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MODERNISM (modernìsem)
It developed in England in the first half of the 20th century, from 1901 (victoria death) to 1945. The name belongs to the british tradition but some aspects are common to many different countries in Europe. Historical and social background: art, literature is always an answer to an historical period, a real situation. Edward VII, Vic’s son, during his reign there was a period of peace , idyllic period, but unfortunately during the reign of George V Britain had to face strong unrest (tumulti). Eruope was preparing for a period of terrible changing: the 2 w.w. Something good happened: the suffragette movement: they were able to gain the right to vote for women in 1918 , a very positive result. At that time England was facing the problem of home rule for Ireland , which concerned the independence of Ireland. Many important authors are irish: Wilde, Joyce, he fought for home rules and was imprisonment for that and during this period he developed his new concept of antihero (inetto): man wasn’t meant to fight any ideal, he was probably an antihero in life, character he wanted to talk about. Ww1 was a period of great disillusionment , England came from a period of peace, idealist perception, there was the idea that fighting for their country was epic and almost fascinating than they had to face the real result of war, horror, death, suffering, pain, losses, poverty, it was a national shock. It created disillusionment and disappointment. In that period colonies were claiming for independence and in this period was created the british commonwealth of nations was created and so britain had a different relationship towards colonies, the mentaly changed, they somehow believed that they had a sort of superiority towards colonies, of culture, religion, a task of taking civilization to these countries. Now there is a specific movement, think about Gandhi. They had to face this new identity of colonies and to reconsider their position. The rise of totalitarianìsm : fascism (fascisém), communism (comiunisém) were developing in that period and we were going to the 2 ww and britain war completely disillusioned towards as far as war is concerned but they had to fight in order to stop totalitarianism : a different perspective from the 1 ww, they feel this duty to fight for what the believed in. This period was also a period of great depression, unemployment , there was the emancipation of women but it started from a sad aspect: during the 1 ww many men were fighting and many of them died, so industry needed women to go on. They started to take the places of their men in order to allow the industry to stay alive, they were incredibly important and the country had to admit it. There was a rigid class system , also like in the Victorian age, strict moral code, a gap between the workers and middle class , now it is becoming wider. Workers were living in poor conditions. Communication systems changed: radio… coming from the roaring twenties used for propaganda. Orwell uses literature in order to explain the mechanism of history that could allow totalitarianism to become so powerful and to destroy nations. All these aspects have an impact on culture As a consequence of the horror provoked by war we have some pacifist movements in order to fight against war. Most of the traditional values are now put into question and shetterd (frantumati). We can mention Nietzsche , ‘’god is dead’’ , men are living in a sort of mechanism, there is no final aim. Freud starts studying the individual from a scientific point of view, psychology, he starts talking about psychoanalysis. He starts believing in the unconscious. The movement inside the unconscious can eventually create illnesses, disorders. Stevenson anticipated some of these aspects.
Einstein Picasso and Stravinsky They have something in common, which is relativity , they all believed that there wasn’t just one perspective , one truth but different truths and all these truths were equally right, true. This relativity means subjectivity, and subjectivity means there are many different kinds of truths. In literature they analyze this relativity starting from the individual who lives a sort of DISORIENTATION , a DISINTEGRATION OF HIS IDENTITY/EGO , ALIENATION : you lose your point of reference and yourself , SUBJECTIVITY. PIRANDELLO ‘’uno nessuno e centomila’’: siamo uno perché abbiamo una concezione di noi stessi, ma siamo centomila perché qualsiasi altra prospettiva che chiunque possa avere di noi è vera quanto la nostra, dunque non siamo nessuno. Literature changes Content A shift from an external plot to an internal plot. We are not talking about actions anymore but about individuals , the focus isn’t on what happens outside but inside , interior plot. The accent is on the individual and the author tries to take a picture of what happens inside the individual. Chronological time and places are not important anymore, to have any kind of continuity, because now literature is picking on aspects of the human soul , emotions and putting them together without even trying to give a structure. In order to achieve this specific techniques are used: Free association , used also by Freud in Psychoanalysis: it is important to let free associations describe something about our unconscious side Interior monologue : it isn’t important to have a relationship with the outside, the individual has to talk to himself and the interior monologue is the best way to represent his own thoughts Stream of consciousness: James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. They require a different language , not the same used during the Victorian age. Our emotions are broken, they shift from one to another, past, present and future. There is a disintegration of the syntax, a broken syntax. Vocabulary has to be simple : when we think we don’t use complicated words but common vocabulary.
orologi molli assurge a simbolo della plasticità e della soggettività del tempo , dimensione sfuggente ed enigmatica che non è affatto uguale e oggettiva per tutti. La discontinuità e l'ambiguità del tempo si ritrovano anche nell'elemento faunistico presente ne La persistenza della memoria. La mosca adagiata sul primo orologio «suggerisce che l'oggetto della memoria è una qualche specie di carogna, che si imputridisce nella stessa maniera in cui si liquefà»; analogamente, le formiche che brulicano sull'orologio arancio simboleggiano l'annullamento dell'oggettività del tempo , un elemento che - essendo inafferrabile - non può essere imprigionato in un oggetto fisico. Description and analysis The well-known surrealist piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time. As Dawn Adès wrote, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order". Asked by Ilya Prigogine whether this was in fact the case, Dalí replied that the soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting in the sun. It is possible to recognize a human figure in the middle of the composition, in the strange "monster" (with much texture near its face, and much contrast and tone in the picture) that Dalí used in several contemporary pieces to represent himself – the abstract form becoming something of a self-portrait, reappearing frequently in his work. The creature can be read as a "fading" creature , one that often appears in dreams where the dreamer cannot pinpoint the creature's exact form and composition. One can observe that the creature has one closed eye with several eyelashes , suggesting that the creature is also in a dream state. The iconography may refer to a dream that Dalí himself had experienced , and the clocks may symbolize the passing of time as one experiences it in sleep or the persistence of time in the eyes of the dreamer. The orange clock at the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants. Dalí often used ants in his paintings as a symbol of decay. Another insect that is present in the painting is a fly , which sits on the watch that is next to the orange watch. The fly appears to be casting a human shadow (distendere un’ambra umana) as the sun hits it. The Persistence of Memory employs "the exactitude of realist painting techniques" to depict imagery more likely to be found in dreams than in waking consciousness. The craggy rocks to the right represent a tip of Cap de Creus peninsula in north-eastern Catalonia. Many of Dalí's paintings were inspired by the landscapes of his life in Catalonia. The strange and foreboding shadow in the foreground of this painting is a reference to Mount Pani. It was the first appearance of the famous soft watches that will become one of Dalí ‘s most beloved symbols. Time melts, abandoning any claim to be an absolute reference, with some references to Albert Einstein’s new Relativity Theory, according to which time became a flexible, questionable coordinate. If time is no longer reliable in the real life, how meaningful can it be in the dreamlike dimension? The persistence of time is therefore relative: time is unstable and volatile, and our memory is probably the only way to provide durability and stability. At the same time, the concept of persistence becomes a hoax/ joke : the sensations given by the painting are everything but a sign of persistence and solidity.
VIRIGINIA WOOLF
Strong sensitive unconventional smart woman, feminist, intellectuale who rejected victorian stereotypes è stata una femminsta ante litteram che propone un nuovo ideale femminile di moglie. nasce nel 1882 a Londra (Joyce 1882 dublino), nasce e cresce in un ambiente intellettuale: papaà critico letterario (literary critique) e mamma intellettuale. la loro morte le provoca crollo emotivo, si trasferisce con la sorella e i fratelli in una parte di londra chiamata Bloomsbury, da cui prende il nome il circolo intellettuale che lei fonda: Bloomsbury Group che raccoglie intellettuali del modernismo e qui conosce suo marito, che comprende la fragilità e la forza della donna. ll gruppo pone al centro del proprio interesse culturale alcuni punti fondamentali, in primis la soggettività subjectivity, focus on the human being , típico del modernismo. Virginia nei primi anni è stata molto legata (attention to) al movimento estetico→ valorizzato il gusto estetico all’interno del gruppo, poi la soggettività dei sentimenti ( personal tie=legame to affections ), dell’affettività, un po’ canonizzata nel periodo vittoriano, e poi un’onestà intellettuale di fondo, intellectual honesty base del suo pensiero e comportamento. lei è ostile hostile ai valori dominanti dominant social values of the time della società vittoriana, modelli aridi e chiusi in se stessi. Nel 1917 col marito fonda casa editrice, che consentiva anche a opere sperimentali di essere pubblicate, tra cui Mrs Dalloway , 1a opera prettamente modernista, trama articolata in un solo giorno come Ulysses. Mr dalloway is preparing a party, eventi legati all'interiorità dell’individuo. mondo percepito attraverso i suoi occhi, scontro juxtaposition tra le sue priorità e quelle della vita vere, del reduce di guerra experienced the horror of war(clash). She is superficial, Virginia criticizes hypocrisy and superficial part of the upper-middle class. Nel 1927 pubblica To the lighthouse , (recurring) c’è il mare come occasione di un viaggio (journey) non solo esteriore ma soprattutto interiore come evoluzione del personaggio personal evolution and growth. il mare torna spesso nelle sue opere ( the waves mare come ciclicità dell’onda, visione ciclica della vita cyclic nature of the sea, remind of Nietzsche → Nietzsche). è stata una vera epropria femminista e porta il suo pensiero nelle sue opere: a room of one’s stone : necessità della donna di essere in dipendente economicamente e moralmente/ mentally emotivamente, la stanza è uno spazio in cui esprimere se stessa. In una conferenza ( lecture ) necessary to kill ‘’the angel in the house’’, stereotype of woman who had to be sacrifizing, silent, humble parla di uccidere l’angel in the house, l’angelo del focolare, a cui la donna è costretta a non parlare ad essere sottomessa fisicamente ed intellettualmente, se lo immagina come un fantasma. Bisogna essere libere di parlare di politica, di sesso, di tutte quelle cose assolutamemnte impossibili da affrontare per una donna. in opere come Orlando portaquesto concetto: uomo che nel corso dei secoli cambia sesso, tema moderno dell’intendere l’idea dei due sessi che coesistono e prevale o uno o l’altro (femility and masculinity). She committed suicide in 1941 , si è suicidata nel 1941, drowning in a river, si è buttata in un fiume. è stata capace di guardare oltre oversensitive, able to look further e forse questo l’ha fatta collassare collapse. vive in un mondo non pronto per lei. Tecniche innovative: da prospettiva esteriore a interiore, tempo non cronologico, non c’è più unità temporale. Eventi esterni percepiti attraverso l’interiorità, shift from the outside, exterior plot to an interior plot. Not a chronological order. Flusso di pensieri (stream of consciousness): modo nuovo per percepire il mondo esterno. Opera: Jacob's room: serie di percezioni che ci rimangono e frammenti che mettiamo insieme. Strong symbolic meanings.
GEORGE ORWELL
It wasn’t his real name, he decided to change it for specific reasons. Moved in England in poor conditions he suffered for discrimination, he was able to study and take a very good job in the indian imperial police. This created frustrating and contradictory feelings, he felt bad because on one side he believed that Britain had to withdraw (ritirarsi) from India and colonies, but on the other he thought he was supporting the system with his jobà he decided to leave it and change his name to George Orwell. He became an active socialist, he was also in spain were he fought the war between fascism of franco and communism, he was wounded, so he couldn’t fight the 2 ww. He worked as a journalist. He wrote Animal farm, a fable not for children, he talks about dictatorship, he is satirizing, he explains the mechanisms of revolutions and creation of a dictatorship. He goes on analyzing the rise of totalitarianism in 1984, written in 1948, he switched the last two numbers, he didn’t really believe that in 1984 the political situation could be the way he describes, it is a metaphor, a symbol. It is all about political pressure that can suppress individuality and makes man inhuman. It is a science fiction, on one side it is realistic, believable,but it is also dystopian. The dystopia is the way he describes this world. A dystopia is the opposite of the utopia (best world possible, idealistic), the worst world possible, antithetic, based on disillusionment and a pessimistic point of view. Dystopian idea of a world called Oceania, he somehow uses strong satyre. The purpose, the aim was to warn people of the danger of political tendency of the time. The protagonist, Winston , really tries to reject propaganda and this idea of a totalitarian system and he fights for his freedom and thoughts and to keep his MEMORY : he doesn’t menaged, he has to surrender to the system. The concept of memory is very important: orwell emphasises the fact that eliminating, erasing memory allows a dictatorship to create a new system of thought: eliminating memory they eliminate that part of conscious, of personal experiences of human being and so the new ideas that the dictatorship/totalitarianism imposes are the only ones possible, they don’t even have to fight old previous ideas, because they are the only ones possible. Memory is considered by Orwell one of the most important elem,emts that can save identity and humanity. Another aspect used by totalitarianism in order to reach their aim is the manipulation of language. In this case there is even a new language created by the dictatorships, called newspeak , opposed to the formal one, the old speak. It doesn't have some words or ways to talk about things that didn't play the party, the only party, the system. Mew speak has only words and vocabulary and ways of talking the system wants the people to talk. This manipulation of the language is extremely strong as far as the names of the ministries are concerned. There are 4 ministries: Ministry of truth , which is working on education and information: there is only just one absolute truth that is the truth of the dictatorship, there isn’t pluralism Ministry of peace, all about war: it depends on how we describe war, if we want people to believe that is a form a peace, of imposing peace Ministry of love , of law and order Ministry of plenty , of economic affairs, they want to create illusion of richness The manipulation of language and names is a very strong element of propaganda, which uses slogans, posters, and images. The big brother is watching you and not just the way you are acting
but also inside your soul, what you are thinking. It is somehow quite creepy. As far as propaganda is concerned there are 3 slogans outside the ministry of truth, very significant ‘’War is peace’’ ‘’Freedom is slavery’’ : basically your freedom in a dictatorship consists in beeing a slave, freedom for the autirity ‘’Ignorance is strength’’ : for the totalitarian system. It makes the dictatorship stronger Orwell wants to tell us that memory, language are important in order to save our own identity, and the third element is the power of love, which is able to save our dignity and our humanity. The mechanisms used to explain the totalitarianism are the same we can find in some essays, like ‘’origins of totalitarianism’’ by Hannah Arendt
la rama si svolge tutta in un giorno solo, 16 giugno 1904 quando Joyce fa la prima passeggiata con la fututra moglie. ci sono 18 capitoli perchè sono 18 gli episodiitenuti necessari nell’odissea sdi omero, parallelo con l’odissea che le vede assimilate per dividerle, due lati di una medaglia: epica eroe per eccellenza, vs antieroe e negazione dell’eroicità. ttiolo ulisse: centro indiivudo non narrazione esterna. protagnista leopold bloom è in opposizione con ulisse, la moglie Molly bloom è l’antitesi di Penelope, donna traditrice mentre penelope simbol fedeltà, Stephan Dedalus corrispettivo di Telemaco per wuanto non si aiflgio reale ma un artista in cerca di figura paterna
