modernist writers+james joyce+dubliners, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica modernist writers+james joyce+dubliners e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! MODERNIST WRITERS Conrad is considered a bridge between traditional and modernist writers; and he paved the way to Virginia Woolf and Joyce. Characteristics: 1. Also modernist writers want to be rid of (essere liberi)/rejected the omniscient narrator. 2. The narration moved forward and backward: past, present and future are mixed. 3. Modernist writers shift their attention from action to the unconscious and led the reader enters in the character’s mind. In that way the reader can understand all the character’s innermost thoughts and feelings. THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY This new philosophical, psychological current which lead to a sense of disillusionment and pessimism; because man understand that there are things which don’t depend on his will but those things are the result of something which goes beyond his will. So men can’t control everything. So, by the end of the century there was a reaction against the Victorians’ traditional ideals, against their superficial optimism and against their hypocritical concept/idea of respectability. New trends began to appear and they eventually led to a deeply pessimistic view of life. FICTION IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY (1901-1945) Consciousness= your mind and your thoughts Victorian readers wanted to read something about their world, their life and about the people they knew; so about reality, they wanted realistic fiction. So a fiction which could portrait reality had to have a plausible, interesting story and lifelike characters. In the first years of the 20th century there was a reaction against the realistic traditional Victorian novel, a reaction caused by the new psychological and philosophical theories and writers shifted their interest from action to the mind of the character, to the subconscious. They led the reader enters in the character’s mind. In that way the reader can understand all the character’s innermost thoughts and feelings. Among the psychological theories the once of Sigmund Freud an Austrian psychologist who opened the way to the exploration of the subconscious. He described consciousness as a multi-layered phenomenon in which past coexist with the present. Each individual responded to reality according to his/her own personal experience, so reality is no longer objective. Reality is subjective because everyone sees things from their point of view according to their experience, their personal history. And then there are some thigs which are part of reality which are objective. At this point modernist writers had a problem, the problem was how they could portrait human consciousness in writing. Human consciousness which was seen as a flux of thoughts in which past, present and future coexisted. In Victorian’s fiction this problem had been avoided by the use of the omniscient narrator (because the omniscient narrator knew everything about you). But modern writers wanted to get rid of/rejected the omniscient narrator. So they had to find new narrative techniques to solve the problem and the most important technical innovation was the interior monologue. Reality was described throw the Stream of consciousness= It’s a movement, a flux of thoughts inside human mind. It’s when an idea recalls another one which recalls another; one after the other in an association of ideas. Some writers (Joyce, Woolf) follow the Bergson’s idea of time. He said that there is a time inside individual consciousness so time is subjective. (Because an hour of English for you is too short, instead an hour of English for me never ends. So different perception of time.) So they distorted the chronological order of events expanding or shrinking (ristringere) time. For example Joyce’s Ulysses takes place in one day and it is almost 600 pages long. Also in Virginia Woolf’s novel “to the lighthouse” the 1st chapter take place in one day and covers more than a half of the novel, instead the second chapter take place in 10 years and covers on tenth of the novel. Modernist writers eliminate action almost completely. REALISTIC FICTION Anyway realistic fiction survived and developed during the 20th century but changes a little bit; because the interest of the writer shift from events to the human soul. So the focus of the narration shift from the event of the story to the psychology of the character. In realistic fiction we find a mixture of events and psychology. INTERIOR MONOLOGUE The main features of the interior monologue: • It’s the written expression of mind, the stream of consciousness. • It’s characterised by the frequent lack of chronological order. • The action takes place inside the character’s mind. • The interior monologue is like sitting on the couch of the psychoanalysis because the character’s mind is free to wander among association of ideas. JAMES JOYCE (P.248) James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882, he was educated at a Jesuit school before going to University College in Dublin where he graduated (in Bachelor of Arts with a focus on modern languages). Ireland was part of United Kingdom and UK imposed to Ireland that was catholic his protestant religion. It wasn’t only a religious war, because when British occupied Ireland they kept for themselves the best areas, the best job and they imposed their form of government. Joyce wasn’t really interest in political and literary movements which ask for the independence of Ireland from English dominance; because he didn’t consider himself an Irish man, he consider himself a European citizen (he has broader views). All the stories are set in Dublin and are about Dubliners. The writer writes about the paralysis of the town which is both physical and moral, and it is link to religion, politics and family. It’s this paralysis which prevents Dubliners from taking decision, from living; every day is like the previous one. They are surrounded by this sense of stagnation/monotony and they are entrapped in Dublin. They try to escape (it’s the opposite of paralysis) but none of them succeeds in leaving Dublin. They are unable to cut the bonds (legami) which tie (legano) them to the family, own town, friends and culture. So they live as exiles at home. EVELINE (P.253) • The story is set in Dublin, it’s evening and Evelin in sitting by the window in her house. She’s looking out of the window while she’s waiting to leave. • Eveline belongs to the group of adolescence and it is an important example of paralysis. It is the story about the life of a 19-year-old girl and she’s facing the first big challenge of her life. She is on the borderline between adolescence and maturity. She has the opportunity to leave her monotony life, she has the chance to move to a new country where it would be respected and start a new life with Frank. • But when she’s about to leave she is completely paralysed, like a helpless animal. She is unable to cut the bonds which tie her to the family and the town. DETTAGLIO: Evelin in sitting by the window in her house. She’s looking out of the window while she’s waiting to leave. She’s thinking about her past, present and future life, so past, present and future are mixed. She remembers that when she was a child he used to play in a field in front her house with her brothers, sisters and friends. And life seemed much happier than now. Her father wasn’t so violent and impossible and her mother was alive. Now on the field where she used to play there are some red houses. One brother, Earnest, is dead. The other one, Harry, is never at home because he works and he travels across the country. One of her closest friend, Tizzie, is dead and some others have left Dublin. But while she’s waiting she thinks if what she has decided is the right thing to do. Which means that her feelings are contradictory, she’s weighing the 2 side of the question (to leave or not to leave). She feels insecure. If she stays in Dublin she has a house, a place where she could find the people who knew her, people that she loved. But staying in Dublin also meant hard work inside and outside the house. Inside because she had to look after her father and 2 younger siblings. Outside because she had to work at the Stores, and it was a job that she didn’t like at all because she didn’t like Miss Gavan, her boss; because Miss Gavan used to tell her off (sgridare) especially when there were people in the shop. Hard life also because her father because her father after his wife’s dead has become violent and impossible. He often gets drunk especially at weekends. Her father has never hit her but he often threatens her. And every weekends they quarrel because he doesn’t want to give her the money to buy the Sunday’s food because he says that she used to waste the money. But when shops are going to close he wants her to go out of the house and buy the food; so Evelin has to rush out the house and run to get there before the shops closed. But on the other hand she also remembers that her father hasn’t been always like that, for example she remembers when they went on a picnic when her mother was still alive; and he made everybody laugh. And she also remembers when she didn’t feel well, he prepared some toast for her→ contradictory feelings. But now that she’s about to leave she feels insecure, she has doubt and her life doesn’t seem so terrible. But then she thinks about Frank: is kind, manly, open-hearted man. He loves her but it’s not clear if Eveline really loves him or if she considers Frank just a way to escape maybe she loves the idea of the new life that Frank could give her. He is one who sings for her, he calls her Poppens (lovely name), he took her to the theatre to see “The Bohemian Girl”. Frank is a sailor, he is in Ireland on holiday, Frank has started has as a deck boy and then he makes his fortune in Buenos Aires which is the place where he wants to take Evelin. He often tells Evelin stories. Frank is completely different from her father; her father when found out that Evelin was dating with a sailor he forbade her to see him because he said that “you can’t never trust sailor”. One day Eveline’s father had a quarrel with Frank and after that she had to meet her lover secretly. Time is running out (esaurendo) but Eveline is still sitting by the window and a certain point she hears a street organ playing. This is a crucial moment, because a simple gesture, the music, originated the epiphany; and that music reminds her of the music she heard the night her mother died and that music starts an association of ideas one after the other. The music reminds her mother’s life, a life of sacrifices, a life of hard work, a life ending in craziness. And she remembers her mother’s last words: “Derevaun Seraun!”, meaningless words. She trembled at the idea that she could repeat the same life as her mother lived (because she doesn’t want to repeat the life of her mother), so she must escape; escape is associated with Frank. Three association of ideas, one which recalls the other and the next: The idea that she doesn’t want to live the same life of her mother→Escape→Frank→New life. That air also reminded her the promise to her mother, the promise to keep the house together and to look after the elderly father and two younger siblings. The promise together the fact that she is weak are the main reason why she can’t leave, her sense of duty makes her unable to leave, she’s paralysed. The epiphany revels Eveline’s weakness, passivity, fear, fear to face a new situation and leave her house. And at the end of the short story Eveline is compared to a helpless animal, she can’t move, she is passive (“Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell (addio) or recognition) A lot of critics say that Eveline is weak, maybe it takes more strength to stay in Dublin than to leave. SOFY: I think that it’s difficult start a new life in a country that you don’t know, and in a country where you don’t know anybody, the only person that you know is your boyfriend. I would stay in Dublin because if I don’t really I wouldn’t leave. Because if she fails with frank she could find alone in a new country. On one hand there is her family, on the other hand there is Frank; and you don’t know really well Frank as your family. LAURA: It’s a really hard decision to take, because we are young and it’s a lifechanging decision. But if I were Eveline I would escape because it’s better leaves your family and start a new life in a new country with a good person than stay in your own town with your family but live an unhappy life. And an unhappy life is a wasted life. ES:2 P.255 3. The interior of the room was characterised by some familiar objects which are always cover by the dust. A yellow photograph and a coloured print. 4. She feels insecure and her feelings are contradictory. She’s weighing the 2 side of the question (to leave or not to leave): if she stays in Dublin she has a house and a family, but it also means hard work and face with a violent and impossible father. But on the other hand if she leaves with frank in a new country she would break the promise she made to her mother on her deathbed, so to look after her father and her siblings. 5. 3-10: The world outside her window makes her think about her childhood, when there was a big field in which she and her friends used to play when they were children. But then a man from Belfast, bought the fields and built houses. 10-13 e 40-45: her father used to hunt them in out of the field with a stick. He wasn’t so bad at that time : when her mother was still alive. But after his wife’s dead he has become violent and impossible. He often gets drunk especially at weekends. Her father has never hit her but he often threatens her. 17-23: She never dreamed of being divided from her familiar objects, which dusted once a week for years. She thought that she never found the name of the priest in the yellow photograph hung on the wall above the broken harmonium, besides the print of the promises made to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque. 29-35: she didn’t like her job and she didn’t like Miss Gavan, her boss; because Miss Gavan used to tell her off (sgridare) especially when there were people in the shop. 36-37 e 58-59: She wanted to go to her new house, in a distant unknown country where people respected her. She wanted to go away with Frank, became his wife and lived in Buenos Ayres. 66: Frank is a sailor who fell in love with Eveline. 57-65 e 67: Frank is kind, manly, open-hearted man. He loves her and he is completely different from her father. He is one who sings for her, he calls her Poppens (lovely name) and he took her to the theatre to see “The Bohemian Girl”. 73-76: when he found out that Evelin was dating with a sailor he forbade her to see him because he said that “you can’t never trust sailor”.