La letteratura inglese dell'epoca vittoriana, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica La letteratura inglese dell'epoca vittoriana e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! QUEEN VICTORIA came to the throne during a difficult economic and political period. MANY FEATURES OF THIS PERIOD: Three Reform Bills, adoption of free trade, triumph of industry and scientific research, social reforms, new political parties such as the labour party, Irish question. The British empire was at its greatest in term of geographical extension, political influence and commercial power. THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE: The term derives from the queen Victoria who ruled for more than half a century, during a complex and contraddictory era because one the one hand it was an age of progress and social reforms but in the other hand it’s also characterised by injustice and poverty, hidden with a veil of hypocrisy. EARLY VICTORIAN NOVEL: In this period the novel was the leading genre and readers wanted to be instructed but also to be entertained. After a period of experimentation, the novel had become the art form most capable of reflecting the increasing complexity of the modern world. It was also the main source of entertainment for the educated middle classes.Victorian novelists often published their work in instalments, in literary magazines and periodicals. The novelists of the Victorian period were portraying a society in rapid transition. They felt a social and moral responsibility to portray society in a realistic way, denouncing its injustices and iniquities, but also expressing their faith in progress. CHARLES DICKENS: is the most representative writer of this age; in his works he shows a great consciousness of social injustice, the poverty and suffering, the corruption, the utilitarian philosophy and the inhumanity of factory sistems, but he did not question the foundations of Victorian society seriously and in a concrete and explicit way despite the deep consciusness of the contemporary issues. He combined the social criticism with other important technical features and with symbolism. SETTINGS: London, provincial towns, industrial settlements. CHARACTERS from lower and middle class, frequently divided into good and bad. OLIVER TWIST is the story of a foundling and deals with important issues of the time such as the condition of people in particular children in the workhouses. HARD TIMES: deals also with the inhumaniy of factory sistems but in particular with the theme of the utilitarian philosophy (and the damage caused by it), wich judged the value of everything in according to its practical values. (Mr Grandgirnd who found the school based on utilitarian philosophy, his daughter and son. EMILY BRONTE// WUTHERING HEIGHTS THEMES: passion and feeling, the great desire to break from conventions, the word of imagination, Romantic love and Romantic heroine who bends to social conventions, GOTHIC FEATURES. Two setting (Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange) and shifting point of view. CHARACTERS: Catherin, Linton, Heathcliff adopted by Earnshaw and the adoptive brother who maltreats Heathcliff. CHARLOTTE BRONTE// JANE EYRE// THEMES: Romantic love, Romantic heroine as an indipendent, mature and young woman who shows courage and determination in contrast with the Victorian value of delicacy for a woman. Jane Eyre is a governess who falls in love with the mysterious Mr Rochester the owner of the country estate in wich she works. LATE VICTORIAN NOVELISTS featured a much more decided tendency toward realism and they are representative of a growing crisis in the moral and religious values which formed the basis of Victorian ideas about society. They studied in particular the influence of social environment on men. STEVENSON// THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HIDE in wich he followed the example of Edgar Allan Poe and mixes elements of traditional thrillers and crime stories (example: the title and the setting of the story) and realism with symbolism. With this story Stevenson created one of the greatest modern myths dealing with the dramatic conflict between man’s good and evil natures and the many contradictory aspects that make up a single personality, with PHSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM.// NEW AWARNESS OF THE HUMAN MIND. THOMAS HARDY he wrote about Wessex traditions and he adopted the pessimistic life vision of Schopenhauer.// TESS OF THE D’UBERVILLES: The main character is the victim of a cruel destiny, of impersonal forces present in nature and hostile to man.// portrayals of rural life// Disagreement with Victorian morality, according to which Tess, the main character, was a fallen woman. The decadent art can be seen as a reaction against the middle class society and culture and it’s called aesthesticism and decadentism with the central aim of the cult of beauty, in common with both Wilde and D’Annunzio. (confluence of art and life) OSCAR WILDE: he was an acclaimed writer and an authority on fashion among London high society, the perfect dandy who wanted his life as a masterpiece. Later he was imprisoned in Reading Jail and this period gave him the inspiration for some works, changing the vision of life. THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: The cult of beautiful things, the research of pleasure and artistic emotion as the goal of life, but also mystery and horror. So the novel has an important moral purpose, to show the price that has to be paid for a life of pleasure. In the end of the story the portrayt shows his impurities and by stabbing it Dorian kills himself and th portrayt returns at his natural beauty, testifying also that art is immortal and survives life. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST represent in a realistic way the superficiality of the english upper class using lively and sparkling dialogues, the technique of contraries and a smart sense of humor. 1880-1920: THE NOVEL OF TRANSITION FROM REALISM TO MODERNISM with elements of tradition and modernism, showing a new consciusness and sensibility for the character, concentrating on man as a phsicological being, gradually abandoning the old models. JOSEPH CONRAD: he sailed the sea for years and visited exotic places, so he wrote novels and shorts stories set in exotic lands. In his works adventures and geographical isolatiom are tests of man’s integrity. HEART OF DARKNESS: is a long short story based on Conrad’s personal experience. Talking about the title we can say that Darkness is the mystery that lies at the centre of human nature, the dark side of nature. The other important theme of this work is the colonialism with his hypocrisy and savagery, identified by the figurr of mr Kurtz, who has reverted to savage rituals not only to control the black people under his command, but also to satisfy his most basic physical appetites and embodies the extremes of European colonialism. The character justifies the cruel colonialism in term of the mission of civilization of Africa. (SCENES OF DESTRUCTION) Kurtz is seen not only through Marlow’s eyes but also through those of the many people in the story.