Modern Novel

1. Estetismo
Developed in universities and intellectual circles in last 19th century. Born with Gautier,
reflected the sense of frustration and uncertainty of the artists: re-define the role of artist.
“​Art for Art’s Sake​”.
The bohemian embodied their protest against monotony and vulgarity of bourgeois life:
theory imported in England by Whistler. Aesthetic movements can be traced also in past with
Keats and Ruskin with the research of beauty in life and art.
The theorist in England of this movements is Walter Pater (​Marius the Epicurean​, 1885):
rejected religious faith and said that art was the only means to stop time; life should be lived
in a spirit of art.
The artist was seen as the transcriber “not of the world, not of mere fact, but his sense of it”.
Pater’s works hada deep influence on the poets and writers in 1890s.
Decadentismo
Number of features can be distinguished in decadent artists are:
● excessive attention to the self;
● hedonistic and sensuous attitude;
● perversity in subject matter;
● disenchantment with contemporary society;
● evocative use of language.
European movement with ​La Decadent​: they are symbolists Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmè
who were influenced by Baudelaire. In Italy the main representative were D’Annunzio,
Pascoli and Gozzano.
Oscar Wilde
Life
● Born in Dublin, 1854.
● Become a disciple of Walter Pater.
● Dady for extraordinary wit and way of dressing.
● Go to a tour on USA and in 1883 on his return married Constance Lloyd.
● In 1891 homosexual affair with Lord Alfred Douglas.
● Died of meningitis in 1900, Paris.
● Wrote:
○ Poems​, his own expense, 1881.
○ The importance of being Earnest ​his masterpiece.
○ Picture of Dorian Gray ​a novel.
○ The happy prince and Other Tales ​a short story.
○ Canterville Ghost ​a short story.
Dorian Gray
Narrative technique
The story is told by third-person narrator and the perspective adopted is internal, the
Dorian’s apparition is in the second chapter. The characters reveal themselves through what
they say or what other people say of them.
Timeless beauty
The story is profoundly allegorical, it is a 19th century version of the myth of Faust.

2. The portrait is the symbol of the dark side of Dorian’s personality and finally the picture
restored to its original beauty illustrate the theories of art that survives in eternal.
Story
It tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil so that all his desires might be
satisfied, the picture records the signs of time and corruption of the man’s soul while Dorian
hide himself under the timeless mask of beauty.
Historical background
After Victoria’s death, Edward VII became king (1901) and the role of monarchs has been
reduced.
In the first decade of Century, the liberals were split between:
● a reformist element​, wished to integrate the demand of working classes, laying
some of the foundations for the Welfare State;
● a more conservative element​, refused to candidate working class for MPs.
In this period the Labour party grew into a separate party representing working-class
interests and become strongly allied with trade-union movements (Trades Disputes Acts of
1906 and 1913, which trade unions won full legal recognition).
Another important is ​Irish question​: majority of this population was catholics and wanted an
independent parliament in Dublin, but the Protestants (Ulster, Northern Ireland) wanted to
stay under British rules. On Easter Monday in 1916, Republicans staged a rebellion: became
a symbol of Irish resistance to British rule.
Suffragettes
1903, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel founded the ​Women’s Social and
Political Unions​. The suffragettes are the woman who followed this Unions. In 1918, ov 30
womens were granted the right to vote.
Schede Libro
Modernism in Europe
● Started after 1910 and flourished in
1920 and 1930.
● Involved all forms of art (literature,
music, cinema ecc...).
● One common thing of Modernism is
the desire to make a clean break
with traditional forms of narration
and representations that are usually
rejected (through experiments and
unconscious).
● The work are fragmentary and
relative, favouring subjective
perceptions of reality.
A deep cultural crisis
● In last 2 decade of 19 century was a
deep cultural crisis.
● All Victorians’ Age taboo had been
strict and the positivistic faith in
progress and science bring people
to believe that human misery would
be swept away.
● WW1 left country in cynical mood;
stability and prosperity belong only
to a privileged class.
● A lot of gap between generations.
● Increase feeling of frustration and
white superiority, then slow
dissolution of Empire into a
‘Commonwealth of Nations’.

3. ● Nothing seemed to be right or
certain, but science and religion give
comfort or security; new views of
man; Einstein with his theory as a
new concept of space and time.
Modernism and the novel
WW1 marks a fundamental break between old and new world. ​This experiences shattered
faith in society and its institutions.​ ​The Modernists were interested in recovering the unique
experience of individuals.
Delete most of conventions of Victorian moral universe: precise idea of society should be
replaced by a climate of moral ambiguity or by a sense of emptiness (​absence of values​)
that was reflected in the themes of novels.
Stylistic point of view:
● omniscient narrator disappear and replaced by ​direct or indirect presentation of
characters thoughts, feelings and memories​;
● no longer follow linear plot or a chronological sequence of events: progress replaced
by ​duration ​(Virginia Woolf called “moments of beings”);
● time becomes subjective and inner (the analysing of a single moment can tell us
more about a character than a traditional narrative life story).
Influence of mass culture
Education reforms in 19th century=increase in general literacy=demand for popular
literature. Mass culture was born with invention of cinema and radio that has also a particular
effect on the novel. ​For emergents intellectuals represented a degeneration of cultural
values and they responded by writing self-consciously difficult avant-garde novels.​ Only way
to​ preserve the idea of individual sensibility​.
Modernist writers
● Structure remained unaltered until 20th century; the novelist was expected to mediate
between his characters and reader with events in chronological order; existence of
accepted values led to presentation of a social pattern that was familiar territory to
both reader and writer.
● After war, the urgency for social change and the pressing need for different forms of
expression forced novelists into a position of moral uncertainty;​ the novelist had new
role: mediating between the solid past and confused present.
● Rejected omniscient narrator and experimented new method; ​the viewpoint shifted by
external to character’s mind​; the analysis of characters consciousness was
influenced by the theory of Freud.
● Time was subjective and inner; it was not necessarily the passing of time that
revealed the truth about characters.
● Stream-of-consciousness technique or interior monologue; William JAmes coined the
phrase to define ​continuous flow of thoughts and sensations that characterise the
human mind.

4. ● Same novelist centred their attention to development of character’s mind and on
human relationship (Conrad); other give voice to character’s thoughts (Joyce and
Woolf).
Freud’s theory of unconscious
Modernist novel was influenced by the theories of Freud. ​The Interpretation of Dreams
(1900) proposed a theory of humans consciousness as multi-layered. Of these levels, most
significative was ​unconscious ​(accessed through dreams). Most of man’s behavior was
governed by ​irrational unconscious drives​.
The world was rationally ordered and progressive in nature. ​Man organized the outside
information and, according to his own interior experiences, desires and impulse, have a
perception of reality ​fundamentally subjective​.
Sigmund Freud
Freud and the psyche
Created a structural model of psyche:
● id ​the set of instinctual impulses lacking organisation;
● ego ​realistic part;
● superego ​has a critical and moralising role.
Development of the human psyche is deeply affected by the subconscious​; the superego
can profoundly distort man’s behavior: relationship with parents and children was altered and
the sexes were re-examined. The ‘free-association’ influence artists and writers.
Milestones
1905, ​Three essays on the theory of sexuality​: contributed to changing the way that people
thought, behaved and learnt about sexuality. Sexuality in infancy and childhood is the central
theme.​ He also understood puberty as the sum of changes acting upon infantile sexuality.
The influence of Bergson
Modernist novel was also influenced by the theories of Bergson (​Time and Freewill ​and
Matter and Memory​).
Elaborated philosophical position in contrast to materialism and positivism which dominated
the Victorian period. Time could not be measured according to units because it is a flow, a
duration​, and not a series of points.​ We do experience the world in a continuous way.
Bergson and ​la durée
Concept closely bound up with the invention of the cinema (demonstrated an idea of
moment that could not be reduced to instants).
Crucial to this idea of duration was ​memory​ (“our consciousness of the present is already
memory”), but the persistence of the past in the present shows that in a vital sense the
moment is never over.
This theory partly lie behind the 2 great time-works of modern literature:
● Proust​’s ​A la recherche du temps perdu​, attempts to seize the real experience of the
elusive past;
● Joyce​’s ​Ulysses​, attempts to freeze the present moment in all its complexity and
multiplicity.
Common point in this 2 works: focus on magnify microcosmic interior worlds.

5. William James and the idea of consciousness
Modernist novelist like Woolf and Joyce was influenced by the theories of William James
(​The principles of Psychology​). “Consciousness (entire range of individual’s mental activity)
doesn't appear to itself chopped up in bits’ but is somethings that flows”.
Stream-of-consciousness fiction
This 3 theories bring development of new techniques writing:
● direct interior monologue​, direct presentation of character’s stream of
consciousness without the guiding presence of an author (ES: Molly Bloom’s
monologue, in ​Ulysses​, without any external point of view);
● indirect interior monologue​, indirect presentation of character’s thoughts filtered
through the voice of an anonymous third-person narrator. Easier to read, more
descriptive passages or explanations (ES: ​Mrs Dalloway ​or ​To the Lighthouse ​by
Woolf)
James Joyce and Dublin
Life
● Born in Dublin, 1882. Studied French, Italian, German and English languages and
literatures and he graduated in modern languages in 1902.
● Interest to European culture and he think himself as a European rather than an
Irishman.
● Believed that only way to increase Ireland’s awareness was offering a realistic
portrait of its life from European, cosmopolitan viewpoint.
● Spent some times in Paris but his mother’s illness (1903) brought him back to Dublin.
● In 1904 fell in love with Nora Barnacle.
● In October move to Italy and become friend of Italo Svevo. These years were difficult,
filled with disappointment and financial problems.
● Died in Switzerland in 1941.
● He write:
○ Dubliners ​collection of short stories about Dublin and Dublin life, 1905.
○ Portrait of the artist as a Young man ​semi-autobiographical novel, 1916.
○ Exiles ​most of his naturalistic drama, 1914.
○ Ulysses ​which was continued with a anonymous donations, 1917.
○ Finnegans Wake​, 1923.
Style and technique
● The artist’s task was to render life objectively in order to give back to the readers a
true image of it.
● Not author’s point of view, different points of view and narrative techniques.
● His style, technique and language developed from realism and disciplined prose of
Dubliners, through use of direct speech, through exploration of the characters’
impressions, to interior monologue with two levels of narration.
● Language broken down into a succession off words without punctuation or
grammatical connection, into infinite puns of symbolic archetypes.
Dubliners
Origin

6. 15 stories that disclose human situations and moments of intensity and lead to a moral,
social or spiritual revelations.
The opening stories deal with childhood in Dublin, the others concern the middle years of
characters and their affairs.
The stories are arranged into 4 groups: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life.
The last story (The Dead) is denser and more elaborated than others (masterpiece).
Wrote in a traditional way, with use of symbolism.
Use of epiphany
The description is realistic and extremely concise, rich of external detail. The use of realism
is mixed with symbolism, since external details have a deeper meaning.​ Epiphany is the
sudden spiritual manifestation caused by a trivial gesture, an external object or a banaln
situation, which is used to lead the character to a sudden self realization about himself.
Pervasive theme: paralysis
Significant theme in the story is use of paralysis that many of the characters experience as a
result of being tried to antiquated and limited cultural and social traditions. This is also
reflected in their relationship, in wich free expressions is inhibited by repressive moral codes.
The Dead-Plot
Begins with an after Christmas dinner party at the house of two unmarried sister house (Miss
Kate and Julia Morkan, aunt of the protagonist ​Gabriel Conroy​). Gabriel goes to the party
with his wife and the house become a microcosm of contemporary Ireland traditions and
tendences. Gabriel feels self-confident and on this way in the hotel he remembers the best
moments with Gretta. However, Gretta had a sad ​epiphany ​(revelation related to her past):
listening to an Irish song she remembered her first love, ​Michael Furey​, young man died for
her. Hearing this, Gabriel has his own ​epiphany​. When Gretta fall asleep, he look outside
the window (snow) and realized the insignificance both of his own life, and of those around
him: the sense of well-being generated by the party is seen a harsh new light.
Features and themes
Can be considered symbolic (name Gabriel like the archangel who sound the trumpets at
Last Judgement) and also realistic (descriptions).
Another aspect is the way the writer gives us the pictures of the ​inner being ​and ​feelings​.
Gabriel’s final thoughts is one of the first use of indirect interior monologue.
The central event of the story is Gretta’s epiphany, which will lead to Gabriel’s one that
coincide with the first: one is the consequence of another. Another symbol is all-covering
snow, reflects on the insignificance of existence and put all into the oblivion.
Virginia Woolf and ‘moments of beings’
Life
Born in 1882. Grew up in a literary and intellectual atmosphere: private Greek lessons and
access to father’s library. The sea is a central theme of his novels, represent two things:
● what is harmonious and feminine;
● stood for the possibility of the resolution of intolerable conflicts in deaths.
With her father’s death (1904) she start her own literary career. In 1912 married Leonard
Woolf and published ​The Voyage Out​, her first novel (traditional pattern). She attempted
suicide with drugs. She became haunted by the terror of losing her mind and drowned
herself in the River Ouse. She wrote:
● Mrs Dalloway ​experimented new narrative technique.

7. ● To the Lighthouse ​(1927) devolved to Vita Sackville-West (which whom she had a
relationship).
● Orlando ​(1928) “ “.
● The Common Reader ​(1925) literary essays.
● A Room of One’s Own ​(1929) many issues connected with women and link between
economic independence and artistic independence.
● The Waves ​(1931) link between her creative process and her illness.
Modernist novelist
Interested to giving voice to complex inner world of feeling and memory and conceived the
human personality as continuous shift of impressions and emotions.​ The omniscient narrator
disappeared and the point of view shifted inside the characters’ mind through flashbacks,
associations of ideas presented as a continuous flux.
Woolf vs Joyce
As for Joyce, subjective reality come to be identified with stream of consciousness.
Difference: Woolf never lets her characters flow without control and maintains logical and
grammatical organisation.
Third-person, past tense narrative.
Similar to Joyce ‘epiphanies’, is Woolf ‘​moments of being​’: ​rare moments of insight during
the characters daily life when they can see the reality behind appearances.
Woolf use of words was almost poetic, allusive and emotional. Fluidity is quality of the
language.
Mrs Dalloway
Story
June 1923, Clarissa Dalloway goes to Bond Street to buy some flowers for a her party in the
evening. While she was in the shop, a noisy car drives shifts the attention on the street
where are Septimus (veteran WW1, shell-shocked) and Lucrezia Warren Smith. Septimus
mental disorder has necessitated the calling in of Dr Holmes.
When Clarissa back home, received a inaspettated visit from Peter Walsh (past love).
[...]
Rappresenta la doppia faccia di Virginia, la parte femminile che ha il controllo sulla vita e la
parte maschile che sarebbe la parte senza controllo e malata della vita. Le storie di Clarissa
e Septimus non sono collegate ma sono parallele solo per il suicidio nello stesso giorno del
party organizzato.
Setting
Take place in a singolar day in June of 1923 in a very small area of London, from morning to
evening. Unlike o Joyce, Woolf shows characters’ deep humanity behind their social mask.
Through ‘tunnelling technique’, she allows the reader to experience the characters’
recollection of their past (personal history). ​Clarissa’s party is the climax of the novel.