virginia woolf and james joyce, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica virginia woolf and james joyce e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! MODERNISM AND THE NOVEL The experience of World War | shattered (frantumare) people's faith in society and its institutions. Modern writers wanted to overturn the previous conventions. VICTORIAN AGE MODERN AGE Idea about | Novels represented their age Novels have a climate of ambiguity: novels and contradictions: -Sense of emptiness -The PRECISE idea and values | -Absence of FIXED values. of how society should have been. Narrator Omniscient as a moral and Direct or indirect presentation of characters’ spiritual guide thoughts and feelings Plot Chronological sequence of “Moments of being”: the analysis of a single events moment can reveal more about a character (linear plot) than a traditional story. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS = narrative technique Expression coined by Alexander Bain (Scottish philosopher) in 1855. AIM: to transform a flow of thoughts into a narration. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS VS INTERIOR MONOLOGUE mind. Literary technique that mixes subjective and objective moments to express one's Always in the first person, it is the direct “quotation” of the interior monologue in one’s mind. 2 types of interior monologue: L DIRECT INTERIOR MONOLOGUE => NO guiding presence of an extemal voice INDIRECT INTERIOR MONOLOGUE => Thoughts are FILTERED by an anonymous voice VIRGINIA WOOLF AND JAMES JOYCE -Among the greatest practitioners of new writing techniques (stream of consciousness fiction). Interior monologue Stream of consciousness VIRGINIA WOOLF JAMES JOYCE “Mrs Dalloway” FLUIDITY OF IDENTITY “Ulysses” POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF A LANGUAGE BIOGRAPHY (1882-1941) -1882: Birth in Dublin -Large family with a drinking and unstable father -He showed signs of genius and a passion for literature and languages since an early age: he will eventually learn 17 languages -He received a good education (from Jesuits and then University College of Dublin) He travelled around Europe also due to his troubled relation with his homeland, Ireland. -He went to France -Then back to Ireland where he met Nora Barnacle, his future wife with whom he stayed in different cities (including Trieste, where Joyce teaches English to Italo Svevo). -During WWI, Joyce's family stayed in Zurich, then moved to Paris (where Joyce suffered from serious eye illness) -During WWII Joyce fled to Zurich, where he died and was buried (“berid”) in 1941. BIBLIOGRAPHY -STEPHEN DEDALUS: Joyce's literary alter-ego EXAMPLE OF RELATIONSHIP BE TWEEN WORDS AND HIDDEN MEANINGS STEPHEN DEDALUS = JAMES JOYCE STEPHEN DEDALUS From Saint Stephen = first martyr (or saint) Stephen is venerated by all Christian religions => universality of the character From Greek mythology: “Daedalus” = cunning creator of: 1)Statues that almost look alive 2)The Labyrinth of Crete Joyce saw himself as a martyr of Irish, national, blind and Catholic culture. 1)Joyce creates characters and gives them life 2)Joyce creates labyrinths and mazes of words PLOT The plot of “Ulysses” is at the same time incredibly simple and utteriy complex. The story follows three main characters and their interaction in the hours between 8am of the 16th June 1904 and 4am of the 17th June 1904. 1) Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom meet, get drunk and go to a brothel (bordello) together. 2) They go to Bloom's house before Stephen goes back to his own place. 3) Molly is Bloom’s wife and has a love affair with a man called Blazes Boylan, of which Mr. Bloom is painfully aware. The 3 types of narrator Narrator | External, omniscient narrator 1 Joyce - third person Narrator | Unfiltered thoughts directly from the character 2 Molly herself - first person 3 narrator Narrator | Filtered thoughts of the character by the external Molly’s thoughts filtered by Joyce - She thinks... ULYSSES AND “ODYSSEY” BY HOMER “Ulysses” is divided into 18 episodes in 3 books (/, /I, 1/1) which roughly correspond to the episodes in “Odyssey” by Homer. James Joyce ULYSSES ODYSSEY HOMER “Hades” = Ulysses visits the realm of dead Leopold goes to a funeral ade “Sirens” Ulysses listens to the singing of the Leopold watches some seductive sirens barmaids in a pub while other characters sing “Ithaca” Ulysses finally reaches his homeland, Leopold arrives at home late at night Ithaca “Penelope” | Penelope is the faithful wife of Ulysses Molly is the core of this part MOLLY'S MONOLOGUE (because there is only Molly “speaking”) -Revolutionary because it is a LONG sequence of thoughts without punctuation (just eight sentences), in which Molly lies avake in her bed and thinks. => She thinks about so many things that it is impossible and useless to make a list of them -The last “scene” of the novel that switches the perspective of the narration: -First 17 episodes MALE-CENTERED => Molly is frequently mentioned but never really present or in charge of the narration -Last episode (18th) FEMALE CENTERED => Molly is the only character in the scene. What we know of Molly in the previous 17 episodes is re-evaluated on the 18th and we get to know her intimately. THE DEAD - from “Dubliners” After a Christmas dinner party, Gabriel comes back to the hotel with his wife Gretta. He feels sexual desire for his wife but she has a bad epiphany due to an old Irish song that she has heard at the party. Gretta remembers her first and true love Micheal Furey who has died for her sake, remaining outside her house one cold winter and contracting pneumonia. When Gretta falls asleep, Gabriel looks around him and outside the window. He has an epiphany where he realizes the insignificance of his and other life. Everyone will fade, die and be forgotten. BIOGRAPHY -Birth in 1882 in London -Highly-intellectual family environment 1895-97 Mother and step-sisters deaths + sexual abuses by her two step-brothers = MENTAL BREAKDOWN 1904 After her fathers death, she moved to Bloomsbury (central London) where she founded a circle of intellectuals that is considered one of the first “feminist” writing movement 1922 Love affair with a fellow writer Sackville West (left in the above photo). 1941 She drowned herself in the river of Sussex.