Riassunto esame Letteratura inglese, docente P. Partenza, libro consigliato Dynamics Of Desacralization, P. Partenza

He is most known for his strange life as “John Walking Stewart”. He thinks that

the function of sign is functional and not representative. He is against the

simplification of the sign and he thinks that meaning are not wrong or right but

flexible. His theory is called “real dialectic”. Steward revolution is a project of

emancipation of the mind; this is why it is a Desacralization.

“Barbara Benedict: the Desacralization of OBJECTS”

Barbara Benedict analysed how Jane Austen, her novels, does not write or

specify possessions of objects. She prefers to describe characters instead of

describe objects, but when she does, it’s because she wants to underline the

reduction of human subjectivity and morality. The religious world in her work

is never represented. The reification of people through objects do not let them

make free choices, so in this way, the sacred object become profane. In

addition, objects have the function of interaction. The idea of using people as

objects it’s synonymous of the loss of subjectivity. We can see the

Desacralization of objects in “Emma”. The idea of having portraits have always

been in the mind of aristocratic family. They believe that these portraits were

symbol of virtue. Austen also wants to criticise the marriage. She thinks that

there are two different types of marriage: marriage of love and marriage of

interests. “Paola Partenza: the Desacralization of AFTERLIFE”

Tennyson was influence by philosophy and scientific thoughts. This period

made men reconsider the questions between religion and science. He

desacralized the concept of afterlife. Religious people see the afterlife as an

asylums made of eternal peace but he does not agree with this view. He

believes in natural process and human evolution so defines it as an illusion.

Those two different ideas left the humanity sitting on the fence. From one side

he believe in the existence of God, on the other side he knows they cannot

really prove his existence. This belief showed tension in is poetry between the

spirit and the manner. Therefore, he decided to study the origin of life and its

reason. He wrote two poems where he explain his theories: “Nothing Will Die”

and “All Things Will Die”. In “All Things Will Die” he says that everything can

die, but if everything dies, no one really dies because the afterlife is made of

our spiritual souls. The religion it’s just something that does not let people live

their lives. In “Tythonus” he showed how Tythonus made the mistake of ask to

the Goddess Aurora to live forever instead of eternal youth. In this was the gets

old, he cannot die and he is trapped in the circle of life. His goal is to make

people curious and not afraid of question something. Men have to question

everything, in this way they can be independents from the religion.

“Roger Ebbatson: the Desacralization of RELIGION and the Sacralisation of

NATURE”

Roger Ebbatson analysed the life and works of Jefferies. During the Victorian

Era by everyone because of Queen Victoria prudish attitude toward love, life

and sex embraced the religion. He analysed how is presented man’s

relationship with the natural world and his desire to move away from the

restrictive “circle of idea”. Richard Jefferies wants to desacralize the religious

belief and sacralise the nature in his essay “One of the new voters”. He

described a countryside in summer, the wild life, with butterflies and bees that

fly around, but he also shows how Roger the reaper is not interested in those

things. He made his thoughts based on one and only idea. He believes that

artists and writers can give a form to ideas and supercharging it with meaning

(for example Courbet’s painting). At the end, he describes himself surrounded

by nature. He says the only way that let him be unite with nature is trough

meditation.

“John Fawell: the Desacralization of RELIGION and the Sacralisation of

NATURE”

John Fawell deals about the relationship between art and literature showing

how Maupassant and Van Gogh’s differences are quite similar in their attitude

toward nature and in the loss of Christianity. Maupassant is materialist and

incapable of spirituality. He believes that experiences are important because

they will become knowledge. The first form of experience is through senses.

Maupassant satires church and religious people, especially religious extremist

because have a closed mind and they do not let men see other possibilities.

The intellectuals want to change the world so they start to attack the religion.

This will open the Modernism era where the science will be side by side with

technology. The Desacralization stands in bringing back the definition of

religion and leave it to men because everything has to come back to nature. He

thinks that everything that has a response by the senses is beautiful even if the

nature, sometime, is not beautiful. He influence Van Gogh. Van Gogh has a

distort vision of nature because he represent it through his senses so for him it

feels like a dream. His painting is not constructed. Both of them have

desacralized the religion and sacralised the nature in a religious way.

“Jennifer Kilgore: the sacralisation of KNOWLEDGE”

She wants to put us in from of the relationship between sacred and profane.

Professor Hossein Nasr was the first to be invited at a conference that asked to

the East culture to be more open to knowledge. Knowledge is something that

makes humanity feel as a part of something. Knowledge also means freedom.

Secularization means progress, just if we context something religious, does not

make us atheists but it is something that helps our faith. David Martin in “On

Secularization” said that he was present at this congress and that science won

upon religion. There was a change in God figure. Many did not believe anymore

in a God that punish but in a mercy God. Hill uses serpents and dragons

(related to biblical symbolism) in particular related to apocalypse (as Hobbes

did to represent the state in his work “The Leviathan”. In “Daybook”, he says

that these symbols have a positive meaning because in a world sacralised we

need to make reflections so in this way we can become independent from the

church.