Letteratura inglese del Novecento: Modernismo, War Poets e romanzo distopico

Summary

Modernism

INIZIO INTERROGAZIONE: The advent of Modernism; rejection of the traditional XIX century novel and of realism in literature; new forms and techniques: the Modernist novel; stream of consciousness, (396) direct and indirect interior monologue; multiplicity of narrating voices. Modernism 368-369

War Poems, Poets and Stories

Historical Context of War Poetry

Historical context: the Great War; patriotism, idealism and propaganda; the horror of trench warfare and the new military technology. War Poets (R. Brooke (374), W. Owen (Dulce et Decorum est), S. Sassoon (377), V. Brittain - Testament of youth). The Lost Generation and the Roaring Twenties. Socialism and totalitarianism; the Spanish Civil War; the second World War, German and allied propaganda; the atomic bomb and the Cold War. War poets 370-371

War Poetry Texts

Texts: The Soldier Suicide in the Trenches Dulce et Decorum Est Aftermath Survivors Does it matter?

Virginia Woolf

Life and Works of Virginia Woolf

(PAG. 410) VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941): Life and main works; the individual perception of reality; style and innovative use of language; the role of women in society, literature and art; A Room of One's Own: Woolf's vindication of women's rights. Mrs. Dalloway, setting and main characters; Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith; handling of fictional time; narrative voice and point of view; women at the centre of her novels.

Virginia Woolf Texts

Texts: "Mrs. Dalloway" "Professions for Women"

Hemingway

Works by Hemingway

(PAG. 422)HEMINGWAY (1899-1961) E. Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Dystopian Novel

Characteristics of Dystopian Society

THE DYSTOPIAN NOVEL: The dystopian or anti-utopian novel as a warning to future generations. Characteristics of a dystopian society: government control, environmental destruction,technological control, survival, loss of individualism, dehumanization of society, fears, lack of culture, loss of freedom and empathy. Types of dystopian controls (media, bureaucracy, police, religion, language, technology, etc.).

George Orwell

Life and Works of George Orwell

(PAG. 434) GEORGE ORWELL: Life and main works; political commitment and disillusionment; journalism and writing style; critique of totalitarianism. Animal Farm, a political fable; allegory and satire. Nineteen Eighty-Four: time and setting; plot, protagonist and main characters; the organization of society: Big Brother, the Party, the Proles. Doublethink and Newspeak: the link between language and ideas; rhetoric and propaganda. The true meaning of the term "Orwellian" as used nowadays. The Thought Police; the control of the media and of technology; censorship and the manipulation of the past. Constant warfare, torture, violence; lust for power. Memories, family relationships, love and repression; rebellion and resistance.

George Orwell Texts

Texts: - "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Chapter 1, Room 101

20th Century Drama

Samuel Beckett and Theatre of the Absurd

XX century drama: Samuel Becket and the Theatre of the Absurd, an alternative to Naturalism. - > Partita per due by STED Company (PAG. 480)BECKETT TESTO PAG. 486

Modernism Overview

The First Half of the 20th Century

MODERNISM The first half of 20th century-> marked by: - 2 world wars - Einstein's theory of relativity= destroyed the faith in objective reality - Freud's psychoanalysis = the unconscious and the inner self

Artistic Movements Influencing Modernism

Modernism was influenced by different artistic movements, to rebel against the past and create new forms and styles in visual arts, literature and music: - Futurism - Cubism - Expressionism - Surrealism

Characteristics of Modernist Writers

Works of Modernist writers are heterogeneous and show experimentalism, but possible to recognize common characteristics: - fragmentation of the narrative point of view and of a traditional plot, multi-layered and complex narration; - redefinition of the traditional concepts of time and place -> subjective - use of stream of consciousness - rejection of traditional grammar and punctuation (very long periods) - free verse - complex vocabulary

Precursors of Modernism

Precursors of Modernism Joseph Conrad and Lawrence anticipated the modernist techniques, fragmenting the point of view and going against the traditional Victorian prose.

Modernist Prose Writers

Modernist prose writers: - represented instability - certainties put in doubt by psychoanalysis and war - new narrative techniques: stream of consciousness, fragmented characters and points of view - redefine the concept of "reading" (not entertaining or didactic) as a voyage into the psyche of the characters - the reader is an overhearer (origlia), he has the chance to listen to the train of disconnected thoughts. Modernist prose writers: Joyce, Woolf Psychology has undoubtedly been the foundation to the new modernist wave, the mind appears as a flow, a stream, not something fragmented. Then, in such a way, the stream of consciousness was born. Two of the major modernist exponents were Woolf and Joyce, respectively with the indirect interior monologue (W) and the direct interior monologue (J). Indirect interior monologue, non-obtrusive omniscent narrator, the characters' thoughts are presented through the filter of a narrator; the direct interior monologue, direct revelation of the characters' thoughts without the filter of the narrator.

War Poets

Common Aspects of War Poets

WAR POETS war poets= group of men who fought during the First World War, who have various aspects in common: - They all were soldiers - They enrolled/volontiers/proposed enthusiastically (=si sono proposti entusiasticamente) - They were all in their twenties - They all wrote poems regarding their terrible experiences leading to death, suffering and alienation.

Rupert Brooke

R. Brooke (1887-1915) (pp.374) Rupert Brooke was an English poet, born in 1887. He studied at Cambridge and wrote poems about nature. After getting sick, he travelled to many countries. When World War I started, he joined the army. He wrote poems about war, saying it was good and noble. His most famous book is 1914 & Other Poems. In the poem The Soldier, he talks about dying for England as a beautiful thing. Brooke died in 1915 on a hospital ship. He didn't see much fighting. Some people say his poems are too simple, but they show how people felt at the start of the war.

"The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke

Testo: "The Soldier" (1915) This poem is about a soldier. He talks about dying in a war. He says, if he dies, his body will be in another country. But that place will be like England, because he loves England. He is happy to die for his country. He feels peace and love for England.

Siegfried Sassoon

S. Sassoon (1886-1967) (pp.377) Siegfried Sassoon was born in 1886 in Kent. He studied at Cambridge but did not finish. He started writing poetry and later became famous for his war poems. He fought in World War I and was hurt several times. During the war, he became very sad and angry about the violence. He spoke against the war and met Wilfred Owen in the hospital. Owen was later killed, but Sassoon lived and kept writing. His poems show the truth and horror of war. He used simple words, but his poems had strong messages. Some people didn't like his poems because they were very honest and showed dead bodies, dirt, and fear. Others liked them because they showed what soldiers really felt. Sassoon wrote that death is the main part of war. He said soldiers were not heroes, but victims. He believed war was useless and cruel. After the war, he wrote books and poems about life and religion. He became a Catholic in 1957 and died in 1967.

"Suicide in the Trenches" by Siegfried Sassoon

Testi: "Suicide in the Trenches" This poem is about a young soldier. At first, he is happy and sings songs. Then he goes to the war. Life in the trenches is very hard. He becomes sad and alone. One day, he kills himself. The poet is angry at people at home. They do not understand the pain of soldiers.

"Aftermath" by Siegfried Sassoon

“Aftermath" This poem talks about war. The poet asks: do you remember the war? Do you remember the dead soldiers? Do you remember the fear and pain? He wants people to remember the truth. War is not glory. War is sad and terrible. He says: never forget the soldiers and their suffering.

"Survivors" by Siegfried Sassoon

"Survivors" This poem talks about soldiers who come back from war. They are called "survivors" because they did not die. But they are not the same as before. They have pain in their minds and bodies. They cannot forget the war. People at home do not understand them. The poet shows that even if they live, they still suffer.

"Does it matter?" by Siegfried Sassoon

"Does it matter?" This poem talks about soldiers who are hurt in war. Some lose their legs or their sight (they become blind). The poet asks, "Does it matter?" - but he does not mean it. He is being sarcastic (he says the opposite of what he means). He wants to show that war changes people forever. People at home say kind words, but they don't really understand. The poet shows that war leaves deep pain, even if the soldier comes back alive.

Wilfred Owen

W. Owen (1893-1918) Wilfred Owen was born in England in 1893. He loved reading and writing when he was young. He wanted to be a poet. In 1915, he became a soldier in World War I. The war was very hard and very sad. He saw many people die. He was hurt in the war and sent to a hospital. In the hospital, he met another poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon helped him write better poems. Owen wrote poems about the truth of war. He showed that war is full of pain and fear. In 1918, Owen went back to the war. He died in battle one week before the war ended. He was only 25 years old. Now, his poems are famous. People read them to understand how terrible war is.

"Dulce et Decorum est" by Wilfred Owen

Testi: "Dulce et Decorum est" (1917) The speaker begins with a description of soldiers, bent under the weight of their packs like beggars, their knees unsteady, coughing like poor and sick old women, and struggling miserably through a muddy landscape. They turn away from the light flares (a German tactic of briefly lighting up the area in order to spot and kill British soldiers), and begin to march towards their distant camp. The men are so tired that they seem to be sleeping as they walk. Many have lost their combat boots, yet continue on despite their bare and bleeding feet. The soldiers are so worn out they are essentially disabled; they don't see anything at all. They are tired to the point of feeling drunk, and don't even notice the sound of the dangerous poison gas-shells dropping just behind them. Somebody cries out an urgent warning about the poison gas, and the soldiers fumble with their gas masks, getting them on just in time. One man, however, is left yelling and struggling, unable to get his mask on. The speaker describes this man as looking like someone caught in fire or lime (an ancient chemical weapon used to effectively blind opponents). The speaker then compares the scene-through the panes of his gas-mask and with poison gas filling the air - to being underwater, and imagines the soldier is drowning. The speaker jumps from the past moment of the gas attack to a present moment sometime afterward, and describes a recurring dream that he can't escape, in which the dying soldier races toward him in agony. The speaker directly addresses the audience, suggesting that if readers could experience their own such suffocating dreams (marching behind a wagon in which the other men have placed the dying soldier, seeing the writhing of the dying soldier's eyes in an otherwise slack and wrecked face, and hearing him cough up blood from his ruined lungs at every bump in the path-a sight the speaker compares to the horror of cancer and other diseases that ravage even the innocent), they would not so eagerly tell children, hungry for a sense of heroism, the old lie that "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." The poem talks about tired and sick soldiers in World War I. They walk slowly in the mud. They are dirty, weak, and in pain. One day, poison gas is used in an attack. The soldiers put on their gas masks quickly. But one man is too slow. He cannot breathe. He is dying. The speaker sees him suffer and remembers this in his dreams.