James Joyce

Radical innovator of the modern novel, not interested in the positivistic narration of nature. strongly
influenced by Freud
He focalizes on the internal life of his characters.

Born in Dublin, intollerant to religion due to the strong faith of his family, he abandon his city,
feelling suffocated by it.
During this period, In the first 20 years of the century, starts the Irish Question : opposition of the
irish nation towards the power of the united kingdom.
Joyce travelled a lot he stayed in Trieste where he met Italo Svevo.

Dubliners

The work couldnt be published in london due to its explicit contents.

He wrote to his future editor that he wanted to write « a chapter of moral history of his country »,
He choose Dublin as representation the center of the Paralysis.
The book is composed of short stories connected chrnologically.
The stories are divided in 4 groups , reppresenting human life phases :
• Childhood,
• adolescence,
• maturity
• public life.
The last part the deads could be posed outside these groups.
The city is the unyfing factor, Joyce want to follow the human identity during his growth, choses
protagonist from the middle of low middle irish class, cause they are affected by a sense of
affliction .
The author tells about daily situations where nothing seems to happen, but those situation create a
time of consciousness of the modern man condition.
What unite the characters and the city is the paralysis, the common situation of modern man, the
condition denies man to accomplish his dreams, this is the main characteristic of the characters,
they cant run away from this condition even if they want, the y must accept the situation.

Characters are conscious of their paralysis in the lead moments of their stories, they have a
resignated attitude towards combination of defeat and resignation which lead chracterise to live
their lives deprived of their meanings because they cannot their existance.

The moment of the awareness of the absence of an interior power that can give sense is the
epiphany, a moment where a daily movement or object lead the protagonist to an
acknowledgement about their existance of the reality around them.

Characters live passively their lives in sense of stasis, immobility the incapability of taking control
of their lives that only bravery can allow.

He transmit the oppriment sense of the city towards characters, he gives a strong importance to the
interior lives, expressed by the anticipation of the interior monologue and stream of
consciousness, which will be the leading in his masterwork Ulysses.
He uses an impersonal style, not interest in judging he wants to trasnsmit habits , thoughts etc
transmitting a reality, showing without filters the conditions of the modern man blocked by the
history of war.
He doesn’t describe the characteristics of a single man like Svevo he describes a whole city and a
whole country.

Virginia Woolf

Feminist antilitteram, woman who tried to propose a new idea of woman, sexuality and wife.
She lose her two parents, and, after the lost, she moved to an area of London called Bloomsbury,
this gives the root of the circle of intellectuales created by her, called the Bloomsbury Group,
where wrere reunited the exponents of modernism
The group posed some fundamental points :
• Subjectivity, center of the modernist poetic
• Aesthetic taste valorized
• Subjectivity of feelings

Hostyle towards the sterotypes of the victorian society. took her feminist thought in her works life »
a room of one’s own », where she talks about the will of indipence of women, the room represents a
space for woman, where women can express themselves.
In a conference in 1931 she express the will of « killing the angel of the house », which means
eliminating the sterotype where woman must live in the shadow, not talking, repressing herselves,
she uses the symbol to express the will of freedom of speech.

Mrs dalloway is a story that take place in a single day, like Ulisses, the events that happens are
linked to the interiority of the character, Mrs Dalloway, who has to prepare a party for the
members of high society of which she was part of, all the plot is linked to the people she meet, her
feelings, her Thoughts, the world is seen by her eyes.
There’s a contrapposition of her life mondane and aesthetic opposed to Septimu’s life a war
veteran , who will try to kill himself, Mrs Dalloway is ocncerned about the possibility thtat this
event would ruin her party.

her litterary Manifesto « To the lighthouse »

Here we found the sea as an occasion of a journey, a journey inside the personality as an evolution
of the character and the relationship beetween them, in this work Virginia seeks for conciliation
towards her father, that will never find in the real life, but will express in the work.

The sea, and the water are part of her poetic, like in « the waves », where the sea is not seen as a
journey but as a cycle, cycle of waves, cyclic return of life, infleunced by the Nietschzian theory of
the Eternal Return »

Beckett

Author of absurd, part of the French resistance during the german invasion in vaucluse,i n the south
of France.
Beckett against dictatorship, he will use the idiocy of the absurd.
Waiting for Godot
The first scene is composed by two characters, the two Vladimir and Estragon waits for Godot, they
are homeless( Beckett choose peculiar characters), but Godoit doesn’t come.
The second scene is the same as the first, this is an element of the absurd

The representation of repetition of daily activities is the meaning of absurd.

Beckett highlights the problem of incommunicability, we talk without saying anything.

During the histsory nothing happens
The two homeless are representations of our miserables lives.

Denis the classical realtionship of characters, Godot is a kind of a new version of Deus ex machina,
that will never arrives, the protagonists are lost, lost in life.

Godot can be a representation of everything that can give sense to life, the name Godot is
composed by god and the german word tod, death mirrored is a representation of a lack of aim,
ideal of god.
Without godot they will live repetitve rituals, that belongs to our lives.

The absurd

Beckett represent the absurdists theories of Albert Camus Godot that doesnt arrives could be a
repsresentation of a God that will never come beckett. always refused to corroborate this theory.
1945 the world is devasted try some prosperity with the Marshall Plan, begin the decolonisation
around the world.
The theatre of sbsurd is a theatre of Avant Guard, the dramaturgist feel the will to reform the
theatreal aesthetic
This theatre is iconoclastique, refuse the classical standards the chracacters are based on archetypes
The theatre of absurd is a melting pot of approches toward theatre.

George orwell

His works are modern, describes the mechanism of totalitarism.

This wasnt his real name was Eric Arthur Bliar.
He was born in India, part of the british empire, family in poor condition.
He thought that Britain had to withdraw towards colonies, became an active socialist, he worked in
spain during the civil war between franquism and the republic, here he wrote Omage to Catalunya.

In 1945 he wrote Animal Farm, a fable not for children, which meaning is extrmely complex, the
fable satirise dictatorship, he explaines the mechanisms of revolution, creation, destruction and
recreatiaon of dictatorship.
The rebellion of animals against humans is right based on right values , but then some groups of
animals desiere that power and the original ideas of revolution is lost, the creation of a starting
common enemy is the base of the revolution but then there’s a rsk of creation of anoother
dictatorship.

He goes on analysing societies especially totalitarism in 1984 written in 1948, the date was a
metaphor of the future, this is about the repression, political repression that can suprress
individuality and making men inhuman, is a science fiction, is absolutly credible, is also dystopian.
The fiction is based on the dystopian idea of the poitical structure of Oceania, he uses satyre of
political behavoiur, the aim of the work was warning people of some political tendencies of the
time.
The protagonbist try to reject propagand and the totalitarian system, he fight to keeps his memory.
The concept of memory is important, Orwell highlights the fact that erasing memories allows
totalitarism to create new thoughts.
Memory is one of the most important elements that can save humanity
Language, the manipulation of langage, in this case New Speak, this new langage doesnt have
some words that dont please the system, the party.
The theory of the application of New Speak has been expressed by the author himself in his essay :
« Politics and the English Language » where Orwell claims that the political langguage, « is
designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable [...] »
From 1984 also came out the world Orwellian which describes : a political system in which the
government take control of people’s lives ; also used to describe a deceptive way of speaking, as a
reference to New Speak »

1984 Society is built around 4 ministry :

Truth : which works on information and education, the absolut truth, the truth of the dictatorship
Peace : is all about war, war is seen as a form of peace
Love : aboujt Law and Order
Plenty : Economic Affairs, creates the illusion of richness.

The big brother watches inside , inside the huses and inside people and their thoughts

There are 3 slogans :

War isn peace

freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength

Victorian Age
1837-1901 start of victorian reign to her death
This england is moved from riot espacially from workers who lived without rights and in terrible
igenic situation, due to the industrial revolution born the slums, start conflict of chartism which
proposed to the parlament the people chart the document that had to create a reform for lower
classes
Factory workers have to wait for reform bill and trade union act for the recognisation of their unions
for ther irights
Corn Laws workers and borgouis together, laws proclaimed from aristocracy that left high corn’s
price, this situation created a situation of hunger espacially in Ireland.
Crimea war againsst Russian imperialism

john stewart mill

Colonialism in canada australia new zeland africa india, jewl of the crown india for resources and
its position geographically speaking

Phase of depression, due to the growth of other countries such as Germany, universal suffrage even
for miners and workers
Victorian society is structered on a moral strict code the patriarchal family is the base, the maximal
realisation of women was marriage

Elliot

He wanted to represent variety and complexity, multifascetic, art must be a mirror of the
complexity, as a byproduct of the complexity of the period he has to collect and express a variety of
style he has to force langage in order to express what it really means.
Incomprehensibility for the reader because his works must be read in various levels, in this case the
Wasteland takes place in hours where he puts past and present together
Uses monologue, uses pieces of dialogs, memories pieces of memories, references from various
cultural sources mythology etcc
He declare that the author doesnt have just to live his own moment he has to keep tradition and
present together making a sort of resume of litterature
He experimetns with irregular lines and rythms, themes, quick changes
Objective correlative he talks about this technique in an essay Hamlet That he belives that is the
only way to express emotions, with this techni he que the reader doesnt write feeling but he
describes feelings with objects or events the way he uses to describe them are correalated to
emotions.
The subjectivity of these emotions has an objective part, universal
This poetry was part of the Avant Garde he belived in importance of tradition

War Poets

didnt foHllow the conventions of the victorian poetry the yexpress their ideals their emotions about
war, sort of propaganda in osome cases emphasise war

On the other side, some poets like Owen wanted to explain the suffrence of war, horro and physical
effects on human beings

Rupert Brooke

War sonets very little action in war he died in war his death made him a young hero symbol of
propaganda idealised hero of War
The soldier is a sonet written during war where he rethorically express a sort of idealisation of war,
where even if he is dead in war his body will represent england so in the field where his body will
be buried hiw body will contain England, England is seen as a mother, mnmotherland england is
personified
His heart wont be dead it will pulse in the eternity.
Heroic aspect of war, war higenie of war
Wilfred Owen
war seen as synonym of horro, trenches, crude and realistic langage in order to talk about
pohysicial suffering denonce propaganda
Wilfred Owen donence war in Dulce et decorum est a phrase from the latin poet Horace Dulce et
decorum est pro patria pari, where the latin poet stimulate youth in order to follow the virtuos
soldier

in the preface disablded and other poems he detach himself from the other group of war poets like
brooke, he declares that his subject is war and the poetcic elemnt is pity, he says that all the peots
can do in that period is warning the people and the truth poet must be truthfull for this reason he
writes Dulce et decorum est from the Odes by Horace based on his experience in trenches
He represents death at the end he says that war persecute him in dream at night he talks to the
reader looks for empathy trying to describe the old propaganda where youngs die for their
enthusiasm toward war, following the old lie Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori he askas for help
awareness

Oscar wilde

Victorian age end of the age experimentation starts.

Accused of depravation from conservatives.
Considered deviated from them who saw him as the possible end of an established order generated
during the victorian era.

All the new art is consdiered immoral, unethical by the conservatives.

The artists like Wilde reject the traditio thinking about their ideals refusing the standard society
against categories from romatnicism artists seek more freedom.
Wilde attacked for his egotisme influenced by the irish folk stories.

Art and Morality

Criticized for the Picture of Dorian Grey, considered unethical but even criticized for his writing
style, the work was considered as an example of moral and spiritual putrefaction phsycial
corruption effemiity and frevoloity
From the daily chronicle
Wilde was trield for his aphorisms and epigraphw, and the pic of D was accused of corrupting
young eaders.
In the Irish Pick ? There is a report of his t rial where he declares in court that ethic and aesthetic
must be separated, he declares that he has the will to seek beatuy in every form not thinking about
good and evil
Preface of Dorian Grey he declares thatbooks must be judjed esthetically not for their morality

Dandy : Term used for describing, since the beginning of the 19th century, elegants men, whose
model was considered G. B. Brummel, considered master of londonder fashion. (Oscar Wilde was
considered Dandy)
Dickens

First populaar writer.

Combine pathetic and comic, to increase the suspense and to make the readers willing to buy the
next episode situated in the next magazine.
He interrupted crucial scenes at the end of ther chapter called « cliffhanger »
Highlights social ijustice and children explotation
Oliver Twist express the suffering inside the workouse
Hard time deal with the suffering of the factorhy system and the utilitarian philosophy
He had experinced by his own lower classes lives in victorian society in order to improve his faily’s
economic condition he worked in a factory in London.
Shotrly after his father was condmened to death he was sent to livie alone in poorer quarters of
London.

In his work Hard Times he oves a criticism against utilitarian education,

The Utilitarian Philosophy was theorised by Jeremy Bentham an english philosopher who claimed
a moral theory that argues that actions should be judged right or wrong to the extent they increase
human well being or « utility »

This philosophy had its root inside the Positvistic and naturalistic influence, where science submits
emotions, feelling and humanity.
This theory applied to education has been extremly criticized by Dickens in Hard Times with the
representation of Mr Grangrid, a teacher of victorian school which base all his education around
facts, only facts, he tend to turns children’s brains in industrial machine, this happen as a byproduct
of Industrial Revolution.
In this works Mr Grandgrid’s physical representation reflects his character, he is described with
geometrical forms representing his strictness.
He prepares youngs for cocktown factories

Coketown,

Where Hard Times is set, this place is used by the author in order to represent negative aspects of
industrialization, by describing it as a city covered by coal and smoke, built in a deshumanized and
industrial way where there are a lot of chimney crossed by a black lake, everything has a price what
has no price mustnt exist, every day in coketown is the same as the other.
Workers are the protagonists.
The work Hard Times came to Dickens mind after some times spent in Manchester where he saw up
closely workers lives in a society based on capitalism and consumism completly deshumanised