Letteratura e didattica della letteratura inglese, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Letteratura e didattica della letteratura inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN THE 1950s AND THE 1960s Talking about the civil rights movement in the United States, there are some important dates that we should remember, which are:  1863: Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln > all slaves in the Confederate States were ‘forever free’.  1910: NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) founded by white and black reformers to fight the rise of segregation and lynching of AA.  1954: US Supreme Court decision orders school desegregation > separate-but-equals- schools are unconstitutional.  1955, December 1: Montgomery, Alabama; Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white person. Her arrest is followed by public transport boycott (13 months long).  1957: Little Rock, Arkansas; National guardsmen prevent 9 children (later called the Little Rock Nine) from entering Central High School. This was fallowed by the President sending troops and Governor Faubus closed schools for 1 year. Even other southern states adopted the same solution.  1960: Greensboro, North Carolina; 4 AA students take their seats at a segregated lunch counter (sit-ins = strategy of civil disobedience and non-violent confrontation). Economic growth in the US in the 1950s  Pax Americana: after WW2 the US were the main world power, and in 1947 they produced: o 57% of world steel, o 43% of world electric power, o 63% of world oil.  Automotive industry: steady occupation with high wages for over 1 million workers > car cultures (highways, suburbs and drive-ins).  Baby boom: more economic security and improved health conditions (> more or less 180m in 1960 Census; 10,5% Black or African American).  Military spending: Korean War from 1951 to 1953 > Dirty War. o More spending money during the Cold War > development of the military-industrial complex. 1950s in the US – Timeline  1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established.  1950-1953: Korean War (the “Dirty War”) > over 53,000 deaths.  1950-1954: peak of “McCarthyism” and HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) anti-communist investigations.  1954, May 17: US Supreme Court decision > Brown vs. Board of Education (of Topeka, Kansas).  1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott.  1956, January: Presley makes his first appearances on TV.  1956, November 4: Soviet troops invade Budapest.  1957: Jack Kerouac publishes his novel “On the Road”.  1957: USSR launches Sputnik, 1st artificial satellite.  1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier of USSR.  1958: Angelo Roncalli is elected Pope as John XXIII.  1958-1959: Cuban revolution. 1950s and 1960s in the US Three main factors of US social and political life: 1. Cold war: a. Red Scare, b. Nuclear arms race, c. Space race. 2. Civil rights movement: a. Minorities > African Americans and Native Americans. 3. Vietnam War: a. Pacifism, b. Veterans. Opposition to authority in youth subcultures:  Juvenile Delinquency (JD): o Mainly in the working class > Rock ‘n Roll (R&R).  Counterculture: o Mainly in the middle class > California Sound and San Francisco Sound.  Beats: o Meanly among intellectuals and college/university students > jazz. Influent studies in the US during the 1950s and 1960s  Simon de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1953 > in “The Second Sex”, Beauvoir formulates 3 principles and applies them to women’s situation in the world. First is her foundational insight that man is subject, he is the absolute: she is the other. The next principle is that freedom, no happiness, must be used as the measuring stick to assess the situation of women. Finally, there is the insight that women are not born but not made, that every society has constructed a vast material, cultural and ideological apparatus dedicated to the fabrication of femininity. Curiously, some of the best-known feminist pioneers of the 1960s failed to acknowledge her influence: there are hardly any references to “The Second Sex” in “The Feminine Mystique” or “Sexual Politics”; it was years later that Betty Friedan and Kate Millett admitted that “The Second Sex” had been a major source of inspiration for them.  William H. Whyte, The Organization Man, 1956 > it described how people not only worked for organisations but how they belonged to them as well. It discusses the impact of large organizations on individuals and society. The book explores how the corporate culture of the time was shaping people's lives, identities, and values. Whyte criticizes the conformity and lack of individuality that he observed in the organizational culture of the 1950s, highlighting the tension between personal fulfilment and the demands of corporate life.  Betty Friedan, The feminine Mystique, 1963 > it is a groundbreaking work that explores the lives of American women in the post-World War II era. Friedan discusses the dissatisfaction and sense of emptiness experienced by many women who were expected to find fulfilment solely through their roles as wives and mothers. She coined the term "the feminine mystique" to describe the cultural pressure on women to prioritize marriage, motherhood and domesticity above all else. Friedan's book sparked the second-wave feminist movement by challenging traditional gender roles and advocating for women's equality in all aspects of life, including education, work and personal satisfaction. Here we have the confirm that Frank killed the Korean girl, moreover we find another proof of his PTSD in the feeling he has while punching another man. Chapter 11 In these 2 pages we can see the deep sadness and disorientation Frank felt when Mike died and he received the letter regarding her sister being in danger. Chapter 12 Finally, Frank admits that his relationship with Lily was not perfect, she was like a medicine to him, that helped him to heal his disorder, rage and shame. Frank arrives at Dr. Beau’s home and, helped by Sarah, saves Cee. Here we understand what is happening to Cee: the doctor made some experiments on her womb. The protagonist is taking her sister back to Lotus, where Mrs. Ethel is going to take care of her. Chapter 13 Lotus is now described almost like a heaven, so here we have a change of perspective compared to the initial description of this place. Cee’s ignorance is pointed out again, because she doesn’t know what the doctor did to her, because he made her some injections to make her sleep while experimenting on her body. However, Mrs. Ethel and other women take care of her with natural methods all over the chapter. Even if they succeed in healing her, Cee won’t be able to have children. During the healing process, Mrs. Ethel makes her realize that she doesn’t need anybody to rescue her, but the only one she needs is herself: she needs nobody, neither her brother. Chapter 14 This chapter can be read as a confession that Frank does: he abused the Korean girl and he shot her afterwards. He is being conscious about his past. Chapter 15 Here Frank tries to find out where the horses of the field (the one in the first chapter) are. He finds out that they were sold and, moreover, he discovers that many years ago people used to fight for their lives in that field. Chapter 16 Frank convinces Cee to go in the field, where he finds some bones, and together they dig a hole and put the bones in there. Chapter 17 In the final chapter, Cee is leading Frank. Now we see how things have changed and what really happened at the beginning of the book. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD by RICHARD YATES “Revolutionary Road” is full of descriptions and nuances that can be turn into a movie. The book is divided into three parts and the number of chapters is unequal: 7 chapters in the first part, 6 in the second and 9 in the third. There is always a good attempt to give a description of the various parts. 1st part: we know a little about the Wheeler. The novel begins on a stage where actors are not real actors yet and they are trying to act. a. Yates tries to build a background of the story. b. The Wheelers move to the suburbs, which are descripted. c. In a form of opposition to the suburbs there’s New York City and Frank’s job. d. There’s something that breaks the balance, something revolutionary happens: April’s proposal. She wants to move to Paris, and it is revolutionary because she is going to work, whereas Frank is going to find himself. 2nd part: a. There’s April’s effort to make her plan happen. b. There are two obstacles: Frank’s career and his new job opportunity. April gets pregnant, but they didn’t plan that. c. Frank starts dating a new woman and this changes something within himself. 3rd part: a. Illusion of control: the couple lives in the constant illusion of being able of controlling time, emotion and their bodies. b. Selling campaign: Frank is an advertising man, he tries to sell ideas to April and to convince her of what is good and what is not. c. Frank says something devastating because he identifies insanity, this because there are two insane people: John (he is in an asylum) and April (because she is “unable to love”). There is no happy ending, and this is also revolutionary. 1961 is at the end of the age of conformity and this is also an optimistic age in America, so the novel can be though as unamerican because it is not optimistic. If we consider the parts as acts, we can say that there is an aspect of performance: April has to perform her duties as mother and wife, Franks has to perform his duty of man and they must comply with social code, which is associated with living in the suburbs. There’s just one parson that is never acting and for this reason he is considered crazy: John, who always says the truth and for this reason he is considered rude and he is not welcome in the society and, moreover, his mother refuses to visit him in the looney bin. An important aspect can be the name of the protagonist: Frank. It is ironic because he is a liar. Frank, April and Shep break social rules cheating on their partners having sexual encounters with other people. This fact makes us understand that these characters have doubts, they should be happy, but they are not. The principal features of this novel are the repetition and the anticipation which are present in each chapter of the book.