Modernism in Literature: The Life and Work of James Joyce and His Masterpiece 'Ulysses', Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Modernism in Literature: The Life and Work of James Joyce and His Masterpiece 'Ulysses' e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! INGLESE In the 1st decades of the 20th century namely 1900-1930, there were a lot of rapid social changes like the introduction of mass media, some new reforms like the right of strike or the total suffrage ( man can already vote in 1918 instead women only after in 1927 thanks to the protest of SUFFRAGETTES.) and the birth of the labour party which represents the working class. These changes took place after the experience of the 1st world war (1914) that is well known like a tranches war, in the same time / meanwhile there was the war between Ireland and Britain that was fought for Ireland’s independence(1921) and the Bolshevik revolution(1917). On the other hand in the literary background there were several new ideas about human nature and belief and there was the birth of new literary current called MODERNISM that lasted until the outbreak of the 2nd world war. This current BREAKS with the past in fact: • The writers of it criticize the traditional values of their society and they have difficulty to find a sense in the history. So many writers decide a VOLUNTARY EXILE and create a NEW ART because the conventional artistic methods for representing the world are no more valid so they are no more interested in the external actions or behaviour but in the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The most important representatives of Modernism are: T.S Eliot, and Yeats for poetry instead for the novel Virginia wolf and JAMES JOYCE. He is one of the most important author in the contemporary era. James Joyce was catholic and he was educated at Jesuit school, in his life he adopted the voluntary exile in fact he left Dublin(because he was dissatisfied with its life) and went to Paris. Shortly after he went back to Dublin with his wife, then they went in Trieste where he worked as an English teacher, there he started to write his masterpiece: ULYSSES . This novel has no conventional ideas about religious/politics, different techniques and styles of narrations in fact for the 1st time J.J used the stream of consciousness and finally it is a combination of realism (detailed descriptions) and symbolism (thoughts and feelings).Ulysses narrates a single day in Dublin namely 16 June 1904 of the protagonist “Leopold bloom” who is a middle aged Jewish advertising salesman and during his routine he meet a lot of people including Stephen Dedalous who is an indigent and pretentious young writer who has been forced by his companions to leave home and to wonder around Dublin in search of a new house, Leopold decides to take him into his home. Another character is Leopold’s unfaithful wife: Molly Bloom who is a semi-professional singer who has many lovers. Joyce divides Ulysses into 18 chapters that roughly correspond to the episodes in Homer's Odyssey in fact: • Leopold corresponds to Ulysses (his wonderings around and coming back home corresponds to Ulysses’s adventures and return to Ithaca •