Letteratura inglese 2

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

07.03.2023

the norton anthology english literature

hamlet the oxford shakespeare

hamlet and oedipus ernest jones

oxford english dictionary

oxford dictionary of national biography

08.03.2023 RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND

16th-17th

Contemporary English isn’t a uniform language, but it presents several variations

➔ depending on the social class of the speaker. Unlike in Italian, those differences don’t

have a geographical basis and the concept of “dialect” is almost completely lost in

time. However, in the past, there were a lot of dialects, among which some were

deeply-rooted in the British tradition, while others presented strong influences from

vernacular languages (those deriving from Latin).

Apparently, the English pronunciation is completely illogical, but, despite not following

➔ standard and uniform rules, there’s a reason for the phenomenon: unlike the

vernacular languages, which derived directly from Latin, a language with a

centuries-old written tradition, English is based on the oral one and the first attempts

to reproduce the sounds with the Latin alphabet varied from region to region and

from dialect to dialect, therefore, when the written language was standardised,

several regional variances were put together and each one had its individual

pronunciation rules.

English was also open to many other languages’ influence. When printing

◆ started to spread, people gradually came to agree on a single word, but still

the pronunciation could change from speaker to speaker depending on the

area they were from.

A text was made up of the SIGNIFICANTER, so the words altogether, and a

◆ SIGNIFY, which is the Meaning.

VERNACULAR VULGAR

(lingua volgare) (rude Language).

➔

SIR WALTER RALEIGH 1

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

Raleigh was a very important public figure of his time: he was a noble, an explorer, a

➔ soldier and a colonizer who discovered Guyana. This land was famous for its gold

mines (which made many people believe it was the legendary land of Eldorado). This

discovery earned him the favour of queen Elizabeth I.

However, her heir to the throne, James I, accused him of betrayal and imprisoned

➔ him in the tower of London in 1603.

Set free for a short period of time in 1617, he was captured again and executed the

➔ next year. James I was a paranoid king, since the former queen executed his mother

and he had many enemies in the kingdom, but we have no idea whether Raleigh was

actually guilty or not.

During his imprisonment, Raleigh wrote his last and incomplete work: History of the

➔ world. While writing, he wasn’t ill or injured, but the captivity gave him the certainty of

an imminent death and this mood is reflected in the preface of the book, where the

author talks with Death himself.

For the author, Death is the only medium to obtain the final knowledge, since it tears

➔ apart self-deceptions and shows the truth. In this period, people asked themselves

how much they could fight God’s will through medicine, cosmetics and technological

advancement. But the very limit is Death itself, which nobody can defeat. For the

author, Death makes us understand the difference between what we care for and

what we should care for, the real values of mankind like mind and soul, the only

eternal goods that we have. In the second half of the speech, he talks directly to

Death, in a direct and informal, yet humble, tone.

The speech leads to the acceptance of the human condition, of the powerful and

➔ arrogants, which fade away in the presence of Death. Raleigh’s language in the

preface is very theatrical, making it easy to read it out loud. In fact, theatre is the

main form of entertainment of this period and it helps the reader to become familiar

with the book.

Theatre is an independent form of art, unbent by the king nor the church, a

◆ place where people can manifest their real ideas and ideals. In these arenas,

often placed in the suburbs, among taverns and brothels (in London they

were placed in the south of river Thames, the poorest part of the city), people

could even manifest hostility towards the kingdom and Raleigh, in his

condition, was looking for this kind of readers.

Since you cannot erase death, you have to come to terms with it. ACCEPTANCE is

➔ the key. Furthermore, it is at the same time something powerful and something

familiar. We should not interfere with the will of God since death is something natural

and, soon or late, will regard every human being in the world.

Humans mixture if beauty and horror (the act of giving birth is a very explicit scene,

➔ full of blood) 2

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

[An interesting digression can be made about the scientific developments

◆ concerning the female body, which was considered a taboo for a very long

time, delaying for centuries the advancements in this branch of medicine. For

example, for centuries people believed that women could be affected by

hysteria, a mental illness that nowadays we know doesn’t exist.]

words pass from one meaning to the other

➔ words have double meaning

➔ Sites then we are enemies so this idea in which you find yourself in a fictional

➔ situation with fictional rules that you follow from trying being is the ideal place at this

point play also means however interplay how we pitch

playhouse, theatre

➔ building specifically made to act in

◆ theatres were born in those years, before that performances were made at

◆ home

if i think that my life is a play, i can use all the things for tell it

◆

mirth: laugh, joy

➔ sometimes it is disharmony

◆

music of the vision

➔ music is based on harmony

◆ ● it’s composed by rhythm, harmony and melody

division: use of harmony to create a special music effect

➔ mother wombs

➔ attire: to dress

◆ tiring house: prepare actors with costumes, makeup

◆ Life is short

◆

Hamlet:

➔ God makes a face for you and you change it with makeup

◆ Young man dressed like women was blasphemy

◆

haven, the gods look down like spectators for watching the performance

➔ The gods: the highest place in a theatre where you can’t see very well

◆

Speak a miss: speak the wrong words

➔ Doth: do

➔ In Early modern english: st second plural person, th 3 person singular

➔ Curtains: what separate the stage from the crowd

➔ We die early

➔ “It's a comedy but it ends with deaths”

➔ Comedy:

➔ Somethings that ends happily (tragedy ends unhappily)

◆

“You think your life is serious, but for the gods is comedy”

➔ The sense is that outside of our view, what we do is ridiculous

➔ Metaphor: structures of thoughts we live by

➔

➔ 3

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

HUMANISM, RENAISSANCE AND

EARLY MODERN ERA

These three terms are often used to define the period of time between the end of the

➔ Middle Age and the beginning of Modernity.

RAINASSENCE

It started in italy, a period in which we move away radically and it's a movement of

➔ reborn

People thought that not believing in god was blasphemy

➔ Middle ages

➔ We start thinking about human life

➔ Renaissance has a strong bond with humanism, but, while the former is mainly a

➔ cultural phenomenon deeply-rooted in Italy, the latter covers all aspects of social and

daily life and regards all of Europe.

The newly acquired technological knowledge entails improved farming techniques

➔ which raise the economy and reduce the individual working time, while the frequent

pandemics of plague lead to the birth of the profession of doctor, which raises the

life’s expectancy.

Now people live longer and have more free time, which means they have time to live

➔ instead of merely struggling to survive. Since less people need to work in the fields,

new professions are born to fulfil the new desire to enjoy life, like goldsmiths, cooks

and so on.

This means that people aren’t forced anymore to do the same job for their

◆ entire life but they can aspire to better ones through hard work and, mainly,

individual skills, which has never happened before since the Roman era. One

of the main links between artistic culture and practical knowledge in this era is

represented by rhetoric, the “science of well speaking”, which is essential for

both politics and forensics.

We can consider rhetoric as the art of speaking and the art of writing. It’s used for

➔ example for political purposes; it was also used to persuade a woman to love you.

Logically, this process took a lot of time and this implies that the conventional date of

1492 used to define the end of the Middle Age, loses all of its value and remains a

mere milestone in human history, while the real end of this age is vague and

undefined.

For this reason, English scholars tend to refer to this period just as “early

◆ modern era”.

EARLY MODERN

It marks the passage from

➔ Plague: la peste.

➔ “It was somebody fault”

◆ The blame was given to the sins etc.

◆ Since the plague was mortal, everybody goes to church

◆ There was a problem with some categories of people: they were no longer

◆ available in the community (workers of metals, bakery etc.)

After the plague you started to reform the community and you realise that you need

➔ workers

You can decide to develop your skills and become an important member of

◆ the community ad make good money

HUMANISM

“Love for human activity, philosophical art etc”

➔ Humanist

➔ 4

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

Created in analogy with giurista and words like this

◆ Human letters: languages, letters, literature etc.

◆ ● Useful in politics, in relation with other communities

It goes at the service of king, pope etc. to manage international relations for

◆ them, to inspire the communities

Laurea: invented by petrarca

➔ Humanism is a literary phenomenon that affected several parts of Italy leading to

➔ several consequences all over Europe. The rediscovery of Greek, Jewish and other

languages lost in times, alongside the vast knowledge kept in the ancient books, led

to a radical change in how people saw themselves and the world. Driven by a newly

discovered curiosity and appreciation for life, humanity went through a scientific

revolution that raised the life quality of all social classes.

Under the economical point of view, the main revolution directly related to humanism,

➔ is the “professionalisation of poetry”, which means that culture isn’t something related

to clergy only like in the Middle Age, but something that even lay (laici) people can

aspire too through intellect and instruction and that can earn money like any other

job. The word “clerk”, once a synonym of cleric, now indicates everyone who’s able to

make a living through their knowledge and culture.

All over Europe, places dedicated to the diffusion of culture are founded and they are

➔ called universities. The first one was born in 1088 in Bologna, followed by

Salamanca, London, Paris and Oxford.

In 1222 the university of Padua was born and a few years later Naples got its own. In

➔ the beginning, these cultural poles accepted only male students and teachers and we

had to wait until the 17th century, when Elena Cornaro Piscopia graduated in Padua,

to see the first woman allowed to attend university.

Through universities and courts, culture slowly starts to spread among the middle

➔ and higher classes and poetry becomes a way to extend one’s own life, since literary

fame grants eternal glory to the author.

Therefore, the laurel (alloro), a plant once used in funerary rituals to cover the smell

➔ of death with its own strong fragrance, is now used to represent this new type of

eternity, bonded to the memory of other people instead of the idea of an afterlife, and

becomes the symbol of all the great poets.

Francis Petrarch took a step forward and started toying with the words “laurel”

◆ and “Laura” (the name of his beloved) putting this dichotomy in the centre of

his poetic corpus. With time, the laurel became more and more important as a

symbol and started to represent all kinds of literacy, being adopted by

universities to represent the end of someone’s cultural journey.

5

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

To death, you are nothing, you are an object

➔ He (deth) looks at the rich and judge them

➔ After your death, only your bones remain

➔ The idea of hamlet

◆

Death is felt as physical death rather than going to heaven of hell

➔ Hans hoblein - the ambassadors (1533)

➔ Black clothes: it was expensive and it was the most expensive dye

◆ Young and rich men

◆ We can see instruments under the table, diary or books and a couple of other

◆ instruments, a map in the man hands

Self-fashioning: the idea that you construct your own persona (mind, clothes,

◆ the way you speak, the way you look at people etc.)

These people are asking a painter to paint them

◆ A cross on the left

◆ ● They are catholic

○ At that time, the king was the god

Astrolabe: an instrument that calculates the distance of the stars

◆ ● it’s put in a way that it's impossible to use

One of the books is open at the page of division

◆ Signs of problems

◆ A skull: sign that tells that something isn’t working

◆ If you change the point of view, you will see death in the painting

◆ It means to change your point of view, don’t think that your view is the only

◆ one

Age of doubt: what if the king is not right etc.

◆

Jacob and jason

Jacob: in his famous book, brought both sides of human consciousness

➔ The middle ages were dominated by superstition

➔ Men after started looking at themselves and not to god

➔

John donne 1572-1631

➔

Hamlet He doubts that everything he learnt is a lie after having found out that the earth

➔ circles around the sun

Its a centre were we find different directions

➔

CURRICULUM

Rhetoric: How you use language to persuade people

Grammar:

Dialectics: how you use languages to speak

Mathematics:

Geometry:

Music:

Astrology: absurd science base on astrology forces

Centre:

PRIMAVERA - Botticelli

Myth: a narration that explains something we can not explain

➔ It belongs to the culture in which it is created

◆

Botticelli gives an explanation with this painting

➔ A ninf raped by the wind, then pregnant possibily happy

➔ Read the painting from right to left

➔ 6

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

JACOB BURCKHARDT (1818-1897)

This Swiss historian is the author of “The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy”

➔ (1857). Although focusing on the condition of Italy, his argument can be effectively

◆ applied to the whole European Renaissance.

During the Middle Age, according to Burckhardt, self-consciousness was like

◆ a dream in drowsiness (dormiveglia), filtered and distorted by religion and

superstition. People were considered as part of the social environment,

without room for individuality, skill or chances for social rise.

● The first exception was, in fact, Italy, where humanism brought new

ideas and a love for life that couldn’t even be thought of a few years

before.

● This idea is slightly extreme and utopic, since the ‘800th century

scholars had a very nostalgic perspective of the Renaissance,

however the main idea is still considered correct nowadays and it’s

one of the keys to read and understand this period. The etymology of

“nostalgic” comes from the ancient Greek (from Νόστος, “nostos”,

which means “return” and Άλγος, “algos”, which means “pain”) and it

means “to feel pain because you want to return to the past).

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein (1533), now at the

➔ National Gallery in London.

It represents two powerful and rich ambassadors (as the title tells us).

◆ They wear black clothes; black was at the time the colour of money. They

◆ represent power, wealth and knowledge.

We can also see a skull at the bottom of the painting. We can see it if we

◆ watch from another point of view (this type of painting it’s called “anamorphic

painting”) .

● The meaning of this skull is that there are also divisions, problems and

bad things. It’s a “memento mori”. There is also a beautiful curtain

behind them, and on the left there’s a crucifix. In “The Ambassadors”

all the elements were probably discussed between the painter and the

subjects of the painting. To fashion at the time meant “to give a

shape”.

● To describe yourself you had to know yourself. Project an image of the

intellectuals of the subjects. You had also to throw out your life by the

way you spoke, by the words you used. Self-fashioning is a process

that takes your entire life.

Astrolabe = to make astronomical calculations.

➔ 7

LETTERATURA INGLESE 2 A-L 2022-2023 ZENNARO GIADA

20.03.2023

TRANSLATION OR TRANSCRIPTION?

When it comes to translate a text from English, it should be better regarded as a

➔ transposition:

English is problematic as for rhymes, in a sense that it has way more vowels

◆ than Italian and so it comes easier to realise alliterations rather than rhymes.

This one can be identified as something where the stress and syllables

matter.

● We can say that it is an effort to make the translated poem as similar

as possible to the original one, trying to express more or less the

same sense.

Sonnet: arrives in england in 16th century

➔ Has an asymmetrical structure

◆ Length of 14 lines of hendecasyllables

◆ 4 stanza with 2 quatris and 2 therties

◆ It distinguishes rhymes by giving…..

◆ There’s a turning