ETÀ VITTORIANA LETTERATURA INGLESE, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica ETÀ VITTORIANA LETTERATURA INGLESE e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FAITH IN PROGRESS In 1803, Robert Trevithick first experimented with a steam locomotive and then George Stephenson built steam locomotives for a coal mine. In 1829 the first permanent passenger service opened. The railway age had begun and by 1870 the railway was transporting 400 million passengers annually. The great railway boom was a consequence of industrial prosperity. The manufacture of railways and trains stimulated the iron foundries and engineering works. Shipbuilding too was innovated with the adoption of steam instead of sails as a means of propulsion, and of iron instead of wood as building material. And on 10 January 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened the first underground railway, between Paddington and Farringdon Street. Communication also innovated, with the invention of the telegraph and of the Penny Postal System, with whom people could send a letter to anywhere in the UK for one penny. The first postage stamp was called the 'Penny Black'. London was a city of startling contrasts. The population increased from about 1 million to over 6 million and This meant that London could not satisfy the basic needs of its inhabitants. Poor sanitation and the use of coal for heating made the air heavy and Vast amounts of sewage were thrown directly into the river Thames. One of the fundamental innovations was the building of tunnels and pipes to direct sewage outside the city. -> Thanks to this, the death rate in London decreased dramatically. So Gradually, other services were introduced, such as water, gas and lighting. But People living in London were also worried about the rising crime rate, because of Street robberies, pickpocketing, shoplifting and prostitution. So, In 1829 Robert Peel founded the New Metropolitan Police Force (known as 'Bobbies'). The mid-Victorian period was a time of prosperity, optimism and stability, that culminated in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Pride in the growing power of industry and technology prompted, Prince Albert, to showcase British progress in the first international exhibition; held in 1851, in a 'Crystal Palace' in Hyde Park. The exhibition displayed some 100,000 objects from many contributors and its huge profit was used to found the Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum. Religious faith was still a pillar of society and church attendance a fundamental weekly activity, but the publication of Charles Darwin's works was seen as a challenge to the importance of religion. In On the Origin of Species, Darwin claimed that humans and animals shared a common ancestry, and that nature was ruled by the law of natural selection (only the strong survived and the weak perished). AN AGE OF OPTIMISM AND CONTRASTS The first four decades of Victoria's reign were marked by optimism, prosperity and stability. The Victorians were aware of the social costs of industrialisation, but were confident in progress. They were proud of their values and achievements in science and technology and believed that these values would benefit all the people. But These were the values of the middle class, the class that benefited the most. While the growth of industrial towns led to the emergence of slums where the poor lived in terrible hygienic conditions, the upper and middle classes enjoyed this century as a period of progress. Wealth and poverty were even considered indicators of moral value; poverty was a crime and debtors were sent to prison, while the upper-middle classes distinguish themselves from the lower level of society by conforming to rigid standards of respectability, virtue, ethics and religion. Victorian society was deeply permeated by Evangelicalism. It derived from Methodism, a religious movement founded by John Wesley that wanted to reform the Church of England from within. The Evangelicals were deeply committed to social reform and human welfare. One of them was William Wilberforce, who led to the abolition of slavery, achieved in 1807 with the Slave Trade Act. The movement was deeply moralistic and puritanical, and embodied the moral code of the middle class: (hard work, sobriety, seriousness) Another important ideology was the Utilitarianism. The founder was Jeremy Bentham. He supported the idea that only what is useful is good, and that all moral, social and political actions should be directed to the greatest good for the greatest possible number of people. However, Bentham's ideas were also criticised for neglecting emotions and feelings (such as in the novel Hard Times of Dickens). THE END OF OPTIMISM In the late Victorian Age, the costs of the Empire became increasingly apparent, and This led to a trade depression in 1878-80 which hit the working class in particular. The traditional political parties no longer satisfied the electorate, which looked for more radical solutions, and socialism was one of the suggested remedies. This doctrine had been propounded by Karl Marx, a German philosopher whose theories about a new distribution of wealth were based on research done in England. But The Fabian Society, a socialist organisation established in 1884, differed from Marxism because put faith in gradual reform rather than in revolution. The Fabian Society helped to organise the Labour Representation Committee, which later became the Labour Party. One of the members was George Bernard Shaw, who brilliantly criticised Victorian hypocrisy in his plays. Victorian society had a dark side. Outwardly, society respected its moral code and puritan attitudes. In the upper and bourgeois classes marriages were often based on financial convenience and generally produced many children, but sex was considered tab00. In contrast, prostitution, gambling and the use of drugs like opium were common in Victorian London but all were hidden under a veil of discretion. But by the end of the century, started a reaction against the traditional values of Victorian society. The works of Stevenson and Wilde, with their emphasis on the theme of the 'double', exposed the double standards of Victorian morality. A pessimistic view of human existence was encouraged by the Darwin's theory of natural selection. Social Darwinism affirmed that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by 'survival of the fittest'. The theory, first proposed by Herbert Spencer, served to justify laissez-faire capitalism and conservatism. whose plot centred around the impossible love between Heathcliff( a Byronic hero)and Catherine, (a woman torn between passion and social conventions). The novel adopted elements taken from the Gothic tradition and explored themes such as love, death, immortality and passion. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, revolved around a strong and passionate female character, Jane, who fell in love with a mysterious man called Rochester. After a series of complex events, Jane managed to find happiness and to marry Rochester. The novel explore the theme of womanhood and opens a window on the dark sides of human personality through the analysis of Jane and her alter-ego Bertha Mason, Rochester's secret wife. LATE VICTORIAN NOVELISTS In the second phase of Victorian literature, criticism became stronger and realism more evident. The writers used prose to denounce the evils of society without any reticence. In this phase the dark side of the Victorian Age was made visible by novels that centred around the idea of the 'divided self' and of the duality of human nature. Other themes tackled were the meaning of life in a world dominated by blind faith in progress, the role of moral values in life and the meaning of colonisation. Late Victorian writers rejected the optimistic view of man and progress, adopting a pessimistic point of view or through aestheticism. One of the favourite themes was childhood: this is shown not just by the fact that Victorian novels often focused on children and their lives but also by the fact that some authors wrote their novels for children. For example, Lewis Carroll, whit his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll's novel is difficult to classify. This novel can be a children's story, a piece of pure nonsense for adults, or simply as a masterpiece for all ages and all readers. Carroll's narration is full of memorable examples of nonsense poetry and deals with questions related to growing up. Obviously, As in all the best children's stories, Alice has a happy ending. The literary production was characterised by a growing sense of dissatisfaction, anxiety and fear. One of the authors who best reflected this trend was Robert Louis Stevenson whit his The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, a short novel that explored the theme of the 'double’(every human being has a double nature). The novel revolves around the actions of Dr. Jekyll, who transform himself into his other self, Mr Hyde. Stevenson's novel continued along the tradition of Gothic fiction, but also drew inspiration from the dark atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe. The same theme was explored by Oscar Wilde, whose The Picture of Dorian Gray was perceived as immoral and scandalous. The novel tells the story of a rich, beautiful man who sacrifices his soul to maintain his youth and beauty: only a secret portrait of him will bear all the signs of time. Dorian leads a life of pleasure, but his scandalous lifestyle is hidden by his immortal youth and beauty while the image in the portrait becomes old and ugly. The story ends with Dorian's stabbing the portrait, which provokes his own death. The novel is often considered the manifesto of English Aestheticism, an artistic and literary movement based on the principle that art needs no kind of external or moral justification ('ART FOR ART’S SAKE' was Wilde's motto). Aesthetic artists believed in the cult of beauty and were inspired by the works of a group of English visual artists called Pre-Raphaelites. Another author is Thomas Hardy, whose novels were set in an imaginary rural world in the south of England. Hardy's novels were pervaded by a deep sense of pessimism and tragic fatalism. For example in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a novel that followed the life of its eponymous heroine, Tess, whose tragic life seemed to be dominated by a dark fate. The Victorian Age was also the time when British colonial expansionism reached its climax in terms of power, extension and organisation. The consequences started to be explored in literature, especially at the end of the Victorian Age, when faith in Positivism started to fade and doubts about the good nature of human beings started to emerge. The theme of colonialism was tackled by Rudyard Kipling, whose works explored the complex relationship between the English and the Indians in colonial India. A novel is Kim, that showed a clear belief in the idea that the British had the right and the duty to use their own system of values to 'civilise' the Indians. Another is the Jungle Book, a two-volume book of short stories for children in which the world of childhood is mixed with magic and the luxuriant setting of the jungle. Apart from The novel, Literary criticism was one of the most interesting examples of prose writing of the Victorian Age. The most famous literary critics were Matthew Arnold and John Stuart Mill, who reflected on the relationship between arts and progress. Scientific writing is another important genre, its most significant example was Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, where Darwin explained his theory of 'natural selection' and proposed a brand new reading of the history of mankind. THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE The 19th century saw the emergence of the literary tradition of the United States, whose authors became independent of their European counterparts in terms of style, themes and narrative techniques. This period is known as the American Renaissance. The novel that inaugurated this new trend was The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a novel set in America's Puritan past, examining concepts of sin, guilt and the redeeming power of love. Hawthorne's novel offered a universal analysis of the individual conscience and the pressure applied by a strict moral code such as the Puritan one. It also offered a deep analysis of the cultural and ideological roots of America and its values. Another masterpiece was Moby Dick by Herman Melville, a unique novel offering a variety of styles, ranging from the language of sailors to biblical prophecy and Shakespearean expressions with a narrative frequently interrupted by various other tales. Moby Dick brings the reader a story, a philosophical allegory of life and death, a discussion of fate, economic expansion, moral values. It is also an exploration of the struggle between man and evil. Others authors are Mark Twain, whose novels are masterpieces of humourism and focus on the process of growing up of young male characters torn between respect of social conventions and freedom. As for example, Tom Sawyer, a novel representing rebellious youth and celebrating freedom. and Henry James was an American author who spent most of his life in Europe. His masterpiece was The Portrait of a Lady, an analysis of the encounter between two worlds, Europe and America. James experimented with narrative techniques and explored the deepest recesses of human psychology.