World Wars' Impact on Literature: Georgian, War, & Avant-Garde Poets in Victorian Era, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica World Wars' Impact on Literature: Georgian, War, & Avant-Garde Poets in Victorian Era e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE MODERN AGE 20th century: the modern age. The Victorian age was very optimistic, people had a lot of faith in progress because of the great expansion of the British empire, which brought wealth to the middle class. During this age we had great improvement in many different fields (education, science, health). The first part of the 20th century, however, was characterized by two world wars: the most tragic events ever experienced by human beings. These two wars were different from previous ones, the way of making wars had changed drastically because of the general improvement in technology; wars now ad a greater impact on civilians. Before these wars, the soldiers who went to war were basically the only ones at risk, but now civilians were involved too. New military devices were used now, such as aerial, submarine and trench warfare, poison gas and more sophisticated weapons increased the horror of war. Aerial bombing of cities involved everyone in the tragic experience. Now everyone risked their life in a war, and this brought a sense of extreme crisis and a loss of certainties (decadence experience). Artists responded to these events through their art in a variety of different ways. Both in Europe and United States we had the birth of cosmopolitan movements called MODERNIST MOVEMENTS. These don’t just occur in literature but they involved all arts (the visual arts, music, architecture). In literature we have movements both in poetry and fiction, and in theatre these movements came later, after the war. The age of modernism: the modernists had a pessimistic vision of reality and a critical awareness of a crumbling culture which often turned into apathy or despair. Literary interest shifted from the outside to the inside and writers investigated the psychology and the unconscious motivation of their characters, influenced by Sigmund Freud. Writers such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf used new literary techniques to deal with the unconscious in daily life. WORLD WAR I WWI was the first global conflict affecting Europe, fought by the allied powers (Great Britain, France and Russia) against Germany and Austro-Hungary. The united states entered the war in 1917 and helped the allied powers. The main reason for the war was the competition among countries with nationalistic and imperialistic intentions. The war radically changed Britain’s social structure, with the rise of the working class and of a new liberated woman. Pacifism was censored and in 1917 conscription (lega obbligatoria because after the beginning of the war there weren’t as many people willing to become soldiers) was introduced. Conscientious objectors were sent to prison. In this period women took a more active role in society: by 1917 they could serve in uniform or work in factories, on farms and in other areas of public service. Trench warfare was the stalemate position of the opposing armies at war. The front lines were a sort of network of communication trenches, support trenches, advanced trenches, and observation posts: the enemies were separated by the deserted no-man’s land, a very dangerous area. Life conditions, as described in the war poems were appalling for the troops because of the weather, diseases, and the animals haunting the place, but especially because of the dangers of artillery shells, mortar and sniper fires, of attacks and attempts to cross ‘the sleeping green’. POETRY In the Modern Age we can identify three categories of poetry: Georgian poets The name comes from a poetic collection of poems called “Georgian poetry”, and it referred to King George V (1910-1936). These poets were very traditional, indeed they followed all the conventions, such as traditional form and contents (iambic pentameters, regular rhyme scheme, sonnets). These poems were generally set in the English countryside, where they capture everything as if it is always perfect, they give an idyllic description of it (no mud, no bad weather, everything was always beautiful, and nothing ever goes wrong). They continued writing this kind of poetry even if WW1 was already happening, they acted in their poems as if there was no war at all. War poets These were the poets who joined the army during WW1, they who were already poets before they joined the war. (es. Ungaretti). The soldiers who weren’t poets before the war and started writing poems while in the trench aren’t a part of this category. The majority of these poets died during the war, so their works were published posthumously. Sassoon was one of the few who survived and published his and other poets’ works. The war was initially seen as a mission and a heroic deed, but later on as a disillusion and a big lie. Avant-garde groups Inside this group we can identify other groups: Imagism, born in America and a nameless group inspired by French Symbolism (Baudelaire especially). The main exponent of this group was Thomas Sterne Eliot. His poetry is experimental; his aim is not to express emotions (like the romantics) but to escape from them. He also wants to create a new language, because he felt that the one used until that moment lacked in communication. He wants to find a new language that can do this. Some of these poets used a clearer language, a more immediate one and some used a more difficult one (T. S. Eliot is one of them). The lack of communication between people, partly caused by the war, makes people isolated, and a collective traumatic experience, such as a war, needs to be expressed through a difficult language (difficulty of language=complicated emotions). RUPERT BROOKE (1887-1915) He is an example of the stereotyped patriot, who died of blood poisoning at the beginning of the war (he never really took part in it). His poems (total of five poems he ever wrote) represent the initial illusion that war gave of being a heroic deed and a glorifying experience, which is why many young men like him enlisted in the war. ____The soldier____ p. 285 This poem was read as a part of a church Sermon; it is a sort of propaganda for the war. It shows the patriotic view Rupert Brooke and many other young men had for their country before the war: the main feelings expressed are joy, pride and love. The soldier considers it an act of love for his country, seen as a loving mother. We have a total idealization of the English landscape,