Letteratura inglese 1

Letteratura inglese

Indice pagine

1. Types of literature 2-3
2. English humanism 3
3. Renaissance - Discoveries and the circulation of ideas 3-4
4. The origins of the drama 4
5. Elizabeth theatre 4-5
6. Christopher Marlowe 6
6.1 Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe 6-7
7. Standing on the shoulders of giants 7
8. Sir Thomas More 7-8
8.1 Utopia - Thomas More 8
9. Francis Bacon 8-9
10. William Shakespeare 9-10
10.1 Macbeth - William Shakespeare 10-12
10.2 Re Lear William Shakespeare 12-13
11. John Milton 14
11.1 Paradise Lost John Milton 14-15
12. The Restoration and the Augustan age 15
13. The Romantic Age
13.1 An Age of Revolution 16
13.2 The Nature of Poetry 16
13.3 The poetry of Nature 16
13.4 Development of Romantic Poetry 17
14. William Blake 17-18
14.1 Songs of Innocence and of Experience - William Blake 18
15. Mary Wollstonecraft 18-19
15.1 Vindication of rights of woman Mary Wollstonecraft 19-20
15.2 Maria, or the wrongs of woman Mary Wollstonecraft 20-22
16. Mary Shelley 22
16.1 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 23-25
17. Jane Austen 25-26
17.1 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 26-27
17.2 Emma Jane Austen 28-29
18. William Wordsworth 29
18.1 Lyrical Ballads - William Wordsworth 29

Types of literature

The types of literature are used to understand the difference between one genre and another, differences that are often taken for granted.

• Prose - The most typical form of language, characterized by an ordinary grammar and a common structure (Ex. - Novel, Essay).
• Novel - A fictitious prose narrative, with some degree of realism, and of book length.
• Essay - Works (literary criticism, political manifestos, observations) where the opinion of the author is dominant.
• Short story - A work of fiction, usually written in a narrative prose. Often depicting few characters and concentrating a single effect or mood and the variety of literary techniques it shares with the more extensive novel.
• Diary - A record originally handwritten format with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or a period.
• Myth - Sacred narrative usually explaining how the world and mankind came to be in its present form.
• Folktale - General term for different varieties of traditional narrative. It is common to many cultures, as it’s an oral tale to be told for everybody.
• Comedy - Not necessarily an entirely comic work, as it can also allow a kind of reflection on the context or on the character. The main feature is the enlightenment, there is the use of criticism on something or someone, therefore satire.
• Drama - A work represented in performance.
• Tragedy - Form of drama based on human suffering, which leads the audience to catharsis. It played an important role in the definition of Western civilization. There is a strong empathy and the viewer captures the essence of the tragedy.
• Fable - A literary genre characterized by a short fictional story that features animals or inanimate objects that are anthropomorphized and endowed with human qualities. Must teach something, moral lesson (bringing out good from evil) is offered to children to introduce them to morality.
• Legend - Narrative of human actions that take place within human history. There is an intersection between reality and fantasy. In the legend there are very specific historical references (to make them seem likely).
• Fiction - Any work that deals with imaginary or theoretical facts, invented by the author. The author is very involved in the construction, the context in which he lives is fundamental as it will be inserted in the work.
• Theme - Is usually one / two, and is the main element that supports the story.
• Biography - An account of someone’s life that highlights many aspects of his life.
• Autobiography - Write about yourself.
• Poetry - The word poetry comes from the Latin "poeisis" and means to do, but not in the sense of action. A literary art form that uses the aesthetic qualities of language to evoke something in the reader, the author tries to find the word that best describes what he feels and serves as an act of evocation. It can be interpreted to capture higher and more subjective meanings.
• Epic - A depiction of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or a nation.
• Elegy - A mournful poem usually written to a dead person.
• Eulogy - A speech or writing in praise of someone.
• Lyric - A song sung with a lyre, with a personal point of view.
• Ballad - A form of verse often set to music. Ballads were typical of popular poetry.
• Song - A composition sung and accompanied by musical instruments.
• Narrative - A constructive format as a work of speech, writing, song, film etc. that describes a series of non-fictional or fictional events.

English humanism - 15th century

In England, politics and religion were always connected, so the spirit of humanists applied to all fields of society, including politics. Humanists [Those who focused their studies on men, society and institutions] such as Francis Bacon and Thomas More (who wrote Utopia, the first utopian work that many centuries later will be followed by Orwell’s dystopia) used classical themes to explore such themes. Both authors contributed to the revival of classical studies and the reshaping of the nation; that means giving a new order and structure to a society that hardly has one. In response to this, the Utopia becomes a form of critique, acting as a counterpart or as an opposition to that time’s society. Humanist society was dominated by illiteracy, bigotry and puritanism, that was a consequence of the strong presence of religion in everyday life. It didn’t allow any kind of social mobility, so the members of the lower class were stuck in their position. Therefore, humanist society can be divided into two main groups: wealthy men and outcasts.

Renaissance - Discoveries and the circulation of ideas – 1485-1625

The works published during this period tackled almost every kind of subject that the author could imagine. A significant element in the reshaping of culture and the circulation of ideas was the development of printing. Thanks to Gutenberg’s printing press (1450), book production rose steadily, and protestant ideas spread very quickly. Because of a very limited alphabetization process, the only method to spread morality and ethics was the bible, orally spread by priests. Religion’s purpose was to affect the people’s behaviour, staying always in accordance with politics. It was like a device for crowd control.

Universities played an important role in spreading ideas and culture too. They had the mission of creating the future leading class (Students were mostly upper class and clergy members). As literacy increased, and people renewed their interest in classical education, universities began to teach also more secular subjects, such as science and law, as well as grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. The Renaissance was also a time of mobility, both within Europe and abroad. As the power of both the holy roman empire and the catholic church weakened, Italy’s city-states and England’s monarchy increased in importance. With this development, Rome was no longer the intellectual and cultural center of Europe, and renaissance scholars began to travel elsewhere. Therefore, exploration outside Europe was on the rise, and new lands were being discovered. Only the members of the upper class travelled, mostly because they were the only ones who could afford it. Everything obtained by these journeys, both cultural and not, was obtained by them, which made them more powerful. Even though travelling remained expensive and often dangerous, more and more people experienced it.

Fundamental elements of the Renaissance

• Support for religion and politics
• Dissemination of ideas through texts (no longer just the Bible)
• Classical recovery
• Idea of the journey
• Shaping the nation
• Giving its own dignity and appearance
• Adaptation (not to copy the past but to make it a model)

The origins of the drama - 14th/15th centuries

The origins of the theater were religious. During the medieval drama, it was used by the church to educate people from an ethical and moral point of view. Then explain the difference between good and evil and then educate on behaviour. If there is a need to moralize it means that the people are still lacking in adequate behaviour and education. Parts of the liturgy turned into dramatic dialogues performed by the clergy in Latin. These dramatic scenes developed into the earliest comedies known as mysterious or miraculous comedies, a genre that evolved in the 14th and 15th centuries. To allow the citizens of the growing cities to enjoy these spectacles, the representation of these scenes moved from inside the church to the streets. A short play was presented on a moving chariot called a spectacle, which then moved to leave the stage for another chariot, where another short film was staged. Latin was gradually replaced by English and the roles were played by laymen rather than by the clergy.

Cycle plays were founded by “guilds”, associations of men who had their own pageants. These guilds were also known as masteries or mysteries, which is why they came to be called mystery plays. From the point of view of the content, plays can be divided into scriptural, morality and hagiographical plays. Scriptural plays are short plays based on the old and new testaments, whose aim was to illustrate how men could reach salvation. Morality plays focused on the battle between good and evil for the possession of a man’s soul. Their protagonists are often symbols for the human vices and virtues. An example can be the play Everyman (15th century). It tells the story of everyman, the symbol of any human being who, unexpectedly called by death and informed that he has to die, needs to give account of all his actions (Bergman’s Seventh Seal). During his journey towards death everyman learns the true value of life, and he is helped only by Good Deeds (symbol of the good things he did in life). Its moral is as explicit as possible. Hagiographical plays tell the lives of saints and their miracles, with the purpose of teaching Christian values. They create a series of values to whom men have to inspire. Just a few of them survived.

Elizabeth theatre - 1558

Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the theater begins to evolve. It does not belong only to the religious sphere, but secular themes are also beginning to be represented. During the Renaissance, religious representations began to decline in popularity. In particular, after the reform, control over such performance passed from the church to the crown, which they used the theater to pursue a political purpose (they understood that the strongest power is the one that affects a person's mind). The content of the comedies also changes, men are faced with themselves and their flaws. Even although religion is not yet abandoned, the themes gradually detach from it. The king's control over religious dramas often meant censorship, so writers began to watch elsewhere for inspiration for their books, especially Italian or classical theater.

Another great change during the Renaissance was the introduction of theaters built specifically for the purpose of staging plays. No more floats or churches, theatrical performances were staged indoors: university classrooms, private homes, schools and court inns (where lawyers were trained). Acting companies, who traditionally travelled across the country, began to want their own permanent theatres, and some began forming companies that worked under the patronage of wealthy men. To avoid problems of censorship, companies sought the approval of the crown; They had to be allowed to perform, so they could often be threatened, for example, by the closure of theatres, due to censorship, which prevented the performance of some theatrical works, from the moralistic attacks of the Puritans, who considered the theater as an occasion for sin. So, the companies could only offer the actors some security, the companies offer professionalization to the actors. In public theatres there were no lights, no curtains and no set design. There were a few furniture and decorations (props), which could also be given different symbolic meanings and dialogues provided the description of the setting.

The Elizabethan age is often regarded as the golden age of theater; Queen Elizabeth was a great supporter art, and this has stimulated activity in the theater. Much of the credit for the growth of this form of entertainment is traditionally attributed to a group of young graduates from Oxford or Cambridge between 1575 and 1588 who created the forms of the Elizabethan drama, abandoning the techniques and practices of the previous generations. Due to their upbringing, these authors are now known as the university wits. The content changes radically: the plays are no longer about religion, but education, that it can be achieved without any kind of religious means. Secular themes grow in importance, and thanks to university ingenuity there is a will to theater in transformation. They want to create a new kind of theater that looks like society, equally in a state of transition. The representation is important because: there is the direct message, the expression, the gestures and it can have a large audience. Theater becomes more effective than reading. The theater uses many elements to convey emotions to the reader. The theater lacks: the speaker and the choir.

Among these educated young playwrights was Christopher Marlowe, whose works made him famous in life. He is considered the leading playwright of that period, and some scholars also believe that he profoundly influenced William Shakespeare. Marlowe was the first to achieve critical notoriety for his use of blank verse, which became the standard for the Was. Marlowe is now considered a typical "Renaissance man" who insisted on freedom and intellectual abilities of the individual, but at that time his reputation as a free thinker often got him in trouble with the authorities. Critics have often described him as a disreputable character (he was in the slums, he was a drunk, etc.), but considering the intellectual impact he has had, all of this is tolerable. By placing the emphasis on a direct relationship between man and God, without the mediation of the clergy, the reform had made it more difficult for the individual to find traditional support of an external moral system. Faith and a sense of "self" had to be built from within, leaving much room for uncertainty and conflict within the individual himself.

Commenti professoressa

• The creation of companies has the professionalization of the theater.
• It becomes important to represent man -> the theatre becomes the instrument to bring the idea closer to man.
• The theater was only recited and not read e.g., Shakespeare and Marlowe -> the theater was born for the representation and the relationship between actor and spectator.
• Representation is important because: the message is direct (does not need intermediation): words, gestures, expressions; can have a wide audience.
• Theatre becomes more effective than reading.
• The theatre uses many elements to convey emotions to the reader.
• In the theater is missing: the narrator, the chorus.

Christopher Marlowe - 1564

Christopher Marlowe is an example of the creative importance of this whole generation of University Wits in the history of Elizabeth drama. Many of his contemporaries considered Marlowe primarily as a poet, and his use of powerful and elegant verse in the mouth of the protagonist, the conquering hero Tamburlaine, captivated audiences as they had never been captivated before. Marlowe is now considered as a typically ‘Renaissance man’, who insisted on the freedom and intellectual capacities of the individual, but at that time his reputation as a free-thinker often got him into trouble with the authorities.

Commenti professoressa

Marlowe, with the use of words, refers us to something, beyond religion; he tries to educate. It’s more philosophical than Shakespeare, who tended to characterize man and his elements, as in Doctor Faustus the character’s arrogance is repeated.

Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe - 1590

Tecniche: Uso del coro della tragedia greca, che anticipa le caratteristiche del personaggio protagonista, il dottor Faust, uno studioso di teologia (cioè crede nell’aldilà e in una vita dopo la morte). La rappresentazione teatrale, in questo caso la tragedia, serve all’autore a mettere in scena e in evidenza ciò che veniva tramandato, in modo che, con le scene, le parole e i gesti, la tragedia venisse compresa anche dal popolo analfabeta dell’età elisabettiana. Perciò, v’è una sorta di democratizzazione culturale attuata dal tragediografo inglese. Viene lanciato un avvertimento al pubblico su ciò che non bisognava fare per non commettere peccati, un modo per incutere timore nel pubblico elisabettiano.

Temi: Nella tragedia di Marlowe, non è solo l’ambizione di potere, ma anche quella per la conoscenza assoluta. Infatti, Faust non è soddisfatto di quello che già sa, ma vuole andare oltre i limiti della conoscenza. E per farlo, chiama in aiuto Mefistofele (metafora del peccato umano), il messaggero di Satana, con cui stipulerà un patto, di cui, però, sarà prigioniero. Il periodo in cui la tragedia è scritta, è un periodo di forte destabilizzazione dal punto di vista religioso-scientifico. La negromanzia, altro tema fulcro di questa tragedia, è presente con allusioni alla magia nera.