A 6dgxteqaour6 Ekqkbxw

MAURO SPICCI
AMAZING
MINDS
MAP STORE
FROM THE
2
VICTORIAN
AGE TO
THE NEW
MILLENNIUM
MAURO SPICCI
AMAZING
MINDS
MAP STORE
2
Table of contents
The Victorian Age 16 William Butler Yeats
5 (1837-1901) 17 James Joyce
2 The Victorian Age 18 Virginia Woolf
4 Charlotte Brontë 20 T.S. Eliot
5 Emily Brontë 21 George Orwell
6 Charles Dickens 22 Early 20th Century American novelists:

Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway
7 Two Works by Charles Dickens
8 Robert Louis Stevenson
Towards a Global Age
9 Thomas Hardy 7 (1949-2000)
10 Oscar Wilde
24 The Second Half of the 20th Century
11 George Bernard Shaw
26 The Theatre of the Absurd
27 Samuel Beckett
The Age of Anxiety 28 Harold Pinter
6 (1901-1949) 29 Ted Hughes
12 The First Half of the 20th Century 30 Seamus Heaney
14 The War Poets 31 Nadine Gordimer
15 Joseph Conrad 32 Salman Rushdie
0020_MV833900607K@0001.indd 1 01/03/17 14:33

Chapter 5 - The Victorian Age
THE VICTORIAN AGE

(1837-1901)
It was one of the

From 1837 to 1901: longest reigns in the
Queen Victoria’s reign. history of British
POLITICAL TRENDS monarchy.
Major representative:
Liberal Party
Gladstone
New political parties
Major representative:
Conservative Party
Disraeli
The Victorians believed

Expansion of the it was their duty to
colonial empire export their language
and cultural supremacy.
Contrast between This contrast became even greater

religious faith and after the publication of Charles
the triumph of science Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859).
Birth of Utilitarianism
Optimism and
Early Victorian Age
faith in progress Victorian compromise,
MV 8339 00607K All rights reserved. © 2017, Pearson Italia, Milano-Torino.
or the coexistence of
dark sides and optimistic
faith in progress
Growing depression
CULTURAL TRENDS Late Victorian Age Anti-Victorian reaction
and lack of optimism
Identification between
Early
writers and the society
production
It reflects they represent
the ambiguity
of the age.
Late Criticism towards the
production Victorian compromise
Literary Production
Triumph The novel became

of fiction the leading genre.
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 2 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 5 - The Victorian Age
The landlord class is now

SOCIAL TRENDS Reform Bill
forced to share power with
(1832)
the male middle class.
Suffrage is extended
to workers in towns.
Reform Bill
(1867) It was followed by the 1884
Britain became Reform Bill, which extended
Social reforms the ‘workshop the right to vote to workers
of the world’. in mines and agricultural
workers.
Education Act Elementary education

(1870) becomes compulsory.
Trade Union Act Trade Unions are given

(1875) full legality.
Great urban poverty Agricultural depression
Social injustice
London’s slums become

Problems Urban problems
overcrowded.
Contrast
Wealth became an indicator
between the wealthy
of social value.
and the poor
Women begin to question

Inequality between
Victorian values and ask
men and women
for the right to vote.

It was a time
of industrial prosperity.
Industrial and
technological advance
Its culmination was the
Great Exhibition of 1851.
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 3 07/03/17 09:02

Chapter 5 - Charlotte Brontë
During her
CHARLOTTE She had a short
She did
childhood she liked
She worked
not receive as a teacher
BRONTË LIFE and rather
a formal
inventing stories
in schools for
uneventful life. with her sisters
(1816-1855) education.
and brother.
some years.
Charlotte’s novels
contain autobiographical Critique of the role
elements. Emancipation
of women in the
STYLE of women.
Victorian Age.
They revolve around
a female character. Education as a means
to improve one’s life.
MAIN WORKS
The supernatural
and the gothic.
THEMES
The contrast between
reason and passions.
One collection of poems,

The three sisters adopted the pseudonyms Currer (Charlotte),
published in 1846 with her sisters
Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.
Emily and Anne.
Jane Eyre is an orphan. She gets an education and becomes the

PLOT
governess of Adèle, Mr Rochester’s daughter.
Rochester falls in love with her but soon she discovers that he is
already married to a Creole woman.
Jane runs away, but one night she hears his voice call her name.
She returns to find Rochester’s house destroyed by a fire.
Mr Rochester is still alive, but his wife died. Jane and Mr Rochester
finally marry.
Jane Eyre
(1847) Moral journey from poverty through hardship to happiness.

The role of the supernatural in our lives (which is a Gothic element).
THEMES
The passionate individual and the world.
The role of women in society and their search for independence.
It is a device that
gives unity to the novel.
STYLE It was written using
the first-person narrator.
They also revolve around
a female character.
Shirley (1849) It is a social novel set in Yorkshire.
It is an autobiographical novel based on Charlotte’s experiences in

Villette (1853)
Brussels.
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 4 10/05/17 11:08

Chapter 5 - Emily Brontë
Like her sister During her She published

EMILY Charlotte, she
She also did
childhood she liked her only novel,
not receive
BRONTË LIFE had a short
a formal
inventing stories Wuthering
and uneventful with her sisters Heights, in
(1818-1848) life.
education.
and brother. 1847.
Crude realism
Use of symbols
STYLE
and symbolic elements
Ambiguous atmosphere
MAIN WORKS
There are two households: Wuthering Heights (house of the Earnshaws)

PLOT
and Thrushcross Grange (home of the Lintons).
The story begins when Mr Earnshaw comes home with a gipsy-boy called Heathcliff
and adopts him. Mr Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine, grows attached to him.
When Mr Earnshaw dies, Heathcliff is degraded to the status of a servant. When she
grows up Catherine decides not to marry him and Heathcliff runs away.
Catherine marries Edgar Linton from Thrushcross Grange, but Heathcliff comes back:
he has become a rich man.
Catherine dies and Heathcliff will lead a tormented life forever.
When Heathcliff dies, his ghost is said to walk on the moor with Catherine’s.
Wuthering
Heights Contrast between life and death
(1847)

The nature of human passions
THEMES The relationship between human beings and the landscape
The meaning of life and the existence of a world after death
The relationship between marriage, love and money
Use of flashbacks and

The novel utilises a idiomatic expressions
complex narrative Mr Lockwood who is an
technique. external observer.
STYLE AND There are two main
STRUCTURE narrators.
The novel is Nelly Dean, who is an
not narrated in internal character and
chronological order. knows the characters well.
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 5 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 5 - Charles Dickens
He received The novel

CHARLES a short formal
He began his
that gave him
career as a He had ten
DICKENS LIFE education and
journalist in
popularity was
children.
had a difficult The Pickwick
(1812-1870) childhood.
1833.
Papers (1836).
They have very peculiar traits.
CHARACTERS They represent all social strata.
They can often be caricatures representing

particular vices or virtues.
They have an episodic

Dickens’ structure.
Dickens’
novels are
STYLE PLOT plots are
characterised
adventurous. It is one of the effects
by:
of serial publication.
TONE It is grotesque and humorous.
Exploitation of children
The conditions of life of the

Cruelty of the workhouses
poor and the oppressed
THEMES The evils of the Industrial Revolution
Indignation against social

Social criticism
injustice
MAIN WORKS
It was published in instalments and had
a great success.
The Pickwick Papers It is a lively and
(1836-1837) entertaining novel. It tells the adventures of Mr Pickwick

and his friends on a scientific journey
to discover England.
Oliver Twist The novel tells the story

Social criticism
(1837-1839) of an orphaned boy.
A Christmas Carol It has become

It is a ghost story.
(1843) a Christmas classic.
Dickens was Dombey and Son It is an attack against greed
an extremely (1846-1848) and money.
prolific writer.
David Copperfield It is both an autobiographical novel
(1849-1850) and a ‘coming-of-age’ novel.
Bleak House It is a novel representing the evils

(1852-1853) of the Industrial Revolution.
Hard Times
It is a satire on English justice.
(1854)
Great Expectations
It is a ‘coming-of-age’ novel.
(1860-1861)
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 6 12/05/17 10:21

Chapter 5 - Two works by Charles Dickens
TWO WORKS
BY CHARLES
DICKENS PLOT Oliver is an orphan who works
in a workhouse.
One day he asks for more food:

this provokes a furious reaction.
Adventurous plot
After being sent away to work as an

Oliver Twist Originally published apprentice, Oliver runs to London, where
STYLE in instalments
(1837-1839) he becomes part of a group of thieves.
Happy ending After a series of difficulties, Oliver finds

his half brother and receives a share of his
father’s fortune.
Criticism of hypocrisy
of the middle class
Love and charity can

lead to salvation.
THEMES Criticism of the

typical Victorian view Poverty was seen as a sin.
of poverty.
The inequality of the Poor Law (1834),

Social criticism
which introduced workhouses
PLOT The story is set in a fictional town

called Coketown.
Thomas Gradgrind is an advocate

of Utilitarianism and believes
Satirical tone in ‘hard facts’.

He despises the idea that love should be at
Use of symbols the basis of marriage and has his daughter
Louisa marry an old factory owner.
STYLE
Strong sense
of humour Her marriage proves to be terribly unhappy
and Old Gradgrind begins to understand
his mistakes and prejudices.
Mix of pathos
Hard Times and realism
(1854) At the end of the novel Gradgrind is
a different person: he helps people
Criticism of the evils and looks after the poor.
of Victorian England
Representation
of the conditions
of life of the poor
THEMES
Contrast between the
rich and the poor
Attack against
Materialistic philosophy
Utilitarianism
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 7 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 5 - Robert Louis Stevenson
After his father’s death

ROBERT He was born
in 1887, he went to the
in Edinburgh He took a He travelled
LOUIS LIFE and had poor degree in across
States with his wife.
STEVENSON He also travelled to the
health as a law. Europe.
Hawaiian and Samoan
(1850-1894) child.
islands.
It is considered a ‘boy’s novel’.

MAIN NOVELS Treasure Island
(1883)
It is a tale of historical adventure.
He is a doctor
Dr Jekyll and the rational and
moral character.
The protagonist is
PLOT a man with two
identities. He is dominated
Mr Hyde by instincts and
sensuality.
He is the depraved,
irrational, evil
The novel is set character.
SETTING
in London.
The Strange He commits lots

Case of of ferocious crimes.
Fog, dark corners
Dr Jekyll and
and grimy alleys.
Mr Hyde
(1886) The story ends with
Mr Hyde’s suicide.
It is a novel about the dangers of

scientific and technological progress.
Dr Jekyll is a respectable man.
THEMES The divided self

Mr Hyde is Jekyll’s other self.
Pessimism and anxiety vs. progress
and civilisation
The story is told from multiple The effect is misleading for the
perspectives. reader, who is lost in horror.
STYLE Unsolved crimes
Many of the elements of the story

belong to the genre of detective Scattered clues
fiction.
Mystery and suspence
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 8 10/05/17 11:11

Chapter 5 - Thomas Hardy
He became a full-time
THOMAS He was
He moved
His first novel
writer in 1878, after
to London to the publication of Far
HARDY LIFE born in
work with an
appeared in
from the Madding
Dorset. 1871.
(1840-1928) architect. Crowd, one of his great
successes.
Hardy’s characters are

fully developed.
Hardy believed they
Marriage and
led to suffering and
Rich description of the education
STYLE sadness.
environment.
The struggle of the
MAIN WORKS humans against an
Powerful language indifferent universe.
Human life is
THEMES determined by biology
and the environment.
Critique of Victorian
values and beliefs
Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) It is a love story with tragic tones.
Hardy was a It is a novel exploring the relationships between

The Return of the Native (1878)
highly prolific characters and the environment.
writer and
published It is the story of a man who sells his wife
many novels. The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
and daughter.
It is a novel on the contrast between pure

Jude the Obscure (1895)
and sensuous love.
Tess is sent by her family to claim kinship with the rich cousins
PLOT
Stoke-D’Urbervilles, but she is raped by Alec D’Urberville.
She becomes pregnant and returns home. Her son dies and she finds
a new job as a milkmaid.

She meets Angel, who marries her. When he discovers she had an affair
with Alec, he leaves Tess and seeks fortune in Brazil.
When he is away, Tess decides to marry Alec. Angel returns and is ready
to forgive Tess, but it is too late.
Tess of the Pessimistic view of life

D’Urbervilles THEMES
(1891)
Determinism and the role of Fate in life
It is a realist novel.
Use of third-person omniscient narrator

STYLE
Balance of dialogue and descriptions
Combined use of realism and symbolism
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 9 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 5 - Oscar Wilde
He was
He was a
In 1884 he His works He became imprisoned for
brilliant student
married a were attacked involved in a two years. When
and studied
OSCAR WILDE LIFE both at Trinity
woman, as immoral, legal case he was released,
(1854-1900) who gave but they were related to a he was a broken
College in
him two extremely homosexual man and spent
Dublin and
children. successful. affair. the rest of his life
Oxford.
in France.
MAIN WORKS NOVEL PLOT Dorian Gray is a young rich man. He

has a portrait of himself made by Basil
Hallward.
The double Dorian makes a pledge: he will sacrifice

his soul if he can maintain his youth
and beauty forever.
The contrast between
The Picture good and evil Dorian leads a hedonistic life
of Dorian THEMES of pleasure, sin, crime and corruption.
Gray
(1891) The contrast between
appearance and reality His physical appearance remains
young and beautiful and portrait
becomes old and ugly.
Aestheticism’s typical
cult of beauty
At the end Dorian stabs the portrait
and kills himself.
Combination of supernatural elements, Gothic elements, and French

COMEDIES decadent fiction
STYLE
Unobtrusive third-person narrator
A Woman Jack Worthing has a double life. In the country

of No Importance PLOT he has invented a wicked brother called
(1893) Ernest as a pretext to go to London; in London
he pretends he is Ernest and proposes to
An Ideal Husband Gwendolen, the cousin of his friend Algernon.
(1895)
Gwendolen accepts Jack- Ernest’s proposal,
Denunciation of
but her mother forbids the marriage as
Victorian hypocrisy
she discovers Jack is a foundling.
The Importance Marriage: is it a

of Being Earnest THEMES question of business or Algernon reaches Jack’s country house and
(1895) passion? pretends to be Ernest, Jack’s wicked brother.
The meaning of being He falls in love with Cecily, who accepts

‘earnest’ and the his proposal; Jack arrives and declares that
dangers of ‘hypocrisy’. Ernest is dead.
Witty and sparkling The truth about Ernest needs to be revealed.

language
Jack discovers he is Lady Bracknell’s nephew
Elements that are and therefore Algernon’s elder brother.
STYLE typical of the Algernon-Cecily and Jack-Gwendolen get
comedy of manners married.
Intricate plot, changes

of identity and
misunderstandings
The Ballad of Reading Gaol It is based on Wilde’s experience

POETRY
(1898) in prison.
10
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 10 12/05/17 11:47

01/03/17 10:22
Chapter 5 - George Bernard Shaw
GEORGE He moved
He joined the
He was awarded
He was Fabian Society,
BERNARD LIFE born in
to London
a political group
the Nobel Prize
SHAW at the age for literature in
Dublin. of reformist
of 20. 1925.
(1856-1950) intellectuals.
Use of satirical remarks and

witty dialogues to unmask
the absurdity of Victorian
conventions
Controversial social issues
Importance given to debate Prostitution,
that shock the audience
and discussion of ideas sex, money, moral
and stimulate dialogue
values.
and discussion.
In many cases, no happy
STYLE ending Influenced by
Education through
entertainment the Norwegian
Wide use of stage directions, playwright Henrik
through which Shaw Ibsen (1828-1906)
Defence of human rights
MAIN WORKS meticulously shapes the scene such as the abolition of
private property and the Plays are ‘vehicles’
women’s suffrage. for ideas
THEMES Social criticism
Two collections
of plays
Widower’s House It is a play about the middle class exploitation
(1892) of the poor.
Plays The Philanderer

It is a play about love and marriage.
Unpleasant (1893)
Mrs Warren’s Vivie Warren is a young mathematician who

Profession (1898) PLOT discovers that her mother has supported all of her
They are called
life being a prostitute.
‘unpleasant’
because they
deal with Vivie appreciates the efforts of her mother to give
THEMES
complex and her a good life, but cannot accept the fact that her
problematic mother is still engaged in the business.
social issues. The emancipation
of women

Vivie finds a job in London and disowns her mother,
The contrast between who is left heartbroken.
aspirations and
limitations in life.
Denunciation of
The play is an example It analyses the theme
the prudery and the
of a ‘problem play of prostitution and
hypocrisy of Victorian
of ideas’. stimulates discussion.
society
Arms and the Man

Plays Pleasant Satire against war and love
(1894)
The Man of Destiny A play exploring the theme of destiny and personal
(1895) talents
By writing them Shaw
attempted to please Candida
Focused on the character of a ‘strong’ woman
and amuse the (1898)
audience that had
been offended by his You Never Can Tell
A play on the gap between generations
‘unpleasant’ plays. (1899)
11
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 11 10/05/17 11:12

Chapter 6 - The First Half of the 20th Century
THE FIRST HALF OF

THE 20TH CENTURY
POLITICAL TRENDS
End of an era of
stability
1901: Death
of Queen Victoria
She was succeded
by Edward VII.
Britain had The British quelled

Easter Monday 1916: a
promised ‘Home the rebellion and
group of Irish staged the
Rule’ to Ireland, but executed many of
Irish question ‘Easter Rising’ in Dublin
the question was the rebels, but the
and proclaimed the Irish
postponed after the Irish Free State was
Republic.
break of the war. created in 1922.
The terrible experience

It was one of the
The First World War of the war became the
bloodiest conflicts
(1914-1918) subject of many poetic
in history.
works by the ‘War Poets’.
Especially in the mining

sector
Economic and March 1926: The government

industrial decline General Strike reacted strongly.
The situation became

worse after the Wall
Great depression
Street Crash in October
1929.
Benito Mussolini gained

power in Italy.
After the First Rise

World War of totalitarianism
Adolf Hitler gained power
in Germany.
The idea
During the war After the war
In 1926 Britain of Commonwealth
years the British they became
recognised was established
dominions had more interested
an ‘equal status’ and India gained
played an in their own
to her dominions. independence
important role. independence.
in 1947.
The 1920s were

They were called the
years of optimism
‘roaring twenties’.
in the USA.
Allied powers
(France and Britain, The allies achieved The Marshall Plan
and later Russia and victory in 1945; was introduced
The Second World
the USA) fought Japan was defeated to rebuild the
War (1939-1945)
against the Axis after suffering economies of
powers (Germany, a nuclear attack. Western Europe.
Italy, Japan).
12
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 12 10/05/17 11:13

Chapter 6 - The First Half of the 20th Century
The reign of Edward VII marked The conditions of life of workers

a period of social change improved thanks to the introduction
and reform. of the National Insurance Scheme.
SOCIAL TRENDS
In 1903 a group In 1918 voting

Women of women, rights were
1906:
could not the Suffragettes, granted to all
General Elections
vote. started to ask for women property
the right to vote. owners over 30.
It gave the right

to live and work Immigrants flowed
1948: in the UK to all into the country
Nationality Act the subjects from the former
of the British colonies.
Commonwealth.
The experience
of two world wars had New literary and Modernism was
a tremendous effect artistic trends broke probably the most
CULTURAL TRENDS
on artists and with late 19th-Century famous among these
intellectuals. traditions. new trends.
Reformulation of the
Einstein’s Theory
traditional concepts
of Relativity
of time and space.
Spread of new scientific
and cultural theories
Freud’s Theory Analysis of the inner self
of the Unconscious and the unconscious
It led to the
Anxiety development
of psychoanalisis.

Late 19th-century Fear
optimism was swept
away by new
concepts. Instability
Uncertainty
13
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 13 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 6 - The War Poets
These poets all took part to the war as soldiers.
THE WAR They were a group

of poets who were COMMON They were all very young and enrolled enthusiastically
POETS active during the ASPECTS when the war broke out.
war years.
Most of them died young.
Seen as a terrible experience leading to death,

suffering and alienation.
THEMES War
War was initially welcomed as a just caused, but soon
it led to inhumanity.
After a nervous
He studied at breakdown, he
He was born in
LIFE Cambridge, where he travelled to continental
MAIN Warwickshire in 1887.
started writing poems. Europe, North America
EXPONENTS
and New Zealand.
His first collection of poems is

Humble themes and elegiac tones.
Georgian Poetry (1911-1912).
WORKS
His most famous collection of poems
Idealistic praise of war
is 1914 & Other Poems (1915).
Rupert
Brooke Soldier’s An example of Reflection of
(1887-1915) experience = this attitude is his a young and
Patriotism
Sacrifice for poem The Soldier patriotic soldier
the nation (1915). at war.
THEMES
Exaltation
This is because Brooke did not have a long experience of war.
of war
Rejection of the style of Victorian poetry

STYLE
Use of a melancholic tone
When he returned
In May 1915 he
He was born to England he became
went to fight in He became
in Kent in 1886 disillusioned and
LIFE France. He was a Catholic
and studied continued to write
wounded in in 1957.
at Cambridge. poetry for the rest

1917.
of his life.
Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918)

WORKS
The War Poems (1919)
Siegfried Attempt to reveal the This is visible in his

Sassoon ‘truths’ about war in famous poem Suicide
Disillusionment
(1886-1967) contrast with pro-war in the Trenches
propaganda. (1918).
THEMES Lack of patriotism First-hand experience of war
Critical reaction against the experience of war
Explicit images and simple language

STYLE
Perfect control of metre and rhyme
14
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 14 10/05/17 11:13

Chapter 6 - Joseph Conrad
He was born
His main
JOSEPH in Poland. In He became English was his
In 1890 he productive
1878 he went a British third language
CONRAD LIFE
to Enlgland and citizen in after Polish and
travelled to phase was
Africa. between 1897
(1857-1924) worked as a 1886. French.
and 1911.
seaman.
Difficult language
and obscure passages.
Man’s isolation in
Frequent use of symbols Collapse of Western values
the modern world
STYLE Transition between

traditional and modern The evils of colonialism
novel.
Use of different A constant reflection on

MAIN WORKS narrators and points the complexity of
of view leads to human experience.
fragmentation.
THEMES Life on the sea
Heart of Marlow, a sailor, tells the story of his journey to the Belgian Congo
Darkness PLOT in search for Kurtz, who ran the Belgian company in the jungle.
(1902)
When Marlow reaches Kurtz he realises he is worshipped by
the natives and has become a cannibal.
Kurtz is too ill to return to Europe and dies. His last words are
‘The Horror! The Horror!’
The brutality of European Africa and the ‘blackness’ of

colonisation of Africa its inhabitans.
Darkness
Contrast (also symbolical) may refer to
The mystery
THEMES between whiteness and of the human soul
darkness
The hollowness of
European tales of The colour of ivory, the

colonisation main object of desire
Whiteness of white men in Africa.
may refer to
Europe and civilisation
Use of time shifts One is an anonymous
passenger on the ship
STYLE Frame narrator
where Marlow starts
It involves a complex telling his story.
narrative technique
and uses two narrators. He is a subjective narrator
The other one is Marlow
and tells the story from his
himself.
limited point of view.
The Secret Agent (1907) Story of political espionage
A novel on the complex life of a Russian

Under Western Eyes (1911)
refugee in Switzerland
It explores the growth and

The Shadow Line (1917)
maturity of a young captain.
15
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 15 12/05/17 10:22

Chapter 6 - William Butler
He was an
WILLIAM He was born In 1885 he
important
In 1917 In 1923
in Dublin and dedicated he was he was
BUTLER LIFE attended the himself to
figure
introduced to awarded the
YEATS of the Irish
Dublin School a literary ‘automatic Nobel Prize
Literary
(1865-1939) of Arts. career.
Revival.
writing’. for Literature.
Use of symbols
References to Irish folklore

STYLE
and traditions
Mystical tone
(especially in Yeats’ early poems)
Sense of spiritual crisis
Influence of Modernism Fragmentation
Anxiety
THEMES Irish folklore
This theme
Mixed feelings
plays a
about the
fundamental
Irish history and independence facts that led
role in the
to the Easter
poem Easter
Rising in 1916.
1916.
Universal themes such as love,

the passing of time, sadness
MAIN WORKS

Works based on Irish folklore, A meaningful example of this
EARLY WORKS Celtic traditions, love and phase is the essay The Celtic
mysticism Twilight.
In this phase the poet takes

an explicit position on
THREE PHASES Works mixing Modernism and the historical events that led
SECOND PHASE
social criticism to the War of Independence
and to the birth of the Free
State of Ireland.
An work belonging
Works reflecting an interest in to this phase is the poem
THIRD PHASE spiritualism in contrast with The Second Coming (1920),
the confusion of modern life. in which Yeats explains his idea
of historical cycles.
16
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 16 07/03/17 09:03

Chapter 6 - James Joyce
He was In 1904 he He moved to In 1914, when In 1920 he

born in met Nora Trieste to work as the war broke moved to
JAMES JOYCE LIFE
Dublin and Barnacle, a language teacher out, he moved Paris and
studied at who would and became friends to Zurich and died in
(1882-1941) University become his with intellectuals met the poet Zurich in
College. wife. such as Italo Svevo. Ezra Pound. 1941.
His plots are rather

The first part of his
linear, language He uses powerful
production is marked by
is controlled and syntax symbols.
a realistic approach.
is logical.
STYLE
The second part of his He abandons it, but
production is more he sets all of his
experimental. main works there.
MAIN WORKS Ireland, with whom It is represented as a

He uses the stream Joyce has a double country dominated
of consciousness relationship. by stagnation and
technique to represent stasis.
the uncontrolled flux of Paralysis of the modern
thoughts of the human world Use of ancient
mind. myths to draw
parallels between
Lack of heroism in the
THEMES the contemporary
modern world
world and the
ancient past
The city of Dublin is a static and provincial town that gives its
inhabitants no chance to grow and develop their own potential.
It is a collection of short
Dubliners
stories about the people Stories about Sense of disillusionment
(1914)
of Dublin. childhood and failure
Stories about Impossibility to escape,

adulthood frustration, lack of freedom
The stories can be divided
into three groups.
Stories about the relationship between Paralysis and
the Irish people and their institutions lack of life
THEMES
Physical impossibility to escape

Paralysis It is both physical
and spiritual.
Spiritual stagnation of the self
Use of internal perspective
Rejection of the Victorian omniscent third-person narrator

The narrative technique is
STYLE
apparently traditional.
Mix of realism and subjective perspective
Use of free direct thought and free speech
Joyce focuses on the actions of three

Ulysses No conventional The novel is set in Dublin on one
main characters: Stephen Dedalus,
(1922) plot single day (16 June 1904).
Leopold Bloom and Molly, Bloom’s wife.
It is an epic novel that Experimentation with

uses multiple styles. words, styles, techniques Thoughts are represented
freely, without filters.
STYLE Use of the stream of It reflects the workings of
consciousness technique the minds of the characters. No logical or rational
organisation of thoughts,
Constant references to This gives universality to the no traditional punctuation.
Homer’s Odyssey. events narrated.
17
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 17 10/05/17 11:47

01/03/17 11:16
Chapter 6 - Virginia Woolf
VIRGINIA
Woolf’s novels are like mental voyages focusing on the
WOOLF MAIN WORKS
contrast between internal and external reality.
(1882-1941)
She was born in London and was the daugther of Leslie

LIFE
Stephen, a Victorian intellectual.
She did not go to university but was surrounded by

intellectuals and artists.
When her mother died at the age of 49, she had a mental
breakdown.
In 1904 she moved to Bloomsbury where she founded

the ‘Bloomsbury Group’, a group of artists.
In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf and founded

the Hogarth Press.
She committed suicide in 1941.
No traditional plot or style
Use of interior monologue to render the workings of the minds

of the characters.
STYLE
She had a preference for a poetic and lyrical style.

Frequent use of symbols
The moment in which

‘Moments of Being’ a certain spiritual truth
is revealed.
THEMES Womanhood
The difference between

The passing of time subjective and objective
time
18
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 18 12/05/17 10:23

Chapter 6 - Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway
PLOT The story takes place on one day in one single place, London.
(1925)
Mrs Dalloway is a middle-aged woman who is organising a dinner party.

The narration follows her as she wanders through London.
She has a male counterpart, Mr Septimus, who wanders through London too.
Eventually, he commits suicide.
The news of his death reaches Mrs Dalloway at her party.
Contrast between life and death
THEMES The complexity of every ordinary character on the most ordinary day
Fragmentation of the self and of outer reality
Woolf uses the stream of consciousness technique in a very poetic way.

STYLE
She never abandons the stability of syntax and uses a third-person omniscient
narrator.
To the
In the first part of the novel, Mr and Mrs Ramsay spend their summer
Lighthouse PLOT
on a remote island with their children.
(1927)
James, the youngest of the children, wants to go to a lighthouse

but his father says no.
In the second part, time passes and Mr Ramsey dies.
The third part opens 10 years later.

The living Ramsays take their trip to the lighthouse.
Dichotomies: male vs. female, light vs. darkness, inner world vs. outer world.
THEMES
Womanhood: Mrs Ramsay is the centre of the novel and is represented
as a woman, mother and wife.
Use of the interior indirect monologue, which renders the character’s thoughts
understandable.
STYLE
Symbols, such as the lighthouse, create a sense of narrative unity in the novel.
19
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 19 10/05/17 11:18

Chapter 6 - T.S. Eliot
In 1910 he In 1914 he In London,

He was born moved to married he met Ezra In 1948 he
in Missouri
T.S. ELIOT LIFE and studied
Paris, where and started Pound. In 1927 received the
he studied working he became Nobel Prize
(1888-1965) at Harvard at the at Lloyd’s Anglican and a for literature.
University. Sorbonne. Bank. British citizen.
No traditional
structure or The fall of
Use of the logic coherence The spiritual death
Western
stream of of 20th-century
traditional
MAIN WORKS STYLE consciousness Use of free verse Europe
values
technique in
poetry Sterility and
Use of dryness of the
quotations modern world
and complex
language Religion
The supernatural
and the gothic.
Faith as
THEMES After his conversion a way to
in 1927 escape from
nihilism
Murder in the Cathedral A play is about the martyrdom of Thomas

PLAYS
(1935) Becket.
A deep reflection on the cultural and

The Hollow Men (1925)
spiritual fragmentation of post-war Europe.
POEMS Avant-garde
poems such as:
A poetic collection reflecting the author’s
Four Quartets (1945)
spiritual conversion to the Christian faith.
It is based on the juxtaposition

1) The Burial of
between life and death, fertility
the Dead
and sterility, hope and despair.
The Waste Land The poem is

2) A Game of It focuses on the sterility
(1922) STRUCTURE divided into five
Chess of modern life.
sections.
3) The Fire It is centred on the theme
Sermon of love.

20th-century Europe is described as 4) Death by It explores further the theme
a dead and desert land. Water of sterility.
Modern life is Desperate search It describes the spiritual journey

5) What the
THEMES meaningless and for truth and of humanity through the desert
Thunder Said
fruitless. meaning of modernity.
The quest,
Symbol of man’s
symbolised by the Meanings are never clear and
universal quest
‘Holy Grail’ and boundaries are blurred.
for salvation.
its myth.
Eliot uses quotes from ancient
classical works and juxtaposes
them to modernity.
It is written in free verse.
The Waste Land is This is part of Eliot’s objective
considered the Characterised by high
STYLE experimentation in the length correlative.
masterpiece of
Modernist poetry. of lines and use of punctuation.
Objective correlative = A set of
Fragmentation is one of the objects, images or events that
main features of the poem. represent the ‘formula’ to
produce a certain emotion.
20
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 20 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 6 - George Orwell
Orwell’s real name In 1922 Five years later He fought in the

He
GEORGE is Eric Arthur Blair. he joined he returned to
published
Spanish Civil
He was born in the Indian England and War. He was
ORWELL LIFE
India but spent Imperial lived among
his first
wounded and
book in
(1903-1950) his childhood in Police in the poor of
1933.
had to return to
England. Burma. London. England.
He worked briefly for the

BBC and became a literary
editor for The Tribune.
Warning against
Direct and journalistic
Anti-totalitarianism the mystification
tone
of power
Dry style: concepts are Interest in social and
STYLE always explained in political conditions
a very clear way.
Impersonal and Independent thinking

objective style
MAIN WORKS Power and censorship
THEMES Relationship between

language and power
Down and Out in Paris It describes the conditions of the poor

Orwell’s first book
and London (1933) in the two capital cities.
Animal Farm
Is is an allegorical novel. Anti-Soviet satire in a pastoral setting
(1945)
Winston Smith is the protagonist of the novel. He

1984
PLOT is a journalist and his job is to rewrite history. He
(1948)
rebels against the oppression of the regime.
As an act of rebellion he writes a diary where he

Dystopian novel affirms his belief in the existence of objective truth.

Winston falls in love with Julia, but their affair is
STYLE Clear language discovered by the Thought Police.
Winston and Julia are arrested. At the end they

Plain prose style
betray each other and reject their ideals.
Anti-totalitarianism
Consequences of an oppressive
government on people
The ‘Big Brother’
Represented by ‘Big symbolises a regime in
THEMES Power and domination
Brother’ which all the citizens
can be spied upon.
Future of a world in which there Difficulty of preserving
is no freedom of thought one’s individuality
Language as an instrument
Value of truth
of power
21
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 21 10/05/17 11:18

Chapter 6 - Early 20th Century American Novelists
EARLY 20TH
CENTURY
AMERICAN
NOVELISTS
He studied at
Princeton University In 1924 he In 1937 he
Francis Scott
and, at 24, was one moved to France became a
Fitzgerald LIFE
of the most and became a screenwriter
(1896-1940)
promising talents heavy drinker. for Hollywood.
of America.
Success and its effect on people.
THEMES The values of American life
The ‘American Dream’ and its hollowness
The Side of Paradise

It was his first novel, and an immediate success.
(1920)
The Beautiful and the It confirmed the author’s reputation as

Damned (1922) one of the writers of the Jazz Age.
MAIN WORKS
Tender is the Night It was a commercial failure but became one of the
(1934) greatest novels of American literature.
The Great Gatsby

(1925)
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is fascinated by the rich lifestyle of the

PLOT young millionaire Gatsby.
Gatsby meets Daisy Buchanan, who is married to Nick’s friend Tom.

They become romantically involved.
Tom confronts Gatsby and tells him his fortune is based on illegal
activities. Gatsby and Daisy drive back home.

On the way back Daisy kills Tom’s mistress Myrtle. Gatsby takes
responsibility for the homicide. Myrtle’s husband kills Gatsby.
An unfortunate love affair
THEMES The hollowness and moral poverty of the American Dream
Decadence and excess
Limited frame of space and time
Use of a ‘cinematic style’: brief scenes connected through the voice

of a first-person narrator (an outsider).
STYLE
Elegant style, use of highly evocative poetic language
Use of vivid symbols (e.g. cars, houses, parties)
22
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 22 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 6 - Early 20th Century American Novelists
At the age of He was

17 he became wounded in In 1954 he
Ernest In 1937 he went
a reporter Italy and won the
Hemingway LIFE to Spain as a war
and took part received the Nobel Prize
(1899-1961) correspondent.
in the First Silver Medal for literature.
World War. for bravery.
Narrative style characterised by Essential prose writing, simple sentences

economy and simplicity and minimum level of punctuation.
Frequent and quick cuts from one ‘scene’

STYLE Use of the ‘cinematic technique’
to the other
Hemingway’s style has been defined The ‘truth’ of the story is not revealed
‘iceberg technique’ . by the author, but it is ‘hidden’ under
the surface of the plot.
Man’s ‘code of behaviour’ and its efficacy in certain situations
Man’s loneliness and disillusionment

THEMES
The conditions of life of expatriates
The relationship between men and women
The Sun Also Rises Hemingway’s first novel gave him

(1926) international reputation.
For Whom the Bell Tolls A novel on the author’s experience of the
(1940) Spanish civil war.
MAIN
WORKS
The Old Man and the Sea
The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
(1952)
A Farewell to Arms
(1929)

Frederic Henry is an American ambulance driver serving as a volunteer
PLOT with the Italian army during the First World War.
He meets an English nurse, Catherine Barkley, and falls in love with her.
She gets pregnant but Henry returns to the front, where he is taken.
He escapes and joins Catherine: the two escape to Switzerland and try to
forget the war.
Henry is tormented by a growing sense of guilt.

After giving birth to a dead baby, Catherine dies.
The brutality of war and the useless death of thousands of people.
THEMES War is represented as a mix of moral, physical and social damage.
Tragic love and the duality between love and war.
23
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 23 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - The Second Half of the 20th Century
THE SECOND HALF OF

THE 20TH CENTURY
POLITICAL TRENDS
The Welfare State was

Britain was marked by a
Between the end introduced: National Health
regular alternation of
of World War II Service, social security, free
Labour and Conservative
and 1979 education, council housing
governments.
and employment for all.
Queen Elizabeth II
She gave political stability
came to the throne
to Britain.
in 1952.
The assassination of
India obtained India was divided into two Mahatma Gandhi in 1948
independence separate states: India and encouraged the formation
in 1947. Pakistan. of a secular government in
India.
Almost all the former

British colonies became
self-governing states within
the Commonwealth. A state of political tension
between the Western
powers and the Eastern
powers (The Soviet Union
and its satellite countries).
The polarisation between

Berlin was divided into
the two blocks was made
Cold War Eastern block and
evident by the building of
Western block.
the Berlin Wall.

The Cold War ended in 1991,
when the Soviet Union
ceased to exist.
American military
intervention meant to stop
Korean War The war ended in July 1953.
the spread of communism
in south-east Asia.
A long conflict between

The war ended in 1973:
the Communist regime of
Vietnam was left under
New Wars Vietnam War North Vietnam and the
the control of communist
South Vietnam, supported
forces.
by the United States.
It was a war against

Saddam Hussein, the
Gulf War
Iraqi leader who invaded
Kuwait in 1990.
24
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 24 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - The Second Half of the 20th Century
10 million people were moved and one

The partition of India in 1947 led million died in riots and fights.
SOCIAL TRENDS to the largest mass migration in
history. Almost a quarter of the world’s population
in the Commonwealth nations held British
passports.
This gave them the right to live in the UK:

Britain became a truly multicultural
society.
Gangs of young people wearing

Teddy Boys
Edwardian clothes.
In the 1960s
a new
They wore leather jackets and imitated
phenomenon
Rockers figures of rebellion like James Dean or
emerged:
Marlon Brando.
youth-driven
culture.
They wore long hair and advocated
Hippies
peace and love.
In the USA the election of Economic benefits for all, federal aid to
J.F. Kennedy in 1961 marked the education and health insurance for the
beginning of an era of reforms. elderly.
The 1960s also saw the struggle In the USA the rights of black Americans
for civil rights. were defended by Martin Luther King.
They were a group of American

intellectuals who rejected middle-class

Beat Generation
values and advocated freedom
and social rebellion.
Explosion of
Emergence of English becomes a dominant language
literary genres,
CULTURAL TRENDS post-colonial writers and is used to give voice to the literary
movements, and
and voices traditions of post-colonial countries.
trends
In drama the post-war

The plays belonging to this genre express
years are dominated
isolation, frustration, meaninglessness
by the Theatre of the
and the absurdity of modern life.
Absurd.
25
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 25 10/05/17 11:19

Chapter 7 - The Theatre of the Absurd
THE
THEATRE
OF THE
ABSURD
His masterpiece Waiting
Samuel Beckett Irish for Godot is an excellent
The expression (1906-1989) playwright example of the Theatre of
was coined by the Absurd.
the critic Martin
Esslin in the
1950s. His plays tackle the contrast
Jean Genet French
between appearance
(1910-1986) playwright
and reality.
The expression refers
to the works of a
group of European and In his plays he explored
American playwrights Arthur Adamov Armenian the duality between the
who expressed the (1908-1970) playwright persecutors and the
meaninglessness and persecuted.
absurdity of modern life. In his plays he uses
Eugène Ionesco Romanian paradoxes and nonsense
(1909-1994) playwright to represent the absurdity
of life.
His plays are often set

Harold Pinter English in closed spaces and are
(1930-2008) playwright pervaded by a growing sense
of menace.
Language is fragmented Use of pauses and silence
Open endings
Actions are repetitive and pointless

STYLE
Contrast or mix between comedy
and tragedy

Dialogues are apparently illogical
and aimless.
Plots defy all the conventions

Plots are not logical.
of traditional theatre.
Dark view of life
Certitudes and basic assumptions

of the past are no longer valid.
THEMES Senselessness of the human condition Pervading loneliness and fear
Inadequacy of reason to give meaning

to the world
Lack of communication
26
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 26 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - Samuel Beckett
He was born In 1928 he He fought In 1969 he

SAMUEL in Dublin and went to with the In the 1950s was awarded
studied Italian,
BECKETT LIFE
English and
Paris as an French he wrote his the Nobel
English Resistance main plays. Prize for
(1906-1989) French at teacher. until 1942. Literature.
Trinity College.
Absence of Plots tend to be circular and

traditional plot have no proper ending.
Many of Beckett’s plays
belong to the Theatre Mix of comedy and tragedy
of the Absurd.
STYLE Sense of pervading meaninglessness
Beckett wrote most of
his plays in French and
self-translated them to Lack of proper Actions are pointless and
English. action repetitive.
Endless present, in which actions are obsessively

Negation of time
repeated
Fear of non-existence: characters need to be ‘perceived’

Perception
in order to be sure that they actually exist.
Life is like a prison and human beings are condemned

Imprisonment
THEMES to lead a boring and meaningless life.
Reflection on the ability of theatre to represent life

‘Theatre’ itself
in a realistic way
Beckett questions the ability of language to convey

Language
meaning.
MAIN WORKS
Endgame It is a play in which action takes place Existential loneliness and inability
(1957) in a post-atomic bunker. to communicate
It is a monologue in which a man listens

Krapp’s Last Impotence and unhappiness
to his own recorded voice telling him
Tape (1958) of man’s life
about his past.
It is an endless monologue pronounced Contrast between Winnie’s memories of her

Happy Days
by a woman who is buried up to her ‘happy days’ and her absurd condition of
(1961)
waist and later to her neck. degradation

Waiting for There is no real plot: two men, Vladimir and Estragon, are
PLOT waiting for a man called Godot.
Godot (1952)
Two men, Pozzo and Lucky, enter and interact with Vladimir
Life as an endless wait and Estragon. Then they go.
Repetitiveness of actions The first act ends with a boy saying that Godot will not
come tonight but will surely come tomorrow.
THEMES Time and its passing: people Act two is very similar.
seem to have no past and no
future, the present is endless.
It was defined by the author as a ‘tragicomedy’ in two acts.
The absurdity of life and the
indifference of the universe Language is essential and fragmentary.
Use of silence and mime

STYLE
Actions are repeated and are often meaningless.
27
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 27 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - Harold Pinter
HAROLD He was born in London In 2005 he was awarded

His first play was
PINTER LIFE and worked for several performed in 1957. the Nobel Prize for
years as an actor. Literature.
(1930-2008)
Pinter’s plays are often set in
closed and claustrophobic spaces.
Man’s obsession with being confronted with
Individuals live under the threat unexpected and threatening events
of some unknown external
menace.
STYLE Past memories and their haunting presence
He has a meticulous attention to
word choice. Pinter’s rooms are a refuge and a place
for isolation.
Use of silence as a means for
communication Loneliness and lack of communication
The meaninglessness of life in the modern

Early plays
world and the problem of identity
THEMES
MAIN WORKS Common people in absurd situations
Later plays
Social issues and political justice
EARLY PLAYS
The Room
Pinter’s first play
(1957)
The Birthday Party

Sense of estrangement within a family
(1958)
The Dumb Waiter Ordinary people forced to absurd

(1959) and sordid activities
The Caretaker The action takes place in a room in West

PLOT London. Two brothers, Aston and Mick,
(1960)
welcome an old tramp called Davies.
The instability of human

identity At first their coexistence is pacific, but then

it becomes violent and difficult.
Violence of social interactions
among people
Davies becomes the victim of Aston and
Isolation and lack of Mick’s teasing. In the end the two brothers
THEMES expel Davies.
communication
The room as a metaphor for

human loneliness There is no complex plot.
Human desire to dominate and Specific and realistic description of the

to exercise violence setting
STYLE Language is presented as an ineffective

means to communicate.
No Man’s Land
The power of memories to face death
(1975)
LATER PLAYS
Mountain Language The oppression of the Kurdish minority
(1988) perpetrated by the Turkish
28
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 28 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - Ted Hughes
He was born in He published He was

Yorkshire and He married the appointed
TED HUGHES LIFE studied at
his first book
American poet England’s poet
of poems in
(1930-1998) Cambridge 1957. Sylvia Plath. laureate in
University. 1984.
References to the language spoken

Concrete language
in Yorkshire
Economy of expression
Factual descriptions
STYLE
Vivid imagery
Use of monologues to reveal the

essence of the ‘speaking’ animal
Rich use of sound effects such

as alliteration, assonance
and consonance
Representation of the landscape

Interest in nature and folklore
of Yorkshire and north-east England.
THEMES Nature is not represented Nature reflects the violence

as a refuge. of the contemporary world.
They are taken as symbols of savagery.

Hughes’ animals
Animals are not ‘real’
animals. They represent the threatening power
and the violence of the natural world.
For example: Hawk Roosting (1960)

The hawk (a predator) perched
on a tree symbolises the evil and
aggressive side of humanity.
The Hawk in the Rain It was Hughes’ first book of poems and
(1957) had an immediate success.
His collections of poems include:

MAIN
Lupercal (1960); Crow (1970);
WORKS
Birthday Letters (1998).
The Iron Man

He also wrote children’s books.
(1968)
29
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 29 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - Seamus Heaney
He was born He was

SEAMUS in Northern He studied He taught at awarded
HEANEY LIFE Ireland and at Belfast Harvard from the Nobel Prize
grew up in University. 1985 to 2006. for Literature
(1939-2013) Country Derry. in 1995.
Solid and concrete language Vivid and terse style
Careful use of sound effects

(e.g. assonance, consonance Musicality
and alliteration)
STYLE
Preservation of the traces of English
as is spoken in Ireland
Vivid imagery
Relationship with the poet’s native land,

Identity
his family and his childhood
Simple actions, customs, crafts and

Rural world
myths
THEMES
Nature Nostalgia for something that is lost
Heaney used poetry to explore

Civic value of poetry ‘The Troubles’
(institutional problems that affected
Northern Ireland).
Images of violence and suffering
Death of a Naturalist (1966)
His most famous

collections of poetry Wintering Out (1972)
are:
Electric Light (2001)

Heaney published
MAIN more than 20
WORKS books of poetry and
literary criticism.
He also published
a modern version
of the famous epic
poem Beowulf
(1999).
30
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 30 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - Nadine Gordimer
She was born in She fought In 1991

She also
NADINE South Africa against apartheid
became
In 1974 she she was
and began and became a won the awarded
GORDIMER LIFE
writing when member of the
close friend
Booker the Nobel
of Nelson
(1923-2014) she was very African National
Mandela.
Prize. Prize for
young. Congress. Literature.
Clear, analytic, concise and

unsentimental style
Her early novels can be considered

STYLE ‘social realist novels’. Multiple narrative viewpoints
Her later novels are characterised

Extracts from political speeches
by a more complex narrative style.
Revelation of the inner thoughts

of the characters
Apartheid and its effects on the lives Moral and psychological tensions
of South Africans deriving from living in a divided nation
Relationship between the private Contrast between private emotions

THEMES and the public and external forces
Contradictions of South African

society
MAIN
WORKS
Gordimer’s first
Face to Face
collection of short
(1949)

Gordimer was an extremely stories.
SHORT
prolific writer. Her works
STORIES
include: Other collections include A Soldier’s Embrace (1980),
Crimes of Conscience (1991) and Loot and Other Stories
(2003).
It is a semi-autobiographical novel
The Lying Days
about the growth of a white woman’s
(1953)
political conscience in a small town.
It is a novel about the ‘illegal’

NOVELS Occasion for Loving
relationship between a white woman
(1963)
and a black man.
Burger’s Daughter In this novel the author imagines

(1979) a bloody South African revolution.
31
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 31 01/03/17 11:47

Chapter 7 - Salman Rushdie
He was born After the He has always

Rushdie
in India, two He studied publication of been a defender
SALMAN months before History at his The Satanic
lived under
of freedom
protection
RUSHDIE LIFE it became Cambridge Verses (1988), the
for many
of expression
independent spiritual leader and frequently
(1947-) of Great
University.
of Iran issued a
years in
criticised the
England.
Britain. ‘fatwa’ on him. US-led war in Iraq.
MAIN WORKS
The Satanic Verses It is a work of magical It was declared sacrilegious

(1988) realism in many Muslim countries.
Haroun and the Sea

It is an allegorical novel on censorship.
of Stories (1990)
Rushdie has
written many
novels.
The Moor’s Last Sigh
It is a novel about a hero living under a death threat.
(1995)
Midnight Children
(1981)
The novel’s protagonist is Saleem Sinai, who was born at midnight

PLOT on the exact moment when India became independent.
He is brought into a Muslim family.
He discovers that he and all the other Indian children who were
born at the same time have special telepathic powers.
He assembles a conference with all of them
He is held prisoner during ‘The Emergency’, a period between

1975 and 1977 when the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, suspended
democratic rule across the country.

Relativity of the national, cultural
and rational identity of India
India, its variety and
contradictions
THEMES Religious conflicts
Relationship between individual
stories and the history of India.
Historical elements (e.g. Indian

Use of ‘magic realism’ independence) mixed with fictional
or magical elements
Rushdie reproduces the slang and

Variety of languages the rhythms of English as is spoken
STYLE in India.
Long and freely-structured
sentences
Use of irony and comic tones
32
0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 32 10/05/17 11:20

A 6dgxteqaour6 Ekqkbxw

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A 6dgxteqaour6 Ekqkbxw

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

MAURO SPICCI

2 The Victorian Age 18 Virginia Woolf

4 Charlotte Brontë 20 T.S. Eliot

5 Emily Brontë 21 George Orwell

6 Charles Dickens 22 Early 20th Century American novelists:

0020_MV833900607K@0001.indd 1 01/03/17 14:33

THE VICTORIAN AGE

It was one of the

The Victorians believed

Contrast between This contrast became even greater

Triumph The novel became

0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 2 01/03/17 11:47

The landlord class is now

Education Act Elementary education

Trade Union Act Trade Unions are given

Great urban poverty Agricultural depression

London’s slums become

Women begin to question

MV 8339 00607K All rights reserved. © 2017, Pearson Italia, Milano-Torino.

0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 3 07/03/17 09:02

One collection of poems,

Jane Eyre is an orphan. She gets an education and becomes the

MV 8339 00607K All rights reserved. © 2017, Pearson Italia, Milano-Torino.

The role of women in society and their search for independence.

Shirley (1849) It is a social novel set in Yorkshire.

It is an autobiographical novel based on Charlotte’s experiences in

0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 4 10/05/17 11:08

Like her sister During her She published

There are two households: Wuthering Heights (house of the Earnshaws)

Catherine dies and Heathcliff will lead a tormented life forever.

MV 8339 00607K All rights reserved. © 2017, Pearson Italia, Milano-Torino.

THEMES The relationship between human beings and the landscape

The meaning of life and the existence of a world after death

The relationship between marriage, love and money

Use of flashbacks and

0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 5 01/03/17 11:47

He received The novel

They have very peculiar traits.

CHARACTERS They represent all social strata.

They can often be caricatures representing

They have an episodic

TONE It is grotesque and humorous.

The conditions of life of the

THEMES The evils of the Industrial Revolution

Indignation against social

MV 8339 00607K All rights reserved. © 2017, Pearson Italia, Milano-Torino.

Oliver Twist The novel tells the story

A Christmas Carol It has become

Bleak House It is a novel representing the evils

0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 6 12/05/17 10:21

One day he asks for more food:

After being sent away to work as an

Happy ending After a series of difficulties, Oliver finds

Love and charity can

THEMES Criticism of the

The inequality of the Poor Law (1834),

PLOT The story is set in a fictional town

Thomas Gradgrind is an advocate

MV 8339 00607K All rights reserved. © 2017, Pearson Italia, Milano-Torino.

0030_MV833900607K@0002_0032.indd 7 01/03/17 11:47

After his father’s death

It is considered a ‘boy’s novel’.

The Strange He commits lots

It is a novel about the dangers of