Riassunto Absolute beginners, Sintesi del corso di Cultura Inglese I

Scarica Riassunto Absolute beginners e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity! ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS Absolute Beginners is a novel by Colin MacInnes, written and set in 1958 in London, England. It was published in 1959. The novel is the second in MacInnes' London Trilogy. "Absolute Beginners" is a pop-formation novel. It is the summer of a boy and a youth movement who dreamed of being able to change the cultural balance of England, overcoming racial divisions, prejudices and nationalism. The novel is written from the first-person perspective of a teenage freelance photographer, who has learned the art of photography by trying and making mistakes. He lives in a dilapidated but vibrant part of west London that he calls Napoli, he lives in a battered neighborhood because it is cheap. The area is home to a large number of Caribbean immigrants, as well as marginalized Englishmen from society, such as homosexuals and drug addicts. He does not drink alcohol and he does not identify with the two political parties. He lives alone but listens to the family's requests for help; born in a bunker during a German bombing, "baby blitz" is a second son who is rioting to the rules but very sensitive to the changes taking place. Dressed apart, he owns a radio, a turntable and piles of records and books that he collects. He loves jazz and promises, one day, to see the whole world; for now, apart from Brighton, he never got out of London. At the end of his last summer he can decide to leave blindly, finally. Proud to have gained an identity now irrevocable. The protagonist is the generation of English teenagers of the fifties, born as a flower on the ruins of war, euphoric, full of independence and autonomy; the first with a little money on the hands, and many fewer responsibilities (p. 9). It is an internationalist and pacifist generation (p. 25), alien to class conflicts (p. 39), not necessarily anti-American but aware of the need to be anything else from America (p. 56); it isa generation that dreams of a revolt of all young people to revolutionize the system. We are in the middle of the last Western economic boom. The themes of the novel are the narrator's views on newly formed youth culture and his fixation on jazz clothing and music, his love for his ex-girlfriend Crepe Suzette, his father's illness and racial tensions in the summer of Notting. The novel is divided into four sections. Each details a particular day in the four months covering the summer of 1958: 1. InJune(occupies half of the book) shows the narrator meeting with several teenage friends and some adults in various parts of London and discussing his vision of life and the new concept of being a teenager. He also leams that his ex-girlfriend, Suzette, is going to marry his boss, a middle- aged gay fashion designer named Henley. 2. In July, the narrator takes photographs by the River Tamesis, sees the musical operetta HMS Pinafore with his father, has a violent encounter with Ed the Ted and sees Hoplite's appearance on the television show Call-Me-Cobber. 3. In August, the narrator and his father take a Tamesis cruise to Windsor Castle. His father gets sick during the trip and must be taken to the doctor. The narrator also finds Suzette in her husband's cabin in Cookham. 4. In September itis set on the narrator's 19th birthday. He sees this, symbolically, as the beginning of his senior year as a teenager. He witnesses several incidents of racial violence, which disgust him. His father also dies, leaving him four envelopes full of money. Suzette has separated from Henley, but he still seems unsure whether he should resume his relationship with the narrator. The narrator decides to leave the country and find a place where racism does not exist. At the airport, he sees Africans arrive and gives them a warm welcome. His father has been an obsessive since the 1930; he is 48 years old but feels old - his wife feels he is going to die - and regrets having had no freedom or well-being. He's writing a book about that neighborhood. It will be the last bequest to the son, the most symbolic one. And then there's Suzette, called Suzette crepe because you want to eat her, as pretty as she is; she's 17, she dances like an angel, she's crazy for the blacks but she dreams of a distinct marriage. She is Jewish-Scottish- Gibilterrina bloodthing, and the boy photographer is inevitably in love with her. They never made love, only they went close to it; their relationship is suspended and unexpressed. Let alone when she joins another: the photographer's extreme and adolescent reactions will be predictable, late romantic, grotesque but inevitably tender. Suzette is the allegory of the cultural revolution dreamed of by the photographer; it is impossible to own it, because it is a symbol. You can woo her, but you will never be able to hold it. A few words about the minor characters. Big Jill, the narrator's best friend, is a big lesbian-pimp: she coordinates her girls and leaves the house only when it gets dark, to retire to some clubs. Wizard called Wiz hates everyone: Jews, blacks, foreigners, old. He hates everyone except teenagers. He is a very flashy, blond trafficer like Marlon Brando; and then here's Ed, former Teddy Boy fallen into disrepair, thug looking for a different position, maybe in another group. "Absolute Beginners " is the young England of the 1950s that faces the shock of ethnic conflict and rock music; teenagers who assume power and decide part of the nation's cultural market; the formation of a boy who is about to lose his father, and to admit that he will never possess his great love. * Thenarrator (Blitz Baby), a teenage photographer who lives in an attic in a building in the W10 area of London; gets most of his money selling pornographic images, but he's interested in having an exhibition of his other work. The name "Blitz Baby" was given to him by his mother, as he was born in a bunker during a lightning bombardment. ® CrepeSuzette: the ex-girlfriend of the narrator who behaves promiscuously and intends to marry his boss without sex. * Thenarrator's parents - Her mother has a pension and prefers the company of her guests to that of her second husband, the narrator's father. He maintains a stormy relationship with the narrator, who keeps a dark photographic room in the house as an excuse to visit his father. His father has been writing a book called The History of Pimlico for several years. ® The Fabulous Hoplite: an occasional hustler and part of the Knightsbridge-Chelsea set, who lives in the same building as the narrator. * The Wizard: The narrator's best friend, a baby-faced sociopath who works as a pimp and, after a fight, joins the racist thugs during the riots. * Henley:a gay fashion designer who claims to be 45 years old and intends to marry Suzette. * Verne-the narrator's 25-year-old half-brother. He and the narrator do not have a great relationship, as they do not share the same ideals and face it. * Mr. Cool -a young black man, born in London, who lives in the same building as the narrator and who is threatened by local teddy boys to leave the area. ® Wilf: Mr. Cool's white half-brother. * Call-me-Cobber: an Australian media celebrity and host of the ITV Junction chat show! The ex-Deb- of-Last-Year - a young upper-class friend of the narrator, who dates Call-me-Cobber.