Appunti Letteratura inglese

THE ARCADES – WALTER BENJAMIN

Il Flaneur è lo spettatore privilegiato. La città è affascinante perché stratificata: possono essere ritrovate tracce del passato. Si vede la stratificazione della storia della città.

L'attenzione si rivolge ad elementi concreti della vita materiale: l'asfalto, il lampione a gas (le città sono illuminate, diventando così sicure).

Il Flaneur si nutre della propria flaunerie: cammina per il gusto di camminare, segue percorsi labirintici (immagine della città come un labirinto). Ciò che gli interessa è andare avanti. È stata Parigi ad aver creato il Flaneur.

In queste pagine si vede la fascinazione che la città esercita: la città diventa un magnete che attrae il poeta. Non solo è un centro di attrazione anche dalle campagne (forte migrazione anche dalle campagne verso le città), ma è una fascinazione poetica. C'è un doppio

registro: da un lato la città diventa paesaggio, ma dall'altro passeggiare nella città significa percorrere anche un'interiorità. Metafora della città come casa, luogo domestico, intimo, pur essendo invece un luogo pubblico. Si abitano le strade come si abita una casa. La città è vista come un organismo vivente, dove la vita si anima e si producono sorprese. Descrizione delle varie attività e lavori che si svolgono nella città: la vita serve e c'è sempre vitalità. Una caratteristica di questo momento storico è l'opposizione fra la folla e l'individuo singolo. Commistione fra chiuso e aperto, pubblico e privato, dentro e fuori. Panchine, edicole e biblioteche diventano l'arredamento della città-casa. Ciò che caratterizza la vita cittadina è la folla, la collettività, la massa. Le strade asfaltate diventano percorribili sia per le automobili sia per il Flaneur.

Portare ad un'inversione del modo di vedere la realtà. Gli psicogeografi entrano ed escono dagli ambienti: continuo circuito che comprende anche l'interno degli edifici. Una delle parole chiavi per gli psicogeografici è ambiente: si intende un'unità geografica (quartiere, piazza, ecc.) che non è solo un luogo, ma comprende anche odori e rumori, tipologie di persone che si possono incontrare. Tutte le città sono geologiche. La città fornisce uno spettacolo: spettacolarizzazione. Quella degli psicogeografi non è solo una passeggiata, ma è un'esperienza di gioco. È la città stessa che determina l'esperienza. In questo gioco bisogna essere almeno tre. Non è possibile andare alla deriva da soli: differenza fra flaunerie (individualismo) e psicogeografia (gruppo).

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: KING LEAR

King Lear is a tragedy. It's the story of the King Lear, who is not only a king but also a father.

The tragedy talks about the relationship between the king and his three daughters. At the beginning of the play, the king takes an important decision: he decides that he's too old and tired and he doesn't want to have this burden of ruling the country at that age. Therefore, he takes the decision to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, but this decision will have lots of dramatic consequences.

Shakespeare's plays were not written down texts, so the actors were performing but they didn't have a written text to follow, so what we read nowadays is a reproduction of the text that was learnt by heart by the actors and was later transcribed.

Shakespeare's plays were not born as literary and printed texts, they were just oral performances. Only later they were transcribed and published as texts.

The first episode shows Gloucester and his son Edmund on the stage, together with Kent. Shakespeare's language is different from nowadays English, so there are lots of puns.

doublemeanings, that we are no longer able to understand today because they had a different meaning at that time. Shakespeare's language is very artificial. Shakespeare writes in Old English, so some words are different from the modern English. For example, "thai" means "your" and "the" means "you".

ACT 1 SCENE I

Gloucester is introducing his son Edmund to Kent, king Lear's good friend. They are just introducing each other, because they don't know each other. Edmund is the illegitimate son of Gloucester, he was born in uncertain circumstances.

When Gloucester introduces his son Edmund, he uses a strange phrase. Kent doesn't understand it but he doesn't say it, he says "I cannot conceive you" which means also "to give birth". Kent is using a pun, he's playing with words. This is an example of how the language can be tricky and difficult to understand.

We know that Gloucester has two sons, one illegitimate and the other one legitimate, but

hedoesn’t make any difference between them because he loves them both.

Then the king comes. The first sentence that King Lear pronounces is: “We are here for our darkpurposes.” The words that the king pronounces are quite obscure; this gives us a hint that there issomething wrong in what he’s going to say. Someone brings to him a map because he wants todefine the edges of the kingdom.

He says that he wants to divide the kingdom into three parts because he wants to leave thekingdom to his daughters because he wants to “shake all cares and business from his age”. Hetalks about himself using the plural.

We have the impression that the King is an old man, he’s tired and he wants to divide the kingdominto three equal parts and give them to his daughters. He wants to unbarthen himself, becauseruling the kingdom is a heavy job. He’s ready to crawl to death. The image that he wants to give ofhimself is an image of an old man, tired, ready to give.

up his position because he’s near to death.

The two oldest sisters are married, while Cordelia isn’t because she’s young, but she has two suitors: king of France and king of Burgundy (duke and king are synonymous). France and Burgundy are rivals in love towards Cordelia.

Then, before dividing the kingdom, king Lear creates a contest in which the daughters should tell him who loves him the most, they should express their love. He wants the daughters to publicly express their love to their fathers, but he creates a kind of competition among them. He calls them one by one to give a public speech about their love to their fathers.

The first daughter, Goneril, starts her speech. She’s very good at using rhetorical skills, she knows how to say a very convincible speech. She’s very good at using rhetoric for her own purposes and she’s very careful in using the words in a right way. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion: she manages to persuade her father.

While Goneril is speaking,

We have a side: Cordelia, the youngest sister, is talking to herself not to her public, and she's having doubts about what she has to say. She's very different from the other sisters, because she doesn't know how to speak and what to say. She knows that she cannot produce the speech her father would like to hear, so she's desperate.

King Lear is very happy for Goneril's speech, so he gives her the first piece of land. Then it is the turn of Regan. She gives a very persuasive speech. Apparently, she says that, as her sister, she loves her father, but then she says that she loves him more than her sister.

By speaking publicly about their love, the two older sisters, Regan and Goneril, gain a piece of land.

Cordelia is the youngest daughter and she's the favourite of the king, but she refuses to give a public speech about her love, and she says very common things: she loves her father, her sisters are probably lying because they love their husbands too, so their.

claims that he won't give her anything at all. She's also banned from his heart and his kingdom.

He has a very passionate reaction to this non-speech. King Lear is characterised by this passionate and violent temperament, even unjustifiable.

King Lear doesn't recognise his daughter anymore, despite she's his favourite daughter. He refuses to give her his inheritance, and he bans her from his property and his heart.

King Lear accuses Cordelia of being too proud: pride is her sin.

Therefore, he decides that the kingdom should go among the two sisters and their husbands, and nothing would be left to Cordelia.

The beginning of the play shows this situation. We have two different generations and a moment of passage: the reign should pass from father to daughters. This is always a very critical moment.

Shakespeare's thinking what would happen after the reign of Queen Elizabeth because she refused marriage, so she didn't have any sons or daughters. The king was the

The most important institution at that time was the monarchy because the king was believed to be chosen by God, making the success to the throne highly significant.

Shakespeare