The Modernist Revolution

Il termine “Modernismo” designa una tendenza espressiva della letteratura e dell’arte che si sviluppa nei primi decenni del XX secolo, foriera di una nuova sensibilità, ponendosi in un rapporto di netta rottura con il passato e introducendo tecniche narrative tra cui il verso libero, il flusso di coscienza ed una diversa concezione dello spazio e del tempo derivante dai recenti sviluppi della fisica con la relatività di Einstein (1905). L’interesse nella ricerca della verità interiore e psicologica dell’individuo è indice dell’impatto sulla produzione letteraria degli studi di Sigmund Freud sulla psicoanalisi.

Created by Luca Dello Russo 5ASA.

ReadOn Project: Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

La bellezza, intesa come canone estetico, è stato considerato nel corso dei secoli un valore etico-sociale, un motivo di preminenza personale, un parametro di valutazione dell’essere umano in ogni sfera della sua globalità esistenziale. La perfezione esteriore è stata quasi sempre prevalente su qualsiasi altra tipologia di valori, morali, affettivi, intellettuali, come se la bellezza di un individuo fosse il limite oltre il quale non era necessario spingersi per conoscerne la vera essenza, la pietra miliare dell’approvazione personale, della considerazione umana, della stima sociale. Ma un’altra disputa, che ha sempre animato il dibattito culturale, filosofico e letterario, è stata la contrapposizione tra essere e apparire, tra perfezione esteriore ed essenza interiore, un tormentato percorso ideologico, che ha spinto il pensiero umano ad oltrepassare la soglia della mera bellezza materiale per indagare e apprezzare l’uomo in tutta la complessità del suo mondo interiore. Uno dei più mirabili esempi di esasperazione del mito della bellezza elevato ad ossessione esistenziale ci è offerto dal “Ritratto di Dorian Gray“, di Oscar Wilde. Maturato in pieno ambiente decadentistico di fine ‘800, nel quale si palesa la crisi dei tradizionali valori della civiltà occidentale, la trama del romanzo ruota intorno al mito dell’estetismo, in cui la bellezza viene considerata superiore a qualunque altro valore di natura morale. E il protagonista dell’opera ottiene di poter eternare la sua bellezza, perché al suo posto invecchia il suo ritratto. Più egli si macchia di nefandezze, di azioni turpi, più il suo volto si mantiene intatto nella sua inalterabile perfezione, più il suo ritratto, simbolo della sua anima dissoluta, si imbruttisce, si deturpa, si deforma, l’ideale della eterna bellezza si trasforma in una vera e propria dannazione. Anche al dandy per eccellenza, Oscar Wilde, non sfuggivano i limiti di una concezione della bellezza puramente di facciata e si rivelavano in tutta la loro importanza quelle virtù nascoste, che rendono bella una persona: l’onesta, la bontà, la generosità. E questa contrapposizione bellezza apparente-bellezza interiore è di grande attualità nei giorni nostri, dove predomina la cultura dell’immagine, che impone di essere piacenti ad ogni costo, mette al bando la vecchiaia e le imperfezioni del corpo alla stregua di vergogne sociali o cause di emarginazione e di bullismo. Si “deve” essere belli, non importa a quale prezzo: chirurgia estetica, discutibili trattamenti medici, diete che sfiorano l’assurdo. La bellezza è poca cosa, se è limitata ad una pura e semplice perfezione di superficie, che è comunque destinata a svanire sotto i colpi implacabili del tempo. La vera bellezza deve essere supportata da una luce meravigliosa che deriva dai valori, che nutrono il nostro spirito, la luce dell’intelligenza, e dell’altruismo, senza la quale anche l’apparenza più perfetta finisce per sciuparsi o addirittura, deturparsi, come succede al ritratto di Dorian Gray.

— prof.ssa Patrizia Martone

Created by Luca Dello Russo 5ASA.

Comparing “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” and “Frankenstein”​

Greg Buzwell, a scholar of Gothic literature, once said: "Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is a late-Victorian variation on ideas first raised in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Stevenson's monster, however, is not artificially created from stitched-together body parts, but rather emerges fully formed from the dark side of the human personality". Discuss this statement comparing Stevenson's novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Created by Luca Dello Russo 5ASA.

     


                                                Intervista a Chris Munroe

 

 Gli studenti : Luca Dello Russo, Dorotea Serrelli e Silvana Musto della classe 4 ASA , nel corso dell’anno scolastico ,hanno studiato e letto alcuni romanzi di  Jane Austen. Hanno,così,voluto relizzare una intervista a Chris Munroe, una appassionata  lettrice americana di Jane Austen.

Chris Munroe, staff Writer/editor, ha studiato “ the art of storytelling :facts and fiction of culture at University of Redlands .

                     Interview with Chris Munroe 

                                         

Dorotea: Hello Chris,we would like to ask you some questions  about Jane Austen. How did your passion for this writer and her novels begin?

Chris:  •  I first read” Pride and Prejudice “when I was in high school. But I didn’t become really interested in her as an author until I took a class on her in college. I read all of her books in one semester. And for my final project, I did a comparison of two or three modern young adult retellings of” Pride and Prejudice.”

 Dorotea: What makes Jane Austen an immortal and modern writer in your opinion ?

 Chris: • I think Jane Austen is so immortal and modern because she wrote about relationships and feelings that were very genuine. She looked at the world around her and saw the role women had in society, which was less than equal, and she wrote stories about women who found happiness anyway. And along the way she satirized some of the inequality that she saw. For instance,” Northanger Abbey”, her first written novel (and last published) was a satirization of the Gothic novel which was popular at the time. She wrote about a young woman who seemed to believe she was living in a Gothic novel, when in fact she was not, highlighting the silliness of the genre itself.

 Dorotea:  What are the characteristics of emotional and family relationships in Jane Austen’s time?

 Chris: • I’m not sure. In my class we studied more about women’s equality at the time, reading the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and the like. I imagine the relationships you see in the books between the characters were pretty similar to ones she saw around herself all the time. From Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (a foolish wife and a long suffering husband) to the sister in law from” Sense and Sensibility” (greedy and cold) to Emma and her father or any of the sibling relationships (warm and loving).

Silvana: Elizabeth Bennet was Jane Austen’s favourite heroine.”I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print” Do you like this character?

 Chris: • I love Elizabeth Bennet. She is so aware of what is proper and what will be best for her family and yet time and again she steps outside of propriety for the sake of her own happiness. Mom won’t send the carriage to check on Jane? She’ll just walk. Overheard Mr. Darcy talking down about her? Let him know she heard. Marrying Mr. Collins will save her sisters and mother from destitute homelessness when her father dies? She won’t do it. She is wholly independent (for a woman of her time period) and a very fun character. I can see why Austen liked her so much.

 Silvana: What do you think of the psychological analysis of the characters of her novels?

Chris:  • One of the things that has stuck with my from my college class is when we were talking about the novel Emma. My professor said that, basically, the reason Emma gets into so much trouble in the book is because she is bored. She needs, in other words, to get married to give her something to do. I’m not a huge fan of Emma, but that idea always stuck with me, that Emma caused so much trouble because she was a smart young woman with nothing to do. If she were a modern girl she would need to get a job, but in Austen’s time her only option was to marry, so that was the end Austen gave her.

 Chris:  • One other thing that I remember from class is from Persuasion. The couple who rents Anne’s father’s house are out driving one day and Austen describes them. The husband is directing the horses and every so often his wife reachers out and corrects his hold, keeping their carriage from going off in every direction. My professor made sure to point it out to us, because it’s a microcosm of their relationship and it displays some of Austen’s genius. The man drives, because that’s what society has told the couple has to happen, the woman can’t possibly drive. But every time he’s about to drive them off the road the woman calmly reaches over and corrects him.

 Silvana: Is Jane Austen a truly Romantic Novelist?

 Chris:  • If you’re talking about Romanticism (as opposed to, say, romance novels, which are a very different kind of genre) I’m going say…maybe not? So I haven’t studied the different literary eras myself, as I was much more interested in creative writing than literature when I was in college. But from my little reading from Wikipedia, I don’t think so. Jane Austen was a very grounded writer, and Romanticism seems a little too flighty for what she wrote. She was satirizing the world around her, not glorying in it, as it seems the Romantics were supposed to. However, there is a line in the Wikipedia article, “To express these feelings, it was considered the content of art had to come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from "artificial" rules dictating what a work should consist of.” In that case, I do believe Austen had the Romantic spirit, because she did tend to write heroines who ignored and even laughed at those “artificial” rules of society. But I don’t think she was truly a Romantic.

 Luca:  “ I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like" is the sentence that Jane Austen will write before composing the novel "Emma". Starting from this sentence, we can say that Emma is an anti-heroine, a rebel who refuses to recognize the principle of male authority. Can this female character embody, in a self-deprecating way, the writer's alter ego?

Chris:  • Absolutely. As I said above, one of the things I find most interesting about Emma, even though I don’t like her very much, is that she causes so much trouble because she was bored. I imagine Jane Austen felt rather bored a lot of the time too, which is why she wrote. It’s quite possible Emma is what she imagined she would be if she lived in a different socioeconomic bracket. There’s a modern author, Diana Gabaldon (she writes the Outlander series), who says that every character she writes, from the heroes to the awful, horrible, villains, are all a part of her. I’m not saying every character was Austen’s alter-ego, but I imagine many of the heroines contain traces of her, not just Emma.

 Luca:  Jane Austen was an acute observer of the society in which she lived, studied attitudes and emotions, but although her novels represent masterpieces of the pre-Romantic period, the author has a different vision of love and marriage, focusing mainly on the financial benefits derived from it. What leads the writer to this material vision of marriage?

Chris:  • Partly it was just the world she lived in. Austen was engaged for half a second to a gentleman, if I’m remembering correctly. She wasn’t a hermit, she readily engaged with society. She knew exactly what a woman could look forward to if she didn’t marry well (either as a spinster with no income beyond what her father/brothers gave her or as a woman married to man who doesn’t make enough money). Yet despite that I don’t think she took a completely material vision of marriage. After all, her stories are known to be some of the world’s greatest love stories. Jane doesn’t marry Darcy because he’s rich but because she loves him. Same goes for Emma and Anne. In fact, I’d say Persuasion is an argument against the material view of marriage. Anne doesn’t marry her love because someone convinces her he’s too poor and regrets it for years. Only when they come back together does she find true happiness.

 Luca: Jane Austen was one of the most shining icons of English literature in a complex and changing age, especially for the role in society of women who were beginning to become aware of their value, their responsibilities and above all their rights. With the protagonists of her novels, the writer describes the female universe within the wealthy English class of the Georgian period, emphasizing how women enjoyed few and limited rights and that "good marriage" was the primary goal of every family. Can we consider this wise denunciation, a sort of rebellion against the condition of women, also taking into account the active participation of the writer in the feminist movement of that time?

 Chris: • Yes, absolutely. As I’ve written above, Austen was often satirizing the world around her, making fun of the ridiculousness she saw regarding women and their place in the world. She was staunchly a feminist (think of the woman who corrects her husband’s driving in Persuasion) and I think she was definitely writing with the view of the feminist movement of the time. That’s why we studied writers like Mary Wollstonecraft in my college class.

Dorotea, Silvana and Luca: Chris,many thanks for talking to us ,today. It was very Kind of you and your answers are very interesting! 

Pride and Prejudice

Le alunne Gialanella Cristina e Sara Iannaccone di 4I hanno letto “Pride and Prejudice” di Jane Austen ed hanno realizzato un PowerPoint sul romanzo.

Shakespeare's characters on the stage

Gli alunni della classe 3 ALM, nel corso del corrente anno scolastico, hanno studiato Shakespeare e si sono appassionati molto alle sue opere e alle tematiche della sua produzione teatrale. Così con il progetto ”Read On” e i "Graded readers”, hanno letto diversi libri del grande drammaturgo inglese e hanno in particolare analizzato alcune figure femminili delle tragedie di Shakespeare, producendo dei lavori digitali. Hanno condotto una analisi approfondita della psicologia di queste figure femminili, cogliendone i tratti distintivi, unici e complessi della loro personalità, presentando la loro storia di vittime e di eroine. Inoltre, alcuni studenti: Ciardiello Gerardo, Del Coiro Manuel, Galietta Gabriele, Giro Gabriella, Iandolo Martina, Laudando Francesca, Lavanga Mariarita, Morrone Davide e Rivieccio Vincenzo hanno prodotto un PowerPoint con alcuni dialoghi delle tragedie, immaginando, poi sul palcoscenico del "Globe theatre" una conversazione tra le varie protagoniste, come donne reali del nostro tempo, che si interrogano su alcuni sentimenti universali: l’amore, la gelosia, l’odio, l’invidia, l’ambizione e si confrontano sugli aspetti dell’universo maschile e soprattutto sulle dinamiche che spesso caratterizzano le relazioni con le donne. La finalità del lavoro degli alunni è stato di cogliere la modernità di queste personaggi perché la grandezza e la genialità di Shakespeare è l’universalità del mondo che rappresenta e la conoscenza profonda dell’animo umano, che non appartiene solo ad una specifica epoca del passato, ma ad ogni età.

One aspect of Shakespeare's greatness is his extraordinary ability to observe the human soul and mind. This allowed him to create complete, credible and plausible characters, each with a well-defined personality. Shakespeare is a very current author especially for the role he has entrusted to his female characters. Never before has a writer managed to probe female psychology so analytically. In fact, he knew well the obstacles that society posed to women. The theater companies did not admit them to the stage to act and the English society of that time, as in the rest of Europe, had a sense of protection towards them, but at the same time a desire for control over them. Shakespeare's theater does not present a single model of woman, but a multiple one.The most important female figures of Shakespeare's plays are: Juliet, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth and Desdemona.



Juliet is beautiful, rebellious, kind and loving. At the beginning she appears as an obedient child: she usually does what her parents say. Her first meeting with Romeo causes her to move towards maturity. She immediately shows determination and strength in her open confessions of love and desire for Romeo. She belongs to no characterization, classification or idealization: she is a real woman. Juliet is a "political" victim, but shares the fatal fate with the lover Romeo: the two lovers are therefore mirroring each other and die because they are unable to live in a historical/family context, where feelings are placed at the bottom rung of general interests.







Ophelia, on the other hand, in the tragedy "Hamlet", is a much more naive character than Juliet and her main trait is obedience to her father, a characteristic which, in the sixteenth century, was essential for the reputation of a young woman. The girl, however, is divided between obedience to Polonius and love for Hamlet, and this division will lead to a tragic end for the young woman. When the court councilor asks his daughter to act as bait to spy on Hamlet, on behalf of King Claudio, Ophelia will have no choice: according to the customs of the time, the woman is subject to paternal authority (when this authority still does not belong to the husband), and has no full faculty for her actions. When Hamlet discovers Polonius' game, he accuses the young woman of being unfaithful, of having misled him, and the entire female world of the young man collapses with Ophelia. For Hamlet, disappointed by the two most important women of his life, those who should have protected and comforted him, the whole female world becomes false and treacherous, and manifests this thought of his to Ophelia: it is the beginning of the end between our two characters. Hamlet's words, combined with love disappointment first and his father's death later, will lead Ophelia to madness. Through the character of the young woman, the enormous distinction between the sexes that distinguishes the culture of the time emerges: we saw how a woman was subjected to paternal decisions until marriage and her husband's choices afterwards.







Lady Macbeth is a character very similar to Ophelia, because she too is overwhelmed by madness. Lady Macbeth is a devoted wife, her ambitious plan are for her husband. In the first part of the play she shows great strength of will and is the driving force behind her husband. In the second part of the play she gradually loses her confidence, she starts to walk in her sleep and is obsessed with the spots of blood she sees on her hands. She is finally overcome by madness and dies.









Desdemona, in the tragedy “Othello”, is presented as a simple object of desire and jealousy throughout the tragedy. Her love for Othello is so sincere and confidence that she lets herself be guided blindly by her husband. She is presented from two different points of view: through Iago’s vulgar remarks and Othello’s praise of her beauty and innocence. After reaching the heights of her love and happiness, she starts on a downward path that leads her from love to death. While Othello is about to kill her, she withdraws into obstinate incredulity: her death may be seen as a punishment for having married the Moor secretly.

Davide Morrone, 3ALM