RIASSUNTI PROGRAMMA 5 LICEO LETT.INGLESE, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Inglese

Scarica RIASSUNTI PROGRAMMA 5 LICEO LETT.INGLESE e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! VICTORIAN AGE AND CHARLES DICKENS The nineteenth century is therefore a period rich in scientific discoveries, especially in England, which experienced a real wave of industrialization. This is the period of the Victorian age (1837-1901), a period of stability and progress in the Kingdom. But this was only the appearance, the reality was in fact quite different. The Victorian period was indeed a period of contradiction, often referred to as the Victorian compromise: on the one hand there was the progress brought about by the industrial revolution, the growing wealth of the upper and middle classes and the expanding power of Great Britain and its empire; on the other were the poverty, disease, deprivation and injustice faced by the working classes. However, this contradiction led many to struggle to improve and change the conditions of the working and lower classes. In this regard we remember the writer Charles Dickens. Creator of the highly autobiographical "social" novel (autobiographical because in his life at twelve he had to interrupt his studies and work in a factory), Dickens represents a turning point in nineteenth- century English literature, that of realism, the beginning of a profound investigation changes in society with particular attention to the contradictions of his time. The one told by Dickens is the story of an advanced capitalist society where the poorest from games go directly to work or from the orphanage to the court of miracles, to the underworld, to thefts: a childhood denied, as still happens today when so many children who they must face the world of adults must work or grab weapons to survive, victims of hunger and shot to death. In the novel Oliver Twist Charles Dickens presents the dramatic situation of a small orphan who spent a few years in an orphanage, amidst suffering and abuse; attacking the very social institutions of his time, such as poor houses, unjust courts and the underworld. Another example can be found in Hard Times, where Dickens focuses on the difference between rich and poor, between factory owners and workers, forced to work long hours on low wages in dirty, noisy and dangerous factories. This novel uses its characters and stories to denounce the gap between rich and poor and to criticize the materialism and narrow-mindedness of utilitarianism, which was the fundamental Victorian attitude towards the economy. Hard Times suggests that 19th-century England was turning humans into machines by avoiding the development of their emotions and imaginations. WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892) He lives in Victorian Age DEMOCRACY. Walt Whitman’s poetry is pervaded by optimism and a romantic faith in the dynamic future of the American nation and civilisation. He celebrated America in all its variety. To him the United State represents the expression of the idea of democracy. Infact, he supports radical democratic causes, even during the civil war. In one of his most significant lyrics "O Captain! my Captain!” he will highlight the figure of Lincoln, admiring him for having promoted the abolition of slavery and the establishment of democracy. NATURE. Whitman treated the natural world as the body of the earth, a material entity with a character that attracted the poet’s curiosity. The human body was treated by the poet as a continuous with nature. His relation to the earth was also mystical. RUDYARD KIPLING SUPREMACY. In Kipling's work “The white Man’s Burden” the British Empire acquired almost a mythical status. He exalted imperial power, whose purpose was to provide order and stability among the natives. He believed in the 'burden' of the British, who, as the elected race, had to carry civilisation all over the world and establish their government based on honour and dignity. OSCAR WILDE His most important poem is The Picture of Dorian Gray TIME LIMITS. Dorian Gray goes against the limits of time, precisely because it does not age. In fact, he will enter into a sort of pact with the devil to make the painting age and never spoil his youth. Obviously, at the end of the story, Dorian will die, precisely because he had definitively lost his soul. AESTHETICISM. With the figure of Oscar Wilde I can make a connection with D'annunzio, the greatest exponent of italian decadence. Both were considered 'dandies', because their focus was mainly on the outward appearance. Furthermore, D'Annunzio takes inspiration from the ‘picture of Dorian Gray’ to write his excellent aesthetic novel, “il piacere”, in which the protagonist, Andrea Sperelli, looks a lot like Dorian Gray. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON DOUBLE. Stevenson in his poem “The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” wanted to write about both the double nature of Victorian society and the duality of man with his good and evil sides. Stevenson considered evil a real presence in human nature. Indeed Jekyll is on the surface a respectable man but, has always been 'committed to a profound duplicity of life' and has always contained within himself a potential for profound wickedness. This evil potential releases in the shape of Mr Hyde, in which it appears in uncontrolled form. THE WAR POET The War poets was a group of poets who themselves fought in the trenches in the First World War, and described their experiences by giving an anti-conventional and anti rhetorical representation of war as a source of suffering, violence and death; they attracted growing popular interest. Rupert Brooke. The poet wrote that war is a way to become heroes and demonstrate their patriotism, so death on the battlefield is not tragic but a noble end; and the only thing that can suffer is the body and even death is seen as a reward. Wilfred Owen. In his poems he shows the brutality of war and his poems are painful in their accurate accounts of gas casualties. JAMES JOYCE Joyce was the most revolutionary English author for the language. He proposes this new language which is called "stream of consciousness".