Letteratura angloamericana, appunti in inglese

Risorgimento

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

Fuller was a journalist and a women’s rights activist. She became the first editor of the Transcendental publication The Dial in 1840 and later she joined the New York Tribune. The Tribune sent her to Europe, in particular England and Italy, as the first female foreign correspondent. Fuller is the writer of what is considered the first major feminist book in the States - Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Other than caring for women’s rights she supported other forms of change, such as the prison reform and the emancipation of slaves. After her death, her brother published more of her books, like At Home and Abroad (1856) - Letters from the besieged Roman Republic (May-July 1849). Fuller's concluding remarks on the fall of the Roman Republic, her visit to the Villa del Vascello, view of corpses, references to Kossuth, Manin and Mazzini. Her wanting to be a daughter of Italy.

Civil War (Apr 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865)

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

Ambuscade (1938) The Unvanquished: Faulkner expresses his anti-slavery issues with this story, by choosing the more archaic form of the word ambush, he underlines the fact the whole American civil war was fought because of an archaic issue: slavery. However, the author prefers an indirect approach, narrating the first story as if it was an amazing story of war and adventure. He allows the reader to dwell on the romantic aspects of the war, not focusing on the destruction and the death.

The novel starts with the narrator, Bayard Sartoris, playing a game of war with Ringo, a young slave boy. The city of Vicksburg has already fallen as we later learn from Loosh (Ringo’s uncle). Bayard and Ringo supposedly play together against a common enemy, but with the interruption from Loosh, we get another perspective. Since the war deals with the liberation of black people, it is difficult for a black person to determine the enemy. However, Ringo grows up influenced by the southern culture and white code and he will therefore side with Sartoris and accept his point of view. Loosh leaves, hinting something about the war that the boys don’t know, but they continue playing undisturbed.

In the meantime, Bayard’s father, Colonel Sartoris, comes back bringing the element of the real war with his character. The father is a bit different from how he was in the past, e.g.: he doesn’t tell the boys war stories anymore. The boys don’t realize it, but the reason is that the war is coming closer to their city and there is no more time for entertainment. One day Loosh comes back after a brief absence and announces to the other slaves that they’re going to be set free. They do not believe him but Bayard and Ringo do so they decide to watch out for any approaching Yankee. They do spot one but it turns out to be the entire army. The boys shot at the soldiers and they are then hid by the Granny. She lies about the whereabouts of the boys and, although a northern colonel is aware of the situation, he chooses to call the other soldiers back and leave the house. The story ends with Bayard’s recollection of having to wash his mouth with soap for the swear word he used, showing that Granny upholds the rigid southern value code.

In Ambuscade, the two main characters are naive and wide-eyed. They do not appear to be aware of the differences in status between them, of the racial issue or even why the war is being fought at all. What helps the boys keep their innocence is that Faulkner chooses not to include the hardships of slave life: the humiliations, the punishments, the hard labor.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

• Civil War: Walt Whitman experienced the American Civil war upfront, as he volunteered in a military hospital during the conflict. This experience greatly inspired him in writing his poetry. After the war, Whitman published a collection of poems titled Drum Taps, which was then used as an appendix to the later edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman admitted that being around so many wounded soldiers and hearing their stories was beneficial to him in the sense that it restored his faith in humanity. In fact, many of the principles of his poetry, such as the nobility of common people or the democratic ideals of America, Whitman first saw reflected in the soldiers that had a life and a job before the war. The Civil War and Abraham Lincoln greatly inspired Whitman, who dedicated two poems to the president: “Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” and “O Captain! My Captain!” (Drum Taps).
• Transcendentalism: Walt Whitman can be considered a transcendentalist, although he was a late bloomer. "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is certainly a transcendentalist poem because of the way Whitman uses nature as a symbol. Furthermore, Whitman had great respect for transcendentalist poet Emerson, with whom he exchanged a couple of letters. Whitman sent Emerson a copy of Leaves of Grass as a gift and the poet replied with a letter in which he praised Emerson for the book. However, Emerson's influence (optimism) is easier to be found in Whitman's early poems.

Leaves of Grass

It's a poetry collection that Whitman first published in 1855 then proceeded to revise for the rest of his life. The last edition counted over 400 poems. The poems are just loosely connected; however, each represents Whitman's positive attitude regarding humanity and life. Leaves of Grass was also controversial for its unsubtle descriptions of sensual pleasures. Influenced by Emerson and Transcendentalism, the poetry often praises nature and the human's role or connection with it. Whitman also elevates the human mind, deeming it worthy of poetic praise. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass do not follow conventional rules for meter and line length, nor do they rhyme. The title Leaves of Grass was a pun. "Grass" was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and "leaves" is another name for the pages on which they were printed.

• Sexual, sensual images: Children of Adam “amativeness”, male-female love; Calamus “adhesiveness” male-male relationship.
• (1865) Drum Taps: In the Drum Taps the prelude is an ode to New York, the poet's home ("First O Songs"). The city is praised for sending its men to war when it was needed, not only professional soldiers but ordinary men as well (Manhattan = lady of ships). The tone in Drum Taps changes throughout the different poems. At the beginning, it's celebratory but then, as Whitman provides the reader with scenes of war, the tone becomes more somber.

Themes

War is all-encompassing and spares no one and nothing. All the American institutions and citizens are somehow involved in the conflict to ensure the promise of democracy. (Beat! Beat! Drums! = call to arms). Some poems in Drum Taps are used in a narrative mode to help the reader move through the different times of war. At the end of the collection, we are also towards the end of the war and the tone has gotten darker and more reflective. It's Whitman's way of paying tribute to all the victims and the injured that helped the rebirth of democracy.

• By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame: one long sentence, no period until the end. Description of a night scene in the camp, reality (the world) and the mind and consciousness mix together, there is no clear line.
• Song of the Banner at Daybreak: it’s a beck and call between a poet, a father and a child. (pennant = gagliardetto; banner = bandiera/striscione.)
• The Centenarian’s Story: a survivor of the war of independence remembers a great battle in Brooklyn, where the American troops were defeated but not annihilated as the British army believed, since General Washington had been able to retreat to Manhattan.
• Come Up from the Field Father: presents an Ohio family scene at the time of a terrible event, the news that the only son Pete had been severely wounded - and would then die. In this poem Whitman is more sentimental and speaks of the (human) cost of war. Repetition of “Dear son”.
• The Wound-Dresser: it’s a four-part poem where Whitman imagines young people asking a hospital attendant about the war when it was already finished. The attendant would answer by remembering his compassionate care of the wounded. The end speaks of embraces and goodbye-kisses which are part of Whitman’s memories, as he himself provided mental help to the injured in D.C.
• Give Me the Splendid Silent Son: in the first part, Whitman describes natural pleasures and in the second part the attractions of Manhattan, including the presence of soldiers.
• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: Written in 1865 and added later to the collection, after Lincoln’s assassination. It’s a pastoral elegy for Lincoln: a poem of mourning that uses conventions drawn from the natural world and rustic human society. The poem also makes reference to the problems of modern times in regard to the Civil War. The poem is divided into three parts, in the first we follow Lincoln’s coffin on its way to the burial, in the second we stay with the poet and the lilacs he wants to lay on the coffin in tribute. In the third part, there are the symbols of a bird and a star to develop the idea of a sympathetic nature that does keep its distance from humanity. The losses of the common people in the war are enveloped in a greater national tragedy. The poet also wonders how to best honor the dead and decides he would fill the tomb with portraits of everyday life and men. The language of the poem also shifts, in the beginning it’s formal and ceremonious and by the end it’s far simpler.
• Reconciliation: The main theme is the title itself. Here there is a final reflection about war.

Walt Whitman, Specimen Days (1882)

The work is similar to a loosely kept diary, it is a series of the poet's observations and thoughts about his own youth, the war years spent in Washington and finally the last period of his life spent in Camden, New Jersey. Considering Whitman's close experience in the war, the book can be considered a worthy and accurate historical account of at least one angle of the war years, including even some portraits of important political and literary figures of the time. However, the most striking feature of the book is the portrait of Whitman himself. Specimen Days may not include all the events in the poet's life but it does paint a pretty vivid and accurate picture of his background and beliefs. The organization of the work is chronological but there is a lack of thematic continuity. Generally, the essay is divided into three parts: the beginning that describes the early years, the middle part that deals with his life in Washington during the war and the end, where Whitman, affected by a paralysis, contemplates nature.

World War I (Jul 28, 1914 – Nov 11, 1918)

E. E. Cummings (1894 -1962)

During WWI he enlisted in the Ambulance Corps in Europe. In his work (like Hemingway and Pound) he criticized American provincialism and backwardness. He also expressed anti-war views in a few letters and claimed he didn’t hate the Germans. In his poem “The Cambridge ladies that live in furnished souls” he makes fun of Cambridge conventions and ways. He also wrote two love sonnets: “my girl’s tall with hard long eyes” and “when my love comes to see me” (Appeared in Tulips & Chimneys, 1922), in the latter its traditional rhyming pattern is disguised. Cummings has a rather romantic view of human relations. He also has a puritanical background (reference to death associated with love).

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

May Day (1920) (Tales of the Jazz Age): The title is a reference for May 1, 1919, where riots between demobilized soldiers and socialist speakers took place. The main plot involves a Yale group reunited by a fraternity dance. At the top there is the richest and most privileged Philip Dean, while at the bottom there’s Gordon Sterret, once wealthy and now in need. Another character is Edith Bradin, who f...