Letteratura inglese 2

THE NOVEL

The novel as a genre was founded at the beginning of the 18th century (1700).

There was a gradual shift from drama and critical essay to the novel, which better expressed sociocultural

behaviours and feelings. In addition, the novel became the genre that best communicated the value of the

emerging mercantile bourgeoisie.

Narrations in prose had already been written in the Middle-Ages and the Renaissance (French romances). th

However, the stylistic and literary rules of the modern novel took shape only at the beginning of the 18

century. Among the reasons which led to the creation of the novel, we need to discuss at least 2 features:

- Improvement of printing technologies:

Printing becomes easier, cheaper and faster.

- Journalism spread enormusly. Many journals and magazines were published and circulated widely.

- Magazine articles were meant to instruct, reform, amuse and criticise political and intellectual

position.

- Two were the most important journals: The Tatler, founded in 1709 by Sir Richard Steele, published

for 2 years until 1711..

- The Spectator: founded by Joseph Addison (1711-1714: politician, writer and dramatist)

- Dr.Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, also known as Johnson’s Dictionary (1755)

- Spread of literacy also thanks to:

- The improvement of the school system

- The diffusion of the lending libraries, which lent books at a very low cost.

What is novel?

-costant search for balance between form and content, that also mirrors daily life;

-revolutionary, because it is about common people;

-popular, because it deals with topics of shared and public interest;

At the beginning, the novel is a realist narration: it tries to represent reality through a perspective that is

supported by the establishment.

The novel is initially a parody of classical literature, where all events have to do with the hero.

It also begins by following Horace’s motto, according to whom literature has to entertein and instruct at the

same time.

How did the novel originate?

Narrations in prose were already common before the appearance of the novel: think of diaries,

autobiographies, travel accounts, letters – all were very common.

The novel drew from different forms:

- Epic narrations

- Ballads

- Dialogues taken from drama

- Moral ideas developed in essays

- Plasticity of the images in poetry

However, the most important model on which the form of modern novel has taken inspired was travel

writing.

Two authors paved the way for this transition:

- Joseph Addison Remarks on Several parts of Italy (1705)

- Daniel Defoe Tour thro the whole island of great Britain (1724)

On a formal level, travel narrative influenced the emerging novel in:

- The choice of using a first-person narrator

- Improving the textual and semantic coherence of texts

- Adopting rhetorical strategies in descriptions

- Organising the text by following in strict spatial and temporal structure, whereby actions are narrated

within sequential movement on a spatial-temporal basis.

On a thematic level, travel narrative influenced:

- An emphasis on the centrality of the Self (highlighted by the use of the first-person narration)

- Detailed descriptions, with a focus on exotic places and culture

- Protagonists who face unknown populations and ventur into unknown lands

- Testimonial function (rather than imaginative)

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver travels (1726)

It is a traditional text from romance to the novel.

What is a romance?

A literary genre typically involving fantastic or perilous adventures. Medieval verse romances were usually

about knights and ladies, sorcerers and dragons, daring deeds and secret love. Example: the tales of King

Arthur and his Knights.

Gulliver’s travels is not really a novel, because:

- It is still strongly influenced by non-realistic narrative modes (romances)

- Lacks a rigidly-organised chronological structure

- Tells extraordinary and improbable events

- The characterization of the protagonist, Gulliver, is devoided of an interiority and prevent readers

from identifying with him (lo osserviamo come personaggio, non ci identifichiamo con lui, a

differenza invece con i romances come Robinson Crusoe)

The lack of identification with the protagonist and his world marks Gulliver’s travels’ distance from the

emerging from of the “novel”. The novel is founded on the identification readers-protagonist through a

process of equivalence between narrated and “real” worlds.

Moreover, the novel had to stimulate readers’ curiosity as well as amusing and instructing in order to ispire

moral judgement. (nel romanzo c’è sempre una morale, un messaggio esplicito)

Robinson Crusoe (1719) responded to the need for self-representation of the bourgeoise and of mercantile

businessmen.

Robinson Crusoe is a novel which tells the adventures of the eponymous protagonist, who represents of the

English merchant who travels for business. Robinson survives on a desert island for more than 20 years by

reconstructing the social structure of the bourgeois world he left in England.

Friday: this name gives the time of the scene, Robinson calls a character he met “Friday” because when he

met him it was friday.

Robinson transforms the unknown into something familiar. Robinson is the archetype of the British

coloniser who imposes his languages, social and cultural system on the colonised Other (Friday).

On a formal level:

- The narration is structured on the form of the travel accounts

- Alternance of first and third-person narrators

- Objective and pragmatic style

- Focus on actions (use of action verbs)

- Chronological, linear and coherent development of the narrative.

Together with Daniel Defoe, the other pioneers of the modern novel were:

- Henry Fielding “Tom Jones” (1749)

- Samuel Richardson, creator of the epistolary novel “Pamela” (1739) and “Clarissa” (1748)

JONATHAN SWIFT

Jonathan Swift was educated in Kilkenny Grammar School and Trinity College where he enjoyed reading and

literature. Among his first works there are A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books.

After a time he became popular in political verses and became an important journalist. He was different from

his contemporaries for the intensity of his language and his style. Later he started to write other type of

works such as the travel narrative. The most important work of this type is Gulliver’s Travel. He was a master

of prose. His sintax and language were very simple and clear, in fact his works were read by everyone. He

didn’t use ornate or rhetorical language.

Gulliver’s Travel

This works is about the travels of the protagonist Gulliver. He is a surgeon who undertakes 4 travels which all

end disastrously. In the first travel he is shipwrecked in a desert island where he found himself a giant

between diminutive people. In the second travel he is abandoned by his crew in an island of giants. The third

travel is an allegory of the political life under the administration of the Prime Minister Robert Walpole, and

it’s characterized by speculative reasonings about science and economics. In the last travel he found himself

in an island with different races of horses.

ANALYSIS

The story is told by a first person narrator who is the main character and also the protagonist, called

homodiegetic narrator.

The story has not a fix place, because the protagonist is a traveller. He studied in Cambridge, London and

Leyden. He travels in East and West Indies, in the South Sea. The storm takes place in Van Diemen’s Land.

th

The story takes place in May, 4 , 1699, and before too. More or less in 1680s, on the fifth of November there

is the storm.

The focus is on the action because the narrator describes us the most important events of his life. We have

action when there is a change in status. We have a lot of action verbs too.

The style is descriptive because the narrator makes a description of the most important event of his life.

The keywords are: travel, sea, ships, storm, sailor, companions, studies, surgeon, weak condition, observing

people, married, long voyages, narrow fortune.

SUMMARY

Gulliver starts with a description of his origin. He spent a lot of money studying math and navigation because

he wanted to travel. He started to travel thanks to the financial help of his uncle and father. Also, he studied

medicine and became surgeon. He married Mary Burton and when his business started to go bad he decided

to travel again. After some travels, he decided to return at home but 3 years after he set sail with Captain

William Prichard on the Antelope. The travel go wrong due to a storm but he’s saved because reached the

shore and falls asleep because he was tired. At his awaking he was tied and then saw a tiny human being.

DANIEL DEFOE

Daniel Defoe was an English novelist. At the beginning he was famous for his political verses. He travelled a

lot and at the age of 60 years old he started a new career, because he became to write adventures tales, the

first of which is Robinson Crusoe. In his works he introduced his knowledge of society and the common speech

language. His characters have something of his personality such as the humanity and vitality. The other

important works are Roxana and Colonel Jack where he speaks to the members of his own social class.

ANALYSIS

The story is told by a first person narrator who is the main character and also the protagonist. When the

protagonist is also the narrator he is called homodiegetic narrator.

The story takes place in England, in general. Then the focus is the domestic environment such as the father’s

house and his chamber. The story begins in 1632, but it takes place when is 18 years old.

The focus is on reflection because his father wants to convince him to stay in his house, so there are all the

opinions of him. The style is descriptive because the narrator describes his youth.

SUMMARY

The story starts with the presentation of Robinson Crusoe. At the beginning he says he was born in 1632 in

the city of York. He grew up in a good family of the middle class because his father was a merchant. He had

2 brothers, but he didn’t know them because for example one of them was killed in a war against the Spain.

In the 3th paragraph Robinson talks about his dream that is navigation; he wants to go to the sea to know

the world, but his family doesn’t agree. One day his father called him in his chamber to show his

disappointment about his wandering inclination adding also that he will live a quiet and peaceful life as

lawyer. Moreover, the father says that all people envied his state of life. In addition, he says that people who

have real problems are of the upper or lower class, while the middle state is the most beautiful because

people don’t have to suffer to bring bread home neither living the life in luxury or extravagances. Then his

father takes in example his brother who died to follow his dream.

THE ROMANTIC AGE (1785-1830)