the Professor proposes a toast to Saint George, to the May-come etc… he gives voice to his nostalgia for an antediluvian paradise steeped in myth and folklore. In this regard when Johnny smashes up his tv with a cricket bat, this can be The last encounter with Annie is marked by Felix’s compassion. This same emotion gets him knifed when he comes to rescue of a pregnant woman on the tube. For the female characters, however, the keeping of secrets is less innocent, especially given the pain experienced by their husbands when their acts are revealed; it is also more related to their sense of sexual and personal identity. While Leah and Natalie are on opposite tracks about their careers, they both find themselves trapped in the social script (copione) prepared for women before they are born. (is more important what is the woman than who are you). Leah’s decision to marry Michel is also to satisfy their families desire for conventionality, despite the differences in their backgrounds. Whereas (mentre) Michel is focused on his masculine role as breadwinner (sostegno familiare), Leah is horrified by the idea that she is expected to produce children according to a pre- established plan. Leah is separated from all the characters; the only man with whom Leah seems able to communicate in an intimate way is her father Colin, whose ghost appears to her in a marijuana-induced vision. The initial epigraph (Adam and Eve) is about traditional gender roles and social equality. In the episode with Shar Leah feels a little empathetic and benevolent but not able, in a second moment, of seeing beyond the what to the who. (real essence of people). Felix’s journey around the city begins with a visit to his father, who lives in Caldwell in the housing project known as Garvey House, known as hotbed (focolaio) of the Black Power movement in the 1970s. There are some photos about this, and this photo creates the memory for Felix. Felix sees also his mother. Felix’s encounter with Tom Mercer offers the reader access to the story of another character, but this time from an internalized perspective. Most of what we learn about Tom comes through his internalized narrative in which he dwells on (si sofferma) on his fecklessness (inettitudine) and his parents’ general disappointment in him. Natalie’s story is told from a series of fragmented experiences from her early childhood to the moment when her secret sexual activities become known to her husband from the outset, Natalie’s existence is connected to that of Leah, whom Natalie saved from drowning (annegare) at an outdoor pool when the girls were both four. Throughout her childhood and into young adulthood, Natalie looks to Leah as a point of comparison for her own life; she envies Leah’s white English lifestyle with tea properly prepared and general domestic tranquillity, which contrasts with her own family’s poverty. Unlike Leah, Natalie becomes more focused on her own material well-being. Her growing intellectual and professional energy is matched by a vibrant sexual identity. Only Leah is aware of Nathalie’s powerful sexuality, since the two girls share confidences. When Franks discover her secret, she undertakes a physical and symbolic journey across the city into her own past. She encounters Nathan, who acts as a kind of spirit guide into her past. In the final section of NW, also named “visitation” in a circular link to the novel’s opening, Natalie returns home to deal (affrontare) with the crisis in her marriage. She and Frank agree to maintain the façade of being a couple in order protect children, though there is hostility between them. Natalie gives Frank a letter, which represents her power to resist her reduction to the “what” of conventional womanhood, but he refuses to read it. Michelle, on the other hand, demonstrates the possibility of connection to Leah by wanting to understand the motivation behind her actions. At the end of the story Leah and Natalie phone the police to denounce Nathan Bogle for Felix’s murder; the narrator notes that “it was Keisha who did the talking”. With this temporary reversion to her Caldwell identity, Natalie creates the possibility that the truth of Felix’s death will be known, and that, in the process, he will be transformed from another unimportant black man to an individual worthy of his own history, that he will become a “who” rather than a “what”. With the telling of the secrets of these three characters to the reader, Smith challenges us to look beyond social narratives to seek the hidden, complex lives of those around us, stories that they long (desiderare) to tell and to have told. The novel focuses on how the vices and virtues, successes and failures, of each character runs into conscious or unconscious discourses with the others. The result is not a final reckoning or resolution, but rather a kind of emotional impression or flavour of a possible experience of contemporary northwest London. One of the novel’s main concerns is the restructuring of the British class system. Whereas skin colour used to be seen as an identity defining feature, it now no longer automatically entails membership in any specific milieu, as illustrated by Natalie’s example. Ambitious immigrants may accomplish high status and wealth in individual cases, but this does not lessen general tensions between the rich and the poor in the face of widening wealth and income disparities. Even though skin colour no longer determines biographies to the extent it used to, ethnic frames still guides people’s perceptions in multiple ways. Thus, skin colour remains a relevant factor, even in a multi-ethnic society, but becomes increasingly ambiguous as a marker of social belonging. In a world with an increasing variety of life-style choices, the issue of self-examination gains importance. Leah, who sees no appeal in the traditional maternal role, rejecting social expectations, cuts to the core of this new liberty. In NW, the possibility of being the sole author of your own life is portrayed as a blessing and a curse at the same time. Self-examination, however, does not always protect against delusion. In contrast to Leah, Natalie has always tried her best to meet societal expectations: in her role as a daughter, sister, mother, wife, lawyer, rich person, poor person, Briton and Jamaican. Each of these roles demands its own costume. Natalie comes to see them as a cage, from which she tries to escape, through her sexual escapades. The novel portrays different reactions to the social pressures placed on women with regards to motherhood. Leah ultimately resists the pressure, but still feels a need to hide her desire to remain childless as long as possible. Natalie’s wants to meet social expectations of motherhood, but in a way that does not hamper her career. The novel also highlights different attitudes towards maternal perfectionism depending on someone’s milieu. In Caldwell it is enough to abstain from physical violence to be considered a decent mother. Everywhere else, everything must be perfect and even the mother is not guaranteed to escape judgement.