Argomenti prova orale maturità inglese liceo linguistico, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Argomenti prova orale maturità inglese liceo linguistico e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The Industrial Revolution It lasted between the 18th and the 19th centuries. It was a period when agrarian and rural societies became industrialized and urbanized. The process began in Britain because thanks to its large reserve of coal, Britain could develop the steam engine to power machines, such as the “spinning jenny”: a device for spinning thread more quickly and cheaply than by hand. Iron and textile industries developed and electricity was used. Britain was the first to develop industrialization because, thanks to its colonial history, it had raw materials and a great workforce. Effects on the society: ● increase in transportation and communication systems: roads were improved, a service of mail coaches was started (faster info – crf. mobile phone in the 1980s) and the first railway line was built ● urbanization: cities expanded, people moved to the cities to work in factories → cities became overcrowded because they are not ready to accommodate all the people➞ poor workers lived in the slums (crowded and dirty areas) in extremely unhygienic conditions, they had infections and fell ill. ● Work become extremely mechanized➞ people became jobless. ● poor people were forced to work long hours in factories for low wages ● the gap between the rich and poor increased The Industrial Revolution is divided in 2 phases: ● First Industrial Revolution→ Romantic Age, Blake from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s ● Second Industrial Revolution→ Victorian Age, Dickens from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s The Poor Law Amendment Act – 1834 It was the first attempt at creating a welfare state, a system of poor relief. It also established the building of workhouses to reduce the cost of looking after the poor, take beggars off the streets and encourage poor people to work hard to support themselves. These were institutions where people were housed, clothed and given little food. In exchange they had to work for several hours each day. Families were split up inside the workhouse. Conditions were terrible. Poverty was seen as a sinn, because poor people couldn’t sustain themselves financially even if they would have had the possibility to, so workhouses were kind of a way to reduce this sinn. The Factory Acts – beginning of 1800s They were a series of UK law Acts to regulate the conditions of industrial employment, in particular it regulated the hours of work of young children: ● employment of children under 9 was forbidden ● children could ot work more than 9 hours a day and never at night ● required children to receive elementary schooling for 2 hours a day. Labor unions They are a large group of workers, usually in a similar profession, that join together to protect the workers’ rights. They were born during the Industrial Revolution because the working conditions were terrible, so workers joined together to fight for safer conditions, better hours and increased salary. The unions organized strikes and negotiated with employers for better working conditions. In some cases revolts were violent. Also today trade unions purpose is to: ● negotiate agreement with employers on pay and conditions ● provide members with legal and financial advice ● provide education facilities and consumer benefits. ROMANTICISM It’s a cultural phenomenon that began in 1798 and it ended in 1832. English Romanticism also comprises a phase called “protoromantic”. - poetry was considered the most powerful means to get access to reality, a way to express rather than represent. - The poet is considered as a priest-like figure, a prophet who mediates between common people and higher truths → democratic knowledge (crf. D’Annunzio poeta vate, Pascoli poetica del fanciullino, Baudelaire caduta dell’aureola - L’albatros, simbolismo tedesco figura poeta e Tonio Kroger) The poet is endowed with a special sensibility and a superior knowledge. He shares his knowledge and uses a simple language accessible to ordinary people → democratic approach to poetry. - Images and symbols are a convention of the poet's perceptions rather than an embellishment. NATURE ● Industrialisation led to a closer contact with nature (interconnectedness) by the romantic poets, who found purity, release and freedom from social constraints and corruption. ● Nature represents freedom from the corruption of society and social constraints. ● The reverence for nature is the result of industrialization because Romanticism criticizes industrialization. There is a need for a return to simplicity as a reaction against modernity. ● Society spoiled the primeval innocence of humankind. ● Feeling of sublime: nature caused a sense of smallness in the viewers. In front of nature→ feeling of sublime, awe, fear and wonder. ● Poetry has a healing power: in reaction to modernity, the sense of both fascination and fear (awe) enlight the simplicity of nature. ● Children were considered privileged because only children could enjoy closeness to God and they aren’t constrained by society. WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827) - He lived in London and he worked as an apprentice to an engraver : illustrations in his poems → they are in dialogue with the poem and contribute to the making of meaning of the poem - Arts potential for changing people’s minds - Contraries need to be accepted rather than fought → energy, progress and changes - The power of imagination An adult is asking the Tyger who made it. Nursery rhymes but it’s more disturbing (letters as s,t,g sounds disturbing). Tyger is at the same time dangerous/scary and fascinating (“fearful symmetry”) ➞ sublime ➞ feeling of awe= mixture of fear and fascination The God who created the lamb (innocent creature), also created the Tyger → God is good but he also has the potential of evil: he has wrath, can punish and be violent. Ontological questions about the origin of the Tyger but there’s no answer ➞ effect of disquiet. Tyger // The Lamb Tyger and Lamb both coexist in the human being → tyger= evil, adulthood, experience - lamb= good, childhood, innocence⇒ theory of the contraries The poem from Songs of Innocence, The Lamb, and the poem from Songs of Experience, The Tyger, may be read in parallel as ‘contrary poems’. The pure state of mind of the child in The Lamb is opposed and completed by that of the adult speaker of The Tyger, who, unlike the child, can no longer communicate with God but can only admire His awesome energy from a distance. The spontaneity and abandonment of the lamb in Innocence is substituted in Experience by the frightening balance of creation of the tiger and its potential for brutality. The complexity of the experience of contemplating the tiger is expressed through the elaborated language, rich in images and metaphors that can be decoded only by a rational mind, a typically adult faculty that the simple, straightforward language of The Lamb does not require. The speaker is an angel that talks to a baby. The angel blesses the baby that is a symbol of joy because he hasn’t known evil yet. Full of happiness. The speaker is a child that speaks about his mother’s pain. He is already struggling because he is born in a difficult world → passage from innocence to experience. No love is shown by the parents that are in pain because the child is born in an evil and dangerous world. Infant Joy // Infant Sorrow Infant Sorrow is one of Blake's Songs of Experience, which is set in dialogue with the poem Infant Joy. Unlike in the first poem, where the birth of the child is a moment of happiness, in this poem, with his/her birth, the child brings pain to his parents. The second line hints at the birth of the baby as a movement from safety into a dangerous world. While Infant Joy is straightforward in its celebration of the divinity of the child, this poem is more ambiguous, casting a long shadow on the destiny of individuals who are born into this world. The Sick Rose O Rose thou art sick The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. Songs of Experience The rose is a symbol for a prostitute that is dying of syphilis. Usually the rose is a symbol for beauty, passion, love and is not related to illnesses. The “invisible worm” is a symbol for syphilis → during the Victorian Age syphilis was very widespread and a lot of people died because of it, especially prostitutes. bed= symbol of passion LONDON I wander thro’ each charter’d street, (chart = legal document chartered street = regulated in a map The poet is wandering in an urban space) Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, (limitations that our mind imposes to us creating them) The mind-forg’d manacles I hear (BIAS, STEREOTYPE) How the Chimney-sweepers cry (Destituted, unprivileged, condemned to an harsh life) Every black’ning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls → the rulers, the main institutions But most thro’ midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse (prostitute malediction) Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse (carro funebre) oxymoron taken from the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads: ● “The Poet” ● “The Subject Matter of Poetry” ● “The Creation of Poetry” ● “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" ● "The Solitary Reaper" ● "The World is Too Much With Us” William Wordsworth, “The Poet”, from the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads (1800) Taking up the subject, then, upon general grounds, let me ask, what is meant by the word Poet? What is a Poet? to whom does he address himself? and what language is to be expected from him?—He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them. to these qualities he has added a disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions, which are indeed far from being the same as those produced by real events, yet (especially in those parts of the general sympathy which are pleasing and delightful) do more nearly resemble the passions produced by real events, than anything which, from the motions of their own minds merely, other men are accustomed to feel in themselves:— whence, and from practice, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and feelings which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own mind, arise in him without immediate external excitement. The poet makes knowledge accessible to many. He is endowed with greater sensibility, and he uses symbols and metaphor to make it more understandable. The language is pre-grammatical and not ornamental. (rif. Pascoli). In the end it is possible to remark a sort of “Kindred Emotion” (substantially kind) William Wordsworth: “The Subject Matter and the Language of Poetry” The principal object then which I proposed to myself in these Poems was to make the incidents of common life interesting by tracing in them, truly thought not ostentatiously, (neo classical poets are ridiculous, speaking factsss) the primary laws of our nature: chefly as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. Low and rustic life was generally chosen because in that situation the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that situation our elementary feelings exist in a state of greater simplicity and consequently may be more accurately contemplated and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and from the necessary character of rural occupations are more easily comprehended; and are more durable; and lastly, because in that situation the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature. The language too of these men is adopted (purified indeed from what appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which the best part of language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse, being less under the action of social vanity they convey their feelings (PURER because far from social hierarchy) and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions. Analysis Two of Wordsworth’s dogma regarding the writing of poetry are clearly expressed in this extract from the Preface: the choice of the subject matter should be related to situations from common life and humble people who live in contact with nature and the language should be simple, the language actually used by people, in order to communicate feelings more effectively. William Wordsworth: “I wandered Lonely as a Cloud” 1. Observation First, comes the phase where observation or perception of some event/character/object plays its part. The observed incident sets up powerful emotions in the sensible mind of the poet. 2. Recollection Next, comes the contemplation and speculation phase in which the emotion associated with a particular event is recollected in the mind of the poet. Memory in this stage plays an important role by bringing out what has been lying in the subconscious for a long period of time. 3. Filtering The third phase comprises the filtering process of the recollected emotion and feelings. In this process, the poet reevaluates his emotions and removes the non-essential and vulgar elements. Poet then gives his experience a communicable form, which can be comprehended by all men. 4. Composition Then comes the most important phase: the final composition of the poetic experience. The poet, in this phase, seeks to convey his experience through words which can easily deliver his ideas to the minds of all men. In this phase, the poet becomes the communicator and communicates his emotions in a soothing manner. By the extraordinary power of expressions, the poet reflects his feelings and passions. Wordsworth's most famous poem reports the poet's experience with nature and the short and long term effect which this sight had on him. As in a Romantic poem the poet vividly portrays the long line of yellow flowers moving like in a dance in the wind, and the waves of the lake. The harmony is created through the large number of words to talk about joy referred to nature and to the poet as well as by the regularity of the rhythm and the rhyme scheme. Finally, the last stanza describes the process of artistic creation, which according to Wordsworth, is necessarily determined by the recollection of emotion in a state of tranquility. ● wander = quintessential romantic word, to walk around the nature clouds wandering in the sky → poet wandering in the nature ● the loneliness in the nature ● daffodils are the protagonist and they are personified ● yellow = preciousness and vitality, idea of happiness ● the vacancy of mind (otium) is important, a sense of tranquility ● Wordsworth's process of the artistic creation is highlighted since the tense change to the past; this suggests that the speaker was living again a past experience which was so vivid to him that he described it using the present tense → memory ● daffodils stay in his heart → the poet is no longer in nature but he is able to conjure up the emotions he felt → kindred emotion: it’s not the exact emotion he felt before, he assimilated and elaborated it. Crf. Le Spigolatrici - Millet The poet appeals to the inner eye of the reader, and he is alone surrounded by nature. The protagonist is a woman working in the field⇒Humble people living in contact with nature In the Victorian Age workers like cogs in the machine, while in romanticism humble workers were the object. Nightingale is the romantic bird par excellence The Solitary Reaper once again portrays the speaker's experience in a natural setting. However, a new element is introduced: the presence of a humble person who lives in contact with nature. The speaker is amazed at her song, which although very sad, sounds more beautiful than a nightingale's or a cuckoo's. The exotic and solitary settings suggested in the comparisons involving the birds' songs together with the possible themes of the woman's song contribute to creating the melancholy tone which permeates the poem. The use of imperative and exclamation marks in the first stanza involves the readers or a possible listener in the Implications of STATIC IDENTITIES they don’t have a voice so, there is someone else that narrates their own history native cultures are beyond history, because they have never been told before in history → they need to be rescued by those who have an important role in History = the civilized dominant culture natives need to be taken back into History→ they must be governed properly to ensure their survival → Kipling- the white man’s burden Kipling- the white man’s burden The speaker says to take up the White Man's burden, which is to send the best men abroad and your sons into exile to serve your captives. These "newly-caught" people are wild, angry, and both devilish and childish. it sounds like the colonised need the colonisers colonisers are not working for personal gain but they serve the colonised They have to bring cure and food to this population At the end of the poem: colonised are going to be lazy → not only do we go there and work FOR them, but they are not even grateful → everything is useless and foolish (mito di Sisyphus) crf. CAMUS K. sees colonialism as a forcible evangelising → he could not understand that an empire is primarily an money-making concern → colonialism is such as an economical enterprise (G.Orwell) REVERSE COLONIALISM At the peak of Imperialism The British feared what their colonies would bring to them → fear represented as the “civilised” world is on the point of being colonised by “primitive forces” + fear of contamination + the “foreign other” was portrayed as diseased, primitive and criminal (RE-COLONISATION: crf. Rushdie) fear of contamination of being colonised by ‘primitive species’ fear that caused ‘othering’ DEGENERATION ANXIETY: the result of this peak of progress, since it was impossible to continue this constant growth forever → fear of declining CESARE LOMBROSO: Many people who commit crimes were “born criminals” who represented throwbacks to an earlier, sub-human stage of evolution. → their heredity and biology made them irredeemable A criminal could have been recognised based on the person’s facial features and the shape of his head black skin represented a link between the apes and the white man CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY “Criminal Anthropology” emerged as a science, relying heavily on the concepts of atavism and degeneration (concepts taken from Darwin’s theory of evolution) Atavism= a tendency to revert to ancestral type Degeneration= a progressive deterioration of physical characteristics or reversion to a simpler form Charles Dickens (1812-1870) - He was born in 1812 in Portsmouth - When he was five his family moved to Kent, near the naval docks - In 1822 they moved to London where they lived in a workhouse - For a few months he was sent to work in a boot-black warehouse under terrible conditions - In 1832 he became a journalist and he wrote pieces about London life - In 1838 Oliver Twist was published - Dickens was also famous for his social commitment - He directed his attention to the life of poor children - 1854 Hard Times POEMS ● “Before the Board” ● “Jacob’s Island” (from Oliver Twist) ● Coketown ● Square Principles (from Hard Times) Oliver Twist Oliver Twist was an orphan born in a workhouse (his mother died in childbirth) who lived in harsh conditions until he discovered his middle-class origins. He runs off to London where he joins the poor side of the city and the underworld. He plunges into life. The plot is very intricate Omniscient narrator He leaves the countryside to go to the city → from innocence to experience (Blake) Dickens has a clear notion of what is good and what is bad. Good people exist and Oliver Twist is an inherently good character. The happy ending: these stories always end with the rewarding of good and punishment of evil. crf. (Bildungsroman) Effi Briest (Realismus, Fontane) Madame Bovary, (Réalisme/Naturalisme, Flaubert) (Woman, Adultery) Themes - unfair social system - criticism: portrait of criminals - third-person omniscient narrator - humor and irony to show institutional contradictions - the narrator tends to sympathize with the helpless and the good. Oliver Twist - Lived in a workhouse (created thanks to the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834) - Oliver = orphan; he discovers his middle-class origins - Bildungsroman → passage into maturity (crf. Effi Briest → Madame Bovary) - Hardships of his conditions + description of poor London → critic against the reformed Poor Law Amendment Act - Poor London showed thanks to the experience that oliver mad with the thieves’ gang - Unfair social system - The narrator reveals his moral position while showing the contradictions of ethically objectionable characters or institutions “Before the board” - Board = a group of gentlemen who question O. to decide which activity he should attend to - sent to the workhouse → neglect, hunger, and mistreatment. - portrays the workhouse = grim and oppressive place + lack of compassion - social injustice - the marginalisation - contrast between the privileged and the destitute. Themes: - social injustice as a consequence of poverty and institutional cruelty - the mistreatment of orphans → children= mere numbers and objects - dehumanisation of individuals within the workhouse system → workhouses created out of convenience NOT out of sympathy - the harsh realities of Victorian society - Irony and dark humour “Before the Board” After staying on a poor farm, where instead of being looked after he was starved, nine-year-old Oliver is sent back to the workhouse where he was born. Upon his arrival there, he appears in front of the ‘board’, a group of ‘eight or ten fat gentlemen’, (deciding the future of destitute/ starring children) who question the child to decide which activity he should attend to. Making heavy use of irony, the narrator shows why and how these ‘guardians of the poor’ made their decision. Poor Oliver! (persuading the narrator) He little thought, as he lay sleeping in happy unconsciousness of all around him, that the board had that very day arrived at a decision which would exercise the most material influence over all his future fortunes. But they had. And this was it. The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men; and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have discovered – the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there was nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all the year round; a brick and mortar elysium, where it was all play and no work. ‘Oho!’ said the board, looking very knowing; ‘we are the fellows to set this to rights; we’ll stop it all, in no time.’ So, they established the rule, that all poor people should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they), of being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. (dark humour) Hidden and unknown by most Londoners, Jacob’s Island stands in one of the poorest areas of the city populated by an underclass of people who survive thanks to expedients which are often illegal. Getting there is like penetrating a world characterised by physical and moral decay. The atmosphere created by Dickens is almost hellish, one where the rotting buildings seem to reflect the corrupted lives of the inhabitants of this slum. People do any illegal activity that could provide them with money, and they live there because they have nowhere else to go: underclass exists, but it is hidden to a great number of people. SLUMS → typical of industrial city → lack of hygiene + overcrowded areas of unrepresented people → GANGS Very low-paid jobs → the lowest class During the 19th century, Jacob’s Island: - squalid living conditions and extreme poverty. - an area characterised by: overcrowded slums, dilapidated housing, and unsanitary conditions. - Island was prone to flooding, - Its marshy terrain made it particularly challenging for residents. Dickens depicted Jacob's Island in Oliver Twist as: - a place of extreme destitution, crime, and moral decay. - as a dangerous and poverty-stricken area where the most marginalised members of society were forced to live. Themes: 1. Poverty and Social Injustice: Jacob's Island showcases the extreme poverty and social injustice prevalent in Victorian society, highlighting the stark contrast between the privileged and the destitute. 2. Squalor and Desolation: The island represents the squalid living conditions and desolate environment endured by the impoverished residents, emphasising their lack of basic necessities and degraded living conditions. 3. Crime and Moral Decay: Jacob's Island becomes a breeding ground for criminal activities and moral decay, illustrating the desperate measures people are driven to in the face of poverty and the compromising choices they make. 4. Dehumanisation and Marginalisation: The island symbolises the dehumanisation of the marginalised, portraying them as faceless masses stripped of agency, emphasising the loss of humanity and dignity experienced by those living in extreme poverty. 5. Symbolism of Social Divisions: Jacob's Island symbolises the stark social divisions and the vast gap between the rich and the poor during the Victorian era, highlighting the systemic inequalities and the challenges faced by the most vulnerable members of society. Hard times (1854)→ coketown and square principles The central character is Thomas Gradgrind, a convinced rationalist who runs a school in Coketown. Dickens describes life in a fictive industrial town, Coketown, a typical industrial town in Northern England and symbol of ugly industrialization. This novel criticizes: - Utilitarianism →meaning that society works as a perfect machine because the world is a machine →if you don't contribute you are a failure, you are like a cog in a mechanism and everybody and everything contributes to the perfect function of the society. - Industrial life - Poor living conditions of the working class - Satirical treatment of political economy Dickens underlines the problems of the industrial society and the necessity of social reform. Charles Dickens: “Square Principles” ‘Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’ The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker’s square forefinger emphasised his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster’s sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker’s obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, – nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, – all helped the emphasis. ‘In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!’ [...] Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir – peremptorily Thomas – Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic. You might hope to get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George Gradgrind, or Augustus Gradgrind, or John Gradgrind, or Joseph Gradgrind (all supposititious, non-existent persons), but into the head of Thomas Gradgrind – no, sir! In such terms Mr Gradgrind always mentally introduced himself, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the public in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the words ‘boys and girls,’ for ‘sir,’ Thomas Gradgrind now presented Thomas Gradgrind to the little pitchers before him, who were to be filled so full of facts. Indeed, as he eagerly sparkled at them from the cellarage before mentioned, he seemed a kind of cannon loaded to the muzzle with facts, and prepared to blow them clean out of the regions of childhood at one discharge. He seemed a galvanizing apparatus, too, charged with a grim mechanical substitute for the tender young imaginations that were to be stormed away. [...] ‘Girl number twenty,’ said Mr Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, ‘I don’t know that girl. Who is that girl?’ ‘Sissy Jupe, sir,’ explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtseying. ‘Sissy is not a name,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Don’t call yourself Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.’ ‘It’s father as calls me Sissy, sir,’ returned the young girl in a trembling voice, and with another curtsey. ‘Then he has no business to do it,’ said Mr Gradgrind. ‘Tell him he mustn’t. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?’ ‘He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.’ Mr Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand. ‘We don’t want to know anything about that, here. You mustn’t tell us about that, here. Your father breaks horses, don’t he?’ Insight Mr Gradgrind’s speech at the opening of Hard Times reveals him as an authoritarian man deeply convinced of his theories. The description of the classroom is evocative of the hardness, dryness and squareness of Gradgrind and his philosophy. Besides creating a hyperbolic effect, the accumulation of details and exaggerated images contribute to making Gradgrind an extremely vivid and memorable character. The children, seen as “little pitchers”, are considered as entirely passive recipients to be “filled” only with factual knowledge. Gradgrind’s near-hatred of their imaginative capacities is expressed in the humorous image of him as a loaded cannon ready to blow away any trace of creativity in his young children. Gradgrind is therefore seen as capable of ‘murdering’ his pupils, whose only wrong is to be in contact with the world of imagination. Charles Dickens: “Coketown” It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next. [...] You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely workful. If the members of a religious persuasion built a chapel there – as the members of eighteen religious persuasions had done – they made it a pious warehouse of red brick, with sometimes (but this is only in highly ornamental examples) a bell in a birdcage on the top of it. The solitary exception Critique of Colonialism: deconstruct the ideologies, structures, and systems of power that were established during the colonial period. Cultural Hybridity: complex and hybrid nature of cultures emerged through the interaction between colonisers and the colonised. It emphasises the mixing, borrowing, and transformation of cultural practices, beliefs, and identities. Subaltern Voices: the importance of marginalised voices that were silenced or overlooked during the colonial era. It seeks to give voice to those who were historically oppressed, colonised, or excluded. Representation and Identity: colonialism has shaped and influenced the ways in which people from different cultures and identities are portrayed, often perpetuating stereotypes and unequal power dynamics. Global Perspective: colonialism was not limited to a specific region or time period. It acknowledges the interconnectedness of colonial histories and the enduring effects of colonial legacies on a global scale. Cultural Hybridity: complex and hybrid nature of cultures emerged through the interaction between colonisers and the colonised. It emphasises the mixing, borrowing, and transformation of cultural practices, beliefs, and identities. Subaltern Voices: the importance of marginalised voices that were silenced or overlooked during the colonial era. It seeks to give voice to those who were historically oppressed, colonised, or excluded. Representation and Identity: colonialism has shaped and influenced the ways in which people from different cultures and identities are portrayed, often perpetuating stereotypes and unequal power dynamics. Global Perspective: colonialism was not limited to a specific region or time period. It acknowledges the interconnectedness of colonial histories and the enduring effects of colonial legacies on a global scale. Historical Consciousness: encouraging a reevaluation of dominant historical narratives and the recovery of marginalised or suppressed histories. It seeks to challenge Eurocentric perspectives and promote a more inclusive understanding of the past. Social Justice and Equity: Postcolonialism aims to promote social justice, equality, and equity in postcolonial societies. It calls for the dismantling of colonial hierarchies, the recognition of indigenous rights, and the pursuit of inclusive and just societies. Main issues: RACISM Language: colonisers imposed their own language and forbidden the native’s one → two types of postcolonial writers: Create a hybrid tongue that underscores the fractured nature of the colonised mind. write exclusively in their native mother tongue → they refuse the colponisers’ language Identity: the inability to return to a past now gone forever is a consequence of HYBRIDITY = mixture of practices and signs from the colonising and colonised cultures; → Hybridity challenges the idea that a person or a country has any essential “uncontaminated” or unchanging identity and that the desire to reclaim such an identity is rooted in an impossible nostalgia. Key words: Authenticity → The assumption that groups or categories have one or several defining features exclusive to all members of that group. Essentialism → The idea that certain indigenous forms and practices are peculiar to a culture, that they are true and uncontaminated. Such an idea implies that these cultures are not subject to change. Ethnicity → The fusion of many traits that belong to the nature of a group of people that is socially distinguished from others primarily on the basis of cultural and national characteristics. Hybridity → The creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonisation. Identity → Umbrella term used to indicate the individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. Mimicry → adaptation and reproduction of the coloniser’s cultural habits, assumptions and values Misrepresentation → To give an incorrect or misleading representation of something/somebody. Stereotype → The oversimplified and often prejudiced view of the attitudes, behaviour and expectations of a group or individual. Race → often incorrectly used instead of ethnicity; The classification of human beings into physically, biologically and genetically distinct groups. Darwin Colonialism and degeneration “Hereditary Genius” (Francis Galton) → ‘genius’ is something inborn + mental and physical features are equally inherited → not accepted because everyone thought that men have been created by God ‘It is possible to improve the physical and mental makeup of the human species by selective parenthood’ He coined the term ‘EUGENICS’ : “The selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations, typically in reference to humans.” - now: negative connotation → because afterwards the nazists used this concept to start the ‘ethnic cleance’ - at the time: positive connotation, because it belonged to a scientific area → the more suitable races had a better chance of prevailing quickly over the “less suitable” (they get extinct) during these years (anni 70 dell’800) the main principles were: - all creatures are subject to the same natural laws - humans have evolved over countless eons, just as other animals have - human beings share a recent common ancestor with the great African apes Irish people become the “missing link” in the evolution between apes and black Africans → they are in-between the black africans and british people → they were white but savage like africans = GOOD (Britain) AND EVIL (irish people) → BLACK AND WHITE ‘OTHERING’ - The English formed their images of Africans and Orientals homogenizing all “others” and their specific differences - The “Other” is essentialised and universalised as primitive, barbaric and uncivilised/uncivilisable - The dynamics of “othering” creates and support the binarism “Us-Them Implications of STATIC IDENTITIES - they don’t have a voice so, there is someone else that narrates their own history - native cultures are beyond history, because they have never been told before in history → they need to be rescued by those who have an important role in History = the civilised dominant culture - natives need to be taken back into History→ they must be governed properly to ensure their survival → Kipling- the white man’s burden REVERSE COLONIALISM At the peak of Imperialism The British feared what their colonies would bring to them → fear represented as the “civilised” world is on the point of being colonised by “primitive forces” + fear of contamination + the “foreign other” was portrayed as diseased, primitive and criminal (RE-COLONISATION: crf. Rushdie) - fear of contamination - of being colonised by ‘primitive species’ - fear that caused ‘othering’ DEGENERATION ANXIETY: the result of this peak of progress, since it was impossible to continue this constant growth forever → fear of declining CESARE LOMBROSO: - Many people who commit crimes were “born criminals” who represented throwbacks to an earlier, sub-human stage of evolution. → their heredity and biology made them irredeemable - A criminal could have been recognised based on the person’s facial features and the shape of his head - black skin represented a link between the apes and the white man CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY “Criminal Anthropology” emerged as a science, relying heavily on the concepts of atavism and degeneration (concepts taken from Darwin’s theory of evolution) Atavism= a tendency to revert to ancestral type Degeneration= a progressive deterioration of physical characteristics or reversion to a simpler form Rudyard Kipling ● was born in 1865 in India by English parents and spent his childhood in India ● he studied in England ● he went back to India and worked as a journalist for Anglo-Indian newspapers → he traveled in different parts of India so he had the opportunity to experience the reality of the English empire and the relationship between colonisers and colonised. The historical context of the novel Conrad witnessed the specific form of colonial imperialism King Leopold II of Belgium practiced in his Congo Free State. His agents had to: ● bring civilisation; ● accustom the natives to general laws; ● institute a labor tax of forty hours per month. Narrative techniques and Language - Used first-person narration, an invisible narrator, journals and letters. Many novels and short stories are told by the same narrator, Marlow, or have more than one narrator. - Used several points of view to break free from the constraints of an omniscient narrator the reader is left to decide for himself relativism of moral values. The fluid form of his novels reflects the complexity of man’s consciousness. ● The dialogue is idiomatic, characterized by questions, exclamation marks, dashes, interjections. ● Conrad used a great variety of adjectives and a complex syntax, and many shifts backwards and forwards in Marlow’s narrative creation of suspense and interest. ● Conrad plays a lot of narrative tricks on readers that push us to notice specific stuff about the style, thone ecc…, He broke the normal time sequence too. ● Language characterized by idiomatic speech and irony psychological realism. PLOT The novel is set at the end of the 19th century at an unspecified date. The story is told by a sailor called Marlow who works for a Belgian company involved in the ivory trade in the Congo. Marlow and the passengers of the Nellie are waiting for the tide which will let the ship sail from London. Marlow’s task is to carry raw ivory from the heart of the African continent to the coast where it can be loaded on ships bound for Europe. In Africa he gets to the Company Station where he is disappointed by the inefficiency and by the cruelty of the colonial exploitation. There he hears Kurtz’s name for the first time. Kurtz was a company agent who had become a sort of idol for the natives. He is seriously ill. Marlow finally meets Kurtz and succeeds in taking him on board. Kurtz dies during the journey. When Marlow returns to Belgium, he calls on Kurtz’s fiancée and tells her that Kurtz spoke her name while dying. CONGO AND KING LEOPOLD II 1885-1908 he ruled the CFS, he had total control of his resources, Belgium experienced great industrial development and colonial expansion during Leopold's reign, but → brutal exploitation of the population to pursuit resources: ivory and rubber, because he believed that without a colony a country would never achieve any historical significance which led to brutal exploitation of the congolese population in order to increase king leopold’s power and wealth. His colonial agenda wasn’t supported by the Belgium government until the conference of 1879, which legitimized it. Treaties with Congo tribe’s chiefs were made: who didn’t know what they had signed which led their tribes to be part of the Congo association, which only brought advantages for the king and disadvantages for the tribes. 1885= “scramble for Africa” a period which led all the major European countries to invade, occupy and colonize African territories in search of raw materials and trading opportunities. The local population were exploited in the name of progress and civilisation with an attitude of superiority which convinced Europeans that the process was meant to help Africans to develop their culture. During the Berlin conference king Leopold convinced European countries to let him take personal control of the congo free state, which was rich in ivory and rubber. The king’s behavior was barbarous: inhuman treatments, mass killings. Congolese who refused to provide labor were punished with mutilations, le-ode’s army as a proof they had killed a congolese they had to cut their hands(=currency for officers, Leopold didn’t agree with this practice). Leopold continued his exploitations, George Washington Williams wrote a letter to Leopold, condemning the brutal treatment, which he has seen in his trip to Congo, then the European press revealed what was happening ⇒ protest movement, writers condemned Congo’s colonization⇒ Conrad visited Congo⇒ inspiration to write”heart of darkness” (10000000 people died during Congo free state existence). Columbite tantalite- Coltan Coltan is an extraordinary mineral that's mined mainly in the eastern areas of the present-day Congo. In the ground, it's a metallic ore; when refined, it acquires unique heat-resistant characteristics that make it perfect for use in electronic capacitors. As a result, it is present in nearly every electronic device you can name (smartphones, laptops, desktop computers, games consoles) Its story reaches back directly to Congo, where the mining industry has been linked with bankrolling civil wars in the region the destruction of gorilla habitats. In full, coltan's name is columbite-tantalite Tantalus, the figure in Greek mythology who was condemned to a horrifying eternal torment, of the things he most desired being just out of his grasp. For many people in Congo, that's exactly what coltan is – close enough to touch, but its riches are out of reach. Like rubber during the era of automobiles, it's a substance that Congo has supplied to other countries, and which, for all the wealth it generates, has turned into a kind of curse.(maledizione) INDIAN INDEPENDENCE After World War I, the demand for independence grew, and the British initially responded with violence and repression. However, these repressive actions, coupled with racist attitudes, undermined British respect even among moderate Indians. It was during this period that Mohandas Gandhi emerged as a leader, advocating for peaceful means of resistance and initiating a new anti-colonial movement. Gandhi's vision of an independent India was rooted in Indian traditions, such as Hinduism, religious tolerance, and appreciation of local organizations. He employed non-violent civil disobedience, mass mobilization, and personal sacrifice to unite discontented Indians in their struggle for independence. Gandhi's movement touched on various issues, including the question of Hindu-Muslim unity, which remains a significant challenge in the subcontinent today. The history of Hindu-Muslim relations in the region had seen periods of conflict and attempts at coexistence. European powers further exploited religious divisions for their own expansionist goals. Gandhi recognized the potential tensions between religious factions in an independent India and aimed to establish an egalitarian and secular government to unite all Indians. However, his efforts to achieve religious harmony were largely unsuccessful, as evidenced by the partition of India in 1947 into India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim). The partition, which Gandhi considered his greatest failure, resulted in further ethnic struggles and ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. Tragically, Gandhi himself became a symbol of this division when he was assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu fanatic who accused him of being too lenient towards Muslims. KUREISHI English mother and Pakistani father⇒mixed origins⇒in between/hybrid identity Writing is a way for him to find an identity. In his works he talks about the clash and the interaction of different cultures and of the fact of having an hybrid identity. “The Buddha of Suburbia” is the novel that established his fame. It’s a semi autobiographical work. Bildungsroman It talks about the life of Karim, who lives in the suburbs of London and has a Pakistani father and English mother → miscegenation: mixed couple, hybrid identity. A theatre director offers him the role of Mowgli in a production of The Jungle Book, because he thinks that Karim is Indian → Karim monetizes on his identity He’s successful as an actor and moves to central London → moving to London has a symbolical meaning: it’s a way for “outsiders” to explore possibilities inconceivable in the world they come from → crf. Oliver Twist moving from the countryside to the city – from good to evil. The novel portrays different attitudes on the part of the British towards the migrants, some are open-minded and unbiased, while others are racist. Also the migrants’ realities are diverse: ● In Karim’s family integration seems possible ● While his uncle’s family lives in a sort of ethnic ghetto where they have tried to reconstruct their Pakistani way of life → problem of authenticity: they want to maintain the authenticity of the country they leave, but they have an essentialised idea of this country that doesn't reflect the reality of it. “A new breed” Satire and Humor: humour and satire to tackle serious themes. The novel satirizes the pretensions and hypocrisies of different social groups, including the middle-class suburbanites and the self-proclaimed spiritual gurus. “A New Breed” "The Buddha of Suburbia" Presents the hybrid personality of Karim He likes new experiences He lives in the suburbs-centre opposition Growth into maturity “Jamila” "The Buddha of Suburbia" Karim’s cousin Problems with her parents who live according to Indian traditions and want her to marry → she refuses to marry a man chosen by her father Anwar, but he manages to convince her by using blackmail Difficulties between immigrants and right-wing groups in the light of social and economic problems Generation clash → because parents impose their traditions to their children Humour → when Karim talks about Jamila’s exaggerated fears of racial conflict + when her future husband makes his strange requests HEART OF DARKNESS Joseph Conrad’s heart of the darkness first appeared in 1899, and it is regarded as a masterpiece of English literature. At the beginning, many critics praised the book for its psychological complexity, describing it as an exploration and journey of the spiritual darkness that resides within the individual. In fact, the author's aim was to explore the meaning of the human situation, recording the complex pattern of life, as he saw it. He was Polish and French but he used English because he thought that only the English language could properly express, in an ideal way, his complex vision of life. He called himself a homo duplex bc he never held clear positions and he also had an oblique style, describing extreme situations that ended with mystery. CONRAD’S CHARACTERS —> solitary past and uncertain future and they are presented through the mind of others or through actions (verga and dickens) It is a very sophisticated way to present the character. There is no answer to the story. It is the reader's responsibility to say what is right or wrong. He doesn’t give any judgment. There is an invisible narrator, and the first person narrator all of these several points of view result from Conrad's wish to break free from the constraints of an omniscient narrator. In fact, the reader is left to the side for himself. There is a relativism of moral values. There is this idea of a man who relies on the virtues of honesty, courage, and he is confronted by a sense of evil, and there is a conflict between personal feelings and professional duties. Marlow for instance while being in the wilderness starts building things, work in fact maintains psychological balance. who is also the narrator explains how England was once like Congo but then chose to be brave enough to face the darkness and that’s how England became civilized. So from the very beginning there is this idea of the light being civilization and dark being uncivilized. However, recent critics have remarked how this novella actually reminds of the colonization of the Congo under King Leopold II’s power. As a matter of fact, Conrad was used to writing about what he experienced. By reading his biography, it can be seen how he worked as an officer on a river steamboat from Brussels, and once he arrived in Congo, he saw the horror of Belgian colonialism and from that moment on, he was determined to denounce it. During that time European countries believed that without a colony, a nation could never achieve any historical significance. According to the imperialist gaze, every place has to be conquered. Therefore they used the will of civilizing natives as a pretext, so that they could offer them a better life. But at the same time the idea of colonialism itself is paradoxically a barbaric act. In fact, can we truly say that killing innocent people, putting them into forced labor and exploiting them, is civil progress? Civilized people act through diplomacy, not violence. The idea of civilization is corrupted by the human greed for money, power, and superiority. It is based on the assumption that the European way is the right way. Joseph Conrad‘s heart of darkness is set in the late 19th century in the heights of European colonization of the continent of Africa. In the introduction size, companions on a ship are waiting head up to see. Marleau, the storyteller of the book begins to speak, setting the dark brooding tone of the novella by telling that England has also been one of the dark places on earth. Marlowe explains he undertook the trip while working for a new European ivory extraction operation, known simply as the company, it was given the task to pick up one of his agents in Africa, a man named Kurtz to relieve him of his duty. The nature that surrounds Marlow,(in particular the river Congo and the jungle) is seen as a manifestation of his own feelings. He sees nature as something that secretes a mystery that Marlow can’t figure out. There is a disconnection between how things appear and reality that can be confusing. nature is the purest expression of the wilderness and it is threatening. The forest is a place of darkness where forces move, the vegetation is thicker and does not allow humans see the light, so civilisation. Kurtz can be interpreted as Marlow's double (topos, a second character who manifests who are hidden in another one). He is the id, the primitive and instintictive component of personality. bc k. is guided by pure instincts and drives almost like an animal, lack of self control. whereas Marlow young seaman is the voice of the superego, rational,with moral values. . Marlow wished to explore the "blank places" on the map because he longed for adventureHe is an observer of African exploitation and a man of action.•Marlow did not transgress his limits, He finds in work a sort of balance, he goes in congo with the intention of a worker. The heart of darkness tried to exercise its influence on him but he was able to restrain himself, throughout work. In fact Conrad believed that work gives human self control, but confidence fails when someone is lonely and surrounded by a wild background. Marlow was saved because his goal was self-knowledge, which requires great humility. Even though he came back without fully understanding his experience, what Marlow experiences in the wilderness changes him forever. The character of Kurtz first appears as a set of legends and rumors, remarkable for his eloquence, almost not to make him look like a real man but an otherworldly figure, K. embodies Europe. Conrad wants to give an impersonal presentation of Kurtz, so that the reader can decide whether he is a positive or negative person. He means that Kutz is lacking in moral fiber, he is now empty, all the plans of bringing light to the dark meant nothing, because he let wilderness overcome his soul. Like Marlow, Kurtz also wanted to travel to Africa in search of adventure and making acts of "humanizing, and improving" the natives (as he explains in his initial report to the Company). Once he tasted the power Kurtz abandoned his philanthropic ideals and set himself up as a god to the natives. experiences a lacked restraint inner struggle between good and evil. Being away from society and in contact with wilderness drives you mad and loses yourself in the dark. becomes hollow inside. A journey of the recesses of the self like Dante's one. When u are in a dark place u have no coordinates, allegorically u have no moral or spiritual direction, u are lost. The place that has been forgotten is the place of the laws of the Father, moral voice now he can kill people bc he follows the laws of nature now,m different rules. Kurtz is tormented Marlow is wondering whether Kurtz is seeing his life passing through memories. He is about to die. In his last minutes of his life he should live his life again—-> chanson de roland He is seeing the primitive self. He surrendered to his instincts, tentation, wilderness. We expect Kurtz to have understood the meaning of life..something brutal about life Light comprehensive dark not comprehensive obscure. K. is not only referring to his own dark deeds ( heads of native on the strikes asd a symbol of power), but also realizes how much human nature is corrupted. The dark symbolizes: Death and despair in the jungle; solitude and alienation, which drive men mad; the death of ethical behavior ; the death of goodness and civility;the death of our authority as ourselves. While he used to worry about the best ways to bring the "light" of civilization to the Congo. White is traditionally associated with light, calm, peace, beauty and good. White is linked to the violence, exploitation and indifference of colonialism. Darkness is seen as a menace to light, as evil. Black acquires a positive connotation: colour of the jungle and primitive people. the image of blinding sunlight becomes entangled with the image of darkness: Both conditions hamper our ability to see things clearly. In Heart of Darkness, there is a real contrast between what is light and what is dark. These contrasts work within a reality of civilization and savageness. It appears that light represents the civilized, and dark represents the uncivilized, but truly, white is evil, and the dark is innocent and virtuous. There is a passage on the book in which Marlow has to be visited by a doctor before starting his travel and his head is being measured, this could possibly also be a reference to cesare lombroso studies an Italian criminologist and physician who is known for his theories on criminal behavior and the concept of the "born criminal." Lombroso believed that criminal behavior was determined by biological factors and that some individuals were predisposed to criminality based on their physical characteristics. He proposed the theory of "criminal anthropology" and argued that criminals could be identified by specific physical traits, such as a large jaw, asymmetrical face. Lombroso believed that criminals were evolutionary throwbacks, resembling primitive or "atavistic" humans. So he also started to go to prison examining these people, not caring about the fact that they were all not nourished, so their skeletons were more pronounced. "Francis Galton (1822-1911), known for his theory of eugenics, spread the idea that it was possible to improve the human species through the selection of parents. In his book "Hereditary Genius" (1869), he argued that mental and physical characteristics were equally inherited, a concept that was met with skepticism at the time. However, eugenics proved to be a dangerous and harmful ideology. The term itself was coined by Galton in 1883 to refer to the selection of desired hereditary traits in order to improve future generations. Unfortunately, this concept has cast a disturbing shadow over human history. Eugenics, with all its implications, was adopted by totalitarian regimes like Adolf Hitler's. It was used to justify policies of racial superiority and led to terrible human tragedies during the