4/10/2022

LINGUA E LETTERATURA INGLESE III

Lezione 1:
ENGLISH MODERNSM
 Modernism
Modern-> Idea of movement which is fundamental. it was at the end of the XIX century that
machines, cars, and engines were introduced, and this of course introduces different relations
between space and time. The introduction of speed consequently means the relation between
space and time and a different relationship between men on one side and space and time on the
other. One of the main voices who explain this was Marcel Proust. The introduction of speed
reduces the distance from one village to the other. The speed has completely changed the
relation between man and the surrounding world, and it has changed the relationship between
man and the way you consider maps and different places all over the world. The introduction of
speed is represented by the tube because is fast and hectic. Paris is a modern town, and it is a
quick and fast place and where everything moves quickly, and everyone moves from one place
to another quickly. This is one of the main ideas of modernity: speed and the relation between
man and world. We have different languages and the idea of plurilingualism getting in touch as
many people as possible, there aren’t any national matters considering as living space the
bounders of your country. We can reach any corner of the world with no difficulty by the
reduction of distances. Distances are reduced and everything tends to be new, approachable and
this of course makes you curious and national boundaries give you a narrow world you need to
expatriate and go abroad. This is the reason why we have so many foreign artists come into
Europe. All the people are people who enjoy exploring different cultures, different languages,
and countries. Confusion is an important key world. When we speak of modernism that is
something than breaks out at the very beginning of XX century in response to a very specific
need to something new but without rejecting what is old. It had to be reshaped and readapted to
new exigences. This of course gives an idea of confusion. This make you feel fragile,
disoriented (you know where you are coming from, but you don’t know what you must adopt).
 Human being
The image of the human being is fragmented, and this is a fragmentation which is no physical
but moral and psychological. Fragmentation is a juxtaposition of features which helps with the
creation od human being who is the mix of feelings, emotions, thoughts, reason but it also
means a biological body ( a brain) and something which has never been explored before which
is inside every human because which is fundamental. The man is a lot of things. Fragmentation
is a key world thanks to Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. It closes the circle that began with
the Renaissance and to have the strength to know more about himself and to not have fear to go
beyond his limits. Then we have met a man who was found out his feeling and emotions thanks
to romanticism. Thanks to Naturalism he found out that man is also a biological body, a body
which is working in response to some biological rules which are inside him and cannot be taken
out of him, actually masterpieces also as a consequence to the Darwin’s book “The Origin of the
Species”. Man was also what he looks like so his clothes, his look, expresses and we have
Aestheticism. Man realized that was still something more about himself that which is still was
ignoring and that was a psyche and his so fundamental to understand his nature and his essence,
the true being lying there. The literature of the early XX century is devoted to the exploration
and knowledge of the inner self and we have the juxtaposition of things of men.
Reality just like man is made up of many things and many layers and all these things are equally
important, and they have to be considered. Art won’t be the imitation and reproduction any
longer, but it is something else: the realization of the few views of life. The reality is
juxtaposition of materials, elements, and points of view. The perception of the reality has not to
follow the perception of the rules of the society. This is the reason why men separate from the
rules of the Victorian society. Conventions of Victorianism must be made new.
When all this changed in the air? A changed occurred but it is not immediately clear but in
about ten years you can say that something was different, and something was different. The
Golden decade was the second decade of XIX century full of historical events and changed the
people’s sensibility and people’s perception. The ’10, ’20 and ‘30s were decades of great events
but the events which have taken place who are not a surprise but a progress of events that had
taken place before. Modernism is a wide period full of events which changed the world.
Modernism started in the XIV century when we have the publication of “The Flores du mal” of
Baudelaire and the way he describes in his poems the prostitutes in Paris and this is important
because is describing in a very realistic way a category of people who were ignored and they
deserved the same attention from the public as someone else and this is the description of the
ordinary life . In 1880 and 1890 we have absence place of liberating women, er have Filippo
Tomaso Marinetti with his manifesto of futurism and we have the American beginnings and the
publication of “three life” of Geltrude Stein. All the works which introduced a different way of
considered the society. There is even the end of the Modernism, and this end is the newest
exactly at the beginning. In the ’30 Modernism has turned into something which was the post-
modernism, and which keep on other great names, schools. Modernism is the sum of tradition
and innovation. “Make it new” you have to renovate, to reinterpret thing new and the same time
of tradition because traditions allow to know who you are but can’t ignore your starting point.
Tradition was still embodied by queen Victoria. She embodies herself, the idea of queen but
also woman, a devoted mother, and wife. Then we have the life of Victorian Middle-class. They
also establish how to consider fact and events how to behave in different situations. There is
linearity when everything is easy, everyone knows where is. Modernism is an idea of being that
is joined with and idea of doing and it is an dynamic idea ad we move towards something.
Modernist was used for the first time by American and English critics in the 192’s. In 1924 John
Crow Ransom, in his essay “new criticism” used this poem in a context of discussion on poetry.
Modernism is not only a cultural movement but also a way of speaking about something. In
1927 Laura Riding and Robert Graves described the “Survey of Modernist poetry” and found
modernism as a difficult poetry because it is completed different from the old way of describing
reality. Modernist is a label, is a container gathering all these voices are all different and catch
in term different aspects of reality and decide to describe reality in different way. It is more
suitable to speak of modernism. Modernism is the gather of Futurism, Cubism, Fauvism,
Dadaism and in literature even Imagism and Vorticism.
 Thomas Ernest Hulme -> Lecture of Modern Poetry (1908)
Poetry is something immortal, but each moment is essential. We are beyond the romantic, the
art for art’s sake, poetry has to suit the exigence of the artist and in doing is to give the general
idea that anything is the way. The point is not the form, they want to express feelings in a
spontaneous way which is individual, and we have no heroic actions. The great heroes of
Modernism are ordinary men. This means the modernism poetry deals with ordinary life.
Introspection is the key point of the modernism. A modernist poet has to be part of this, can’t be
ignored as a part of XX century age.
Lezione 2
 Thomas Hardy
 He was born in the Victorian age in 1840 and died in 1928. This means features
belonging to the traditions of Victorian Age and some of the Modernism. He was a poet
of transitions.
 1840-> Quen Victoria was already on the throne and England was living a period of
crisis and in 1851 there was a Great Exhibition in London. He died in 1928 after the
IWW and before the II WW. He was not a very easy writer. He felt mainly a poet who
had also done some work in prose. He is known for his novels, there are title of great
masterpieces and there ate all novels. He is appreciating ads a novelist rather than a poet.
In 1962 he arrived in London. He started to study poetry seriously, he also met and read
a lot of poets in particular Wordsworth’s and the Romantic, Browning and Swinburne,
poetry for him gave pleasure and wisdom. He loved poetry to be a source of delight and
knowledge to him. It allowed him to feel and ease and protected
 In 1898 he published his first collection of poems which were called “Wessex poems” it
marked the virtual end of the Victorian tradition of poetry both in form and context.
Thomas Hardy was in fact one of the poets who marked the beginning of modern verse.
He was a poet which was unusual of the Victorian tradition and in particular of Victorian
poetry. with a sense of tragic version and romantic view, he searches for a an idealized
past and makes experiments, he tried to reshape tradition in new time.
 He was born in Wessex, one of the oldest reigns in England. Ireland in 5.-8 century was
divided in 7 reigns and Wessex was one of the seven reigns. Wessex became then a
country. The landscape is varied variegate fields, and there are a lot of channels.
Stonehenge is in Wessex. Wessex is full of natural elements and means rustic life so life
made up simple thing and with humble simple people.
 Thomas Hardy was a poet of common people, the spokesman of the values of the
peasant class against the restricted views of the middle class. True greatness are the
smallest one, what is apparently small and unusual is very great.
 What is the ultimate aim of the poet? Thomas Hardly links the idea of a poet to the idea
of simplicity life, a poet is just someone just like the other, is not someone boost enough,
he is a simple creature. The poet is someone who touches the emotions of people he
didn’t put himself in prominence to other. In Victorian Age poets wanted to show their
meter to show people they were cultrate people.
 Thomas Hardy was born in a natural countryside so natural plays a prominent role is a
character in his poems and works. Hardy that that the rhythm of life and the rhythm of
nature is cyclical-> repetition of events taking place between the opposite poles of life
and death.
 Hardy sees natural cycles as the man’s life-> men’ life depends on nature because the
microcosm of the individual is always in power of the macrocosm. Nature is important
in Hardy0s poems only when it is correlated with nature. Hardy wants man and nature to
be in perfect harmony with each other for a benevolent co-existence.
 God plays an important role-> he came from a fervent religious family. God was an
image of love and benevolence. The idea of God clashed with his everyday experience.
 For Thomas Hardy itr was a continual tension between the rational side on one side and
emotional side on the other. Thomas Hardy was influenced by two versions: Darwin
who thought that a man is not entry free to chose is destiny. Hi determinism becomes
congenial to Hardy’s version of life. Man is not free to chose for himself.
 Schoenauer-> the immanent Will which is a force in the universe that worked blindly
indifferent to man’s suffering. Critics says that Thomas Hardy was pessimist->in
Hardy’s opinion everyone has a tragic destiny against which one can fight but with no
chances of winning.
 These means that all are important themes on Hardy’s works and this means there are
related to human life. Of course, these thing are borrowed from the rustic community of
Wessex countryside. Wessex is the true source of all these works. His poetry moves
from the universe and embraces all human life. The whole earth inns’ t represented by
the region of Wessex. The experience he writes about is also the experience if all of us.
 HAP
A sonnet because it has 14 lines. The last two lines are the reverse of the previous life. It
is divided into three parts that making up a syllogism. The first is the thesis, the second
is the antheses and the last is the synthesis. The structure of the syllogism is if but,
therefore.
In this poetry it seems the syllogism remains without a solution.
 First line-> if and makes an ipothesis = this doesn’t exist. God is written not in
capital letter = it means is someone above us. This god is ventful god, is
violent, authoritarian and reminds us the god we need in all test in Old Bible.
This tentful god is closed up to the all of Bible testaments and is any possible
superior identity and it is tentful so it has nothing to do with love
 Second line-> men is under god and this being in an inferior place this mean is
not only man is inferior to him in a physical position but also in a
metaphorical way and means that man is dependent to him and is
overwhelming. It is God find amusement in own sufferings
 It is not a human identity because Hardy uses that to refers to God because it
is a thing and it is completely generalized -> “ he becomes one of ma ny, it
became confused to the rest of the things.
 God’s ire in not merited by men. It would be something because it would be a
way of god. The point is that the God is that. He would accept the sufferings if
God exists.
 in the last stanza there is a break of what is said in the past-> there is no god in
real life. How is this possible that god allow this because god is a source of
happiness. A good god doesn’t accept all human sufferings. Casualty prevents
from rain and sun. My fate is coming from not from god bit from casualty and
time which are indifferent to what is going on. Everything with happens,
happens by chance.
 This but is an interruption with bering back to reality and says there is no
solution: the hopeful god doesn’t exist, and all is rules by causality and time
plays our fate. Blindness is a metaphorical l which prevent you see the reality.
Then there is the image of pilgrimage which is typical Christian. Hardy is
describing life in a Christian way, but a pilgrim has a pain. Here Hardy
describe a life in metaphorical way as a pilgrimage of pain si life for Hardy is
a synonymous of pain.
 TITANIC-
Written in 1912. It was a liner which was meant to rich Europe to North
America in particular London and turned to be the image of wealthy country
which really hoped in a marvelous future of Sussex and means to establish the
power of nation. During that time The British colonial empire started to collapse,
and English needed something to afford their power and strength all over a
world. Ther are some king of guarantee a marvelous and wealthy future. The
Titanic was also an image of hope whether all people was leaving Europe in
search of better life in United States, becoming someone in life. It was the image
of power, success and great of England. Thomas Hardy was not so secure of the
fact that richness could rescue the power of a nation and life of other people of
that time he preferred consider the England and think of it a rustic background.
He was the one of the little apparently significant things. Titanic didn’t respond
to the simple things. The Titanic crashed against an iceberg and started to sink
into the oceans on the midnight of 14 April 1912. There were a lot of victims.
People found themselves fragile. The episode was so tragic that everyone started
to speak. Hardy wants to explain that all the past luxury of Titanic is now
reduced to the wreckage.
 THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN
 First line-> a solitude = this is way to emphasize the solitary being of Titanic.
It is not only far but also deep, the Titanic is in deep, in the abyss of the sea. It
was built to support human vanity, to gratify the human vanity and it was the
it was just the image of hope of people. The Titanic actually was the result of
pride for a nation, and it was a response and reflexion of human vanity. Stilly-
>Gives the idea of stillness, no movement.
 Why She? If the Titanic id a She, the iceberg was he and they were made to
meet one day together.
 In the first stanza there is the description of Titanic and the second parts
underlines what is now. Each stanza is divided in two parts, we have a contrast
between past and present which embodies and highlights the failure of being
Titanic.
 Jewels-> they give light and they were a way of showing a status symbols but
now these jewels turned into misery and darkness because there is no reason
to be proud about the wealth social position. Titanic for Hardy embodies the
failure of technology and the failure of vanity of the image of England
imposing all over the world.
 Six line-> introduction what will happen later. While and not when. While the
immanent will was building the liner if Titanic, at the same time the immanent
Will was preparing to the ruin. The two of them was growing step by step.
 Sinister mate-> a nail fated union. The superior entity which decides for us
and its decisions cannot be changed, we have to accept them.
 Shadowy contrast-> contrast between the vanity and the wreckage. No human
being could even imaging that what need one day.
 The clash between the Titanic and Iceberg was not decided by the fate but by
the immanent Will.
 Iceberg and Titanic represents the perfect couple that0s why he and she. No
human being could even image what could have happened. The existence of
 two of them and the meeting was already decided by the immanent Will. The
tragedy is accomplished: the clash between Titanic and iceberg happened and
nothing is as before.
 Hardy suggested that the clash was not decided by fate by the immanent Will,
fate simply decides the time of the crash. Someone that is looking for a god
but that doesn’t find it. Hardy was disappointed by God and that why because
he was so pessimistic. Hardy grew up in a context of fervent religious people
but then was a reality with was so disappointed to him that it was impossible
to believing to a god.
 Hardy uses the language for his own proposes. There is a very personal
complex tricky and interest in his poems.
 Thomas Hardy -> everything is planned, and man must only accept. We also
speak about the pessimist brought about that man can0t decide. Immanent
Will places the role and for Christian is the God himself. He Is desperate
looking for something who cute, grant or give and idea of protection, he
identify the rile of God in this Immanent Will.

Lezione 3

 IN TIME OF BREAKING NATION

This came from the Bible, it is the quotation from the book Geremia, it is divided in 3
stanzas, and it is typical of syllogism.
 1916-> War was disputed between France. It was the defeat of Napoleon the III. The
War was yet disputed , when Hardly wrote this poem, it was there that Thomas Hardy
was reading Tennyson and courted his wife and was stricken by the image. He rember
the passage, what came was just a god reprimand to old men badly government. The
poem deals woth the contrast between war and ordinary life, this contrast comes iut on
the fatc that Thomas Hardy was In England and nothing around him spoke about war. It
is an experience that he never have left.
 It is a image of one man that can be find in battle fields with slow silent walk which
clashes in war. (slow silent slow-> alliteration). Slow and silent because ewe have only
man with only horse, they can’t make noise because they are alone and he is very tired
because he made the work of men who left England for war. He conveyed how sad and
how tired all generation are replacing the work also of the youngest generations.
 Man -> old horse: they become “they”: an idea of harmony. This is an implicit contrast
between simple, place and life ad come the image of the second stanza.
 He describes the ordinary and simple life. Man, and nature are united and man respects
nature circles. This harmony is something which will be carried on through time even if
dynasties pass. Despite this the ordinary life of fields will always be there.
 Third stanza-> there is a maid with her boyfriend sharing a scene of love, wherepsering
that is far of the idea of terrible noises. The love story is something which is due to last
longer than any event. War is an image of destruction and the simplicity of life and is so
strong and powerful so lasts forever. Another image that suggested the contrast between
life and death comes out from the image of the clothes. We have distraction, sadness,
violence, confusion on the other side silence, tiredness but we have love and life.
  Hardy is also reaffirming his faith, the importance he gives to a pre- industrialization to
countries where he can find the true values of life.

 The first world war
“ Cinquanta anni erano stati necessari per costruire l’ Europa. Cinque giorni sono bastati per
28 June 1914-> The Archiduke GìFranza Ferdinand is killed in Sarajevo in fact
-one month later Austria declared wear on Serbia and Germany declared war on France and Russia .
On August Germany invaded Belgium and Great Britain declares war on Germany.
 In September there was the Blattle of Marne. Italy enterse the war on May 1915. On 1 -
July 1916 there was the Battle of Somme,
 On April the USA entered the war
The British government had to convince his majesties to enter in the war.
The Defense of the Real Act and some kind of a checking point. Forbidden use was not expected to
circulate. the British Government wanted to see, an article was published in the Times, Britain as
entering a war. England was a defender on the right side of the Battle. Misinterpretation of the war-
> war reports: these reports were filtered by the government and a group of people. The
government had to share specific vision of a war which was a right war and to be fought. Defeats
and failures were hidden to the British. They needed more and more young man to enrole and so
enjoy the army. The USA, France all those were against Germany.
 War propaganda Bureau-> America enter the war. We have posters belonging to the war
of propaganda
 Er have 4 different kind of posters -> they gave direct messages on Germany and
referring explicates to families and
 Posters which addressed explicitly women , they had to encouraged their men to enjoy
the army and they have to be skewed and ready to work in forms and farms to replace
the work. The typical image of the Victorian Woman started to show.
 The last poster stereotypes the image of Germany which were destroyers, they were said
to have sacrificed prisoners… they wanted to convince the British and win a war. This
war prevents the monster to destroy the whole earth. All the countries belonging to the
empire are called to participated to this war-> appeal to a sense of reasonability.
 Life was not what the propaganda described. Trances were a terrible place: cold, noisy,
dirty… trances were a hell, they were a terrible places and survived had to dealt with the
consequences of the war; fear and all of psychological deases that coming out from he
war.
 In the war there was no humanity at all.
 Sassoon wrote this Je accuse against war. The war could be stopped, the war could be
ended but this war didn’t ended and this meant thousands and thousand of dead people.
This war meant aggression. Sassoon is protests against the political errors’ insecurities
for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. There were difficult situation, and no
one seemed to care. The Government have kept on lying to the war and soldiers began to
rebels against the conditions in were they were forced and this was because the war was
absurd.
  Graves-> Goodbye to All That, 1929: they share all the consequences of the war. It is a
prose verse of Dulce et Decorum Est because it is the description of the war filtered by
the eyes of the soldier. Britain entered the war because it wanted to destroy German
which was absurd wanted was invasion against the weak but all people involved in the
war were alike. We are alike because we belong to one human race. The war deeply
conditions the mind of all people
AFTER THE WAR…
 The trait of Versailles, 1918-> put an end of this atrocities of the war
 Two period, social, and political arrest. Social reformers for the workers, the need for the
better life spread out from the country.
 We have the first feminist movements
 Irish question -> Home Rule, Easter 1916
 A great debt but in general Europa with United States, Europe needed the resources to
fight this war.
 The Big Four who signed this armistice
 David Llyod George (Great Britain)
 Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (Italy)
Lezione 4
THE WAR POETS
 The Soldier (Rupert Brooke)
Divided in 3 stanzas. It is an Italian sonnet which was composed in 1915. We have
poets writing about war from 2 different points of view: one is the same as the
British government in favor of the war because it is necessary, and it is some kind of
moral duty and the second against the horrors of war the way as the British
government seems to ignore these terrible situations of the war. The text is a
Petrarchan sonnet divided into an octave and a sestet. In the octave the main idea is
that the poet’s grave will be England, while in the sestet we have the idea of his
death as redemption. The sestet contains the moral ending and he speak about the
only experience at war and explains the reasons why the war has to be fought. There
is a spiritual explanation that is some kind of thanksgiving to England. England gave
the poet’s life and what the poet can do to thank England for this great gift is to give
his life back or for England.
1 line-> he is telling his readers how to behave and what to consider how to accept and justify and
explain his death.
2 line-> he was a soldier fighting in France and this is a foreign corner and since he
is buried in a foreign soul that spot keeping a soul body will be forever England. In
is spot of land there will be someone representing England
3 line-> In that reach earth there will be richer dust concealed in the sense the dust in
the body will enrich the spot of earth simply because that dust will be English. Small
spot of earth will transform to England and will be forever England.
4 line-> he describes England as she war her mother. England was shaped, in the
sense that educated and made him aware of his own origins, of how lucky was to be
born in England
5/6//7 lines-> There is a some kind of idealization of England. He is describing
England which remind us the Preindustrial Revolution. This is one of the main
features of Georgian Poetry that spread outing the early 20 century during the reign
 of George V and healed England before the Industrial revolution exalting the natural
landscape appreciating it than much more than the Industrialized one. Beyond all,
there is a sense of beauty of his country that it tends to be intimate because the poet
himself has to be able to recognize and find aware of it. There is an intimate sense of
beauty that helps both, England, and the poem to find an identity.
Second part:
Here he mentions thought. The England that he represents is not only a physical one
and the spiritual one, but something also that is intimately related to the way of
thinking and believing. There are images of England that turn English dust richer,
England into something special, into something what die for. Moral teaching-
>England bore me, England teaches me, England gave me life and what I’m
supposed to do is to give it my life for gratitude.
 Isaac Rosemberg, Break of the Day in Trenches->
-idea completely different from the previous poem. The title gives us an important
information related to a precise moment of the day because it is the beginning of a
new day that brings with itself the hope for a better day, for some good news and
then “in the trenches” and we know where the poet is. We know where the poems
are, in Dom. Darkness goes away and day gradually comes. Every day is like the
other days-> the life of the soldier is a monotonous life because he does the same
things all day.
-only a live thing-> introduces something that differences this day from the others.
This living thing is a rat which is disgusting but actually was a neighbor of a soldier.
This rat turns to be an image of life, a spot of light in the sense of life inside this
specific context. This rat leaps a poet’s hand while he is picking up a poppy and
putting it behind the ear. The two symbols are already together at the beginning of
the poem, even embody different symbols. The rat is a symbol of life a life that is
unaware of what the war is while the poppy is symbol of suffering and at the same
time of hope. Cosmopolitan sympathies-> the rat is in the trenches of the allies and
few minutes later is the field of enemies. This poor rat doesn’t know the difference
between Allies and enemy, it’s why the rat is cosmopolitan and the fact of not being
human allow him to be everywhere and no make distinction between Englishmen
and enemies. The sleeping green land -> is the piece of land that divided the two
enemies trenches, some kind of neutral piece of land.
The rat while moving from one trench to another and there is the description of the
poet that is filtered by the vision of the rat. The death is related as a consequence of
the war. Heaven and earth-> it is as if they are two different dimensions but Heaven
can’t be aware of men is doing it and why. The pot is simply saying that what is
making by men is simply made, fought and won by men , it is something which
belong to the earth and not by Heaven. Poppies are red because the roots are bared
underneath the surface of the soil and they are red because they sack blood from the
veins of the soldier. Poppies are an image of death, but this specific poppy is safe, so
will not dropped. This poppy which was picked up from the parapet of the trenches
is dusty and turned the poppy to be an image of the hope. The own poppy of
Rosenberg is safe, and this means that possibly he lives longer than his fellows
soldiers maybe because when you hope you hope well but also because he survives
to the war. It is not a symbol of life but a symbol of hope in a context which speaks
about war life while that the rat is a symbol of life in a death context. This rat since
 is not human cannot understand the war and this rat goes beyond the war which is
strictly earthly, because is conducted and made by men and not by Heaven.
 Sigfried Sasson, Glory of Women
This poem was published in 1917. It is a Petrarchan structure. The same context is
seen in two different women: you for the women and in general for those who didn’t
know the war and didn’t have this experience of the war. while on the other side we
have us and we and it refers to men, soldiers. The once who know what really the
was like. We introduces and idealistic and you the realistic way of war. For women
was important to celebrate the men of their family or their life of their soldiers, it is a
reason of pride, glory and a way of convincing themselves that they were fighting
but still alive. There is the cruelty of war as described by the soldiers which clashes
with the spontaneous vision of the war of the women. The last three lines is given in
the three line. O German mother-> as he addresses the mother as an enemy. Sasson
wants to have the reader attention on what happens in their enemy’s country, he
makes no distinction between German or English mother. A mother sitting by the
fire and dreaming on their sons because they are not at all because they are not in
trenches. She is knitting socks for his sons because is too cold and they enjoy the
heat of the fire and her son’s face is trodden in the mud. Actually stops the
idealization of war and gives us the atrocity of war. what is terrible in relation to this
is the mother sufferings, is the unawareness and on the other side there is no love but
indifference with this image of face trodden deeper in the mud.
 Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
It was written after he was injured in Northern France and then taken to Scotland to
recover. He wrote memories were hunting him while he was sleeping, ironically, he
died one week before the armistice was signed and the war ended. It was a very cruel
fate of Owen. The poem was published after his death in 1920. It can be divided in 2
stanzas. In the first stanza Owen is describing and helping us touch the war. we
perceive what is going on there because the description is so real that any
misunderstanding is impossible. Any effort soldiers made is necessary to make them
alive. In the 2 stanza Owen gives an idea how heavy and how difficulty is fight a
war. WW1 was a war in which gas was employed as ever. This is a very leta weapon
and the beginning none could handle this weapon, soldier wore a mask to protect
themselves against the gas. It is obvious that someone could be slow, tired and
fatally remains behind and of course he dies and this was a difficult situation to be
accepted by a group of soldiers. There is the indifference of the other people and this
can be turned in a nightmare that affects people. The true violence of the war is the
description of the psychological one that is impossible to avoid. The scenery comes
again and again every single night, it is something which doesn’t leave him. The
cruelty, the blood is the cruelty that remain after a fighting in the war. The last
section of the poems becomes as an if and he addresses the poem to a friend as to say
that everyone is at the same level because we are human men, and it is also ironical
because there is someone who is against you. Children are looking for glory. Dulce
and decorum est. Pro patria mori-> quotation of Orace.
When Owen wrote his poem, he has in mind Jessie Pope who wrote a book of poems
titled “Jessie Popes’ poems of war” with a collection of poems titled “the call” where
encourages young men to enroll to the war. Owen’s poems show how
 The Irish question
The Irish question dates back to the XII century where England war ruled by Henry the
II Plantagenet (husband of Eleonor of Aquitaine and the father of Richard the Lionheart
and John the Lackland). The Irish Question dates back to the XII century when
feudalism was imposed on Ireland and when landowners where English and enriched
themselves and Ireland were very poor workers. This means a great difference has been
introduced between Ireland and England. Great problems arrived a few centuries later in
the 16th century when Henry the VIII signed the Act of Supremacy in 1533 beginning
on 1534 which sanctioned the schism with the Roman Catholic Church and the burn of
the Anglican Church which was actually imposed on Ireland which refused to be under
the joke of Anglicanism and started to fight against England. There were during the
history all people which were against England. ( we think of Elizabeth I).In the 17th
century Oliver Cromwell tried to subdue Ireland to the English Crown by killing one
third of Irish population. In 1801 the Act of Union was signed and meant that the
Kingdom of Ireland was united to the United Kingdom and that Ireland and England had
the same Parliament, but it was English. There was an important political leader that
fight with Ireland and assured Catholic emancipation: this man was Daniel O’ Connel,
he was a lawyer and was the first most democratic politician of Modern Europe. He was
catholic helped his country fellow to assure Catholic emancipation. 1829-> penal loss
which restricted life of Catholics preventing them from being part of public life,
education. When Penal loss were replied in 1829, Catholics could rely on some kind of
emancipation. 1840s were very difficult years for Ireland because of the potato famine
and the period of migration. In this period John O’ Leary which was an Irish republic
and was a leader of Fenian Party. Fenian is a name which comes from Fianna which
stands for a group of legendary warriors. He was convinced that it was useless for an
Irishman in front a British without a gun. It was almost impossible to solve the conflict
without the violence. violence is not the only possible solution. In the 1870s Charles
Stuart Parnell was an Irish nationalist and was the leader of the Own Rule Leak which
was a political group of people who wanted to gain the Irish own rule. It means to see
Irish matter discussed in an Irish Parliament deciding lords for Ireland and not for
English one. Also, in the British Parliament there were Prime Minister who wanted the
Irish role and the first was Gladstone who introduce the Home Rule to be discussed in
the British Parliament but unfortunately was repealed by parliament. In 1911 the Prime
Minister Asquith introduces the third Home Rule Bill but it was again defeated in
Parliament in the House of Lords. The Home Rule was finally accepted in 1914 but with
the break of WW1 it didn’t turned into practice and it was kept in suspension because
England needed Irish soldiers in the own army but then the Home Reule was suspended.
The Ulster didn’t want the Rule because preferred to remain related to England. The
situation seemed to be solved but a new situation seemed to be solved. The nineth
county of Northern Ireland (Ulster) clashing with the rest if the country. Ireland is
divided into two parts: on one side the Unionist who wanted to remain with the British
parliament and the Nationalist who wanted Ireland to be one and the same country with
Ulster included. In 1918 we have general elections and the Sein Fein wins and it belongs
to the National Party. This meant a serious of trouble inside Irish borders which brought
a constant clash between rival parties and forces inside the party. We have the Sinn Finn
( Nationalist party) and the Irish Republican Party and also we have the ones who
wanted to remain with England. This situation exploded in a and lasted more ore less
from 1921 to 1923 and this is called the Irish Civil war which ends with the division
between Ulster which remains with England and the rest of the country (EIRE). In 1932
 Emons De Valera wins the elections and became president of Ireland and Ireland in 1937
became a Republic. From the 1950s to 1980s we have a long period known as The
Troubles where the population was divided between the Unionist and the Nationalist and
the Trouble was a period of violence with the British forces trying to keep the situation
under control and with the EIRE with terroristic attacks in England against political
exponents of the British politics, members of the Royal Family. The Troubles was not
only a fight between Catholics and Protestants but also between Nationalists and
Unionists and was solved in millions of victims. The event which is taken as the starting
point of the troubles was what happened during a campaign by the Northern Ireland
Civil War Association who wanted to end discrimination against the catholic minority.
There was an important moment in troubles which was a Sunday Blooding Sunday.
Thanks to diplomacy and hard work in 1997 we have the fight between England and
Ireland finally reach an end. The Sinn Finn and Sir Tony Blear the Labor Prime
Minister, who had just won the elections that years. Tony Blear remained an historical
minister because of two facts: 1) the treatment of peace with Sinn Finn 2) the year of
Lady Diana Spencer’s death, the formal Princess of Wales.
Lezione 5
 William Butler Yeats (1885-1939)
He was an important poet of the 20th century who won the Nobel Prize for the Irish literature in
1923 and death with the Irish question. He always became a senator of the Irish free state. He had a
long and varied career and his poems are full of different elements linked to literature, philosophy,
politics, economy and they are characterized by literally influences of the past and the present.
Moreover Yeats is an Irish poet, not only because he was burn in Ireland but also because his poems
are rich of elements and symbols related to Ireland and especially related to Celtic mythology.
Both life and works revolved around a few central concerns and themes: Ireland of these days, Irish
folklore, and mythology, occult, sexual love, the power of art to work and change the world as seen
as a kind of refuge, comfortable place where to escape from difficult moments. Other elements that
characterize his life and work are: an immense need revelation and belief, and an intense and
critical skepticism.
 Precisely Yeats’ poetry is full of symbols that make it extremely difficult and complex:
these symbols are the sun, the moon, the mask, the tower ( they are also used to describe the
movement) of the of the universe) and he finds them in the anima mundi identified with the
great memory. The store to which artists go to find a fitting symbol for the creation of their
visions.
His works are indebt to three different traditions: Romantic literature ( in particular poets of the
second generation like Keats and Shelley), Victorian literature ( because he was born during the
reign of queen Victoria) and Modernism.
Three phases:
His poetry can be divided in three main phases:
 In the first phase which goes up to 1914 his poems were based of Irish mythology and
ancient Irish culture with the aim to find the roots of Irish people of Irish people and also
based on mystical and dreamlike element.
 Moreover it was a poetry full of melody in the late romantic fashion (Keats and Shapely).
Two important people that were relevant for his life and career were Synge ( an Irish
playwright who gave life to Ireland from an artistic point of view) and Augusta Gregory ( a
famous Irish writer that dealt with national theater).
 In second phase which goes from 1914 to 1920s, Yeats fealty with the psychological reality
and politics-> Yeats abandoned mythology to be more involved in the real Ireland of his
days. His language become closer to ordinary speech in diction and syntax because he
started to dealing with contemporary.
 In 1914 he published “Responsibilities”, a collection where the passage of Celtic dream to
modern reality which is described and sometimes criticized.in this period he became a
senator of the Irish Free State and in 1923 he won the Nobel Price for Irish literature.
 In the third phase , which goes from 1930s to his death, poetry is less public but more
personal. He deals with the idea of anarchy, violence and tragedy in human history and
some of the most times are aging, family, memory and mortality.
 He had his first serious illness, so he spent the winter abroad in the summer house of the
Yeats which was called “Toor Balylee”
 In 1928 he published “Tower” , one of the most important collection where he dealt with
important themes such as family, aging and the tower became an important symbol for
Yeats because it’s the place where he spent because of health/ illness.
 The mask
 Yeats was perfectly aware that this work had an architectural structure, whose unifying
element was the poet himself. He managed to find a technique which allowed him to
transform what was intimate and individual in something objective to have an objective
vision of the universe. This technique by which the personal could be objectified is the is the
MASK: all of us wear a different mask according to the situation. Each artist had to chose
one mask and the chosen mask is the opposite of this true self. He has to try to become that
other self.
 Art , in this case poetry, is born by the effort of the poet to be something else.
 The occult
Yeats was a very complicated person. He was interested to discover the secret pattern of the
universes and the only dimension which allowed to bring close to the world of spirit and the
world of matter is the occult-> in doing this he can discover the essential nature of things.
He also became a member of the Theosophical Society, dedicated to the study of esoteric
science in general.
 Moreover his wife Georgia was a spiritual medium who had trans moments and during
these moments she dictated what she saw to Yeats who rewrote all these thing down. All
this of the universe were described and explained in his masterpiece called “A vision”. This
work is divided in three sections: a cyclical view of history, a view of human psychology
and a description of the souls’ migration after death.
 In the first section called “a cyclical view of history, Yeats claims that there are 200 years
cycles and history develops in helical movements: they are 2 greys ( vortici) and a pair of
interpenetrating cones move inside one another with antithetical movements. After 2000
years they reverse their movements and a new stars: it is the span of time in which they
reverse their movements is the Great Year and it is characterized by enormous turbulence,
anarchy and chaos. Since the 2 cones move in opposite direction, there is a man idea of
antithesis which conditions Yeats’ poetry, where is the present contrast between physically
and mentally , passionate man and rational man.
 Maud Gonne -> she was a fascinating activist who was able to convince the crowd to rebel
against England and she was sure that the Irish dependence could be achieved through the
violence.
 Yeats met her in 1899 and he fell in love with her because she was beautiful and full of
energy: Yeats proposed to marry her but she rejected him and married another man. That
was the moment when he Yeats realized he had to look for something else because it wasn’t
worth fighting for her. Since she tought that the only way to get the independence was the
violence, Yeats explained in his poems that the violence can allow you to achieve your
goals ( in this case Irish freedom) but at the same time violence, Yeats explained in his
poems that violence can allow you to achieve your goals but at the same time violence is
useless because it changes you in a negative way.
 Although she was not agreed with him, he never stopped considering her a fascinating
woman.
 He wrote a poem which is titled “no second Troy” where he talks about Gonne.
 No second Troy
 In his poems Yeats refers to Maud Gonne and he can be considered an elegant way to say
that he was completely disagreed with Gonne that she thought the violence was the only
way to get Irish dependence.
 He also accuses her to be the one of the responsible of Ester rising because she convinced
people to fight against England. So this poem is characterized by a combination of personal
and political concerns.
 The poem begins with a personal concern because it is evident that the poet is unhappy
because Maud doesn’t respond this love but he comments the political concerns of Maud
because he doesn0t seem to understand the political attitude of Maud who instigates Irish
people to use violence against the British rulers.
 However, with a rhetorical question, Yeats claims that he should not blame her for filling his
wife with misery and he should not also blame her for teaching innocent Irish people the
revolutionary methods to get freedom for Ireland. He shows how people can be easily
manipulated by someone with a strong personality; they can share the same convintion of a
woman but anyway they are less clever because they are manipulated to use the violence.
 He described her as a woman who his not peaceful, but rebellious, revolutionary, always
ready to react and use violence to achieve her goals.
 The poet wonders what would make the woman calm down, but he realizes that she cannot
be changed and it is as if m with this warriors attitude, belonged to a primitive age.
 Moreover the poet wonders if Gonne can be considered another Helen for which the Greak
fought to get her back and this conflict caused the destruction of Troy. He realizes that it’s
not worth destroying another city for Gonne because she is not a woman woth fighting for->
she doesn’t convince him to make a war to get her love back.
 Down by the Salley Gardens
Down by the Salley Gardens", one of the great youthful poems of W. B. Yeats. "Down by
the Salley Gardens" was published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889,
when Yeats was still in his twenties. the "gardens of Salley" refer to the banks of the river at
Ballysadare (near Sligo). The willows along the river, used to grow straw for the roofs of
houses, may have given rise to the name of the gardens, through the Latin Salix for the
willow. Yeats tells this little story of regret in quatrains that include two pairs of rhyming
couplets. In the first verse, there is no room for maneuver: both pairs of rhymes are tightly
grouped around the long vowel sound "e", while we get "meet", "feet", "tree" and "agree". In
 the second stanza, they are in a field by the river, and the poet's girlfriend orders them to
relax and take the easy life - to adopt a "whatever will be, will be" or "whatever happens"
approach, just as grass takes its time slowly but steadily growing on dams. But, the poet tells
us, he was young and foolish and did not listen. This widens into "strange" and "tears" in the
second stanza, but the continuation between the first and second stanzas reinforces the regret
the current speaker feels for his younger, hot-headed actions. The implication is that he was
too serious, too stubborn, too fast to fall in love and get caught up in things. The lover is
delicate and pure, with "little snow-white feet" and a "snow-white hand." She is identified
with nature through the third verses (mirrored) of both stanzas: "He told me to take easy
love, as leaves grow on the tree" and "He ordered me to take the easy life, as grass grows on
dams."
 Sailing to Byzantium.
 This poem is the expression of the most mature Yeats who dealth with intimate problems
like the aging, memory, death and reincarnation. Since Yeats realized that the death is
approaching, he wants to find away to defeat it and he believes that art is the only way to
achieve eternity.
 In general Yeats talks about the difficulty of keeping soul alive in fragile old human body
an the protagonist of the poem, an old man, moves from a country, Ireland where young
people can live to the ancient city of Byzantium where he hopes to learn how to became and
immortal piece of art and for this reason become eternal.
 Byzantium was an ancient Greek colony later named Costantinople, which is situated where
Istanbul in Turkey now stands.
 Byzantium was the capital of Roman Empire but also the capital of Byzantine empire where
roman and Greek culture met and where Christianity flourished. Yeats was convinced that
Byzantium was a mystical place where he could die and rincarnate himself into something
different.
 1) the first stanza deals with the old age and claims that the new Ireland was not made for
old people but for young people who needed to find an identity. -> for this reason the old
man has to sail the other country where you can live an intellectual and artistic life and not a
physical and sensual life
 The adjective “that” gives the reader the sense of the speaker is looking at his former
country from a distance because perhaps he has already started his journey to Byzantium. So
the speaker explains the former country is not a welcoming place for those who are older:
all the creatures of the country they lead a physical and sensual life because they are born,
procreate and then die. It means thy don’t concentrate on the things that last forever but they
only enjoy what it is in front of them in any given moment.
Moreover all these creatures listen to sensual music without caring for the intellectual and
artistic activity which is permanent value.
So we can notice that the author talks about the circle of life, he claims that everything
which is born is condemned to death unlike art that will never lose his beauty because is
eternal, it is not subject to time.
 Probably when he expresses the idea of eternity art, he refers to the time when he we t to
Ravenna and he saw amazing mosaics and incredible works for art that he had been there for
centuries and had been admired by billions of people without losing their beauty because
they are destined to last forever.
 The first form of art chosen and mentioned by Yeats in the poem is the music.
 2) the author compares an old man to an insignificant and small thing: he is simply a stick
wearing worn and torn jacket because his body is weak and thin.
He is a useless thing, unless thing unless he tries to give his soul of art, unless his life is
related to an important form of art-> the best music for the soul of an old man is the
appreciation and the admiration of the great works of art. For this reason the old man moves
from a country (where young people live) to the ancient city of Byzantium where he hopes
to learn how to become eternal and become an immortal work of art.
 Moreover, it seems the author claims that, just because one is old, is doesn’t mean he has an
old soul, because the soul of an old man is clapping and singing loudly.
 3) When the old man arrives in Byzantium , he addresses the sages of wise people he finds
there. They are the figures that are represented in the gold mosaic the author saw in
Apollinaire in Ravenna and they stand goods holy fire where they are purified.
 The poet wants them to come out of the holy fire , purify his hesrt form the earthly desires
and impurity, give him the immortality and the permanence of the great objects of art to be
appreciated forever and become the “singing teachers of this soul.” In other worlds he wants
him to teach him to listen to his spiritual music which is contrary of the sensual music.
 The author introduces the idea of death which consists in the division of the soul and body.
The soul is the only part that can be transformed in something different and given to eternity
( because the body is heavy).

4) he claims he will stop being a living creatures to become a piece of art that symbolizes eternity.
In this way his soul will live in piece of art that can always be admired by people trough the
centuries.
- So, once he has given up his body, he doesn’t want to be reborn in other earthly shape: he will
reject all physical incarnations because all living beings are subject to mortality and death.
He would like to be in shape of a Grecian urn which can always be admired by an emperor or in a
shape of golden bird m which will appear to be singing songs of all times to an audience of the lords
and ladies of Byzantium. There is the contrast between morality of man and precious art. The text is
rich of symbols: the idea of sailing contains the idea of metaphorical and spiritual journey.
Byzantium is symbol of artistic permanent and magnificence. Image of the lovers, birds, fish and
the old man are symbols of the flowing by the mortality, the decrepitude.
-art of music and song are symbol of eternity.
- Golden birds that sing and entertain the emperors are the symbol of permanent that gives the port
of eternity: they also symbolize the ideal poet.
- The idea of art.
The idea of art as something which turn to eternity is a theme was not introduced by Yeats ( he
adapted it). it is not something new because it was present in Edmund Spencer and Shakespeare
too.
 Down by the Salley gardens-> the author talks about his relationship with a girl but he failed
because maybe he didn’t take love easy. He rushed into things too quickly and she didn’t
approve it.
 Easter 1916
 The author remembers the rebels that he meets on the street.
 Before the rising, they were just ordinary people who worked in shops and offices. The poet
wonders if the rebellion was worth it.
JAMES JOICE
 - he was an Irish writer of the 20th century and precisely of the modernist movement. Joyce
was born in Dublin into middle-class family, and he attended Jesuit school before studying
at university college in Dublin.
 Publication after publication he became more nature in the use of language, he specially
uses to express his inner thoughts
 The stream of consciousness
 To write these stories, he uses the stream of consciousness-> it is a narrative technique, a
method that attempts “to represent the multitudes thoughts and feelings which pass through
the mind” of men, character and narrator.
 In fact he is defined by the psychologist William James in his “the principle of psychology”
as a river stream of thought, of consciousness or subject life -> it is the exploration of
human mind where thoughts flow freely without interruption from one thought to another,
without control or a formal logical order, without usual punctuation ( there are random
sentence structure and abrupt changes of theme).
 So the stream of consciousness technique allow the authors to lay out ( esporre) for the
reader the unbroken flow of the of a character’s mind , because the writer looks into the
character and show his unconscious material to the reader who discovers the private
mindscape of the character ( in which perception co- exist with half formed ideas and raw
thoughts and feelings)
 The idea of flowing of thoughts derives from the idea of the philosopher Henri Bergson
who made the distinction between “time in space” and “interior time”
 Stream of consciousness novels and stories began to appear from about 1914 onwards, when
there were: social and political events before and after the two words war which created a
general sense of discontent and anxiety-> the collapse of the established principles : the
expansion of education from primary school to university leven ( this level became a little
higher)_ Freud’s studies in psychoanalysis and his theory of the unconscious, the
development of the radio and the film of the techniques
 THE DUBLINERS
 Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories written by James Joyce and it was published in
1914.
 He claimed he wrote stories and defines a series of epicleti-> moment of transubstantiation.
If a prayer caries within itself a great message such as that of transubstantiation, even the
stories can carry within itself revelation -> therefore Joyce purpose is to demonstrate that
from a situation of paralysis something apparently small is enough to have a revelation.
 The stories are divided in 4 groups that correspond to 4 phrases of life: childhood,
adolescence, mature life, and public life
 All the stories are set in Dublin which is, according to the author, the center of life but also
the emblematic place of paralysis. In Dubliners, Dublin is also a character and one of the
most eminent and historically important cities of Europe.
 Dublin is the subject of his works , the center of life, the emblem of whole Ireland but also
the place of fallen humanity because Dublin was ruined by risings and civil war. Joyce is
convinced that Dublin is worthy and modern literary representation.
The main themes are:
1) Paralysis which is both physical and moral-> it is a situation of permanent crisis , Dubliners are
blocked because they are passive, scared and not able to think, react and change.
2) Epiphany-> it corresponds to a peculiar and short moment who make people open their eyes and
see how the reality is.
Lezione 6
 Dubliners: The Death
The last story (The Death) is set in a very specific city that is closed to the city center.
Dublin becomes a life and we have the impression that characters are also alive. Phoenix
Park is mentioned in last story.
 The Moken’s home-> the setting of most of the stories in Dubliners.
 The first character Joyce introduced is lily_ she is in the house and she is introducing
guests in the house. She is not one of the important characters but she is pretext to
introduce us the house and characters. The people living there they were honest people
belonging to the middle- class, they have moved before the story to near the city center.
We are dealing with low-middle class society that live with money earned.
 The dance is the situation. The owner of the house is Miss. Morkan. The work they
make is teaching music-> a form of art important in James Joyce we can find throught
the stories of the Death, we see how the people dance, we listen to music when Gretta
listens to a song reminding her her first love’s song. Gabriel is the most waited for
because he is the nephew of the Mokan’s sister and he is expected to keep a discourse,
he is late because he is introduced by others. We are curious to know something more
about him.
 It is 10 o’ clock and we know that the ball is hold in winter and Dublin is a snowy town.
The atmosphere is a bit enchanted because everything is covered by the snow. Gabriel is
described to the reader. From a physical description we understand he is not properly
Irish man and this is curious in relation to what Gabriel do and is. The reader introduces
an other important aspect: the introduction of Gabriel’s speech and he is anxious about
the speech is expected to hold and we understand his personality.
 The first thing about Gabriel is the capability of making decision, he is never secure to
make decisions and choices. He is convinced of being superior to others, everyone is
expected to make the speech. Robert Browing was considered a tricky a Victorian poet.
Since e was not considered a difficult poet, he sounded snobbish for Gabriel and this
means starting in a wrong way. He thought that the people who are listening to him were
cultural inferior to him. He considers himself much more educated and cultivated than
other people listening to him but he want to be a good impression and Robert Browning
wasn’t adequate.
 Gabriel is introduced and the party goes on to a moment when he is with old friends and
among friend is Miss Ivors, she was a close friend to their family and the two of them
finding themselves dancing together, the woman’s speech allows us to know something
more about him.
 During the speech, Miss Ivros accuses him to be on the side of the British and not to the
Nationalist side. If you are not a pro-Ireland you can take as a kind of enemy. West
Britain were people who live in Ireland but they were in favor of the British, Miss Ivors
are saying that Gabriel was betraying Ireland.
 Joyce inn this situation deals with the Irish Question. Gabriel is convinced that the
literature was beyond politics in the sense that everyone in his opinion were Irish.
 Joyce’s idea of Irish Question was the same of the Yeats so literature in the sense of
cultures would be the solution, there is no violence, Gabriel is aware he is writing the
newspaper but he is aware literature is beyond politics and no violence could be the
positive respond to this situation. Gabriel is a man of culture and he doesn’t feel like as
other men and he feels superior because other men can understand what he is studying
and can’t compare themselves with his culture.
 Miss Ivors is joking with Gabriel and she is dealing with what Gabriel takes care. She is
inviting Gabriel to spend a month in Irish hills so that they can have a good time
together. Miss Ivors is the voice of Nationalist country but there is no point in visiting
other countries, and not visiting his own land. Miss Ivors is far away from Gabriel and
had realized that the great culture is beyond his land. He wants visits France, Belgium
and Germany-> they are the battlefields of WWI. A great problem for Gabriel is to learn
the French and Germany and he want to go there to improve these languages and so to
change. He would improve Gaelic. Miss Ivors is Irish centered. She expected other
would do, think like her. Gabriel says that Irish is not his language English is the
language they have been forced to accept, Gabriel is stating while saying Irish is not his
language that he is not Irish. He is Irish but he feels cosmopolitan, he feels free to move
from Ireland whenever he wants. He saying English is language instead of Irish.
 Gabriel should know his people, his country, Ireland is not enough for him. He is sick of
his own country, he can’t stand his country any longer-> this is Joyce’s behavior. Ireland
is not enough for Joyce and Gabriel embodies Joyce ’s thigs in the story.
 Ireland is not the only country in the world and he wants to compares himself to the
others. Gabriel is sick of the situation that has been created in Ireland. There is according
to him another way to resolve the problem: he thinks the literature is beyond politics.
 We have two no answers-> it is a very ambiguous. Gabriel doesn’t answer because her
question seems to worthless why on the other hand Miss Ivory thinks that Gabriel
doesn’t know the answer because he knows that he is wrong and he is betraying his own
country, Irland.
 Then people keep on eating and at the end of the ball is the moment of Gabriel’s speech
and there is silence. He must be a very sensitive person, he is a very fragile person from
psychological point of view.
 The first point Gabriel mentions in his speech is one of the great Irish feature which is
hospitality. Dubliners are very welcomed, polite people. Hospitality is not only a virtue
for Irish people but it is a tradition characterizing Irish history : Gabriel feels responsible
to pass down this tradition to his future generations. It is a peculiarity of Christianity.
The Irish are mostly catholic and English are mostly protestants-> hospitality turns to be
something belongs to Ireland and Catholics people.
 There is a comparison between Gabriel’s generation and the old generations: this is
difficult to accept what Irishness is. If the new generation are promising they don’t have
the once who passed away, who made Ireland how it is, so the respect of ancestors who
made Ireland and create the Irishness. You should never forget your past.
 Gabriel his addressing his aunts and describing them in the best possible way and
describes the Moken’s …. The end of the speech consisting in wishing them a long a
prosperous life. This is the end of Gabriel’s speech-> a speech which touching some
features like hospitality, Christianity, traditions and conflict between the old and not
generation with no forgetting the ancestors who died in order to create Irishness.
 At the end of the night everyone is ready to leave the party, Gabriel and Gretta come
back to their hotel which is an expensive accommodation simply to underline the social
status.
 Gabriel is understairs and his wife is paralyzed after listening to a song and then they go
straight to their hotel, during the journey great is very mindful.-> she is closed
physically to Gabriel and Gretta is far mentally. He gets convinced that also Greetta is so
much in love for her husband and looking forward and spend a love night together.
Gabriel is looking forward to spend his time with his wife. Gabriel gets curious about
what Gretta was thinking of. The power of memory->the song reminds her Michael
Fury, an her fiancée whom she had a relationship with when she just was a little girl
while she was still living with her grandmother. Michael Fury dies when he was only 17.
He was a problem for Gabriel. This makes him opens his eyes and realizes what is going
on: he is imaging his wife was thinking on someone else and was comparing him with
someone else. Gabriel was broke down and wanted to accept this reality and he
disappointed about what he is happening. He is to fight against a died boy.
 Gabriel is there, is alive, he is the father of he children and he is been defeated the
memory of someone who must have been important for her wife in a faraway past and
she is crying for him because she was died for her, it was winter and Michael was
serious ill. The poor boy was so ill and was so cold.
 Gabriel realizes that his wife are strangers and he knows this because the true love what
was Gretta proved for Michel and not for him: Gabriel couldn’t compete with Michela
because Michael was the true love for Gretta. Their was a formal, concrete wedding but
not made of passions. It is as like as Gabriel was less than Michel for Gretta. Gabriel
didn’t know his wife and he realizes it in that moment.
 This is how life is, death makes change thing without any possibility. The same past and
present he had mentioned in the same speech. What shall they make of this present? He
was desperately love with her woman but he doesn’t know her and her love for another
man yet died. New generations are working for a new Ireland.
The word is covered by the snow. What is the power of the snow? It covers Ireland
everywhere and brings about silence and this is typical of the dead people. The Irish
ancestors are the one who have build the Ireland, who have given Ireland tradition,
hospitality, love to Ireland and they were so different from new generation.
At the end of the story he is metaphorically dead. He has dead in his hearth because is so
much in love with his wife but she his a stranger. She is belonging to a upper class while
he is defeated by a boy of 16 who died a long time before. It is as if Gabriel was
worthless for her wife. Gabriel is in a sort sense self confident but at the same time is
insecure and the only person who loved him was his wife and she is not in love with him
anymore.
 The creation of self identity starting for the heart of darkness in ourselves and flow of
thoughts.
 Thomas Steran Elliot (1888-1965)
His life bridges two great moments: when he was born England lived under the
Victorian Age and when he died the Sixties were a period of many changes. He was
born in Misery attended Haward University in 1906 ang got in touch with Baudelaire
and LaForge. After taking his degree he sailed to Europe. He attended the Sorbonne and
got in touch after knowing him, Henry Bergeson. In 1914 he back to Europe and
travelled in Belgium, Italy, Germany and then he came back in England. In 1915 he
larked the beginning of Elliot’s career as a poet and two years later he entered in Lloyd
 Bank. 1921 he had a nervous breakdown and he was recovered in Switzerland. He
conversed to the Catholicism. He won the Nobel Prize for the literature.
Yeats, radio broadcast of Modern poetry-> Poetry has to be like prose in the sense that the sound of
poetry had to be the sound of the prose. There shouldn’t be any subject matter in particular-> a little
object can be useful to write a poet. It was better to accept a worthless world. Elliot writes about the
modern metropolis so he writes about the contemporary men. He speak about the mind, confusion
which characterizes the mind of a man. All these overlapping images store up in the mind of the
poet and if the poet wants to write a poet he has just to store up in his mind. The poet has to be put
of what he is. The poet has to pick up the ideas that store up in their mind and write the poet. The
business of the poet is not to find the emotions but to use the ordinary ones and working them up
into the poetry, to express feelings which are not in the mind of the poet.
He distinguish 3 different kinds of metaphysical poetry.
1) Medieval poetry-> school of Cavalcanti and Dante. He admired the Divine Comedy
because it was the work which expressed the mind of an age. The principle he deals with
were known thought Europe. The Divine Comedy is not only Dante’s masterpiece but it is
something that expresses the European mind because it has frame of mind that expresses the
European Middle ages.
2) Renaissance- School of Donne-> Elliot was the first to give importance to the metaphysical
poet. In his famous essay “Metaphysical poetry”, he describes metaphysical poets and in
particular Donne as great voices of XVII century literature. He revaluates these poets and
poetry.
3) Modern-> school of Baudelaire and Langfourge. He had got in touch with them and
with their works while he’s studying Arthur Simmon’s The Symbolist Movement of
Literature.
He was interested in Langfourgue’s method-> a kind of treasury, incorporating unusual and
non. Poetic words and subtly allusive, factitious and reflective meanings. It was Elliot who
introduced a rival of metaphysical poet. The awareness of the reality which is complex and
various and it has to pick up ideas and mixed together writing a poetry, juxtaposing words
and express a concept.
Lezione 7
- Metaphysical poetry (Elliot, 1921)-> he appreciates Donne’s poetry because he recognize in his
appreciate in the mixing of elements coming from different fields of knowledge and he
appreciates the great variety and complexity which can be seen and recognized both in reality
and poetry. He appreciates Donne’s way of writing because it was the ancestor of his own
mystic matter which consisted in putting together different words and images coming from
different works, époques and countries. He was the main feature of Elliot’s style.
- J. Alfred Prufrock-> it was the name of an old sailor of in S. Luis Missouri. Missouri was the
place where even Elliot was born. Prufrock was in Elliot’s mind an ordinary name and couldn’t
be related it has nothing to do with the great tragic hero of the past, he was an ordinary man
living his ordinary life. Elliot gives a link of an ordinary man with a specific jar of poems, a
long song of Prufrock. This makes him sounds more than an ordinary sailor in Missouri.
- The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The text was written in 1910-1911 and was published in the collection “Elliot’s poetry” and his
collection had different sections. The text looks like segnments put together the one after the
other. Segmentation creates a text. The beginning is a quotation of Dante Alighieri. The passage
comes from Inferno, the XVII canto, in particular lines 61-66. Dante speaks with Guido Da
Montefeltro. This character was a militarist strategist and the Lord of Urbino. Dante puts him in
hell among the fraudulent counsellors. Guido das Montefeltro was a Ghibelline and this means
he was against the pope. In 1298 Boniface the VIII called on him for advice in dealing with the
Colonna family and was the pope’s antagonist. Guido da Montefeltro advised to pope to
promise amnesty to the Colonna who ere living inside the castle since age and the promise of
dealing and accepting the conditions of the Colonna convinced them to get out of the castle and
the advice that Guido da Montefeltro gave the pope was to accept dealing with the family so
that they could come out of the castle and take them. This is the reason why Dante places him
among the fraudulent councilor. Apparently a love song could have nothing to do with a
fraudulent councilor.
- Section 1: “you and I”-> I was Elliot himself, You could I’s I interlocutor. “let us go”->
an invitation of movement . we are introduced the idea of movement bit there is no
setting. We can imagine that Prufrock is in London and possibly he could moving
around in one of the cheapest areas. In the 2 line we have the “evening that spreads out
against tha sky”. Evening must coincide with the tea time. There is a speaker with his
own interlocutor moving in deserted street in a large town and it his almost tea time. Our
I speaker is overwhelmed by many thoughts, a question that oppresses the speaker
because it is something for him and can’t find the answer. We know they are moving
because thay have to go somewhere because they are been waited for amd they have to
pay a visit. After an overwhelming question there is an interruption. This question is so
overwhelming that is oppressed by it and the speaker is unable to have an answer.
- Section 2: Talking of Michelangelo (line 14)->The wo person in question are in a room
of a museum with there are some people admiring picture of a great painter.
- Section 3 : There is a description of everything turning into in activity, the idea is of a
passivity. The idea is of non-action in place of action. Someone who is presumed to act
but that doesn’t act. The character is so oppressed by this overwhelming question that
cannot act because isn’t able to find an answer. It is October night, so it is autumn.
Autumn corresponds to the adulthood, a phase of life which precedes death. This is a
moment to balance, and you have face both positive and negative items, so both
questions. So this man is overwhelmed by these question who is an adult and now is
making a balance and reflecting on who he is, and what he has done and what he is like.
- Session 4: in this section we learn something more about the speaker-> he is obsessed by
time, he is expected to do something and he is postponing this decision. In the span of
time you have the time to do and do again. This idea there will be time and the idea of
thinking obsessively of all the things you can do and then do in the span of time speaks
for the speaker’s indecision, incapability to make up his own mind and to face a problem
and find a final decision. This overwhelming question puts together the two
interlocutors. If we put this fact in relation with this time it is of the speaker before and
time of toast and tea that is the moment when the decision has to be made, the moment
when something is expect to happen and this is a great course of worry concerns the
speaker because the moment of making a decision is coming nearer and nearer.
- Section 5: this image again and is without a sense. This means associations with images
and ideas and this is what happens in the mind of the speaker. It is as if the speaker
explains things he considers simply because he doesn’t want to make this decision.
- Section 6: another feature about the speaker. We realize how our speaker is feeling not at
his in the place where he is and with the person he meets. He is wondering if he is
allowed to do or not to do. He is afraid what people may say about him and where they
looks. He is afraid of the judgments. He fears not to be up of what he has to do. Do I
 dare disturb? A present someone who is unwelcome. Time is relative, in a span of a
minute there is time for decision and revision, on a minute everything happens and he
can change his mind again and again.
- He already know the people he meets, he already knows everything about them. How
should I begin? -> climax.
- If only I could be something else? He is who is and the moment when he is to face the
problem is coming and is overwhelming and involves the speaker and the interlocutor.
He is expected to do all the things, he feels some kind of a martyr. he can’t know what
happen next, he is always afraid of facing the moment, making decision, afraid of living
the specific moment with the interlocutor. The overwhelming question which is
mentioned at the beginning at the poem is not solved yet because he is postponing again
and again the decision and the moment is so dreadfully facing.
- He says that he is Lazarus-> someone who is there to tell you what he is impossible to
know, someone who is trying to tell you what the speaker wants but that is unable to say.
This question is a question in the sense of a problem, something which is not solved. He
is trying to force himself to face this problem. He tries to be someone else and to face
the problem but without solution because he is who is. Other things around him districts
him from the point, they are not helping him and making this fact more and more
difficult to the point that it is impossible to say just what he means.
- He is quoting Hamlet-> Hamlet is the symbol of doubt, finding answer to never solved
answers and problems. The point is that H. doesn’t know what the consequences of his
action would be. None has never come back from the death and none has never told
what happens after death and Hamlet lives with this problem.
- Prufrock feels to be more like Polonius than Hamlet because Hamlet speaks but wonders
on something so important that is impossible to know because men are not given to
know. Polonius speaks a lot and doesn’t act. Prufrock is someone who speaks and wants
but is not able to do and he is fortune falls.
- He is a man who is growing old and he is difficult for him that time is flowing. He is
trying to suggest think to look younger. He would like to change his appearance only
just because what allow him not to solve this overwhelming question.
- Ulysses was charmed by the singing of mermaids. Those mermaids are not singing for
him.
- The poem ends with an image of death which out of metaphor has to be considered as an
intrusion in the reality in the stream of thoughts taking place in Prufrock’s mind. This is
an example of stream of consciousness is represented by the chain that passing in the
mind of P. and at the end we have a come back to the reality.
- The image of the sea is associated to an idea of his suppressed self because he is
drowned by the sea.
- Many things are left in suspension. We have known something about Prufrock but
nothing is said about an interlocutor. P. needs time but the time is short. There is another
problem which is to communicate and act. He is not able to communicate with other
people, he would like to change his aspect to like more to himself than others.
Prufrock is a very modern peace of poetry because deals with the mayor problems of
that period-> the relation between space of time but what time can be considered the
relationship between men and time in the beginning of last century and there is the
problem of communication, is unable to face the question who is unable to solve.
What is the problem? You is Prufrock’s amours himself, he his not able to deal with the
sexual matters with himself. At the same time the relationship between man and
 sexuality is something which is determinate speak about our inmost self. This is the most
intimate part of the human being. If your sexuality is not solved because it is a taboo,
because you are unable to face the topic, something is unresolved inside you. What can
help people to solve the communication between himself and amperes himself? Thanks
to the psychoanalysis. Elliot manages to write a poem whose protagonist is a middle
aged man who is facing a problem and he has to deal with time, find a better acceptance
of himself and this comes from psychoanalysis, it is a science that helps you to
understand who you are simply by knowing you better and exploring the heart of
darkness in yourself. In such a situation the topic who best of all requires an incapability
to communicate was that of sexuality.

Virginia Woolf
- She burn in 1882 and died in 1941. She is considered one of the greatest writers of
English literature. She was born in London. Her father was one of Sir Leslie Stephen ,
who was a Victorian scholar and critic.
- During her life she moved to Bloomsbury where the Bloomsbury group was found
which was made up of great minds of the time and she was one of the members. They
were all educated in Cambridge University. She often the meeting of this group took
place in her house.
- She married Leonard Woolf. They founded together in Hogarth Press.
- She died in March 1941 after committing suicide ( she suffered depression, she was
terrified by the Second World War and also she was terrified by the idea of losing her
mind and be abandoned by her husband).
- She also had some homosexual experiences-> she explored love in as many ways at it
was possible. She was convinced that the steam of consciousness was actually the only
way to know about the human experience.
- She was also known and famous to be an activist and feminist. We have to face the
question of women. To understand the results which were broke about, you have to
compare the typical life of a woman during the Victorian Age, when they were expected
to be submitted, they were expected to play a very precise roles in life but they couldn’t
attend university, they were denied to stay in public life they couldn’t vote etc. they were
totally excluded in public life in particular in London. The women who didn’t accept this
code of behavior allow the critics to speak about the women’s question. Some women
started to fight for their rights. In the early 20century this movements were known as the
suffragettes and the woman who found them was Emmeline Pankhurst. These rights
were to be educated, to be respected the families and to vote in the national public
elections.
- Profession for Women
This text goes back in 1913 when Woolf was in the United States to take a speech to the
Women Service League when she talked about generally of the situation of a woman
writer and generally of the situation of a woman living in a man dominated by men.
The text was published posted in 1942 in a collection of essays ( the Deaths of the Moth
and other Essays).
ANALISIS.
- She is a woman writer and she is to be grateful of the women writer before her. She
mentioned Fanny Burner, Afra Ben ( a writer of the XVII century and wrote Oronoco).
Harriet Martineau ( a famous economist of the last century); Jane Austen, George Elliot
( she was considered as a female counterpart of Charles Dickens). To be a woman
 writer in her time simply because there had been many great writer smoothing the path.
There were many female writers simply because in order to write they didn’t need to
spend a lot of money to buy paper. It was acquired occupation and didn’t disturb the
family in the house, so it was a good profession for a woman. Then Virginia describes
her as a young writer: she says to imagine her sitting in her room with an ink, paper and
a disposal, she just have to write and she sent what she wrote to the editor, then was a
great day because had been paid for something she had done and the money she earned
was spend in order to buy a cat. Then she is describing the problem she has-> she wrote
reviews of books that have been written by famous men. Every time she had to write
something, arrived a phantom between her and the work and said what Virginia was
supposed to write. He is called the Angel in the house. It was a title of a poem dealing
with the role women were expected to play during Victorian Age.
- After Queen Victoria something had to change. Women changed and women’s bodies
started to put into evidence.
- Virginia had tom show respect for a man and above all in this phantom she was not
expected to show any opinion, she was the situation she had to face. If she wanted to
write as a woman she had to kill the phantom but it is not easy because is not real. She
had to kill the mentality in which she had burn. One she had got rid of her phantom, she
remained a young woman but she didn’t know what to be a young woman. The identity
of women had still to be build, the past references had abandoned her by killing the
phantom. Virginia is convinced that the struggle isn’t over. She says in the last
paragraph that “much have been done but there is still much to be done”. Once they had
gain their rights, they had to turn the place into their own in order to state the female
level as an alternative and complementary of the men one.