The Modern Theories, Modernist Writers. James Joyce - Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica The Modern Theories, Modernist Writers. James Joyce - Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! “The Madom "Wusridh Between the end of the 19" and the first decades of the 20" centuries, many important changes take place in Europe, which redefine numerous fields, such as the values and the points of view of the previous century. For instance, the first set of new ideas to have a profound effect on the 20!" century thought and art were introduced by the following intellectuals and thinkers: O Sigmund Freud’s studies concerning the human psyche and the psychoanalysis method, led him to create a structural mode of the psyche, where he identified 3 parts/layers: o the “id” (or “es”), which is our instinctual world, the set of instinctual and emotional impulses lacking organisation o “ego”, which is what comes out of the blend of the other two, the coordinated and realistic part, and how other see us o “superego”, which has a critical and moralising role, since it includes the rules and the constraints imposed on the individual by society, education and moral laws Freud also explained that the development of the human psyche is deeply affected by the subconscious; moreover, the discovery that men’s actions could be motivated by irrational forces which he might know nothing, and Freud’s new method of investigation of the human mind through the analysis of dreams radically transformed and influenced the artists and writers of the modern age. O Albert Einstein’ s Theory of Relativity (1915) had a huge impact of modern thinkers, since it introduced a new framework for all of physics and proposed new concepts of space and time, which are not exactly the same everywhere, and which are interwoven into a single continuum known as space-time. Moreover, he also determined that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, which is felt as gravity (e=mc?). Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity is consequently also famous for predicting some really weird but true phenomena, like for instance astronauts or people travelling in space at the speed of light aging slower than people on Earth, since time can vary, and solid objects changing their shapes at high speeds. O Henry Bergson’s idea of time deeply influenced modernist writers, as a matter of fact he talked about two different types of time, one inner, which is the time we perceive and can be both contracted or extended, and one outer, which is the objective time of the clock, even though according to Einstein it's not always objective. A William James’ s concept of the “Stream of Consciousness” deeply influenced many modernist writers, which will implement his theory in some of their works, since he claimed that our thought process seems to work like an illogical stream, it never stops A.S. 2020/21 Albertino Vendramin and every single thought is connected to each other, even though maybe not in a logical way. This concept will then be implemented in literature as “stream of consciousness technique” or “interior monologue” to mirror on the page the exact thought process of the characters. Madombkl Ulok The shift from the Victorian to the modern novel was caused by a gradual but substantial transformation of British society, which in a few years passed from the comfortable, prosperous word of the Victorians to the interwar years marked by unrest and ferment. The novelists had now a new role, which consisted in mediating between the solid and unquestioned values of the past and the confused present. The modern novelist rejected omniscient narration and experimented with new methods to portray the individual’s consciousness; as a matter of fact, the viewpoint shifted from the external world to the characters mind, since this process was influenced by the theories about the simultaneous existence of different levels of consciousness and sub-consciousness, which together with experiences determine the personality of the human being. Furthermore, time was now subjective and inner, consequently there was no use in building a structured plot or narrating events in chronological order. The narrative technique which modern novelists mainly employed was the “Stream of consciousness technique” or “interior monologue”, which is connected to William James”s theory. He coined the phrase to define the continuous flow of thoughts and sensations that characterise the human mind. In his masterpiece “Ulysses”, James Joyce brought to perfection the interior monologue, employing two levels of narration: one external to the character’s mind, and the other one with the character’s thought flowing freely. The main features of the interior monologue are: e Verbal expression of the stream of consciousness technique ® Frequent lack of chronological order and formal logical order may be lost or lacking e Theactions take place within the character’s mind e Speech may be immediate without introductory expressions Yand, Vago (1882-1941) James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882, where he graduated in modern languages. Opposite to other literary contemporaries, such as W. B. Yeats, the movements who tried to rediscover the Irish Celtic identity and dominance by referring back to the past held very little attraction for him, as a matter of fact, his interest was for a broader European culture, and this led him to think of himself as a cosmopolitan European citizen rather than an Irishman, as a matter of fact he left Dublin at the age of 22 and during his life he travelled all over Europe (Paris, A.S. 2020/21 Albertino Vendramin Narrative techniques In Dubliners the omniscient narrator and the single point of view are rejected, as a matter of fact each story is told by the RERSEEINIMOMINSICHARAGISIS and through RRRateaNtenE monologue in the form of free-direct speech and thought, thanks to which the protagonists’ thoughts are presented without the mediation of the narrator. Eveline is a short story from Dubliners which describes the life of a young woman who has the opportunity to radically change her monotonous life by leaving Dublin and moving to Argentina with the man she loves, however she is unable to leave behind her familiar community in Dublin. The story opens in medias res and through third-person narration the author introduces Eveline’s point of view. The moment of epiphany is when Eveline hears a street organ which reminds her of the promise she made to her dying mother to keep the home together as long as she could. Some of the themes of Eveline are the following: the struggle between one’s happiness and one’s responsibility dream opposed to reality action opposed to paralysis paralysis and the failure to find a way out of it «MMNAy ek Heep”, Uyhgk In the extract the third person narrator disappears, and Joyce employs the direct interior monologue through the stream of consciousness technique, so that the reader can understand things are said in the way that are thought without the filter of the narrator in the moment o 0 00 when Molly can’t sleep. As a matter of fact, since Joyce uses the stream-of-consciousness to convey her thoughts, there is no punctuation and connectors, her thoughts are connected by association even though randomly. In the extract the third person narrator disappears, and Joyce uses the stream of consciousness technique in order to mirror on the page what goes on in Penelope’ s mind when she remembers the moment when her partner proposed to her and asked her to make love. o stream of consciousness technique > first person narration with the character’s point of views o no punctuation and many repetitions, for instance yes A.S. 2020/21 Albertino Vendramin o her thoughts include memories and other images which are all related o there isn’ta specific place, except for the character’ s mind "The jungle My In the extract “the Funeral”, Mr. Bloom attends a funeral, the atmosphere makes him think about death and his memories, in particular his father’s death which represents the moment of epiphany. The passage is characterised by two different levels of narration: the first is external and stands for the traditional narration, while the second is inside Mr. Bloom’s mind and is characterised by all the elements of the stream of consciousness technique, such as no punctuation, or subject, sentences of just one word, the time of narration does not have any link with chronological time, different memories and images all connected, the language is “tinnegank Wake, "Y. Yao 1939) Finnegans Wake is one of the most complex novels of 20th-century by Joyce, that blends the reality of life with a dream world, as a matter of fact the plot is difficult to follow, as the colloquial. novel explores a number of fractured story lines. The beginning of the book introduces the reader to the Porter family, who live above a pub in Chapelizod (near Dublin). Once they go to sleep, however, their entire world changes; as a matter of fact, in the dream world, these characters are given different names. The beginning of the novel also introduces Tim Finnegan, the man named in the novel’s title, who is a construction worker who died in a workplace accident, and whose wife attempts to serve his corpse as a dish at his wake. As far as the narrative technique is concerned, this is the extreme point of the stream of consciousness technique, which is applied to the minds of the characters while they're sleeping. Moreover, Joyce combined a number of languages and utilized complex sonic implications to create an atmosphere of wordplay and hidden meaning throughout the entirety of Finnegans Wake, for instance with the so-called “thunder words,” words comprising approximately one hundred letters that combine numerous languages. In the last decade, two Italian experts, Enrico Terrinoni e Fabio Pedone, tried to translate in Italian the last section of Finnegans Wake. They said it was really difficult to translate it because it employs a completely new language, with invented words (even made up of 100 letters) or specific words which don’t have a translation in Italian, also with difficult plays on words, neologisms, words from other languages... A.S. 2020/21 Albertino Vendramin