Prima guerra mondiale dal punto di vista storico e culturale PDF

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Prima guerra mondiale dal punto di vista storico e culturale...

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WORLD WAR I 1901 > beginning of new century = Queen Victoria dead. A feeling of decadence mirrored the political and economical decadence + colonies started to want independence ! >>>> EDWARD VII I.

He was intelligent enough to support the working class. He was preparing the class of voluntary soldiers = useful strategy.! II. He did the 1st official visit to Russia > he started creating a diplomatic contact, useful for the Triple Entente against the Triple Alliance (Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungarian empire).! III. He found agreements on colonies with France (Canada, Quebec Area).! >>>> GEORGE V I.

King of WWI, he started to cooperate with a politician > Churchill.!

WORLD WAR I: the war is fought in central Europe in the trenches. ! Soldiers were not prepared because they had a romantic idea of war and the last war was at the end of Napoleonic era. As for the equipment they had the wrong one: they wore uniform used to the desert air + helmets not made for war.! The real ennemies were the hunger, cold (rain, mud), diseases (lack of sanitation). They died as poor people, not as heroes.!

SHELL SHOCK: psychological and physical shock. The name comes from the nickname of grenade.! > physical: they had damages in their ears due to the contact with the grenade, which caused a

constant sense of dizziness and buzzing sound = they got crazy, nervous.! > psychological: for the memories (exaggerate reaction at noises).! Easter rising: one of the battle in Ireland for the independence, the British government was involved and Ireland obtained independence.! >>>> EDWARD VIII! King of inter-war period, a difficult period:! - optimistic thanks to the end of the war! - suspended feeling of pessimism ! The king fell in love with the wrong woman = Wallis Simpson (non aristocratic woman, belonged to middle-class, already married and divorced, American journalist and suspected to be a spy). He abandoned the throne = he abdicated and moved to USA.! >>>> GEORGE VI (his brother)! He was involved:! - he had never been educated to be a king! - He was not interested in politics ! - He stuttered and he had to face the world, Hitler included > Churchill was very self-confidence and helped him. ! - 1952: he realised his daughter had to be educated to be a queen (Elizabeth II)!

GEORGIAN POETS Poets of WWI, supported by the king.! Romantic poetry > the soldier is like a hero, he died as a hero > idea of sacrifice and martyrdom! Writing style > traditional, poems look like a sonnet.!

Rupert Brooke Belonged to aristocratic family and to conservation part.!

- University education! - Volunteer in the war but he never fought! - He died before getting to the trenches because of blood-infection.!

WAR POETS Belonged to the middle-class, with an high school education ! Usually they were real soldiers who experienced the trenches > they knew disillusionment of romantic idea of war, they tried to denounce their conditions.!

Ezra Pound American poet who often travelled to Europe (died in Venice). ! He invented a new form of poetry > IMAGISM, based on images (with the idea of photographs). The poet is not intrusive, he doesn’t exist > he describes in words a picture = strong effective images.!

W. Owen Belonged to middle-class family, he was a teacher but he taught in France. ! He had the opportunity to visit a military British hospital > he saw soldiers and he felt horribly guilty. He volunteered in army and he died in trenches.! His poem is different from a sonnet > he used free, irregular, more modern strophes.!

MODERNISM HISTORICAL EVENTS: we are in the inter-war period (mixture of optimism and undefined uncertainty). ! 1926: General Strike (“sciopero”) > the industrial conversion was very difficult. At the same time there was a lot of financial speculations, consequently the salary went down day by day.! 1929: Wall Street crash > stock exchange (bonds, shares) collapsed. There were a lot of bankrupt companies which caused unemployment. This led to an effect which influenced also Europe.! 1939: Spanish Civil War > General Franco began a modern dictatorship. He anticipated Hitler and Mussolini. !

DEFINITION > generic and undefined definition, based on fragmentation and uncertainty. Victorian values had finished. What it is? It depends.! • In painting we can think of Pablo Picasso and his cubism > he couldn’t understand the world where he lived, he was confused, he observed the terrible economic situation and the violence. He tried to simplify the reality dividing images in geometrical shapes. He tried to create a new imagine of reality, but the geometrical shapes were confused. He lacked coherence.! • In music Stravinsky introduced the concept of dissonance.! • In psychology Freud ! • In science Einstein > he invented the theory of relativity, that created a lot of uncertainty about time and space. They started to be not considered as regular lines.! • • In philosophy: new moral concept, a form of morality based on the fact that depending on a situation you can say something is moral or immoral. There weren’t universal values, it was based on subjectivity.! • In literature the tradition was over, especially in narrative and poetry. New forms of writing and figures of speech were invented.! > symbol = imagine with a common cultural background ! (Charles Baudelaire)! > objective correlative (TS Elliot) = private, personal symbol.! + interiore monologue, free direct speech, stream of consciousness.!

TS ELLIOT 1888, American > educated here but he belonged to a British family. He attended Harvard University, he moved to Europe and attended Sorbonne and Cambridge University.!

- employee in a bank (accountant) in the city of London (business area, Lombard Street).! - he opened his publishing house “faber and faber”.! He married a ballet dancer > she developed insanity (= Pirandello).! Nobel price for literature.! THE WASTE LAND His masterpiece. The title expresses a sense of sterility and spoilt.! It is a long poem divided in 5 sections > it is not coherent and full of fragments.! >> a contrast between past fertility and present sterility, related to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, that is logically impossible but acceptable.! >> a lot of quotations resulting from very different cultural experiences.! The author is confused, he has not certainties > is not intrusive, he proposes strong images full of meaning just to share uncertainty.! DEDICATION:dedicated to Ezra Pound who is defined “il miglior fabro”, from a quotation of Dante.!

1. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

- title of the Anglican book for funerale rites.! - focused on contrast between past and present! - reference to 2 legends about Fisher King (Celtic legend), mixed up with the quest of the Holy Grail (Christian legend, according to it, if you drink the blood of Jesus contained in the Holy Grail you became immortal).! >>>all stories are about the sense of impotence !

2. GAME OF CHESS

- quotation from a Restoration comedy, imitation of Molière’s comedies! - Story of a Queen who promises to get marriage with the man who will be able to win against her at the game of chess > she wins always, she is the prototype of the modern woman.! >>> it concerns with women to have to pay for their integrity. In fact, there is a story of 2 women in a pub (place for men + not chronological connection) > they drink and all the sudden they her. A bell (at 23.30 the pub stops serving alcool) > they are living unhappy marriages, they haven’t sexual intercorse with them ( = sterility) and they commit suicide instead of turning back home.!

3. THE FIRE SERMON

- part of Buddha’s sermon, against lust (sex) to achieve the Nirvana.! - the central episode is set in London. The protagonis t are on one side a couple (a clerk and a typist), on the other side a witness (greek prophet Tiresias). The clerk wants to have sex with the typist, but she doesn’t want to, nevertheless she prefers to sell her body in order to resolve the problem. At the typist’s flat there is Tiresias, which is at the same time a male and a female entity, is blind, who feels the situation and understands their psychology.!

4. DEATH BY WATER

- quotation from the Bible > Moses and Deluge! - The main episode is about Phlebas the Phoenician, the best mariner in the world. One day the nature was too strong for him. He starts drowning but he feels a sense of relief, physical and mental relaxation (this is confirmed by medicine). It’s very pessimistic, but we are in the period of inter-war.!

5. WHAT THE THUNDER SAY

- Hindu legend > Thunder is nature’s voice and humanity have to try to understand this voice! - story of destroyed cities:! • • • •

Thebes ! Jerusalem ! Wien! London = in 1922 he foresaw a new war and the destruction of London in the WWII....