English Romanticism, Victorian Age, Modernism - Programma di 5 liceo scientifico, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica English Romanticism, Victorian Age, Modernism - Programma di 5 liceo scientifico e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! 2 2. Saper sintetizzare la politica di base del ‘Fast Fashion’ e dedurne inevitabili conseguenze. 3. Sensibilizzare ad un consumo sostenibile ed individuare possibili soluzioni al problema. 4. Pensiero critico e rielaborazione personale dei contenuti (materiale video/ testi) in lingua inglese anche tramite lavoro di gruppo. X X 2. CONTENUTI E TEMPI U.D. nr. 1: The Romantic Age (PERIODO: Settembre) - The Industrial Revolution (pp. 244-245 vol. 1) - A new sensibility: towards subjective poetry (p.250) - Nature and Sublime: extract from “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” by Edmund Burke (pp. 250-251 vol 1). - A new concept of Nature in Art and Literature (da powerpoint su Classroom “The Romantic Spirit”):  Analysis of “The Shipwreck”, J.M.W. Turner  Analysis of “The Hay Wain”, J. Constable  Analysis of “Wanderer above the sea of fog”, C.D. Friedrich U.D. nr. 2: Romantic Poetry (PERIODO: Ottobre) - Romantic poetry: the Romantic imagination; the figure of the child; the individual; the view of nature; two generations of poets (pp. 259-260 vol. 1) - William Wordsworth (pp. 280-281 vol. 1)  My heart leaps up (p. 261 vol 1)  A certain colouring of imagination (extract from the “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” - T45)  Daffodils (T47) and the concept of ‘Recollection in Tranquillity’ - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (p. 288 vol. 1)  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (pp. 289-290 vol. 1) 5  Mrs Dalloway (pp. 266-267 vol. 2 + powerpoint “The Modern Age”)  “Clarissa and Septimus” (T105) – Previsto post 15/5  Cenni a “Clarissa’s Party” (T106) – Previsto post 15/5 U.D. nr.8: The Dystopian Novel (PERIODO: Maggio - Giugno) - George Orwell  Nineteen Eighty-Four (pp. 276-277 vol. 2)  “Big Brother is watching you” (T107) – Previsto post 15/5  Riferimenti alla Summer Reading "1984" George Orwell, ed. Liberty Classics U.D. di EDUCAZIONE CIVICA (PERIODO: 4 ore a Dicembre 2023) - “From mass production to fast fashion: the unbearable lightness of human beings”  VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04dSAUAoitY  ARTICLE https://sanvt.com/blogs/journal/fast-fashion-explained-meaning-and- history  VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GprVaAVPEI8 ( BBC: "The Price of Fast Fashion" )  VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n75jVQTUEE8 ( "Our Love For Cheap Clothes: What’s The TRUE Cost?" ) - FINAL TASK (team work): Prepare a speech (supported by images or slides) to make teens (middle school students) aware of the issue of FAST FASHION. 3. SPAZI, METODI E MEZZI IN PRESENZA Aula di classe X Laboratorio/palestra LIM X Classroom X Economic changes that will transform England from an agricultural to an industrialised nation. The origins of this transformation can be traced back to the rise in living conditions after the “Black Death”. Between the 16th and the 17th century the population increased, and agriculture was intensified thanks to the introduction of the enclosures. The soil was also drained and made more fertile -> increasing of cereal production and of the selection of animals’ bred. Economic activities switched to the manufacture of woolen cloth -> clothing of ordinary people changed -> linen underwear, stocking, ribbons and hats Clothing marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution -> mass consumption of machine made goods started -> more people began to consume for pleasure Technological innovations changed and improved the productivity of workers 1712 -> steam engine to drain water out of the coal mines 1764 -> Spinning Jenny increased spinning efficiency 1769 -> J. Watt made the steam engine more powerful and less wasting fuel 1787 -> Cartwright’s loom linked cloth manufacture to water and steam power More investments in technological development and innovations started to be linked to energy generated from coal -> new industrial activity are located near the coalfields of the Midlands and the North -> as a consequence people shifted from the rural South to the North and the Midlands where were born the “mushroom towns” that were constructed to house the workers near the factories However, industrial tows lacked of people’s basic needs (poor hygiene), air and water were polluted by smoke and filth, houses were overcrowded. There was also women and children exploitation (paid less and easier to control + children were smaller and could move easily in mines crawl between machines to carry out repairs. End Of 18thCENTURY The Industrial Revolutioni · New work patterns determined by the mechanised regularity of the machine, labour was rationally divided, woking in mines and factories was characterised by long working ours, monotony routines, food prices rose as also increased the mortality rate. In the second half of 18th century, poets tended to use subjective, autobiographical material moving towards the expression of a lyrical and personal experience of life. There was also a growing interest in HUMBLE and everyday life and interest in melancholy. Revolution in the concept of nature as a real and living being, it was seen in two different ways: 1-Wordsworth and Constable’s (painter) vision: a peaceful, calm, relaxing being, nature is a living being that is part of the same universal order together with men, it is source of joy, lives in touch with men, and it can arouse emotions to human being, it is source of inspiration and comfort, in a pantheistic vein is an expression of God in the Universe. In Wordsworth’s poems is the second protagonist, when a natural object is described, the main focus is on the poet’s reaction to that object, he believed that man and nature are inseparable, nature comforts man in sorrow and teaches him how to love and act in moral way. Nature was also a world of sense perceptions, mainly sight and hear. 2-Coleridge and Turner’s (painter) vision: an overwhelming force that men can’t control, because is too strong and too powerful to be tames by them, is something wild and frightening, but it’s still something fascinating, so that Burke and Coleridge introduced the concept of SUBLIME The Romanti Age d o plain and emphatic language. The second part of the extract states that poetry is a very strong, deep, and spontaneous overflow of feelings, then he describes the process of poetic production: 1 it starts with a sensory experience; 2 the emotion is aroused by sensory experience; 3 recollection of the emotion in tranquility and solitude; 4 contemplation of the emotion thanks to the power of imagination; 5 production of a new emotion similar but deeper than the first one because is purified, because thanks to the contemplation the poet can catch the essence of the emotion; 6 born the poetry. -subjectivity (“My”) -> author first protagonist of the poem -focused on emotions felt by the poet himself when he’s in nature -> happy and delighted by the sight of nature which is source of wonder, joy and surprise -nature second protagonist of the poem -> the poet is devoted to it, they are linked together (“bound”) -semantic area of sight = sensory perception -“the Child is father of the Man” -> contradictory, paradox claiming the superiority of the childhood over the adulthood because they are careless as they are innocent giving that they are not in touch with civilization but are in touch with nature -> they are not corrupted and have something to teach to adults -> natural piety that adults don’t have anymore as they are corrupted -when a poet is in touch with nature he can really feel as a child again -set in Lake District Focus on the feelings and emotions that the poet feels himself when he’s in nature mMY HEART LEAPSS UP DAFFODILS -> pleasant and positive feeling -the protagonist of the poem is the author himself -prevails the sense of sight -poet and cloud are similar because they share a feeling of solitude, both lonely because they are detached from reality but at the same time are in touch with nature -> lonely, absentmindedness, detouchness -here are also explained the steps of the process to create poetry -> thanks to the power of imagination he realizes how he felt in nature and he produced a new, similar emotion but deeper and purer than the previous one and now he can write the poem Born in 1772, in Devonshire. In 1795 met Wordsworth, in the Lake District. In 1798 wrote the “THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER”, that is the first poem of the collection “Lyrical Ballads”, that became the Manifesto of the English Romantic movement together with the “Preface”. In 1816 published the “KUBLA KAN”, a fragment probably written under the influence of opium (supernatural element), he has never finished it. While Wordsworth wants to make the ordinary extraordinary, special, Coleridge wants to make the extraordinary credible, both thanks to the power of imagination. -Mariner -> prototype of the outsider / outcast of the society -set in the wide sea with days of hot sun and nights lit by the moon (ocean) - nightmarish atmosphere -introduced by an “argument” containing a short summary of the whole poem and consists of two narratives: Samuel Taylor ColeridgeS n e l t cole rid g -THE R - THE IME D TE Agent MARIER One is made up of captions, which constitute the framework of the whole poem, the other is the poem itself -in the third there’s the figure of Life-in-Death -> physically alive but the soul of the mariner is dead (he feels guilty and isolated from the rest of the world (ref. To TS Elliot “Waste Land” - long poem dealing with people’s state of life-in-death) -ballad made up of seven parts *Ballad -> ancestor of the song = use of alliteration, repetition, rhymes, refrain -> conveying musicality and rhytm -> born in medieval age for celebrations -> the moral at the end of this one makes it a Romantic one -> typical feature: alternation between dialogues and narration -mariner -> supernatural character described as a wizard / magician and he’s able to enchant as he does with the wedding guest (“glittering eye”) -> outcast of the society -wedding guest - child -> both are focused on a tale that someone else is telling them -> the mariner casts a spell towards him -Albatross -> symbol of luck (good omen) for mariners, God’s Salvation -> when he opens his wings his shade looks like a cross -many references to the perceptive sphere mainly of the sense of sight and hear -frequent perception of the sublime given by the gloomy and creepy dark atmosphere -crime: they killed a natural elementi (living being), the symbol of God’s Salvation, the symbol of good luck -> after that they’re cursed -> punishments -> redemption -> reconciliation with nature = reconciliation with God (Bible) -punishments: 1) as soon as he kills the Albatros he has to carry his dead corpse hung around his neck, THE RIMIN OF THE ALBATTROSS -soft consonants and long vowel sounds conveying the idea of softness, sweetness and tenderness of the lamb -In the 2nd stanza the poet gives the answer to the previous question -the two stanzas are related by the speaker who makes a question and then answers to it -Songs of Experience (period of Terror in France) - 1794 -related to the second state of mind, the one of the experiences, linked to adulthood, wildness, aggressiveness, and dangerous animals, and the cities that are spoilt by the society, more similar to Coleridge’s ideals -Setting: in a forest, more scaring, frightening, wild, sublime to convey the aggressiveness of the Tyger -Appearance of the Tyger: it’s referred to as a Burning Bright (burning because is dang and strong; bright because is beautiful, a stunning animal), it’s also symbol of power, energy, fear and aggressiveness -Tyger: both beautiful and dangerous (oxymoron/paradox) fearful symmetry = frightening perfection, is something to admire but also to fear (sublime) -Creator’s characteristics: dreadful, violent, brave, he is a more concrete entity than the lamb’s creator,compared to a human, a blacksmith, bold and brave -The structure is more complex due to the frequent questions, the rhythm is fast and hammering and conveys its dangerousness, energy, and violence -The poet also describes the process of creation of the Tyger by comparing it to the one of a blacksmith that forges metal throughout the fire -The atmosphere is not as abstract and peaceful, but there are tension and fear, both these two emotions are necessary according to the theory of the complementary opposites -the Tyger is the paired poem of the Lamb THE TUER -increasing interest in individual consciousness revealed itself in fiction, marked by taste for the strange and mysterious, impulse of freedom and escape from the ugly world, and also by the fear of the triumph of evil and caos over good and order -Gothic novel common to all the social classes also thanks to circulating libraries -features: it was intended to arouse fear in the reader and the threat of realising all the mind’s potientialities beyond reason -the nature of this fear could be linked to the historical period characterised by increasing disillusionment with Enlightenment rationality and by the bloody Revolutions in America and France -setting of these novels was influenced by the senso of sublime as most of the main events takes place at night -> darkness is a powerful element used to create an atmosphere of gloom, oppression and mystery -gothic hero usually isolated voluntarily or not -gothic heroine is at the same time afflicted with unreal terrors and persecuted by a villain -> embodiment of evil -the wanderer or outcast -> symbol of isolation -plots are complicated by embedded narratives and supernatural beings Born in 1797, daughter of a feminist philosopher and novelist, and an anarchist and philosopher, both were influenced by the French Revolution and were part of a small radical group, which included William Blake, too. Mary’s mother died ten days after her birth, her stepmother and sister were the cause of Mary’s sufferings and troubles Her father’s house was visited by some of the most famous writers of the English romanticism as Coleridge and Percy Shelley, who was attracted by Mary they fled to France and rent a house on the banks of the Lake Geneva, where Mary had ti IRomi : Prose -The GothicNovelC prose t got hi n veb Mary Shelley the inspiration for her novel Frankenstein (1818). After her husband death in Lerici, she returned to England where she died in 1851. -The myth of Prometheus: in Greek mythology he was a giant who steals the fire from Zeus, and uses it to help the human kind, but for this act of transgression he’s punished by being chained to a mountain and every day an eagle comes and eats his livers, which rise back every time -Setting: the Suisse Alps and the Antarctic, set in sublime places (influence of the Gothic novel) -Narrative structure: epistolary novel and is the first ever science fiction novel, that presents three different points of view, even if the whole story is told in the letters between Captain Walton and his sister. The different narrators: 1) Walton directly informs his sister, 2) Frankenstein and Walton met in the North Pole, where F. tells him the story of the creation of the Monster on a ship, then Walton informs his sister, 3) the monster and Frankenstein met in the Suisse Alps, and he tells him his story, F. refers it to W., who informs his sister -Themes: 1) The quest for forbidden knowledge - ambition to go beyond human limits: Prometheus: challenged God’s law and freed men from god’s power; Frankenstein: went against God’s law and the sacred law of nature and procreation; Walton: wants to reach the North Pole which is actually unreachable 2) The overreacher: Prometheus is the embodiment and source of inspiration as someone who wants to reach something unreachable and forbidden; Walton’s goal is to reach the polar regions, an unknown and undiscovered world, which is risky and dangerous; Frankenstein’s goal is to discover the mystery of life and through scientific research creating life from death, even if this attempt goes against nature and God’s laws, because giving life to something is either God’s prerogative or a natural phenomenon; both Prometheus and Frankenstein will be punished FRANESTEM Or THE MODER PROMETTUS - It refers to the contradictions characterizing the victorian society → despite its apparent image of political stability, technological progress, economic growth, colonial expansion, moral respectability, the Victorian age was actually characterized by social injustice and unrest, appalling living and working conditions of the lower classes and immorality - Was a sort of veil (→ displaying progress, morality, power and stability) behind which the negative aspects were hidden: 1) illusory image of technological progress (Industrial Revolution),colonial power, political and social stability, middle classes' respectability → hides a real condition of social unrest /instability, dissolution, injustice A. Apparent facade of: 1) technological and economical progress → 1851= Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde park, London → Paxton's project built in iron and glass = display of goods from colonies and exhibitors from aIl over the world; 2) colonial power→ 1877 Queen Victoria became "Empress of India" Hiding shadows: 1) APPALLING WORKING CONDITIONS IN FACTORIES/ MINES (long working hours, lack of hygiene, monotony/ human alienation, exploitation of workers - women/children) as a consequence of the Industrial revolution/ progress; 2) terrible life conditions in the SLUMS of the town centres (overcrowding, pollution no hygiene, no running water, communal pits as toilets, monotony, poverty → high mortality rate); 3) CHILD LABOUR (mines/ factories/ workhouse/chimney sweepers/shoeblacks/street sellers/ house servants) B. Image of political stability, an age of reforms → 1834 – The Poor Law Amendment Act introducing the Workhouses as a deterrent against poverty with apparent philanthropic intentions = institutions where the poor received board FROM 1837 To 1901 Victorian age - vi toriam Victoria compromSE VICTORam CONTRADICTIONS and lodging in return for work; Reform Acts for the male suffrage: 1867 - right to vote extended to some sections of the working classes, 1870 - Education Act in favour of the middle classes only, establishing the basis of Elementary school, 1884 - right to all male householders. But: 1) social unrest: Chartist movement- 1838-a working class movement calling for reforms and universal male suffrage drafting the “People’s Charter” which failed but led to 1867 and 1884 Reform Acts 2) POVERTY and INJUSTICE (gap between the poor working classes and the middle classes, mailnly merchants/shopkeepers) C. On the one hand: 1) Middle-class MORAL RESPECTABILITY/ morality: good manners/ self-restraint code, sexophobia/ prudery, value of family and motherhood, female chastity → women as inspirers for men staying home looking after children and the house but there was also a refusal of "fallen women" (those who had children out of a marriage and are single); aim to reach a decent social status; philanthropy and religion. On the other hand: 1) spread of prostitution among working class women because of poverty; 2) inferiority of women (no rights and underpaid); 3) workhouses: led by the parishes according to immoral rules → here families were split, people lived in starvation conditions, and there was also an exploitation of children → Contrast between philanthropic intentions (helping the poor) and the real aim of the workhouses: to make the lower classes experience such terrible life conditions that they would be inspired to improve their own conditions; 3) vices (alcoholism), dissolution, criminality and consequent violent repression According to utilitarianism, an action is morally right if it has consequences that lead to material happiness, and wrong if it brings about the reverse. Only useful aspects are worth it → material happiness not emotional. h #Benam's Ul arianism - Communion of interests and opinion between readers and writers (they belonged to the middle class too so they were in constant contact with their public) →reason: enormous growth of the middle classes (avid consumers of literature)→borrowed books from circulating libraries and read periodicals - a big amount of Victorian's literature was first published in a serial form as instalments in the pages of periodicals →the writer felt like he was in constant contact with the public, and he was obliged to keep his story gripping - the spread of scientific knowledge made the novel realistic and analytical (descriptions are very detailed and precise like in a journalistic style), but the spread of democracy made it social and humanitarian (sentimentalistic - on the side of the victim/ humble) but also inquisitive. -The novelist wanted to reflect the social changes →the ones of the first part of the Victorian period described society as it was and as they saw it -narrative technique: omniscent and obtrusive narrator provided a comment on the plot and erected a rigid barrier between "right" and "wrong" behaviours; logic of retribution for the good characters and punishment for the wicked ones - contrasting and anthithetical images between children and adults→children are emblematic of moral behaviours (moral teachers), but are thought to be evil and immoral (opposite of how reality should be); while adults have a corrupted morality (due to industrialization and the utilitarian philosophy) -novels usually set in the cities symbol of the industrial civilisation -types of novels: 1) humanitarian novel → Charles Dickens's novels are mostly admired because of his combination of humourism and sentimentalism; 2) novel of formation → Charles Dickens's "David Copperfield", focus on the development of the character -women writers: domestic novels (everyday life of a girl of that time) , THE VICTORIA NOVEL workhouses -lots of exaggerations, caricatures and bitter irony -reversal of roles: children are treated as if they were adults (punished for going against the rules) while the adults here are the only irresponsible -> they’re leading children to starvation -1854, full of irony, exaggerations and caricatures to criticize the Victorian society -setting: an imaginary industrial town - Coketown - that has the same characteristics as a real industrial town in mid-19th-century Victorian England, where all the buildings are the same and everything in it is functional -Mr Gradgrind headmaster of the “M’Choakumchild” school beliefs that even human nature could be measured, quantified and governed by reason, and everything irrational as imagination and feeling should be repressed, turning children into machines -here Dickens’s aim is to show how dangerous could be the teaching method called “objective lesson” -compounded noun -> joke -> grade: to level or to give a mark to judge students according to the functionality of their knowledge (wants the students to be all the same like objects without a personality); grind: smash -> he wants to destroy their personality; -his description is emblematic of Dickens’s use of bitter irony since he follows functional education, which means he teaches anything rational like maths, statistics, grammar rules, dictionary definitions and figures, his description is given by the semantic area of geometry and math, his physical appearance is associated with his strict and squared mentality -> he want to plant the seed of fact in the kids, while destroying their creativity and imagination , HARD TIMES , -GRADERIMD -here there’s the description of the typical English Industrial town of the 19th century, characterized by pollution, overcrowding, monotony, repetitiveness, usefulness, workfulness -keyword: materialismo, in this city is kind of a religion -repetitions of the words “facts” and “same” -> repetitive labour -> human labour is regulated by the rhythm of the machines -> factory system leads to dehumanization and alienation (madness) -> interior DEATH -> leads to craziness -semantic area of the sense of sight and wilderness: the city is not characterized by the progress (as should be), instead it’s chaotic, wild and dangerous (jungle of bricks), industrial rev. doesn’t lead to progress but brings back to uncivilization -Dickens emphasize the gab between the lower classes and the middle classes who took advantage of hard and alienating labour of workers -the name of the school “M’Choakmchild” sounds like a bitter joke, “choke a child”, allusion to the alienating process students undergo attending this that’s all fact, they’re provided with so many facts, figures, numbers, definitions, that they stop breathing-> so full of useless facts that they come to an interior death -> tragic effect of utilitarianism and functional education -> Gradgrind wants to turn students into machine -Sissy Jupe: a student that rejects this type of education and is scolded by the teacher: she doesn’t know the dictionary definition of a horse and wants to be called with a short name instead of her full name (Cecilia), she hasn’t been deprived of her liveliness and imagination -Bitzer: student who is the embodiment of the functional education. He follows Gradgrind’s rules but he’s ‘dead inside’ (“If he were cut, he would bleed white” ironic exaggerations to convey his bitter message: Bitzer has lost his ability to feel emotions) CORTOU SISSY JUPE AND BITZZERR - 1850, Edinburgh → 1894,Samoa - spent his childhood in bed → poor health (tubercolosis) → was tutored at home 4 levels of interpretation: 1) Science - fiction = influenced by Frankenstein's Gothic elements → the story mostly takes place at night (creepy-gloomy atmosphere) → Dr Jekyll uses a potion which he had made himself, he carries out lots of experiments before creating it 2) Detective novel = many misteries and crimes to be solved → all the solutions at the end → sense of SUSPANCE 3) psychological novel (main one)= it investigates the innate duality of human soul → investigation of our tendencies→ message: man is not one sided but double→ everyone has a good, moral and rational side but also an irrational, immoral and wicked side→there is a kind of struggle inside 4) Novel as an emblem of the contraddiction/ hypocrisy of Victorian society → facade of morality and hidden immorality, poverty, corruption, criminality -leitmotif - recurrent theme = the theme of the double a) referred to the duplicity of human soul and also to Victorian society b) for the inner self of the protagonist c) morality, respectability, wealth against immorality, corruption, dissolution, poverty -Theme of the double also in the setting: a) London has a respectable side, the West End, and a poor and ruined side , the East End b) Dr Jekyll’s house, the front used by the Dr is fair, part of a square “ancient, handsome, house”- wealthy while the rear side used by Mr Hyde looks like a slum, THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOVEL Robert Luis StevensonS St s o u · -THE STRANGE CASE OF DE JEMUL ANDAR HIDE -Decadence -> European movement: France - Boudlaire (“Les fleurs du mal”), Huysmans (“A rebours”); Italy: D’Annunzio (“Il piacere”); England: Wilde (“The picture of Dorian Gray”) -figure of the dandy = a man who boasted about his appearance even though he was wearing odd ordinary clothes -> vanity, extravagance and refinement were linked to the more positive idea of the dandy which developed thanks to Brummell -1854, Dublin - 1900, Paris -gained first-class degree in Classics and distinguished himself for eccentricity -disciple of Walter Pater following his theory “Art’s for Art Sake” (2° principle motto borrowed from Gautier by Pater) too = art has no other aim than itself -became a celebrity for his eccentric personality typical of the dandy, but also for his extraordinary wit -> his presence = social event -1881 pubbliche the collection “Poems” and was invited to undertake a speaking tour in the USA where in New York he told that Aestheticism was a search for the beautiful -1891 he was charged of homosexuality because of his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas “Boosie”, even if Oscar had a previous affair with Robert Ross -1895 after the trial, he was sentenced to two years of hard labour -While in prison he wrote “De profundis”, a long letter to Boosie, published in 1905 -When he was released he went into exile in France where he lived in poverty -before dying of meningitis he published “The Ballad of the Reading Gaol” -> prison in which he was sent -he adopted the aesthetic ideal and affirmed “My life is a work of art” -> he based his life and his literary production upon the same principles: there’s an overlapping between life and art (1° principle) - hedonistic, aesthetic belief -he wanted to devote his whole life to the cult of art, pleasures and beauty ⑳ScarWilde -novel set in London at the end of the 19th century -protagonist: Dorian Gray - young man whose beauty fascinates the painter Basil Hallward, who decides to paint his portrait. Under the influence of the dandy Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian becomes an hedonist and starts a life of pleasures. While all his desires are satisfied, including the eternal youth, the sign of age, corruption and vice appear on his portrait that becomes uglier and uglier every time Doriam does something wrong. He has sold his soul to the devil in change of eternal youth. Dorian can’t bear the sight of his spiritual corruption on his portrait and decides to stab it, but he kills himself too. -Lord Henry Wotton -> intellectual, brilliant talker, extremely sharp in criticism of institutions -Basil Hallward -> intellectual, painter who falls in love with Dorian beauty and innocence - will be killed by Dorian -narrator: unobtrusive third-person -> allows a process of identification between the reader and the character -first published on a magazine ad an essay, in 1891 appeared in the final edition of the novel -> considered the Manifesto of English Aestheticism -not a text but a list of aphorisms = short and coincise phrases conveying a truth (epigrammatic sentences) -> all these style are symbols of his witty language -use of paradoxes -> contradictory statements that reveals a truth after being analyzed in depth -use of inversions -> to stress the object of the sentence -Wilde moves away from Victoria novel -> he didn’t want to criticize, he’s an antivictorian author, he just wants to escape in an ideal world of art, sensations and pleasures, he did art for the only pleasure of doing it The PICCTURE DECDORIAM GRAY THE PRECE -he wants to highlight the fact that artist means nothing, the only thing that matters is art, which can’t be questioned, interpreted or judge -emphasize the absence of didactic or moral aim in art -art is just beauty and nothing more -art is symbol of itself -> it’s at the same time something superficial and meaningful -art doesn’t need to be investigated -> trying to go deeper is dangerous -beauty is art and art is beauty -> an ugly piece of art doesn’t exist -Lord Henry Wotton meets Dorian Gray and he finds him to be totally unselfconscious about his beauty. They are both enthralled (fascinated) by the beauty that the painter Basil Hallward has captured in the finished portrait of Dorian. -L. H. wants to initiate Dorian to a life of hedonism, excessives -beauty considered a form of genius, that’s even superior than it can’t be explained -only shallow people don’t judge by appearances -> beauty is less superficial than thoughts -> Henry thinks that beauty is the essence of life - core of existence- is the only meter of value -Henry -> starts with a Eulogy to beauty -> it has to be fully because it is temporary, with aging you will lose all the triumph of youth -> deprived of the gift of the youth -Henry implores Dorian to not follow the strict morality of the Victorian society -after the sight of his portrait he feels happy because he has realized how beautiful he’s -after Henry’s speech he feels sad, a pain as if he were wounded by a knife -> thought of aging and lose his beauty is painful -the passage starts with a positive and relaxing atmosphere -> he seems to want to change because he’s sick of his corruption -he’s recently engaged with an innocent and pure country girl, Hetty Merton NEW HEDOSM DORIA" DETTH heaven -> both the soil and the sky will become English thanks to the death of the English soldiers -1893-1918 died seven days before the armistice in a German gun attack -victim of shell-shock -realistic and disillusioned view of war -quotation from Orace -references to life in the trenches -soldiers because of war were blind, deaf, lame -emblematic of Owen’s disillusioned view of war -> as something not horrible but to reject -> could be considered a warning for future generations towards the destructive power of war -> it only leads to destruction and death, not rewarding or glorious - something that will continue to haunt the soldiers -even if soldiers are young war made them old like beggars -war as source of sickness, tiredness, starvation, exhaustion and causes psychological traumas -2nd stanza -> faster rhythm because death is occurring, panicking for the gas attacks -> detailed description of a gas attack -> comparing the death of his companion due to gas as if he was drowning -> all the effects of the gas attacks are compared to a cancer, as analogy war is source of sickness -he wants to say to the future generations that are thirsty of glory that war is nothing but a lie, that’s not true that dying for your country is honorable -> if you experience the horrrors of the war you wouldn’t tell your children the “old lie” -> you could understand the lie only if you experience it Wilfred Owemw d O w w DULCE ETT DECORUM EST -1888 Missouri, 1965 London -Cosmopolitan author, open to foreign cultures - he studied in Paris, Oxford (Dante, Symbolists) -Moved to London, at the outbreak of WWI he was working as a clerk. -1927 he became British citizen, and converted to Anglicanism. -1948 he won the Nobel Prize. -Suffered from mental disorders in Lausanne, Switzerland -> poetry became his refuge -1922 - considered the “Annus Mirabilis” for English literature -sterile land -> feeling of abandonment and desolation -> people are dead alive -Emblematic of the sense of FRAGMENTATION of the MODERN AGE due to the loss of certainties of the 20th century -this long poem is a collection of numerous fragments taken from previous authors and books -> symbol of fragmentation -> even if the style is fragmented they are still connected by a leitmotif: the contrast between the fertility of a mythical past and the spiritual sterility (weakness, fragmentation, desolation) of the present world -Eliot gives to the fragments another different meaning and context -> this is called the “mythical method” = recovering quotations and allusions from the past and using it in modern context -> he contrasts the meaningless of modern life with allusions to the past legends and myths, such as Arthurian Legend and the quest for the Holy Grail - metaphor for man’s search for spiritual salvation -Analogy “The Waste Land” = Picasso’s Cubist painting (fragmentation having its meaning in the whole, not in the single element) - Analogy “The Waste Land” = Joyce’s “Ulysses” in which he also employed the mythical method -Eliot also adopted the technique of the objective correlative: specific stylistic device I . S . Elio THE WASTE LAND -> also employed by Montale, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of a particular emotion, this technique allows the author to evoke an emotion through a series of concrete images, events or objects, that are emblematic of that emotion without saying it (in order to convey an emotion he describes something that arouses it) “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, Picasso, cubism -During the modern age there’s a total break with the Victorian Age -the women’s bodies are fragmented like if he had broken them and then reassembled it in an unconventional way -it reminds the fragmentations of the century and the feelings of the survived soldiers, as a consequence of the broken souls war has left -linked to literature because we have no more an only perception and perspective but there are different points of view -> one fact, multiple perceptions of the character’s mind -> as also there are multiple points of view about the perception of the women -> painters and writers are experimenting new techniques and styles to convey the feeling of uneasiness -physically alive but spiritually death because of WWI -This is the opening of the poem, recovering the opening of “Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer, thanks to the Mythical Method the author conveys the contrast between the natural process of death and regeneration typical of the past -with spring rain the roots will born again and the sorrows will start again -“cruelest month” because it brings life back on earth -> sad, painful -opposite as Chaucer -here spring is something negative because we have to start living again -winter -> better because it kept everything covered and there was only death -THE BURIAL OF THE DEADD -this theory discarded the concepts of time and space, which he saw as subjective dimensions -> as a consequence the world view lost its solidity -there was no more one unique and concrete reality but multiple with different points of view and interpretations -> everything is relative -> influenced also literature -he made a distinction between “Historical time” and “Psychological time” -Historical time is objective, external, linear time also called time of the clock -Psychological time is individual perception of time internal, subjective, relative time, every moment has in itself its past and future also called time of the mind -he suggested that a thought or feeling could be measured in terms of number of perceptions, memories and associations attached to it -according to his theory time does’t follow a chronological order, but is a flow where past, present and future overlap -in literature time can be expanded or shortened according to the character’s perception of it -> break with the traditional victorian style of narration (3rd person narrator) -> now the author wants to show the story from different perspective -> there’s a total lack of linear plots -> the action takes place in the mind of the characters and the story is told through the mind of the character according to it’s perspective -> there could be more interpretations of one event -> everything is relative now -surrealist painting -> idea of time as a flow - connected with the concept of relativity of time -movement that wants to represents thoughts and dreams (Freud) -visual arts are also influenced these theories as in this painting, the past time persists in the present -THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY B EINSTEM .. -THE RELA IVITY OF TIME BU BERRESSON#I I r -international movement of the period after WWI -> people have lost humanity and enthusiasm, they felt shaken, disillusioned and fragmented -in literature fragmented style -> Woolf and Joyce so as for art -> cubism - Picasso -1922 - considered the “annus mirabilis” for English literature because were published “Ulysses”, by James Joyce and “the Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot -in “Ulysses” Joyce tried to write the characters thoughts -> it has been written employing the narrative style of the stream of consciousness and the interior monologue, -> the novel takes place in Dublin in a single day, (16th June), here time is extremely expanded, focus on the mind of the character and his perception, but there are multiple point of view - protagonist = Mr Bloom -> 16th June (celebrated in Ireland as “Blooms day”) is connected also to Joyce’s privet life because he had his first date with his wife Nora Barnacle -> thanks to her he finds the courage to leave Dublin -> they moved to Trieste where he met Svevo and Montale -> “voluntary exile” because Joyce considered Dublin claustrophobic and paralysing because it was far from Europe -> he has a cosmopolitan approach to literature, he’s attracted by the different cultures of Europe -modern novelist rejected omniscient narration, because the traditional one is not suitable anymore due to the facts that there are new fragmented realities -experimenting new methods to portray the individual consciousness -> continuous shifts in time and space -> stream of consciousness -> no linear plots or chronological events; -> shifts in time are inevitable -> no logical association of ideas -analysis of character’s consciousness influenced by Freud theories 20130 of the 20th CENTURY Modernismmo i -The Modern novelthe m vu n e l -the coexistence of the past in the present determines the whole personality of each human being -> our existence is determined by past, present and future -> moment of being or epiphany are emblematic of this coexistence -> moment of awareness / revelation of the life of the characters caused by trivial events of everyday life -time is subjective and internal -> story could last one single day as for “Mrs Dalloway”, Woolf, and “Ulysses”, Joyce -introduction of the stream of consciousness technique to define the continuous flow of thoughts and sensation that characterize the human mind and the interior monologue is the verbal expression of this psychic phenomenon -distinction between three groups of novelist: 1) psychological novelists -> focus on the development of the character’s mind and on human relationship -> Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” (forerunner - set in Congo -Belgium Colony- introduces multiple points of view and shifts in time); Forster - recurrent theme is the complexity of human relationship together with the analysis of the contrast between different cultures (“A passage to India” - British and Indian cultures- superiority of British people is fading away) 2) novelist that experimented with subjective narrative techniques -> Joyce and Woolf 3) novelists that committed to the social and political problems -> Orwell -relativity of time is the key -there’s an unconventional use of grammar and no logical order -the narrator maybe lacking -2 types: direct (stream of consciousness) or indirect (less experimental) -> indirect interior monologue: introduced and mediated by a 3rd person narrator that provides an external level of narration, thoughts are never let flow freely, the use of grammar is more conventional ->(Virginia Woolf - “tunneling process”) -> direct interior monologue, completely free, without the mediation of a narrator: THE INTERIOR MOMOLOGUE -1882, London - 1941, River Ouse where she drowned herself -she spent her summer in Cornwall, together with her parents and her 3 siblings -> water/sea central to her art as a symbol -> for her it represents a way to escape from everyday life (source of freedom) -> represents the inevitable passage of time and death that are like waves that never stops - in the same way as waves that move continuously also the passage of time is inevitable and leads to death -together with her sister, the artist Vanessa Campbell, she become a member of the Bloomsbury group -1925 -setting: place = small area of London, time = one single ordinary day in June 1923, from 10 am to the evening -> TIME IS EXPANDED through the characters’ perception of it = INNER TIME mixed with the CHRONOLOGICAL passing of time (striking of Big Ben, symbol of the awareness of death) -protagonist: Mrs Clarissa Dalloway: a 51 year-old upper-middle class woman (wife of a conservative MP) who’s giving a party at her house (she’s buying flowers at 10 am) -> she feels repressed because her husband imposes to her very strict rules as wife of a parliamentarian’s man-> desire of FREEDOM and expression of her SPONTANEITY; -> her similar character Septimus Smith: a sensitive shell-shocked victim of WW1, suffering from headaches, insomnia, panic attacks, haunted by the death of Evans (during the war); he’s obsessed with the sense of GUILT (can’t separate external reality from personal experience); familiar oppression: he depends upon his wife who brings him to doctors (Bradshaw) and clinics -> LACK OF FREEDOM + sexual impotence j WsolfirginiaVirgini mo lf ARS Dalway Despite the analogy between Clarissa and Septimus they have 2 different solutions to the INTERIOR CONFLICT: -SEPTIMUS commits SUICIDE (jumps out of the window at 6pm) because he can’t accept the meaninglessness of life and death and the fear of feeling guilty -CLARISSA accepts her failures, her weakness, the passing of time and death -> acceptance of LIFE -> MOMENT OF BEING occurs at 6 pm = beginning of her party and time of Septimus’s death then she has the final revelation -plot: (EVENTS = external level of narration): Mrs Dalloway’s preparations for the evening party, Septimus and Lucrezia going to Doctor Bradshaw for the interview and Peter Walsh (Clarissa’s young lover) walking around London (Leitmotiv/ frame: chimes of Big Ben) -Characters’ thoughts (internal level of narration): Mrs Dalloway perceives the present, remembers the past, plans the future = stream of consciousness -> INTERIOR MONOLOGUE (past, present, future overlap) -style: INDIRECT INTERIOR MONOLOGUE (free indirect speech): the characters’ stream of consciousness (internal level) is mediated by a 3 rd person narrator (external level) that establishes a connection inner-outer world, past-present; the narrator is a commenting voice introducing the flow of thoughts/impressions/ emotions of the characters; there are multiple POINT of VIEW, shifting from one character’s STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS to another’s (Mrs Dalloway > Septimus> Lucrezia Smith); MOMENT OF BEING: moments of sudden INSIGHT, REVELATION of a deeper truth, hidden behind appearances/the surface of reality (Septimus’s MOMENT of BEING after a car tyre explosion that reminds him of war -> he feels guilty and realizes the meaninglessness of his life);«TUNNELLING TECHNIQUE» = Woolf digs tunnels into her characters’lives, allowing the readers to experience their personal history and background; attention to the SENSES: the characters’ response to the outer world is both emotional and physical