Letteratura Inglese 3, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Letteratura Inglese 3 e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! ENGLISH LITERATURE 3 Partiamo dalla differenza tra Daffodils di Wordswortht (romanticismo) e Paris di Mirrlees (modernismo): - The main difference is the Layout. Two different ways of writing poetry. With Wordsworth you have an idea of old pattern, it has classic meters and rules. On the other hand, Mirrlees has a spontaneous way to write about feelings: it trasmette un’idea di confusione, it has no clear stanzas. It hasn't a precise order, it has a lot of references to French (in fact the title is Paris). The descriptions are written in a new way, it's a completely new situation at the beginnin of 19th century. = This idea also appears in art: the romantic painting revokes harmony, we can see its features, like in the romanticism. Even if we don't know the man, we can understand its features, and again, it gives the idea of harmony. In the right painting, of the 20th century, evokes caos and confusion. We can't really understand what it is, we can't say anything about his or her identity: it's the same difference that we have in poetry. So, THE MODERNISM is a change that occurs in a well determined period, the beginning of 20th century. A picture will no longer be the faithful reproduction of a scene, enclosed in a window frame, but the realization of a complex view of life of things that live in space. This idea of change is notabile also in literature. V. Woolf said: “on or about december 1910, human character changed. | am not saying that one went out, as one might into a garden, and there saw that a rose had flowered, or that a hen had laid an egg. The change was not sudden and definite like that. But a change there was, nevertheless; and, since, one must be arbitrary, let us date it about the year 1910”. Her words are clear: in December 1910 human way of behaving, mentality, compleately change. The change was not sudden, but the people started to understand the change in 1910. TRADITION VS MODERNISM: Tradition = The victorian Age, Middle-class, Ordinary life, Linearity Modernism = Break, Reaction, Fragmentation What does modernism mean? In Italian: “quando infatti il moderno non esprime più soltato una categoria della sensibilità, un modo d'essere, ma si fa con le avanguardie programma, manifesto, imperativo, insomma movimento ecc... allora diventa modernismo”. E’ qualcosa che diventa movimento, azione, un qualcosa che si deve necessariamente FARE. Modernism / modernist > the word was used for the first time by American and English critics in 1920s. 1924 John Crow Ransom, New Criticism > In a context of discussion on poetry 1927 Laura Riding and Robert Graves > Survey of Modernist Poetry Nel modernismo l’uomo viene esplorato in un’altra ottica, l’interiorità quella più nascosta, la psiche. Tutto ciò complica, perchè si parla di ciò che non si conosce, ma è necessario farlo per imparare a conoscersi. Per i modernismi la poesia diventa quindi difficile, ha a che fare con la scoperta dell’interiorità. Non ci sono punti di riferimento, perchè io sono lì con la mia interiorità e nessun altro può conoscerla. Modernism covers a wide range of poetic forms. Since we don't have models, we can’t imagine poetry in one single way. Different ways of writing poems, everyone uses its own way. Different ways (avanguardie) of modernism: = Fauvism = Cubism - Dadaism © Vorticism = Imagism = Futurism They are linked particularly to art, different ways of paintings. They are all linked to the idea of movement. The introduction of cars changed the topic of velocità. Tutto viene avvicinato. This idea of movement is in every poetry we're going to read. THOMAS ERNEST HULME = He's a philosopher = Hulme was born at Gratton Hall, Staffordshire, the son of Thomas and Mary Hulme. = He was educated at Newcastle-under-Lyme High School and, from 1902, St John's College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics, but was sent down in 1904 after rowdy behaviour on Boat Race night.[3] He was thrown out of Cambridge a second time after a scandal involving a Roedean girl. He returned to his studies at University College London, before travelling around Canada and spending time in Brussels acquiring languages. His ideas was: “EACH AGE MUST HAVE ITS OWN SPECIAL FORM OF EXPRESSION”, and any period that deliberately goes out of it is an age of insincerity. “WE NO LONGER BELIEVE IN PERFECTION” - “THE TENDENCY WILL BE RATHER TOWARDS THE PRODUCTION OF_A GENERAL EFFECT”. In conclusion, he states: “WE SEEK FOR THE MAXIMUM OF INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL EXPRESSION, RATHER THAN FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF ANY ABSOLUTE BEAUTY”. He looks for something that is introspective, in the interiority: “We can't escape from the spirit of our times”. Poetry must be the picture of what the poet feels. IV Jewels in joy designed Gioielli disegnati con gioia To ravish the sensuous mind per incantare la mente sensuale Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind. giacciono senza luce,ogni scintilla in loro offuscata e nera e cieca. Vv Dim moon-eyed fishes near Pesci sfuggenti con gli occhi di luna Gaze at the gilded gear fissano da vicino la costruzione dorata And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?” e chiedono: "Che fa quaggiù tutta questa vanagloria? ". VI Well: while was fashioning Bene: mentre andava modellando This creature of cleaving wing, questa creatura dall'ala fendente, The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything la Volontà ImMmanente che tutto muove e incalza VII Prepared a sinister mate preparava un sinistro compagno For her — so gaily great — per lei -così festosamente grande- A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate. una Forma di Ghiaccio, ancora remota e dissociata. VIII And as the smart ship grew E mentre la bella nave cresceva In stature, grace, and hue, in statura, grazia e colore, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. nell'oscura distanza silenziosa cresceva anche l'Iceberg. IX Alien they seemed to be; Sembravano estranei l'una all'altra: No mortal eye could see nessun occhio mortale avrebbe visto The intimate welding of their later history, l'intima fusione della loro storia futura... x Or sign that they were bent o un segno che i due erano avviati By paths coincident su vie coincidenti a diventare On being anon twin halves of one august event, presto metà gemelle di un augusto evento... XI Till the Spinner of the Years Finchè la Filatrice degli Anni Said "Now!" And each one hears, disse: "Ora!". E ognuno ode And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres. e viene il compimento,e scrolla due emisferi. ANALYSIS “ The idea of faith, time that we have seen in the Hap poem, we see it also in this poem. = This poem is connected to the event (14th april 1912) when the titanic had sunk. The titanic rapresentented the industralization of Britian, so its sunk was bad. At that time, Britain was dealing with a lot of problems, it was a period of economic crisis, it was dealing with the rising of women rights, the problems with Ireland. At that time, it was governed by the son of Queen Victoria. The Titanic represented the wealth of the industralization of Britian, that it was straining to survive. It was a way, a symbol to establish Britain over the sea, to impress the world of the Britain's richness. So, when the Titanic sunk, it was a strong defeat for England, a very sad moment. The Titanic sunk on the 14th of April, and Hardy was already ready with the poem on the 24th of April 1912. The text was published on May 1912. The poem describes the sinking and wreckage of the ocean liner Titanic. "Convergence" consists of eleven stanzas (I to XI) of three lines each, following the AAA rhyme pattern. Hardy was asked to compose a poem to be read ata charity concert to raise funds in aid of the tragedy disaster fund. It was first published as part of the souvenir program for that event. He says that the Titanic was build to satisfy men's glory, not god’s glory. FIRST STANZA: The speaker begins by imagining where the Titanic is now. Isolated, alone deep beneath the ocean, far away from the rich, self-indulgent passengers who sailed on her and the ambitious, overconfident engineers who built her, the ship now lies motionless. He uses the pronoun “she”, he gives the Titanic a woman's face. He's personifying the Titanic, and the adverb “stilly” describes the condition of the Titanic, it means it can't move, there's no movement, life for the Titanic. The idea that it comes out is that the Titanic is NO LONGER WHAT IT WAS MEANT TO BE it's the opposite of what it was imagined to be. It gives the reader a negative idea of the situation. SECOND STANZA: Through the steel-plated boiler rooms, where the fires once burned that powered the ship, chilly currents of water now flow, almost turning the wreck into an instrument that is "played" by the moving water. Probably, men expected too much from the Titanic, they were too confident, they were relying too much on the Titanic. The simple life of the countryside is much better that the fake glory that men living in industialized town are looking for. So, Titanic rapresented also the failure of the industrialization. He wishes to a return to a simple and easy life in the countryside. THIRD STANZA: In the wreck are mirrors where glamorous, wealthy passengers were meant to see their reflections. Now, however, disgusting, slimy sea-worms crawl silently over those mirrors, completely undisturbed by the wreckage and the carnage. An image of luxury and vanity is contrasted by these sea worms crawling and destroying and spoiling all the great things. These worms remind us of death. Death and what happens after death makes us all the same. Titanic is now equal to all the other rest of the things in the abyss of the sea, all its pride fades away, it's reduced to all the creatures in the death of the sea. FOURTH STANZA: Also in the wreck lie jewels that once belonged to passengers or decorated the ship. These jewels were meant to delight wealthy people who concerned themselves primarily with luxurious material goods. Now, they reflect no light, and instead lie colorless, without any sparkle, beneath the dark ocean. FIFTH STANZA: He invites the fish in the ocean of wondering of what Titanic is doing there, in the abyss. He uses the word QUERY (linked to the idea of quest - he looked for something with a moral, ethic ending). Fishes are simply looking for a reason. SISTH STANZA: we have a change of tone. The answer is that, while people were building a ship that was meant to effortlessly pierce the sea's waves as it sailed, something else was also taking action: a supernatural power, like God or Fate, that sets in motion and directs everything that happens. It's really importante the use of WHILE: ci fa pensare a due situazioni che sono in corso di svolgimento, sono parallele. Apparentemente è innocuo, in realtà è fondamentale. Con questo WHILE, Hardy ci fa capire come la nascita del Titanic vada messa in parallelo con qualcos'altro, che è cresciuto contemporaneamente a lui, con una natura diversa, ma che con l’immanent will pone nel cammino del nostro Titanic. Immanent will = volontà immanente che muove e stimola ogni cosa > superior thing that decides for us, and we have to deal with it, we can't change it. SEVENTH STANZA: This supernatural power began creating an object that would match the ship in size and grandeur: an enormous iceberg. These two closely matched objects would meet at a time far in the future, when no one expected them to meet. EIGHTH STANZA: Here we have the two parallels. L’iceberg e la nave crescono insieme. The Titanic doesn't know about the Iceberg, and vice versa. No one could even dream about this thing, they were no connected to each other. Hardy uses opposite adjectives in the same stanza, to give his idea. NINETH STANZA: They were ALIEN in the beginning, but destined to meet each other. The ship and the iceberg would have seemed completely unrelated to anyone watching; no human observer could have anticipated how their futures would ultimately come to be closely intertwined. TENTH STANZA: Likewise, no human observer could find any clue that the paths of the iceberg and the path of the ship would ultimately cross, making them two equal participants in a single awe-inspiring occurrence ELEVENTH STANZA: People only realized what would happen when the supernatural power, who determines how long each human life will last, decreed that the ship and the iceberg would meet at this moment. Both the ship and the iceberg obeyed the decree, coming together in a collision that was both the inevitable outcome of the earlier chain of events and the most fitting and perfect conclusion to the ship's career. The collision physically shook the ship and the iceberg, the two halves that made up the whole event, and emotionally shook the two halves of the planet, shocking the entire world. Mind how the acceleration of the rhytm takes place in this last stanza, and how that union between SHE of titanic and HE of iceberg MEANS DEATH. These 2 identities remain different, but they were destined to meet. Times has come, and nobody can stop what is going to happen. Hardy says that nothing happened for a chance, but it was already decided. He shows the pessimism he is famous for. He is convinced that man is a victim in the hand of time and faith, that he has to do what he's expected to do, and we can't change what faith has decided for us. Lui dice che il progresso serve a poco, perchè il progresso che ha creato il Titanic l’ha anche distrutto. In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’ 1 Only a man harrowing clods Soltanto un uomo ch'erpica le zolle Ina slow silent walk A passo tacito e lento A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Come un battito nella mente eterna, che ugualmente, Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Da qualche parte, restituisce i pensieri donati dall’Inghilterra Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; Le sue viste ed i suoi suoni, sogni felici come una giornata inglese; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, E risate, apprese dagli amici, e la dolcezza, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Dei cuori in pace, sotto un cielo inglese. ANALYSIS It's a sonnet divided into an octave e una sestet. It is a deeply patriotic and idealistic poem that expresses a soldier's love for his homeland—in this case England, which is portrayed as a kind of nurturing paradise. Indeed, such is the soldier's bond with England that he feels his country to be both the origin of his existence and the place to which his consciousness will return when he dies. "The Soldier" is full of alliteration. Overall, this is a very pretty-sounding and lyrical poem. The speaker presents a vision of war and death that is completely relieved by the bond he feels with his home country. The sound of the poem is suitably pleasant. That is, the sounds ring together in a way that is pleasing on the ear, avoiding any harshness that might suggest anything negative. The poem was a hit with the public at the time, capturing the early enthusiasm for the war (before the grim realities of longterm conflict made themselves known). Nowadays, the poem is seen as somewhat naive, offering little of the actual experience of war. That said, it undoubtedly captures and distills a particular type of patriotism. There's a strong feeling of identification with their country, especially in first octave. He's giving voice on of English people are feeling. + The description of the pre-industrial England gives a sense of beauty, and it's part of the soldiers’ identity. In the sestet we have an idea of death. Though most people might fear death—particularly of the violent kind that war can bring—the speaker of “The Soldier” is prepared to die because he believes hew would be doing it for his beloved homeland. The speaker thus doesn't want people to grieve his death. He sees that potential death—in some “foreign field” (notably “foreign” because it won't be in England)—as a way of making a small piece of the world “for ever England.” That's because he sees himself as an embodiment of his nation. Accordingly, dying somewhere “foreign” leaves a small part of the home nation in that foreign land. Nationhood, then, is portrayed as something that is inseparable from a person’s identity—even when they die. In the final lines he gives some images of England, in this text England is alive, not dead, it's described as an energetic country. The soldier is the speaker that is sacrificing himself: death is redemption only if it's in the name of our country. So, this poem gives us a positive idea of war. The war become the occasion to thank his own country for giving him life and educating him. 10 SIEGRIED LORAINE, SASSON Sassoon nacque in una casa tuttora esistente chiamata Weirleigh nel villaggio di Matfield nel Kent, da padre ebreo e madre anglicana. Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (Matfield, 8 settembre 1886 — Heytesbury, 12° settembre 1967) è stato un poeta inglese. La sua fama è principalmente legata alla sua produzione poetica dai toni satirici contro la Prima guerra mondiale Glory Of Women You love us when we're heroes, home on leave, A Or wounded in a mentionable place. B You worship decorations; you believe A That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace. B You make us shells. You listen with delight, C By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled. D You crown our distant ardors while we fight, C And mourn our laurelled memories when were killed. D You can't believe that British troops ‘retire’ E When hell’s last horror breaks them, and they run, F Trampling the terrible corpses—blind with blood. G O German mother dreaming by the fire, E While you are knitting socks to send your son F His face is trodden deeper in the mud. G ANALYSIS Colpisce l’attenzione alle donne, vuole essere una celebrazione perchè durante la guerra le donne acquistano un ruolo importante perchè si trovano a dover sostituire gli uomini nei lavori Il senso di questa poesia è che la guerra non è fatta solo dagli uomini. Donne con diversi temperamenti: donne orgogliose, che rammendano calze da far arrivare ai loro mariti quindi premurose etc.. Infine parla de “LA DONNA”, ovvero la madre. Ci dimostra l’effetto devastante della guerra nel cuore della madre: una madre è sia in Germania che in Inghilterra, una madre prova lo stesso dolore. C'è contrasto tra pronomi personali: YOU (primo termine di paragone, ovvero le donne che stanno a casa) / WE (secondo termine di paragone, altra visione della guerra: i soldati). Il testo è tutto bilanciato su questa contrapposizione: a ogni azione di YOU corrisponde una di WE. Alla fine abbiamo l’immagine della madre che spera che il figlio stia bene, ma il figlio sta già morendo: immagine di guerra che crea lo shock, fiduce disattese, tragicità in the sestet, the previous idea of glory is opposed by the use of words like retire, dead, hell, horror, breaks, trampling, terrible corpses, blind with blood, fire etc. Sestet presents the villain image of the solder. The soldiers are not as glorious as the women think to be because they only retire from the war 11 field when they mutually destroy each other. They are the cruelest villains who trample over the corpse of others. Hero image of the first part is replaced by the villain image of the sestet. Octave gives the statement, sestet presents a counter statement. In sestet, the poet informs women of what they had never understood of: that war itself is not about honor and glory; pain, loss, and death are the ultimate result of war. The poem is not against Germany, but against a mechanism called war. In the concluding section of the poem, the speaker brings a reference of the German mother who might be knitting the socks by the moment her son is dying in the field of the war. Through this reference, the poet is not going against Germany, but just exposing the horrors of war. Mother’s son has been playing the game of killing and being killed and this time he could not win others. This shows that her son is not playing any heroic game, but the bloody game of mutual destruction. The title of the poem is ironical what women think to be a dignity that is in fact an act of disgrace. The soldiers are not famous, but infamous. The use of irony in this poem exposes the gap between what the women think of the soldiers and what the soldiers actually are. The irony is in the title what they think to be a glory is in fact an illusion. ISAAC ROSENBERG - Oneofthe First World War's leading war poets - 1890-1918 Break of Day in the Trenches - Rosenberg The darkness crumbles away. It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic rat, As | pull the parapet’s poppy To stick behind my ear. Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies. Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between. It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, Less chanced than you for life, Bonds to the whims of murder, Sprawled in the bowels of the earth, The torn fields of France. What do you see in our eyes At the shrieking iron and flame Hurled through still heavens? What quaver—what heart aghast? Poppies whose roots are in man's veins Drop, and are ever dropping; But mine in my ear is safe— 12 Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! —An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, | saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. ANALYSIS = Owen wrote it after his experience in the trenches in the north of France, when he wrote this poem he was recovering in Scotland, he had been severely injured. He would have killed one year later, one week after he died the armistice was signed and the war ended. The poem was written in 1917 and published in a collection of poems in 1920, titled “poems”. This is one of the most famous poems dealing with WW1. He really portrays a typical scene of war; it is a picture. It is divided into some sections; each one has an important role: it is as if the poet takes the reader by hand and accompanies him throughout the poem. In the end of the poem, it is where his message is conveyed to the reader. 15 section: description of a typical scene in the trenches with soldiers fighting. This “we”à the poet is one of the soldiers, he is there. He's describing a scene he lived, and he was there himself. What he's writing is true and the people are invited to believe what he's saying, he's not inventing anything. Trudge means “rifugio” and it gives an idea of poverty and deprivation, it is a very poor place where nothing can be seen, desolation. They kept walking as they were horses, without boots. He is simply saying how men had lost his own identity and his dignity. Men were treated like animals; they were considered as objects useful to fight the war, it didn't matter how hard it would be. This is an image of the war which is not only based on your sight but also on your hearing, this is a vivid image. Owen is so capable in writing, that he also stresses all the efforts of men to keep pace, they kept on keeping pace and to be alive and not be left behind. The idea of war which comes out of these lines is of suffering, fatigue, efforts, but also of no dignity, of men who are treated like beasts. The human dimension is left apart. 15 - 2nd section: Boysàthey are fellows, they are sharing a terrible experience, someone is left behind, there is confusion and panic because of the gas (one of the novelties of the war). In this second section of the poem Owen adds something to the sight and the hearing (smell): we have the impression of smelling the gas, we see all these soldiers running to put on their helmets and we also hear their voice, this is panic, terrible, this is the real danger. Someone was left behind; he wasn't able to because he was drunk with fatigue. Even if they helped one the other it was difficult to check everybody, so one was left behind, probably he was weaker than his fellows. The dash suggests a pause, it means time to reflect, the time you take to consider what has just been said and get ready to what is going to be said. Here is the striking sentence: / saw him drowning- here he's the one left behind. Someone who was there and fighting; here is a description of a typical scene of war: the people go through the war with fatigue, they are making efforts, they panic, and the weaker ones are left behind, one of them has been seen drowning. The reader is accompanied and led through the text with pauses. This is a cruel image of war, that can be understood, perceived, seen, heard and smelled. - 3"d section: after this cruel description, Owen is heading towards the ending and he's introducing a macro sequence. This is what happens to the soldiers who survived the war, this is how he describes the personal fact of the scene in his mind. He's devastated by this scene, he's so terrified by what he has seen, that even after the war this image keeps on in all his dreams, that come up spontaneously. These dreams are nightmares because they bring the horror of the war. = 4h section: it's the last section, the most important, he addresses the reader directly and conveys the message. If you went through the same experience we have, you could live our own experience and you see what we see. He's just confronting the reader, “if you could share this experience you could not praise war and heroes; you wouldn't be in favour of the war and praise heroes”. Owen is addressing a reader who may share this experience, in case he may not share it, he describes in detail the scene which takes place regularly. There is a series of violent and cruel images. =. Dopo il secondo if è una scena che evoca non solo le immagini ma anche dei suoni, evoca il sentire. Dash: introduce una pausa di riflessione, con cui Owen chiede ai lettori di riflettere e soffermarsi, per arrivare alla conclusione è necessario riflettere ed ascoltare bene le sue parole, per questo ci vuole tempo. Dulce et decorum est: it's a quotation from Horace. LIE: Owen is denouncing the hypocrisy of the English government; it is not true that it is sweet and decorous to die for your country. You can't believe it. The friend he's addressing to can be the general reader but can also be someone in particularà Jessie Pope, who had written and published a collection of poems, “Jessie Pope’s poems”, and in particular in this book there was one poem “the call” where he encouraged young men to enlist and fight in the war. So, probably “my friend” that Owen is addressing is Jessie Pope. = This poem gives a strong and well-detailed image of the war. These ideas are given thanks to assonance, alliteration, disfiguration (1st section, human body is damaged and changed), there is also the allusion in the title and in the ending lines of how war is a devil, it's hell because men are fighting against others and it's hell because of the terrible conditions. = The poem is also important for the themes he deals with- the contrast between the realities of war and the glorifying notion of what serving in a war is like à the contras reality against ideal. He also deals with the theme of how war is presented by propaganda (with Horace and Pope). Owen also hinted how politics is the cause of war: soldiers are not politicians; so, Owen underlines the wrongness of this dynamic. Soldiers, simple men, are manipulated and convinced and mentally reshaped to accept the idea that politicians want them to accept (the government do not respect the human being in his freedom of 16 thought and action). Who is the real hero? The one who goes to war and dies or the one who opposes war with his strength or the one who has been injured and has survived and is now telling everybody what he's been through? Is it correct to speak of heroes in war? Heroes are the ordinary men who had left their old life behind and gone to the front. The true hero is the man who has renounced his life and has gone to fight the enemy who is not his enemy. He had to accept and satisfy the demands of his government. = The quotation from Horace è this lie is old, and this means that in his opinion times have changed and Horace's sentence is not true any longer, Horace is out of tune and he's not good for the time being. What he said was correct for his own days but it's not true and good any longer. Men were not forced to fight a war which was unjust and violent and horrible. THE IRISH QUESTION It is an important war, the Irish question. It was a very difficult tricky situation the English have been dealing with since the reign of Henry 24. Ireland has always been considered as the first colony of England, as an experiment of how it would be like to go abroad and impose our government. Ireland was so close to England that it became a “colonial experiment” for England itself, but Ireland never accepted this condition of submission >> This meant centuries of fight, strikes and violence to gain independence. A lot of people in literature have always described Ireland as a beautiful and charming country but the point was that the problem was the Irish, a beautiful country inhabited by rude, ignorant, uncultivated people. The main reason of contrast between the English and the Irish came out after 1544 when England became Anglican, a protestant country while Ireland remained catholic. So, the contrast between England and Ireland has turned into a religious contrast, between the protestant rulers and the catholic subjects. The history of their relation is extremely interesting but very long (19*» and 20*h century history on the slides). Daniel O'Connell > was a lawyer and opposed to the decision of England and Ireland united after the Act of Union of 1801 and he was the first democratic politician of modern Europe. It was thanks to his actions and his fight against the protestant rulers that he managed to see the panel laws, established more than 1 century before, and stated that the Catholics have to be excluded from public life. With the repelling of this law, the Catholics were emancipated and could be taken into consideration for public life (a very important step). 1840 >> terrible years for Ireland. Many Irish emigrated after the Great Irish Famine and went to USA and settled in Irish communities. The Fenian movement rose, and John O’Leary founded the Fenian Brotherhoodà he was convinced that it was useless for an Irish man to confront an English man without a gun. In his mind the fight and problem between Ireland and England could be solved only by violence. In the 70s an important person was Charles Stuart Parnell and he was a protestant landlord who founded the Irish Parliamentary Party and became a major political force. He wanted to unite Ireland in the fight against England. Around the last decade Prime Minister Gladston, a liberal, introduced 2 Home Rule Bills, but they didn’t pass. A home rule is a bill which granted an Irish parliament in Irelandà division of the 2 parliaments; but it didn't pass. In 1911 another Prime Minister introduced a third Home Rule bill but was defeated in the house of Lords. Another home rule was introduced in 1914 and it turned to be law; it was accepted. It meant an Irish Parliament for Irish affairs. This was not the solution everybody hoped for, because a group of 9 counties in 17 Changes minute by minute; A horse-hoof slides on the brim; And a horse plashes within it Where long-legged moor-hens dive And hens to moor-cocks call. Minute by minute they live: The stone’s in the midst of all. Too longa sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice? That is heaven’s part, our part To murmur name upon name, As a mother names her child When sleep at last has come On limbs that had run wild. What is it but nightfall? No, no, not night but death. Was it needless death after all? For England may keep faith For all that is done and said. We know their dream; enough To know they dreamed and are dead. And what if excess of love Bewildered them till they died? Iwrite it out in a verse -- MacDonagh and MacBride And Connolly and Pearse Now and în time to be, Wherever green is wom, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. This poem was published in 1921 în the collecti ANALYSIS = Written in 1916 Cuori che hanno un unico proposito estate e inverno sembrano fatti di pietra per incantesimo, così da ostacolare la corrente viva. Il cavallo che giunge dalla strada, il cavaliere, gli uccelli che si schierano da nuvola precipite ad un'altra nuvola, La troppo lunga rinuncia rende di pietra il cuore. Oh, quando sarà abbastanza? Sarà il cielo a decidere, a noi compete solo mormorarne i nomi come una madre che nomina il suo bimbo quando alla fine il sonno si è posato su quelle membra or ora senza freno. Cos'è se non la notte che precipita? No, non la notte è questa, ma la morte; e fu una morte inutile, alla fine? L'Inghilterra può forse tener fede alla parola data, in ogni caso; noi conosciamo i loro sogni; basta sapere se sognarono e son morti; che importa se fu un eccesso d'amore a sconvolgerli fino alla morte? Ecco, lo scrivo in versi - Mac Donagh e Mac Bride con Connolly e Pearse ora e nei tempi che verranno, in ogni luogo in cui si indossi il verde, sono mutati, mutati interamente: una terribile bellezza è nata. - His idea about this violence: he agrees with the rebels or he condemns the violence? Se la lotta armata non è la scelta giusta Yeats cosa propone? In the first section he gives us the information to the place and time. He also introduces the characters and so he gives us all the information we need to understand the poem. Time: end of day, place: Dublin, characters: Dubliners On one side we have | (the poem who judges the events of the day, he observes in an objective way what has happened on that day) and Them (those lived in Dublin, those who rebelled against the institutions and put into effect the revolt) The end of the day is the moment of reflection of what happened throughout the day; critical judgement on what took place. We don’t know who the people he's describing are. The fact that he doesn’t even add the names means that they are insignificant to him; he knows that they're Dubliners and nothing more. He doesn't even want to know these people Club: fashionable English upper class tradition and the poet was used to these English traditions because he was born in Ireland but spent lots of years in England. Here is in Dublin attending an English pub. He's like a bridge between these 2 opposing sides. 20 Motley: uniform made up of different colours combined together, and it's used here to say about the different people taking part in the uprising Terrible beauty: it's still beautiful for the dream of independence of the people who planned the uprising He regularly met those people in the streets of Dublin, he didn't know who they were but it's not relevant for him. Despite belonging to different classes and sharing different ideas he's sure that they share the fact that they were all Irish and so they could stand on the same side of the fight. The second section focuses on the changes that the uprising brought. Fa un elenco di queste persone che era solito incontrare durante le sue passeggiate; persone all'apparenza ordinarie che però ora sono diventati protagonisti della giornata. Persone che nessuno avrebbe mai messo in relazione con la violenza. The woman he mentions is Constance Markievicz, a woman who didn't know anything about politics but who one day met the people who helped her became aware of how the situation was and day after day the woman's voice became stronger and stronger in the fight against England. She was a sweet woman but after the uprising she turned to be stronger; he uses the voice to take us understand how this woman has changed, she was one of the organizers of the uprising. The man he mention is Patrick Pearse and the other man he mention is Thomas MacDunagh: they had an important role in the fight for independence of Ireland. Then he mentions John MacBride, the husband of Maud (the woman whose poet was in love) Yates passa ad elencare alcuni dei nomi salienti delle persone che hanno preso parte in modo attivo all’uprising, pianificando questa rivolta e pone l'accento sul cambiamento che questa voglia di indipendenza ha causato nelle loro vite. La guerra ha cambiato in peggio delle persone, facendo loro perdere quel tratto di dolcezza per trasformarle in persone violente e aggressive. Third section: he makes us understand how life goes on and things changes. The purpose they share is the Irish independence La loro scelta di provocare questa ennesima rivolta li ha trasformati in pietre perché il loro cuore si è indurito (diventato insensibile allo spargimento di sangue) ma anche come cosa che è d’intralcio al fiume che scorre; pietra che non impreziosisce la storia d’Irlanda ma risulta un ostacolo e una macchia che disturba la lotta per l'indipendenza. La vita faticosamente procede accanto a questa pietra che è un blocco. Macchia nel cuore della natura e nella storia dell’indipendenza dell'Irlanda Tutto questo è stato utile? Non poteva essere evitato? Tutto ciò non ha senso e la strada ce lui suggerisce di ripercorrere è quella della diplomazia e del dialogo. Revival culturale dell'Irlanda che ha bisogno di ritrovare le sue radici e coltivare la propria Irishness. Violenza fine a se stessa che non ha portato a nulla. Fourth section: stone is a symbol of consistency, it doesn't move and it's in the middle of the stream; it's an obstacle for all the rest. Idea of the sacrifice/renunciation. People's hearts had become a stone, more detached and severe; this sacrifice had turn their hearts into stones. So stone has 2 meanings: The first meaning is related to the previous idea of stone hat we have in the third section The second meaning is how people became not disposed to accept any diplomatic reason. The clue question is: was it needless death after all? Did they love their country so much to lose their lives? This question is tricky and it points out what the poet thinks about the revolution. 1916: he's writing in the middle of war and he's wondering if this violence is necessary He refers to the people he mentioned in 2 sections before, he's just naming them and in doing is he turns them into martyrs, someone who sacrificed his own life for Irish wealth and freedom. Giving a list of name was typical of the Irish ballads. 21 Green: colour associated with Ireland (synecdoche standing for Ireland) Terrible beauty: Oxymoron which sums up in one line the feeling of Yeats and it's the leit motiv that unifies the whole poem. Yeats was convinced that they could gain freedom through diplomacy. - He was convinced that the independence si poteva ottenere through DIPLOMACY, not war. He has an architectural idea of his poems. What is really difficult in Yates is that he discovered a technique by which the personal could be objectified, technique related to the theory of the Mask. He says that each one of us wears a different mask according to the situation he's going through. Each artist must choose one mask which normally has to be the opposite of his true self. In his mind poetry is born from the tension which takes place in a poet’s mind when refusing his own identity and trying to satisfy the features of the opposite self. La poesia nasce quindi dalla tensione che si viene a creare nel momento in cui l’artista abbandona la maschera della sua vera identità per assumere un’altra maschera che corrisponde al suo opposto. La poesia è quindi un risultato difficile di un passaggio che il poeta deve compiere per annientare se stesso e assumere un'identità diversa che equivale al suo opposto. Il poeta deve cercare di diventare l'opposto di quello che è in modo tale da rendere l’interpretazione dei fatti in poesia nel modo più oggettivo possibile. Ma nell’accettazione del suo opposto si crea una tensione e un contrasto e da questo nasce l’arte. He also felt the need for discovering the secret patterns of the universe: he believes that the occult allows to bring close the world of spirit and the world of matter because it allowed the people to discover the essential nature of things. It becomes an important element in his works and it allows him to put together the world of spirit and the world of matter. He managed to do all this also thanks to his wife: she helped him to write “a vision”. Sua moglie andava spesso in trans e lui si sedeva vicino a lei e prendeva appunti di tutto quello che la moglie diceva, attraverso le sue risposte Yates ha scritto questo testo in prosa (a vision) dove illustra la sua visione dell’universo; questa sua visione diventa fondamentale per la comprensione dei suoi testi soprattutto nelle sue ultime due fasi. Vision is a prose work composed of 3 parts: 1. Cyclical view of history (the most important section) 2. lt deals with the human psychology 3. Description of the souls migration after death In the first section he deals with the development of history of civilization in 2000 years cycles and in doing this he/s influenced by Vico, Plato and Neoplatonism. He says that there are 28 phases which correspond to the lunar month. History develops in helical movements which are known as 2 dimensional gyres (primary and antithetical). Expanding vs contracting, they follow the same movement for 2000 years than they reverse their movements and give origin to a new era. The span of time in which thy reverse their movements is known as “The great year”: the year when enormous turbulent anarchy and chaos take place. Yates poetry also uses a wide range of images, metaphors and symbols (for example the sun, the moon, the tower and the mask). His symbols come from the Anima Mundi, which Yeats identifies with The great memory: it's the store to which artist go to find a fitty symbol for their visions. He deals with themes that can be considered in relation with the last phase of his works, in particular one of the most important themes is the state of old, which is present in the text as the rebellion against the passing of time, he points out the difference between old age and new age. 22 To the holy city of Byzantium. O sages standing in God's holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity. Once out of nature | shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; Or set upon a golden bough to sing O saggi che state nel fuoco sacro di Dio Scendete dal sacro fuoco, scendete in spirale, Come nel mosaico d’oro d’una parete, E fatevi maestri di canto della mia anima, Consumate tutto il mio cuore; malato di desiderio E legato ad un animale mortale, Non sa quello che è; e accoglietemi Nell’artificio dell'eternità. Una volta fuori dalla natura non prenderò mai più La mia forma corporea da una qualsiasi cosa naturale, Ma una forma quale creano gli orefici greci Di oro battuto e di foglia d’oro Per tener desto un Imperatore sonnolento; Oppure posato su un ramo dorato a cantare Ai signori e alle dame di Bisanzio Di ciò che è passato, che passa, o che sarà. To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come. ANALYSIS Poesia che rappresenta un'evoluzione del suo pensiero, con la necessità di fare i conti con quello che è diventato e con quello che gli resta. Riflessione di un uomo maturo che ha preso consapevolezza di ciò che significa vivere ed essere un poeta irlandese sulla scena del mondo di inizio 900. Poesia che trova in Bisanzio la sua via d’uscita che, nell’ottica di Yeats, diventa un conforto e una rassicurazione. In questa poesia c’è tutto: lotta contro il tempo che passa, paura e ricerca di una soluzione a questa sua preoccupazione. La soluzione diventa anche conforto e consolazione. In the first stanza he uses “that” so he's far from the place he's speaking about (Ireland). The Ireland he's speaking about is far from him both in time and space. Ireland is not a place for him anymore and the idea becomes explicit when he mentions the young generation. That place is a place not fit for old people but it’s for the young generation. The need for new strength, new energies and new resources to build the country from the ruins of the old one. All things that are old are destined to die. It relates the idea of vitality to the idea of end and death. The main feature of the human existence is transience and not eternity. He uses fish, flesh and fowl to remember nature, nature belonging to the earth and not to another dimension. This means that every single person is condemned to die, eternity doesn't belong to men. All this contrasts with the world of art The young generations are so taken by what they're doing that they pay no attention to what really matters. Already in 1912 he was in Ravenna where he saw some examples of byzantine art In the first stanza states the contrast between the life of men and the eternal resources of art (something never becoming out of age) 25 In the second stanza we have a step further: an aged man is useless and lifeless; image of the scarecrow. So it’s not a someone, it’s a thing. Yeats doesn't accept his old age, he fells a nostalgia for his youth and he's desperate for feeling completely useless and denied. Unless: there's a solution, a way out. The only thing a man can do to avoid feeling useless is to choose art. Monuments are always there to be admired generation after generation. He was so desperate and sad because of his felling lifeless that he decides to go away from the country which made him feel that way and this is the reason why the country is introduced by that. Byzantium symbol of artistic magnificence and eternity. In the third stanza: Yeats visited S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna and his attention was caught by a serious of byzantine works, in particular one called “Fregio delle vergini”. He's just referring to the richness he found while visiting this church. Art present in the aspect of singing. Desire and animal are the 2 complementary elements of a man's life Desire: soul and spirit Animal: the body He asks to be treated in the same way as the martyrs he's seeing in S. Apollinare Nuovo. Martyrs should guide him to Byzantium. Intermediate state between the beginning and the arriving one He's asking the helpd of these old men to change his life from material to spiritual and to purify his soul to accomplish the detachment between soul and body. In the fourth stanza he will become a work of art himself The fourth stanza is the final destination: he's in Byzantium The conclusion is that he has rejected life in the way we know it in favour of an intellectual beauty which will remain and will exist by a work of art. He refuses his material dimension to become utterly spiritual and, in that sense, eternal. The way out to sadness is given by the metamorphosis of the man himself, by appreciating the beauty of art he becomes himself a work of art and that allows him to abandon the material side of his being and to embrace fully the intellectual spiritual side of his being. His original nature will never fade away In this poem, Yeats uses a series of symbols: The first one is already in the title: Sailing (ing form) gives us the idea of an action in progress and we have realized how the poem itself is a work in progress, an action he's describing in all the different steps he's forced to respect. Metaphorical journey/pilgrimage which will help him reach his wish for eternity. The second symbol is Byzantium, which represents the world of artistic permanence and magnificence. The third symbol is fish and flash, which represent transience and mortality, they are elements of life on the earth and mortality The fourth symbol is the scarecrow, whch represents the old age, a very sad vision of old age The fifth symbol is singing: unifying motives of intellect and sensual words; potere unificante dell’intelletto e la risorsa che l'intelletto ha per unificare in un'atmosfera sensuale (vicino ai sensi) tutto quanto The sixth symbol is golden bough, which represents art, beauty and the ideal artist. The true poet is the one who is able to renounce his mask of human being to take on the mask of intellectual, of the soul and of the spirit. 26 JAMES JOYCE (2 February 1882 — 13 January 1941) He is one of the most important character of English modernism. He had Irish origins. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. He came to Italy where he became friend with Italo Svevo. He had a particular relation with Dublin: Dublin is the very subject of all his works, all written in prose. For him it always represents the whole of Ireland, the whole of life, fallen humanity, it's one of the most eminent and historically important cities of Europe (for Joyce), and worthy of modern literary representation. Dublin is the true protagonist of the collection. Stories collected in 4 main groups: 1. Childhood: The Sisters, An Encounter, Araby 2. Adolescence: After the Race, The Boarding House, Eveline, Two Gallants 3. Mature life: A little Cloud, Clay, Counterparts, A Painful Case 4. Public life: Ivy Day, A Mother, Grace, The Dead Dubliners is one of his most important works, it's a collection of short stories which came out in 1912 (first edition) and then in 1914 with the most famous stories; it's considered a masterpiece. Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories. The stories comprise a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life- changing self-understanding or illumination, and the idea of paralysis where Joyce felt Irish nationalism stagnated cultural progression, placing Dublin at the heart of this regressive movement. In a letter to Constantine Curran he spoke about his work: “/ am writing a series of epicleti-ten- for a paper. | have written one. | call the series Dubliners to betray the should of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city”. Epictleti: Intention to transform ordinary events into something meaningful. Dublin will be the setting of his stories but also the main character, he chose Dublin because he was related to this town cause in his own mind Dublin portrayed the paralysis >> in his works it's the condition of the human mind and soul which prevent human beings from acting, realizing: it's a moral condition. THE STREAM OF CONSCIUSNESS The stream of consciousness is a literary technique which consists in reproducing the free flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations of the characters without comment by the author. This is a technique similar to that of the interior monologue, which can be direct or indirect. In the Joyce's works is very frequent the use of interior monologue, both direct and indirect. Through this technique, the writer almost disappears and the readers find themselves directly inside a character’s mind. It's a radical turn away from realism and conventional narrative prose. 1. Time in space > moment of a body along its trajectory > hours, minutes, seconds 2. Interior time > isolated from the space, duration becomes an interior rhythm As Cuddon writes in his Dictionary of Literary Terms, the stream of conciusness is a method that attempts to “depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind” of a narrator. The author lays out for the reader the unbroken flow of a character’s mind, he pictures a private minds cape of the character, in which perceptions co exist with half formed ideas and raw thought and feelings. The 27 Gabriel replies to Miss Ivors. He's not writing about politics. The work he's doing for the daily express doesn’t make him a west Briton; he's simply writing about literature. He was very fond of literature and he was convinced that there were no consequences in writing about ît în a newspapers. Gabriel’s thought is also Joyce’s thought: he was convinced that Irish freedom could be attained through cultural revival, becoming aware of the Irishness. Gabriel was sure that literature was above politics. Only Gabriel could understand this because he was cultural superior. Miss Ivors îs limited în her vision of Ireland, she can’t see the point that Gabriel îs trying to make. Per letteratura si intende cultura, ritrovo delle proprie radici e riconoscersi arte di quel concetto di irishness, raggiungibile solo attraverso un revival culturale dell’Irlanda. “Well, you know, every year | go for a cycling tour with some fellows and so—” “But where?” asked Miss Ivors. “Well, we usually go to France or Belgium or perhaps Germany,” said Gabriel awkwardly. “And why do you go to France and Belgium,” said Miss Ivors, “instead of visiting your own land?” “Well,” said Gabriel, “it's partly to keep in touch with the languages and partly for a change.” “And haven't you your own language to keep in touch with-Irish?” asked Miss Ivors. “Well,” said Gabriel, “if it comes to that, you know, Irish îs not my language.” Their neighbours had turned to listen to the cross- examination. Gabriel glanced right and left nervously and tried to keep his good humour under the ordeal which was making a blush invade his forehead. “And haven't you your own land to visit,” continued Miss Ivors, “that you know nothing of, your own people, and your own country?” “0, to tell you the truth,” retorted Gabriel suddenly, “Im siek'of my own country, sick of it!” “Why?” asked Miss Ivors. Gabriel did not answer for his retort had heated him. “Why?” repeated Miss Ivors. They had to go visiting together and, as he had not answered her, Miss Ivors said warmly: “Of course, you've no answer.” Cominciano a parlare delle vacanze. Parte significative perché Miss Ivors cerca di entrare in argomento. Gabriel ingenuamente dice che vanno in Francia, Belgio e a volte in Germania. Quando Joyce scrisse the dead la guerra non era ancora iniziata e allo scoppio della guerra questi diventano i luoghi più pericolosi. Gabriel racconta di andare in quei posti per cambiare area e per coltivare le lingue parlate în quei paesi. Ma questa sua affermazione da l’occasione a Miss Ivors di inquisire ancora di più sull'argomento. C’è una differenza di vedute tra i due: Gabriel è colto e il suo atteggiamento da ragione di questa sua apertura mentale che può essere frutto solo di una cultura di un certo tipo, Miss Ivors è un’irlandese chiusa, il suo unico pensiero è l'Irlanda. Miss Ivors dice che potrebbe restare in Irlanda e imparare la lingua e la sua cultura ma Gabriel dice che l’irlandese non è la sua lingua, Gabriel si esprime in inglese che gli permette di andare oltre i confini stretti dell’Irlanda; Gabriel anche da questo punto di vista dimostra di avere un’apertura mentale che Miss Ivors non ha, è a un livello superiore, senza pregiudizio e accetta la situazione senza però mettere in discussione la propria irishness. “l’m sick of my country, sick of it”: è un’espressione di Joyce, il quale si trasferì în Italia Alla domanda “perché?” Gabriel non risponde perché capisce che non ha senso rispondere a una persona che incalza maliziosamente cercando diportare la conversazione sul piano politico; inoltre Miss Ivors non comprenderà mai le sue ragioni, esattamente come Joyce è a un livello diverso rispetto a chi rimane în Irlanda a combattere. Chi parla è Joyce che si scontra con il resto degli irlandesi che hanno una visione più ristretta. Joyce è profondamente innamorato dell’Irlanda che si rende conto che per capire veramente la situazione si deve liberare di quella visione che lui avrebbe dovuto per forza condividere rimanendo in Irlanda. il discorso sull’irishness mette in risalto il pensiero di Joyce e ci fa capire come la questione irlandese fosse un tema pressante e onnipresente nelle opere del tempo. Gabriel e Miss Ivors diventano metafora di Joyce e il resto dell’Italia. He began: “Ladies and Gentlemen, “It has fallen to my lot this evening, as in years past, to perform a very pleasing task but a task for which | am afraid my poor powers as a speaker are 30 all too inadequate.” “No, nol” said Mr. Browne. “But, however that may be, | can only ask you tonight to take the will for the deed and to lend me your attention for a few moments while | endeavour to express to you in words what my feelings are on this occasion. “Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not the first time that we have gathered together under this hospitable roof, around this hospitable board. It is not the first time that we have been the recipients—or perhaps, | had better say, the victims—of the hospitality of certain good ladies.” He made a circle in the air with his arm and paused. Everyone laughed or smiled at Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia and Mary Jane who all turned crimson with pleasure. Gabriel went on more boldly: “I feel more strongly with every recurring year that our country has no tradition which does it so much honour and which it should guard so jealously as that of its hospitality. It is a tradition that is unique as far as my experience goes (and | have visited not a few places abroad) among the modern nations. Some would say, perhaps, that with us it is rather a failing than anything to be boasted of. But granted even that, it is, to my mind, a princely failing, and one that | trust will long be cultivated among us. Of one thing, at least, | am sure. As long as this one roof shelters the good ladies aforesaid—and | wish from my heart it may do so for many and many a long year to come—the tradition of genuine warm-hearted courteous Irish hospitality, which our forefathers have handed down to us and which we in turn must hand down to our descendants, is still alive among us.” La serata procede e Gabriel è tenuto a tenere il suo discorso atteso da tutti i commensali, il fulcro di tutta la serata e che spettava a lui perché era il nipote delle sorelle Morkan. Tutti în silenzio ascoltano le sue parole: Come in tutti i discorsi pubblici, Gabriel esordisce con la captatio benevolantie nei confronti dei suoi ascoltatori, ringraziando per l’opportunità. Si pone con una certa semplicità nei confronti dei suoi uditori facendo appello alla loro clemenza. Chiede a tutti di apprezzare il suo sforzo per pochi minuti e di comprendere come lui volesse dire i suoi sentimenti di gratitudine per la circostanza. Questa è la prima parte del suo discorso e tocca essenzialmente 3 punti: 1. L'ospitalità: è la prerogativa che distingue gli irlandesi da tutti quanti ed è una dote che accomuna gli irlandesi e il cattolicesimo. Lui si augura che questa ospitalità spontanea degli irlandesi possa essere trasmessa alle generazioni future affinché venga perpetuata nel tempo. Gabriel sta andando a rispolverare il concetto di irishness, gli irlandesi sono ospitali ed è per questo che avevano accolto anche gli inglesi e devono continuare ad esserlo sempre nel rispetto del loro paese. È una dote che devono necessariamente tramandare alle generazioni future. “Ladies and Gentlemen, “A new generation is growing up in our midst, a generation actuated by new ideas and new principles. It is serious and enthusiastic for these new ideas and its enthusiasm, even when it is misdirected, is, | believe, in the main sincere. But we are living in a sceptical and, if | may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes | fear that this new generation, educated or hypereducated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humour which belonged to an older day. Listening tonight to the names of all those great singers of the past it seemed to me, | must confess, that we were living in a less spacious age. Those days might, without exaggeration, be called spacious days: and if they are gone beyond recall let us hope, at least, that in gatherings such as this we shall still speak of them with pride and affection, still cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead and gone great ones whose fame the world will not willingly let die.” [...] “But yet,” continued Gabriel, his voice falling into a softer inflection, “there are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here tonight. Our path through life is strewn with many such sad memories: and were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living. We have all of us living duties and living affections which claim, and rightly claim, our strenuous endeavours. “Therefore, | will not linger on the past. | will not let any gloomy moralising intrude upon us here tonight. Here we are gathered together for a brief moment from the bustle and rush of our everyday routine. We are met here as friends, in the spirit of good-fellowship, as colleagues, also to a certain extent, in the true spirit of camaraderie, and as the guests of-what shall | call them?-the Three Graces of the Dublin musical world.” 2. Nuova generazione che si allontana dal pensiero di Joyce e dalla cultura irlandese. È convinta 31 della necessità della violenza per ottenere l'indipendenza dell’Irlanda. “I fear this new generation”: la nuova generazione ha perso quelle prerogative culturali irlandesi che erano tipiche dei tempi passati. Necessità di tornare sui propri passi e riacquisire la consapevolezza di chi si è attraverso il ricordo, la memoria e quelle doti di ospitalità e cortesia che lui vede incarnate nelle sorelle Morkan. 3. Chiude il suo discorso ringraziando gli ospiti e coloro che hanno consentito di festeggiare ogni anno quell’incontro e si rivolge alle 3 zie come le Three Graces of the Dublin Musical world, con un sottofondo di gentilezza ed educazione tipiche delle generazioni passate. SECTION 3 The guests leave the house Gretta listens to a song Gabriel and Gretta are in their room Epiphany A ghastly light from the street lamp lay in a long shaft from one window to the door. [...] Her face looked so serious and weary that the words would not pass Gabriel's lips. No, it was not the moment yet. [...] He was trembling now with annoyance. Why did she seem so abstracted? He did not know how he could begin. Was she annoyed, too, about something? If she would only turn to him or come to him of her own accord! To take her as she was would be brutal. No, he must see some ardour in her eyes first. He longed to be master of her strange mood. [...] “Gretta, dear, what are you thinking about?” She did not answer nor yield wholly to his arm. He said again, softly: “Tell me what it is, Gretta. | think | know what is the matter. Do | know?” She did not answer at once. Then she said in an outburst of tears: “O, | am thinking about that song, The Lass of Aughrim.” She broke loose from him and ran to the bed and, throwing her arms across the bed-rail, hid her face. Gabriel stood stockstill for a moment in astonishment and then followed her. [...] As he passed in the way of the cheval-glass he caught sight of himself in full length, his broad, wellfilled shirt-front, the face whose expression always puzzled him when he saw it in a mirror, and his glimmering gilt-rimmed eyeglasses. He halted a few paces from her and said: “What about the song? Why does that make you cry?” Gabriel e la moglie stanno per uscire dalla casa delle Morkan quando la moglie rimane bloccata sulle scale ascoltando una canzone con un ritmo molto lento che parla di dolore e sofferenza. Una canzone che ha bloccato Gretta e nel sentirla non ha potuto fare a meno di fermarsi e riflettere, meditare. Da qui Gretta cambia, diventa taciturna e si sente distante dal marito, a differenza di Gabriel che vuole passare una notte d’amore con la moglie. Epiphany: inaspettata rivelazione che coglierà Gabriel sul finire della storia. La coppia arriva all’hotel e la natura incerta di Gabriel si manifesta (Gabriel è sempre dubbioso e riflette sempre tanto prima di lanciarsi nelle cose, non è intraprendente) Lo stato mentale della moglie è completamente diverso dal suo: Gabriel vuole stare con sua moglie ma è talmente lontana mentalmente da lui che prenderla în quella circostanza sarebbe brutale. Questa distanza mentale tra i due personaggi si concretizzerà nell’amara presa di coscienza di Gabriel nel vedere la moglie come un’estranea. È preoccupato per la moglie e vuole sapere cosa ne pensa ma non sa come approcciarsi a lei e come gestire la situazione. La moglie finalmente in uno scoppio di lacrime dice che stava pensando alla canzone che ha sentito uscendo da casa delle Morkan (la canzone si chiama The Lass of Aughrim). She raised her head from her arms and dried her eyes with the back of her hand like a child. A kinder note than he had intended went into his voice. “Why, Gretta?” he asked. “Il am thinking about a person long ago who used to sing that song.” “And who was the person long ago?” asked Gabriel, smiling. “It was a person | used to know in Galway when | was living with my grandmother,” she said. The smile passed away from Gabriel's face. A dull anger began to gather again at the back of his mind and the dull fires of his lust began to glow angrily in his 32 THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT (1888-1965) - He was born in St Louis (Missouri) = 196 he entered Harvard University > he was passionate about Baudelaire and Laforgue = 1910 after taking his degree he sailed to Europe = Si trasferisce a Parigi e studiò alla Sorbonne, where he took classes with Henri Bergson and he entrò in contatto con il simbolismo francese —> here he knew Henri Bergson and started to understand the difference between TIME IN SPACE (movement of a body along its trajectory - hours, minutes and seconds) and INTERIOR TIME (isolated from the space) = 1915 marks the beginning of Eliot’s career as a poet (he is in London) = 1917 he entered Lloyds Bank - 1921 he had nervous breakdown = 1925 conversion > anglo-catholic movement within the Church of England - 1948 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature An important declaration from Eliot was: “/n the third year of the War came the most revolutionary man in poetry during my lifetime, though his revolution was stylistic alone — T. S. Eliot published his first book. No romantic word or sound, nothing reminiscent, nothing in the least like the painting of Ricketts could be permitted henceforth. Poetry must resemble prose, and both must resemble the prose of their time; nor there be any special subject-matter. Tristram and Iseult were not a more suitable theme than Paddington Railway station. The past had deceived us: let us accept the worthless present”. This quotation gives a clear idea of what he wanted in his poetry and who he was. Eliot described his early work's exploitation of the “poetical possibilities, never developed by any poet writing in my own language, of the more sordid aspects of the modern metropolis” >> He does something that has never been done before, he explores new images. Eliot chose LONDON as his centre of poetic, it was the centre of modern city. The perception of the world strongly influences the literary performance of the writer. The era in which Eliot was living made his writing style exceptionally melancholy. It was the time of depression and anguish. He uses traditional dramatic structure and mythic methods in his works. For example, his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a dramatic monologue whereas the poems Ash Wednesday and The Wasteland are mythical. His works illustrate his ideas about the world. For him, the world is nothing but a place of struggle. Unlike Romantics, he used realistic themes in his works. By using his religious imagery, he talked about the human isolation and depression prevailing in modern society. Eliot’ personal experiences shaped his literary style. Eliot was a member of the Anti-Romantic revolution. That is why his poems have a deeper meaning, as is more realistic. David Daiches said about Eliot that Eliot's poems are the combination of philosophical, mythical, and Christian imagery; by employing these things, Eliot finds out the poetic way to describe the modern dilemma poetically. It isthe unique style that made his poetry stand out from the beginning. Eliot employed his own language in his poetry, which instantly appeals to the readers. He used vivid imagery to describe his ideas. This imagery appears to be realistic to the reader and makes him feel that as if he is a part of the poem. For example, his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and The Wasteland is as appealing to the readers as it was at the time of Eliot. Eliot remarkably manipulates the phrases of his poem, handles the pauses and stops, and shifts the formal and informal speech. All these techniques show his skills, and he continued using it throughout his works. 35 Moreover, Eliot intended to have an impact on readers through his poems and employed deeper and vivid meaning in it; particularly, his later works are more spiritual and religious than earlier, and he has been converted to orthodox Christianity. He made his poetry appear like true poetry. In other words, readers were not supposed to confuse any piece with poetry. Moreover, his poetry was not meant for ordinary minds as he employed deeper meaner meaning that can only be captured by intellectuals. The main themes of Eliot’s works make his readers relate themselves to their everyday life. By reading the poems of Eliot, one may say that he has a pessimistic and dark mood as his literary style sets a tone of melancholy. Another important theme of Eliot’s works, as pointed by Unger, is “failure of communication” and “positive relationship between man and women.” These themes are found in Eliot’s early poems, such as La Figlia ate Piange and Hysteria. By employing the theme of the failure of communication, Eliot illustrates a bigger theme of human isolation. He talks about how modern man is alienating from the world around him. The modern man is trying to find out peace by becoming one with him. He tried to communicate the difficulties of modern man in the world, which has lost all meanings. For him, the poet has not a personality to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all. POETRY HAS TO BE LIKE IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS. He was influenced by European literature, like the Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri. For him, Dante is a classic, because his work gives voice to an entire religious, cultural and philosophical civilization, in which medieval Catholicism and classical learning and literature come together. Dante’s work gives us the mind of Europe rather than his own private mind. HIS EUROPEAN INFLUENCES: 1. Medieval: school of Cavalcanti or Dante > “Dante is a classic”, because his work gives voice to his own age, to an entire religious, cultural and philosophical ‘civilization’, in which medieval Catholicism and classical learning and literature come together. 2. Renaissance: School of Donne 3. Modern: School of Baudelaire and Laforgue (symbolist movement) > Lafourgue was a symbolist writer. His poetry was characterized by “A kind of travesty (=parodia), incorporating odd and unusual, non- poetic words and subtly allusive, factitious and reflective meanings”. Eliot, Metaphysical Poets, 1921: Varietà e complessità, due termini che caratterizzano la poesia metafisica. Varietà di immagini e ambiti nel sapere con la conseguenza della complessità. Il compito del poeta è quello di diventare sempre più comprensivo ed essere uno specchio che propone una vision a 360 gradi di quello che lo circonda. Anche il linguaggio diventa uno strumento importante nelle mani del poeta del quale si deve servire per raggiungere il suo obiettivo. d. Alfred Prufrock It's one of the first poems that Eliot wrote, between 1910 and 1911, but published in the 1917. It's super important for Eliot, because we can already find the elements that will characterize Eliot’s works. The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of Dante Alighieri[4] and makes several references to the Bible and other literary works—including William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV 36 Part II, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet, the poetry of seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, and the nineteenth-century French Symbolists. Who is Prufrock then? - Name of some wholesalers (=grossisti) of St Louis (Missouri) - the revolutionary fact of this Prufrock is that Eliot associates the name to a common name of man and put into contrast with a romantic love song The poem describes the failure of this man who is unable to declare his own feeling and propose. An ordinary man spending ife in a sort of hell world. Eliot narrates the experience of Prufrock using the stream of consciousness technique developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish", is a dramatic interior monologue of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability for decisive action that is said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment”. It is an examination of the tortured psyche of the prototypical modern man—overeducated, eloquent, neurotic, and emotionally stilted. Prufrock, the poem's speaker, seems to be addressing a potential lover, with whom he would like to “force the moment to its crisis” by somehow consummating their relationship. But Prufrock knows too much of life to “dare” an approach to the woman: in his mind he hears the comments others make about his inadequacies, and he chides himself for “presuming” emotional interaction could be possible at all. The poem moves from a series of fairly concrete (for Eliot) physical settingst—a cityscape (the famous “patient etherised upon a table”) and several interiors (women's arms in the lamplight, coffee spoons, fireplaces)—to a series of vague ocean images conveying Prufrock's emotional distance from the world as he comes to recognize his second-rate status (“l am not Prince Hamlet?). “Prufrock” is powerful for its range of intellectual reference and also for the vividness of character achieved. THE POEM S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza più scosse. Ma perciocché giammai di questo fondo Non tornò vivo alcun, s’i odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto XXVII, 61-66) The first part of this poem is a quotation from Dante’s Inferno of Guido Da Montefeltro (fraudulent counsolent in Inferno, because he was against the Pope). Il perché l’ha messo all’inizio del poema lo si capirà alla fine. Let us go then, you and |, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels 37 After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— And this, and so much more?— It is impossible to say just what | mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while Ifone, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what | meant, at all.” No! l am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old ... | grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall | part my hair behind? Do | dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown ANALYSIS “ The structure is PRAGMENTARY, FRAGMENTATED (as all the modernist). So his voice is typical of the modernist poets. Prima stanza: The poem starts with an invitation to do something. The poem opens quite in the middle of a process of thinking. Etherized: suggests the idea of desire for inactivity, incapable to move. Idea of passive submission, acceptance of what's going on. Spots of cheap town that better give voice to common and ordinary men. Strade che ci danno l’idea di labirinto e il groviglio di strade è messo in collegamento col groviglio di pensieri dello speaker. Parallelismo tra esteriorità e interiorità dello speaker da ragione di credere a un blocco emotivo, come se lo speaker fosse ingabbiato/paralizzato e non riuscisse a muoversi. Ultimi due versi arrivano come un'interruzione brusca che ci da l’idea del blocco emotivo dello speaker. Let us go: non solo un invito all’azione ma anche un autoinvitarsi alla necessità di fare qualcosa. You and | che abbiamo incontrato all’inizio ora diventano our. Seconda stanza: In the room è l'oggetto dell’andare, destinazione. 40 Può darsi che questa stanza sia la stanza di un qualche museo dove sono esposte opere di Michelangelo Terza stanza: riflessione dello stato mentale dello speaker che corrisponde alla descrizione di un desiderio che finisce costantemente nel non agire, nell’inerzia Nebbia: qualcosa che ti impedisce di vedere e di muoverti Il suo desiderio di movimento non si traduce che in inerzia; non conclude nulla. Ci viene data anche la dimensione temporale (soft October night): atmosfera autunnale. Perché colloca questa canzone d’amore in quel periodo? Autunno corrisponde all’età della maturità che va verso la fine della vita. Siamo nel momento che porta verso la morte e ciò che succede in questa poesia è che un uomo in crisi col tempo che passa, con la sua età, sta interagendo con questa difficoltà della sua vita. Scelta della stagione allude all’età non più giovane dello speaker e alla sua fase di decadenza a cui vuole rispondere cercando di sistemarsi in modo diverso. Quarta stanza: time is the key word of the whole text, the relation of the speaker with the time is an obsession. There will be time probably for acting. The speaker is afraid of acting, he doesn't know what to do and this is the reason why he doesn't react. If the time present is something which obsesses the speaker, at the same time, time is the way out (there will be time; time is not only the present time but can be related to the future). The speaker then refers also to his own indecision. Indecision characterizes the poem. From the moment he's speaking to the moment of tea, there is time to think the possibility to act or not. Quinta stanza: in the room ecc (again) Sesta stanza: the time gives him comfort; it allows him to delay actions Un minuto è sufficiente per cambiare tutto ed è esattamente negli ultimi versi che lui si aggrappa disperatamente all'idea di questo tempo che lo rassicura. Lui vede nel minuto il coraggio per pensare alla sua decisione e per menzionare la parola “decision” grazie alla fiducia che ripone nel tempo. Parla di sé anche dandoci informazioni sulla sua natura psicologica: un uomo che non è sicuro di sé, fragile e che ha paura del giudizio degli altri. La paura di fallire ed esporsi al giudizio della gente facendo qualcosa che gli altri possono giudicare male lo blocca ad agire. La fragilità umana non è così lontana dall'uomo moderno Qui Eliot ci racconta la fragilità psichica di un uomo che ha paura di se stesso e soprattutto di esporsi al giudizio degli altri e che trova nel tempo la soluzione disperata al suo problema. Questo speaker deve compiere un'azione (ancora non sappiamo cosa) che continua a rimandare nel tempo. Tempo che ha un duplice significato: da una parte un incubo e un'ossessione, dall’altra una via di fuga, una risorsa, la via della salvezza. In un minuto si può manifestare tutto e l’opposto di tutto; posso cambiare continuamente decisione. Minuto che paradossalmente diventa il conforto e la via di fuga. La sua fragilità è tutta costruita sul contrasto tra passato e presente. Settima stanza/ottava/nona: | have known scelta di un present perfect è significativa perché ci racconta di un passato recente che però ha delle conseguenze nel presente che il personaggio sta vivendo. Si tratta di una conoscenza sensoriale che passa per tutti i sensi. Si inserisce in un contesto in cui tutto è stabilito, conoscenza che gli arriva dal passato e si chiede che ruolo abbia lui per intervenire sull'ordine preesistente accettato da tutti e cambiarlo. Il comportarsi diversamente sovvertirebbe questo ordine e cambierebbe questa conoscenza, ma a che prezzo e con quali conseguenze? Lui sa benissimo quello che gli altri pensano di lui e che diritto avrebbe ora lui di intervenire su quel quadro ben costituito e cambiarlo? How should | begin? È timido e non sa da dove cominciare; è come se avesse bisogno sempre di qualcuno che gli dica come fare e cosa fare. Decima/undicesima stanza: silent seas; dimensione del mare importante verso la fine del testo Dodicesima stanza: ritorna l’idea della paura del tempo che passa e di come questa frammentazione ossessiva (puntini di sospensione) sia emblematica di come lui sia paralizzato. Senso di inadeguatezza e sconfitta che prova nei confronti di tutti gli altri 41 Tredicesima stanza: razionalizza il suo fallimento. Paura di essere frainteso dal suo interlocutore, di essere ridicolizzato nel suo modo di essere e questo gli fa capire la sua inazione. Quattordicesima stanza: come se, attraverso questa lanterna magica, riuscisse a vedere in modo più dettagliato la sua paura e a mettere più a nudo la sua sensibilità; attraverso questa lanterna magica è come se riuscisse indirettamente a rendere pubblica la sua difficoltà. È talmente chiuso in se stesso che se la sua vera natura fosse messa all’interno di questa lanterna magica tutti riuscirebbero a capire la sua natura Quindicesima stanza: cita l’Amleto che è per antonomasia il simbolo del dubbio e dell’indecisione, ma qui viene citato in negativo (I am not prince Hamlet). Ma il suo discorso si traduce in una presa in giro di se stesso perché lo speaker assomiglia a Polonio, il personaggio che usa alte espressioni e grande retorica per dire però molto poco. Chiude questa sezione diventando un fool, che nel teatro Shakesperiano è colui il cui disguido psicologico, che si trasmette nel suo parlare, si permette di dire cose vere e di denunciare alcune situazioni. Prufrock quindi diventa lo zimbello di se stesso e la sua frammentarietà psichica si traduce nella sua immagine di uomo che si prende gioco di se stesso. Ha paura ad affrontare le sue paure e di esporsi. Uomo che si prende gioco di se stesso perché ha paura a cambiare la situazione e di esporsi al giudizio degli altri. Utime stanze: azioni ribelli come se potesse bloccare il tempo che inevitabilmente passa Sirene: immagine erotica che ci rimanda al mondo classico. Sirene sono creature mitologiche il cu canto affascina i marinai e rappresentano la tentazione ma dopo ritorna in sé Indagine psicologica della sua personalità ed è quella che secondo lui gli altri condividono ormai da tempo. Immagine dell’acqua richiede una specie di rilassamento da tutto lo sforzo mentale che ha fatto da quando è iniziato il testo ed è uno sforzo che si conclude nell’annegare; intrusione di nuovo nella realtà e non forza di poterla cambiare. Lo speaker si lascia sopraffare dalla realtà nella quale annega e il suo modo di essere è sopraffatto dalla realtà stessa che gli impedisce di risolvere il suo problema. La poesia si chiude senza sapere se e quando l’azione di cui lui andava parlando per tutto il testo alla fine la prenderà o no. You and | dell'inizio sono due pronomi che appartengono alla stessa persona: | è lo speaker che appare nel testo, you è l’altro self dello speaker che corrisponde all’istinto sessuale e alla parte che ha a che fare con le emozioni; parte che è stata tenuta a freno e che ora fa difficoltà a emergere. È l’uomo che parla con il suo sé sottomesso e relegato al silenzio per troppo tempo. Uomo moderno che scopre questa dimensione della sua natura e ora prova una grande difficoltà a venire fuori. Lo speaker canta una love song tra se stesso e il suo altro self non perché sia innamorato del suo altro self, ma perché l'oggetto focale dell'altro self è lamore/sensualità/passione/sessualità. Ciò che deriva quindi da questo testo è un grande senso di frustrazione e conflitto emotivo che Eliot ci descrive attraverso l'interazione tra you and I; senso di frustrazione totalmente moderno. All’inizio cita Guido da Montefeltro: è come se lo speaker fosse un traditore nei suoi confronti perché promette di fare qualcosa per poi negare quella promessa e non agire. Ciò che accomuna i due personaggi è la loro capacità di ripromettere e poi tornare sui loro passi, prendendosi in giro da soli. 42 Imagination is something which is difficult to have and she described herself as a fisherman waiting for a fish to come. After considering the kind of water, the wind, the fish you can pick up from lake, you are there waiting for something to happen. It is an explosion, your imagination comes. The idea which has come up is something about the passions which were unfitting to a woman to say. Now that she has found herself she has to face another obstacle: what topic should/ can | talk about? A woman writer, writing about a topic related to body and passion, would have been an incredible break with tradition and men would be shocked. Men behaved in that way spontaneously but in doing this they don't realize of the harm they are doing to women's freedom. Obstacle against woman's freedom to be herself to speak about her own body as a woman. They were preventing women from being herself. Then she's hinting at the feminist movement: solidarity between women, women fight as a one, different bodies of one soul with the same goal to reach. For the first time in history of women you are able to start working to find a solution, to decide for yourself without being overwhelmed by tradition and convention. Here is the end of the essay: the point that Virginia is trying to make is that many things have been done but there are many things that still need to be done. THE AGE OF ANXIETY 1930s. writers born at the end of the 19*h century or at the beginning of the 20*h century. They had all gone through World War | and they shared the terrible experience. They share a sense of helplessness, due to the lack of value and tradition, which was the way they conceived reality. Their first works came out during the Great Depressionà diagnosis of the country's ills. In England thy were dealing with all he social diseases, allthe unsolved questions. They faced the problems in their own works. They were students from Oxford University who had common ideas about literature and society. The main voice of this group was Wynstan Hugh Auden. WYNSTAN HUGH AUDEN He was born in NY in 1907 and he died in 1973. This allowed him to see the evolution of society and he went through some of the most significant facts of the 20*h century. He came from a family of famous position. He attended Oxford University where he graduated in scientific studies and then he went to Germany. His first book is called “Poems” (19930): he deals with the diagnosis of the country's ills and he describes the great illnesses of the English society at the time. He also describes the sense of frustration and anxiety that modern civilization was experimenting. These poems are meant to reflect contrasting intellectual attitudes. Auden is deeply concerned with the time he's living, which describes as helplessness and he describes the illness of society in relation to politics. At the beginning of his career he was a left wing writer, he strongly believes in communism as a solution to Nazism and Fascism. He would soon realize how totalitarian regime (both right and left wing) were disruptive for the society. From 1933 to 1938 it's the phase where he started to see what's going on in Europe. The aim is to give the reader the possibility of meditation and reflection, becoming aware of what's going on. 45 Then he decided to fight in the Spanish civil war for the republican forces together with other left- wing writers (1936-1939)à disappointment for what they had seen. He accepted Kierkegaard philosophy and way of conceiving the world. Closer attitude to Christianity, deeper reading of Christ love. DYLAN THOMAS He came from Wales. He was influenced by the metaphysical poets and romantic poets. For him the poet was a singer/bard and his way of writing poetry had nothing to do with Eliot (intellectualism) and Auden (commitment). He was part of the New apocalypse poets: poets born after the World War I, they were particularly influences by the Bible and they also were different from Auden and Lawrence (nature vs mechanics, emotion vs rationality). WORLD WAR Il End of the age of anxiety. Modern traits: - Abandonment of political stance - Role of the new mass media (TV) - Fear of nuclear war Experience of WWI, depression, fascism Establisnmentà partly responsible...... MUSEE DE BEAUX ARTS - AUDEN (1939) About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood: They never forgot That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green 46 Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. Sulsoffrire non si sono mal sbagliati, gli antichi maestri; hanno capito la sua posizione nell'uomo; come accade mentre un altro mangia o spalanca una finestra o ciondola solo in giro; come, mentre gli anziani attendono riverenti e appassionati il miracolo della nascita, debbano esserci per forza bambini a cui invece non importa nulla, che pattinano su uno stagno al bordi del bosco: non scordarono mal che persino Il terribile martirio deve compiersi in un angolo, a modo suo, in una nicchia sudicia dove icani proseguono la vita dei cani e il cavallo del boia sigratta innocente contro a un albero. L’icaro di Brueghel, per esempio: come tutto dà quietamente le spalle al disastro; l'aratore avrà udito lo schianto, l’urlo tradito, ma per lui non era una caduta importante; il sole splendeva come al solito sulle pallide gambe inghiottite dall'acqua verdastra; e la nave costosa, la delicata nave che certo avrà visto qualcosa di straordinario, un ragazzo cadere dal cielo, aveva un luogo alquale approdare e continuava a veleggiare con calma. ANALYSIS È stata scritta nel 1938 mentre Auden si trovava a Bruxelles. Visita il Musée des Beaux Arts e in particolare il quadro di Brueghel “The Fall of Icarus” lo lascia veramente colpito tanto da scatenare in lui questa poesia che è il risultato di una sua riflessione. La caduta di Icaro è quello che farà la Germania per poi crollare miseramente; questo tentativo così ‘ambizioso in senso negativo di voler raggiungere il potere totale. Indifferenza totale del mondo per quello che stava succedendo fino a quando è scoppiata la guerra. Il messaggio è che nel 1938 soffiano venti di guerra ma nessuno sta facendo niente. Questa indifferenza è qualcosa di insito nell'uomo e nella vita umana due sono le dimensioni parallele: quella delle cose che accadono e quella dell’indifferenza con cui si assiste alle cose che accadono. Questo doppio binario è talmente insito in noi che è inutile prendersela con la natura umana. La gente continua nell’indifferenza perché non è direttamente toccata dall’eccezionalità del fatto. = The speaker of “Musée des Beaux Arts” walks around a gallery, contemplating works of art by some of the greatest painters of generations past, namely Pieter Breughel the Elder and Breughel the Younger. The speaker retells two iconic stories that the paintings depict—the birth of Christ and the fall of Icarus— calling attention to the unawareness and indifference of the scenes’ onlookers. What's more, the speaker 47 Modernism, we said that the poetry of World War | started from what the Georgian poetry meant, so the revival of a pre-industrial England, the interest in a country which was not so technological, so industrialized and civilized. Lawrence was not a Georgian writer, but one those who appreciated a less-industrialized world. In fact, he condemns progress and modern civilization, because he is deeply convinced on the fact that both progress and modern civilization have brought about men's self-destruction. One of the main themes of his works is the conflict between man and society, which in his own opinion should be solved by different methods. The methods that Lawrence suggests in all his works is sexual fulfillment as a means to overcome the supremacy of intellectual modern society. Lawrence is convinced that love can be the key, the solution to the evils of modern society. Not only love as a feeling, but sexual fulfilment, so the sexual union between a man and a woman, is the solution to the great evils of modern society. Lawrence arrived at this conclusion because of his life. Lawrence, like Henry James and Forster, was deeply involved and concerned with psychological investigation, they were interested in men’s psychology. They were not interested in other themes, they were not so involved and concerned with themes that other authors dealt with, but for them the main concern was the psychological investigation. They wanted to understand what was going through in a man's mind. In fact, Lawrence’s novel tries to go deep in a man's mind in order to analyzed the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious. 1920s and 1930s means the success of Freud’s theories about the unconscious, but also means the exploration of the heart of darkness, which is inside every person. It also means the interest in that unknow psychological dimension, which was typical of all men. Everyone wanted to know something more about that newly found human dimension. Lawrence deeply tries to investigate the psychological aspect of men. The solution of sexual fulfilment as the key solution of the evils of modern society is related to the personal life of Lawrence. He had a special relation with his mother. This brought to the consequences of this special relation. The Complex of Oedipus probably was the key point in Lawrence's relationship with his mother. Lawrence’s mother was a teacher, so a cultivated person for the time being, who contrasted her husband's plans and succeeded in making her children enter a school. Lawrence”s father was a very rough man, he didn't care for education and culture, he was not interested in all this; he simply wanted his children to work hard in order to earn some money for the family. This idea was deeply contrasted by his wife, who being a teacher knew the importance of culture and school education, because it was a rewarding life and it was a way of coming out of bad situations and so of upgrading also in society. So, the woman managed to send her children to school. Lawrence attended school regularly and in 1901 met a girl who encouraged him to write. This girl realized the sensibility, the attitude of Lawrence and so she encouraged him to write. It was ten years later, in 1911, that the first novel by Lawrence came out, The White Peacock. Lawrence wrote it while attending Nottingham University College. This novel is about the difficult relationship between the sexes. Sex fulfillment is the leitmotiv of Lawrence's works. In 1912 he fell in love with one of his teachers’ wife. They moved to Germany, then to Italy, where they settled for seven years. Lawrence travelled a lot throughout his life and he travelled both in Europe and New Zealand, Australia and Mexico. His masterpiece, Lady Chatterley's Lover, was published in Florence in 1928, but the full text with the tabooed words only came out in 1959 in New York and in 1960 in London. It was censored, bad word, tabooed words in particular the ones related to particular explicit scenes of sex were prohibited. So, his first novel first came out without all the compromising scenes and words. It was not appreciated, it was not the novel Lawrence has written. It came out in its full version only 30 years later and in an age of rebellion, of sexual freedom it was more than welcomed. 50 In his novels are characterized by interior conflict and restless attitude, which were typical of Lawrence himself and Lawrence’s nature itself. The special relationship with his mother had given birth to a complex and sensible nature, who was unquiet. Lawrence felt the need for travelling, he never felt at ease in the places where he lived. In fact, his novels simply reproduced, in the sense that they give voice to events and personal experiences of the author’s own life. In his works insist on a mystical naturalism, which could be traced back to Rousseau and Blake. In particular to the Myth of the Noble Savage, so that innocence which characterizes creatures who have not been spoiled by the touch of civilization and society. This justifies Lawrence's contrast with modern civilization and progress. In fact, this mystic naturalism, this idea of the Good Savage focused and pivoted around the idea of love, which has to be the main force in a human's life. If you consider both Rousseau and Blake, you realized that love or the lack of love is what normally made the difference, it is was characterized in particular the child, who is considered the most innocent creature ever. The complex and special relationship that Lawrence had with his mother brought to a complex nature, which relied on the power of love as the true solution to the evils of modern society and civilization. He was convinced that the immediate knowledge of reality can be obtain only through the perfect union with a woman. This is the other way-round to speak about love. We say love as a hypernym and at the same time sex fulfillment as the specific kind of love Lawrence is thinking of. In fact, he is convinced that the sexual union of man and woman is the only possible remedy against the corruption of modern society. Consequently, the human relationships are Lawrence’s main interests. His works are based and speak of human relationships. The style is very effective, full of repetitions and restless arguments, he dwells on a particular event or fact and he describes the fact in full details. SNAKE - Lawrence A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and | in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there. In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree I came down the steps with my pitcher And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me. He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough And rested his throat upon the stone bottom, And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness, He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, Silently. Someone was before me at my water-trough, And I, like a second-comer, waiting. 51 He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do, And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment, And stooped and drank a little more, Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking. The voice of my education said to me He must be killed, For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous. And voices in me said, If you were a man You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off. But must | confess how | liked him, How glad | was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless, Into the burning bowels of this earth? Was it cowardice, that | dared not kill him? Was it perversity, that | longed to talk to him? Was it humility, to feel so honoured? | felt so honoured. And yet those voices: If you were not afraid, you would kill him! And truly | was afraid, | was most afraid, But even so, honoured still more That he should seek my hospitality From out the dark door of the secret earth. He drank enough And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken, And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black, Seeming to lick his lips, And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air, And slowly turned his head, And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream, Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face. 52 fallico e lui aveva il chiodo fisso. Rimanendo però sul piano culturale, lui confessa di esser compiaciuto da quella vista, perché quel serpente non fa nulla di male ed esercita un fascino su di lui e questo fascino si pone a sua volta in contrasto con la paura che il serpente avrebbe dovuto suscitare. Abbiamo da una parte la convenzione del suo mondo e dall’altra l'eccezione con lui. Le convenzioni contengono il concetto di paura e di obbligo di ucciderlo, mentre sotto Lawrence abbiamo il fascino. “Fu codardia il fatto che non abbia osato ucciderlo?”: si dà del codardo perché non ha osato ucciderlo secondo i canoni del suo mondo. “Era perversione il fatto che io desiderassi parlargli?” [2]quindi questo perversion che ci rimanda al fatto che uno è perverso quando desidera qualcosa senza limiti. “Era umiltà a sentirmi onorato? Perché io ero onorato da questo incontro”. Queste domande diventano l’immagine di un dibattito interiore: quella scena che vive scatena in lui delle riflessioni. Il fatto di non aver agito significa che è un codardo? Che è un perverso? In realtà lui si sente onorato da questo incontro, è onorato dall'incontro con una creatura che almeno all'apparenza non è lì per nuocergli. Questo ci rimanda all’Albatross di Coleridge, l’uomo di fronte a una creatura che non si conosce e che proprio perché non la si conosce può essere pericolosa. Il marinaio uccide l’albatross, Lawrence si ferma ad osservare il serpente, e questo fatto gli dà l'occasione per dare inizio a una riflessione. “E ancora quelle voci, se tu non avessi paura, lo uccideresti!” - ancora l'accento sulla paura. “e io in effetti avevo paura, io avevo veramente paura, ma ero ancora più onorato nonostante questo che egli avesse cercato la mia ospitalità dalla porta oscura della terra segreta”: cioè che lui abbia fatto un certo percorso per arrivare proprio lì da me. Questo serpente non è un intruso, ma una creatura vivente come Lawrence, che si trovava lì per rispondere a un suo bisogno. Entrambi vanno alla vasca di pietra perché entrambi hanno caldo e sete. “Bevve a sazietà, levò il capo, trasognato, come uno che ha bevuto, fece vibrare la lingua come una bifida notte nell'aria, così nera, e parve si leccasse le labbra”: personificazione che continua ed aumenta. “Si guardò intorno come un dio senza vedere nell'aria e lentamente mosse il capo e lentamente molto lentamente, come tre volte trasognato, si mise a strisciare in tutta la sua lenta lunghezza ad arco di cerchio e a risalire la parete screpolata del mio muro”: questo serpente ha finito di bere, si accorge della presenza di una persona ma agisce nella completa indifferenza. Compie tutti i suoi gesti molto lentamente, e ciò è sinonimo di non paura, indifferenza, ma anche di sentirsi padrone della situazione. È lo stesso ragionamento che ha fatto Lawrence, dunque il serpente sembra sempre più i tratti di un uomo. “E mentre infilava il capo in quell’orrido foro, e mentre lentamente saliva, insinuava le spalle serpigne e penetrava più addentro, una sorta di orrore, una sorta di protesta contro quel suo ritrarsi in quell’orrido foro nero, quel suo deliberato ritorno nelle tenebre, e quel lento trainarsi dietro quel suo corpo, mi sopraffece ora che mi voltava il dorso”. Il serpente dunque torna da dove è venuto e Lawrence si trova solo sulla scena dell'incontro. “Mi guardo intorno, appoggio la brocca per terra, raccolgo un ceppo informe e lo lancio verso la vasca di pietra” (probabilmente nella direzione di dove c’era il serpente). È una reazione che ha un altro obiettivo: reagisce perché non vuole che il serpente vada via. “Credo che col mio ceppo io non lo abbia colpito, ma subitamente quella parte di lui che ancora rimaneva fuori fu presa da un convulso di indecorosa precipitazione, guizzò come un baleno e sparì nel foro nero, nella crepa dalle labbra di terra e nell’intenso meriggio in moto io rimasi a fissare il muro affascinato”. Lawrence sta lì basito completamente affascinato da questa creatura che se ne è andata. Anche con questa strofa pone l'accento su un altro fatto interessante: la paura del serpente dopo che è stato attaccato. Mentre la paura dell'essere umano c'è a prescindere dall’attacco e dal pericolo, il serpente ha paura quando è braccato, è un istinto naturale. “E immediatamente mi pentii, pensai quanto miserabile, volgare, meschino fosse il mio gesto! Disprezzai me 55 stesso e le voci della mia dannata educazione umana (civilizzazione)”: si rende conto che disprezza la sua educazione secondo cui il serpente avrebbe dovuto essere ucciso. Lui rimpiange che la sua educazione gli abbia fatto pensare di poterlo eliminare e non accoglierlo come invece lui avrebbe voluto. “E ho pensato all’Albatross e ho sperato tanto che tornasse indietro, il mio serpente. Perché mi parve nuovamente simile ad un re, a un re in esilio, senza corona in un mondo sotterraneo, che ora dovesse cingerla di nuovo”. Il serpente diventa un re per dire che esso avrebbe dovuto essere accolto con tutti gli onori del caso, per dire che Lawrence, l’uomo, nel momento in cui si rende conto di non essere l’unica creatura sulla terra, deve essere disposto ad accettare ed accogliere le altre, dando a ciascuna la giusta importanza e i giusti onori. Conclusione: “E così, ho perso la mia occasione con uno dei signori della vita. E ho qualcosa da espiare: una meschineria”. Anche Lawrence ci dà una morale, facendo un passo avanti rispetto a Coleridge e alla reazione dell’Ancient Mariner nei confronti dell’uccello. Coleridge ci racconta ciò che umanamente avviene in quelle circostanze e come vuole la tradizione medievale, il marinaio viene punito con eventi che costituiscono un percorso catartico che lo fa rinascere. Per Lawrence questo episodio viene descritto non solo come fotografia, come un cortometraggio, però ciò che fa la differenza è la dimensione mentale e psicologica, il fatto che si sia posto domande e abbia messo in discussione la cultura da cui proviene, la cultura romantica che aveva formato la letteratura dell’800. Con Coleridge c'è un racconto e un insegnamento, con Lawrence c'è la messa in discussione di se stessi, l’introspezione psicologica[?] novità che la letteratura del primo 900 porta. In questa poesia emerge come tema la relazione tra creature, tra esseri viventi; il discorso di Lawrence di accettazione delle creature attribuendole rispetto è un discorso che parla di amore e di rispetto. TALKING IN BED Talking in bed ought to be easiest, Lying together there goes back so far, An emblem of two people being honest. Yet more and more time passes silently. Outside, the wind's incomplete unrest Builds and disperses clouds in the sky, And dark towns heap up on the horizon. None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why At this unique distance from isolation It becomes still more difficult to find Words at once true and kind, Or not untrue and not unkind. Arriviamo agli anni 50/60 con Philip Larkin, è una poesia interessante ed è uno spunto di riflessione. Queste due persone non comunicano, il vero problema è che manca la comunicazione e la mancanza di essa isola queste due persone, rendendole sole. C'è un confronto tra passato e presente, si mette in evidenza 56 che qualcosa è cambiato, ma si mette anche in evidenza un tema importante: l'indifferenza. Il vento continua a soffiare, la vita fuori dalle mura procede in un certo modo, ma dentro le cose sono cambiate. La stanza da letto è il posto più intimo della casa per la coppia, ma qui c'è indifferenza, non si trovano le parole giuste per esprimere i concetti. È la differenza tra l'essere autentici ed essere meccanici (true and kind contrapposto a untrue e unkind). Si dà l’idea di due persone vicine nella stessa stanza ma distanti e distaccati a livello sentimentale, come se i due non si conoscessero più. La poesia è pubblicata nel 1964, una poesia come questa ha a che fare molto col contesto storico e culturale, ogni testo letterario è il frutto della sua epoca. In una poesia come questa c'è una parte dell'autore, un mondo e l’aria che si respira. Gli anni 60 sono una decade molto importante, per la musica, per la moda; spesso gli anni 60 non smettono di affascinare e stupire. Il fatto che Larkin parli di un tema così importante e contemporaneo, la comunicazione e la sua mancanza, è fondamentale. C'è sempre una contestualizzazione da fare, quindi Larkin quando scrive questa poesia è la voce di un’epoca, è la voce di un contesto. Anni 60 significa anche un profondo gap generazionale, è lì che manca molto la comunicazione, tra genitori e figli che si impongono sulla scena del mondo con la protesta. La comunicazione in tutte le sue sfaccettature è centrale nella letteratura di questo periodo; qui abbiamo la comunicazione applicata a un contesto sensibile all'amore libero. La mancanza di comunicazione è centrale qui, come specchio di quegli anni. Larkin ci parla di ciò abbinata ad una coppia, probabilmente uomo e donna, sul letto, la sera, a casa loro. Larkin crea la condizione migliore ed essenziale perché ci sia comunicazione tra anime affini, che si sono scelte. Si trovano nella loro casa, nella loro dimensione, a letto, nel momento dell’intimità a fine giornata, lì dove la coppia diventa coppia, luogo di confronto. Se lì nella condizione privilegiata per la comunicazione viene meno, ecco che i tempi sono davvero cambiati, essa è paradossale, se ne avverte ancora di più il bisogno e la necessità. Larkin era un solitario, faceva il bibliotecario ed era un alcolizzato, un tipo che si intendeva di solitudine; nelle sue poesie tocca i temi che derivano dall’osservazione della vita quotidiana intorno a lui, le sue poesie sono come fotografie del mondo che lo circonda. È il mondo delle piccole cose, non il mondo degli eroi come nei poemi epici o come nel teatro, è il mondo delle persone comuni che attraverso l'osservazione della loro vita quotidiana ti permettono di mettere in evidenza i temi della vita moderna: la comunicazione, l'assenza di essa, la tristezza per iltempo che passa, la presa di coscienza dell’invecchiare, la felicità per il sentirsi più liberi segno dei tempi che cambiano. Le piccole cose della vita quotidiana vengono descritte con un linguaggio semplice e quotidiano, lessico non ricercato; ciò ha portato alcuni critici a ritenere che Larkin fosse privo di emozioni, in realtà la semplicità delle sue poesie è solo apparente. | suoi testi posseggono una profondità incredibile che spalanca davanti al lettore un mondo di sensibilità magari non compresa dai contemporanei. Larkin fa parte di un gruppo di poeti definito come “The Movement”; questi poeti si sono trovati a far parte di questo gruppo senza saperlo. In quegli anni furono pubblicate delle antologie di poesie da 3 autori diversi che hanno riportato i testi degli stessi autori riconoscendone delle caratteristiche. 12 MAGGIO 2021 PHILIP LARKIN (1922-1985)[?] one of the greatest poets of mid-20*h century. 1922 is an important year because of Modernism and because of the publication of some masterpieces of English Modernism (it is the year of Joyce's Ulysses and of Eliot's Wasteland). He belonged to The Movement, which is a group of poets. He was one of the major poets of the post Eliot age; he was not very self-confident in the sense that his pessimism was linked to a low-profile idea of himself. About this, he said “/f | seem good, it is because everyone else is so bad”. He used to compare himself to others, he didn’t have a high idea of himself. Larkin’s nature and personality(?) he was a solitary man; he's characterised by a negative look on himself and on human matters (he was also not confident in humanity and people in general). Philip Larkin belongs to that group of poets which is named The Movement as said and it's a group of poets born in the late 57 and so life which normally takes place under the sun is not there. “None of this cares for us”{?] it’s interesting the shifting in the pronoun, US. It is as if one of the members of the couple were Larkin himself. The isolation of the couple, they are going through the worst period in their life, crisis, and nobody seemed to be touched by this (towns, wind, clouds). Care- preoccuparsi, interessarsi di noi: complete indifference of the rest of the world. Each one is walking their own path in life, each one has to deal with his thoughts. The couple is living in solitude, and on the other side we have the rest of the world, who doesn't care for them. Last sentence: longest of the poem. “Niente spiega perché a questa singolare distanza dall’isolamento diventa ancora più difficile trovare parole che siano al contempo vere e delicate, o non false e non indelicate”. The situation is difficult to explain and also to accept: the members of the couple are put in the best condition to share emotions and experiences and thoughts. Nothing shows why at this unique distance they are so remote, extremely far (irony, some kind of paradox). More difficult, a comparison which contrasts again with easiest in the first line of the poem. The situation given, they are close, they behave as if they were miles distant, it makes the situation ironical but also ridiculous. It is almost impossible to come out of this situation. Two negatives mean a positive: non false- vere e non indelicate- delicate. Larkin gioca su questi aggettivi e sui loro opposti per dire cose uguali ma diverse. Questo modo di esprimersi dà ancora più forza agli aggettivi che ha scelto. Questo è il tipico gioco di parole che Larkin usa nelle sue poesie e che alla lontana richiama i giochi di parole alla Thomas Hardy, costruzioni non ineccepibili. In questo caso il gioco con gli aggettivi è un’eredità da Hardy, ma ha anche un valore più forte: pone l'accento su quei due aggettivi e nello stesso momento in cui ci dice che la situazione è paradossale, a quel punto comunicare diventa ancora più difficile perché significa che non c'è la volontà di farlo e non c'è la possibilità di farlo, manca qualcosa che porta alla comunicazione e questa mancanza di comunicazione è la ragione per cui la coppia sta vivendo quel momento di crisi. La mancanza di comunicazione diventa ancora una volta un male se non il male e il paradosso della società moderna, tema vecchio come il mondo. La semplicità della lingua non rispecchia per niente una semplicità di contenuti: il testo è denso di emozioni. SAD STEPS Groping back to bed after a piss | part thick curtains, and am startled by The rapid clouds, the moon's cleanliness. Four o’clock: wedge-shadowed gardens lie Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky. There's something laughable about this, The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow Loosely as cannon-smoke to stand apart (Stone-coloured light sharpening the roofs below) High and preposterous and separate— Lozenge of love! Medallion of art! 60 O wolves of memory! Immensements! No, One shivers slightly, looking up there. The hardness and the brightness and the plain Far-reaching singleness of that wide stare Is a reminder of the strength and pain Of being young; that it can't come again, But is for others undiminished somewhere Questa è una poesia del 1968 e poi pubblicata nel 1974 nella raccolta “High Windows”. Uno dei temi importanti è l’idea del tempo che passa, e quel che si è fatto nel passato non torni più, tempo che scorre inesorabile e il passato che non torna (Larkin è anche un nostalgico). Ancora il contrasto tra il dentro (posto dove si trova) e il fuori, due vite parallele che continuano; il “dentro” non è solo della stanza ma anche la sua interiorità. Il rimando che abbiamo qua è il sonetto 31 “with how sad steps” di Astrophil and Stella di Sidney- contemplazione della luna, poeta che si rivolge alla luna. Sidney si rivolge alla luna in questo sonetto, è il classico amante petrarchesco, poeta melanconico. La luna rappresenta l’unico essere che lo ascolta e che può capire quello che lui ha da dire: la luna diventa l'interlocutore privilegiato per il poeta. Il fatto che Sidney si rivolga alla luna introduce a quella sensibilità pre romantica. La Luna con Sidney ha un significato importante a livello di simbolo, rappresentava nel Rinascimento per gli elisabettiani il principio femminino dell’universo, la Luna è Diana, Artemide, l'identità femminile dell’universo. Sempre dal punto di vista cosmologico la luna rappresenta uno spartiacque tra il mondo sovra lunare e il mondo sub lunare. La domanda è: tutto questo valore simbolico, questa ricchezza di significati in questi poeti elisabettiani la ritroviamo anche in Larkin? NO. La Luna per un uomo del 900 rappresenta qualcosa di lontano. La luna in Larkin non significa nulla, è un punto nel cielo al quale il poeta guarda ricordandosi del fatto che il tempo passa e la sua giovinezza non torna più. In Larkin la luna si priva del tutto dei significati simbolici o metaforici; la luna è un corpo celeste alla quale viene spontaneo guardare e in questo modo essa segna il tempo che passa ed è il pretesto per Larkin per ricordarsi del tempo che passa. La giovinezza che ha vissuto e che non gli appartiene più è ormai ‘appannaggio di altri; lui non ha più energie per fare ciò che faceva in gioventù. Questa è una riflessione interessante perché la poesia è stata scritta nel 68. La luna è sicuramente un luminare della volta celeste e quindi segna il passare del tempo; ciò è pretesto per una riflessione personale; la luna c'è perché la scena è di notte, quando si è soli. “Brancolando verso il letto dopo una pisciata”: lui non è volgare, semplicemente terra a terra, usa un linguaggio semplice. Larkin era spesso ubriaco, aveva questa dipendenza. Quando dice qua che torna barcollando a letto ci dà l’idea di uno andato in bagno perché aveva bevuto troppo. Nelle sue poesie l’uomo viene sempre in qualche modo descritto in situazioni che lo sminuiscono, che gli tolgono la grandezza che altri autori gli avrebbero dato. L'uomo è nelle poesie di Larkin una creatura basica, una creatura semplice, che fa cose semplici e che vive una vita di stenti, privazioni, sacrifici, solitudine, difficoltà, incomprensioni. Ha la consapevolezza che la sua gioventù non può più tornare; ora tocca alle nuove generazioni. 1968[2] movimenti studenteschi, mondo sotto sopra. Larkin non ha l'ambizione dei giovani che gli eventi del 68 mettono in evidenza; tutti gli anni 60 hanno al centro i giovani e i movimenti giovanili. Una persona avanti negli anni vede tutto ciò come non un'occasione persa, ma come l'impossibilità nostalgicamente di poter esser parte di tutto quello. 61 Nel 68 molti eventi cambiano il mondo, ma lui ormai si sente fuori da questo, non può dare il suo contributo. Quando si ha la sua età e si è vissuta una vita come ha fatto lui, il non esser più giovani è un'ulteriore esclusione dal mondo. Le poesie di Larkin per quanto ricche e dense di sentimenti e messaggi, sono anche autobiografiche e pessimiste (indebitato ad Hardy per questo). SEAMUS HEANEY (1939-2013) He was one of the main voices of Irish poetry during his lifetime. He was born in Northern Ireland and this means that he was aware of the political situation of his country and of what to be a man born in Northern Ireland meant. He is another voice dealing with the Irish Question, he is a voice of the mature 20*f century which speaks about the more mature steps of the Irish Question, from violence and independence of Ireland and birth of the EIRE to the period of peace between England, Eire and Northern Ireland, a balance found diplomatic by a hard-working English Prime Minister and the corresponding figure in Ireland. His poetry mainly deals with the relationship between language, race and location as the major features which could put into evidence the idea of Irishness. He points to the revival of the English culture and tradition. Ireland is the main theme of his works and it is described in its multi-layered nature and he also deals with the country's troubled political situation (he is aware of what the political situation is). His style is both simple and rich: with the 20th century poem writing means not a particular and obsessive care for metric and rhyme. The free verse is normally the chosen kind of line, so this means that poems are easier to understood. He was one of the major voices of Ireland, in 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Digging” is one of the most famous poems he wrote; it was published in the collection of poems “Death of a Naturalist” which came out in 1966. When he wrote this poem in the last 60s the history of Ireland was characterised by The Troubles[?] a series of conflicts which took place in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement. On one side we had the Unionist who were in prevalence protestants who wanted Northern Ireland to remain under the UK, while on the other side we had the Nationalist in the main Catholics who wanted Northern Ireland to join the rest of Ireland. The conflict began during a campaign against Nationalist and discrimination in Northern Ireland. It was a terrible event which was dealt by the British police with brutality. It ended with the building of peace walls to keep the 2 factions apart. The main participants to the troubles in terms of organizations were the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Irish National Liberate Army than the Alistair Volunteer Force and the Alistair Defence Association. The point was that all the fights and allthe war-like episodes took place publicly: in streets and in squares of towns. They were completed by numerous riots, mass protests and act of disobedience. It was a complete turmoil and revolt. This behaviour led to segregation[?] the only way to keep peace was to build peace walls to keep the two functions apart. The fight was between Irish (Northern Ireland against the Republic) but Northern Ireland was under the control of England and so England played a role in the troubles. The British government tried to be neutral as much as possible, and tried to uphold order and impose their own laws to keep peace. The Nationalists - who wanted Northern Ireland to join the rest of the island — regarded the state forces as forces of occupation and so they wanted to get rid of the British government. Violence called for violence and the Irish fight call into question also England. Thanks to the British Government, diplomatic activities started and after a lot of decades of bloodshed, military campaigns and violence, an agreement was signed in 1998 and it has got the name of the day[?] Good Friday Agreement. The solution was a democratic one[?] 62 dell’America Latina, paesi che hanno avuto a che fare con l'impresa coloniale. Il termine viene utilizzato per la prima volta senza il trattino (all’origine: post-colonial) in alcuni studi linguistici che appaiono nel 52 su un giornale americano chiamato “American speech” e avevano a che fare con alcune tracce finniche lungo il fiume Delaware in America. È un termine utilizzato nella sua accezione intera in popolazioni che vivono lungo questo fiume. Il suo primo uso in studi letterari, senza il trattino, appare nel 58 su una rivista “Comparative Literature” in un articolo che riguarda il romanzo coloniale nell’Indonesia tradotto dall'olandese. Sono tutte cose molto macchinose, che hanno a che fare con paesi lontanissimi dalla realtà europea ma paesi che in qualche modo hanno avuto a che fare coi paesi europei per via del colonialismo. Si parte da un discorso linguistico per approdare solo in un secondo momento a un discorso letterario. È poi con gli anni 60 e 70 che il termine viene utilizzato per indicare appunto questo mondo che aveva vissuto quest'esperienza coloniale, queste relazioni culturali, politiche, economiche, tra i due paesi coinvolti. La letteratura post coloniale è scritta soprattutto dal punto di vista dei colonizzati, coloro che hanno subito il colonialismo e che han dovuto sacrificare, soffocare la propria identità e cultura per lasciare spazio alla cultura del paese colonizzatore. All’inizio questa letteratura post-coloniale dà voce alla difficoltà di questi paesi colonizzati a ritrovare la propria voce[?] si trovavano nella difficoltà di riuscire a parlare di loro stessi senza le influenze di chi li aveva colonizzati. L'intento era quello di usare la lingua inglese solo come veicolo per dar voce a una cultura, a una mentalità, a una storia, a una tradizione che erano tutt’altro che inglesi. Per questo motivo si parla di “letterature in lingua inglese” (Sud Africa, Caraibi, India...) e non di “letteratura inglese”. La letteratura post coloniale dunque ha a che fare con questa esigenza tutta nuova di questi paesi liberi e svincolati di riaffermare la propria identità culturale. Di tutti i paesi che l'Inghilterra ha colonizzato la nostra attenzione cade sui Caraibi, che sono una “chain of islands extending from the Florida peninsula to the Coast of Venezuela”. La storia dei Caraibi è molto interessante: sono stati visitati da Colombo nel 92 quando era ancora convinto di aver toccato l’Asia e non l'America. L'arrivo di Colombo e dei colonizzatori ha comportato lo sradicamento della cultura indigena e la creazione di una cultura nuova ed artificiale, che sarebbe nata dalla combinazione della cultura indigena con quella dei colonizzatori. Sebbene Colombo fosse stato accolto dagli indigeni come una divinità, i colonizzatori hanno ricambiato la gentilezza con brutalità e violenza. Quelle erano le zone in cui le coltivazioni di tabacco erano molto fiorenti: da queste piantagioni le monarchie europee dell’epoca intuiscono la possibilità di fare guadagni, cioè di grossi tornaconti commerciali. La loro brutalità consiste anche nel fatto che quegli indigeni sono sfruttati per lavorare in quelle piantagioni, sono resi schiavi per lavorare nei campi che avrebbero creato la solidità economica delle monarchie europee. Ovviamente nel 16 secolo l'Inghilterra, che non ha ancora né colonie proprie né un impero coloniale, comincia a nutrire interesse nei confronti di queste terre, intuendo che qui c’è il futuro dei suoi guadagni. Questi guadagni però sono facili per i paesi colonizzatori perché basati sullo sfruttamento della forza lavoro locale, sottoposta a ritmi di lavoro disumani, al punto che Bartolomeo della Casa prende le difese di questi indigeni spiegano che non riescono a lavorare con quei ritmi. Quindi la soluzione è quella di importare in quelle terre lavoratori dall'Africa, perché più temprati fisicamente a un lavoro di quel tipo in climi caldi. Verso la metà del 18 secolo l'Inghilterra ha la sua prima rivoluzione industriale, ciò significa che cambia la situazione e ormai cerca uno sviluppo economico basato non più sull'agricoltura e sul traffico del tabacco ma sull'industria e le fabbriche. Rivolge le sue attenzioni all’oriente, dove si trovano i materiali come le fibre tessili che possono esser lavorati nelle fabbriche inglesi. Questa industrializzazione violenta ed improvvisa porta in Inghilterra ad un aumento della richiesta di zucchero, che dava calorie con poco, sistemando l'alimentazione dei lavoratori. 65 Nel frattempo però gli schiavi che lavoravano nelle piantagioni di tabacco quando esse non sono più nell'interesse del paese colonizzatore vengono di fatto liberati. L'Inghilterra trova sempre in quei paesi il clima ottimale per la coltivazione della canna da zucchero, molto richiesto per il fabbisogno nazionale. Si crea così una nuova categoria di apprendisti lavoratori, che si distingue pochissimo da quella degli schiavi. Data questa situazione, le colonie chiedono assistenza ed aiuto all'Inghilterra, alla madre patria. Si rendono conto che da soli non riescono ad andare avanti e chiedono un intervento. La soluzione è stata quella di incentivare l'immigrazione di lavoratori verso le indie occidentali, dall’Africa, che comincia nel 1840 in modo significativo verso Trinidad e poi verso Jamaica e Guyana. Questa immigrazione nei caraibi da parte di forza lavoro africana è seguita a breve anche da cinesi ed europei che vanno a lavorare nei caraibi (indie occidentali). Entro gli anni 30 e 40 del 1900 la cultura caraibica è assolutamente artificiale perché non è più la voce vera dei caraibi ma un mix tra caraibi, colonizzatori, europei, africani, orientali che arrivati lì si sistemano e contribuiscono alla creazione di questa cultura artificiale. Dopo le due guerre mondiali gli Stati Uniti sostituiscono il Regno Unito come principale partner commerciale dei caraibi, che hanno dei governi che vengono democraticamente eletti ma sempre con lo zampino del Regno Unito e dell’America che controllano quello che succede. Se questa è la storia, altrettanto complicata è la parte letteraria[?) quando questi paesi sono liberi da un giogo politico e da una presenza straniera che si impone, comincia a farsi strada l'esigenza di far sentire la propria voce come indigeni. Queste prime voci in ambito letterario si accorgono di non avere una lingua propria per potersi esprimere. Di conseguenza, i primi lavori pubblicati e scritti hanno il sapore dell’imitazione[?] questa gente era priva di modelli della propria tradizione culturale quindi scrive sulla base di quelli che sono i modelli già conosciuti. Addirittura, per molti scrittori ed autori dei Caraibi l’unico modo per costruire una nuova consapevolezza era quella di prendere le distanze dai caraibi, allontanandosi fisicamente (come fece Joyce con l'Irlanda). Questi scrittori pensano di poter capire la loro identità solo quando, trovandosi in un contesto diverso, capiranno chi sono. Tra le mille voci che caratterizzano la letteratura caraibica c'è quella di Walcott, che ha sempre scelto di non abbandonare i caraibi. È una voce caraibica che ha costruito la sua poesia rimanendo lì, non avendo bisogno di distanziarsi. Walcott però è già di per sé un mix: olandese, inglese, caraibico. La sua biografia è uno spaccato di storia di quei paesi, così come lo è la sua poesia e la sua arte in generale. Per uno come lui è difficile capire da quale parte stare, perché lui incarna il sentimento del colonizzatore e quello del colonizzato[?] è contemporaneamente vittima e carnefice. In queste condizioni è difficile capire dove stare. Walcott a differenza di molti suoi colleghi che hanno difficoltà ad accettare la complessità linguistica che si era andata creando, Walcott rimane affascinato da questa molteplicità e differenza di culture e voci. Obiettivo delle sue poesie è stato quello di parlare di temi riguardanti i caraibi, di personaggi della vita caraibica, di parlare di sensazioni, paure, storie, nel tentativo di una ricerca della propria identità. Walcott viaggia tantissimo nella sua vita, era docente di letteratura in un’università inglese, ma nonostante ciò il suo punto di riferimento era Santa Lucia nei Caraibi. La sua poesia è stata completata dalla sua attività di pittore (slide); bisogna leggere le sue poesie guardando le sue tele, altrimenti si perde il sapore delle poesie. Sono tutti paesaggi molto colorati, pescatori, mare, scene quotidiane che raccontano tradizioni caraibiche. Sono delle vere sinestesie: guardando i quadri si sente il profumo dei caraibi. 66