Storia dell'Inghilterra e della letteratura romantica, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Storia dell'Inghilterra e della letteratura romantica e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Britain and America George III George II(he was a mercantilist man)’s grandson, George III came to the throne in 1760. His reign lasted 60 years and isone of the longest in English history. To reduce the public debt due to the SevenYears’War, the king introduced new duties (taxes) on corn, paper and tea, which caused fierce opposition in the American colonies. The English Parliament responded to the protest by repealing (cancelling) some of them, but the tax on imported tea remained. By the 1770s many colonists had become resentful of British rule, which imposed a strict control on trade. The Declaration of Independence At the Boston Tea Party in 1773 some rebels, dressed as Native Americans, threw the British tea coming from another part of the British Empire, India, into the harbour. The rebels maintained that the taxes were unjust, as the colonies had no political power: they said,‘No taxation without representation.’ →Britain couldn't impose taxes in the USA because Americans weren’t in the parliament. In England, the philosopher Edmund Burke (he introduced the sublime. He criticized the English parliament) recognised the justice of their cause and Thomas Paine’s common sense stimulated the desire for a republic (Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet in which any government must serve people). The Americans (they had the support of the france. France helped with the fleet) divided into Patriots, who wanted independence, and Loyalists, who wanted to remain part of Britain (they had anarchy but they were distant and foreigners so they couldn’t move). On 4th July 1776 in Philadelphia, the Congress,made by the representatives from 13 of the colonies, signed the Declaration of Independence, largely written by Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer from Virginia. It was more than a statement that the colonies were a new nation, since it claimed that all men had a natural right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’. It also stated that governments can only claim the right to rule if they have the approval of those they govern, that is,‘the consent of the governed’ →the idea that if the people that are ruled do not approve what their government does, they can rebel (Locke inspired the declaration with his “Two treatises of government”. He says that men have a natural right to life, liberty and property given to him by the government. Man accepts to limit some of his rights by making a contract that limits the individual's liberty to have a society. They have their freedom protected by a government). - Division of power: Legislative, executive. In 1781, at the Battle of Yorktown, the British army was defeated and Britain recognised the independence of its former colonies with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. The new republic of the United States of America adopted a federal constitution (individual states pull to make a nation) in 1787 and George Washington became the first President in 1789. The colonists who remained loyal to Britain moved to Canada. →Divided in english speaking and french speaking (catholic) William Pitt the Younger →He was important for mercantilism (based on golden silver). Colonies are not involved, so Britain will focus on India guided by a general governor. He was asked to become Prime Minister. He tried to simplify the financial system and reduce the national debt, promoted profitable trade and finance and supported Adam Smith’s theory of laissez-faire, illustrated in The Wealth of Nations (1776). Smith’s philosophy of economic liberalism (government doesn’t intervene in the economy of a country) encouraged free trade and economic self interest, and stressed the division of labour. The newUnited Kingdom Pitt allowed Irish representatives to sit at Westminster. In 1801 the Act of Union joined Ireland and Britain to form the new United Kingdom. The Irish flag was added to create the Union Jack that is still used today. The Industrial Revolution Causes: ● increase of population (1750-1850)—> population rises from 5.5 million to triples. More people=more demands for good, drinks ● gradual movement from country to the city = urbanization (end 1800–> 85% of people leave in the city) ● agricultural revolution—> agriculture was intensified ● enclosures phenomenon—> bills made to allow landowners or tenants to enclosure, to close to the public access to the common fields, lands used for sheep farming (creation of bigger factories and inside the labours are divided in sections ● more efficient methods of the farming: rotation of the crocks, selection in animal breeding (to produce more meet) ● textile industry was growing: cloth from cotton, wool from sheep(produced also in Oceania) Economic change The origins of the economic transformation can be traced back to the Black Death and the rise in living standards that followed it. First, open fields were enclosed into smaller portions of land to make more efficient arable farms. Finally, animals were bred selectively, therefore producing more meat. Cotton was the leading sector of industrialisation. Technological innovation Thomas Newcomen invented an effective and practical steam engine in 1712, which made pumping water (sources of power: water; transport on rivers and canals → railway system; coal→ in the north of England, south Wales, south Scotland) out of coal mines possible; James Hargreaves’s Spinning Jenny increased spinning efficiency. Transport: goods have to be moved: roads were still Roman, in fact most of the roads went by sea. Edmund Cartwright’s loom (1787) linked cloth manufacture to water and steam power. As a result, cheaper products met the growing demand for goods. Heavy investment in technological development increased and innovation became linked to energy generated from coal. The workers’ life Industrial cities lacked elementary public services – water-supply, sanitation, street cleaning, open spaces; the air and the water were polluted by smoke and filth; the houses (mushroom cities→ small towns built near the factories), built in endless rows, were overcrowded. Women and children were highly prized by employers because they could be paid less and were easier to control. Besides, the fact that the children were so small meant they could The Gothic novel ● immediately after romantic→ between XII and XIV centuries ● revival of the middle ages (darkness of the reason) ● architecture ● contrast between gothic and classical (opposition→ they preferred barbarous, primitive and supernatural). New interests in fiction It was marked by a taste for the strange and the mysterious, by an impulse for freedom and escape from the ugly world, and by the fear of the triumph of evil and chaos over good and order. The interest in this kind of novel, called ‘Gothic novel’, was huge and common to all social classes, also thanks to circulating libraries. Features of the Gothic novel The setting of Gothic novels was influenced by the concept of the sublime; it includes ancient settings, like isolated castles, mysterious abbeys and convents with hidden passages. The most important events take place during the night because darkness is a powerful element used to create an atmosphere of gloom, oppression and mystery; all the characters moving in such settings perceive the world around them as hostile. The Gothic hero is usually isolated either voluntarily or involuntarily, and the heroine is both afflicted with unreal terrors and persecuted by a villain, who is the embodiment of evil. The plots are often complicated by embedded narratives and supernatural beings, like monsters, vampires, ghosts and witches which increase the suspense and mystery. The first novel of this kind, The Castle of Otranto. Romantic poetry The Romantic imagination The poet was seen as a visionary prophet or as a teacher whose task was to mediate between man and nature, to point out the evils of society, to give voice to the ideals of freedom, beauty and truth. ● Biron: hero of independence (rebel) ● Shelley: anarchist, against of all authorities The figure of the child →child considered that an ideal situation with the divine was easier. Poets’ idea is visionary. Poet is like a prophet (who predicts something). Sometimes is a teacher, teaching what are the laws in nature; sometimes he fights. There was serious interest in the experience and insights of childhood. To the Augustan Age, a child was important only in so far as he would become an adult and civilised being. Constable and Turner→ they were rivals, they had their paintings in the same age, they were landscape painters (nature was important) 1. Romantic painters are interested in the weather condition and the effect of specific conditions. Light and movements 2. Landscape causes beyond: just the sensorial effect or the description of the landscape (not just descriptive, it can express moral and deals feelings). ● Constable intervene in english landscape surrey, limited to the countryside) Important part is the sky, so the clouds (fascinated) →human presence and animals: part of village life →simplicity of rural life ● Turner had terrible personality (misanthrope →seascapes: interested in light (light and darkness and in the specific weather conditions (storm) →painter of the sublime (mountains→ alps, glaciers) →not many humans And another difference: no interest in the countryside. He has a contrasted feeling in the industrial revolution. He traveled a lot and had ambivalent feelings about the industrial revolution and his consequences→ interested in the city. Some paintings with train, bridges. It seems he is fascinated by the new symbols of the progresa but he is also afraid (contrast with the past) William Blake He saw the consequences of the revolution and shared the same ideals of the revolution. Life and works William Blake was born in London in 1757 (He spent all his life here. He worked in a workshop to attend the academy. → He belonged the working class). His origins were humble and he remained poor all his life. He was trained as an engraver when he was a boy.(He used a metal plate) As a painter and an engraver, he broke with the conventions of perspective and proportions, and created a new kind of art which emphasised the power of the imagination. A political freethinker, he supported the French Revolution and remained a radical throughout his life. Blake had a strong sense of religion. The most important literary influence in his life was the Bible, because for him it presented a complete vision of the world and its history. He didn’t follow a traditional religion. He was inspired by mythology and created a new mythology. His interests were caused by his faith in imagination (creative) and also by visions. He embodied the visionary. He emphasised the importance of imagination over reason and believed that ideal forms should be created not from the observation of nature but from inner visions. He had them without taking any drugs. (He said he could see his dead brother). He created the method of ‘illuminated printing’ which combined picture and poetic text. For him painting was not simply the illustration of poetry, it was its counterpart. The poetic collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are the most accessible of his works. (poem+illustration= illuminated poems) Blake also published prophetic books in which he created complex personal mythology. He thought institution of church was the cause of man’s suffering. Songs of Innocence (garden of Eden, pastoral situation) and Songs of Experience The narrator is a shepherd who receives inspiration from a child in a cloud to pipe his songs celebrating the divine in all creation. (A shepherd who plays pipe to his sheeps). Its symbols are lambs, flowers and children playing on the village green. The poems deal with childhood (near to God, not spoilt by life) as the symbol of innocence, a state of the soul connected with happiness, freedom and imagination. Songs of Experience appeared during the period of theTerror in France (world is corrupted by cruelty and social injustice). Hecreated their counterpart in the form of the bard who questions the themes of the previous collection. →bard is like a prophet. He communicates his knowledge to people Imagination and the poet Blake considered imagination, and not sense perceptions, as the means through which man could know the world. The poet therefore becomes a sort of prophet who can see more deeply into reality and who also tried to warn man of the evils of society. Blake’s interest in social problems In his poems he sympathised with the victims of industrial society, such as children and prostitutes, aswell aswith the victimsof oppression by institutions, such as orphans and soldiers. Style Blake's Poems Have a simple structure and an original use of symbols. Blake used central group of symbols: the child, the father and Christ, representing the states of innocence, experience and a higher innocence. Mary Shelley Life and works Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist philosopher and novelist, and William Godwin, an anarchist and philosopher. Both her parents had been heavily influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution and were part of a small radical group, which included other important men of letters of the time such asWilliam Blake (elopement in Switzerland and then in Italy where they died). The philosopher welcomed Shelley heartily and the poet was immediately attracted by the young, beautiful, intellectual Mary Godwin. In July 1814 the couple fled to France and later Shelley decided to rent a country house on the banks of Lake Geneva near Byron’s rented villa,Villa Diodati. It Was there that the writing of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus took place. The initial inspiration of this novel burst into Mary’s consciousness as a waking dream or nightmare (It was a challenge to write the best story). Frankenstein, or TheModern It’s a gothic story, but the setting isn’t so gothic. Characteristics: Murder, macabre elements, desolate atmosphere, suspense, darkness, danger. The whole story is about a monster. Prometheus Plot and setting The plot of the novel is very simple: Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, manages to create a human being by joining parts selected from corpses. Despite careful preparation, William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland in the English Lake District in 1770. In 1791 he graduated from St Johns Collegé, Cambridge (here he met Coleridge). In 1790 he had been on a walking tour of France and the Alps. His contact with revolutionary France had filled him with enthusiasm for the democratic ideals. In 1791 he returned to France and fell in love with Annette Vallon, who bore him a daughter, Caroline. The brutal war between England and France in 1793 brought him to the edge of a nervous breakdown. In 1795 he received an inheritance and moved to Dorset with his sister Dorothy, who remained his most faithful friend (and secretary). Thanks to her diary, we know most of Blake’s life. In the same year he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They produced a collection of poems called Lyrical Ballads which appeared anonymously in 1798. The second edition in 1800 also contained Wordsworth's famous ‘Preface’, which was to become the Manifesto of English Romanticism. There’s a preface with a reason why he wrote this poem. The principal object was to choose incidents and situations from common life to make these incidents and situations interesting by tracing. Wordsworth is also celebrated for his ‘Lucy poems’, a series of five poems written between 1798 and 1801. In 1799 William and Dorothy settled in the Lake District and in 1802 William married a childhood friend, Mary Hutchinson, and they had five children. In the following years Wordsworth wrote some of his best poems, which were published in two volumes in 1807. In 1805 he finished his masterpiece, The Prelude, a long autobiographical poem in 14 books (this is about his poetic activity. Poet writes about themselves, the effect of being poet, his feelings). His reputation as a poet grew steadily and, in 1843, he was made Poet Laureate. The Manifesto of English Romanticism While planning the Lyrical Ballads with Coleridge, they decided that he would deal with man, nature and everyday things trying to make them interesting for the reader, while Coleridge should write about the supernatural and mystery making them seem real. He called his artificial, elevated language, ‘poetic diction’. In his Preface he explained that the subject matter should deal with everyday situations or incidents and with ordinary people. The language should be simple and the objects called by their ordinary names. This is the language of rustic people. They don't want to impress, they just want to convey their feelings. What is a poet? He is a man speaking to men: a man who has a greater knowledge of human nature. What is the poetry? Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity. The relationship between man and nature Pantheistic view of nature (he sees God in nature; nature comforts men). He thought that man could achieve that good through the cultivation of his senses and feelings. Nature is the seat of the spirit of the universe. Nature comforts man in sorrow, it is a source of joy and pleasure, it teaches man to love, to act in a moral way. The importance of the senses and memory He believed that the moral character develops during childhood—> influence of David Hartley. The sensations caused by physical experience lead to simple thoughts. These simple thoughts later combine into complex and organised ideas. The poet’s task and style The poet has a great sensibility and an ability to see into the heart of things. The power of imagination enables him to communicate his knowledge, so that he becomes a teacher showing others how to understand their feelings and improve their moral being. My heart leaps up (by William Wordsworth ) My heart leaps up when I behold When he sees a rainbow, he feels a strong emotions A rainbow in the sky: specific sensorial experience of nature So was it when my life began; since he was born So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, i’d like to be like this when i grow up otherwides Or let me die! i prefer to die The Child is father of the Man; childhood is the most important stage for him: children are nearest to god And I could wish my days to be and i want that my future days will bound by feeling Bound each to each by natural piety of nature Analisi: heart leaps up = makes a jump behold = see So = special relation that man has with nature The Child is father of the Man; → child teaches the old father how to feel the best piety (pantheistic) = fill together Domande: Rainbow causes a poet's emotion. Wordsworth presents birth, maturity and old age as the three stages in man’s life. Childhood is the most important. The contact with nature causes strong emotion (element of continuity) At line 7 there is a paradox. The function of this paradox is to state a universal truth, though starting from an individual experience. This is expressed by capitalisation (makes it like a law of nature). The two terms of the paradox are written in capital letters because child and man become symbols of different states: innocence (child) and experience (man). London I wander thro’ each charter’d street walked in every planned street Near where the charter’d Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every Man, In every Infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear. How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry Every black’ning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldier’s sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls. But most thro’ midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot’s curse Blasts the new born Infant’s tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse. Analisi: In the first stanza the sense is sight. Wander = walk→idea of freedom but then idea of limitation Charter = document that gives a right to certain people or the access to a place→ something legal but that limits. Feeling of oppression of Londoners by the institution. Charter = river Thames limited by the banks or economic value (everything has a price) Mark = i notice Marks = signs; Woe = pain, grief In the second stanza the sense is hearing. In every cry of every Man, → sign of suffering Ban = illegal word: limitation, prohibition. Idea of restriction or official announcement of something. I hear the sound of manacles Manacles = manette, synonym of restriction. Even if their are not real, they are forged in people’s minds. In the third stanza there are the specific people who suffer. Chimney-sweeper = spazzacamino (dirty job) Every black’ning Church appalls, → shocking because they use children despite knowing it’s a bad thing. Black’ning= tainted, stained Hapless = unlucky Sigh → sound of sigh = you put out some breath from your mouth that becomes blood. It stains the palace wall. They sigh when they die. He accuses the institutions: government and monarchy who ignore the death of the soldiers who died for them. Fourth stanza. Prostitution was a problem → spreading of illnessis like syphilis. These course is almost invisible. Midnight streets → setting in time and place. Harlot’s curse = prostitutes maledition What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? And what dread feet? What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with their tears: Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Analisi In the 1 stanza the question is: who? But there’s no answer Is something archetypal, mysterious but fascinating What immortal hand or eye could create your frightening beauty (aspect)? —> something positive: this thing frightens but attracts In the 2 stanza the question is: where was it created? In what distant oceans or skies Idea of fire (equal in the burning bright)→it burned the fire of your eyes (so bright to look like a fire) fire = strength, power On which wings he dared to elevate Which hands had the strength to take the fire→ mythological reference to Icarus (On the island of Crete, King Minos had asked Daedalus to build the labyrinth for the Minotaur. Having built it, and therefore knowing its structure, Daedalus and his son were precluded from any escape route from Crete by Minos, as he feared that its secrets would be revealed and they were locked up in the labyrinth.To escape, Daedalus built wings out of feathers and attached them to their bodies with wax. Despite his father's warnings not to fly too high, Icarus got caught up in the thrill of flying and got too close to the sun; the heat melted the wax, causing it to fall into the sea where it died. Art=ability Could they twist the tendons of your heart? When the creator started to live. Which frightening hand and feet created this animal. In what furnace was your brain created anvil= incudine grasp=morsa Dared to hold in these deadly terrors. Whe the stars left their spears→ si arresero. And flooded the skies with their tears. Connection to the lamb: is the same creator of the tyger. Breve riassunto: The tiger is described as a frightening and dangerous creature, unlike the lamb: it has hellish characteristics, such as fiery eyes and living in the “forests of the night”. The tiger is therefore the dark side of man, it is the symbol of his sufferings that come from experience in adulthood. This is why Blake wonders if these two creatures were created by the same hand (v. 20): in his vision good and evil coexist in every man, it is an inexplicable mystery of nature. Daffodils It describes the process poetic production (man and nature). I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. Analisi In the first three stanzas the verbs are in the past: it contains the recollection of a memory. In the first stanza he associates Daffodils to people. There are eight syllables→ 4 feet (iambic= ABABCC) Comparison between the poet and the nature. He would like to be distant as a cloud (melancholic solitude) → his mind is free initially Crowd= a lot of people comparison between daffodils and people (personification) Comparison between daffodils and the stars: he includes everything in nature(universe and plants) ten thousand=hyperbole daffodils are like humans dance=human activity the poet continued describing the nature moved by daffodils. this dance now continues with the waves of the lake. He couldn’t help feeling joy. He stared, fascinated but he didn’t consider much. he couldn’t understand how good the experience was and what advantages this experience had brought to him. The last stanza is with present verbs. There’s the meditation of the importance of nature In situation where i do nothing Daffodils flash upon the eye of the mind→ mind is the imaginative memory (that became creative), imagination that creates poetic vision from the material of the sensorial experience. Inward eye→ refers to the real eye (vede con occhi, poi rielabora nella mente). He creates the poem to enjoy the same happiness. Echo of loneliness(something blissful). Condition in which he can recollect the memory and enjoy the happiness in the sensorial experience. He experience again the same happiness that he had felt when he saw the daffodils. The joy lasts for a long time. Breve riassunto: It recounts the experience of a walk the poet went for with his sister, near their home in the Lake District. Wordsworth is reminiscing when he saw a great quantity of daffodils which made him feel happy and in contact with nature the flowers are personified, in fact they are described as a dancing crowd whose beauty is superior to everything else. He is impressed. Nature was for Wordsworth a protection and the clear manifestation of God. The key of the poem is joy, as we can see from the many words which express pleasure and delight: in fact the daffodils are golden, waving in a sprightly dance and outdoing the waves in glee. All nature appears wonderfully alive and happy in fact the cloud floats on high, ecc. The daffodils, too, are not static like in a painting, but alive with motion. They are in fact fluttering and dancing in the breeze, and tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The sight of the flowers brings the poet delight but he doesn’t realize that at the moment but only later, when memory brings back the scene.