Romanticism and Modernism in Literature: Shelley, Conrad, Eliot and War Poetry, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Romanticism and Modernism in Literature: Shelley, Conrad, Eliot and War Poetry e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The Augustan Age The Augustan Age (18th century) is a period of order and stability like the one of the Roman Emperor Augustus: a period with no domestic wars that brought about a great economic development. It is the age of rationalism, pragmatism, reason, stability, order, balance, common sense (this period is also called the Enlightenment) with philosophers such as Locke and Hume. An age during which the British put in practice the Puritan values (work for work’s sake). They felt themselves as the true heirs of the Romans and they were ready to colonise the world (Robinson Crusoe) bringing their civilisation everywhere. The Whigs governed and they were severely criticised by the Tories, anyway both Whigs and Tories had a common target: they wanted to create the true Englishman who would colonise the world. The common target of the Government and also of its opponents was to create a powerful middle class which had to combine the values of the puritans (commitment) and of the aristocracy (refinement and culture) and that thanks to these values they could colonise the world. Novels and newspapers were used to mould the people’s mentality: the novel had to be realistic, to speak about real everyday events with everyday people, above all from the middle class, so that the readers could identify themselves in what they read. There is a new kind of hero, no longer a prince or princess who lived in unknown distant fantastic places but a normal man, defined by his name, surname, described with many realistic details, as Robinson Crusoe. We know everything about him: his origins, his job (a slave merchant), the amount of time he spent on a desert island off Southern American coasts, and the novel uses the form of a diary, to increase verisimilitude. Newspapers were another means to create a common mentality: both novels and newspapers were written by Tories writers. Apart from the realistic novel, satire was in great use following the Latin author Horace. The Romantics The American Revolution ● 13 American colonies met in Philadelphia: George Washington had military command ● 4 July, 1776: Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson (all men are equal, right to life, freedom and happiness) ● Benjamin Franklin went to Paris and gained the support of France and Spain → the British army was forced to surrender in Yorktown → Treaty of Versailles The French Revolution Britain quickly recovers from the loss of the American colonies by acquiring new territories (Australia, India, Canada) French Rev → Congress of Vienna (reestablishment of European monarchs) Differently from the 18th century, where they wanted to mould a common mentality (realism, pragmatism, balance, order !!), now we’ve got revolutions, chaos, reality is no longer perceived through the senses but there is an individual reality (≠ common mentality). The French Rev had frightened the British aristocracy because they feared that it could happen also in Britain → new reforms to prevent people from rioting (Peterloo Massacre: army was called out to disperse a meeting of workers) ● William IV issues the first Reform Bill to eliminate the rotten boroughs: the electoral districts, each entitled to one parliamentary representative, no longer reflected the actual population distribution → large cities had only one representative as did the country areas (manipulated by land owners). right to vote: extended to the majority of the male middle class ● Factory Acts: forbids the employment of children under 9 ● Abolition of slavery: England had the monopoly of the slave market, they wanted to prevent any revolutionary outbreak ● New system of national education economic liberalism → economy doesn’t have any law, there mustn’t be any economic restraints Industrial Revolution: thanks to raw materials (iron and steel), energy sources (coal), technical advantage (thanks to the previous foundation of the Royal Society) → factories ● people from the countries were reduced to starvation and were unemployed ● bad living conditions in the factories ● this brought about criticism about economic liberalism → base of socialism and capitalism ● trade unions are born ● humanitarian movements: children began to be considered as real human beings ● discrimination of women → demanded emancipation (Mary Wollstonecraft and Emily Pankhurst → Suffragettes) ROMANTICISM = refusal of Enlightenment ideals (everything is judged according to reason) new ideas: ● social unrest ● individualism ● freedom ● reality perceived through one’s feelings Romantic poetry FIRST GEN → begins with the Lyrical Ballads (1798): Wordsworth and Coleridge embody the two sides of English Romanticism: ordinary world / magical and supernatural. The precursor of romantic poetry is William Blake: complementary vision of innocence and experience gives a complex picture of reality. William Wordsworth ● born in the Lake District (he lived closely with nature: inspired his poetry) ● he was passionately committed to the cause of the Revolution ● friendship with Coleridge → Lyrical Ballads (1798) ● importance of children from which we have to learn bc they teach grown ups innocence ● ordinary subjects coloured with the power of imagination ● simple language and rhyming scheme ● DOMESTIC NATURE = friend, life force, source of poetry, SHELTER ● poetry comes from emotions recollected in tranquillity → he half creates bc he uses a rational faculty = memory Lyrical Ballads (1798) I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud He was walking around the Lakes alone and he happened to see a group of daffodils along the water. This image will be a bliss bc afterwards he realises that this moment will fill him with joy and peace. Our Birth is but a Sleep He believes in the pre-existence of the soul. The more we grow the more our soul drifts apart from perfection, but we don't forget it. Shades of the prison house = we are more experienced, we can be innocent only in contact with nature. S. T. Coleridge ● democratic ● supernatural, exotic events making them more credible with a simple language ● NATURE = both a FRIEND and an ENEMY ● task of the poet = create in the reader a willing idea of disbelief for a moment: astonishment ● poetry comes from a moment of ecstasy, when we are completely disconnected from any rational facility (opium addict) → he completely creates The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) ● ballad = quatrains with simple rhyming scheme (ABAB) about mystery, suspense ● from a dream (G. Cruikshank) ● joint poetic work (Wordsworth) ● inspo: gothic romance + travel literature + traditional ballad ● supernatural elements: glittering eye, mysterious forces, albatross has powers, unearthly creatures ● religious reading: killing the albatross is a sin → salvation = return to his country. he blesses the snakes and the spell brakes ● very musical language thanks to technical devices (alliteration, archaisms, personifications…) 1. mariner tells the story: an albatross is seen as omen of good luck, he kills it 2. evil spell cast upon the ship → stuck in a deadly calm 3. mariners are dying → ghost ship manned by Death (takes the crew) and Life in Death (takes the mariner) 4. mariner is haunted by ghosts → he feels compassion for the sea snakes and blesses them 5. spell begins to break 6. hears spirits talking about his sin 7. reaches land → hermit rescues him. he tells him his tale = confession = peace → he must tell everyone as an example to love all of God’s creatures P. B. Shelley ● social concerns (similar to Blake) but committed in his society (attended uni and expelled bc he was atheist) ● against institutions → man is naturally good (Rosseau) ● atheist: we can’t believe in God bc irrational ● anarchist and rebel → considered immoral, an outcast ● moves to Italy → hated England bc no freedom but all his poems about UK ● task of poetry = to make the world feel in harmony. his poetry is an agent for change ● poet is a prophet ● MAJESTIC NATURE, made up of natural and powerful forces (storms, earthquakes…) → source of inspo Ode to the West Wind (1819) ● rhyming scheme: Dante’s terza rima ● every stanza is a sonnet in tercets in iambic pentameter = every last line rhymes with the first and the third of the following stanza ● prophecy of political and social revolution ● wind is both preserver and destroyer ● the wind inspires him to write a poem to inspire men to make a change John Keats ● he was doomed to die (26) bc got tuberculosis → couldn’t be reciprocated in love but wrote the best love poems ● abandoned med career for literature ● BEAUTY = only consolation from his miserable life → beauty imagined is far superior than the one perceived through the senses ● ancient greek plastic art (Lord Engin marbles) → beyond classical perfection though imagination ● task of poet = to be able to recognise beauty that will give us consolation Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819) = all ancient greek plastic art = the only weapon against mortality ● typical pindaric ode but irregular rhyming scheme, 5 stanzas made up of 10 lines ● as Shakespeare → only way to defeat time is art ● description of scene on the vase: two lovers are frozen in time, they'll forever be in love ● urn has a limit: although it conveys strong feelings it will never come to life The Victorian Age 1837-1901 1867: second Reform Bill 1884: third Reform Bill → right to franchise ● poor people lived in workhouses (jails) → urban slums ● protectionism → FREE TRADE ● GB was the world’s leading political and economical power (1851: Great International Exhibition of London) ● POSITIVISM = man can be happier and better thanks to science and technology → railway mania (1830), steam engine, telegraph, first hospitals (Crimean War) social reforms: ● Mines Act ● emancipation of religious sects ● Trade Union Act 1900: foundation of the Labour Party the British Empire → prosperity ● expansion: Canada, Australia, NZ, India, Africa ● patriotism (middle class) ● after WWII and the dismantling of the British Empire → Commonwealth of Nations The Victorian compromise = everything can be done but not shown ● PRUDISHNESS = extreme hypocritical propriety in behaviour/speech (sexual matters) but they didn't care about social conditions that led women to prostitution ● UTILITARIANISM = everything is judged according to its material value → only what’s good is useful → exploitation of nature Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood = return to Italian mediaeval simplicity and spiritualism Aestheticism = poets are obsessed with ageing, beauty and they devote themselves to pleasure living hedonistically The movement was theorised by Walter Pater and its major representative is Oscar Wilde ● total detachment from social issues: not interested in lower class, despise the middle class bc mediocre and only interested in making money, like the refinement and culture of the aristocracy but hate them bc they’re trivial ● art for art’s sake ● cult of beauty ● musicality of the words ● cinematic devices (slo-mo, flash-forward, flash-backs… to describe inner time → Bergson) War Poetry They all volunteered bc they believed that war was the only way to make a man out of a boy, but they later discovered the tragedy of war and its effects Rupert Brooke ● embodies the virtues of the brave English man ● heroic side of war The Soldier ● first months of war → patriotism had not yet faded ● identification of soldier with England ● earth where soldier is buried becomes richer Siegrfried Sassoon ● denounces war horrors ● ironic to surprise the reader ● direct speech → attacks on gov, church, high command Glory of Women Women’s lack of knowledge of war + hypocrisy ≠ German mother who pities her son Wilfred Owen ● vision of horror and desolation Dulce et Decorum Est ● soldiers under gas attack ● relived as nightmare ● Horace latin tag → bitterly ironic Joseph Conrad 1857-1924 ● born in Ukraine, then moved to France and then joined an English merchant ship → learned English and became a British citizen. ● 1890: trip to River Congo (inspired Heart of Darkness) ● all of his works are set at sea (it’s a character): sea, unknown countries, jungle, ship → settings that isolate the character ● task of the author = he has to reckon the complex concept of life: when man is in front of a sudden dangerous natural event we can understand his real nature (brave/cowardly) ● compromise of traditional novel and new novel: he is a modern author because he analyses our conscience in depth but doesn’t use the stream of consciousness (uses very precise syntax, grammar and punctuation) + he uses time shifts (cinematic devices) ● there are several povs + invisible narrator Heart of Darkness (1899) ● novella (long short story) based on personal experience ● dark, unknown, undiscovered nature = dark part of our mind: self-discovery voyage = quest → freed by social impositions, the white man reverts to his true self, savage and instinctive ● two narrators: invisible narrator on ship on the Thames + Marlow narrates in first person and adds commentary ● many povs: Kurtz’s description is given by different people, this shows that reality is perceived differently by each person. ● two main moments (present of invisible narrator and past of Marlow’s tale) + many time shifts and past references ● Marlow is disgusted at the brutality of the Company and horrified by Kurtz’s degeneration, but he claims that any thinking man would be tempted into similar behaviour ● Kurtz = extremes of European colonialism ● use of the double: Kurtz is what Marlow could’ve become if he had given in to his primitive instincts ● the book exposes the hypocrisy and cruelty of colonialism Plot Marlow narrates his story to some friends on a boat on the Thames. He had been hired to go to River Congo and recover Kurtz, an official of the Company. Kurtz had gone to Africa for ivory and to civilise the people (Congo was rich in ivory and rubber). He has become a god-like figure to the natives. Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 ● born in London, daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen (literary critic and philosopher). ● brought up in an intellectual household, she was educated at home. ● sexual abuse and death of her mother (1895) and father (1904) caused severe depression, followed by many other mental instability episodes throughout her life. ● moved to Bloomsbury, her house became a centre for literary meetings held by the Bloomsbury Group (Clive Bell, Leonard Woolf, EM Forster, John Maynard Keynes, Roger Fry): anti-Victorian (most of them were bisexual), unconventional ideas, skeptical about religion and leftists. Very exclusive group made up of only highly refined and cultivated people. ● she married Leonard Woolf in 1912 and they founded the Hogarth Press. ● due to the outbreak of WWII her anxiety and mental illness went downhill and she drowned herself in the River Ouse on 28 March 1941. Works She is one of the greatest experimental novelists of Modernism. ● The Voyage Out (traditional novel) ● Night and Day (traditional novel) ● Jacob’s Room (first use of the stream of consciousness) ● Mrs Dalloway ● To the Lighthouse ● Orlando (dedicated to her previous girlfriend Vita) ● The Waves ● A Room of One’s Own (shows Woolf’s concern on women subjugation and the relation between women and writing) Characteristics: ● writer’s aim = to voice out the complex inner world of feeling and memory ● disappearance of the omniscient narrator ● stream of consciousness: ○ character development is achieved through complex inner reflections ○ the action is revealed through the mental processes ○ time shifts (past memories, present, dreams of the future): time of the clock and time of the mind Differences with Joyce: ● INDIRECT INTERIOR MONOLOGUE: she uses punctuation, syntax, povs… ● MOMENTS OF BEING: rare moments of revelation that appear during daily life, when characters can see behind appearances (≠ epiphanies) Mrs Dalloway (1925) Novel set in London, narrates the ordinary events of the life of Clarissa Dalloway during one day in June 1925. Clarissa is married to Richard, a member of Parliament, they live on Bond Street (very wealthy area). She is preparing to host a party that evening, while recalling her life before the war, the marriage and her relationship with Peter Walsh. Septimus is a shell-shocked veteran, he is married to Lucrezia, an Italian woman. The climax of the novel is when at the party, Dr Bradshaw announces the suicide of Septimus. In this moment Clarissa has her moment of being and acknowledges her superficiality. C. and S. have shared that day some of the events they had witnessed, such as the aeroplane flying over London. Clarissa Dalloway: ● 51yo woman ● wife of conservative MP ● not capable of loving, in fact she rejected Peter Walsh, who was willing to give her everything ● imposes severe restrictions on her spontaneous feelings Septimus Smith: ● shell-shocked veteran ● sensitive man ● feelings of fear and anxiety ● suffers from headaches and insomnia