Modernism, Conrad, Joyce and Woolf, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica Modernism, Conrad, Joyce and Woolf e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Modernism It was invented by a group of artists. The first half of the 20th century (immediately before the 1WW) was known as the “Age of anxiety”. It had this name because the social and political situation had changed completely and rapidly. In fact, after a period of political stability and no big problems, people lived through a period with 2 world wars, an economic crisis, and also a new idea of psychology with Freud. In this period people weren’t sure about their futures. During this period there was a cultural movement→ Modernism. The artists that belong to this movement were almost theorists. The modern and the Victorian novel are very different : Modern novel Victorian novel based on the inner reaction of characters based on a plot and events characters important for their inner reactions characters important for their actions difficult to have an idea of society mirror of society of that time narrator→ 1 person internal and the point of view changes the narrator is not fixed and for this it is difficult to understand what happened in the novel narrator→ 3 person external perspective and focalization→ internal perspective and focalization→ external The psychological novel is focused on the communicable are of our thought, while the modernist novel is behind the communication A deep cultural crisis From the last 2 decades of the 19th century to the end of the Victorian system, there was a deep cultural crisis. The private morality of the Victorians was very strict and had to be maintained. The positivistic faith in progresses helped people to believe that human misery would be swept away (spazzato via) The problems started with the 1WW in which a million of British soldiers lost their lives and Britain went in a disillusionment mood. Only the privileged class had stability and prosperity. The conscious was hunted (perseguitato) by the atrocities of war. There was a gap between young and old people because old people were accused for the waste of life during war. In this period nothing seemed to be right or comfortable, also the basic idea started to be questioned. In 1905 Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity, which changed the concept of time and space. The modernists were influenced by William James, Freud and Henri Bergson : Freud and the psyche The 20th century was influenced by the idea of Freud. He created a structural model of the psyche divided into 3 parts: 1. id —> it’s the process of identification and satisfaction of instinctual impulses 2. ego —> coordinate and realistic part 3. superego —> is themoral part that has to respect the constraints imposed by the society,education and moral law Freud says that the development of the human psyche is influenced by the unconscious. The idea that the human’s actions could be influenced by irracional forces scared a lot. Freud says that also the superego can distort the man’s behavior. He also thinks that our consciousness is the part of the iceberg that we can see, while the unconscious is the part that we can’t see. Because of this the relationship between families changed. And the conventional models of relationships between the sexes were re-examined. This new method of investigation of the human mind through dream’s analysis and the concept of “free association” influenced the artist of this period. The artists that belong to this movement wanted to translate the stream of consciousness into words. The stream of consciousness is a psychological term first used by a philosopher,William James. He says that our mental activity is as fluid as a river. It means that our mental activity can focus on the past, present and future at the same time. Henri Bergson postulated the idea of a double time. There are 2 kinds of time: 1. the clock time→ time of actions, it is linear and miserable 2. the inner time→ it isn’t miserable or linear and develops in our heads→ In my head I can think about the past,present and future at the same time This 3 thinker influenced the modernist that accepted the idea of unconscious, inner time and mental activity as a river Stream of consciousness technique The objective of modernists is to translate the stream of consciousness into words and they do this through the “stream of consciousness technique” . This technique includes some instrument such as: - cinematic devices : slow-down, fast-forward, fading - inner time - interior monologue The interior monologue is a monologue inside a character mind and there are 3 types: 1. Direct interior monologue Conrad spent 6 months in Congo with a Company and he saw the colonial imperialism of King Leopold II of Belgium, who thought that Congo was his possession. Leopold did this in the name of philanthropy and anti-slavery. He said that was fundamental to civilized poor populations and he imposed a “labor tax” on natives of 40 hours per month of forced labor. Leopold and the Company wanted only to accelerate the production of ivory and rubber and to do this they used violence. When Conrad wrote “Heart of Darkness” he had doubts about imperialist politics and we can see it because he calls Marlow company “ continental trading company” and he gave Kurtz a German name, a half-French father and a half-English mother. A complex structure There is the Chinese box technique. There is the principal narrator (Conrad) and then Marwlo. The point of view changes a lot. A quest for the self Marlow knows his limits and for this reason he doesn’t try to go beyond them. Because of this he saves himself and he returns home. He decides to put his mask on but not to die. Kurtzt wants to go beyond his limits and he finds death because he doesn’t know where to stop. He thought he was strong enough to understand everything but when he met his dark soul he died. The horror - “I am lying here in the dark waiting for death”→ he’s conscious to be in the dark - Marlow is transfixed→ he’s shock about the situation - Marrlow sees what happened to Kurtzt and he’s fascinated but he doesn’t want to see it again - “a veil” is the mask ➔ Marlow is in front of Kurtz without mask, he’s naked and he sees his dark soul ➔ Kurztz says “horror” because he sees his dark soul and it is difficult, he sees bad and horrible things→ this is an epiphany ➔ because of this situation Kurtz cries in a whisper James Joyce 1882- 1941 James Joyce’s life He was born in Dublin in a large family. He had a strict education in a Jesuit school,he studied literature and foreign language. He prefered to be considered European and not Irish because he thought that Ireland was a paralyzed country,consequently he volunteered to go into exile. He thought that it was paralyzed : - cultural —> because the rest of Europe was modern while in Ireland there was the Celtic Renaissance,that is related to the past Celtic origin of Ireland - political —> Ireland was not strong enough to gain the independence from England - moral —> individuals Although he accused Ireland of being paralyzed,he settled all his novels in Dublin. He said that in order to be objective we have to consider a certain situation from a different point of view and from outside. For this reason he doesn’t use the omniscient narrator because he has a point of view. The 16th June is important (also in the Ulysses) because it’s the day when he dated for the first time the girl he fall in love with He lived in France, Zurich and ,Triestre (where he met Italo Svevo) His production is divided in 2 parts : 1. first period—> Dubliners (collection with short stories,in each of them there is an epiphany), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 2. second period—> Ulysses, Finnegans Wake Ordinary Dublin He went into volunteer exile but he settled all his novels in Dublin because he wanted to give a portrait of the mental,emotional and biological reality of the ordinary people. Style and technique He is a modernist novelist and his objective is to translate the stream of consciousness into words,using the SoC technique,the direct speech and the epiphany. He wanted to give us the sensation to read thoughts THE DUBLINERS The origin of the collection Joyce gives us a psychological realistic picture of Dubliners as afflicted people,who don’t have happiness because they are without hope. In “Dubliners” there are 15 short stories. They lack actions and by contrast they focus more on thought and psychological parts. The stories are divided into groups : childhood,adolescence, maturity, public life and epilogue (The Dead). In one of Joyce’s quotations he says that Dublin is the center of paralysis. “The Dead '' is his masterpiece and it’s the epilogue because it’s the climax of the entire collection. The main theme is “paralyzes' ' and there are the modernist narrative techniques. The use of epiphany The epiphany is a sudden spiritual manifestation caused by a trivial event,which leads the character to a self - realization. “Dubliners” is seen as a sequence of multiple epiphanies that offer a revelation of the city in its intellectual,moral and spiritual paralyzes. A pervasive theme : paralyzes After the epiphany the characters have to be brave and to make a decision. All the Dubliners are weak and scared. The moral center of this work is not only the paralyzes but also its revelation to the victims. The Dubliners’s intent to escape from the paralyzes failure. Narrative techniques There is an internal perspective. There is a direct presentation of the protagonist's thoughts in order to limit the narrator’s mediation. The linguistic register is varied and it adapts at the age of the protagonist. EVELINE It’s a work of Joyce and it is in “Dubliners”. The protagonist Eveline is 19 years old. She has the opportunity to leave Dublin and to go to Buenos Aires with her boyfriend. Text analysis of the first 4 lines: - She→ third person narrator ➔ first sentence→ action→ fist level of narration ➔ second sentence→ action/thought ➔ third sentence→ thought→ second level of narration using the free indirect style The plot : Eveline is sitting near the window, looking at what happened in the street, she is tired. She sees a field where, when she was a child, she played with other children. Suddenly, a man bought that field to build homes. She thinks about her friends and about their family’s situation. After these thoughts, Eveline looks around her home and thinks about the story of some of the objects. She thinks about the decision to leave with her boyfriend. She thinks about her future life, in a new city and with Frank. She is scared of her father and his violence, nobody could protect her. Her brother gives them some money but her father accuses her to squander (sperperare) money. For her it is very difficult to keep the house together but she thinks that she is about to leave. She thinks about the first time she met Frank and he told her his past life. She thinks about when her father took care of her while she was ill At line 90 there is the same situation of the beginning, it means that in the lines before there is an interior monologue. Thanks to a song that Eveline hears in the street, that is a trivial event, she remembers the promise that she made to her mother, after her death. In fact Eveline has an epiphany and she remembers a night in which her mother was dying and they heard an Italian song in the streets (the same that she’s hearing now). Her mother prayed for her to keep the house together and Eveline promised it. Seeing the situation of her mother, Eveline understood that if she will remain, she will have the same life. Eveline turns into reality, she stands up and understands that she has to escape with her boyfriend. Eveline is in the station with her boyfriend to take the ship for Buenos Aires, she’s confused and she thinks about her decision. Frank speaks to her but she doesn’t answer because she thinks about other things, she is doubtful. At a certain point Franz calls her to go up to the ship but she’s paralyzed, she can’t move and she says “no!no!no!”. Frank continues to call her but she looks at him as a helpless animal and he stays paralyzed in Dublin. She will never be happy. The funeral - Joyce Clarissa is a London society lady, she belongs to the upper and middle class. She is 51 years old and for her it is late to change her life. She is the wife of a Conservative member of the Parliament, with conservative ideas also about women. In his life, Clarissa is only a secondary character. She lives in a rich environment but she isn’t happy. In fact, she is amiddle-aged woman split in 2 : - the life she is living - the file she would want to live She belongs to the upper-middle class but she wants to be free. In fact, she feels 2 opposite feelings: 1. she need freedom and independence 2. her class consciousness She has to appear perfect, also her house, and in order to do this she imposes severe restrictions on her feelings. Septimus Warren Smith is a sensitive man, who is often afraid. The causes of these sensitive feelings lies in the death of his friend Evan during war, in fact he is shell shocked. After the war, Septimus suffers from insomnia and he is haunted by Evans’ specter. Clarissa and Septimus apparently don’t have any connection, apart from the news of Septimus’s death at the party. But in reality they are very similar. The most important one is that they depend on their partner for stability and protection. But there is a difference that underlines the fact that Septimus can be the double of Clarissa. In fact, he’s not always able to distinguish his personal response and the external reality, in fact his physical paralysis leads him to suicide. By contrast, Clarissa is always aware that the external world is external from herself. In fact, at the end she accepts the idea of death and she prepares for it. “Clarissa and Septimus” - Mrs Dalloway - free indirect style - actions : snuffing in, breath, talk - the description of the setting as it is perceived by Clarissa - Clarissa’s interior monologue can be compared with the Eveline’s one, but there are some differences: ➔ more actions in Clarissa ➔ information about the physical appearances “Mrs Dalloway said she would by the flowers herself”→ initial sentence of the passage Woolf describes while Clarissa is going to the shop and she’s thinking about the relationship between her daughter and her history teacher. The journey is not long but it lasts 30 lines because there is a very long interior monologue. She enters in the shop and she thinks “Nonsense” with a direct interior monologue→ level of thoughts Clarissa immediately meets Miss Pym, who always has red hands. In the shop there are a lot of types of flowers, such as: roses and iris and as a consequence there are a lot of smells. Clarissa begins to choose the flowers for her party while Miss Pym and she hear a noise produced by a car, which is similar to a pistol shot. Because of the unexpected noise the two women are scared. The car that produced that noise had drowned to the side of the pavement and from the car arrived some apologized, but nobody sees from who. Everybody is curious to see who is inside. Septimus Warren Smith is in the street with his wife and when he hears the noise, he’s scared because he’s shell shocked, in fact he imagines to be in danger. His wife encourages him to go ahead but also she is very curious to know who is in the car. In reality his wife is worried about his husband and his sentence “ I will kill myself”. Joyce - Woolf - Conrad Joyce Woolf Conrad modernist novelist modernist novelist modernist novelist translate the stream of consciousness into words translate the stream of consciousness into words translate the stream of consciousness into words novels last one day (Ulysses) novels last one day (Mrs. Dalloway) / direct interior monologue free indirect style not so present epiphany : - sudden revelation because of a trivial event - once or twice in life moment of being: - a rare moment of insight - daily life epiphany→ Kurtzt says “the horror! the horror!”→ in this case he doesn’t have the possibility to choose not omniscient narrator / chinese box technique interested in language and experimentation with language more poetic and fluid language novels always settled in Dublin novels settled in different places isolated places is not possible to read only one level of narration is possible to read only one level of narration is possible to read only one level of narration