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Letteratura Inglese 2
Letteratura Inglese 2
MAIN ISSUES
In the Romantic period the main characteristics of the Enlightenment are literally reversed.
ENLIGHTENMENT ROMANTICISM
• Centrality of human reason; • Centrality of human feelings and imagination;
• Nature as a source of clarity and rules for the poet; • Nature as a shelter and the mirror of human’s emotions;
• Enthusiasm for scientific progress; • Progress seen as a threat;
• Belief in social progress (the possibility to go from low class to high class); • Egotism (attention on individual subject) = this produces the constant
• Creation of a public consensus about aesthetic and moral values; presence of the poet himself into his work (first-person lyric);
• Creation of new genres (like the novel, directed even to lower classes); • Rediscovery of traditions and national identity;
• Travel and cosmopolitanism (the idea of being a citizen of the world) = the • Exotism as a form of freedom from reality (fascination with what is exotic,
idea of “travel” changes from Enlightenment to Romanticism; in the latter different and comes from distant regions); exotism could also be found in the
travelling is a way of rediscovering those places that can strengthen national 18th century in travel literature.
identity. • Importance of dreams, both in the 1st and the 2nd generation of Romantic
poets.
• The poet as a genius and a prophet, who could see more deeply into reality
than others.
The difference between Enlightenment and Romanticism can be clearly seen in two of the most representative paintings of the two periods:
• “Mrs John Hale” is a painting by one of the greatest painters of Enlightenment, Sir Joshua Reynolds. It
portrays a woman in an elegant dress. Behind her there’s a group of young children. The people portrayed
are aristocrats. It represents social prestige and social status.
• “Fishermen at Sea” is a painting by William Turner and its subjects, colours and lighting are very different
from Reynolds’. The main subject is nature, not a single individual. This painting can be considered the
beginning of Romanticism because it represents that atmosphere of gloom and darkness typical of that
period. The contrast between the two paintings represents the contrast between the light of reason and
the obscurity of thought.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The English kings who reign from 1760 to 1837 belong to the Hannover Dynasty (they were German):
• George III (1760-1820)
• George IV (1820-1830)
• William IV (1830-1837)
1. Home policy (heavily influenced by the Industrial Revolution. The workers, who were especially in the North, the most industrialized area, rebel against their
working conditions):
• Luddites Riots (1811-1812) The French Revolution had frightened British aristocracy so much that public meetings of workers were made illegal in order
to prevent disorders. However, this didn’t stop the workers. Factory workers rebelled against industrialization, they attacked factories and destroyed machines;
• Peterloo Massacre (1819) Lower classes gathered to ask for parliamentary representation. In order to stop this demand, the British army was called to stop
the riot. Some people were killed, and many were injured.
• Trade Unions The first Trade Unions were founded in 1824. They were associations of workers who asked for better working conditions and better status
in society.
• First Reform Bill (1832) Vote was given to a wider range of middle-class men, but the working class and women had still no right to vote.
• Factory Act (1833) It was passed to improve working conditions and to abolish the employment of children under nine.
• Emancipation Act (1833) Abolition of slavery in the colonies.
• Poor Laws (1834) Supported by the Whig Party, it encouraged the foundation of workhouses for the lower classes.
2. Foreign policy
• Debate on the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789).
• Act of Union (1800) Great Britain and Ireland united to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801-1922).
• Waterloo victory (1815) A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the Seventh Coalition, led by United Kingdom. Britons
acquired new transoceanic colonies (Cape of Good Hope, Trinidad, Singapore, Ceylon and Malta) but also went through a serious economic crisis. There was a
contrast between the new colonies (new riches) and homeland (great crisis).
• The Irish Question After the Act of Union, a strong movement of independence began in Ireland against the union with the United Kingdom, that Ireland
didn’t want. Furthermore, Ireland was hit by an economic crisis caused by the “Great Famine” of 1847: the potatoes cultivation (the main food of the population)
collapsed and one million people died. The survivors left Ireland and moved to England and USA. According to the Irish, the “Great Famine” was the fault of the
British because they could have avoided it.
• THE LAMB
• STRUCTURE: A blend of verse and art, the poem is accompanied by a beautiful drawing. The poem is quite short and very musical
(some verses are repeated). It is composed of 20 lines divided into 2 stanzas. We can find a type of refrain that makes it similar to
a nursery rhyme. The rhyme is easy, they are couplets (AA BB CC DD AA AA EF GG FE AA). The rhyme scheme in the 2 nd stanza is
less regular than the 1st one.
• LANGUAGE: The language employed is very easy (very different from “The Rape of the Lock” by Pope, characterised by a very elaborate and elevated
language), however there are some archaisms which show the poet’s cultural background and his attention to the poetic form.
• FIGURES OF SPEECH:
- Repetitions, in order to focus on the main issue (the question the poet makes);
- Enjambements (feed-by, delight-softest, thy name-for) = It is when a line ends in the middle of a phrase and it continues in the next line;
- Anaphors (Little Lamb… Little Lamb, Gave…Gave, He…He) = It is the repetition of the same words at the beginning of nearby verses;
- Alliterations (Little Lamb, thou…thee, meek…mild) = Repetition of a consonant;
- Assonances (I a child and thou a lamb) = Repetition of a vowel;
- Inversions (bid thee feed) = Inversion of the normal word order;
- Archaisms (thee, thou, dost);
- Contractions (o’er) = A word or phrase that has been shortened;
• MEANING: 4 questions about the creation of the lamb. The main theme of the poem is therefore the Creation, a religious and biblical theme (this is the second
level of interpretation, the more symbolic one). The lamb is both an animal (realism) and the symbol of Christ (symbolism). God is at the origin of the Creation.
Poets want to know more about topics which go beyond reality, such as the creation of life. The first stanza poses an important question about the lamb’s Creator,
the second provides the answer, that is God. There are two levels of interpretation: realism = the lamb as an animal, it has a tender voice, its wool is soft. The
description corresponds to our idea of a lamb. The author also describes the nature, what the lamb eats, that is grass and water from the stream. This is the
realistic level which corresponds to our knowledge and is useful to understand what the poet is talking about the to visualize the lamb in our mind; symbolism =
the lamb is almost personified in the 2nd stanza, he is described as a little child, innocent and pure.
The 1st stanza is more realistic, the 2nd stanza is more symbolic (the subject is not only the lamb, but God and Christ too). Christ is called the Lamb of God, not
only because he is pure and innocent, but also for his sacrifice (religious theme). The picture of the little, innocent lamb conveys a sense of positivity, which is
the main feeling of the period in which Blake is writing, that is the French Revolution and the hope and expectations that are connected to it.
2. GOTHIC FICTION
The gothic novel is a new genre that developed in the second half of the 18th century. It is characterized by terrifying atmospheres, medieval settings (such as
castles infested by ghosts, cemeteries, dark monasteries), supernatural and mysterious phenomena. The protagonists are generally innocent young girls, fleeing
from dangers, persecuted by ghosts and supernatural creatures. In most cases, these novels end with a happy ending. The main element is that of the “sublime”,
which is that feeling of terror and fear that at the same time produces amazement and wonder in the characters. The settings are very different from the ones
of the Enlightenment (urban locations and islands, like Swift and Defoe). The main authors of gothic fiction are:
• Horace Walpole (1717-1794) He was an antiquarian, he rediscovered Medieval Italy in “The Castle of Otranto” (1749), the first gothic novel ever. The
novel presents all the main elements of the gothic fiction and we can also find some elements that anticipate Romanticism. It is a story of mystery and suspense
set in Medieval Italy. One of the main themes is that of travel.
• Anne Radcliffe (1729-1807) Her main works are gothic novels: “The Mysteries of Udolpho” (1794) and “The Italian” (1797), which both include gender
issues, and also “A Sicilian Romance”. In her works she makes a distinction between terror (expanding the soul) and horror (freezing human faculties). Terror is
the type of experience related to literary production, horror just paralyses the individual, so it is not positive, and it doesn’t produce any type of creation. Radcliffe’s
novels are characterised by strong female protagonists, innocent and pure, who are persecuted by male characters (very negative in her works, they are evil and
mysterious); there is a fight between male and female characters, a very important idea according to the libertarian ideals of that time.
• GRASMERE JOURNAL
The inspiration for the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth came from a walk Wordsworth took with his sister Dorothy. She too described
this walk in her journal (15 April 1802). This shows that Dorothy was very important for William. Dorothy describes the walk in the woods beyond Gowbarrow
Park in Lake District. The weather is bad, but despite this they are fascinated by the beautiful daffodils they see close to the water side. The daffodils are
personified (they rested their heads, they danced, they laughed). Her entry in the journal is typically Romantic and the language she uses recalls that of William’s
poem. At the end she uses the word “Simplicity”, one of the main concepts in William’s and Coleridge’s poetics, this shows that the three were very close to each
other and had similar ideas.
3. FICTION
Fiction in Romantic Age was not as popular as it was in the 18th century, but it continued to develop. The main authors were Walter Scott (1771-1832), Jane
Austen (1775-1817) and Mary Shelley (1797-1851).
4. DRAMA
Melodrama was the main genre in this period (Shakespeare’s works). London invested on theatres both in the West End and the East End (so that even the
poorest areas could have theatres, this was an educative project promoted by the English government). It paved the way for the success it achieved in the
Victorian period.
• ORLANDO, Chapter V
The extract from Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” (1928) perfectly summarize the atmosphere of the Victorian Age. The main thing that comes up is the comparison
between the 18th and the 19th century: the grey, dull, cloudy atmosphere of the Victorian Age contrasts with the more positive landscapes of the 18th century.
She uses atmospheric images to describe that century, a metaphor of a period of oppression and darkness, totally opposed to that period enlightened by human
reason. The main problem Virginia Woolf presents is the living condition of people, women especially: the relations between the two sexes were increasingly
distant, there was no freedom of expression, the life of the average woman was a succession of child-births. She also describes the birth of the British Empire, a
distinctive trait of this period, even if it had already started during the Elizabethan Age with the great expeditions. Finally, Virginia Woolf focuses on English
language: she criticized the fact that texts became longer and more complex and grandiloquent, contents were lengthened (instead of a single column we have
whole encyclopaedias).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In 1837 Queen Victoria ascended to the throne of England after the death of William IV. Her reign lasted 64 years, she was the longest serving Queen in the
history of England until that moment. England goes through a period of stability and economic growth.
Romantic Period and Victorian Age have some common features, they cannot be separated from each other: both periods were marked by industrialisation;
important social reforms; the Trade Unions played an important political role; the colonial process continued and led to the formal foundation of the British Empire;
there was a Third Generation of Romantic poets.
The main key-words linked to the Victorian Age are:
• Victorianism Queen Victoria was a reference point for the moral code;
• Respectability The idea that each man and woman had to be respectable in terms of moral code and to possess good manners;
• Puritanism Queen Victoria imposed a strict moral code even if prostitution was still present. Sex is a taboo, it was forbidden have a relationship outside
marriage, even if very often men had extramarital affairs, that, in order to preserve the idea of respectability, were always kept secret. Prostitution too was
widespread because of the strict moral rules that were imposed.
• Victorian Compromise The Victorian Compromise is that on one hand Britain is progressing thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the rising wealth of the
upper and middle classes and the expanding power of Britain and its empire; on the other hand the working classes had to face poverty, misery, disease,
deprivation and social injustice. The change brought by the Industrial Revolution was rapid: towns and cities grew at an incredible pace as new factories and
industries were created and thousands of people moved to the cities for work. The inventions, developments and new industries showed how advanced the
country was and how it was a world power. The upper classes continued to prosper, and the middle classes had the possibility to improve themselves and their
fortunes, while the working class was poor and miserable. Poverty couldn’t be abolished, but people had the possibility to act like good citizens and do charity,
showing their philanthropy.
• Patriarchalism The family unit was based on the figure of the authoritarian father, while the mother had a submissive role. The husband represented
authority; the wife was the “angel of the house”. This idea was slowly questioned by the suffragette movement and the Crimean War, which leads women to
leave their houses and give their contribution to society like men.
1. Home policy
• Birth of Britain’s modern parties The Conservatives grew out of the old Tories, and the Liberals out of the Whigs;
• The Liberals and the Conservatives alternate at the government and pass a series of important social reforms: Elementary Education Act (1870), it gave
everyone the chance to be educated by making primary education obligatory; Ballot Act (1875), it introduced secret vote at elections; Public Health Act (1875),
it improved public health;
• Second Reform Bill (1867) It gave town workers the right to vote, but still excluded miners and agricultural workers;
• Foundation of the Fabian Society (1880-1900) A socialist organisation inspired by Marxist philosophy. The Fabians believed in the foundation of a democratic
socialist state in Great Britain through gradual reforms rather than violent revolution. George Bernard Shaw was one of their most famous members;
• The Trade Unions are finally legalised (1882);
• Third Reform Bill (1884) Vote was extended to all male workers;
• Foundation of the Labour Party (1900) This marked the growth in political importance of the working class. Thanks to this and the Third Reform Bill,
representatives of the workers could sit in Parliament.
2. Foreign policy
• The Crimean War (1853-1856) started to make women convinced that it was important to have the right to vote and to give their contribution to society just
like men did;
• Birth of the British Empire The British Empire (the colonies and dominions ruled by the United Kingdom) had already started during the Elizabethan Age
with the great expeditions, but it greatly expanded during the Victorian Age. Britain extended his power all over the world: Asia (Ceylon, India), Africa (Egypt,
Kenya, Sudan, Rhodesia), Central America and Oceania. Queen Victoria became Empress of India;
• SONG
• STRUCTURE: The poem is divided into 2 stanzas with 8 lines in each stanza. The rhyme scheme is irregular. The poem is harmonious because there’s a perfect
balance between “remember” and “forget”.
• LANGUAGE:
• FIGURES OF SPEECH:
- Enjambements (dearest-sing, head-nor, me-with, remember-and, nightingale-sing, twilight-that);
- Anaphors (And if though wilt; I shall not; And);
- Archaisms (Thou, Wilt, Doth);
- Alliterations (1st stanza I am dead, my dearest; Sing no sad songs; green grass; With showers and dewdrops wet: 2nd stanza I shall not see the
shadows; not rise nor set);
- Assonances (2nd stanza as if in pain);
- Apostrophe (my dearest);
- Inversions (Plant thou; With…wet; may I forget);
- Simile (as if in pain);
- Repetition (Haply…Haply);
• MEANING: The poem was written in 1862. She is writing to someone (“ my dearest”) who is very close to her and she is trying to tell him/her what she wants
them to do after she dies. The main topic of the poem is mourning. 1 st stanza is about her contemporaries’ showy behaviour in mourning; 2nd stanza represents
the poet’s realistic vision of her death and her desires. She would like her lover to be free and honest about his feelings when she dies. In this case too, the poet
is against society and social conventions. She doesn’t want flowers, trees or sad songs when she dies. She gives the person she is writing to a choice: they can
remember her, or they can even forget her. The idea of mourning was generally associated with a very strict code, the memory of the dead had to be a part of
the lives of the loved ones: she goes against this idea, she believes that people can even forget. The “Lyrical I” is strongly present, as it happened in the Romantic
period. She reflects about death and realizes that she won’t be able anymore to use her 5 senses (she won’t be able to see, feel, hear, speak) so it is completely
useless to plant roses for her if she cannot smell them or sing a sad song if she cannot hear it.
She was quite religious but, in this case, she is questioning the way in which religion deals with death and produces social conventions she doesn’t want to follow.
2. FICTION
Fiction was the most popular genre in the Victorian Age. It is realistic until the end of the century, then it becomes more introspective and symbolic, thus
anticipating the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. It depicts and criticizes the flaws of the Victorian Age. Nonsense is established as a technique
and a literary genre. Novels were generally serialized.
The main authors are: Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Emily Bronte (1818-1848),
George Eliot (1819-1880), Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), Bram Stoker (1847-1912), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928).
Two phases can be identified: from Gaskell to Bronte fiction is realistic; from Eliot to Hardy traditional fiction begins to shatter and to take on new innovative
feature, like different point of views and a new type of narrator, less solid and traditional. They focus more on the study of their character’s psychology and
problems.
3. DRAMA
Drama was a popular genre in the Victorian Age. It mainly consisted of “well-made plays”. The main authors are Arthur Pinero (1855-1934) and Oscar Wilde
(1854-1900), they give their plays a solid narrative structure (introduction, climax, resolution of all conflicts) and offer a realistic representation of society, also
women’s condition. As it had happened during the Romantic Period, many new theatres were built both in the West End and the East End (so that even the
poorest areas could have theatres). This continues during the Victorian Age: anyone could go to the theatre. Plays were represented during the whole day and
the price of the ticket allowed everyone to afford it because depending on the time of day tickets had different prices. Theatre was a mass phenomenon. The
plays were for all tastes: intellectuals went to see George Shaw’s plays, those who wanted to see different aspects of Victorian society went to see Wilde’s and
Pinero’s plays. The limitation of this kind of theatre, meaning the “well-made plays” was that it was very traditional and linked only to the national reality. George
Shaw was the one who tried instead to represent a wider reality and a more symbolic representation of reality. He wanted to shock the middle class. His art was
also more open to being international, not only linked to the nation. His idea of theatre is therefore different from that of Wilde and Pinero.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Edward VII ascends to the throne (1901-1910). His reign is characterised by great optimism because the king, called “Peacemaker”, promoted good relations
between Britain and other European countries, especially France;
• Despite all the optimism, Britain is facing economic stagnation and social unrest. Strikes are tools of rebellion against high prices, taxes and low wages. The
lower classes lived in misery, they had very low salaries and the prices were high;
• The Conservative Party loses the 1906 elections because people believed that the Liberals would be able to achieve the much-needed social reforms. Therefore,
the Liberal Party wins the elections.
• The Trade Unions movement expanded;
• The suffragettes fought for the right to vote for women;
• The Irish Question in this period represents the eve of the civil war that began in 1920. In 1905 the Irish nationalist movement became a real political party
called “Sinn Féin”, with the aim of achieving independence. The British Prime Minister Asquith, liberal, in order to find a compromise solution, he promoted the
“Home Rule” project, according to which Ireland would be granted the status of autonomy and it would have its own government and parliament, while remaining
united to the British crown. This project met the opposition of both the Irish nationalists (Sinn Féin), who wanted full independence, and the Anglican North of
Ireland, who was against autonomy. The “Home Rule” project was stopped because of the start of World War I, but the civil war that began in 1920 was inevitable:
it was mainly a religious issue, based on the opposition between the Catholic South and the Anglican North.
MODERNISM (1914-1922)
The term “modernism” refers the movement that developed between 1914-1922 and which express the reaction against 19th century ideas and conventions in
new innovative forms. The main characteristics of modernism are breakdown of traditional genres; fragmentation of the traditional ideas of place and time;
breakdown of the traditional plot with the beginning and the end; complex language which breaks the traditional style; focus on the psychology rather than on
realistic details; use of free verse instead of traditional metres; use of the “stream of consciousness”, so called because it reproduces the continuous flow of
human thought; inability to give a positive message for the future; intertextuality; link between different forms of language and of genres (for example language
can be taken from the Classics, from the old romances). Modernism is strongly linked to the shock and experience of World War I, which prompted artists to find
new forms of expressions to deal with the devastation of war.
It is an international movement that concerns art, literature, philosophy, psychology. Ezra Pound can be considered the starter of this movement, he was in favour
of semantic obscurity (the intellectual cannot transmit any positive ideal because World War I has destroyed any outlook for the future) and formal brevity.
Modernist writers don’t care if the reader understands every single word, the most important thing is the general meaning. This is the opposite of the Victorian
Age, when writers wanted to have as many readers as possible in order to earn a lot of money. The aim of modernist writers is just to represent a condition that
is shared by everyone beyond the national borders.
The use of the “stream of consciousness” is maybe the most innovative technique of this movement. Writers were not interested in representing reality as it was,
in a realistic or natural way, they wanted to represent the interiority, the most obscure, intimate and less rational part of the human being, that is consciousness.
The literary forms used until now are therefore inadequate, so modernist writers create and use new forms and techniques, for example the omniscient narrator
is not used anymore, or traditional punctuation is changed, because the goal of the writer is no longer to help the reader understand, but to represent
consciousness.
2. POETRY
The collection of Georgian Poets includes Walter De La Mare (1873-1956), Sigfried Sassoon (1886-1967), Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), Robert Graves (1895-
1985), Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) and David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930). They represent a new generation of poets, it is still close to tradition, even
though it expresses modern man’s tension and anxiety.
3. DRAMA
After World War I drama does not express any social conflicts or tensions. At the time of Modernism drama wasn’t very popular, writers preferred to dedicate to
poetry and fiction. An opposition emerges between poetry/fiction (characterised by obscurity because of World War I) and drama (the opposite of poetry, full of
wit and very entertaining, with immoral characters). In this period drama is mainly composed of comedies, it was a way of showing there was a crisis of values
at that time. There are two main groups: the 1st one composed of witty comedies, the main playwrights are William S. Maugham (1874-1965) and Noel Coward
(1899-1973) they used a brilliant and sophisticated style (which recalled Wilde’s style) to provide evidence of the crisis of that time and present social issues,
through characters who lack any form of morality; the 2nd one is more complex and intimate, the main playwrights are W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot they start a
new tradition in the field of religious drama and drama in verse. They both believe that only verse can express man’s intimate dimension. Yeats is committed to
the national cause, so his plays become the basis for this type of political-social mission. Then Yeats’s theatre becomes much more international, inspired by the
Japanese Nō theatre, which leads almost to the absence of words in Yeats's plays. T.S. Eliot dedicated to religious drama, his best play is “Murder in the Cathedral”,
concerning the death of the martyr Thomas Becket.
• THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER
• STRUCTURE: The poem is divided into 4 stanzas with 5 lines in each stanza, and a final couplet rounding off the poem. The rhyme scheme is irregular. Although
iambic pentameter is dominant, the third line in each stanza is very short. There is a refrain in each stanza (“And I am dumb”), which expresses the poet’s inability
to speak. The poem is very musical (a lot of alliterations and the refrain).
• LANGUAGE: The language is very complex and obscure, making the poem very difficult to understand. Dylan didn’t care if everyone understood the poem, he
is a Surrealist.
• FIGURES OF SPEECH:
- Enjambements (flower-drives, trees-is, rose-my, rocks-drives, streams-turns…), they create a sort of narration;
- Repetitions (green, drives, the, that, force, mouth);
- Alliterations (1st stanza The force that through the green fuse drives the flower; that blasts the roots; bent by; 2nd stanza The force that drives
the water through the rocks; Drives my red blood that dries the mouthing streams; spring the same mouth sucks; 3rd stanza The hand that whirls
the water in the pool; Stirs the quicksand that ropes the blowing wind; shroud sail; How of my clay is made the hangman’s lime; 4th stanza The lips
of time leech to the; weather’s wind; How time has ticked a heaven);
- Anaphors (The, How, And), they give the poem a defined structure;
- Inversions (The force that through the green fuse drives the flower);
- Synaesthesia (green age) = one of the five senses is described using terms from another;
- Personifications (mouthing streams; lips of time);
- Metaphor (green age = youth);
• MEANING: It is part of Thomas’s 18 Poems; it was written in 1933. The main theme is that of Nature and its relationship with human beings.
1st stanza recalls Romantic tradition. Nature is connected with humankind because the fate of the rose is the same for every person. Here we find a reference to
Blake’s “The Sick Rose”: what has destroyed the rose is what has destroyed the poet’s youth (we will later understand that he is talking about time). Nature is
linked to men because that force that is at the basis of the flower life cycle is also at the basis of the life of the poet so if the flower dies the poet dies too. What
can destroy the roots of trees can destroy the poet too. In 1st stanza we have a more traditional idea of winter as something that brings death, while Eliot
completely turns this idea around.
In 2nd stanza there is a connection between the water and the poet’s blood, so once more Nature is connected with human beings. The same force can transform
the poet’s blood into wax, so it can give life or death and the poet cannot say this to his veins. There’s a reference to Eliot’s “The Burial of the Dead” and the
element of the Stone, that shows the opposition between life and death. The rocks Thomas is describing are wet, while the Stone Eliot described in his poem is
dry but they both represent the idea of death.
In 3rd stanza there’s the idea of the divine, godly hand and a biblical reference to the Book of John 5.4, when there is a magic pool healing the sick or those in
pain. The godly hand can give life, but it can also give death in fact in it can push the poet who is sailing towards his final destination (death). The poet is made
of the same clay of the man who gives death (the hangman), so the poet himself is death. Shroud in Italian in “sudario”, it is linked to the idea of death.
In 4th stanza we understand that the force the poet is talking about is time. Time is touching, almost kissing the upper part of the fountain. Water is the love that
drips from the fountain. Time is the reason why love is dying because it is drinking from the fountain. The element of blood in this stanza evokes once more the
idea of death. The poet then refers to time itself (called “weather’s wind”), time is seen as the creator who created heaven around the stars.
The final couplet refers to Blake’s “The Sick Rose”, in which the rose is destroyed by the crooked worm. The poet too is spoiled by the worm. The final couplet
doesn’t convey the final message or an explanation, it just goes back to the starting reference to Blake.
The refrain “And I am dumb” refers to the poet’s inability to speak because of the passage from life to death.
Important to notice that in each stanza line 3 is referred to death and suffering while the initial parts of the stanzas are referred to life. We have a double presence
of life and death, with the predominance of images linked to death.
2. FICTION
Fiction in the inter-war years is dominated by Huxley’s and Orwell’s dystopian novels, respectively “Brave New World” (1932), “Animal Farm” (1945) and “1984”
(1948). They too wanted to detach from the obscurity of the Modernist tradition and focus on ideology (to fight against Nazism and Fascism), scientific and
technological progress, individual freedom.
• HUMAN AFFECTION
• STRUCTURE: The poem is very short; it only has 4 lines. The structure is irregular.
• LANGUAGE: The language is very simple.
• FIGURES OF SPEECH:
- Repetitions (her, them);
• MEANING: This poem was written in 1942. There’s a strong connection between the title and the content of the poem. The title refers to affection between all
human being, while the poem itself refers to affection between Stevie and her mother, so the poet is trying to universalize her feelings, to express the fact that
there’s a strong connection between her and the rest of the world. There are no enjambements because these are just short simple thoughts. It is a very intimate
poem because it shows the love Stevie feels for her mother.
2. FICTION
The main protagonists of this period are Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), William Golding (1911-1993), Angus Wilson (1913-1991), Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) and
Muriel Spark (1918-2006). They represent the transition from Modernism to Contemporary times: Beckett, for example, starts his career as a Modernist writer
and then he becomes one of the most important Contemporary writers.
3. DRAMA
There are two main trends in post war years: Samuel Beckett and the Theatre of the Absurd; John Osborne and the Angry Young Men. They represent two
opposite sides of reality. The first one is highly symbolic; the second denounces the working classes’ problems after WWII, thus the failure of the Welfare State.
• Founded by Samuel Beckett, the Theatre of the Absurd has its cultural roots in the Elizabethan Era, in the circus tradition and the Marx Brothers (a comedy
group). It combines comedy and tragedy. It starts from the principle that life is absurd and is based on an empty form of communication, that’s why In Beckett’s
works words are meaningless. There’s not actual plot. He wants to represent the universal condition shared by all men.
• John Osborne is the leader of the Angry Young Men (angry with the system, the main enemies are the upper classes). He denounces the working classes’
condition in post-war years and gives voice to their members’ frustration. The setting is realistic, and the language used expresses their anger. While Becket’s
words are meaningless, Osborne’s language is full of strength and violence. Furthermore, while in Beckett’s plays the scene is highly symbolic, in Osborne’s works
we have a domestic setting characterised by strong tensions, expressed by a violent language. His main work is “Look Back in Anger” (1956).
• COME AN GO
“Come and Go” is a play that was first written in English (1965) and performed in German at Schiller Theatre in Berlin (1966). It is a “dramaticule” of only 30
lines of dialogue, 11 silences, 23 cues that give detailed directions to the characters and a diagram to illustrate the exact position of the three performers. It’s
clear that Beckett wanted to have control over the actors and the whole scene because he gives a lot of stage directions (about silences, position on the stage,
how each character is supposed to move), characters are not given any freedom, Becket is the one in control.
The three female characters – Flo, Ru and Vi - are sitting on a bench and share their past memories. When one of them leaves, the other two speak about their
friend’s illness. At the end of the play, the audience realises that they are all going to die. Ru’s, Vi’s and Flo’s bodily shapes are covered by their long clothes, but
it clear that they have a clear feminine grace. This is all we know about them. There is no information about the setting and the time when the action takes place.
The title echoes T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” and the three female characters remind us of “Macbeth” and the Weird Sisters. At the beginning
Vi says “When did we three last meet?”, which is an important cultural reference to “Macbeth”. There the Weird Sisters predict the future, here the three women
speak about the past and what is going on in their lives.
Their way of communicating is very unusual, they always ask the same questions and the answers are the same.
The most interesting aspect is that it is the first time that a character walks out of the stage and the other 2 speak about her (first Vi leaves, Flo and Ru speak
about her). Flo and Ru are talking about a change in Vi, they look shocked and the audience doesn’t know what they are talking about. Apparently, they are
talking about something shocking about Vi, but she doesn’t know. This situation repeats for all of them, meaning that they all share the same condition but each
one of them thinks that the problem is only about the other 2. We understand that they are talking about a serious illness, each one of them is ill and close to
death, but they all know about the others but not about themselves.
In the end, since they are friends, they hold hands, they want to be together because they know that the others are ill and will soon die and they want to comfort
them. They say “I can feel the rings”, probably referring to their past wishes that didn’t come true, such as marriage (symbolized by the wedding rings).
They think of the past, they dream of love and there is little they can say because they know the others are dying.
It can be considered a problem play on womanhood, the mystery of love, friendship and communication.
4. LATE-CENTURY FICTION
English fiction at the end of the 19th century has no major writers.
The main genres are:
• “Campus fiction”, because these novels are set in universities and colleges but connect their characters with the outer world. Apart from Larkin, the main
authors are: Tom Sharpe (1928-), Malcolm Bradbury (1932-), and David Lodge (1935-). They greatly contribute to this branch of fiction, thus criticizing England
in contemporary times and academic life;
• “Neogothic fiction”, because it combines gothic themes with feminist issues, and it is highly innovative. The main authors are: Angela Carter (1940-), Ian
McEwan (1948-), Martin Amis (1949-) and Irvine Welsh (1958-), who acknowledge large debts to the Modernist tradition, yet they express the violence of
contemporary times. The setting can be Scottish or cosmopolitan. The horror of the II World War is at the heart of some of their works;
• “Gender prose/gay fiction”, it deals with gender issues. The main authors are: Antonia Byatt (1936-) author of “Possession”, an intriguing story that brings
together the research of two young scholars on the love affair between a male and a female poet of the 19th century and the love affair itself, Colin Toibin (1955)
and Jeannette Winterson (1959-), who explore the themes of gender identity, homosexuality and the horror of AIDS.