Modern Novel - Amazing Minds, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica Modern Novel - Amazing Minds e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Experimenting with new narrative techniques Modern novelists refused the use of an omniscient narrator because it was no longer able to properly represent the reality of a world that had undergone drastic political, social and technological transformation. Therefore, they started to experiment in order to find new ways to portray the individual consciousness. At first, the viewpoint was that of the external world; then it shifted to the internal world of a character’s mind. The theories on the existence of different levels of consciousness and subconsciousness influenced the analysis of a character’s consciousness. A different use of time Modern novelists also approached to the theme of time in a different way. They found pointless building a well-structured plot, with chronological sequence, because they believed time had to be internal and subjective. The distinction between past and present wasn't necessary in order to reveal the story. An example is James Joyce’s Ulysses, whose story develops in the course of a single day. The stream-of-consciousness technique The narrative technique mainly used by modern novelists was the so-called “stream of consciousness”, which is an ongoing flow of thoughts and feelings of the human mind. This technique is applied though the use of the interior monologue. Three groups of novelists Modern novelists can be divided in three main groups. 1. the first group is made up of psychological novelists, whose main concern was the characters’ mind and its relationships. The most remarkable are: Joseph Conrad, D.H Lawrence, E.M Forster. 2. the second group consists of the novelists who paid particular attention to subjective narrative techniques, through which they were able to to explore the characters’ minds. The most important are James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. 3. the third group, instead, focused on the social and political problems of the time. It was made up of novelists such as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Subjective consciousness 19th century novelists pictured their characters as social beings but also as individuals with a moral and emotional inner life. When the 20th century started, writers realized the need of/to reproduce the complexity of the human mind using different forms of expression. Therefore they started to adopt the interior monologue in order to portray the unspoken activity of the mind. Main features of the interior monologue The main features of the interior monologue are: • its verbal expression, which is the stream of consciousness • the lack of a chronological order • the presence of the narrator • the use of the character’s mind as the main place in which the action takes place • the use of an immediate speech, and the lack of introductory expressions Therefore, we can say that the interior monologue is a sort of psychoanalyst’s couch, in which the character is allowed to talk freely about his feelings. Types of interior monologue The two main types of interior monologue are indirect and direct. - In the indirect interior monologue, the narrator maintains a logical order/organization, therefore it never lets the characters’s thoughts flow without control. It can be characterized by the use of descriptions, comments and introductory phrases in order to offer the reader a guidance. The characters stay fixed in space while their consciousness moves freely in time. - The direct interior monologue, used by Joyce in ‘Ulysses’, makes the narrator disappear, therefore the character’s inner self is given directly. Joyce more specifically used two different kinds of direct interior monologue: 1. one with two levels of narration (one external to the character’s mind and the other internal) 2. the other one is the interior monologue brought to extremes, since it only concerns the mind level of narration. In this case, the character’s thoughts flow freely, without any interruption. AZIZ AND MRS MOORE from 'A Passage to India' by E.M.Forster (1924) In this excerpt, the author focuses on the meeting between Aziz, a young Indian Doctor, and Mrs. Moore, an elderly English lady who has just got to India, in particular to Chadrapore, where the Civil Station administered by her son is. The scene takes place at night. Dr.Aziz is looking for comfort/relief in a mosque, a place which he finds particularly fascinating since it awakens his sense of beauty. We can also find a short description of the mosque’s architecture; there is a courtyard with an ablution tank, three arcades and a small hanging lamp and 'ninety-nine names of God on the frieze'. When Dr.Aziz’s sees Mrs. Moore, he feels angry, because he believes the White woman has not taken off her shoes. However, as soon as he realizes that she has, as a sign of respect for the holy place, he calms down and they start speaking. They speak about their families and they find out that, although differences are clear and obvious, they share some similarities. They both have three children, Aziz has lost his wife and Mrs Moore is a widow too. They both believe in the divine, even though Aziz is a Muslim and Mrs Moore a Christian. While they are speaking, they gradually change their attitude towards each other; Aziz starts to become attached to the old lady, since he feels they share something meaningful. At first, the lady is a bit frightened but then she feels sympathy for the young man too and finally invites him to join the club. When she is told that Indians are not admitted there, she feels astonished; the Whites are violating basic rights by excluding the Indians from their own territories. Although the relationship between Aziz and Mrs Moore develops smoothly, there are elements in the text that can be seen as symbols of difficulties, elements that will threaten personal relationships, later in the novel. There are details connected with the hostility of nature as we can see from line 3 to 6, 'there is something hostile in that soil. ...' and again from line 86 to 87, 'there are bad characters about and leopards may come across...' Then, the conflict between cultures is hinted at from line 28 to 31, when Aziz hears from the Mosque the discordand sounds of Hindu and British life. Finally, the difficulty in communication is suggested by Aziz's mistaken use of idioms when he says 'in the same box' instead of ' in the same boat' and by the confusion of names and identities that arises from Mrs Moore's second marriage. From the passage, it clearly emerges how interested Forster was in human relationships. He focuses on the two characters. Aziz is a quick-tempered young doctor, but he is also friendly and open-minded, tolerant enough and sentimental. He is trying to escape from an alien environment and he looks for relief in a holy place. He is conscious of how difficult it is to establish good relationships between people; in his own country the Hindus and the Muslims can't get on well together. He shows resentment towards the British because of the way they treat the Indians and he despises their cold attitude. Mrs Moore shows him sympathy and understanding; although she's English, she criticizes other members of the British community, she's kind and invites him to join the club, she shows respect for his religion. The relationship between Aziz and Mrs.Moore is made possible by their mutual sympathy and their characters; however it is self evident that the relationship between people belonging to different cultures is tricky. Moreover, Forster seems to criticize imperialistic policies of discrimination under which personal relationships are spoilt. The British attitude of superiority, their arrogance and discrimination of the Indians are partly responsible for the impossibility of reconciliation between the two cultures. However, the Indians' attitude is of no help; they are diffident towards the British and they can't get on well with their fellow citizens of a different religious credo. Indeed, the passage also hints at the contrast between the Moslems and the Hindus and it makes us foresee the development of an Indian national conscience in the character of Aziz.