Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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.
• 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.
• 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.
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).
• 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.
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.
• EZRA POUND (1885-1972)
He was born in the United States, but he moved to Europe. He wanted English literature to be international and to mix with other European cultures. He was a
supporter of the literary movement called Imagism, characterised by the use of a clear, concrete language and brevity in order to create short but powerful
poems. In this sense he helped T.S. Eliot to free his “Wasteland” from the superfluous and to communicate the essential in a powerful way. He can be considered
the initiator of Modernism; he was in favour of semantic obscurity (the intellectual cannot transmit any positive message because due to the World War I there’s
no prospect for the future) and formal brevity. This is shown in one of his most famous poems, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”, a portrait of a dying civilisation through
a collage of different images and quotations from other works. His masterpiece is considered “ The Cantos”, a long epic poem written in free verse (the kind of
verse that recalls natural speech). It includes history, but also myth, foreign literature, historical documents, western and Oriental philosophy.
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
MAIN LITERARY GENRES
1. POETRY
Joyce, Woolf and Eliot continue to write, but the new generation of poets tries to detach from their forms of expression and obscurity. The main authors of this
period are W.H. Auden (1907-1973), Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) and Stephen Spender (1909-1995), who found the so-called “Auden Circle”. They wanted to
be useful for society and to use ideology, particularly Marxism, as a tool to oppose against Fascism and Nazism. Their works show their determination to contribute
to the cultural-political debate of the time, and to use a more straightforward, concrete language. These writers thought that the artists didn’t have to isolate
themselves from society, as they thought Joyce, Woolf and Eliot had done. They wanted their poems to be easy to understand and to reach as many readers as
possible, so they wanted to detach from the obscurity typical of Modernist poetry.
• 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.