Literary Analysis of Modernist Writers: Joyce, Woolf, and Eliot, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Literary Analysis of Modernist Writers: Joyce, Woolf, and Eliot e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Modernism (12 testi) Modernism developed in the first half of the 20th century (1901-1945). In Italy we call it Decadentismo, in Germany we call it Decadenz. The decay is the aspect that these movements have in common. The historical and social background of modernism is composed by some important events like: ● The suffragette movement (1903) and in 1918 they achieved the right to vote. ● The first World War was a period of great disillusionment. People faced the real horrors of war: pain, suffering, deaths, poverty… ● The birth of the Commonwealth. The colonies claim for independence. ● The rise of totalitarianism and the beginning of the second World War. ● From the social point of view in England there was the Roaring twenties, characterized by a rigid class system, based on the conflict between middle class and workers. All these aspects had a strong impact on culture, on science and on literature. ● Horror was provoked by wars and, as a consequence, we have pacifist movements. ● In this period, all beliefs were questioned, there were no more traditional values, for example Nietzsche says “God is dead” ● Freud and Jung started studying the individual and his psychology. So the subjectivity becomes a real element to explore. ● Einstein, Picasso and Stravinsky developed relativity. So, there is not just one truth, but different truths or perspectives. Literature analyzes this relativity starting from the individual → for example Joyce and Woolf deal with themes like disorientation, disintegration of identity, alienation and subjectivity. The main characteristic of this movement is the shift from external to internal plot, with the free association, the interior monologue and the stream of consciousness. War Poets + 3 testi Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) He was born in a rich family and spent his childhood in Sussex and Kent. He wrote romantic poems and published them privately, having the economic possibilities. At the beginning he had a dreamy and patriotic view of war. Then, he enlisted in the army, and his view became the symbol of condemnation. He started showing his great compassion for his fellow soldiers, dedicating all his energies to this question. We remember “The old Huntsman” (1917) and “The couter-Attack” (1918). Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) He is one of the most important among the war poets. He spent his life for others: in a first moment he assisted the poor and then he decided to teach English in France. He enlisted in the army and he went face to face with horrors of the war. He was sent to hospital in Edinburgh, where Sassoon encouraged him to write. He was killed in action just 7 days before the armistice. In his compositions, in order to evoke the brutality, he increased the use of consonants which created an halting effect. He wrote only 5 poems and he had no success. Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) He saw the war through romantic eyes. He thought that war was an occasion for spiritual revival and glory as we can read in “1914” and “Other Poems” (1915). Maybe because he had never experienced life in the trenches, because he died just before his departure for the war. He is popular for his poems and for his book “Letters from America”. He died of blood poisoning. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) + 2 testo He was born in Dublin. He is the son of a well-known painter. He was educated in London and Dublin, where he attended the Dublin School of Art. After the publication of his first poems in 1885, he abandoned the art school to dedicate himself to a literary career. Yeats’ interest focused on Ireland and Irish folk tales, leading to a collection of poems “The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems” (1889), based on the story of a mythical Irish hero. The young Yeats was an important figure in the Irish literary revival. He wrote several theatrical works and with Lady Gregory founded the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin. His plays focused on Irish legends and his fascination with mysticism and spiritualism (The Countess Cathleen). In 1889 Yeats met and fell in love with Maud Gonne, a Irish Nationalist, but Yeats was rejected four times by her. Yeats was a convinced patriot and in his youth was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, but he could not accept the horrors of the Nationalist movement, and in Easter 1916 his poetry reacted against it. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922 and in 1923 he was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature. Yeats’ literary production can be divided into three phases. The first phase is based on Irish folklore and on the themes of love and mysticism. It included poems and a well-known essay entitled The Celtic Twilight. The second phase of Yeats’ production includes works that are more powerful and modernist with a new element of social criticism. In this phase, the poet took an explicit position on the historical events of Ireland. Yeats was critical towards the excess of violence of Irish nationalists and adopted a form of anti-military patriotism. In the last phase he returns to spiritualism and to the theme of opposition between art and life, and between the ideal of beauty and the confusion of modern life. His most famous poem is The Second Coming (1920). Yeats never explicitly became part of modernism, but he shared the same sense of spiritual crisis, of fragmentation and anxiety that characterized modernist writers. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) + 1 testo He was born in St. Louis in Missouri. He studied at Harvard University, where he began to write his first poetry, and where he achieved a doctorate. He moved to England in 1914 and began to work in a bank. In London he met the American poet and critic Ezra Pound, who helped him to publish his works. In 1927 Eliot became an Anglican and British citizen. He is considered one of the leading figures of Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) + 1 testo She was born in London in 1882. She was the daughter of a very important Victorian man of letters. She received a very fine home education, she was surrounded by artists and writers. In her lifetime, she published many books, essays, articles and novels. The most remarkable are Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, The Waves and To the Lighthouse. Her most famous essay is A room of one’s own. She was a feminist, she gave lectures to women and thought women should have a significant role in society. She was lesbian. Her literary production was influenced by theories of Proust and Freud. She used, like Joyce, the stream of consciousness technique, but her novels are like mental journeys around the contrast between inner and external reality. In 1904 Woolf moved to Bloomsbury, where she founded the Bloomsbury Group, a group of intellectuals and artists which included Foster. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, with whom she founded the Hogarth Press, whose aim was to publish the works of experimental writers. She couldn’t tolerate WWII and her mental breakdown, so she committed suicide in 1941. Mrs Dalloway The plot is set in London and takes place in one single day in one single place. Clarissa Dalloway is wandering, buying flowers in order to organise her party. The narration follows her thoughts and her actions. In the novel, Clarissa’s counterpart is Septimus, a veteran of the war, who commits suicide, after wandering through London towards his self- destruction. Clarissa knows about Septimus’ story during her party and understands that, even if they didn’t know each other, he gave her the courage to stay alive. Clarissa is the female protagonist, she is always defined by others and not by herself. She is a wife and mother, this limits her freedom. Clarissa is divided into the desire to celebrate life and a morbid attraction towards death. But, at the end, Clarissa understands that death is part of life and decides to live on. Septimus considers suicide as a form of liberation from the weight of life. Mrs Dalloway is an experimental novel. Woolf focuses on one single character on one single day in one single place. Actions are fragmented and disconnected. She uses the stream of consciousness in a controlled and organised way. The novel is characterised by an elegant and logically structured style. In the novel we have a subjective time in contrast with the objective time. On one hand, characters go backwards and forwards in time in one second. On the other hand, Big Ben underlines the real time and unify elements. To the Lighthouse The novel is divided into 3 parts. The first part (The Windows) lasts one single day. The Ramsay family is spending their summer holidays on a remote island. James, the little one, wants to go to the lighthouse, but the father doesn’t want. The second part (Time Passes) condenses ten years in very few pages. One son, one daughter and the mother die. The third part (The Lighthouse) opens ten years later. Mr Ramsay decides to go to the lighthouse, which represents the mother. Mrs Ramsay is the centre of the novel. She is an affectionate wife, a loving mother, a woman with interests and desires, and a source of inspiration. Even Lily Briscoe, who is trying to make a portrait of her and who will complete it only in the third part, is influenced by Mrs Ramsay. Mrs Ramsay remains a constant presence throughout the novel even after her death. Mrs Ramsay can be associated with the lighthouse: for her family is a source of light and inspiration, while for Lily she is the symbol of what lies at the core of artistic creation. The Plot is apparently insignificant. This permits Woolf to focus the reader’s attention on the inner part of the novel (psychological insight). The novel is narrated by an external narrator, who adopts the technique of interior monologue. The first part of the novel takes place on one day but is longer than the second, which condensed ten years. This discrepancy reflects the one between subjective time (the time of mind) and objective time. The plot is full of dichotomies, so contrasts between life and death, inner and outer world, female and male characters. The novel is also characterised by the massive presence of symbols. The portrait is a symbol, because the painter is able to finish it only when something else happens, when the novel is completed. But the strongest symbol is the lighthouse: it is both the symbol of something that is constantly longed for but never acquired, and an illuminating presence, a source of constant inspiration and light. It also represents the ultimate aim of the reader, whose act of reading is a journey towards truth. Edward Morgan Foster (1879-1970) + 3 testi He was born in London. After his studies, Foster travelled to Italy and Greece, experiences which provided him with material for his writing. Then, he returned to England and he published novels. The first novel is Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905). Then he published A Room with a View, a witty observation by English tourists in Italy. He published Howards End and his last greatest novel A Passage to India (1924). A last novel was published posthumously, Maurice, which talks about homosexuality. Foster is considered modernist for his choice of controversial themes, like imperialism, colonialism, homosexuality and discrimination, while his style and the use of central plot make him appear more traditional. A Passage to India The novel is divided into 3 parts, all connected to climate change or season change: Mosque, the cool weather, Caves, the hot weather, and Temples, the rain. The setting is fictional: Chandrapore. The novel tells the story of a young Muslim doctor, Aziz, whose initial friendship with the British will be transformed into bitterness. Aziz is wrongly accused of insulting a young English girl, Adela Quested, on a visit to the Marabar Caves. Aziz is sent to prison, but Adela withdraws her accusations. Aziz abandons the British community and in a meeting with Mr Fielding, Aziz reflects on the future of India and tells Mr Fielding that they can only be friends when the British are driven out of India. The novel shows the difficulties that Indians had to face during English domination. It shows how the British imposed their power and how colonies were subjugated by external authorities. We can also see the incommunicability between the two cultures and the distance between East and West. Foster is very critical of what Kipling defined as “White man’s burden” and we can see that Foster is anti-imperialist.