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Marina Spiazzi Marina Tacvella Margaret Layton

Performer Culture & Literature 3 The Twentieth Century and the Present

Teacher’s Guide con • presentazione del corso • programmazione • lesson plan e soluzioni degli esercizi del testo • contenuti dell’eBook • text bank e soluzioni

Test con

DVD-ROM n 16 sequenze da film

• test: 90 esercizi e soluzioni

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LINGUE

Marina Spiazzi Marina Tavella Margaret Layton

Performer Culture & Literature 3 The Twentieth Century and the Present

Teacher’s Guide e Test

LINGUE

Copyright © 2013 Zanichelli editore S.p.A., via Irnerio 34, 40126 Bologna [9692] www.zanichelli.it I diritti di elaborazione in qualsiasi forma o opera, di memorizzazione anche digitale su supporti di qualsiasi tipo (inclusi magnetici e ottici), di riproduzione e di adattamento totale o parziale con qualsiasi mezzo (compresi i microfilm e le copie fotostatiche), i diritti di noleggio, di prestito e di traduzione sono riservati per tutti i paesi. L’acquisto della presente copia dell’opera non implica il trasferimento dei suddetti diritti né li esaurisce. Le fotocopie per uso personale (cioè privato e individuale, con esclusione quindi di strumenti di uso collettivo) possono essere effettuate, nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume, dietro pagamento alla S.I.A.E del compenso previsto dall’art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941 n. 633. Tali fotocopie possono essere effettuate negli esercizi commerciali convenzionati S.I.A.E. o con altre modalità indicate da S.I.A.E. Per le riproduzioni ad uso non personale (ad esempio: professionale, economico, commerciale, strumenti di studio collettivi, come dispense e simili) l’editore potrà concedere a pagamento l’autorizzazione a riprodurre un numero di pagine non superiore al 15% delle pagine del presente volume. Le richieste per tale tipo di riproduzione vanno inoltrate a Centro Licenze e Autorizzazioni per le Riproduzioni Editoriali (CLEARedi) Corso di Porta Romana, n.108 20122 Milano e-mail [email protected] e sito web www.clearedi.org L’editore, per quanto di propria spettanza, considera rare le opere fuori del proprio catalogo editoriale, consultabile al sito www.zanichelli.it/f_catalog.html. La fotocopia dei soli esemplari esistenti nelle biblioteche di tali opere è consentita, oltre il limite del 15%, non essendo concorrenziale all’opera. Non possono considerarsi rare le opere di cui esiste, nel catalogo dell’editore, una successiva edizione, le opere presenti in cataloghi di altri editori o le opere antologiche. Nei contratti di cessione è esclusa, per biblioteche, istituti di istruzione, musei ed archivi, la facoltà di cui all’art. 71 - ter legge diritto d’autore. Maggiori informazioni sul nostro sito: www.zanichelli.it/fotocopie/

Realizzazione editoriale: – Redazione: CL’EM, Milano – Collaborazione grafica e impaginazione: CL’EM, Milano Copertina: – Progetto grafico: Miguel Sal & C., Bologna – Realizzazione: Roberto Marchetti – Immagine di copertina: George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr e Paul McCartney, 1964. Fotografia: © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis Prima edizione: ottobre 2013 Ristampa: 5

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2016

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Zanichelli garantisce che le risorse digitali di questo volume sotto il suo controllo saranno accessibili, a partire dall’acquisto dell’esemplare nuovo, per tutta la durata della normale utilizzazione didattica dell’opera. Passato questo periodo, alcune o tutte le risorse potrebbero non essere più accessibili o disponibili: per maggiori informazioni, leggi my.zanichelli.it/fuoricatalogo File per sintesi vocale L’editore mette a disposizione degli studenti non vedenti, ipovedenti, disabili motori o con disturbi specifici di apprendimento i file pdf in cui sono memorizzate le pagine di questo libro. Il formato del file permette l’ingrandimento dei caratteri del testo e la lettura mediante software screen reader. Le informazioni su come ottenere i file sono sul sito www.scuola.zanichelli.it/bisogni-educativi-speciali Suggerimenti e segnalazione degli errori Realizzare un libro è un’operazione complessa, che richiede numerosi controlli: sul testo, sulle immagini e sulle relazioni che si stabiliscono tra essi. L’esperienza suggerisce che è praticamente impossibile pubblicare un libro privo di errori. Saremo quindi grati ai lettori che vorranno segnalarceli. Per segnalazioni o suggerimenti relativi a questo libro scrivere al seguente indirizzo: [email protected] Le correzioni di eventuali errori presenti nel testo sono pubblicate nel sito www.zanichelli.it/aggiornamenti Zanichelli editore S.p.A. opera con sistema qualità certificato CertiCarGraf n. 477 secondo la norma UNI EN ISO 9001:2008

Questo libro è stampato su carta che rispetta le foreste. www.zanichelli.it/la-casa-editrice/carta-e-ambiente/ Stampa: Grafica Ragno Via Lombardia 25, 40064 Tolara di Sotto, Ozzano Emilia (Bologna) per conto di Zanichelli editore S.p.A. Via Irnerio 34, 40126 Bologna

Indice

1. Presentazione del corso Configurazione del corso Struttura degli apparati didattici

2. Programmazione Analisi strutturale del progetto didattico Indicazioni sull’Esame di Stato Che cos’è la certificazione IELTS? Che cos’è la certificazione TOEFL?

3. Soluzioni degli esercizi del testo Lesson Plan 13 The Drums of War Soluzioni Specification 13 Lesson Plan 14 The Great Watershed Soluzioni Specification 14 Lesson Plan 15 From Boom to Bust Soluzioni Specification 15 Lesson Plan 16 A New World Order Soluzioni Specification 16 Lesson Plan 17 Roads to Freedom Soluzioni Specification 17 Lesson Plan 18 Moving Forward Soluzioni Specification 18

4. Materiali dell’eBook

5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 18 46 48 75 77 99 101 128 130 155 157

Extra Activities • Soluzioni Art Labs Art Labs • Soluzioni Video Labs Video Labs • Soluzioni

177 178 209 242 258 287

5. Text Bank • Soluzioni

305

6. Tests Criteri per la valutazione delle prove Specification 13 Test Fila A Specification 14 Test Fila A Specification 15 Test Fila A Specification 16 Test Fila A Specification 17 Test Fila A Specification 18 Test Fila A

407 408 411 414 417 420 423 426

7. Esame di Stato • Seconda Prova Specification 13 Esame di Stato Seconda Prova Specification 14 Esame di Stato Seconda Prova Specification 15 Esame di Stato Seconda Prova Specification 16 Esame di Stato Seconda Prova Specification 17 Esame di Stato Seconda Prova Specification 18 Esame di Stato Seconda Prova

429 430 432 434 436 438 439

Tests • Soluzioni

440

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Presentazione del corso

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PRESENTAAZIONE DEL CORSO

Configurazione del corso Il corso si presenta in tre volumi.

Volume 1 6 Specifications Specification 1 The Birth of the Nation Specification 2 Developing Society Specification 3 A Cultural Awakening Specification 4 William Shakespeare: England’s Genius Specification 5 A Time of Upheaval Specification 6 Shaping the English Character

Volume 2 6 Specifications Specification 7 An Age of Revolutions Specification 8 The Romantic Spirit Specification 9 The New Frontier Specification 10 Coming of Age Specification 11 A Two-faced Reality Specification 12 Looking for a New Life

Volume 3 6 Specifications Specification 13 The Drums of War Specification 14 The Great Watershed Specification 15 From Boom to Bust Specification 16 A New World Order Specification 17 Roads to Freedom Specification 18 Moving Forward Il corso, con eBook, è accompagnato da una guida per l’insegnante corredata da 8 CD audio per i volumi 1 e 2 e da 4 CD audio per il volume 3, che contengono le attività di ascolto e tutti i testi proposti nel corso. La guida del volume 3 contiene due tipologie di test di verifica legate alla seconda e alla terza prova scritta dell’Esame di Stato: 1. un test su ciascuna specification diviso in 4 parti: a. Part A: multiple choice questions (Type C) b. Part B: domande a risposta chiusa c. Part C: Type A questions d. Part D: Type B questions 2. Un test per ogni specification strutturato come la seconda prova scritta del liceo linguistico. Tutti i tests sono disponibili anche in formato rtf su DVD-ROM.

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Ogni specification è organizzata secondo una struttura ricorrente. La pagina di apertura contiene indicazioni degli argomenti principali e delle icone che richiamano le diverse sezioni. • History Introduzione al contesto storico e sociale con attività mirate a una performance orale o scritta, esercizi legati alla terza prova dell’Esame di Stato (Type A e Type B) ed esercizi relativi alle certificazioni IELTS e TOEFL (Academic skills) per abituare gli studenti all’ascolto e alla lettura di brani accademici e all’utilizzo della scrittura in contesti più complessi e articolati. Nella sezione History compaiono le rubriche Insights, approfondimento di un argomento legato alla civiltà, e Milestones, analisi di un anno particolarmente significativo dal punto di vista storico-sociale.

PRESENTAAZIONE DEL CORSO

Struttura degli apparati didattici

• Culture Approfondimento o analisi critica di particolari aspetti relativi alla cultura dei diversi periodi storicosociali esaminati. • Literature Sezione dedicata agli autori, presentati con un taglio tematico, e alle opere più significative dell’epoca con selezione di testi corredati da esercizi di analisi. Anche questa sezione contiene esercizi legati alla terza prova (Type A e B) dell’Esame di Stato. • The Arts Approfondimento delle capacità di analisi dell’opera d’arte per temi o autori. Questa sezione generalmente comprende la rubrica Internet Lab che propone itinerari virtuali guidati in Internet. Può contenere un’attività legata alla prima parte della prova orale dell’Esame di Stato accompagnata da Exam Description nella Specification 13 – o da Tips – nelle specification 14-18. • Comparing Literatures Confronti tra la letteratura italiana e inglese con esercizi di comparazione. • Two films about … Sezione che mette in relazione il linguaggio letterario e quello cinematografico. L’e-book contiene l’analisi di una sequenza di 1’50” per ciascun film proposto accompagnata da esercizi di analisi. • Cultural Issues Approfondimenti di temi non solo letterari. Questa sezione fornisce schemi visivi di introduzione, presentazione di opere contemporanee con analisi di un brano. Può contenere un esempio di seconda prova dell’esame di Stato accompagnato da Exam Description – nella Specification 13 – o da Tips – nelle specification 14-18 e da un box di Process Language. • Society, Science / Philosophy Queste sezioni, presenti solo in alcune specification, analizzano un aspetto particolarmente significativo della società, della scienza o della filosofia di un particolare periodo storico-letterario. • Mapping History /Society Questa sezione intreccia storia e geografia guidando alla scoperta dei luoghi in cui si sono verificati importanti eventi storici o si è sviluppato un particolare aspetto della società. Può contenere un’attività legata alla prima parte del colloquio dell’esame di Stato. • Music Introduzione ai generi musicali caratterizzanti un periodo. • Prova Orale – Part 2 Una pagina che propone un box iniziale di Exam Description della seconda parte della prova orale dell’Esame di Stato – Specification 13 – o Tips – Specification 14-18 – ed esercizi di riepilogo dedicati alla preparazione del colloquio sulla specification. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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Programmazione

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Analisi strutturale del progetto didattico Il progetto nasce da un’attenta lettura delle indicazioni nazionali sui nuovi programmi per l’insegnamento della lingua e della cultura straniera che individuano due assi portanti: lo sviluppo della competenza linguistico-comunicativa finalizzata al raggiungimento almeno del Livello B2 del Quadro Comune Europeo di riferimento; 1. lo sviluppo di competenze relative all’universo culturale legato alla lingua di riferimento. PROGRAMMAZIONE

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Per la prima volta viene esplicitato il livello linguistico di riferimento e viene posto l’accento sui termini “cultura” e “prodotti culturali” della lingua di riferimento. Il Volume 3 cerca di coniugare la duplice esigenza di preparare gli studenti all’Esame di Stato e di far loro conoscere le certificazioni IELTS e TOEFL che vengono sempre più richieste al fine di partecipare a stage o scambi universitari all’estero.

Prospetto esemplificativo Specification 13 Contenuti

Abilità e Competenze

13.1 History The Edwardian age

Riferire fatti, descrivere situazioni, consolidare il metodo di studio praticando Q&A.

13.2 Mapping history Securing the vote for women

Scoprire i luoghi dove si è fatta la storia, studiare la storia attraverso la geografia.

13.2 Esame di Stato Prova Orale

Descrizione delle due parti da cui è costituita la prova orale dell’Esame di Stato.

13.3 History World War I

Riferire fatti, descrivere situazioni, consolidare il metodo di studio praticando Q&A.

13.3 Milestones 11th November 1918

Approfondire un evento particolarmente significativo.

13.3 Insights Remembrance Day

Approfondire la cultura della lingua di riferimento.

13.3 E. Hemingway There is nothing worse than war

Analizzare e interpretare un testo letterario legato a un particolare evento storico.

13.4 The Arts World War I in English painting

Approfondire gli aspetti della cultura relativi alla lingua di studio (ambito artistico).

Internet lab

Utilizzare le nuove tecnologie per fare ricerche, approfondire argomenti.

13.5 Literature Modern Poetry: tradition and experimentation

Riconoscere le trasformazioni del genere letterario della poesia determinate da un importante evento storico.

13.6 Literature The War Poets

Leggere, analizzare e interpretare testi letterari.

13.7 Comparing Literatures War in Rosenberg and Ungaretti

Analizzare e interpretare testi letterari confrontandoli con testi italiani.

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Trattare specifiche tematiche che si prestino a confrontare e mettere in relazione lingua, culture, sistemi semiotici (arte, fotografia, cinema, musica ecc.) diversi nello spazio e nel tempo.

13.9 History The Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence

Riferire fatti, descrivere situazioni, consolidare il metodo di studio utilizzando tables.

13.10 Literature William Butler Yeats and Irish nationalism

Leggere, analizzare e interpretare testi letterari.

13.11 Two films About... The Irish War of Independence

Analizzare prodotti culturali della lingua di studio (ad es. cinema).

13.12 Literature Thomas Stearns Eliot and the alienation of modern man

Leggere, analizzare e interpretare testi letterari.

PROGRAMMAZIONE

13.8 Cultural Issues Man at war

Indicazioni sull’Esame di Stato Esame di Stato – Seconda Prova The ‘Seconda Prova’ Nel liceo linguistico la seconda prova scritta d’esame si basa su tracce fornite direttamente dal Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione la mattina stessa dell’esame. La prova consente agli studenti di scegliere fra tre tracce: 1. Un saggio su un argomento specifico nella lingua studiata. 2. Lettura e comprensione, riassunto e breve saggio o tema basati su un testo letterario nella lingua studiata. 3. Lettura e comprensione, riassunto e breve saggio o tema basati su un testo non letterario nella lingua studiata. L’esame dura da tre a sei ore. È consentito l’utilizzo dei dizionari monolingue e bilingue.

Esame di Stato – Terza Prova The ‘Terza Prova’ La terza prova scritta dell’Esame di Stato riguarda quattro / cinque discipline ed è preparata dalla commissione esaminatrice il giorno stesso della prova. Le domande possono essere di tre tipi: Tipo A: Un breve saggio di venti righe in risposta a una domanda per disciplina. Tipo B: Domande a risposta breve di circa dieci/dodici righe. Ci sono di solito due/tre domande per disciplina. Tipo C: Domande a scelta multipla. Ci sono circa trenta/quaranta domande. L’esame dura al massimo tre ore. È consentito l’utilizzo dei dizionari monolingue e bilingue.

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Esame di Stato – Oral Test

PROGRAMMAZIONE

Il colloquio orale si compone di tre parti: 1. La presentazione di un progetto curriculare da parte del candidato. L’argomento è scelto dal candidato che può decidere di utilizzare supporti audio-visivi o multimediali. I legami tra le varie discipline devono essere genuini e non forzati. Il percorso può prevedere una breve trattazione in lingua straniera. 2. Un colloquio nelle varie discipline guidato dagli esaminatori che può trarre spunto dall’argomento scelto dal candidato. 3. Discussione degli elaborati scritti durante la quale il candidato può correggere o giustificare gli errori commessi nelle tre prove scritte.

Che cos’è la certificazione IELTS? IELTS (the International English Language Testing System) è una certificazione internazionale rivolta particolarmente a coloro che desiderano studiare o lavorare in un paese anglofono. È riconosciuta dalle università, dai datori di lavoro e agenzie internazionali. Il livello del test I risultati del test coprono una scala da 1 a 9 dove 9 rappresenta il livello più alto. Il livello di sufficienza è 6. Il format dell’esame Il test consta di 4 parti: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking. Le sezioni di Reading e Writing offrono due possibilità: • Academic per i candidati che desiderano studiare all’estero a livello universitario. • General training per i candidati che desiderano trasferirsi in un paese anglofono o studiare nella scuola superiore all’estero. Nel volume 3 di Performer Culture & Literature gli esercizi proposti sono Academic.

Academic Reading

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Paper Format

Tre brani lunghi (per un totale di 2000-2750 parole) su argomenti accademici con una varietà di tipologie di domande.

Tempo

60 minuti,

Numero di domande

13 o 14 per ogni testo (totale 40).

Tipologie

Scelta multipla, individuare informazioni, opinioni, esercizi di matching, completamento, risposte brevi.

Fonti

I testi sono presi da libri di testo, giornali, riviste. Gli argomenti sono di interesse generale e trattano di problematiche vicine agli studenti universitari. I testi possono contenere diagrammi, grafici o illustrazioni.

Valutazione

Ogni quesito vale un punto.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Paper Format

Ci sono due tracce che vanno entrambe svolte.

Tempo

60 minuti.

Tipologie

Nella Traccia 1 i candidati devono descrivere grafici / tabelle / diagrammi) con le loro parole. Devono scrivere 150 parole in circa 20 minuti. Nella Traccia 2 i candidati scrivono 250 parole riguardanti un argomento dato in circa 40 minuti.

Listening Paper Format

Quattro sezioni di 10 domande ciascuna. La prima sezione riguarda situazioni in contesti quotidiani. C’è una conversazione tra due interlocutori nella Sezione 1 e un monologo nella Sezione 2. Le ultime due sezioni presentano situazioni legate a contesti educativi o lavorativi. La Sezione 3 contiene una conversazione tra due/quattro interlocutori. La Sezione 4 è una lezione su un argomento accademico. I brani si possono ascoltare una sola volta e presentano diversi tipi di accenti.

Tempo

Circa 30 minuti.

PROGRAMMAZIONE

Academic Writing

Numero di domande 40 (10 x 4). Tipologie

Scelta multipla, individuare informazioni, opinioni, esercizi di matching, completamento.

Valutazione

Ogni quesito vale un punto.

Speaking Paper Format

Il test di Speaking comprende un’intervista al candidato condotta dall’esaminatore.

Parte 1

Presentazione e domande su argomenti personali (4 – 5 minuti).

Parte 2

Individual long turn (2 minuti più 1 minuto per la preparazione). Ogni candidato riceve una “task card” su un argomento specifico. Alla fine l’esaminatore farà una o due domande relative all’argomento.

Parte 3

A two-way discussion (4 / 5 minuti). Il candidato è invitato ad approfondire l’argomento della Parte 2 e deve sviluppare un livello linguistico più astratto.

Tempo

11-14 minuti.

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Che cos’è la certificazione TOEFL? TOEFL iBT® Test Il test TOEFL iBT® si svolge via internet. Comprende quattro sezioni (Listening, Reading, Speaking e Writing) che richiedono circa 4 ore e mezza. Durante l’esame il candidato deve integrare più di una abilità. PROGRAMMAZIONE

TOEFL Test Sections Section Tempo 60–90 Reading minuti 60–90 Listening minuti Break 10 minuti

Quesiti 36–56 quesiti 34–51 quesiti –

Speaking 25 minuti 6 quesiti Writing

50 minuti 2 compiti

Tasks Leggere 3 / 5 brani accademici (Arte, Psicologia, Storia o Scienze) e rispondere a circa 12 quesiti per brano. Ascolto di lezioni, discussioni, conversazioni seguite da domande. – Esprimere un’opinione su un argomento familiare; speaking basato su integrazione di reading e listening. Scrivere brevi saggi basati su attività di reading e listening; sostenere un’opinione.

Mappa di navigazione Esercizi per l’Esame di Stato, per le certificazioni IELTS e TOEFL presenti in Performer Culture & Literature, volume 3

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Specification 13

Esame di Stato Prova Orale Terza Prova – Type B Seconda prova scritta Terza Prova – Type A

IELTS Listening – Section 4

TOEFL Speaking – Independent Task

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Terza Prova – Type B Seconda prova scritta Prova Orale – Part 1

Academic Reading Speaking – Part 3

Speaking – Task 4

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Terza Prova – Type B Seconda prova scritta Prova Orale – Part 1

Listening – Section 2 Academic Reading Academic Writing Speaking – Part 2

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Terza Prova – Type A Seconda prova scritta Terza Prova – Type B Prova Orale – Part 1

Academic Reading Listening – Section 4 Speaking – Part 2

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Terza Prova – Type B Seconda prova scritta Terza Prova – Type A Prova Orale – Part 1

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Terza Prova – Type A Terza Prova – Type B Seconda prova scritta Prova Orale – Part 1

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Academic Reading Listening – Part 3 Writing – Task 2 Speaking – Task 4 Listening – Section 3 Academic Reading

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Soluzioni degli esercizi del testo

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LESSON PLAN 13 The Drums of War This is just a suggestion of how to use Performer Culture & Literature Volume 3. Specification 13 deals with World War I, war literature and the issue of man at war. The development of this Specification ideally covers 15 lessons depending on the class and the level of the students. LESSONS CULTURE & LITERATURE The Drums of War 13.1 History 1 Students are introduced to the study of the Edwardian Age through Q&A. The presentation of the Context in PowerPoint can be employed either as a support to the introduction of the period or as a summing-up at the end of the specification.

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13.2 Mapping history Teachers explain the ways in which women fought to achieve universal suffrage showing the map (Interactive map 14 in the CD-ROM) and the places mentioned.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

Students are introduced to the Esame di Stato - Prova Orale. They are also given guidelines for an effective PowerPoint Presentation to be used in the Prova Orale – Part 1.

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The presentation of A PowerPoint Presentation can be employed as a support to the introduction of this technical device. 13.3 History Students are introduced to the study of World War I through Q&A and IELTS Listening – Section 4. Further activity: Dictation The War in the Air 13.3 History Students are introduced to a text from A Farewell to Arms by E. Hemingway about a gas attack during World War I. The presentation of Hemingway in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author. Further development: Text Bank 88-90 13.4 The Arts Students are introduced to the study of Paul Nash’s paintings. Internet lab This is required by the national curriculum to develop digital competence. Students carry out a research project about Nash’s paintings.

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13.5 Literature Teachers introduce the main features of modern poetry. The presentation of Modern Poetry in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the genre. 13.6 Literature Students are introduced to the study of the War Poets and the analysis of the poem The Soldier by R. Brooke. 13.6 Literature Students are introduced to the analysis of the poem Dulce et Decorum Est by W. Owen. They do the activity 11 Esame di Stato – Terza Prova Type B at home. Further development: Text Bank 91-92 13.7 Comparing Literatures The section provides a comparison between two war poems, August 1914 by I. Rosenberg and Veglia by G. Ungaretti.

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13.10 Literature Teachers introduce W. B. Yeats’s biography, his themes and his nationalism. The presentation of Yeats in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his works. 13.10 Literature Students are introduced to the analysis of Easter 1916. Students practice Esame di Stato – Terza Prova, Type A doing the activity 9 on page 429. Further development: Text Bank 93-94

13.11 Two Films About … The Irish War of Independence 13.12 Literature Teachers introduce Thomas Stearn Eliot and his masterpiece, The Waste Land. The presentation of T.S. Eliot in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his works. 13.12 Students analyse the text The Burial of the Dead from The Waste Land. 13.12 Students analyse the text The Fire Sermon from The Waste Land. Students practice Esame di Stato – Terza Prova, Type A doing activity 8 on page 436 at home. Further development: Text Bank 95 13.13 Comparing Literatures The section provides a comparison between the objective correlative in T.S. Eliot and E. Montale. Esame di Stato – Prova Orale on page 438 can be either used as a ‘recupero in itinere’ in the classroom or as homework.

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Specification 13

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13.8 Cultural Issues Students work on the issue Man at war doing the activities of the Esame di Stato- Seconda Prova. Then they analyze the poem The Nights of Sarajevo by Tony Harrison. Students also practice TOEFL Speaking – Independent Task 13.9 History Students are introduced to the Irish Question through a table about the most important events linked to this topic.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

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Specification 13

The Drums of War 1.1

History

The Edwardian Age

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Teaching tip The presentation The Drums of War in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the period.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 178.

13.2 Mapping History

Securing the vote for women

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 178.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

18

1

LOOK at the pictures (1-6) and match them with the captions (A-E). One caption matches two pictures. 1 E; 2 E; 3 A; 4 D; 5 C; 6B.

2

DISCUSS in pairs. What aspects of Edwardian society are highlighted in the pictures? The Edwardian period or Edwardian era technically lasted from 1901 (when Queen Victoria died) to 1910 (when King George V succeeded to the throne) - the reign of King Edward VII, but it is often regarded as a Belle Epoque starting in the Naughty Nineties and lasting until the Great War. The Edwardian period was the apogee of amateur sport. Technological advances came with bewildering rapidity. In Britain the era was typified by a rigid class structure, but there were a number of underlying social and political pressures that would create conflict. Socialism was an increasingly important political force, giving rise to revolution in Russia in 1905. Women’s suffrage was a progressively relevant and divisive issue which would be brought into stark focus by women’s contribution to the forthcoming war effort. But political and military issues would bring this era to a tragic end. The origins of World War I were complex, but growing nationalism and weak European empires, coupled with growing militarism and military expenditure led to circumstances in which the Great Powers found it easier to condemn Europe to four years of war and the death of tens of millions than to maintain peace.

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READ the Q&A text. Student’s activity. IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns ( Q s) asking and answering the questions using the information that you have read. Students’ activity.

Interactive Map 14

1

LOOK at the pictures and discuss the ways in which women might have fought to achieve universal suffrage. This is a warm-up exercise to elicit vocabulary connected with protest campaigns.

2

AS YOU READ the text below, underline the places mentioned and locate them on the map. Students’ activity.

3

READ the text again and underline the words connected with protest. The words connected with protest are: chained themselves to railings, broke windows and shouted; disrupting public meetings, hunger-strike tactics, attacking MPs, burning churches, rallying cry, militancy, mass march, attacks on property, arson campaign, clash with police, stamping slogans on the walls.

4

ANSWER the questions.

1

When was women’s suffrage granted? In 1918 and in 1928 it was extended to all woman on the same basis as men. What focused attention on the fight for female suffrage? Press reports of ladies attacking MPs, burning churches and being force-fed in prison cells. What was the NUWSS? It was the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Who founded the WSPU? Where and when?

2

3 4

Emmeline Pankhurst, in Manchester in 1903. What finally led to the granting of the vote to women? The First World War and the role women played in taking on work normally done by men, and the need to counterbalance the granting of universal suffrage for men. There was also an election in view in 1914.

Text Bank 88: Ernest Hemingway, Viva la pace! From a farewell to arms Teacher’s key on page 306.

Text Bank 89: Ernest Hemingway, Catherine’s death From A farewell to arms Teacher’s Key on page 307. Text Bank 90: Ernest Hemingway, a destroyed talent From The snows of Kilimanjaro Teacher’s Key on page 308.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 178.

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6

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Prova Orale - Part 1

SURF the Internet to find and collect information about women and the vote in Britain. Here are two suggestions: www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/ transformingsociety/electionsvoting/ womenvote/ www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/ mwh/britain/votesforwomenrev1.shtml Students’ activity. CREATE your own PowerPoint presentation using the material from the Internet. Follow these guidelines: Use an interesting title and pictures. Communicate your information clearly using bullet points, numbered lists and putting key ideas in bold or coloured text. Plan your presentation carefully and follow the notes you have prepared. Avoid digressions. Have a clear conclusion. Decide when you would like to allow questions. Students’ activity.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 179.

1

LOOK at the pictures (1-3). What issues about World War I do they hint at? They introduce three issues linked to WWI:

1 2 3

Wide enrolment and participation of patriots. The use of trenches. The use of new weapons, like missiles and shells.

2

MATCH the words (1-6) with their meanings (A-F). 1 D; 2 F; 3 E; 4 B; 5 C; 6 A.

3

READ the Q&A text. Students’ activity.

4

IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Pair work. This is also a LIM exercise. 1.2 dictation: The war in the air Teacher’s Key on page 179. IELTS

SHOW your presentation to the class. Students’ activity. Exam Reference pag. 611

13.3 History

World War I

Teaching tip The presentation Ernest Hemingway in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Listening - Section 4

Teaching tip Before playing the CD, pre-teach the following words: hole: buco infantry: fanteria shelter: riparo concrete: cemento

5

1.1 ACADEMIC LECTURE. You are going to hear a lecturer talking about life in the trenches during World War I. Read the questions below carefully. Then listen and answer questions 1–10.

19

Specification 13

ESAME DI STATO

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

5

For questions 1-5, complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS in each space. The things the soldier remembers most about the trenches are feelings of (1) fear and discomfort. The trenches themselves were in fact long (2) dug out holes. built to face the enemy lines. The lines were not necessarily (3) straight. because they followed the lie of the land. The important thing was that they offered good defence and the possibility to observe (4) enemy lines. Another important fact is that the trenches were not a continuous line but were (5) built in sections.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

For questions 6-8, complete the description of the diagram. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS in each space. The (6) front line is the section that faces the enemy line. The (7) support trench. Is the trench built at some distance behind the main trenches. The area between the two enemy lines is called (8) no man’s land. For questions 9 and 10, complete the notes. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS in each space. The two main areas of risk in trenches: (9) Death and disease. The speaker considered the greatest problems in the trenches to come from(10) weather and boredom. TRANSCRIPT Questions 1-5 I think it is very hard for anyone who wasn’t there to imagine what life was like in the trenches. The soldiers’ strongest memories were of fear and discomfort. The trenches were long dug out holes built facing the enemy who had similar lines on their side. These lines were not straight, but followed the contours or other natural features allowing good defence or a view over the enemy lines. The idea was to give the infantry cover for observation. The trenches were also built in sections, so if a shell exploded inside one of these ‘bays’ or an enemy gets into one, only that section was affected.

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Questions 6-8 Behind this front line of trenches there was another called a support line. In these trenches there were ‘dugouts’ cut into the side of the trench wall; they were often very small but with room for perhaps three or four men to find shelter, or for a telephone position. Communication trenches linked the front line to the support line and it was along these that all men, equipment and supplies had to be taken, by hand. The area between the front line and the enemy lines was called ‘no man’s land’. The distance between the two lines varied from as little as 30 yards (just under 30m) to several hundred yards. At first the trenches were simple and full of mud, but as the war went on they became increasingly fortified with wooden boards and sometimes even concrete. Most were about 5 or 6 feet deep, though by the end of the war the Germans had trenches that were several miles deep. Questions 9 and 10 With so many men living in a very constrained space, trench life was always dirty and difficult. Remains of discarded food, empty tins and other waste, the nearby presence of the latrine, the general dirt of living half underground and being unable to wash or change for days or weeks at a time created conditions of severe health risks without considering the risks of being killed! There were always rats and lice which spread disease which also came from the flies on the nearby remains of decomposing human and animal corpses. Troops in the trenches were also subjected to the weather: the winter of 1916 to 1917 in France and Flanders was the coldest in living memory. There was a specific routine in the trenches. Men generally stayed for 4 days in the front line, then 4 days in the reserve and finally had 4 days’ rest. Soldiers took turns being on duty. They had to listen for sounds that might indicate enemy activity, and try to observe such activity across no man’s land. Obviously, in times of battle or extended alerts, such a routine would be broken, but such times were a small proportion of the time in the trenches. The main enemies were the weather and boredom. Adapted from: http://www.1914-1918.net/intrenches.htm

NOTE down the setting in time and place, and the place reached by the soldiers in lines 42-51.

1 2

The setting in time: it was dark (lines 42, 47). The setting in place: War trenches: there are mountains (line 43) the lines (line 44), the road (line 44). The place reached by the soldiers: An emergency station (line 46).

A Farewell to Arms (1929) Book I, Chapter 9

3 1

EXPAND this thinking map with all the words you know relating to war. Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ lines 1-41 and complete the following table about the different attitudes to war expressed by the characters.

Characters Henry

Passini

Manera

Gavuzzi Gordini

4

READ the text to the end and answer the questions:

1

What did Henry see and hear all of a sudden? He saw a flash and heard a roar (lines 53-54). How did Henry feel? He could not breath and felt out of himself (lines 55-56). What had happened to the other ambulance driver, Passini? His legs were both smashed and he was near dying (lines 66-68).

2 3

Effects of war War would not finish if one side stopped fighting. It would be worse if they stopped fighting (lines 1-2); Defeat is worse (line 4); The enemy would take possession of the home and the sisters of the defeated (line 6); he would hang them and oblige them to be soldiers in his army (line 9); According to Henry, the Italian soldiers know nothing about being conquered; that is why they think it would not be bad (line 14). According to him there is nothing worse than war (line 3, 15-16); Defeat is nothing but coming back home (line 5); The enemy can’t hang all the defeated soldiers (line 7); War is made by all those people who are afraid of their officers (line 18); There is no finish to a war (line 20); War is not won by victory, but it ends when one side stops fighting (lines 25-26); Everybody hates this war (line 30); The class that controls the country wants this war for stupidity (lines 31-32). An outside nation can’t make the defeated be soldiers in their army (line 12). He does not express his personal opinion.

Attitude to war Getting the war over by fighting against the enemy and winning him; His attitude is idealistic.

Surrendering is the solution to the atrocities of war; His attitude is more realistic.

He does not accept this war; His attitude is realistic.

He does not express his personal opinion; he only goes out of the trench with Henry.

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21

Specification 13

Ernest Hemingway

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SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

There is nothing worse than war

4

5 6 7

What did the Italian soldier beg Henry to do? He begged Henry to shoot him in order to stop his pain (lines 69-71). Why was there no need to help Passini? Because he was already dead (lines 79-80). Where had Henry been hurt? He had been hurt on his knee (lines 82-84). What happened to Henry at the end? Someone took hold of him under the arm and somebody else lifted his legs (line 87).

ANALYSIS 5 DEFINE the role of the narrator. Is he inside or outside the story? Is he the protagonist, a witness or both? His position is inside the story. He is both the protagonist and a witness.

FOCUS on the use of ‘free direct speech’, that is, where dialogue is isolated from the context, in the first section. State how this technique is achieved. What is the effect conveyed by such a technique? It is achieved through the lack of introductory verbs.The effect conveyed is realism and a conversation which is close to everyday speech.

7

CONCENTRATE on the last part, the climax of the extract.

1

Explain how the bombing attack is described. It is described in details and in a glittering way. How is the narrator able to increase the tension? Through a matter-of-fact, detailed, shocking description and through the Italian soldier’s invocations.

2

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

8

BEAR in mind that the whole extract takes place at night, in the dark. Yet, light breaks through the darkness four times in the second and in the third part, revealing something important.

1

Find the words connected to light, the nature of this light and what it reveals. There’s also another light in the dressing station (line 47), that reveals instruments shining (line 50). A simile is also used in lines 53-54. Find it and explain what feeling it conveys. The simile employed is the flash of the bomb explosion is compared to a blast-furnace door swung open. It conveys a feeling of destruction and death and points out the quality of this destruction, which is linked to fire and hell.

2

Words connected with light Search-lights (lines 42-43) Flash (line 53)

In the dark the light goes up and floats whitely (line 62) Another floating light (line 84)

9

Nature of the light They were mounted on camions (line 43) The light of a bomb explosion

What the light reveals They lit the lines

It started white then it went red destroying everything and everyone (lines 54-61) The star-shells lit the sky intermittently Passini’s conditions (lines 64-68) (line 62) It came from the hell outside Henry’s wound (line 85)

UNDERLINE all the words and phrases referring to the five senses employed to describe the explosion, which, at first, is experienced by Henry from the inside.

Sense Sight

Hearing

Smell Taste Touch

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Words/phrases Flash (line 53); white, red (line 54); the ground was torn up (line 59); a splintered beam of wood (line 59); star-shells (line 62); in the dark and the light (line 66); another floating light (84). A cough (line 53); chuh – chuh - chuh (line 53); a roar (line 54); rushing wind (line 55); bodily in the wind (line 56); somebody crying (line 60); somebody … screaming (line 60); I heard the machine-guns and rifles (line 61); I heard the bombs (line 63); someone saying ‘mama mia ‘ (lines 64-65). I tried to breath (lines 55). He bit his arm (line 68). I floated (line 58); a great splashing (line 62); I touched him (line 65).

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3

3 4 5 6 7 8 3

ANSWER these questions about The Menin Road.

1

What shade of colour prevails in the painting? What mood does it convey? Sombre tones of sepia prevail in the painting. They convey desolation and suffering. What do the rigid simplification of nature and the deliberate elimination of everything nonessential communicate? It communicates the cruelty of war and the anxiety of modern man who has to face and overcome all the tragedies surrounding him. Nash wrote in a letter to his wife: ‘I have seen the most frightful nightmare of a country more conceived by Dante or Poe than by nature, unspeakable, utterly indescribable.’ How are these words related to the painting? What vision of war emerges? Nature has been totally upset by war: bare trees and stagnant water seem to represent Dante’s hell. Nash’s war is not that of burning patriotism, but that of suffering and corporate endurance. The picture has to rouse people to a full and vivid realization of what war was.

YOUR TURN 10 DISCUSS. A Farewell to Arms is one of the most 2 famous war novels ever written. Unlike many war stories, however, the novel does not glorify the experience of combat or offer us portraits of heroes as they are traditionally conceived. What is the novel’s attitude towards war? 3 Open answer.

13.4 The Arts

World War I in English painting

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 179.

1

READ the quote below, which the British artist Paul Nash wrote to his wife in 1917, and discuss in pairs how war affected his development as an artist. ‘I am no longer an artist, interested and curious. I am a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on forever. Feeble, inarticulate, will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth, and may it burn their lousy souls.’ Then read about Paul Nash’s life and work. Students’ activity.

2

LOOK at the painting and complete the following sentences.

1

The line of the road traverses the canvas from left to right. The road surface has been lost and is difficult to

2

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distinguish it from the surrounding ground. Here and there what was once an avenue is pocked with shell-craters. It is marked by mutilated trees. The sky is menacing and cloudy. Some men move towards an unseen objective. Stagnant water lies in the deep ruts of tanked tracks. Only two plants are alive.

4

5

DISCUSS the way man and the landscape are related in the painting. Human suffering and therefore by implication human hope, is linked to the vast suffering of nature. LOOK at this photo of the Menin Road. Which of the two languages, the pictorial or the photographic, do you find more effective? Students’ activity. Suggestion: Students should point out that the battle around Ypres lasted as long as the war itself. That battle was an endless carnage in a marshy landscape where the wounded were swallowed up in the mud. Nash’s painting witnesses the extreme violence of destruction in the wetlands, in the mutilated woods and around the town, itself

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Specification 13

2

Which sense /s predominate/s? Sight and hearing. Henry then turns his attention to the outside. What causes this shift in his attention? Which sentences uttered by Henry mark his different attitude to the external world? Passini’ s screaming causes this shift in Henry’s attention. At first we read ‘I thought somebody was screaming’ (line 60), then Henry comes back to reality in line 63 when ‘he heard close to me...’ becoming aware of Passini’ s terrible pain next to him. What sort of character does he reveal? He has left his ideals of ‘getting the war over’ because he has experienced suffering and death.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

1

destroyed. Both the photo and the painting show the mud and misery of the battlefield turning it into a sort of waste land. 1

2

1

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

2

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13.5 Literature

Modern poetry: tradition and experimentation

a

SURF these sites to find materials about the two paintings below. www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/ object/20070 www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nashlandscape-from-a-dream-n05667

* DESCRIBE them in detail. Do they have

anything in common? What is the subject of these paintings? What symbols do they contain? Students’ activity. Suggestion: We Are Making a New World contains an explicit and angry anti-war message. The rising sun breaks into the waste land on the Western Front. This is a malleable landscape, constantly reshaped and redrawn by bombardment and attacks. Consequently no maps can be drawn, people are excluded and the land has become dead and polluted. In Nash’s bitter vision the sun will continue to rise every day to repeat the judgment on war. This new world is unwanted, unlovable but inescapable. The painting Landscape from a Dream echoes Nash’s fascination with Freud’s theories of the power of dreams to reveal the unconscious. The painter explained that various elements were symbolic: the hawk belongs to the material world, while the spheres reflected in the mirror refer to the soul. They all stand for the interaction between reality and dream.

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Teaching tip The presentation Modern poetry in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the genre.

1

LOOK at the picture and think about what you have learnt so far in this Specification. What types of changes do you think the war and social changes might have caused in literature? Students should think of the historical context they have studied and on their knowledge of romantic poetry and discuss what new elements modern poetry might include, such as experimentation, anti-lyricism, new themes. The painting shows three officers standing on the left beside a pile of ammunition boxes. Each looks in a different direction. One has his back to the viewer and looks out over the scene of the painting. There are marionette-like figures moving over broken ground, among the huts and shattered trees. Streams of stylised smoke erupts from incoming shells and spreads across the sky. The First World War, especially the Western Front, was dominated by artillery. Counter-battery work was essential in order to suppress enemy barrages and this painting illustrates the deadly effect of precise German bombardment. The three gunners in the foreground calmly observe the devastation before them; stylised figures struggle through the cratered landscape and distorted columns of smoke rise above the battery position. The serenity of the gunners in the face of immediate chaos reflects a fatalism and detachment perhaps derived from their distanced and impersonal mode of warfare. In style and content this painting was one of the most controversial to come out of the First World War.

War poets The horrors of modern warfare.

Style

Conventions of diction.

Unconventional, anti-rhetorical, violent everyday language.

Aim

To express the English sensibility.

To deal with war in To achieve precision, discipline, an anti-rhetorical dry hardness. way.

Themes

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 179.

13.6 Literature

The War Poets

Text Bank 91: Siegfried Sassoon, Glory of a women from Counter – attack and others poems Teacher’s Key on page 309.

Imagists Any subject matter; the poet’s response to a scene or object. Hard, clear, precise images; free verse. Short poems, no moral comment.

• • • • • • • •

Text Bank 92: Isaac Rosenberg, break of day in the Trenches from Collected poems Teacher’s Key on page 310.

Symbolists Escape from emotion, escape from personality; fragmentation of culture. Indirect rather than direct statements; use of allusive language and development of the multiple association of words; importance given to the ‘sound’ of words as conveying ‘the music of ideas’; use of quotations from other literatures revealing cosmopolitan interests: use of free verse; possibility for the reader to bring meaning to the poem. To evoke rather than state.

had little experience of war; Brooke, Sassoon. spent some time at Craiglockhart War Hospital; Owen and Sassoon. wrote poetry which was classical in form; Brooke. wrote about the pity of war; Owen. made an anti-war declaration; Sassoon. was also a painter; Rosenberg. had a romantic view of war; Brooke. used shocking and realistic language. Owen, Sassoon and Rosenberg.

The Soldier 1

2 • • • •

LOOK at the two propaganda posters about World War I and discuss the view of the war they reflect. Students should discuss the role of propaganda during the war and the influence that the Victorian values of honour, espectability, courage and patriotism had on the English people at the outbreak of the war. READ the biographies of the War poets and say who: was Jewish; Sassoon and Rosenberg. belonged to the working class; Rosenberg. worked as a teacher; Owen. was very handsome; Brooke.

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Rupert Brooke 1914 and Other Poems (1915)

1

FOCUS on the title of Rupert Brooke’s poem. What traits do you think a good soldier should possess? Open answer.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the poem and say: 1 who is speaking; The poet. 2 if he is afraid of death; He does not seem afraid of death.

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Specification 13

Georgian poets The English countryside.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

2 FILL IN the table about modern poetry.

3 4

5

6

where his grave will be; In a foreign field. how his dead body will enrich the soil; Because it will become dust, a richer dust than the earth around it because it was a person (who had died honourably for his country). whether there is any emphasis on war; The emphasis is on the poet’s feelings, war is an abstract idea. who you think the poet is speaking to. To the English people, especially the young.

ESAME DI STATO

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ANALYSIS 3 WORK OUT the rhyme scheme and say what kind of poem this is. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFGEFG. It is a Petrarchan sonnet. SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

4

FIND the images referring to death. What idea do they suggest? ‘A richer dust’ (line 4), a pulse in the eternal mind (line 10). They suggest immortality, glory and peace.

5

LIST the images connected with England under the following headings:

•

Landscape some corner of a foreign field (line 2), her flowers to love, her ways to roam (line 6); English air (line 7); Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home (line 8). Inner growth and private feelings England bore, shaped, made aware (line 5); the thoughts by England given (line 11); dreams happy (line 12); And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness (line 13).

•

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HIGHLIGHT the view of England conveyed. What traditional qualities does the poet underline? The poet views England as a mother who gave him life and brought him up teaching him feelings of joy and gentleness. The poet underlines the beauty of the landscape, the politeness and friendliness of the English people. DEFINE the tone of the poem and summarize its theme. The tone is patriotic, sentimental, nostalgic. The poem deals with patriotic ideas and the idealisation of those who sacrifice their life for their country. Death in battle is not regarded as a tragic experience but as a noble act.

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Terza Prova

TYPE B. Read the speech by Winston Churchill that appeared in ‘The Times’ on 26th April 1915 to commemorate Brooke’s death. Write ten to twelve lines explaining whether it is consistent with the poem and why. ‘The thoughts to which he gave expression in the very few incomparable war sonnets which he has left behind will be shared by many thousands of young men moving resolutely and blithely forward into this, the hardest, cruellest, and the least-rewarded of all the wars that men have fought. They are a whole history and revelation of Rupert Brooke himself. Joyous, fearless, versatile, deeply instructed, with classic symmetry of mind and body, he was all that one would wish England’s noblest sons to be in days when no sacrifice but the most precious is acceptable, and the most precious is that which is most freely proffered.’ Suggestion: It is consistent with the poem because Churchill emphasises the courage of those young people who volunteered. He underlines the same qualities of the Englishman as Brooke himself stressed in the poem.

Dulce Et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen The Poems of Wilfred Owen (1920)

1

COMPARE the impact of images of war which are very frequent on television and in films, with that of words. Which means is most effective, the visual or the verbal? Can you provide an example? Open answer.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ Wilfred Owen’s poem and briefly summarise the content of each stanza in your own words. Stanza 1: The soldiers are retreating towards the trenches away from the front line. They are exhausted and demoralized struggling through the mud. They are bent over, coughing and blinded like old people.

4

FIND examples of alliteration, repetition of sounds and onomatopoeia. Alliteration: ‘b’ (line 1); ‘kn’, ‘c’ (line 2); ‘t’ (line 4); ‘m’ (line 5); ‘bl’ (line 6); ‘d’ (line 7). Repetition of sounds: the sound ‘b’ in the first stanza; the sounds ‘f ’ and ‘s’ in the second and fourth stanzas; the sound ‘pl’ in the third stanza. Onomatopoeia: trudge (line 4); hoots (line 7); guttering, choking, drowning (line 16); flung (line 18); gargling, froth (line 22).

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FOCUS on the first two stanzas and make a chart with words and phrases referring to physical and psychological suffering.

NOTE DOWN the verbs of movement in the first two stanzas and point out their connotation. Stanza 1 Bent double J subdued; Knock-knee, we cursed J they are suffering; began to trudge J the movements are slow; marched asleep, limped on, went lame J connotation: weary because of moral and physical exhaustion. Stanza 2 Fumbling, fitting, stumbling, flound’ring J the movements are convulsive and frantic because of panic.

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FIND the similes and metaphors used by the poet at the end of the second stanza to introduce the passage from the real world of the battlefield to an unreal, nightmarish, hallucinatory world. What semantic areas do they belong to? What is the poet’s aim in using them? Similes: lines 1, 2, 12, 14, 20, 23. Metaphors: blood-shod (line 6); drunk with fatigue (line 7); ecstasy of fumbling (line 9). They belong to the world of the supernatural or the fantastic. The metaphors draw from the areas of illness and disease. The poet compares the war to the worst of nightmares, even to hell. He underlines the physical and psychological suffering which haunts the soldiers.

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EXPLAIN why the final words of the poem are called ‘the old Lie’ (line 27). What technique is used by Owen? The poet wants to underline that there is

Physical suffering Bent

Psychological suffering beggars

knock-kneed

cursed

Coughing

haunting flares

Trudge Man marched asleep

drunk with fatigue

limped, blood-shod

fumbling

lame, blind, deaf flound’ring drowning

yelling out

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27

Specification 13

ANALYSIS 3 CIRCLE the personal pronouns in the poem. Then write them down and say to whom they refer. Who do you think is the poet addressing? We J the soldiers (lines 2, 3, 18) I J the poet (line 14) He, him J a soldier, a friend of the poet’s (lines 14, 16, 18) You J the reader, referred to as a friend (lines 17, 21, 25) The poet is probably addressing those people who think that war is a noble adventure.

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SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Stanza 2. There is the description of a gas attack: the men try to put on their masks in the green light and the poet’s friend is wounded. Stanza 3: The sight of the dying friend returns in the poet’s dreams. Stanza 4: The poet describes his friend’s horrible death from chemical warfare and conveys the message of the poem.

the poem in your own words. The poem is a manifesto against war and is addressed to those who claim that war is right and glorious. Through anti-heroic images, Owen gives an insight into what he calls ‘the pity of war’, its humane aspects.

nothing noble or decorous in war; it just means degradation and death. He uses bitter irony and hints that this is not a new concept but a historic one that has been used many times to cover up the harsh reality of war. 9

SUMMARISE the theme and the message of

10 COMPARE Owen’s poem with Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’. Analyse the soldier’s mood, his attitude to war; the imagery employed and the poet’s message.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

Brooke

Owen

the soldier’s mood

romantic, sentimental

disenchanted

his attitude to war

idealised

condemns it

imagery

drawn from nature and joy

nightmarish

the poet’s message

dying in war brings glory

war and patriotism are deceitful

ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova

11 TYPE B. In October 1918 Owen wrote: ‘I came out in order to help these boys – directly by leading them as well as an officer can; indirectly, by watching their sufferings that I may speak of them as well as a pleader can. I have done the first’. Write ten to twelve lines explaining whether you find his words relevant to the poem as a whole. Suggestion Students should point out that the poem is consistent with Owen’s statement. He thought that the message of poetry was strong and wanted people to feel the pity of war through his lines.

Ungaretti’s poems thoroughly, they might have read some of his poems in previous school years.

August 1914 Isaac Rosenberg Collected Works (1922)

Veglia Giuseppe Ungaretti L’Allegria (1931)

2 Exam Reference pag. 611

documentary descriptions of war; reflections on the great waste caused by war; patriotic celebrations at the outbreak of war.

13.7 Comparing Literatures

War in Rosenberg and Ungaretti

1

28

IN PAIRS discuss whether there is a tradition of war poetry in Italian literature. This warm-up exercise has the aim to activate the knowledge of war poetry in Italian literature. Even if students have not studied

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READ the two poems and say if they are:

3

CONSIDER the language used in the poems. Choose the correct option in each of the following statements: 1 2 3 4 5

The language is poetic/ordinary The images are concrete/abstract The sentences are short/long The verbs are mainly in the present participle/past participle The tone is sentimental/hard.

FILL IN the table below with words and phrases from the two poems.

Style

The poet’s mood

August 1914 There are some metaphors: granary: man’s heritage made up of experience and emotions iron: weapons and shells honey: feelings and love gold: material possessions the hard and cold: alienation and death ripe field: youth The style is fragmentary. The language employed is hard, dry and clear. It aims at visualizing an idea and rendering it directly to the reader.

The style is fragmentary. The language is dry, hard, and precise. The past participles in lines 4, 6, 10 are written in isolation and point out the poet’s horror at this death caused by war. In the first stanza the poet expresses his This poem reflects on the beginning of the sadness, rage and disapproval of war. In the First World War, questioning the second stanza he understands that love can consequences of its destruction: Rosenberg declares that a hard and cold age of fire, iron win even over death and this renews his longing to live. and death has been ushered in by the war.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 179.

13.8 Cultural Issues

Man at war

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 180.

1

Veglia The metonymy in line 8 – congestione delle sue mani – lets the reader visualize the scene. A striking metaphor for the dead soldier is in lines 8-11; it penetrates the poet’s soul.

MAKE a list of some of the wars which have taken place in the last 100 years. Suggestion, to mention some of them: 1914-18 First World War 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution 1912-14 Balkan Wars: Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria against the Ottoman Empire 1911-12 Libyan War Italy-Libya 1917 Russian Revolution 1918-21 Civil War in Russia between White Army and Red Army 1920-23 Turkish Independence War 1922-31 War of conquest of Libya (Italy) 1922 Irish Civil War 1935 Italy invades Ethiopia 1936-39 Spanish Civil War 1936 Hitler invades Rhineland 1 September 1939 Hitler invades Poland, 1939-1945 Second World War 1946 Civil Wars in Greece and China

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1948 Gandhi’s assassination, Wars between India and Pakistan for the control of Kashmir 1948 War in Czechoslovakia (coup d’état) 1948-49 First Arab-Israeli War 1950-53 Korean War 1954-1962 War in Algeria 1956 Civil uprisings in Poland and Hungary; Independence of Morocco and Tunisia 1957 Black uprisings in the USA 1959 Cuban Revolution with Fidel Castro 1960 Civil War in Congo 1962 War between India and China 1964 Second war in Indochina 1965 Beginning of the Vietnam war; Military dictatorship in the Philippines and Zaire 1966 Argentina military dictatorship 1967 Six days war between Egypt and Israel 1967-70 War of Biafra in Nigeria 1968 War in Indochina 1969 Military clashes between China and USSR 1971 War between India and Pakistan 1974 Meghistu to power in Ethiopia 1975 Civil War in Lebanon 1978 Israeli war on Lebanon 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, war between China and Vietnam 1980- 1988 War Iran-Iraq 1982 Israel invades Lebanon, Falklands War 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait

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Specification 13

Metaphors

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

4

2

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

3

IN PAIRS write a list of the reasons why people go to war, in your opinion. Here are some suggestions. 1)Patriotism and Nationalism A strong sense of national pride made men feel that it was their duty to fight. 2)Honour and Glory Many men saw the war as a glorious adventure, a chance to wear a uniform, travel, win medals and prove personal courage. 3)Ignorance of the horrors of war There had not been a widespread European war for 100 years. No one knew the terrible effects of modern weapons and the government censored unpleasant news. Newspapers focused on victory as glory. 4)Demonization of the enemy Men were taught that they were needed to protect families lives, homes, democracy, king and country from a barbaric and dishonourable and vicious enemy. They were defending ‘civilization’ from barbarians. 5)Peer Pressure Women used to pin chicken feathers on ablebodied (healthy, strong) men to shame them into joining the war. Many men joined because it was ‘ the thing to do’. 6)Propaganda Governments created propaganda posters to encourage recruits to join the war effort. This propaganda appealed to emotion rather than logic, and worked on factors 1 to 5 above. 7) Conscription In 1917, after a vote, the government passed a conscription law to force the men of military service age to join the army. This greatly angered Quebec, since the French Canadians saw the war as a European conflict and therefore had nothing to do with them. 8)Unemployment It provided a job! READ the following text from The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (1995) by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012).

ESAME DI STATO

30

Seconda Prova

4

ANSWER the following questions.

1

What was the major characteristic of the 20th century, according to the author? The major characteristic was war.

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What did ‘peace’ mean to the first generation of the 20th century? It meant the period before 1914. 3 Which were the six ‘great powers’ of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century? They were: Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Italy (after unification). 4 Why was the Crimean War different from other conflicts in the 19th century? Because it involved more than two major powers: Russia against Britain and France. 5 What was interesting about the period between 1871-1914? There were no wars in Europe in that period. 6 What was so different about the war that started in 1914? It involved all the major powers, in fact all the European states except Spain, the Netherlands, the three Scandinavian countries and Switzerland. 7 In which way can the 1914 war be described as a ‘world war’? It was the first time troops from the world overseas were sent to fight and work outside their own regions. 8 In which way did the US ignore George Washington’s warning? He warned against involvement in Europe and the US sent troops to fight in the war. 9 Why can the Second World War be described as a ‘lesson in world geography’? Because newspaper readers and radio listeners heard about battles all over the world and learnt about where those places were. 10 According to the author, how were the wars of the 20th century different from previous wars? They were on a much vaster/larger scale. 2

GUIDED TASK

5

SUMMARISE the content of the passage following the guided task. STEP 1 Underline or highlight the points in the text which you consider important. Students’ activity. STEP 2 Put the following list of important points from the text, in the correct order. 1 D, 2 I, 3 F, 4 G, 5 A, 6 H, 7 B, 8 J, 9 C, 10 E STEP 3 Compare your choice of important points with the ordered list. Students’ activity. STEP 4 Write a 120-word summary based on the list of important points.

GUIDED TASK

6

COMPOSITION. Write a 300-word essay on the topic of world war. Explain how the two world wars of the 20th century were truly international and involved more people than ever before.

OR Is war ever justified? Quoting examples from your reading or your knowledge of world events, discuss the reasons for warfare and the possible alternatives. Write your composition following the guided task. STEP 1 Look at the text and pick out three facts and three opinions. Students’ activity. Suggested answer: Facts The 20th century was marked by war. In 1914 there had been no major war for a century. The Crimean involved Russia against Britain and France. The American civil war was the longest conflict in the nineteenth century. The First World War involved all major powers. Many troops fought in unknown foreign territories. In the Second World War virtually the whole world was involved directly or indirectly. The First and Second World Wars were on a vaster scale than any previous wars. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Exam Reference pag. 611

The Nights of Sarajevo Tony Harrison The Bright Lights of Sarajevo ‘The Guardian’ 25th September 1995

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 180.

1

DISCUSS in pairs. Do you know any song, picture or painting dealing with the horrors of the war and the effect war has/had on humanity? Make a list and say which is your favourite and why. Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ lines 1-20 and note down: 1

2

some examples of what the inhabitants of Sarajevo did; They queue with empty canisters of gas to get the refills, they queue for the bread they are rationed to each day, they struggle up eleven flights of stairs with water; some snipers are dodging on the way (lines 1-8). what the streets are like; They are destroyed (line 10).

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Specification 13

The 20th century lived and thought in terms of war. The 20th century began with war. People couldn’t see any continuity with the past. Peace was the period before 1914. Colonial troops gained an idea of nationalism through fighting away from home. News bulletins during the war made more and more people aware of the rest of the world. STEP 2 Say which of the opinions you agree with, and why or why not. Students’ activity. STEP 3 Choose from the list which you consider relevant to your own ideas. Students’ activity. STEP 4 Decide which points to include. Students’ activity. STEP 5 Now write your composition in at least three paragraphs. Make sure you include an introduction paragraph, one or two paragraphs developing your ideas and a concluding paragraph. Students’ activity.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Opinions

Students’ activity. Suggested answer: The civilization of the nineteenth century suffered and collapsed before the world wars of the twentieth. A long period of peace before 1914 with no major war for a hundred years, ended. Most conflicts had been very brief involving two major powers at the most but in 1914 for the first time all major powers and most European states were directly involved and even the naval war was global. Again in the Second World War practically all independent world states were fighting or under occupation. The colonies of imperial powers fought willingly or not and widespread reporting in newspapers and on the radio meant more people than ever before were made aware of the extent and terrible nature of war. 120 words STEP 5 When you have finished writing, check that you have used the correct number of words and remove or add details accordingly. Students’ activity.

3

4

5

6

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

3

READ lines 21- 29. Describe the meeting of the young couple. The tone of his voice shows she has approved his choice (lines 21-22); then they walk side by side (lines 25-26) and he seems to take her hand to lead her somewhere (lines 2728).

4

READ the poem to the end and answer the questions.

1

What happened in 1992? Serb mortars massacred some people queuing for bread (lines 30-32). How is this massacre described? It is described in a realistic, macabre way. What is there inside the shell-holes? There is rain water (lines 34-35). What do the fragments of the splintered Pleiades the boy imagines he sees stand for? They represent the boy’s hope for a better world lit by the stars. How does the poem end? The couple spends the night together surrounded by a romantic atmosphere created by the candlelit of a cafe; a the curfew, however, reminds them they are living during war-time.

2 3 4

5

YOUR TURN 5 DISCUSS with the rest of the class. 1 Who are the world powers of today? 2 Where are military operations taking place now? 3 What are the major causes of international tension? Students’ activity. TOEFL

6

32

Then respond to the question. Why are there so many poems, pictures and songs about war? Preparation time: 15 seconds Response time: 45 seconds Students’ activity. Suggestion: Prepare a plan like the one given below that shows the title information you will include in your response. INTRODUCTION: The reasons why there are so many poems and songs are …… SUPPORTING IDEA 1: first reason …… SUPPORTING IDEA 2: second reason …… CONCLUSION: …… Suggestion: Students may be wondering about the following: • Is it a need to express defeat and sorrow or triumph and pride? • Could it be a desire to create a historical record? • Why are so few of the better poems and songs pro-war? • How and when do poetry/music and propaganda overlap? • Are war poems/songs always explicitly about war? • How do poems and songs about war elicit such strong emotions? • How do writers write about war? • What are the effects of literary elements?

who is walking along the street that night; A young couple is strolling along these streets (lines 12, 20). whether it is possible to distinguish their shapes; No, it is not, since the streets are unlit (line 15). what religious factions they belong to; It is impossible to mark what religion faction they belong to: they may be Muslim, Serb or Croat (lines 13-14). what guides them. No torches guide them, but they do not collide (line 18).

Speaking - Task 2

INDEPENDENT TASK. Read the question in the box below. On a piece of paper, take notes on the main points of a response.

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13.9 History

The Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence

1

DISCUSS what you know about the differences between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Eire). Ireland and Northern Ireland are parts of the same island. Though they are part of the same island, these two are different in their religious and political views. First of all, when comparing the geography, Ireland is much larger than Northern Ireland. Ireland, which is also known as ‘Republic of Ireland’ is considered a sovereign nation and its capital

READ about the Irish Question and write notes about:

1

the 1916 rebellion; The 1916 rebellion was organised by Irish volunteers on Easter Monday. As it was crushed, it became a legendary symbol of Irish heroism in the face of oppression, especially when the British executed the leaders of the movement. the developments which took place in Ireland during and after the 1918 election; Soon after the war in the 1918 election the Sinn Fein party won nearly all the seats except in Ulster, but instead of going to Westminster, they set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin, the Dail, and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The Irish Volunteers now became the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and prepared for civil war, which began at Easter 1920. the settlement of the Irish Question. The war ended with the establishment of the Irish Free State (1921) under the leadership of Eamon de Valera as a dominion of the Empire, while the six predominantly Protestant counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom with their own parliament in Belfast. It was in 1949 that the

2

3

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13.10 Literature

William Butler Yeats and Irish nationalism

Teaching tip The presentation W.B. Yeats in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 93: W.B. Yeats, the lake isle of Innisfree from The rose Teacher’s Key on page 311.

Text Bank 94: W.B. Yeats, The second coming from Michael Robarters and the dancer Teacher’s Key on page 312.

1

REVISE your knowledge about the work of W. B. Yeats and explain in your own words:

1

the link between the poet and Ireland; He inherited the dilemma of the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority to which his parents belonged, feeling Irish as much as British, and remaining largely detached from the Catholic, originally Gaelic-speaking native population. As a young man he got involved into the politics of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In the 1890s he met Lady Gregory who took him from cottage to cottage to collect Irish folklore and also supported his project regarding the Abbey Theatre. Yeats believed that the role of the artist was the creation of a new culture, based on Ireland’s past, in which all the Irish people alike could share. This hope in an Irish cultural renaissance found expression in a series of essays called The Celtic Twilight (1893). the variety of his themes; The beauty and eternity of art; the relationship between the poet and the Irish people and tradition; the theme of death; the idea of the heroic. the conflict that Yeats experienced as a poet. Yeats experienced the conflict between the aims of art and the claims of history. In his early poems the visionary and nationalist try to find mythic ways of re-enacting the tension between artistic imagination and national loyalty.

2

3

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Specification 13

2

official proclamation of the Republic of Ireland put an end to Commonwealth membership.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

is Dublin. Ireland covers about five-sixth of the island. Well, Northern Ireland is considered to be a part of UK and its capital is Belfast. When comparing the religion of the two regions, the Northern Ireland consists of Protestants and Ireland consists of Catholics. In Northern Ireland a quarter of the people, mainly Catholics, consider Britain as an occupying force. These people who protest against the Britain are known as Republicans or Nationalists who strive for an Independent Ireland, free from the British rule. The rest of the people, mostly Protestants, known as Loyalists or Unionists want to maintain the status quo. While Northern Ireland follows the imperial systems of miles, Ireland uses the Metric system of kilometre. Northern Ireland and Ireland also have difference in currency. While Northern Ireland sticks to British Pound as its main currency, Ireland has chosen Euro as its main currency. While Ireland has its own government, the British rule the Northern Ireland.

Easter 1916 William Butler Yeats Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)

4

READ the third stanza (lines 41-56) and answer these questions:

1

What characterises the ‘hearts’ in line 41? They have only one purpose. What does ‘the living stream’ (line 44) stand for? And ‘the stone’ (lines 43, 56)? The ‘living stream’ stands for the flowing of life. The stone, the constant presence of the conflict between Ireland and England.

2 1

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

DISCUSS whether the people who fight against the oppressor even at the cost of their own life should be regarded as heroes. Would you be ready to do the same for the freedom of your own country? Class discussion. For Yeats, the Easter Rising was a surprise. It made him rethink a lot of things, including what he thought about the rebels. He knew many of them, but he’d always considered them as people of the times in which they lived, and he didn’t think much of those times. He viewed his society as grey and materialistic, incapable of heroic action. So when these people suddenly did act, he was forced to change his mind, and that’s what he wrote his poem about.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the first stanza (lines 1-16) and point out: 1 when the poet used to meet the insurgents; He used to meet them at the end of the working day (line 1). 2 what you are told about their jobs; They had ordinary occupations. They work at counters or desks (line 3). 3 whether the poet knew them intimately. No, lines 5-6 suggest a superficial acquaintance.

3

5 READ the poem to the end. 1

2

What does the poet wonder about? He wonders whether such sacrifice was useful and worthwhile (lines 59, 67). Though identifying himself with the nationalist cause, the poet speculates that even now England may grant the Home Rule promised in an act of Parliament in 1914 but deferred by the outbreak of the war. In what lines does this happen? Summarise in your own words the question they point to. Reference to the promise is in lines 67-69.The poet asks questions about giving or expecting absolute answers. He appeals to contrasting feelings such as admiration and disappointment and wonders where the change took place and whether the sacrifice of the leaders of the revolt meant real change.

ANALYSIS 6 LIST the words that characterised the world and life of Dublin before the Rising. What connotation emerges? Grey eighteenth-century houses (lines 3-4); polite meaningless words (lines 6, 8); a mocking tale or a gibe (line 10); around the fire at the club (line

READ the second stanza (lines 17- 40) and collect information about the insurgents as regards their identity and activities.

Information

Identity and activities

The woman liked discussion; she used to go hunting, She must be Countess Constance Markievicz. so she belonged to the aristocracy. The man was a teacher (line 24) and a poet (line 25). It must be Patrick Pearse. ‘His helper and friend’ (line 26) hints at another intellectual.

It must be Thomas MacDonagh.

‘A drunken, vanaglorious lout’: he had hurt someone It must be John MacBride, the husband of Maud who was dear to the poet, namely Maud Gonne. Gonne. It is clear that the poet despised him.

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8

UNDERLINE an example of an oxymoron in the poem. Explain how the adjective contradicts the noun. What is the function of this line in the text? The oxymoron is ‘a terrible beauty’. ‘Terrible’ implies sorrow, fear and even death; it is in contrast with the idea of pleasure linked with ‘beauty’. This line is a sort of refrain and also conveys the poet’s feelings about the sacrifice implied in the change. STATE the act the poet is performing in line 74. What are the possible effects of such a line? What is Yeats’ s attitude towards the idea of revolution?The legitimacy of the sacrifice is achieved through the naming and remembrance of the martyrs led by the poet who writes ‘it out in a verse’. This act bridges the distance between the poet, the heroes and the reader. Yeats’s attitude was ambivalent, characterised by approval and disapproval at the same time. Little by little Yeats grew disenchanted with the nationalist movement and placed his sympathies with the moderate members of the government.

ESAME DI STATO

9

Terza Prova

TYPE A. Though referring to a specific historical fact, Yeats’s poem reflects upon the paradoxes linked to politics, nationalism, fanaticism and heroism. State your opinion on this topic, justifying it with references to recent events you have read about in the newspapers or watched on TV (approximately 200 words). Students’ activity.

The Irish War of Independence

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 181.

1

DISCUSS. Given what you have studied about the Irish War of Independence (I13. 9), what themes do you think a film about this period might explore? Students’ activity. Video Lab 30: Michael Collins Photocopiable Lesson on page 258. Teacher’s Key on page 287.

Video Lab 31: The wind that shakes the barley Photocopiable Lesson on page 260. Teacher’s Key on page 288.

13.12 Literature

Thomas Stearns Eliot and the alienation of modern man

Teaching tip The presentation T.S. Eliot in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 95: T.S. Eliot, This is the dead land from The hollow men Teacher’s Key on page 314.

Art Lab 22: Picasso and Cubism Photocopiable Lesson on page 209. Teacher’s Key on page 242.

Exam Reference pag. 611

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Specification 13

7

13.11 Two Films About...

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

12); motley is worn (line 14). They show the banality of everyday intercourse in a meaningless world where the insurrection has created meaning, changing the people.

1

WHILE READING T. S. Eliot’s biography, fill in the table below. Then use the information you have gathered to organise your knowledge about the author’s life.

His education His most important works and what characters he created

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 13

He studied at Harvard, Paris, and Oxford universities. Prufrock and Other Observations (1917): it established him as an important avant-garde poet; The Waste Land (1922), his masterpiece; The Hollow Men (1925), a poem read as a sequel to The Waste Land’s philosophical despair; The Sacred Wood (1920) and Selected Essays (1932), two important critical essays. The characters of his first works are archetypes of the 20th-century human beings who turn their own subjective experience into universal form with which anyone can identify. Eliot joined the Church of England because he found the answer to his Why he converted to Anglicanism own questionings and to the despair of the modern world lacking faith and religion. How this religious experience is His religious poetry bloomed in Ash-Wednesday (1930), a purgatorial reflected in his works poem, in Four Quartets (1935-42) and two important plays, Murder in the Cathedral (1935) on the assassination of Thomas Becket, and Family Reunion (1939) on the guilt and expiation of a man haunted by the Furies. What role of the artist he presented in He stressed the importance for the artist to be impersonal and to separate ‘the man who suffers’ from the ‘the mind which creates. his critical essays

2

3

REVISE your knowledge about T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and explain:

1

how many sections there are in the poem; The Waste Land consists of 434 lines divided into five sections. what the main theme of the whole poem is; It is the contrast between the fertility of a mythical past and the spiritual sterility of the present world, peopled by alienated characters. This poem reflects

2

36

ANALYSE the picture by the American painter Kitaj. What does it share with the title of T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land? The title The Waste Land communicates desolation and despair, stony places, death. The Waste Land achieves its effect as a collage of hallucinatory, random fragments, and it is implied that from now on meaning will take into account the randomness and discontinuity of modern experience, that indeed meaning cannot be truthfully defined as anything else. Kitaj’s work is often mentioned with Eliot’s. In the work of both, the picturesque is at the service of a deep-seated sense of cultural malaise that seems distinctly European though presented with a directness that seems distinctly American.

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the breakdown of a historical, social, and cultural order destroyed by the war and by those forces operating under the name of modernity.

3

4

what concept of history is developed and how reality is presented; The mythical past appears in the allusions to and quotations from many literary works belonging to different traditions and cultures, and religious texts, like the Bible and Hindu sacred works. This use of quotations reflects the concept Eliot had of tradition and history, that is, the repetition of the same events, and of ‘classicism’, that is, the ability to see the past as a concrete premise for the present and ‘the poetic culture’ as a ‘living unity’ of all the poems written in different periods. Thus present and past exist simultaneously in The Waste Land, just as they do in the mind, and the continuous shifts of time and space are caused by the free associations of ideas and thoughts, as in Ulysses by James Joyce. what the mythical method employed by Eliot in this poem is; It is simply a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history.

The Burial Of The Dead (I) T. S. Eliot The Waste Land (1922) Section I, The Burial of the Dead

1

READ these lines. Do you recognise them? Are they consistent with this picture? What do both the picture and these lines celebrate? When in April the sweet showers fall And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all The veins are bathed in liquor of such power As brings about the engendering of the flower. These are the first lines of Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the first major poet of the English language. They celebrate the natural cycle of death and rebirth traditionally associated with the month of April. The picture shows a tree-lined avenue full of flowers and there’s a link with the lines.

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COMPREHENSION 2 READ the first part of ‘The Burial of the Dead’ and use the lines to write headings for these images. 1 Dead land 2 Lilacs out of the dead land 3 Dull roots with spring rain 4 Covering earth in forgetful snow ANALYSIS 3 ANSWER these questions. 1 What aspects of spring are singled out as being ’cruel’? What do they evoke? The aspects of spring singled out as being ‘cruel’ are: ‘breeding’ lilacs (lines 1-2) since existence is painful so generating new life is cruel; ‘mixing’ memory and desire (lines 2-3): any act of consciousness is seen as painful, a longing for what men no longer have; ‘stirring’ dull roots with spring rain (lines 3-4): bringing life to dead things is considered negative. They images evoke pain and struggle, rather than the happy buzz of flora and fauna in spring. 2 Why is the rebirth of nature ‘cruel’? For Eliot’s speaker, this rebirth is cruel, because any birth reminds him of death. The soil out of which the spring plants grow is composed of the decayed leaves of earlier plants. April is the month of Easter, and Eliot is invoking the Christian God who dies in order to give new life. 3 How does the description of winter contradict traditional views? Winter turns out to be positive since it allows men to live in peace and to forget (lines 5-6). 4 How many speakers can you recognise? Two speakers (line 5: ‘us’). The ‘us’ seems to link the poet himself to the earth that is covered with snow. 4

COMPARE these lines to the opening of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (I2.9) quoted in exercise 1 above, as regards: 1 the speaking voice; 2 the myth of fertility; 3 the general atmosphere. Unlike Chaucer’s pilgrims, who know their destination, Canterbury, and the way, the speaker in The Waste Land is unsure of the path

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Specification 13

what innovative techniques characterise the style of this poem. • The style of The Waste Land is fragmentary because of the mixture of different poetic styles, such as blank verse, the ode, the quatrain and free verse, thus reproducing the chaos of present civilisation. Eliot requires the active participation of the reader/public, who experiences the same world as that of the speaker/poet, by employing the technique of implication. • Metaphor and symbol replace direct statement; to this purpose, Eliot adopted the technique of the ‘objective correlative’, that is, the attempt at communicating philosophical reflections and feelings by means of a simile, a description or a monologue by a character in order to provide a vision of the world or a feeling of the lyrical ‘I’. • The technique of juxtaposition: squalid elements are juxtaposed with poetic ones, trivial elements with sublime ones. • Another device widely used by Eliot is the repetition of words, images and phrases from page to page: they all give the impression of the increasing musicality of the poem.

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5

to the holy place; he is also unsure that he will be able to recognise it when he gets there. The journeying motif runs through the whole poem: the speaker moves around London encountering images of waste and decay, but he cannot find the redemptive shrine. The myth of fertility is celebrated in Chaucer’s work, while there is a negative, pessimistic implication in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. 5

The Burial of the Dead (II)

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T. S. Eliot The Waste Land (1922) Section I, The Burial of the Dead

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Specification 13

COMPREHENSION 1 READ the lines and write down words and phrases referring to: 1 time; ‘Under the brown fog of a winter dawn’ (line 2); ‘A dead sound on the final stroke of nine’ (line 9). 2 place; ‘Unreal City’ (line 1),‘over London Bridge’ (line 3), ‘down King William Street’ (line 7), ‘Saint Mary Woolnoth (line 8). 3 inhabitants of the city; ‘A crowd … so many’ (line 3); ‘I had not thought that death had undone so many’ (line 4), ‘Sighs, short and infrequent’ (line 5), ‘each man fixed his eyes before his feet ’(line 6). 4 other characters. Stetson (line 10). 2

ANSWER these questions.

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What are the two most significant details illustrating the frustration and sterility of routine for office workers in the City? The office workers are linked to the theme of death within life (line 4) and their inability of communicating (line 6). Who is Stetson? What does he represent? Stetson is a character the speaker meets by Saint Mary Woolnoth; he represents the present. He may be a veteran of the Great War. How would you explain the reference to Roman history? When the speaker mentions ‘the ships at Mylae’ (line 11), he is associating himself to the past. What is the essential background to these lines? Does the poet refer to it directly? The war is the essential background to these lines, but

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instead of referring to it directly, Eliot alludes to the battle of Mylae in the Punic Wars of the third century B.C., suggesting that all wars are equal. The fact that the First World War was fought not primarily on ships but in the trenches is expressed only indirectly through the idea of the sprouting corpse, which seems a grotesque parody of Brooke’s image of the foreign burial plot (in ‘The Soldier’) as ‘forever England.’ What do you think the corpse symbolises? It symbolises death. What does it mean if a corpse begins to sprout? A comparison between the modern ritual of office workers with earlier ceremonies and fertility rites is established. Why do you think “Dog” is written with a capital letter? What could it stand for? The Dog may stand for an ancient divinity, the guardian of the dead; it avoids rebirth or coming back to life. Why does Eliot call the reader ‘mon semblable – mon frère!’? The poet turns directly to the reader calling him ‘mon semblable – mon frère!’ since he experiences his same world.

ANALYSIS 3 FOCUS on how the lines are organised and answer these questions quoting from the text. 1 Do these lines have a regular rhyme scheme? Is the metre traditional? No, they have not neither a regular scheme, nor a traditional metre. 2 Is there a classical division into stanzas? Are the lines of the same length? No, there is not a classical division into stanzas. No, the lines are not of the same length; one line is composed by two words (line 1). 3 Is there any alliteration? Yes, some examples are: fixed/feet (line 6); stopped/Stetson (line 10); who/where/with (line 11, 19), … 4 What is this type of line called? Free verse. 4

LOOK for repetitions of sounds and words and explain their function. What kind of atmosphere do they create? Words referring to death are repeated in lines 4, ‘death’, ‘dead sound’, line 12 ‘corpse’. They reinforce the idea of spiritual death characterising the 20th-century world. ‘So many’ is repeated twice (lines 3-4) and ‘flowed’ (lines 3, 7) underline the automatic movements of an indifferent, apathetic mass. They create an alienating, sterile atmosphere.

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READ the footnotes carefully; then quote examples of objective correlatives highlighting the feelings they convey. The objective correlative is a sequence of events, a cluster of images, a setting, used to express a certain emotion and evoke it in the reader. What picture of contemporary life emerges in these lines? The paradox of the seasons inverts the normal attitude towards the life-cycle making the inhabitants of this land fear the return to life; the city is unreal because its people are not able to communicate to each other (line 6) and they look like corpses. Death echoes through this section until it culminates in ‘That corpse … garden’ (line 12) because you do not plant corpses, except in vegetation ceremonies. All the different images and characters represent the sterility of the present in opposition to the fertility of the mythic past. SAY whether T. S. Eliot presents a realistic picture of London after World War I. (I13.3). Eliot presents a detailed picture of London and its civilization. This is partly achieved through place names: ‘King William Street’ (line 7), ‘Saint Mary Woolnoth’ (line 8) and ‘London Bridge’ (line 3). Eliot shows that ‘life goes on’ regardless of difficulties. One aspect of this can be seen in Eliot’s portrayal of ‘work’, or the working population in a busy and important city. In the poem, work is presented as sterile and meaningless. Eliot shows this through the symbolism of the crowd that ‘flowed over London Bridge’.

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The Fire Sermon T. S. Eliot The Waste Land (1922) Section III, The Fire Sermon

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DISCUSS with the rest of the class. Do you think that the actions of men are always governed by an ethical code? What is your ethical code based on? Students’activity. LOOK at the painting by Magritte and in pairs discuss what image of love it conveys. A love linked to the lack of communication.

COMPREHENSION 3 WRITE DOWN words and phrases referring to: 1 Tiresias; ‘I Tiresias’ (lines 4, 14, 29): he is the only explicit identification of the speaker in the whole poem; ‘Old man with wrinkled female breasts’ (lines 5, 14), ‘though blind’ is ‘throbbing between two lives’ (line 4) 2 the inner setting; An untidy, squalid bed-sitter. 3 the other characters. A ‘young man carbuncular’ (line 17), and a woman, ‘the typist’ (line 8), the liberated’ woman of the early 1920s. 4

ANSWER the questions below.

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What are the most significant details of the mythological character? He possesses the knowledge of both sexes since he is the supreme metamorphosis that brings together the two sexes (line 5); thus he is qualified to summarise the human experience. Why do present, past and future coexist in him? Present, past and future co-exist in him because, coming from the past, he has already experienced the events he is now witnessing in the present, and is also able to foretell the future (line 15), yet he cannot do anything to guide or alter it. What does Tiresias see? A squalid sexual act. What life does the typist lead? The typist is independent and free but this has not brought her any happiness: she lives alone in an untidy one-room flat, full of uninteresting everyday objects (lines 8-13: food in tins, combinations, stockings, slippers, camisoles, stays), and leads a highly monotonous life.

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Specification 13

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UNDERLINE the different personal pronouns. Identify the role played by these narrative voices by completing the scheme below. Some examples have been provided. I (line 4): passive actor (line 10): passive actor Me (line 11): passive actor You (lines 11, 12): an accomplice Him (line 10): an accomplice He (line 16): a possible disturber of the corpse’s peace You (line 18): the speaker’s double

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Specification 13

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How does she feel? She is tired, bored and apathetic, both morally and emotionally. What does the estate agent look like? Is he worried about the woman’s indifference towards him? He is young and carbuncular (line 17). His actions follow a different direction from the woman’s: he is ‘flushed and decided’ (line 25), pleased with himself (line 27: ‘his vanity requires no response’), not worried about the woman’s indifference (line 28: ‘and makes a welcome of indifference’). What are his feelings when he leaves the typist? He goes away satisfied, and he is not able to grasp the depths of the squalor he lives in. Why is Tiresias’s role appropriate to the man? The role of Tiresias is also appropriate to the protagonist because he is now walking ‘among the lowest of the dead’ (line 32). How does the typist react to her lover’s going away? The modern significance of love-making is registered in the reaction of the typist; the ‘gramophone’ makes it also mechanical. Her ‘automatic hand’ reinforces the impression of sterility, dullness, squalor, monotony and indifference of this relationship which is no more than a parody.

ANALYSIS 5 FOCUS on the typist, an archetype belonging to modern civilisation. What is she compared to? How does she act? What actions is she associated with? She is compared to a ‘human engine’ (line 2), acting as she does with automatic hand (line 41). She is associated to repetitive present actions, like ‘clears’, ‘lights’, ‘lays’,‘are piled’ (lines 8-12), which point out her highly monotonous life.

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ESAME DI STATO

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IDENTIFY the themes developed in these lines.

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Present spiritual sterility and lack of communication: Eliot wants to underline how impossible communication through love is in the waste land, since this feeling has been debased to mere lust. The negativity of city life only linked to commercial transactions. Antithesis between past (Tiresias) and present (sterility).

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Terza Prova

TYPE A. T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land expresses the spiritual sterility of modern life. Develop this statement with reference to the texts by T. S. Eliot you have read and analysed (approximately 200 words). Students’ answer. Exam Reference pag. 611

13.13 Comparing Literatures

The objective correlative: Eliot and Montale

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DECIDE what language is employed in these lines and provide examples of: symbolism, that is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities; objective correlatives; and juxtaposition, that is, when an author places a person, concept, place, idea or theme parallel to another in order to highlight the contrast between the two and compare them. To underline the sterility and the routine quality of this sexual intercourse, Eliot removes all the romantic notes both from the setting and the characters and employs the everyday language. The techniques used are: metaphor and symbol instead of direct statement, the objective correlative (the passionless sexual intercourse stands for the aridity of modern society); juxtaposition of images belonging to the past and to the present; repetition of images and themes.

DISCUSS in pairs what you generally associate the name of Eugenio Montale with. Students’ activity. Suggestion: E. Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1975. His first important collection of poems, Ossi di seppia, was published in 1925. In 1939 Le occasioni was published; this collection of poems reflected the solitude and the agony over the human condition of one who lucidly opposed Fascist

oppression, creating a song of noble stoicism. Montale’s biography is a chronicle of poetry. The Second World War saw the publication, in 1943, of Finisterre, a collection which, published in Lugano in two successive editions, was one of the part of the volume La bufera e altro, a consistent continuation of his whole work, printed in 1956. In 1961, Montale was awarded an honorary degree at the University of Rome and shortly afterwards, at the universities of Milan, Cambridge, and Basel. In 1967, President Saragat appointed him a life senator ‘in recognition of his

Arsenio

The Fire Sermon

The setting in time The setting in place Themes

Midday (line 25). a seaside resort (lines 2-6, 26,28). An exceptional event (lines 1-3, 14-17) is in antithesis with the monotony of the present (lines 21-23, 36-39). Arsenio turns out to be hesitant, nervous (lines 32- 33) and willing to change his negative life condition (lines 20-23, 34-35) linked to a sort of a waste land.

At the violet hour (lines 1, 5). A town at the sunset (lines 1-4,6-7). A present spiritual sterility and the lack of communication between the couple: Eliot wants to underline how impossible communication through love is in the waste land, since this feeling has been debased to mere lust. The antithesis between the past (Tiresias) and the present (sterility).

Examples of objective correlative

The thunderstorm stands for an exceptional event (lines 1-11); ‘la tesa ti ringhiotte’ (line 35): monotonous life overcomes him once again. ‘il cenno … per te sorta’ (lines 42-44): the chance Arsenio has been offered to change his negative situation. ‘vimini e le stuoie grondanti’ (lines 30-31) refer to the triviality of life.

The list of objects the typist piles is the symbol of apathy The passionless sexual intercourse stands for the aridity of modern society.

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For each poem write: the setting in time; the setting in place; the themes; examples of objective correlatives. What might the phrase ‘ghiacciata moltitudine di morti’ (line 39) be referred to? Can you find a similar expression in The Fire Sermon? ‘ghiacciata moltitudine di morti’ (line 39) from Arsenio may be referred to the dead of World War I and it may be linked to ‘’The dead’ (line 33) in ‘The Fire Sermon’. What is the main difference between Montale’s ‘Arsenio’ and T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Fire Sermon’? Montale’s poetry offers a number of ambiguous moments of liberation from the monotony of his age, which show to be absent in Eliot’s

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poem. Moreover the Italian poet locates the action within the consciousness of a single figure, Arsenio, while Eliot creates an ‘epic’ structure using an image of the mythical past who is in contrast with the sterile present. Both poets have expressed the drama of the modern man: Arsenio cannot mould his life but is helplessly led through days and years by external factors and circumstances; Eliot’s couple is unable to communicate and both the ‘carbuncular man’ and ‘the typist’ are prisoners of themselves. Both poets are pessimistic, but with a strong pessimism, without futile rebellion or sentimentality. The language is concrete in both poems.

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Specification 13

READ ‘Arsenio’ and compare it to ‘The Fire Sermon’ from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (I 13.12), doing the activities below.

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distinguished achievements in the literary and artistic fields’. This event relieved him, in a sense, of the obligation to go every day to the editorial office of the ‘Corriere della Sera’, where he had been working as a music critic, editor and special correspondent since 1948. The following works, prose as well as poetry, confirmed the vitality of a writer who, true to the fundamental themes of his early career managed to collect experiences and important moments from the spiritual transformations of our times. Montale has in his turn influenced younger Italian poets, even postErmetismo poets and experimentators.

13 Overview Prova Orale – Part 2

In 1928 the government extended the franchise to include all women over the age of twentyone. 2

Words to remember 1

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Specification 13

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TRACE the development of women’s suffrage in Britain. Since the 1860s, women had been campaigning for the right to vote: some peacefully and some using violence by chaining themselves to railings, disrupting public meetings, breaking windows and shouting: ‘Votes for Women’. Some who were sent to jail even went on hunger strikes. In 1897 local ‘suffragist’ groups came together under the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester. The motto of the movement was ‘deeds not words’. After 1906, the WSPU moved to London where they disturbed political meetings, started a weekly journal and, in 1908, organised a mass march on Hyde Park. But the Liberal government continued to ignore their demands, leading the Suffragettes to adopt more radical action. The WSPU created branches throughout the country, and in 1909 it invited Scottish women to join a march in Princes Street, Edinburgh. Suffragettes clashed with police in London and hundreds were arrested on ‘Black Friday’ in 1910. In June 1913, Emily Davison was killed by the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby when she threw herself in front of it during a race. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, both the WSPU and the NUWSS ceased political activities and women became involved in the work in the fields and factories. In 1918 women were finally given the right to vote. Their vital contribution to the war effort was one of the many reasons why, on 6th February 1918, the coalition government granted the vote to women over thirty, property owners and graduates from British universities through the Representation of the People Act.

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EXPLAIN the causes and effects of World War I. Suggested answer: Causes The Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 by a Serb. Austria sent an ultimatum and then declared war on Serbia. Europe was divided into two hostile camps with the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) on one side and the Triple Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France and Russia and their allies, including the United States) on the other. Austria’s ally Germany marched through Belgium, a neutral territory, in order to attack France. Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914 because Britain was a signatory of an agreement to respect Belgium’s neutrality. Effects The war was a monster which was beyond the control of statesmen or generals, and claimed the lives of about nine million men. It caused the ruin of four great empires, made possible a Communist revolution in Russia, which got rid of the old rule of the tsar, and paved the way for the rise of dictators like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

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USE the quotations below to discuss different attitudes to war. Identify their authors. If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. Rupert Brook. Patriotism and the glory of war. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Wilfred Owen. The disillusion and hypocrisy of those who send young men to war. The dark boy-shape heads the dark girl-shape away to share one coffee in a candlelit cafe until the curfew, and he holds her hand

Yeats: The poem was written by Yeats after the Easter Rising in Dublin on 24th April 1916. The Irish leaders celebrated in the poem were: Constance Markievicz, an officer in the Volunteers of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (she was not executed but imprisoned in Holloway Prison in London); Patrick Pearse, a school teacher and poet; Thomas MacDonagh, another intellectual, a dramatist and poet; John MacBride, the husband of Maud Gonne; James Connolly, the leader of the Irish labour movement. It reflects the idealism of those who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for what they saw as a just cause.

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EXPLAIN the new concept of history expressed in these lines from T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: ‘Stetson! ‘You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! These lines contain references to the idea of death leading to re-birth and were particularly adapt to the situation at the end of the First World War. In Eliot the mythical past appears in the allusions to and quotations from many literary works belonging to different traditions and cultures, and religious works, like the Bible and Hindu sacred texts. This use of quotations reflects the concept Eliot had of tradition and history, which he saw as the repetition of the same events, of ‘classicism’, considered as the ability to see the past as a concrete premise for the present, and ‘the poetic culture’ as a ‘living unity’ of all the poems written in different periods. Thus the present and past exist simultaneously in The Waste Land – just as they do in the mind – and the continuous shifts in time and space are caused by the free associations of ideas and thoughts.

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COMPARE the representation of war in literature, art and the media using the material from this Specification and the poem and picture below. S. Sassoon, Does it matter? from CounterAttack and Other Poems, 1918. ‘Does It Matter’ is an angry, heavily ironic war poem written in 1917 by the famous World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon. On first reading, it appears that the poet is addressing an injured soldier who has returned from the trenches, asking this man whether or not it is important that he is missing limbs and sight, instead highlighting the virtues of the world and offering

‘That corpse you planted last year in your garden, ‘Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? T.S. Eliot: this quotation comes from The Waste Land and specifically from the section entitled The burial of the Dead, where Elliot describes the death of certain beliefs and the possibility of a re-birth, a new beginning rising out of the decay and death. The war was an immensely disorienting experience that led to disillusionment in the idea of progress and a sense of widespread disorder that spiritual belief seemed inadequate to manage. Eliot attempts to impose an order on the chaos through the use of the Fisher King myth, which describes the eventual regeneration of a desolate land after long drought and hopelessness: its concerns with barrenness and fertility, with the concept of death and regeneration, and with Christianity. 4

IDENTIFY the literary device used by T.S. Eliot and Eugenio Montale in these lines.

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Specification 13

Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?

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Provide a definition and explain its meaning in the context of the lines. The new literary device is the objective correlative. The objective correlative is a sequence of events, a cluster of images, a setting, used to express a certain emotion and evoke it in the reader. The people in these lines are linked to the theme of death within life and are characterised by their inability to communicate.

behind AID flour-sacks refilled with sand. Tony Harrison. The couple spends the night together in Sarajevo surrounded by a romantic atmosphere created by the candlelit of a cafe; a curfew, however, reminds them they are living during war-time.

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Specification 13

these as a remedy for his pains. The poem is written in a nursery-rhyme-like structure, where there is an obvious rhyming pattern and distinctive rhythm, and where many lines even have an equal number of syllables. For such a complicated subject matter, the poem is also rather brief – just three stanzas comprising of five lines each. The opening lines of each stanza begin similarly with a question asked but never answered: Does it matter – losing your legs? There is a lot to discuss even here. Firstly, we notice that the question itself is not answered – Sassoon does this very deliberately. Of course he goes on to back his rather naïve point by highlighting the constructive aspects of living without the use of one’s legs, but he leaves a great void here, like the unfilled silence after a particularly awkward question. We, as readers, can easily answer the question of whether or not it matters in our own minds – of course it matters, and it matters further when we shake our heads at the sinister complacency exhibited throughout the remainder of the poem. Sassoon intentionally uses this almost child-like perspective in order to emphasise the horrors war victims must endure by illuminating the completely incredible contrast. Sassoon continues to mask the graphic reality of war’s aftermath by employing a euphemism in the first line – ‘losing’. Clearly, if a soldier were to lose a limb in the First World War trenches (and such instances were not uncommon), it would be a bloody affair – either blown off by a shell, or sawed off in the chaos of the operating rooms amidst a tempest of pain. For Sassoon to use the word ‘losing’, it becomes instantly clear he is being ironic – the poet was, after all, an officer in the front lines. Propaganda posters The poster was seen as an appeal to recruit millions of men into the Army. In the poster Lord Kitchener points a huge finger exclaiming ‘I Want You’‘. The expression of the General is severe. It is one of the many propaganda posters, which became very famous due to their reproduction in many parts of cities and towns. 7

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DISCUSS how the Irish Question has been presented in poetry and film. Students’ activity. Suggested answer:

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Most of the poetry and films created around the Irish Question tends to be from the Irish viewpoint. Irish poets and non-Irish film directors have recognized the need to explain and justify the violence shown by the Irish and this is normally done through romanticizing the Irish rebels and brutalizing the English. Poetry: So W.B. Yeats prophesied in his poem ‘Easter 1916’. ‘All is changed, changed utterly; A terrible beauty is born’. In a single line he captured the ambiguity of Irish politics at the time – the beauty of struggling for freedom, the terrible consequences of violence. Ireland had seen centuries of conflict with Britain, bloody rebellions, civil war and finally the Northern Ireland Troubles. This history of divided loyalties and political violence has not confined the poets of Ireland to writing only about conflict, but it has provided a significant backdrop to their work; another, darker, layer of meaning. Their words, written as events unfolded, describe the history of conflict in Ireland in a way that textbooks never could. Most importantly, the Irish poets have captured the emotions, the human experience of conflict which the history books inevitably ignore. Being Irish men and women themselves, Irish poets have been personally affected by Irish conflict, and their conflict-related poems give a uniquely personal perspective on historical events. William Butler Yeats is probably the best known of these poets. He was in Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising and was very aware of its significance. Other well-known Irish poets have written about the Irish question but the one who stands out is Seamus Heaney. He has written several poems related to the Troubles: ‘Punishment’, ‘Casualty’, ‘Requiem for the Croppies’, ‘River Moyola’, ‘Funeral Rights’, ‘North’. These poems express regret at loss of life, question how Northern Irish society as a whole ignored the violence and so implicitly condoned it – the conflict provided a rich vein for poets to question good and evil.

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Specification 13

Film There have been numerous films based on the Irish question. All of them tend to put the Irish side to the Irish Question and portray the Irish as a deeply committed, idealistic nation oppressed by the militant English. The best known are In the Name of the Father (1993) (the story of the ‘Guildford Four’ who were wrongly convicted of bombing an English pub in 1974. Believed to be members of the IRA, the four made forced ‘confessions’ and were sent to prison. Their families and the press kept hope alive for years until the convictions were overturned). Michael Collins (1996) (the story

of the controversial life of Michael Collins, the Irish patriot who inspired a nation to change the course of history). Some Mother’s Son (1996) (the devastating effect of war seen through the eyes of two mothers is shown through the events that led up to the hunger strikes of Bobby Sands and his compatriots as they insisted on being treated as prisoners of war and not as criminals). The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) (in 1920, after a long period underground Sinn Fein organized labor, and the Irish Republican Army began to resist British rule. The British had sent soldiers returning from WWI to Ireland to act as a sort of police force to quell the growing unrest from those who demanded ‘Home Rule.’ Here the brutal acts of these ‘Black and Tans’ – as they were called from the colors of their uniforms – , are shown to be the catalyst that drives the Irish people to revolt).

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In his poem ‘Casualty’, Seamus Heaney refers to the death of someone he knew, and to the events known as Bloody Sunday (1971), when British Paratroopers shot dead 13 unarmed Catholic civilians.

LESSON PLAN 14 The Great Watershed This is just a suggestion of how to use Performer culture & literature Volume 3. Specification 14 deals with the deep cultural crisis of the first decades of the 20th century and the seminal prose works which were written in England in the same period. The cultural issue is about the new concept of time that introduced the distinction between external and internal time. The development of this Specification ideally covers 14 lessons depending on the class and the level of the students. LESSONS CULTURE & LITERATURE The Great Watershed 14.1 Culture 1 Students are introduced to the change in perspective after World War I through a completion exercise. The presentation of The Great Watershed in PowerPoint can be employed either as a support to the introduction of the period or as a summing up at the end of the specification.

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Specification 14

14.2 Psychology Students learn about the contribution given by Sigmund Freud to shaping a new view of the world. A Milestones underlines the new emphasis on sexuality. Students practice TOEFL Speaking – Task 4 while studying Freud’s structure of the psyche. Further activity: Dictation: Freud and psychoanalysis 14.3 Literature Teachers introduce D.H. Lawrence and Sons and Lovers. The presentation of D.H. Lawrence in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work.

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14.3 Literature Students analyze the extract The rose bush from Sons and Lovers. Further development: Text Bank 96-99

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14.4 The Arts Students practice IELTS Academic Reading while studying Modernism and Modernist Art. They practice Terza prova – Type B at home. Further activity: Art Lab 23-24

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14.5 Literature Students are introduced to the study of the modern novel through Q&A. The presentation of The Modern Novel in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the genre. A Milestones emphasizes the importance of Joyce’s novel Ulysses as an experimental novel. Students are introduced to the technique of the interior monologue through the reading of a short extract from Ulysses.

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14.6 Literature Teachers introduce Joseph Conrad and Heart of Darkness. The presentation of Joseph Conrad in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students begin to analyze the extract The chain – gang from Heart of Darkness. They finish the analysis and practice Terza prova – Type B at home. Further development: Text Bank 100

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14.8 Literature Teachers introduce E.M. Forster and A Passage to India. An Insight is given into the Barabar Caves which inspired Forster’s Marabar Caves in the novel. The presentation of E.M. Forster in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students begin to analyze the extract Aziz and Mrs Moore from A Passage to India. They finish the analysis and practice Terza prova – Type B at home.

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Further development: Text Bank 101-103 14.9 Literature Teachers introduce James Joyce and Dubliners. The presentation of James Joyce in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students begin to analyze the story Eveline from Dubliners. They finish the analysis and practice Terza prova – Type B at home. 14.9 Literature Students analyze the extract from The Dead from Dubliners. They practise Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 2. Further development: Text Bank 104-106 14.10 Mapping Literature Teachers introduce Joyce’s Dublin showing the map (Interactive Map 15 in the CD-ROM) and the places mentioned. 14.11 Comparing Literatures The section provides a comparison between James Joyce and Italo Svevo. 14.12 The Arts Teachers explain the features of the Bloomsbury group. Internet lab Students carry out research work about the different members of the Bloomsbury Group. This activity can be completed at home. Further activity: Art Lab 25 14.13 Literature Teachers introduce Virginia Woolf and Mrs Dalloway. The presentation of Virginia Woolf in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students begin to analyze the extract Clarissa and Septimus from Mrs Dalloway. They finish the analysis and practice Terza prova – Type B at home. Further development: Text Bank 107-108 14.14 Cultural Issues Students discuss the issue about Moments of Being and practice IELTS Speaking - Part 3. They also read the text Mrs Brown from The Hours by Michael Cunningham. The presentation of The Hours in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the novel. Students look for further information about the novel The Hours and the film version doing the activities linked to Esame di Stato – Prova Orale, Part 1. This task can be completed at home. Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 2 on page 482 can be either used as a ‘recupero in itinere’ in the classroom or as homework.

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14.7 Two Films About... Heart of Darkness.

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The Great Watershed Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 183.

14.1 Culture

A deep cultural crisis 1

Teaching tip The presentation The Great Watershed in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the period.

LOOK at the picture and brainstorm your knowledge about psychoanalysis, with the help of the glossary. Open answer. TOEFL

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Specification 14

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DISCUSS in pairs what issues a ‘cultural crisis’ may imply. This exercise is a brainstorming activity aiming to elicit useful vocabulary such as: values, morality, faith, beliefs, generation gap, cynical mood, frustration, disillusionment, uneasiness, uncertainty, new views.

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COMPLETE the bubbles with the words below. 1 cultural crisis 2 taboo-ridden 3 faith 4 progress 5 disillusioned 6 cynical 7 atrocities 8 gap 9 waste 10 frustration 11 hegemony 12 dissolution 13 certain 14 views 15 concepts Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 181.

14.2 Psychology

Sigmund Freud: a window on the unconscious

1.13 dictation: Freud and psychoanalysis, Teacher’s Key on page 184.

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Speaking - Task 4

INTEGRATED TASK. As you read the passage, take notes on its main topic and the main points. Topic of reading passage: Freud’s structural model of the psyche. Main points: Freud’s model includes the id, the ego and the super-ego. Man’s actions are motivated by irrational forces. The effects of Freud’s theory on family relationships. His view influenced artists and writers of the modern age. 1.12 LISTEN to the passage and note down the topic and the main points. Sigmund Freud’s theory known as the ‘Oedipus complex’ is probably the most controversial of all his theories of relationships. In 1909 Freud wrote a paper, ‘Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy’, in which he outlined the fear of horses of a boy known as ‘Little Hans’. Freud believed that the boy’s terror was due to feelings of anger he had internalised that related to his parents. According to Freud, all small boys choose their mother as their primary object of desire. They subconsciously wish to usurp their fathers and become their mothers’ lover. These desires appear between the ages of three and five, when a boy is in what Freud defined as the ‘phallic’ stage of development. This stage represents an important point in the formation of sexual identity. The analogous experience for girls is known as the ‘Electra complex’ in which girls feel desire for their fathers and jealousy of their mothers. The child, however, suspects that acting on these feelings would lead to danger, therefore he represses his desires. This

ANSWER the following question: How does the information in the listening passage in exercise 3 add to what is explained in the reading passage in exercise 2? Student’s activity. The passage adds further information about the development of the super-ego and the importance of sexuality in the child.

READ D.H. Lawrence’s biography and find out:

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where he was born; He was born in Eastwood, a mining village in Nottinghamshire, in 1885. what social class his parents belonged to; His father was a miner and worked in a pit throughout his life; his mother belonged to a higher class and had been a schoolteacher. The happiness of their marriage, however, was short-lived. Dissatisfied with her husband, who had turned into a heavy drinker, David’s mother spent her life encouraging her children to advance beyond their restrictive mining environment. what sort of education he received; He studied to become a teacher and was accepted by Nottingham University College where he gained his teacher’s certificate in 1908. the influence his mother exerted on him; When his brother, Ernest, died David became the centre of his mother’s emotional life. The story of their love is told in the autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers (1913) where the protagonist Paul’s extremely emotional dealings with his mother are the illustration of Freud’s psychological theory of the Oedipus complex. who he met while he was in Nottingham; He met and fell in love with Frieda von Richthofen, the German wife of a French professor at Nottingham University. They eloped to Germany and Italy, and married in 1914. how most of his works were received by the public. Several novels by D. H. Lawrence were banned by the censors; Lady Chatterley’s Lover, for example, was written in 1928 but acquitted on the charge of obscenity and published unabridged both in Great Britain and in the USA only in the 1960s.

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Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 184.

14.3 Literature

David Herbert Lawrence: an intense mother-son relationship

Teaching tip The presentation D.H. Lawrence in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

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Text Bank 96: David Herbert Lawrence, Mother and son from Sons and lovers Teacher’s Key on page 315.

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LOOK at the pictures below. D. H. Lawrence has been praised for his analysis of human nature through direct discussions about sex, psychology and religion. Student’s activity. Have you ever read or heard about the books in these pictures? What can you infer from the titles and cover images?

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Text Bank 97: David Herbert Lawrence, Miriam’s sacrifice from Sons and lovers Teacher’s Key on page 316.

Text Bank 98: David Herbert Lawrence, Clifford and Constance from Lady Chatterley’s lover Teacher’s Key on page 317.

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leads to anxiety. In order to resolve the conflict, the boy then identifies with his father and the girl with her mother. It is at this point that the super-ego is formed; it becomes a sort of inner moral authority, an internalisation of the father figure that strives to suppress the urges of the id and make the ego act upon these idealistic standards. Topic of listening passage: Freud’s theory of the ‘Oedipus complex’. Main points: All small boys between the ages of three and five choose their mother as their object of desire and subconsciously wish to usurp their fathers; this is an important stage in sexual development; the analogous experience for girls is known as the ‘Electra complex’; the child represses his desires and the super-ego is formed.

roses arouse? What do you expect the relationship between these flowers and the text to be like in the following passage? Student’s activity.

Text Bank 99: David Herbert Lawrence, The wood from Lady Chatterley’s lover Teacher’s Key on page 320.

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Specification 14

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ANSWER the following questions about Sons and Lovers. Where is the novel set? It is set in a workingclass environment in Derbyshire. How are the characters and social class related? The protagonists are the members of the Morel family. Paul’s father is a miner and his mother belongs to a higher social class. Mr Morel’s estrangement from the emotional life of the family is due in part to this social difference, which alienates him from his own children and brings them closer to their mother. Moreover, his lack of education makes it difficult for him to express his feelings, and the hard, disciplined nature of his work leads him to domestic violence which drives the children deeper into their mother’s arms. Mrs Morel is educated and determined. What kind of bondage is explored in the novel? Mrs. Morel feels socially bound by her status as a woman and by industrialism. Though she joins a women’s group, she must remain a housewife for life and, because of this, she is jealous of Miriam, who is able to employ her intellect in more opportunities. Romantic bondage is given far more emphasis in the novel: Paul feels bound to his mother, and cannot imagine abandoning her or even marrying anyone else. He is unable to make up his mind between hate and love for all the women in his life, including his mother at times. He often loves and hates at the same time, especially Miriam. Lawrence uses the opposition of the body and mind to expose the contradictory nature of desire. What narrative technique does Lawrence use? Lawrence uses the third-person narrator technique, but almost all the events are seen through Paul’s eyes.

COMPREHENSION 2 DIVIDE this passage into two parts and write a caption to describe the content of each section. Student’s activity: the two parts are: looking for the rose bush 1-49, and running back home (50-80). 3 ANSWER these questions. 1 Where and when does the text take place? It takes place in the wood among ‘the throng of dark tree-trunks’ (lines 1-3) at dusk (line 1) and then at night (line 2). 2 Why does Paul hesitate to follow Miriam into the wood? Because it is already late. 3 What is Miriam eager to show him? A wild rose-bush (line 4). 4 What kind of experience has Miriam undergone? She seems to have undergone an intense emotional experience because of the following sentences: ‘She was pale...wanted’ (lines 32-34). 5 Why does Paul start to run on his way home? Because he knows his mother is becoming anxious and he feels the need for a physical release of energy (lines 50-51). 6 What happens when Paul arrives at home? He finds his mother waiting for him and disappointed about his being late and spending time with Miriam. ANALYSIS 4 SAY who the narrator of this passage is. Whose points of view are adopted in the two parts of the extract? A third-person narrator. Miriam’s point of view is employed in the first part of the text; Paul’s point of view in the second part.

The rose bush

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CONCENTRATE on the first part of the passage.

David Herbert Lawrence

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What is it characterised by? It is characterised by a close interplay of human and natural elements. Where is the climax? In what terms is it described? The climax is in lines 28-35: Paul and Miriam are in front of the rose-bush. This experience is described almost religiously.

Sons and Lovers (1913) Chapter 7

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LOOK at the painting by Monet. What feelings may the beauty and the fragrance of

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FOCUS on the second part of the passage, which may be considered a sort of anticlimax.

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What feelings characterise both Paul and his mother? Paul’s mother is characterised both by irritation (line 51: ‘fretting and getting angry about him’; line 54 ‘the chill to her eyes’; lines 59-60 ‘grew more and more worked up’; line 61: ‘said coldly’; lines 79-80: ‘into anger and contempt’) and jealousy (lines 55-56,58-59, 64, 68-69, 80). Paul’s feelings are characterised by fear (‘his soul shrank’ line 63), he frowns (line 66 ‘frowning’), resentment (line 67 ‘resentfully’), irritation (‘line 74 ‘irritably’). He would not answer his mother, but he doesn’t want to harden his heart (lines 71-73). What kind of bond is there between mother and son? Mother and son appear as two lovers. How does the language reflect the sudden change from the world of intense emotion of the first part to the everyday life of the second? There is a passage from the elevated, poetic language of the first part to the realistic, ordinary speech of the second.

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SAY which aspects of this extract are linked to the 19th century. Can you find any elements which you may define as ‘modern’? Students should develop the following notes: 19th-century elements: Contrast between nature and industrial town; admiration of nature; use of a third-person narrator. Modern elements: Psychological analysis of characters; shifting of point of view; great importance given to instinct. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 184.

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14.4 The Arts

Modernism

Art Lab 23: Modernist Painters Photocopiable Lesson on page 212. Teacher’s Key on page 243.

Art Lab 24: Henry Moore Photocopiable Lesson on page 220. Teacher’s Key on page 246.

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IN PAIRS discuss who a ‘modernist’ is. Suggestions: Someone who is modern in thought, character, or practice. Someone who shows sympathy with or conformity to modern ideas, practices, or standards. An artist who makes a deliberate break with previous styles.

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COMPARE the two paintings portraying young women. How does Picasso’s differ from Reynold’s? Student’s activity. This exercise aims at making students aware of what the break with artistic tradition brought about by Modernism might have implied. IELTS

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Academic Reading

READ the passage and then complete questions 1-14. For questions 1-3, complete each sentence with the correct ending (A-C) below. Answers: 1 C; 2 B; 3 A. For questions 4-6, choose the correct letter (A,B,C or D). Answers: 4 C; 5 A; 6 B. Complete the summary below. For questions 7–10, choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. As concerns music, there were several different things happening at more or less the (7) same time. One important example was Stravinsky, whose compositions Fireworks and the Firebird made (8) him famous. Stravinsky teamed up with another composer, (9) Arnold Schoenberg, to experiment with exciting new techniques using musical notes that were in some way (10) distorted, rejecting the traditional musical rules of harmony and composition.

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How would you describe Paul’s and Miriam’s feelings? Paul is attracted more by Miriam than by nature; Miriam’s quivering and the climax of her reactions to the rose-bush is Paul’s frustration. Which senses are most involved in the first part of the text? Smell (lines 2, 18, 30), touch (lines 10, 14, 20, 34) and hearing (the absence of any sounds and the presence of stillness, lines 14, 15, 24, 28) are the most involved senses. The sense of sight is important as well (lines 2, 27, 28, 29, 32).

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

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Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the passage? Write Yes, No or Not given. Yes = The statement agrees with the claim of the writer. No = The statement contradicts the claim of the writer. Not given = It is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this. 11 No; 12 No; 13 Not given; 14 Yes. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 185. ESAME DI STATO

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Terza Prova

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Specification 14

TYPE B. Describe the spirit characterising modernism. What features of tradition were subverted by modernist artists? Write ten to twelve lines. Student’s writing activity. Exam Reference pag. 611

14.5 Literature

The modern novel

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READ the Q & A text. Students’ activity.

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IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Students’ activity.

The Funeral James Joyce Ulysses (1922) Part III, Hades: Episode 6

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DISCUSS. What types of thoughts might pop into one’s mind during a funeral procession? Open answer. Class discussion.

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CONCENTRATE on the narrative technique of this passage and do the following activities.

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Has the time of narration got any link with chronological time? Why? Where does the action take place? The time of narration does not have any link with chronological time. The action takes place in Bloom’s mind where there is no difference between past, present and future. Some sentences describe the scene from the outside; others reproduce Bloom’s thoughts. Underline them with two different colours; then note down the two levels of narration, specifying the points of view adopted: A First level of narration: The action is narrated from the outside (lines 1, 14-16); neutral point of view. B Second level of narration: Thoughts of Leopold Bloom; his point of view. Consider the sentence structure throughout the passage. Some sentences are regular with a conventional use of grammar; others lack subjects, verbs or are made up of only one word. Decide which level of narration they belong to. Regular sentences: 1st level of narration of external actions. Irregular sentences: Bloom’s flow of thoughts.

Teaching tip The presentation The modern novel in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the genre.

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DISCUSS. Could the Victorian novel (I10.8), with its emphasis on plot development and logical order, interest the modern writer and the modern public? Why or why not? Open answer. Suggestions: Students should point out that the novel was by no means immune from the self-conscious, reflective impulses of the new century. Modernism introduced a new kind of narration to the novel, one that would fundamentally change the entire essence of novel writing. The ‘unreliable’ narrator supplanted the omniscient narrator of the previous centuries. Rather than looking out into the world, the great novelists of the early twentieth century surveyed the inner space of the human mind. At the same time, the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud had been accepted. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 185.

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COMPLETE the sequence below in order to get a clearer idea of Mr Bloom’s ‘flow of thoughts’.

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FOCUS on the title of Conrad’s novel and write down what you associate the phrase ‘heart of darkness’ with, in the spider chart below. Student’s activity.

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ANSWER these questions about Heart of Darkness.

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How did Leopold II justify his kind of colonialism? In the name of philanthropy and anti-slavery. He stated that the agents of the State had to accomplish the noble mission to continue the development of civilization in Africa gradually reducing the primitive barbarism and fighting sanguinary customs. What is Conrad’s attitude towards imperialism? His novel conceives imperialism as a system of political and economic dominance, it is an indictment of the brutal exercise of law on the natives, of the missionary zeal, the administrative efficiency and search for profit. What is the structure of the novel? What sustains it? The novel presents a series of stories, one embedded within the other. It is sustained by the continuous shifts backwards and forwards in Marlow’s narrative, by the way he creates suspense and interest by delaying the details of his meeting with Kurtz. How can the novel be interpreted? As Marlow’s mythical journey in search of the self, in order to bring back a new truth. How does Marlow differ from Kurtz? Kurtz was a progressive and a liberal, a painter, a writer, a musician who was received by the black natives as if he were a god. However, it was perhaps because he went into the jungle without knowing himself, that his wrong conduct took him beyond the limits of his heart, paying the price in madness and death. On the contrary, Marlow did not transgress his limits and came back without fully understanding his experience, and although the heart of darkness tried to exercise its influence on him, too, he was able to restrain himself he recognized its fascination and its abomination, but resisted his desire to join in those unspeakable rites.

14.6 Literature

Joseph Conrad and imperialism

Teaching tip The presentation Joseph Conrad in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

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READ about Conrad’s life and works and answer the following questions.

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How did Conrad’s career as a seaman affect him? His career as a seaman put him in contact with men from a different social class and background from his own, but in whom he learned to appreciate the values of a simple devotion to a demanding, monotonous, dangerous job, and work is a powerful theme in his novels. Moreover, learning English was required for his Master Mariner qualification, which he achieved in 1886. What features of his works made him different from 19th-century writers? Differently from the 19th-century novelists, who showed the insignificance of their main characters in relation to the hugeness of the universe or the life of a nation or modern city, Conrad’s heroes are all solitary figures, rooted in no past, committed to an uncertain future. In general they are viewed externally, through the mind of others or through their actions. He also found chronological sequence inadequate, broke the normal timesequence and used time shifts to create the illusion of life being lived by a number of very different people at the same time. What were the main themes of his works? Conrad’s aim was to explore the meaning of the human condition. He was concerned with the conflict between personal feelings and professional duties. He pointed out that reality was indeed the construction of individual consciousness, through individual responsibility and self-control.

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Text Bank 100: Joseph Conrad, He was hollow at the core from Heart of darkness Teacher’s Key on page 322.

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bared heads J thirteen J unlucky number J silly superstition that about thirteen J Ned Lambert’s suit J his similar suit J he must get his grey suit turned by Mesias J the coffin disappears J he sees twenty J he would like to be somebody else.

The Chain-gang

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Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness (1902) Chapter 1

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Specification 14

COMPREHENSION 2 READ lines 1- 53 and note down: 1 what the narrator saw when he turned his head; He saw six black men carrying baskets full of earth on their heads (lines 2-4). 2 what caused the clinking; The chain which connected the iron collars around their necks (line 4). 3 how the narrator defined himself and why; He said he was not particularly tender (lines 25-26); he has had to resist and to attack according to the demands of life. 4 what kind of landscape was described; A vast artificial hole which someone had dug (line 36); a ravine and waste pipes (lines 40-41); finally rapids and a grove (lines 44, 46). As a whole the landscape was hostile and wild (line 44, ‘the gloomy circle of some Inferno’). 5 what the narrator saw between the trees; Some crouched black shapes (line 49). 6 what was going on at the station. They were blowing mines. 3

READ the second section (lines 54-93) and answer the following questions.

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What does the narrator gradually make out ‘in the greenish gloom’? The gleam of the dying men’s eyes (line 60) and the face of a young boy (lines 61, 64). Is the narrator passive in front of the scene? He is not passive, he gives the boy a biscuit (lines 65-66). What strikes him about the boy? What does he wonder about? The piece of white cloth tied up around his neck (lines 67-68). He wonders where he may have found it and what it means (lines 68-69). Can you find out the identity of the man the narrator meets near the buildings? The

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DESCRIBE the people in this picture. Students’ answers. Focus on the fact that they are slaves, they have chains, and they are nearly naked.

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Company’s chief accountant (lines 85-86). Why is he mentioned? Because he introduces the man indissolubly connected with the memories of that time, Kurtz (lines 89-90), and shows admiration towards him.

ANALYSIS 4 FOCUS on the shocking description of the natives: the six black men and the shapes in the grove of death. 1 What details does Conrad concentrate upon? Conrad concentrates on the details concerning the parts of the body to underline the barbarous reduction of a whole human being to dislocated parts. 2 Circle the verbs conveying their actions. What is their main connotation? Students should focus on lines 1-9 and 49-78. They have a connotation of passivity, exhaustion, suffering, disease and death. These men seem to have lost their human traits. They do not stand but crawl, they have lost their human dignity. 3 Are these people given proper names? Write down the expressions Marlow, the narrator, uses to mention them. No, they are not. Black men (lines 1-2), unhappy savages (line 16), raw matter (line 16), one of the reclaimed (line 16), his charge (lines 21-22), black shapes (line 49), nothing earthly (line 55), black shadows (line 55), moribund shapes (line 59), black bones (line 61), two more bundles (line 71), phantom (line 73), creatures (line 76). They are connoted by the colour of their skin, by the way the colonizers see them (enemies, criminals, savages) and finally they have been reduced to inconsistent shapes, shadows, strange creatures. Marlow tries to convince himself that they are men (‘men-men, I tell you’, line 30). 4 Note down the words referring to the mood of the natives. Then summarize it in your own words. Attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair (line 51); as if overcome with a great weariness (lines 73-74); in every pose of contorted collapse (lines 74-75). Suggestion: They suffer and they have lost the will to go on living; they are starving, weary and desperate. 5

FIND the similes in the extract and explain what they mean. The similes throughout the extract are: ‘like tails’ (line 6) compares the rags around the men’s loins to a dog’s tail. In

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LOOK at the description of the chain-gang overseer. What insight does this ‘product of the new forces at work’ give into the relationship between the natives and the white colonizers? (Lines 16-21, He carries a rifle, wears a uniform with a button off, he pretends alacrity, he has a large, white, rascally grin). The chain-gang overseer is a portrait of the process of displacement and detribalisation the natives underwent. The colonisers relied on a force of native militia under white control to organise the system of forced labour. So natives were often placed in a position of authority over others, when they were not already tribal chiefs, and to fulfil the work of collection of quotas they would frequently resort to coercion and mutilation to encourage output and ‘discipline’. CHOOSE the ways in which the chief accountant is characterised from the list and provide the relevant details from the passage. Then answer the questions below. Name – Nationality – Age – Sex Male. Physical appearance He is white (‘a white man’ line 80,‘a big white hand’, line 84) and elegant. His hair is parted, brushed and oiled. Clothes dressed in white (lines 82-83), under

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FOCUS on Marlow’s method of narration and tick the correct statements: He says what he sees directly. He withholds information. He delays the recognition of objects. He makes ironical remarks. He keeps a self-distancing position of marginality. He vehemently expresses his indignation towards what he witnesses. He asks questions. Can you think of the advantages and disadvantages of this narrative method?

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a green parasol, with a pen-holder behind his ear. Job the Company’s chief accountant. Thoughts – Words ‘to get a breath of fresh air’ (line 87), he was the first ever to say the name of Kurtz (lines 89- 90). Actions He met Marlow (line 80); he shook hands with him (line 85); he did all the bookkeeping (line 86); he had come out to get a breath of fresh air (lines 86-87). What kind of images does Conrad use to connote him? Discuss their possible symbolic implications. The dominant colour in the description is ‘white’, which suggests light and cleanliness. Conrad also conveys the idea of elegance, order and perfection which contrasts with the chaos of the station and arouses Marlow’s admiration. This character embodies one of the striking paradoxes Marlow faces on his journey. Can you explain why? Life inside society is not possible without codes of behaviour but these codes prove false or unsuitable when man gets into the heart of existence. The accountant is dressed in elegant white as if he were working in an office in Europe when he is in fact surrounded by a reality which denies the validity of European civilisation. However, Marlow says: ‘I respected the fellow ‘. What justifies this attitude? Marlow believes that efficient work might have a redeeming power. The accountant has stuck to some codes of behaviour, which has prevented him from falling prey to evil or apathy.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

this way the black men are compared to animals. ‘like knots in a rope’ (line 7) conveys the fact that they were skinny because of toil and starvation. ’deathlike indifference of unhappy savages’ (lines 15-16) introduces the fact the natives are going to die. ‘like the bursting shells’ (lines 12-13) and ‘as though the tearing pace of the launched earth had suddenly become audible’ (lines 47-48) refers to the sound of the shells and the devastation of the land made by the colonizers. ‘as air’ (line 59) underlines the inconsistence of the human shapes. ‘as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence’ (line 75) reinforces the idea of disease and human waste. ‘His appearance was certainly that of a hairdresser’s dummy’ (line 92) refers to the chief accountant and ironically hints at the fact that even he has lost his sense of humanity.

Advantages It enables different possible readings of the events. It creates the effect of a lens, focusing or blurring details. It creates suspense and arouses the reader’s interest and curiosity. It stresses the atrocity of the description. It holds the sign or idea in suspension leaving the reader the time to wonder.

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EXPLAIN what evidence of the devastating effects of colonial exploitation you can find in the text. Provide examples of the following:

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military and administrative control; Ship of war firing into the continent (line 10), bursting shells (line 12), ‘one of the reclaimed carried a rifle and a uniform jacket’ (lines 16-18); exploitation of native labour force to obtain the country’s natural resources; They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads (lines 2-3), ‘a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope’ (lines 36-39), ‘the gloomy circle of some Inferno’ (line 44), ‘the work was going on. The work !’ (lines 52-53), ’they were dying slowly’ (line 54), ‘brought...rest’ (lines 56-59); physical violence; Six black men with baskets of earth on their heads (lines 1-3), with an iron collar on their neck, connected with a chain (lines 7-8), ’they were dying slowly’ (line 54), ‘brought... rest’ (lines 56-59); devastation of the natural environment; Another report from the cliff (line 9), a vast artificial hole (line 36), ‘the launched earth’ (line 47),’another mine on the cliff went off’’ (lines 51); inefficiency and waste. ‘A vast artificial hole’ (line 36), ‘a scar in the hillside’ (line 40), ‘A lot of imported drainage-pipes... tumbled in there’(lines 40-41), ‘a wanton smash-up’ (line 42).

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Specification 14

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10 THE NARRATOR, Marlow, makes sarcastic comments that imply a severe judgment of European colonization. Underline these remarks and identify the metaphor used by the narrator to convey his opinion. Marlow’s sarcastic comments (lines 21-23; 3839) imply a severe judgment of European colonization. The presence of the colonizers is compared to a mystery, a terrible voice, an outrageous law coming from the sea; it is presented as a new force, a great and right cause. Here Conrad is criticising the rhetoric behind colonialism. Then he introduces an extended metaphor to sum up his attitude:

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Disadvantages It may prove complex and obscure, slow. The reader may feel displaced and uneasy.

colonialism is like a devil of violence, greed and lust, it is rapacious and mad (lines 32-33; 54-59). 11 SAY what the opposition between ‘black’ and ‘white’ symbolises in the passage. Black and white are juxtaposed in the image of ‘a bit of white worsted’ around the neck of one of the dying ‘black shadows’. The white thread has a negative connotation because it symbolizes the black man’s submission to the white man. The image reminds us of the iron collar around the men’s necks (line 7) and is echoed in the chief accountant’s ‘white cuffs’ and ‘snowy trousers’. ESAME DI STATO

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12 TYPE B. Discuss Conrad’s view of imperialism in not more than ten to twelve lines. Students should point out that Conrad denounced the contradictions of colonialism. While pretending to ‘civilize’, the white colonizers brutally exploited the natives and their lands pursuing economic profit. Exam Reference pag. 611

14.7 Two Films About...

Heart of Darkness

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DISCUSS in pairs. Like Heart of Darkness, the film ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979) depicts a journey. Whereas Conrad develops the issue of colonial exploitation in the Congo, the American director Francis Ford Coppola expresses a judgement on American intervention in the Vietnam War. Which of the following opinions would you expect to find in the film as regards Coppola’s vision of war? Students’ activity.

A

War is a tragic and absurd dance of death.

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War is the greatest show in the modern civilised world. C War is the destruction of native civilisation by technology, money and waste. D War is an extraordinary exertion of energy which is utterly useless.

Text Bank 102: Edward Morgan Forster, Cecil’s proposal from A room with a view Teacher’s Key on page 325.

Text Bank 103: Edward Morgan Forster, The echo from A passage to india

Video Lab 32: Apocalypse now Photocopiable Lesson on page 262. Teacher’s Key on page 289. Video Lab 33: Heart of darkness Photocopiable Lesson on page 265. Teacher’s Key on page 291.

14.8 Literature

Edward Morgan Forster and the contact between different cultures

Teaching tip The presentation E.M. Forster in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 101: Edward Morgan Forster, Piazza Signoria from A Room with a view Teacher’s Key on page 324. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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READ Forster’s biography and find evidence that: • He was influenced by female figures. When his father died, he was brought up by his mother and his great-aunt. • He was annoyed by restrictions. He lived his early experiences at private schools as a sort of spiritual imprisonment. • He was attracted to dualities. In his novels Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A Room with a View (1908), he explored the differences between the strictness of English conventions and upper-middle-class codes of social behaviour and the more spontaneous and relaxed way of life of the Italians. • He was a prolific writer. He wrote six novels, two volumes of short stories, a volume containing a series of lectures and two books of collected essays. • He was a critic and an essayist. He published Aspects of the Novel, a volume containing a series of lectures on modern aesthetics. • He was indebted to the 19th-century novel. He was, first of all, a writer of the comedy of manners who was interested in the society of his time. He derived much from the Victorian tradition – the plot arrangement and the presence of an omniscient narrator that occasionally becomes obtrusive – but the optimism about the future that one finds in most 19th-century fiction was already being questioned in his work before World War I, through the technique of irony, reminiscent of Jane Austen’s. • His works showed a modern complexity. Forster’s complexity derived from his talent for self-scrutiny, from his power to question the culture to which he yet remained attached. His early books were more humorous; in the last two novels there was an attempt to approach through sensation and experience that which gives meaning to life and affords a visionary understanding of it.

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BRAINSTORM all that you know about the Vietnam War. Students should point out the following: The Vietnam War started in the early Sixties, and it saw a massive involvement of the USA in repressing the communist government in South Vietnam. The American forces had their headquarters in Saigon. The war was one of the cruellest, and this was due to the fact that the fighting occurred mainly in the forest with the help of ambushes. The employment of napalm is well known; bloody acts were carried out by both the Americans and the Vietcong. Thousands of American soldiers died, and those who came home were often maimed. In the country there was a great anti-war movement, protests, and even singers, such as Bob Dylan, stated their resolute opposition to the war in their songs. The war officially ended in 1977. Symbols of the antiwar movement included the peace badge, the hippies, the slogan ‘love and peace’, the ‘flower movement’ and rock music.

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Teacher’s Key on page 327.

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ANSWER the following questions about the novel A Passage to India. Who are the most important characters within the English and the Indian communities? The most important members of the British community are: the City Magistrate Ronny Heaslop, who is engaged to Miss Adela Quested; Ronny’s mother, Mrs Moore; and Fielding, the headmaster of the local college. The most important character of the Indian community is a Moslem doctor, Aziz. What is Forster’s main concern in the novel? The issue of ‘connection’, as well as the desire to overcome social and racial differences. Personal relationships are a fundamental value leading to a general need for tolerance, good temper, and sympathy. The belief in ‘goodwill’ is also strong in the novel. Why did Forster set the novel in India? What are the features of his India? The Indian landscape challenges the established values of Western civilisation. The reader is constantly reminded of the many inhabitants of India: the crowds of people, the animals, the plants, the birds, the stones. Some of the basic qualities of Forster’s India are that it has no interiors or exteriors, nothing is private there, everyone can see you and know even your secrets, weaknesses and failures. Why is the visit to the Marabar Caves a turning point? Because Mrs Moore and Adela both have traumatic experiences inside them. For both, the transforming experience comes in the form of an ‘echo’. How did Forster portray the colonial experience? Forster recorded the moment of British India’s transformation into a new country. The typical attitude of the British in India was that they were undertaking the ‘white man’s burden’. The non-cooperation movement and Gandhi wanted complete social equality between the British and the Indians. Forster shared this view and criticised imperialistic policies of discrimination under which personal relations were spoilt.

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COMPREHENSION 2 READ the extract up to line 37 and focus on the elements that make up the setting. Write down the details concerning: 1 the time; night (‘illuminated...by the moon’, ‘in full moonlight’, lines 14-15; ‘night’, line 30; ‘into the moonlight’, line 43; ‘good night’, line 63, ‘to walk at night’ line 78); 2 the place; a mosque (line 7) 3 the architecture; the courtyard contained an ablution-tank… was paved with broken slabs; a ruined gate; the covered part; three arcades; a small hanging lamp; the front... of marble, the frieze (lines 9-16); the low wall that bounded the courtyard on the left (line 23). 4 the elements belonging to the natural landscape; ‘the soil’ yielding or ‘rigid and sharp’ (lines 3-4); the moon (line 14); the sky (line 16); a blur of trees (line 24); owls (line 28); flowers (line 29); the garden (line 29); in the stillness full of sounds (lines 24-25). 5 the feelings the place arouses in Aziz. He had always liked it (line 8); the arrangement pleased him (lines 8-9); by winning his approval let loose his imagination (lines 18-19); awaken his sense of beauty (line 20). The place arouses feeling of pleasure, joy and enthusiasm. 3

READ the passage to the end and answer the following questions.

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How does Aziz react when Mrs Moore suddenly appears? He is ‘furiously angry’ and shouts at the woman (lines 43-44). What makes him change his attitude? He realizes that the woman has taken off her shoes as a sign of respect towards the holy place (lines 46-50); he begs her pardon (line 51); she believes God is there (line 59). What is the subject of the conversation? Mrs Moore’s reason of her visit to India (lines 71, 86-91); they speak about their children (lines 96-98, 101-113) and about some members of the English community at Chandrapore (lines 119–131, 139-141). Do the two characters have anything in common? Collect information about:

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Aziz and Mrs Moore E. M. Forster A Passage to India (1924) Chapter 2

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DISCUSS. Do sincere personal relationships overcome the obstacles between different peoples and civilisations? Open answer.

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READ the Persian inscription Aziz would like on his own tomb carefully. It introduces a theme Forster will develop in the novel. Identify it. The issue of ‘connection’ and the importance of personal relationships, the need for tolerance, good temper and sympathy.

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THE UNDERSTANDING between Aziz and Mrs Moore does not exclude all those elements that will threaten personal relations later in the novel. Find the details connected with the ideas of:

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the hostility of nature; Hostility in soil (lines 3-7); the hostility of nature suggested by the talk of dangerous leopards and snakes (and bad characters, lines 78 -79); the conflict between cultures; The conflicting and discordant sounds of English and Hindu life heard from within the mosque (lines 25-26). A woman is not allowed in the mosque (line 46). He feels a subordinate (lines 125-131, 144); difficulty of communication. The difficulty of communication hinted at in Aziz’s mistaken idiom – ‘in the same box’ (line 99) for ‘in the same boat’; the confusion of names and identities that arises from Mrs Moore’s second marriage.

ANALYSIS 4 IDENTIFY the kind of narrator used. From whose point of view is the scene described? It is a third- person omniscient narrator and the scene is described from Aziz’s point of view. 5

GO THROUGH the dialogue again and focus on the way Forster portrays the two characters showing them both as individuals and as members of a group and therefore conditioned by their own culture.

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Trace the emotional changes Aziz and Mrs Moore undergo during their conversation. At the beginning Aziz is furiously angry and shouts (lines 43-44), Mrs Moore gasps and is startled (lines 45, 52). Then Aziz is sorry (line 54), afraid he startled her (line 70), they both laughed (line 85), he was delighted (line 107). They share the same experiences, the same opinions; he is excited (line 133); they sympathize (line 134); she is surprised (line 139). Find the references to the two characters’ cultural background and say if they appear to be conditioned by it in their behaviour or not. Though Mrs Moore is British, she behaves differently from the other members of the British community: she talks to Aziz and tells him about her family, she criticizes other members of her community, she is kind and invites Aziz to the

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DISCUSS the insight the passage gives into the relationship between the British and the Indians. Does the narrator seem to suggest

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club, she shows respect for his religion. Aziz shows resentment towards the English because of the way they treat the Indians, and despises their cool attitude. He also feels different from the Hindus, for example he finds their religion and music uncongenial. Aziz appears as a sensitive and talkative young man with a slight inclination to melancholy and pathos (see the inscription in lines 34-37) and a deep sense of beauty. Mrs Moore is gentle and spontaneous, she respects other cultures and is curious about them. Underline in the text the sentences expressing the understanding reached by these two dissimilar people. Lines 133-141. Which aspects of their personality bring them close to each other? They are both seeking to escape from an alien environment and looking for relief in a holy place. They are friendly and sympathetic. They both would like to understand the meanings of their behaviour.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

• their age; We don’t know Aziz’s age. As regards Mrs Moore: old woman, red face, white hair, young voice (lines 68-69); • nationality; He is Indian (line 2); She is British (lines 74-75); • family; He is a widower (line 99); he has two sons and a daughter: Ahmed, Karim and Jamila (lines 105, 109-110); she is twice widowed (lines 97-98), she has three children, Mr Heaslop, Ralph and Stella (lines 91-92,101). • religion; He is Muslim (lines 20-22); she believes in God (line 59); • relationship with the community they belong to. He has a good relationship with the Muslims (lines 21-22); he is critical with the Hindu community (lines 19-20, 26-27); he is critical of some members of the British community (lines 125-131); she has a good relationship with the Muslims (lines 48-56); she is critical of some members of the British community (lines 122-124); she is curious about the Indians (lines 141-144).

that there are many more divisions in India than the Empire can be held responsible for? Class discussion. The English consider themselves superior and behave with arrogance, excluding the Indians from their own territories and violating their rights. The passage hints at the contrast between Hindus and Moslems inside the Indian reality. ESAME DI STATO

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Specification 14

TYPE B. Explain how Forster deals with the theme of ‘Only connect...’(the words chosen for the epigraph of Howards End) in A Passage to India. What kind of connections does he present and what characters try or manage to connect? Write ten to twelve lines. Suggestion: Forster had a critical view of imperialistic policies of discrimination under which personal relations were spoilt; he also described the development of an Indian national consciousness in the character of Aziz. A Passage to India explores the possibility for Western and Eastern cultures to get in touch and, more generally, for human beings to connect and understand one another. Mrs Moore tries to connect with the desire to overcome social, cultural and racial differences.

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REVISE your knowledge about Joyce’s life and works by using these hints:

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the education he received; Joyce was educated at Jesuit schools, including University College, Dublin. Here he studied the French, Italian and German languages and literatures and English literature, and graduated in modern languages in 1902. his interests; His interest was for a broader European culture, and this led him to begin to think of himself as a European rather than an Irishman. His attitude contrasted greatly with that of his literary contemporaries, like W.B. Yeats, who were leading the Irish Literary Revival. what became the ‘Bloomsday’ in his novel Ulysses; In June 1904 Joyce met and fell in love with Nora Barnacle, a twenty-year-old girl who was working as a chambermaid in a hotel. They had their first date on 16th June, which was to become the ‘Bloomsday’ of Ulysses. where he settled; He settled in Trieste where he began teaching English and made friends with Italo Svevo. his most important works; His most important works are: Dubliners (1914), a collection of short stories all about Dublin and Dublin life; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), his semi-autobiographical novel; the naturalistic drama Exiles (1914); Ulysses (1922); Finnegans Wake (1923). why he chose Dublin as the setting of all his works; Joyce’s effort was to give a realistic portrait of the life of ordinary people doing ordinary things and living ordinary lives in his home-town. By portraying these ordinary Dubliners, he succeeded in representing the whole of man’s mental, emotional and biological reality. the main features of his style. His style, technique and language developed from the realism and the disciplined prose of Dubliners, through an exploration of the characters’ impressions and points of view, through the use of free direct speech and the epiphany, to the interior monologue with two levels of narration, a device used to give a realistic framework to the characters’ formless thoughts, up to the extreme interior monologue.

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Exam Reference pag. 611

14.9 Literature

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James Joyce: a modernist writer

Teaching tip The presentation James Joyce in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 186. Text Bank 104: James Joyce, Araby from Dubliners Teacher’s Key on page 328. Text Bank 105: James Joyce, Where was his boyhood now? From A Portrait of the artist as a young man Teacher’s Key on page 331.

Text Bank 106: James Joyce, I said yes i will from Ulysses Teacher’s Key on page 333.

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Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 187.

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How are the stories arranged? Dubliners consists of fifteen short stories; they all lack obvious actions, but they disclose human situations and moments of intensity and lead to a moral, social, or spiritual revelation. They are arranged into four groups: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. What sort of description is employed in each story? The description in each story is realistic and extremely concise with an abundance of external details, even the most unpleasant and depressing ones. What is meant by the term ‘epiphany’? The ‘epiphany’ is ‘the sudden spiritual manifestation’ caused by a trivial gesture, an external object or a banal situation, which is used to lead the character to a sudden self-realisation about himself/herself or about the reality surrounding him/her. Indeed, this motif is central to the collection, since it is the revelation, not the plot, that drives the stories. What are the main themes of the stories? The paralysis of Dublin, which is both physical and moral, linked to religion, politics and culture, is one of the most important themes in Dubliners. The opposite of paralysis is ‘escape’ and its consequent failure. It originates from an impulse caused by a sense of enclosure that many characters experience, but none of them succeeds in overcoming: they live as exiles at home, unable to cut the bonds that tie them to their own world. Which techniques are employed by Joyce to tell his stories? The omniscient narrator and the single point of view are rejected: each story is told from the perspective of a character. Narrated monologue, in the form of free direct speech and often of free direct thought, is widely used. The linguistic register is varied, since the language used in all the stories suits the age, the social class and the role of the characters.

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Eveline James Joyce Dubliners (1914) ‘Eveline’

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DISCUSS in pairs. Do you remember the first

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time you fell in love? How did your parents react to it? Recollect your experience focusing on your feelings, fears and desires and how they alternated inside you. Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION (I) 2 READ lines 1-111 and do the following activities. 1 Write a heading for this section. Eveline’s considerations on her life. 2 Find out: the setting in time and place; how the interior of the room is described; how Eveline feels. It is evening (line 1) and the action takes place in Eveline’s living-room (line 20). Darkness and dust characterise the room. She feels tired (line 4). 3 Say: • what the world outside her window makes her think about; The world outside her window makes her think about her childhood. She remembers the field in which she and other children once played until a man from Belfast bought it and built houses on it (lines 9-10). Ernest, her older brother, was too old to join in their play (lines 12-13) and is now dead (line 46). • what role Eveline’s father played in the past; Eveline and the other children of the same avenue used to play and shelter with vigilance against the inimical adult, Eveline’s father (lines 13-14), who used to interfere with and spoil their play. However at the beginning he was not so bad (line 15). She now fears her father, because he is a violent and uncontrolled man and she resents his parsimony. She herself is just over nineteen and there are two younger children still at home (lines 41-42, 56-57). • what objects the girl notices in her room and what feature these things share; In the room where Eveline stands she notices the picture of a priest, a school friend of her father’s, the priest has become a yellowing photograph; the promises made to Blessed Mary Margaret Alacoque are next to his picture (lines 20-26). All these objects share their being old and dusty. • how Eveline considers her job and what she thinks about her superior; Eveline considers her job as a department store clerk dull and her superior abusive (lines 31-37). She would not cry many tears at leaving the store (line 38). • what she has agreed to become and why; She has agreed to be Frank’s wife and to leave her home (lines 18-19, 29). In her new home, she

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ANSWER the following questions to organise your knowledge about Dubliners.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

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would be married and she would be treated with respect (lines 39-40). • who Frank is and what his job is; Frank is her boyfriend and he is a sailor (line 69). • what the girl remembers about him; She remembers Frank’s courtship (lines 60-76), his being kind, open-hearted and lively. He has a house in Buenos Aires (lines 62, 75-76). He was awfully fond of music and sang a little (line 68). He used to call her Poppens (line 70). • whether Eveline’s father accepted the young man; Eveline’s father quarrelled with her boyfriend since he distrusted sailors (lines 78-79). Because of that fight Eveline accepted to leave home and to go to Buenos Ayres with Frank. After the quarrel they had to meet secretly (lines 79-80). • what the sound of the organ reminds her of; The sound of a street organ reminds her of the promise she made to her dying mother during her last night and how her father had paid a street organ player to move off and how he had cursed all foreigners (lines 95-103). • how she sees her mother’s life and what her last words really meant for Eveline; She sees her mother’s life as a ‘life of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness’ (line 105). Her mother’s last words, meaningless but seemingly Gaelic, were: ‘Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!’ Joyce passes over in silence the improbability that a Dublin woman of this time and class would know Gaelic (lines 105-107). • what Eveline is caught between throughout this part; She is caught between a future far from her family with Frank and the passivity of her home city. • what the girl experiences and what she perceives as her fate if she remains in Ireland; Terror (line 108). She had to escape, because she wanted to live her own life, love, happiness, ‘she had a right to happiness’ (lines 108-110). If she remained in Ireland she might have the same fate as her mother. • what Frank represents to her. Frank is her saviour, he offers her the possibility of escape. (lines 110-111).

ANALYSIS (I) 3 FOCUS on lines 93-111. The access to the character’s consciousness is provided by Joyce through the technique of ‘epiphany’, that is, ‘the sudden revelation of a hidden reality’ through ‘casual words or events’.

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Explain what revelation the girl has. The sound of the street organ can be considered as the epiphany of this story; Eveline remembers her promise to her mother and understands the emptiness and the meaninglessness of her dreams and of her love. The miserable life of Eveline’s mother has influenced her decisions. Sum up the different phases of the girl’s decisions up to the final failure. At first there is her plan of escape which coexists with her antithetical wish of continuing to live in her home; (at the end there is the failure of her project of escaping and paralysis wins inside her soul, she is probably too young to take any decision.)

COMPREHENSION (II) 4 READ up to the end of the story and do the following activities. 1 2

Write a heading for this section. Her moral failure. Now answer the questions. A Where is Eveline? She is at the station of the North Wall (line 112), on the quayside (line 115). B Who surrounds her? A swaying crowd. C What happens when she is on the quayside? She is paralysed and is not able to get on board the ship. ‘All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart.’ (lines 123, 126-127, 130) D How does her relationship with Frank turn out to be? Her relationship with Frank turns out to be a superficial one since she dare not take risks and she gives Frank ‘no sign of love or farewell or recognition’ (lines 130-131) as he urges her to follow. E What does she understand about her affections for her family and surroundings? They are the most important ones even if that place is a home with dusty curtains and that family contains a frequently drunken and abusive father. F What is the effect produced by the last words of the story? The reader becomes aware of the end of Eveline’s dreams about an alternative life linked to love and freedom.

ANALYSIS (II) 5 CONCENTRATE on the narrator. Note down: 1 2

what kind of narrator it is; It is a third-person narrator. whose point of view is adopted; Eveline’s point of view is adopted throughout the story.

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FOCUS on the character of Eveline.

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Does Joyce introduce her in a traditional way? What is the reader obliged to do? The character of the girl is not introduced in a traditional way since we are not given information about her physical appearance, family and school. The reader is obliged to infer the pieces of information from the development of her thoughts. How does she appear? Why? She appears tired linked to stillness and paralysis, since she does not move and her only life is her mind.

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Past She and her brothers used to play in the field (lines 10-14); Her mother was dead (line 17); She had dusted… (lines 20-21); She had consented … (line 29); Frank’s courtship (lines 63-64); Her father had forbidden her love (line 76-77); Her mother’s last night (lines 97-100).

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Present She sat at the window (line 1); She looked round the room (line 20); She tried to weigh (line 29); She had shelter and food (line 30); she felt herself in danger of her father’s violence (lines 41-42); She had nobody to protect her (lines 45-46); She gave her entire wages (line 48); Her father was bad on Saturday night (line 52); She worked hard (line 56); Letters to say goodbye (line 80); She must escape (line 108); She stood motionless among the crowd on the quayside (line 112); It was impossible for her to escape (lines 126-131); Sent a cry of anguish (line 127); Passive like a helpless animal (line 130).

DISCUSS. ‘Eveline’ is a story of paralysis. Has this state of mind been determined by her conflict between love and duty or familiar boredom and a courageous break? Eveline is a simple-minded girl who can’t escape the prison of her home and her father’s authority.

ESAME DI STATO

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Most of the story takes place in Eveline’s mind; however, her thoughts are not arranged in chronological order and they wander from past to present and future. Fill in the table below with her most important thoughts. Point out the most important images connected with these time references. Eveline’s present is linked to stillness and dust. Her past is connected with the death of her mother. Her future has connections with love, action, the sea and escape. A simile is used in line 130 to describe Eveline. Identify it. What does it add to the description of her character? Eveline is compared to ‘a helpless animal’, since she is passive, paralysed and unable to make any decision.

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TYPE B. In not more than ten to twelve lines, clarify the most important stylistic devices and the themes of Dubliners

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Future Now she was going away (line 18); She would never see again all the things in her living room (line 22); She would leave her job (line 38); She would be married and have a new house. She would be treated with respect (lines 40-41). She was about to explore another life with Frank (line 60); She was to go away by night-boat and be his wife (line 61); Frank would save her (line 111); She would be on the sea with Frank (lines 118-119).

present in ‘Evelyne’. Student’s writing activity. Students should point out: • the realistic description of places • the use of a limited point of view • the presentation of the character from the inside • the use of a new concept of time • the use of epiphany • the theme of paralysis Exam Reference pag. 611

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what technique is employed to give voice to Eveline’s thoughts. Free indirect thoughts (lines 20, 108, 126). The story opens in medias res.

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YOUR TURN 9 DISCUSS with the rest of the class. Does ‘Eveline’ still exist in our contemporary society? Class discussion.

Gabriel’s epiphany James Joyce

GUIDED TASK

Dubliners (1914) From ‘The Dead’

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ESAME DI STATO

Sleep Seconda Prova

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ANSWER the following questions.

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Who was Gabriel thinking about as he watched his wife sleeping? He was thinking about the young man who had died for her love (lines 3-4). Why did he feel pity for her as he watched her? Because she was no longer beautiful (lines 7-10). What confusion did the untidy clothes represent? They represented the confusion of his emotions. Why did he think ‘poor Aunt Julia’? Because he thought she was getting old and would soon die (lines 16-17). What is meant by ‘lame and useless’ in lines 2223? That the words would be inadequate to express consolation for the death of a loved one. What does Gabriel mean when he thinks ‘one by one they were all becoming shades’? This means that they were all growing older and would die at some time. Identify the epiphany in the text. Gabriel’s epiphany takes place in lines 4-6; 37-39. Why were Gabriel’s tears ‘generous’? Because he imagined how difficult it must have been for his wife when the young man died. Moreover he realized that he had never loved someone so deeply and he seemed to lose his self-confidence and sense of identity.

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COMPLETE the Venn diagram with the ideas you generally associate with ‘death’ and ‘sleep’. What do these concepts share? Use your notes to write down a paragraph about these topics. Open answer.

Death

What sound distracted him from his thoughts? The sound of the snow falling on the window pane (line 37). 10 What is the main theme of the passage and what triggers this theme? The main theme is the blurred border between the living and the dead. Gabriel feels dead inside while Michael, who is physically dead, is still living in Gretta’s memory. 9

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SUMMARISE the content of the passage following the guided task. STEP 1 Underline or highlight the points in the text which you consider important. Student’s activity. STEP 2 Make a list of the actions in the passage. 1 Gabriel sits watching his wife sleeping. 2 They have just been to a party where he made a speech and Gretta heard a song that reminded her of a young man who had died for her love. 3 It begins snowing. STEP 3 Make a list of the thoughts. 1 He thinks of his wife almost as a stranger. 2 About how beautiful she had been in her youth. 3 About the young man who had died for her love. 4 About the party they had just been to. 5 About his Aunt’s future funeral. 6 About how everyone grows older and dies. 7 How the snow falls equally on the living and the dead. STEP 4 Write a summary based on the two lists, writing first about the actions and then about the thoughts. Gabriel is watching his sleeping wife, Gretta, after coming back from a party at his Aunt’s where a song reminded her about a young man who once died for her love. While watching his wife’s sleeping face Gabriel reflects on love and death and the inevitable passing of time. He thinks about his aging Aunt and how she may die soon and how all of them are getting older and will have to face death. His reflections show his generous affection for his wife and his own sadness at the idea of death. Finally the snow falling distracts him from his thoughts and he realizes the inevitability of life leading to death and how the snow falls equally on both. (120 words)

Can you think of any artists (singers, writers, filmmakers) who are linked to a particular city? Open answer.

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READ the text and underline the places mentioned in the quotations from Dubliners. Then locate them on the map. Student’s activity.

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ANSWER the following questions about the text.

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What kind of Dublin did Joyce represent? He did not represent a fixed and static Dublin. Rather, he represented a revolutionary montage of several ‘Dublins’ through a range of historical juxtapositions and varied naturalist and surrealist styles. Why are the stories from Dubliners not united by their geography? Because there is some overlap in the movement of characters, usually when they are in transit from one place to another, but each story is more or less organised around a single location. What influenced Joyce’s method of evoking his hometown in A Portrait? The prolonged temporal and geographical distance greatly influenced his method for evoking Dublin; something about the city has changed. Instead of emerging as an objective, concrete urban landscape, Dublin filters through Stephen’s consciousness as something for him to create a new pattern of language. What is Dublin like in Ulysses? In Ulysses Dublin city is more maze-like with an amount of street-signs and place-names that chart the movements of characters, their chance encounters, and deliberate detours.

GUIDED TASK

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COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic. Sometimes a small seemingly insignificant incident can lead us to reflect on the meaning of life and death. Choose an incident from your own life which might be the loss of a family member or an unexpected kind gesture, and explain its importance. Write your composition following the guided task. STEP 1 Make a spider chart in which you put the incident in the centre and then around it different thoughts and consequences. STEP 2 Write a brief plan in which the incident is explained first, and then the consequences or thoughts. STEP 3 Try, as in the passage, to have a distraction at the end which leads to a general reflection. This may be a change in the weather or any external event. STEP 4 Now organise and write your composition in clear paragraphs: an introduction in which you describe the incident; one or two further paragraphs describing the thoughts, reflections and possible consequences; a final paragraph giving an overall reflection based on an external event. Student’s activity. Exam Reference pag. 611

14.10 Mapping Literature

Joyce’s Dublin

Interactive Map 15

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DISCUSS the following questions.

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How important are geographical settings in stories? What do they add? They are the naturalistic aspects of stories and they increase the realism.

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14.11 Comparing Literatures

Joyce and Svevo: the innovators of the modern novel

Amalia and Stefano Italo Svevo Senilità (1898) Chapter V; Chapter IX

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STEP 5 When you have finished writing, check that you have used the correct number of words and remove or add details accordingly. Student’s activity.

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Specification 14

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READ the extracts from Senilità and compare them to James Joyce’s ‘Eveline’ (I14.9), answering the following questions.

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What do Amalia’s and Eveline’s lives have in common? Who are they dominated by? These two female characters share inactivity, passivity and submission to a male character, Eveline’s father and Amalia’s brother, who prevent them from having a love relationship with Frank, the sailor in ‘Eveline’, and Stefano in Senilità. Who represents a sort of escape from a dull, squalid life in both texts? Falling in love in both texts is shown as a possible escape and redemption from a dull life: Eveline has planned a new life with Frank (lines 60-63), and Amalia

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REVISE your knowledge about the Italian novelist Italo Svevo and state why he is considered the father of the modernist Italian novel. Suggestion: Italo Svevo was one of the first Italian novelists to apply psychoanalytical discoveries to literature. For a long time Svevo had doubts of his own talent, yet he turned out to be one of the best Italian novelists of the century. He adopted forms of narration and a treatment of the time element that definitely made him an avant-garde novelist and one of the early representatives of the psychoanalytical novel. Svevo detested rhetoric and was not interested in artistic prose and a refined style. To him, writing represented a therapeutic catharsis for all sorts of ‘diseases’, real or imaginary, from cigarette smoking to senility. Senility indeed became one of the dominant motives of Svevo’s narrative. His first novel, as most of his writing, is to a large degree autobiographical. Una vita (1892), published at his own expense, is the story of a young man ‘incapable’ of mastering life. The analytical and introspective modes already visible in this first novel become more prominent in the second: Senilità (1898). The third attempt at novel writing proved to be a success and Svevo is still best known for his book, Confessions of Zeno (1969). The novel’s central character, Zeno Cosini is almost a mirror image of Svevo himself, a businessman inspired by Freudian theory who is writing an autobiography to help his doctor find the origin of his smoking habits.

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becomes ‘enchanted’ (line 6) when she discovers love and turns out to be ready to give up the taboos linked to her past education (lines 7-12). What theme is developed in both texts? The theme developed in both texts is that of paralysis which stops them from escaping. How are the two female characters presented? They are presented through their thoughts and sensations and through their actions. What narrative technique is employed in the two extracts? Whose points of view are adopted? The third-person narrative technique is employed in both texts, but the point of view is restricted: in Joyce’s short story everything is filtered through Eveline’s mind, while in Senilità Amalia’s point of view is employed in the first extract and her brother’s in the second.

14.12 The Arts

The Bloomsbury Group

Art Lab 25: Bloomsbury Artists Photocopiable Lesson on page 222. Teacher’s Key on page 247.

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READ the quote below by Roger Fry (18661934), an influential intellectual force within the Bloomsbury Group, from his celebrated work An Essay in Aesthetics and identify the two types of human existence. In the ‘actual life’ a person is engaged in earning a living, making a home, raising children and all the necessities of life. The ‘imaginative life’ is a state of keen and objective observation that can result in the making of works of visual art that reveal commonalities and deeper meanings about human existence. Art is both the product of and the stimulus for, the imaginative life. Life with the imagination is the most desirable way to live, because ‘the imaginative life is distinguished by the greater clearness of its perception, and the greater purity and freedom of its emotion’. Those who live the imaginative life – artists and those who truly experience art – perceive life in a deeper, more objective way, and they have a ‘clarified sense perception’. Student’s activity.

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READ the text below and make notes about: • where the Bloomsbury Group gathered; The Bloomsbury Group used to gather in the Bloomsbury area of central London, around the British Museum. • who its members were; The group included figures such as the painter and critic Roger Fry, the novelists E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf and the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. • what they rejected; They rejected Victorian values, which were founded on an ideal of morality and respectability. • why they were ignored by the establishment; They were ignored by the establishment they despised because they questioned the conventional values of sexual and personal relationships which caused them

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to be ostracized. • how they developed new ideas. They held dinners and gatherings where any number of topics was the subject of serious discussion and contemplation. Some of Bloomsbury’s most stimulating ideas and writings were borne out of internal disagreement and struggle. 1

BROWSE this site and carry out a research project on the different members of the Bloomsbury Group. Choose one member, and then present him/her to the rest of the class. www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/70024/ Bloomsbury-group Student’s activity. Students should surf the site to find information about artists, like Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, Dora Carrington; writers, like Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, David Garnett, Vita Sackville West and E. M. Foster; and places, like Charleston and the Omega workshops.

14.13 Literature

Virginia Woolf and ‘moments of being’

Teaching tip The presentation Virginia Woolf in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 187.

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ANSWER the following questions about Virginia Woolf.

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What kind of education did Woolf receive? She grew up in a literary and intellectual atmosphere and, apart from a few courses at King’s College, London, her education consisted of private Greek lessons and, above all, access to her father’s library, where she read whatever she liked. She spent her summers at St. Ives, Cornwall, and the sea remained central to her art, as a symbol. The death of her mother in 1895, when Virginia was only thirteen, affected her deeply and brought about her first nervous breakdown. She began to revolt against her father’s aggressive and tyrannical character, and his idealisation of the domesticated woman.

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LOOK at the two paintings, by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and in pairs discuss how they can be linked to Fry’s idea of life and art. Suggestion: Mrs St John Hutchinson shows the short-story writer Mary Hutchinson. It is an example of Vanessa Bell’s ‘Fauve’ manner, and a highly characteristic Bloomsbury portrait in that artist and sitter were well known to each other, Vanessa Bell and her husband Clive being part of the St John Hutchinsons’ wide circle of friendship and acquaintance in the world of arts and letters. She was the mistress of Bell’s husband, Clive, a fact of which Bell was aware. This may account for the unflattering nature of the portrait. The dazzling colours are reminiscent of works by Matisse – an artist Bell appreciated – and the French ‘Fauve’ painters. The blue-green shadows on the cheek-bone and beneath the lower lip of the full mouth, which is sensuously realised in a darker pink, are characteristic Fauve touches. The sharp blue eyes and alert posture bring the sitter very much to life, and while this picture is a striking work of art in terms of its abstract qualities of colour and composition, its interest comes both from its vivid evocation of a personality and mood. Bathing represents an idealised panorama of seven male nudes bathing. The nudes also represent the continuous movement of a single figure. Their bodies, like the water, are stylised to heighten the decorative effect of the image. Grant’s depiction of the male body was greatly influenced by Michelangelo’s ink studies.

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How did her life change after her father’s death? She decided to move to Bloomsbury and became a member of the Bloomsbury Group. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1915 she published The Voyage Out, her first novel. She entered a nursing home and attempted suicide by taking drugs. In 1925 the novel Mrs Dalloway appeared, in which she successfully experimented with new narrative techniques. How did she contribute to the modernist novel? She was interested in giving voice to the complex inner world of feeling and memory and conceived the human personality as a continuous shift of impressions and emotions. So the events that traditionally made up a story were no longer important for her; what mattered was the impression they made on the characters who experienced them. What aspects of tradition did she reject? In her novels the omniscient narrator disappeared and the point of view shifted inside the characters’ minds through flashbacks, associations of ideas, momentary impressions presented as a continuous flux. How did her narrative technique differ from Joyce’s? Differently from Joyce’s characters, who show their thoughts directly through interior monologue, sometimes in an incoherent and syntactically unorthodox way, Woolf never lets her characters’ thoughts flow without control, and maintains logical and grammatical organisation. Her technique is based on the fusion of streams of thought into a third-person, past tense narrative. While Joyce was more interested in language experimentation and worked through the accumulation of details, Woolf’s use of words was almost poetic, allusive and emotional.

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Text Bank 107: Virginia Woolf, Clarissa’s party from Mrs Dalloway Teacher’s Key on

small area of London, from the morning to the evening of the day on which she gives a large formal party. What is the role of clocks in the novel? They remind the reader of the temporal grid which organizes the narrative, of the passing of the time of life and of its flowing into death. So life expresses itself in moments of vision which are at the same time objective (the clocks, the streets, the cars, the flowers) and yet subjectively creative, since they are recreated every moment by active consciousness. What kind of woman is Clarissa Dalloway? She belongs to the upper class, she had a possessive father and experienced the frustration of a genuine love. She is characterized by opposing feelings: her need for freedom and independence and her class consciousness. Her life appears to be an effort towards order and peace, an attempt to overcome her weakness and sense of failure. What is the function of the character of Septimus? He is a character specifically connected with the war, he is a ‘shell-shock’ case, one of the victims of industrialized war, who sought medical treatment in the special centres set up by 1922. How are the two protagonists of the novel connected? They are similar in many respects: their response to experience is always given in physical terms, they depend upon their partners for stability and protection. There is a fundamental difference, however, which has given rise to the theory that Septimus is Clarissa’s double. He is not always able to distinguish between his personal response and the nature of external reality. His psychic paralysis leads him to suicide, whereas Clarissa never loses her awareness of the outside world as something external to herself.

page 334.

Text Bank 108: Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare’s sister from A room of one’s own Teacher’s Key on page 336.

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ANSWER the following questions about Mrs Dalloway.

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What is the setting in time and place? It takes place on a single ordinary day, in June of 1923, and it follows the protagonist through a very

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Clarissa and Septimus Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway (1925) Part I

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DISCUSS in pairs the difference between the external and the internal portions of the self. What do they consist of? Complete the spider charts.

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COMPREHENSION 2 READ the passage. It can be divided into five sections. Write a caption to describe the content of each section. Part 1 (lines 1-25) Mrs Dalloway’s visit at the 4

AS YOU READ, make notes about the setting in time and place. The references to the setting in time and place are: ‘Mulberry’s the florists’ (line 2); ‘the superb summer’s day’ (line 16); ‘it was the moment between six and seven’ (line 17); ‘from the middle of Bond Street to Oxford Street on one side, to Atkinson’s scent shop’ (lines 35-36). So it was a late summer afternoon in London.

FOCUS on the flower shop in lines 1-20. Underline the phrases referring to the florist and then fill in the table below about the flowers.

Flowers

Their colours

delphiniums, sweet peas, bunches of lilac; and carnations (lines 6-7, 13, 14, 15, 17-18) roses; irises (lines 7, 10, 13, 16,) lilac (line 11), arum lilies (line 17) evening primroses (line 20)

Dark (line 13), red (line 13), violet, snow white, pale (lines 14-15), white, violet, red, deep orange (line 18).

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WRITE DOWN the main event in the passage. Then, in your own words, summarise the various people’s reactions to it. The main event in the passage is a violent explosion due to the bursting tyre of a car driving along Bond Street. Miss Pym went to the window and apologised for the noise coming from the car (lines 26-28, 29-30). Passers-by stopped and stared (line 31). Edgar J. Watkiss said it was the Prime Minister’s car (lines 51-52, 43-44). Septimus Warren Smith heard Edgar J. Watkiss (line 45). Mrs Dalloway came to the window and looked out with curiosity (lines 54-55). Septimus was

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frightened and thought he was blocking the way and that everyone was looking at him (lines 60-61). Lucrezia at first wondered who might be in the car (lines 65-66) but she was afraid everyone might notice her husband’s strange behaviour (lines 75-76). 6

CONSIDER how the car is described and list the inferences people make about who may be in the car. The car is connoted by mystery conveyed through the details of the blind and the colour grey. The fact the chauffeur pulls down the blind, makes everyone think that there is someone important in the car.

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florist’s is interrupted by the explosion of a tyre in the street. Part 2 (lines 26-44) Various people’s reactions to the explosion and their speculations about who might be in the car. Part 3 (lines 45-49) Introduction of Septimus Warren Smith. Part 4 (lines 50-62) The busy traffic in the street and Septimus’s thoughts. Part 5 (lines 63-86) Description of Lucrezia’s appearance and thoughts. She is worried because Septimus wants to kill himself.

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The aim of this exercise is to lead students to Woolf’s main concern in Mrs. Dalloway: she especially dealt with the external self, consisting of one’s relationships and interactions with others and everyday reality and the internal self, which consists of the psychological and emotional feelings, words, and beliefs that exist inside our minds. Woolf believed in the need for the symbiosis of the external and internal aspects of the self. Although the internal is probably more important to her than the external, she also believes that they must work together and coexist within each of us in order to achieve a cohesive and complete self, a kind of balance through which the whole being finds a reason to live within a world of chaos.

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COLLECT the details concerning the description of Septimus Warren Smith and his wife in lines 45-86. Fill in the table below. Septimus Warren Smith

His wife

Age Nationality

About thirty (line 46). British (we infer).

Twenty-four (line 84). Italian (line 64).

Appearance

pale-faced, beak-nosed, wearing brown a little woman, with large eyes in a shoes and a shabby overcoat, with hazel sallow pointed face (lines 63-64). eyes (lines 46-47).

Attitude

look of apprehension (line 47); as if some horror had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into flames, terrified him (lines 58-59); angrily (line 71).

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Specification 14

UNDERLINE the words and phrases which give insight into a changing society. There are words giving an insight into the changes in society such as cars and other vehicles, newspapers. The idea conveyed is that of busy city life. (See for example: ’street uproar’, line 11; ‘motor cars’, lines 26, 27, 30, 52, 55, 56, 65, 73; ’tyres of motor cars’, line 28; ‘The throb of a motor engine sounded like a pulse irregularly drumming through an entire body’, lines 50-51; ‘omnibuses’, line 53; ‘bycicles’, ‘traffic’, line 56; ‘the box’, line 68).

ANALYSIS 9 TICK as appropriate to say how the narrative is organised. Following chronological order. Respecting a logical pattern. Piece by piece, through association. 10 SAY what kind of narrator and point of view Woolf uses. What is the author’s aim in using this method? The omniscient narrator is a commenting voice who knows everything about the characters. This voice appears occasionally among the subjective thoughts of the characters. The point of view changes constantly, often shifting from one character’s stream of consciousness (subjective interior thoughts) to another’s within a single paragraph. Woolf most often uses free indirect discourse, a literary technique that describes the interior thoughts of characters using third-person singular pronouns (he and she). This technique allows subtle and

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so simple, so impulsive, without friends in England (lines 83-84).

smooth transitions between the thoughts of a large number of characters. She wants to convey reality as a continuous shift of subjective impressions and emotions and to stress the importance of apparently meaningless facts as stimuli to psychological responses. 11 LOOK at the diagram below. How much action can you find in the passage? What does the extract mostly consist of? There is a continuous passage from outer to inner reality. The extract consists of perceptions and thoughts. 12 POINT OUT the main aspects of Clarissa’s personality. She is presented as a kind, elegant woman. She is sensitive to smell and colours and likes flowers. She is capable of hatred. She is also curious. 13 FOCUS on lines 45-75 and list the sentences that convey the idea that Septimus is in the grip of a very serious mental illness. Match them with the corresponding states of mind: • Alienation Line 48: ‘The world has raised its whip, where will it descend? • Panic Lines 57-59: ‘Septimus thought, and this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes, as if some horror had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into flames, terrified him. The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames’.

ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova

15 TYPE B. Compare Woolf’s way of writing with that of James Joyce (I14.9) as regards analogies and differences (10- 12 lines). Student’s writing activity. Exam Reference pag. 611 Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Moments of being: one moment in time

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 188. IELTS

Speaking - Part 3

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TWO-WAY DISCUSSION. Consider these questions and then answer them. Students’ speaking activity.

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Do you ever try to find a moment in your day when you can do what you want, think or simply do nothing? How do you identify ‘your’ moment and make it count? Can you take an ordinary event and turn it into something extraordinary or more meaningful? Have you ever experienced ‘a moment of being’, that is, one of those rare moments in which you suddenly seem to understand reality beyond its surface?

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Mrs Brown Michael Cunningham The Hours (1998) Chapter I

Teaching tip The presentation The Hours in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the book.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 189.

COMPREHENSION 1 READ the extract and make notes about: 1 where Laura is; She is in Los Angeles, in her bedroom. 2 what time it is exactly; It is well past seven (line 10). 3 how she feels and why; She feels guilty because she is still in bed on Dan’s birthday (lines 12-13). 4 what she should be doing; She should be making breakfast for her husband Dan and her son Richie (lines 13-14). 5 what she had realised after waking up; That it would be a difficult day (lines 19-21).

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14 THE CHARACTERS’ RESPONSE to the world around them is both emotional and physical. Go through lines 1-68 and find words and phrases referring to sensory experience. Which sense is predominant? There are references to sight, hearing, smell and touch but the prevailing sense is sight. Woolf wants to emphasise that the characters’ response to the outside world is both emotional and physical. Sight: ‘hands bright red’, line 4; ‘eyes half closed’, line 11; ‘coolness’, ‘opening her eyes’, ‘fresh’, line 12; ‘looked’, line 13; ‘dark and prim’, ‘red’, line 13; ‘tinged violet, snow white, pale’, lines 14-15; ‘blue-black sky’, line 16; ‘white, violet, red, deep orange’, line 18; ‘misty’ line 19; ‘grey white’, lines 19-20; ‘beauty’,’ colour’, line 22; ‘stared’, line 31; ‘to see a face’, ‘dove grey’ lines 32, 34; ‘eyes’ line 40; ‘had been seen’, line 41; ‘hazel eyes’, line 47; ‘black’, ‘green’, ‘red’, line 53; ‘looked out’, line 54; ‘pink’ line 55; ‘looked’, lines 55, 56....... Hearing: ‘the street uproar’, line 11; ‘a pistol shot’ line 24; ’violent explosion’ line 29; ‘rumours’ line 35; ‘had heard the voice’, line 39; ‘audibly’; line 43; ‘heard’, line 43; ‘sounded’; line 50; ‘a little pop’, line 54. Smell: ‘breathed in’, line 8; ‘sweet smell’, line 8; ‘snuffing in’, ‘the delicious scent’, line 11; ‘misty’, line 19; ‘scent’, line 22; Atkinson’s scent, line 36. Touch: ‘cold’, line 5; ‘coolness’, line 12; ‘hot’, line 51.

14.14 Cultural Issues

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• Feelings of guilt Lines 60-62: ‘It is I who am blocking the way, he thought. Was he not being looked at and pointed at; was he not weighted there, rooted to the pavement, for a purpose? But for what purpose? • Terror and anger Lines 70-71: ‘But her husband, for they had been married four, five years now, jumped, started, and said, ‘All right!’ angrily, as if she had interrupted him.’ • Madness Lines 74-75: ‘Septimus had said, ‘I will kill myself’; an awful thing to say’.

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what Laura’s present condition is; She is pregnant (line 25). what she is going to do to make up for her delay in getting up; She is going to bake a perfect birthday cake, to iron the good cloth to set a big bunch of flowers in the middle of the table and to surround it with gifts (lines 27-29). what the new world is like. A world where there is no room for idleness (line 40).

ANALYSIS 2 EXPLAIN in what sense Laura Brown fights the pressures of society’s expectations. Laura continuously thinks of what she ‘should’ do or be doing (see lines 12-16). Also the use of the simple future form ‘will’ (lines 27, 30) emphasizes Laura’s wish to compensate her failures to meet other people’s expectations. 3

SAY how the reading of Mrs Dalloway affects Laura’s environment. Already her bedroom (no, their bedroom) feels more densely inhabited, more actual, because a character, named Mrs Dalloway, is on her way to buy flowers (lines 8-9). It helps her to calm and to locate herself (lines 30-31), it makes her look at her world in a different way.

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POINT OUT the features of Cunningham’s style. He alternates extracts from Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway to the description of Laura by a third-person narrator and the use of the stream of consciousness technique to give the reader direct access to Laura’s thoughts.

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EXPLAIN how Laura regards reading. She regards it as a special moment of her day, as her ‘moment of being’, the first obvious task of the day, the only way to negotiate the transition from sleep to duty.

ESAME DI STATO

Prova Orale - Part 1

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SURF the net to find information about the novel The Hours and the film version directed by Stephen Daldry in 2002. Create your own PowerPoint presentation using the material from the Internet. Student’s activity.

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SHOW your presentation to the class. Student’s activity. Exam Reference pag. 611 Video Lab 34: The hours Photocopiable Lesson on page 268. Teacher’s Key on page 293.

14 Overview Prova Orale – Part 2

Teaching tip Sigmund Freud’s explanation of the psychic apparatus was divided into three sections: id, ego and super-ego. In terms of human consciousness the id contains the human basic instincts and is the only section present from birth. This is the area where libido, the primary instinct which is unresponsive to logic or reality, can be found. In his 1920 essay ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’, Freud describes this section as the one reacting to the ‘pleasure principle’ and actively avoiding pain or ‘unpleasure’. The second section, or the ego, is the part which is organized and realistic. The ego, according to Freud ‘attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak the Ucs. [Unconscious] commands of the id with its own Pcs. [Preconscious] rationalizations, to conceal the id’s conflicts with reality, to profess... to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding.’ Conscious awareness lies in this section of our consciousness although not all the actions are conscious ones. The third area which - as we can see from the diagram, is by far the largest section, is the super-ego. This is the part that develops later and is the most mature part, being often critical or moral and can block or modify actions that the id would otherwise do. The super-ego, in Freud’s definition, acts as a kind of conscience and contains the influences that have been paramount in an individual’s growth. These could be from parents, teachers or role models of any kind. The super-ego is a more organised part of the mind reaching for ideals or spiritual goals and oversees the more instinctive drives, fantasies or actions. ‘The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehaviour with feelings of guilt. For example, for having extra-marital affairs.’ There is often a situation of conflict between the super-ego and the id as the former wishes to achieve appropriate social acceptance and distinguishes between right and wrong while the later seeks instant self-gratification.

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SAY how Freud’s theories influenced D.H. Lawrence’s Son and Lovers. One of Freud’s best known theories is known as the Oedipus complex, a sexual theory based on the Greek tragedy, where the main character unwittingly falls in love with his own mother following the prophecy that he will murder his father and have sex with his mother. Sexual repressed desire between a son and a mother is present in most boys according to Freud, and D.H. Lawrence uses Freud’s theory in Sons and Lovers as the basis of Paul’s relationship with his mother. In the novel Paul is obsessively devoted to his mother and fantasizes about his father’s death.

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DISCUSS the features of modernism in this painting by Pablo Picasso. Modernism expressed the desire to break with established forms and subjects and this picture by Picasso clearly shows the technique used by him and Georges Braque to separate objects and figures into geometrical basic shapes such as cubes, cylinders, spheres and cones. They would then typically break them into semigeometric fragments and reassemble them in order to give various points of view of the object. Here the fragmentation of the portrait gives a sharp, hard impression of the man being painted. It is typical of Modernism in its desire to make the viewer see the painted object differently.

HIGHLIGHT the differences between the traditional and the modern novel. Organise your knowledge in a table like the one below.

Main theme

Traditional novel Society and outward actions of the characters.

Modern novel Interest in man and the psyche.

Novelist’s task

He mediated between the character and the He destroyed the barriers between reader. the character and the reader.

Treatment of time

Chronological.

Subjective, inner.

Narrative technique

Omniscient narrator Well-structured plot.

Interior monologue, stream of consciousness technique, epiphany, shifting point of view.

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EXPLAIN Sigmund Freud’s theory of the human psyche. Use the image below for help. Student’s activity.

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Specification 14

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READ this short extract from E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India and answer the following questions.

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What attributes does Forster assign to India? India is personified and challenges the established values of Western civilisation by calling man with its mouths and awakening his desire. As a whole India is a transforming experience for the Western man because of its disinclination to make sharp distinctions or to give clear definitions and its attitude to blur boundaries. What themes did he develop in this vast physical and mental landscape? Forster developed more fully many of the themes of his earlier novels: the importance of personal relationships; the effects on human relationships of differences in race, culture and national temperament; the sanctity of the emotional life, the relationship between man and nature.

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POINT OUT the modern elements in Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness. Conrad chose exotic settings because they provided a context in which man’s conflicts stood out forcefully. His aim was to explore the meaning of the human situation. In his novels he broke free from the constraints of an omniscient narrator and did not follow the chronological time-sequence. He mainly dealt with individual responsibility and self-control.

DESCRIBE James Joyce’s use of the ‘epiphany’ and interior monologue. Joyce thought his function was to take the reader beyond the usual aspects of life and he employed a peculiar technique to reach his purpose, the ‘epiphany’, that is, ‘a sudden spiritual manifestation’ caused by a trivial gesture, an external object or a banal situation, which is used to lead the character to a sudden self-realisation about himself/herself or about the reality surrounding him/her. Thus understanding the epiphany in each story is often the key to the story itself. The episode described is apparently unimportant but essential to the life of the characters who become emblems of their sociohistorical setting. Joyce used the interior monologue as the verbal expression of the stream of consciousness. It is characterized by frequent lack of chronological order or formal logical order. The action takes place within the character’s

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mind so speech may be immediate, without introductory expressions. 8

EXPLAIN how Virginia Woolf’s technique differs from Joyce’s. As for James Joyce, also for Virginia Woolf subjective reality came to be identified with the technique called ’stream of consciousness’. However, differently from Joyce’s characters who show their thoughts directly through interior monologue, sometimes in an incoherent and syntactically unorthodox way, Woolf never lets her characters’ thoughts flow without control, and maintains logical and grammatical organisation. Her technique is based on the fusion of streams of thought into a third-person, past tense narrative. Thus she gives the impression of simultaneous connections between the inner and the outer world, the past and the recent, speech and silence. Similar to Joyce’s ‘epiphanies’ are Woolf’s ‘moments of being’, rare moments of insight during the characters’ daily life when they can see reality behind appearances. While Joyce was more interested in language experimentation and worked through the accumulation of details, Woolf’s use of words was almost poetic, allusive and emotional. Fluidity is the quality of the language which flows following the most intricate thoughts and stretches to express the most intimate feelings.

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DISCUSS the beliefs of the Bloomsbury Group. The Bloomsbury Group was a small, informal association of intellectuals and artists who lived and worked in the Bloomsbury area of central London, around the British Museum. Nearly all the male members of the group had been at Trinity or King’s College, Cambridge. In their separate fields, they challenged Victorian values, which were founded on an ideal of morality and respectability. They also questioned the conventional values of sexual and personal relationships. This is the reason why they were ostracised and ignored by the establishment they despised. They had no mission; they were not political in the ordinary sense of the word. Instead, they held dinners and gatherings where any number of topics was the subject of serious discussion and contemplation. By no means were all members in full agreement on all subjects. Some of the Bloomsbury group’s most stimulating ideas and writings were borne out of internal disagreement and struggle.

LESSON PLAN 15 From Boom to Bust This is just a suggestion of how to use Performer culture & literature Volume 3. Specification 15 deals with the USA in the first decades of the 20th century, the Lost Generation of American writers, the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance. The cultural issue is about fighting poverty and hunger. The development of this Specification ideally covers 12 lessons depending on the class and the level of the students.

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15.3 Literature Teachers introduce Francis Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. The presentation of Francis Scott Fitzgerald in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Further development: Text Bank 109-111 15.3 Literature Students analyse the extract Nick meets Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. Further development: Text Bank 112

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15.4 Two Films About... The Lost Generation.

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15.5 The Arts Students study Edward Hopper and the poetry of silence. They practice the Terza prova – Type B on page 494 at home. 15.6 Music Students practice IELTS Listening – Section 2 while studying Blues and Jazz.

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15.7 Mapping Culture Teachers introduce Harlem: the Black Mecca showing the map (Interactive Map 16 in the CD-ROM) and the places mentioned. 15. 8 Literature Teachers explain Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes’s life. The presentation of Langston Hughes in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work.

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15.8 Literature Students read and analyse The Weary Blues. They practice the Terza prova – Type B on page 499 at home. Further development: Text Bank 113

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15.9 History Students are introduced to the Great Depression of the 1930s in the USA through IELTS Academic Reading. They also practise IELTS Academic Writing – Task 1 doing the exercise on page 501 at home.

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The presentation of From boom to Bust in PowerPoint can be employed either as a support to the introduction of the period or as a summing up at the end of the specification. 15.2 Literature Students learn about a new generation of American writers.

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LESSONS CULTURE & LITERATURE From Boom to Bust 1 15.1 History Students are introduced to the USA in the first decades of the 20th century through Q&A and Milestones linked to 1929 with the Wall Street Crash. Students are also given an insight into the history of Wall Street.

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15.9 History Internet lab Students carry out research about the American Social Realist photographers. This activity can be completed at home. Further activity: Dictation: The Height of Fashion – The Chrysler Building 15.10 Literature Teachers explain John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and students do the activities of the Esame di Stato – Seconda Prova about the text No work. No Money. No food from The Grapes of Wrath. Task 4 on 506 can be completed at home. Further activity: Art Lab 26 15.10 Literature Students research further information about John Steinbeck doing the activities 5-6 on page 506 Esame di Stato – Prova Orale, Part 1. This task can be completed at home. 15.11 Comparing Literatures The section provides a comparison between Steinbeck and Pavese. 15.12 Cultural Issues Students discuss the issue about poverty and hunger and read the text Christmas Dinner from Angela’s Ashes by F. McCourt. They also practice IELTS Speaking - Part 2. Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 2 on page 512 can be either used as a ‘recupero in itinere’ in the classroom or as homework.

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Specification 15

From Boom to Bust

Teaching tip The presentation From Boom to Bust in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the period.

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MATCH these key terms about this historical period to the correct definition. Then link each term to a picture (1-7) 1 C (4); 2 E (7); 3 G (5); 4 D (6); 5 F (1); 6 B (2); 7 A (3).

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READ the Q & A text. Students’ activity.

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IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Students’ activity.

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READ the text and write a heading to each paragraph in the spaces provided. Suggestions: 1 Old influences swept away 2 Different attitudes to the Jazz Age 3 The Lost Generation in Paris 4 Experimentation in poetry 5 The Harlem Renaissance 6 The mood of the 1930s and 1940s

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COMPLETE the following activities about this period in American literature.

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Describe the mood of the Jazz Age. It was an age full of excitement and contradictions due to the radical changes in the way people behaved and thought. The new manners were a reaction against the strict Puritan morality of the previous century. They were especially evident among young people, with their roaring cars and the new daring dances like the Charleston. In spite of Prohibition, parties and cocktails became smart and fashionable, and women began to wear their hair and dresses short. Explain why the writers who emigrated to Europe were called the ‘Lost Generation’. They were aware of the moral desert hiding behind the glamour of the Jazz Age and they attacked its hedonism. Moreover, too many young men had gone to war and died, so they had ‘lost’ their faith in the moral ideals that had earlier given them hope. Point out the contributions to the modernisation of American literature as regards style. Poets wrote in free verse, abandoning conventional verse forms, experimenting in syntax, punctuation and typography. Some of them used the rhythms of everyday speech. Dos Passos drew inspiration from the cinema, advertising, newspaper

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 190.

15.2 Literature

A new generation of American writers

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Text Bank 109: Robert Frost, The road not taken from mountain intervals Teacher’s Key on page 337.

Text Bank 110: Carl Sandburg, Chicago from Chicago poems Teacher’s Key on page 338.

Text Bank 111: John Dos Passos, The man through the crowd from U.S.A. Teacher’s Key on page 340.

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DISCUSS. What does the phrase ‘Lost

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The USA in the first decades of the 20th century

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Generation’ make you think of? What do you think was ‘lost’? This discussion should make students aware of the relationship between the generation of the Twenties and the previous generation. The watershed had been World War I. The word ‘lost’ should be discussed in terms of certainties and values that had been ‘lost’.

15.1 History

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headlines and popular songs to recreate the atmosphere of the nation during the period between the wars. Explain how black artists contributed to the development of an American literary identity. Their contribution was especially linked to black music, blues and jazz in particular, which represented the rebellion against the conventions of the past in favour of a new scale of values. Say what mood characterised the literature of the 1930s and 1940s. Resentful, bitter pessimism and a new feeling of political responsibility.

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REVISE your knowledge about The Great Gatsby by answering the following questions.

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How does the character of Gatsby develop throughout the story? In 1917 Jay Gatsby fell in love with Daisy, a beautiful but superficial young woman who eventually married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy, brutal man. Jay then rented a magnificent mansion on the fashionable shore of Long Island, where he gave fabulous, wild parties, open to everybody, in the hope to see Daisy turn up one day. He is presented as a mysterious character, since he seldom takes part in the parties he organises. Rich and attractive, he has the stature of a romantic hero who dies for his dream; but he also embodies the self-made man who tries to recreate the past through the power of money and is finally destroyed. What is his relationship with Daisy? Thanks to Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbour and Daisy’s cousin, Daisy and Jay meet again and have an affair. One day Daisy has a fight with her husband and, while driving back to Gatsby’s house, she runs over Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson. She does not stop, and Gatsby hides the car. Myrtle’s husband finds out that the car which killed his wife is Gatsby’s. Gatsby does not protest his innocence because he wants to defend Daisy, but she deserts him and reconciles with her husband. How is American life described in the novel? The Great Gatsby contains many enlightening descriptions and criticisms of American life in the Jazz Age. The ‘American-ness’ of the novel is emphasised by such themes as the move from West to East; the confrontation between the romantic ideals of courage, honour and beauty and the corrupted world of greed and money; the relationship of Gatsby’s material achievements to the myth of going from ‘rags to riches’; the tremendous growth of the car industry; the corrupting effects of Prohibition; the poverty of spiritual life in America during its most hedonistic decade. What is the role of Nick Carraway? Nick Carraway is both observer and participant in the novel. He is the only character in the novel to show and hold onto a sense of morals and decency. Nick can be seen to represent the outsider that Fitzgerald felt himself to be. What is Fitzgerald’s narrative technique? Nick Carraway is the narrator from whose point of

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 190.

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Specification 15

15.3 Literature

Francis Scott Fitzgerald: the writer of the Jazz Age

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Teaching tip The presentation F.S. Fitzgerald in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 112: Francis Scott Fitzgerald, boats against the current from The Great Gatsby Teacher’s Key on page 342.

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FILL IN the table with details about Fitzgerald’s life.

Education

Married life Themes of his works

Reputation

Death

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Catholic boarding school in New Jersey; Princeton University. With his wife Zelda, he led a life of luxury and excess. The cult of money and materialism; hedonism, corruption, the loss of ideals; the failure of the American Dream. His first works were very successful. His popularity declined after the publication of The Great Gatsby. He had to write film scripts to pay debts. He was an alcoholic, he died of a heart attack.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby (1925) Chapter III

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DISCUSS in pairs. How do you feel/act at a party if you don’t know most of the people there? What do you do if you’ve never met the host? Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the text and point out: the setting in time and place, the people involved, the main situation. The setting is evening (line 1) and night (line 28, 31, 65, 69) at a party at Gatsby’s house and garden (line 30). The people involved are the guests at the party among whom there are: • Nick Carraway, the narrator • a number of young Englishmen (lines 3-4) • solid and prosperous Americans (line 5) • Jordan Baker (line 12) • two girls in twin yellow dresses (line 22), one of them is called Lucille (line 35) • three men introduced as Mr Mumble (lines 31-32) Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

old men and young girls (line 61) superior couples (line 62) single girls (line 63) a celebrated tenor (line 65) a notorious contralto (line 66) a man about Nick’s age (line 72), who turns out to be Gatsby himself (line 92) • a rowdy little girl (line 73) • a butler (line 104) The main situation is the gathering of any sort of people, most of whom are uninvited, at Gatsby’s party. These people drink and dance and have fun. The group of people around the narrator gossip about Gatsby’s mysterious past.

ANALYSIS 3 FOCUS on Nick’s character and make notes about his appearance and his feelings. How does he compare to the other people at the party? We are given few details about Nick’s appearance. Fitzgerald tells us how he was dressed – ‘dressed up in white flannels’ (line 1) – and insists on his sensations and feelings. At the beginning of the party he does not feel at ease because he does not know anybody (lines 1-2) and is struck by wealthy businessman talking about bonds and insurance (lines 3-6), he feels purposeless and alone (line 11), he is embarrassed (line 12), he feels he has to attach himself to someone (line 15), he feels unnatural (line 17). Later on he begins to relax and enjoy himself (lines 73-74) especially because he has been drinking champagne (line 74) but he is again struck by embarrassment when he fails to recognize Gatsby (lines 90-93). Nick is obviously an outsider, he does not belong to the vacuous world surrounding Gatsby and feels displaced. The reader also perceives a core of honesty and moral firmness in Nick. 4

GATHER information about Jordan Baker and say what impression you get of her character. She looks at the people around her in a contemptuous way (lines 13-14), she responds to Nick’s address absently and holds his hand impersonally (lines 19-21), she is a golf player but has lost the latest tournament (lines 23-24), her arm is slender and golden (line 29), she seems interested in gossip (line 47).

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Nick meets Gatsby

• • • • • •

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view all the events and characters of the story are presented. Nick is a retrospective narrator who, after going through an experience, looks back on it with a better understanding. Fitzgerald rejects chronological order and uses the fragmentation of time and frequent flashbacks to represent the inner world of his characters and the way knowledge is normally acquired in real life. What are the most important symbols in the novel? The most important symbols in the novel are: the car, which stands for the destructive power of modern society and money; ‘the valley of ashes’, a stretch of land full of rubbish, waste and ashes, lying between the city and the suburb where Gatsby lives. They stand for the emotional and spiritual sterility which is a counterpart to the bright lights of the modern metropolis. Gatsby’s house is at the same time real and symbolic: carefully described in its various rooms and acres of garden, it celebrates Gatsby’s luck and success during the parties, but embodies his melancholy and loneliness when it is empty.

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Specification 15

EXPLAIN how Gatsby is introduced throughout the text. What sort of man is he? What does Nick think of him? Gatsby is introduced in an indirect way through Nick’s gradual gathering of information about him. First of all through Nick’s acquaintance with his house: when he steps onto the vast lawn of Gatsby’s, he enters his world (line 1). He finds that most of the people do not know Gatsby and even spread rumours about him. In this way Fitzgerald creates a halo of mystery and romanticism around Gatsby’s figure (lines 5960). Nick is told that Gatsby is a German spy (lines 50-51) and that he has even killed a man (lines 46-48). Nick finally meets Gatsby who introduces himself and invites Nick to hydroplane with him. It is important to point out the insistence on Gatsby’s way of speaking and his smile: his speech is absurdly formal and his smile is rare in its self-assurance (lines 95100). The narrator also hints at Gatsby’s age almost thirty – and at his elegance (lines 72, 101). The reader gets the impression that Gatsby has created his own identity from personal romanticism based on social common practices. In other words, he has created a role for himself and the role has replaced the self. Gatsby’s smile symbolises the basic quality of the Gatsby’s dream and the romanticism of the American Dream itself.

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FIND references to the moon and say what it symbolises. Lines 28, 69. The moon seems artificially placed by a caterer’s as a decoration for the party. Traditionally a Romantic symbol of imagination, it is here reduced to a parody of its dreamlike quality.

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DESCRIBE the topics of conversation and the type of behaviour at Gatsby’s party that convey the mood of the society of the 1920s in America (I15.1).

Topics Bonds, insurance, automobiles, (line 6). Easy money (line 6). Knowledge of the host’s movements (line 10). The golf tournament (lines 23-24). Evening gown with lavender beads (that cost two hundred and sixty-five dollars) (line 42). Whispered rumours about Gatsby (lines 43-60). Gatsby’s hydroplane (line 81).

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Gatsby’s party appears as a great festival. The people act as if they were at an amusement park and lounge here and there without even meeting the host. There are buffets and many drinks floating through the party. The image of alcohol proliferating through the crowd is given. Guests that have met before do not even remember each other and the attitude of impersonality is dominant. There is laughter without amusement, enthusiasm between strangers. The effect is that of a gigantic and somehow absurd theatrical performance of ‘the good life’ which will be replaced by the cold reality of the following Monday.

YOUR TURN 8 DISCUSS in what sense The Great Gatsby can be regarded as the quintessential novel of the ‘Jazz Age’. The book is clearly a highly emotional and evocative criticism of the Jazz Age with its superficial gaiety, its exaggerated use of extravagance in food and alcohol as well as the fast cars, expensive brightly coloured clothes and emphasis on partying and posing. Fitzgerald clearly agreed with the definition of the Jazz Age as meaning a period where music and dancing and supposed partying were hiding the reality of a desperate time. Just as Jazz music appeared all joyous but was born out of negro suffering and hid the real situation blacks found themselves in. Fitzgerald’s attitude is seen in frequent scenes in the book as in his description of Gatsby’s party as a social occasion where the guests barely knew one another: The characters do not seem like real people but as actors in a stage production where everyone is playing a role. The only characters who seem real are Nick and Gatsby himself, who appears surprisingly vulnerable in spite of all the money and trappings of wealth and his obvious Behaviour Talking in low voices (lines 4-5). Stare in amazed way (line 9). Get roaring drunk (line 12). Sauntered about the garden (line 30). Gossip (lines 43-60). Dancing, doing ‘stunts’ and drinking (lines 63-69).

LOOK at the paintings and do the activities.

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In Gas, Hopper represented one of the many gas stations he had studied during his trips around the United States, but he gave it a light which is only apparently realistic. A Focus on the man in the picture. Is he consistent with the place? What is strange about him? Unlike the attire of most station attendants, the one in Hopper’s Gas is not wearing mechanic’s overalls or any of the usual clothing normally associated with this type of work. Instead he is dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt, tie and vest, and his activity is mysteriously hidden. B Where does the light come from in the picture? How does it affect the representation? The small spire of the illuminated station makes it look more like a church than a petrol pump and the attendant more like a priest conducting a ritual. The light can be compared to the dark wall of the trees in the wood. C What is the role of the road? What contrast does it define? The empty country road is the real protagonist of the painting. It creates a sharp contrast between commercial development and nature. It lies between the lush forest and the glaring artificial light coming from inside the gas station. One of the best-known images of 20th-century art, Nighthawks, was inspired by a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet, but it has a timeless quality that transcends its particular locale. A How many people are represented? Describe their pose. On which figure does the picture pivot? There are four people. Three of them are sitting at the counter of the snackbar while the fourth is working behind it. The picture pivots on the man with his back towards the viewer, solitary, closed in his own silence. B What encloses the snackbar? The sheet glass of the window. C Light plays an essential role in Hopper’s paintings. Define its exact nature, source, direction and colour in Nighthawks. What function does light fulfil? The snackbar is the main source of light, spilling on to the pavement. Strong light falls on the interior and its four occupants, separating them from the outside world; outside, the subdued light of an unseen lamp shows dark, empty stores. Light defines and models forms.

15.4 Two Films About…

The Lost Generation

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DISCUSS in pairs. Would you like to travel back in time? If so, what age in history or literature would you like to travel back to? Students’ activity. Video Lab 35: The great Gatsby Photocopiable Lesson on page 271. Teacher’s Key on page 294.

Video Lab 36: Midnight in Paris Photocopiable Lesson on page 273. Teacher’s Key on page 295.

15.5 The Arts

Edward Hopper and the poetry of silence

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READ about Edward Hopper above and fill in the table.

Education

New York School of Illustrating and the New York School of Art where he worked under Robert Henri (18691929), one of the fathers of American Realism. He also went to study in Paris.

Themes of his paintings

The bareness and vastness of America; American traditional aspects, such as lighthouses and landscapes; sometimes the city, New York in particular, was his context, showing deserted streets at night; monotony and loneliness.

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attempt to appear to be someone he isn’t. Gatsby seems to have achieved the American Dream in his wealth and life style, but in reality he leads a sad lonely existence in which the only thing he really desires is forever out of his reach.

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D Nighthawks is the clearest example of a more complex kind of design employed by Hopper, the ‘wedge design’. A wedge is a piece of wood, plastic or metal which has one pointed edge and one thick edge. Identify it in the picture. Then say where it thrusts from and what meets it. In the painting the strong wedge of the snackbar, thrusting from right to left, is countered by the solid row of buildings at right angles to it. Here the moving wedge is met by a static mass. E Do the individuals appear just as parts of the whole scene or in leading roles? What condition do they symbolise? The individuals appear as parts of the whole scene rather than in leading roles. They seem isolated in the wide impersonality of the city; they seem to represent the lonely lives of so many city dwellers, the solitude that can be experienced most intensely among millions. ESAME DI STATO

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or half-dressed. The woman is often before a window, looking out, the intimacy of her nakedness contrasting with the impersonal city outside. Many of the city interiors are seen through windows, from the point of view of a spectator looking in at the unconscious actors and their setting. Exam Reference pag. 611 Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 191.

15.6 Music

Blues and jazz

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LOOK UP the colloquial meaning of the adjective ‘blue’. What do you think a song bearing that name might be about? ‘Blue’ means depressed, moody, or unhappy. Open answer.

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DISCUSS. To ‘jazz something up’ means to make it livelier or more cheerful. What might the use of the term ‘jazz’ imply about changes in music at this time? Open answer. Teachers can remind students of the ‘Jazz Age’ as an age full of excitement and contradiction. The new manners were a reaction against the Puritan morality of the previous century. It was a time of experimentation and discovery even in music.

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2.8 LISTEN to the brief recordings of different musical styles and match each to one of the categories below.

Terza prova

TYPE B. Write a paragraph about Hopper’s paintings of modern America and its inhabitants and the moods he wanted to convey. Write ten to twelve lines. Student’s activity. Suggestion: Hopper was one of the first representational painters to realise the pictorial possibilities of the contemporary American city and all the kinds of visual material it presents: its heavy masses of concrete; the individual forms of buildings, the effect of light on them; the omnipresence of glass, and the phenomena of light seen through windows; night in the city with its multitude of lights and its shadows. However, he was not interested in the dynamism of the city, his viewpoint was more intimate, so his city was monumental and immobile. There are never crowds in his pictures, he chooses the hours when there are few or no people around to convey the monotony and loneliness of the city. Yet his final emotion is affirmative: clear morning sunlight, stillness, and a sense of solitude that is serene. In many of Hopper’s urban subjects, individual men and women appear, but as parts of the whole scene rather than in leading roles. The closest human intimacy is reached in his scenes of women in city interiors, nude

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A 4; B 1; C 3; D 2. 4 different musical pieces to represent: the blues (singer), jazz (soloist), african (including drums), european (classical piece) IELTS

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Listening - Section 2

2.9 MONOLOGUE. You are going to hear an expert talking about American Music. Before you listen to the audio, read through the questions below; then try to answer them while you listen.

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Part 3 Short answer question Answer the following questions (8-10) after listening to the complete text. 8 What was enacted in 1894? In 1894 a racial segregation law was enacted in New Orleans. 9 What was specific to New Orleans? The mixing of the Creole and black subcultures. (The Creoles were free, French and Spanish speaking Blacks, originally from the West Indies. They rose to the highest levels of New Orleans society during the 19th century and had formal knowledge of European music, precise technique and soft delicate tone). 10 What kind of freedom was essential to produce jazz? The freedom of individual expression supported by group interaction. (They came from the multiplicity of ethnic, cultural and musical conditions and the necessary philosophical impetus). TRANSCRIPT The Blues The Blues is an American musical and verse form. Its roots were in various forms of African American slave songs such as work songs and spirituals. The Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Jazz Tracing the origins of Jazz in the formative years (1895-1917) is not easy. Even the geographic location of the earliest Jazz experiments have been the subject much controversy because the forms of black music from which Jazz was formed were known in dozens of cities in the United States. Why then was New Orleans chosen as the birthplace of Jazz? This was due to the mixing of the Creole and black subcultures. The Creoles were free, French and Spanish speaking Blacks, originally from the West Indies. They rose to the highest levels of New Orleans society during the 19th century and had formal knowledge of European music, precise technique and soft delicate tone. Their social and cultural values were those of the upper class. In sharp contrast were the newly freed blacks who were

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Part 2 Sentence completion Listen to part 2. You are going to hear about American jazz. Complete the sentences (4-7) with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS in each gap. New Orleans was considered to be the birthplace of jazz because of the mixture of Creole and black subcultures. The Creole community spoke French and Spanish and became an important part of New Orleans upper class/society although they had originally come from the West Indies. Jazz began when the upper-class, educated Creole community, with their sophisticated knowledge of European music, moved into the black section of New Orleans. The conditions needed to produce Jazz were the mixture of ethnic, cultural and musical conditions that were only to be found in the United States.

Blues reflected the sadness and the tribulations of the Afro-Americans on a secular level, as opposed to the religious Gospel songs. The Blues was the philosophical expression of the individual contemplating his situation in relation to the conditions surrounding him. The most charming peculiarity of the Blues was its individual character which made it unique, and, at the same time, the universality of its content that could be understood by everybody and was thus collective. Though composed under the pressure of improvisation, the Blues has a rigid pattern which demands simple diction, repetition and an elementary rhyme scheme; it is arranged into three lines of verse, the second line repeating the first, and the third rhyming with the first two. As the African American community that created the Blues began moving away from the South to escape systematic racial prejudice, Blues music evolved to reflect new circumstances. The thousands of African American farm workers who migrated north to cities like Chicago and Detroit during both World Wars wanted to hear music that reflected their new urban surroundings. In response, transplanted Blues artists such as Muddy Waters, who had lived and worked on a Mississippi plantation before moving to Chicago in 1943, replaced acoustic guitars with electric ones and expanded their sound with drums, harmonica, and standup bass. This gave rise to an electrified Blues sound with an emotional beat that drove people onto the dance floor and paved the way to Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Part 1 Multiple choice Listen to part 1. You are going to hear about the blues. Choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D to complete the sentences (1-3) 1 D; 2 A; 3 B.

poor and uneducated. They knew the Blues, Gospel music, and work songs which they sang or played mostly by ear. Memorization and improvisation characterized their bands; whereas reading music and correct performance were characteristic of Creole bands. In 1894 a racial segregation law was enacted in New Orleans, forcing the Creoles to live in the black section of the town. The combination of their musical techniques marked the beginning of Jazz and was specific to New Orleans. The multiplicity of ethnic, cultural and musical conditions needed to produce Jazz was unique to the United States and the necessary philosophical impetus for Jazz became freedom of individual expression supported by group interaction.

The Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 15

Teaching tip The presentation Langston Huges in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the autho

15.7 Mapping Culture

Text Bank 113: Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers from The Weary Blues Teacher’s Key on page 344.

Harlem: The ‘Black Mecca’

Interactive Map 16

1

DISCUSS. What places are important in the life of a community trying to find its own cultural voice? Class Discussion. Suggestions: schools, libraries, theatres, clubs, churches, community centres.

2

READ the text and underline the places mentioned. Then locate them on the map. Student’s activity.

1

2

ANSWER the following questions about the text. When was Harlem founded and how did its inhabitants change in the 20th century? It was founded by the Dutch in 1658. It had a large Jewish population until 1910, when massive African-American migration started. Why was Harlem famous in the 1920s? It was famous for the Harlem Renaissance and for its entertainment spots, such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. Many of the country’s best and brightest black artists, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals had situated themselves in Harlem.

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What did its entertainment spots have in common? Musical entertainment (even in religious sites) performed by African-American musicians and singers. Moreover, by attending clubs in Harlem, the whites could indulge in two taboos simultaneously: to drink, as well as mix with blacks.

15.8 Literature

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 192.

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1

READ this quotation by Langston Hughes and say what he associates Negro life and the white world with. Negro life: the tom-tom of revolt, of joy and laughter, of pain swallowed in a smile. The white world: weariness, subway trains, work, work, work.

2

READ the text below about the Harlem Renaissance and answer the questions.

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When did the Harlem Renaissance begin and end? It began in Harlem after World War I and ended around 1935. What did its intellectuals praise? The heritage of the African Americans. What did it help to shape? African-American literary expression and the psychology of the ‘New Negro’, characterized as self-assertive, racially conscious and articulate. What themes did it analyse? Alienation and marginalisation. How did the Great Depression affect AfroAmericans? It increased the racial tension in Harlem which led to the Harlem Riot of 1935 and to the end of the notion of the city as the Afro-American ‘Mecca’.

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READ the text about Langston Hughes and make notes under the following headings:

•

•

• •

Education His mother and grandmother told him stories of slavery; his teachers in high school encouraged him to read; he began to write verse. In the 1920s he received a scholarship and entered Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1929. Job experience He went to sea as a mess boy aboard a trading freight ship bound for Africa. He then went to Europe and lived in Paris, where he worked as a cook and a waiter. Back in the United States, he accepted a job as a busboy, clearing away dishes at the Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. Main works Collections of short stories: The Ways of White Folks, 1934; Laughing to Keep from Crying, 1952; a novel Not Without Laughter, 1930. A two-volume autobiography: The Big Sea, 1940. A play: Mulatto, 1935.Collections of poems: The Weary Blues, 1925; Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927. Reputation One of the most prolific American writers of the 20th century, internationally known as a poet, but who expressed himself in a variety of literary forms. Death In 1967.

4

REVISE your knowledge about Langston Hughes by answering the following questions.

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What did Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman have in common? Both poets wrote their poems in a nontraditional way: they broke down the rigid distinction between poetry and prose. Both were free in the choice of their subjects and wrote about matters traditionally thought unsuitable for poetry. Both believed in the ‘American Dream’. They both felt they were performing a function beyond mere entertainment and intended to change the world through it. This is why they chose to speak through a mask, an ‘I’, that was not individual, but collective. How did the two poets differ? Hughes did not merge with the external world in general, but with his ethnic group, becoming the poet of the black masses. What concepts and subject matter did Hughes choose to deal with in his poetry? He dealt with the roots of blackness, its conflicts and contradictions, drawing from the folk tradition of the people: the spiritual as it was born in the South, and its modification into the blues under the influence of urban life. What did he regard as a paradigm of the black experience? Why? Jazz music. It was dynamic music which, with its free and easy construction, its invitation to joy and the uninhibited movements of the body represented rebellion in a puritanical society, the vision of an alternative way of life.

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What did Harlem represent in Hughes’s poetry? It summed up all his themes: temple of jazz, refuge of the black masses fleeing the South, living incarnation of the great dream of freedom and equality in which the poet never ceased to believe. How did he face the question of racial identity? He first looked to Africa, which became a symbol of lost roots, of a distant past that could not be retrieved, a myth which led the poet to an evaluation of his American roots. Then he exalted the colour of his skin as beautiful.

The Weary Blues Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926)

1

LOOK up the word ‘weary’ in the dictionary and write down its meaning. Then gather information about the blues (I15.6) as a black musical style. weary= very tired, especially after working hard for a long time. Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the poem and make notes about: 1

2 3

the setting in time and place; night (lines 4, 31), the dawn (32); Down on Lenox Avenue (line 4): it is a nightclub on one of the most famous streets in Harlem. the main character; a black man (line 3). what he is doing; he is playing the piano and singing the blues.

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•

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

3

4 5

what his song is about; it’s about his troubles and his solitude (lines 13, 17, 19-22; 23-30). the effect his song has on him; relief (lines 21-22).

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 15

ANALYSIS 3 FOCUS on the use of: 1) rhyme; 2) repetition; 3) alliteration; 4) onomatopoeia. Provide examples from the text. 1)The lines rhyme (AABCCBB, DEEDFFD) but they do not follow a regular pattern. 2) Lines: ‘He did a lazy sway’ 6-7; Weary Blues/ Blues 8, 11, 14; 16, 25, 27, 34; ‘Ain’t got nobody’ 19-20; ‘thump’ 23; ‘I got the Weary Blues and I cant’ be satisfied’ 25-28. 3)‘d’ (line 1); ‘p’ (lines 5, 10); ‘m’ (line 10); ‘s’ (line 12); ‘l’ (line 22). 4)‘sway’ (line 6); ‘thump’ (line 23). 4

TICK as appropriate. The poem is: a poetic transcription of the blues form. a description of the mood characterising the blues.

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FILL IN the table with the objects around the singer and the adjectives referring to them.

Objects Gas light (line 5)

Adjectives Pale dull, old (line 5)

Key (line 9) Piano (lines 10, 18)

Ivory (line 9) Poor (line 10) old (line 18)

Stool (line 12) Shelf (line 22) Bed (line 33)

Rickety (line 12)

How is the setting connoted? It is old and bare; it reflects the singer’s melancholy and weariness.

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FIND examples of the use of contrast in the poem. Ebony hands / ivory key (line 9); moan / melody (line 10); weary blues / sweet blues (lines 8, 14).

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POINT OUT the linguistic techniques used by Hughes to mimic black speech. Use of slang (Ain’t, I’s gwine to); omission of the subject, elision (lines 21, 29).

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FOCUS ON the figure of the black singer. Underline the words and phrases referring to his actions (lines 1-2; 4; 6-7; 10; 12; 18; 23-24; 31; 34; 35) and say what their common feature is. Monotony. How would you define his mood? He is tired and desperate but he has a reserve of strength which is felt in the ‘thump’ of his foot.

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EXPLAIN in what sense singing the blues is a cathartic experience. The turbulence of the singer’s emotions is released in the song. He expresses his weariness in the blues and finds the strength to go on living.

ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova

10 TYPE B. Think of the works of other American poets you have studied and say if any of them influenced Hughes’s poetry. Give reasons for your answer (10-12 lines). Students should point out similarities with Whitman’s work. Exam Reference pag. 611

15.9 History

The Great Depression of the 1930s in the USA

IELTS

1

Academic Reading

READ the passage about the Great Depression and answer questions 1-13. The passage has SIX paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct heading(i-viii) for each paragraphs from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-viii, in the spaces below.

List of headings A iii; B v; C i; D ii; E vii; F vi. The extra headings are iv and viii. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D, to complete the sentences (7-9) 7 C; 8 B; 9 A. Complete sentences 10-13 with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. 10 The fundamental problem concerning technological industries was that they were limited in their expansion by the fact that people could not buy too many luxury goods.

IELTS

2

Academic Writing - Task 1

DESCRIPTION. The graph to the right shows the percentage of the rate of unemployment in the US between 1929 and 1939. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where necessary. Write at least 150 words. Sample answer: The first statistic that clearly shows the decline of the economy into depression is the unemployment rate. As the graph indicates, the economy descended from essentially full employment in 1929, when the unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, into massive unemployment in 1933, when the unemployment rate reached 25 percent. The situation continued to deteriorate through the bleak winter of 1932-33, when well over a quarter of all workers were unable to find jobs. The New Deal helped to reduce unemployment from 1933 through to 1937, when another economic recession briefly caused a resurgence in joblessness. Full employment did not return until the war years of the early 1940s. The first question is: why was there such high unemployment in 1933? The answer is that the economy stopped producing as much output as it was capable of producing with full employment of the labour force because there was no market for that quantity of goods. 2.11 dictation: The height of fashion – The Chrysler building, Teacher’s Key on page 193.

Internet Lab 3

LOOK at the photographs and describe the people’s faces. Think about the emotions

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BROWSE these websites and carry out a research project on the American Social Realist photographers whose pictures are shown above. Then present your findings to the rest of the class. Student’s activity. Suggestion: Walker Evans (1903-1975) is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. His elegant, crystal-clear photographs and publications have inspired several generations of artists. He had the extraordinary ability to see the present as if it were already the past and to translate that knowledge and historically inflected vision into an enduring art. His main subject was the indigenous expressions of people found in roadside stands, cheap cafés, advertisements, simple bedrooms and small-town main streets. Most of Evans’s early photographs reveal the influence of European modernism but he gradually developed his own evocative realism. The Depression years of 1935–36 were ones of remarkable productivity for Evans. In 1935 he accepted a job from the U.S. Department of the Interior to photograph a government-built resettlement community of unemployed coal miners in West Virginia. Photographers, like Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, among others, were assigned to document small-town life in order to demonstrate how the Federal Government was attempting to improve life for the rural communities during the Depression. Evans, however, worked with little concern for the ideological agenda or the suggested itineraries and instead answered a personal need to get the essential meaning of American life from the simple and the ordinary. His photographs of roadside architecture, rural churches and cemeteries reveal a deep respect for the neglected traditions of the common man and secured his reputation as America’s most successful documentarian. In 1938 the Museum of Modern Art opened American Photographs, a retrospective of Evans’s first decade of photography. Between 1938 and 1941, Evans produced a remarkable

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Specification 15

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 193.

they express. What do you think the artists wanted to convey? Student’s activity.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

11 Industrial production fell because people stopped buying things on credit. 12 Foreign countries gave up importing American products because the US imposed higher trade taxes to protect the national economy. 13 The Fed was devised to prevent sudden widespread alarm concerning finance and decreased business activity.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 15

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series of portraits in the New York City subway. In 1941, Evans’s photographs were published in the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men with a text by the American writer James Agee. Between 1934 and 1965, Evans contributed to 45 articles published in Fortune magazine with more than 400 photographs.

‘Migrant Mother’, 1936 This is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. The images were made using a Graflex camera.

‘Floyd Burroughs and his children’ – Tengle, Alabama, 1936 From Let Us Now Praise Famous Men This study of a cotton farmer is one of the masterpieces of Evans’s landmark collaboration for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Evans spent several weeks with three tenant farmers and their families, observing their lifestyles and studying their daily activities. His honest images of the faces, bedrooms and clothing of individual farmers living on a dry Alabama hillside lead the reader/viewer on a journey to the limits of direct observation. Evans’s photographs seem to have represented the whole tragedy of the Great Depression.

Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) She was an American photographer best known as the first foreign photographer allowed to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent and the first female photographer for Life magazine, where one of her photographs appeared on the first cover.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was a famous American documentary photographer, best known for her Depression work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). She was educated in photography at Columbia University in New York. During the Great Depression she decided to look for subjects outside her studio in the streets and started to deal with the problem of the migration of agricultural workers. One of her most famous photographs is Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (1936; Washington, DC, Lib. Congr.), which depicts an anxious, distracted mother and three children. In 1939 she published An American Exodus, which dealt with the same social problems. In 1941 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and this allowed her to take a series of photographs of religious groups in the USA, such as those of the Amish people. In 1942 she worked for the War Relocation Authority and from 1943 to 1945 for the Office of War Information in San Francisco. She also worked in Egypt and the Middle East in 1962–3, producing such photographs as Procession Bearing Food to the Dead, Upper Egypt in the detached, documentary style that characterizes all her work. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

‘Bread line during the Louisville flood’, 1937 This photograph was taken in Louisville, Kentucky and was published in Time magazine. A million people were left homeless after the Ohio River flooded in 1937, a period that unhappily coincided with the Great Depression. This photograph shows a line of homeless African-Americans in a food line. Behind them there is a billboard saying, ‘World’s Highest Standard Of Living’ and, ‘There’s no way like the American Way’. While the family in the background is happy and the colours are light and bright, the line of African-Americans has a darker and sadder tone of colour. One African-American man is looking at the billboard. After looking at the billboard, the viewer’s eyes drop down to the line of African-Americans below and the power of the photograph lies in the dramatic contrast between the two images and what this implies about the inconsistencies of the American dream.

15.10 Literature

John Steinbeck: writing about the Great Depression 1

READ the definitions of ‘grapes’ and ‘wrath’ and discuss in pairs how they could be connected to the Great Depression.

4

5 Teaching tip Apart from the obvious connection of grapesharvest, wrath-anger, it would be interesting to remind the students that the title is a quote from the famous American patriotic song The Battle Hymn of the Republic written in 1862 at the time of the American Civil War: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. This in its turn is a reference to the Judgement Day when God’s anger is shown against injustice.

AS YOU READ the text about The Grapes of Wrath, make notes about the following:

1

who the novel talks about; It deals with the Joad family, who lose their tenant farm in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma. what the grapes symbolise; The grapes symbolise the promised land of California, which turns out to be very different from the expected land of opportunity. So the grapes of hope turn into the grapes of wrath, or anger. Steinbeck’s description of facts; He describes the harsh realities of the Depression through an imaginative reconstruction and shows how the endless accumulation of suffering changes the Joads’ initial bewilderment to discontent, from discontent to hopelessness and from hopelessness to rage.

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Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 193.

No Work. No Money. No Food. John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath (1939) Chapter 29

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DISCUSS. Have you ever really felt hungry? What do you think you would do if you did not have any food or any means of getting some? Class discussion.

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

2

ANSWER the following questions.

1

How did the weather change? The gray clouds marched in from the ocean, the wind blew fiercely (lines 1-2) and when it stopped it began to rain (line 5).

Explain how the rain affected the environment.

Effects of the rain Reactions of the earth • The rain began…steady beat • Sucked the moisture and blackened (lines 5-7) (line 8) • Puddles formed (line 9) • Drank the rain (line 9) • Little lakes formed (line 10) • Mountains were full (line 11) • The muddy lakes rose higher (line10) • Hillsides spilled into...valleys • The streams and the little rivers (lines 11-13) edged up to the bank sides • Fields, orchards, cotton patches are (lines 13-14) flooded (lines 16-17) • The rain bent the willows deep • Level fields became lakes in the current… the trees (lines 17-18) (lines 14-15) • The earth whispered under the beat • Spilled over into the fields (line 16) of the rain (line 20) • Poured over the highways (lines 18-19) • Cars moved slowly (line 19) Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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2

what California is like; It turns out to be a corrupted and tyrannical land and its inhabitants have a hypocritical attitude towards the immigrants. the themes of the novel. They are the conflict between the impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by focusing on one’s own needs, and the impulse to risk one’s safety by working for a common good.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Grapes: purple or pale green fruit that you can eat or make into wine. Wrath: extreme anger. Open answer.

What were the effects of the rain on the humans? They huddled in their tents (line 22). 4 Describe the people’s actions. They went out in the rain with shovels and built little dikes around the tents (lines 24-25), they sat in wet clothes (line 27). They set up boxes and put planks on the boxes (lines 27-28); they sat on the planks (line 28); they had to move (line 30), waded away (line 32), splashed along, carrying … in their arms (lines 33-34) 5 How did the people feel? They waited patiently, then they shivered and they became hopeless (lines 34-35), finally they were overcome by terror (lines 39, 41). 6 What did the dispirited men seek in the town? They went to the country stores, to the relief offices (lines 36, 49), to beg for food, to try to steal and to lie (lines 50-64). 7 What was the wealthy people’s attitude towards the migrants? The wealthy people felt pity at first then distaste and finally hatred for the migrants (lines 66-68). 8 What happened when the rain stopped? The men came out of the barns, out of the sheds. They squatted on their hams and looked out over the flooded land. They were silent and sometimes they talked very quietly (lines 79-82) 9 Describe the change that took place in the migrants’ behaviour. Anger replaced fear and turned into wrath (lines 92-95). 10 What narrative technique is used in the passage? The narrator tells the story in the third-person. The narrator is omniscient; he sees and reports the thoughts of the characters and also witnesses and reports the action.

came in showers then spilled steadily. Then there was serious flooding. At first the migrants sheltered in their tents, but the rain soaked everything. They moved out but the cars were useless and so the migrants walked carrying all their wet things. There was no help available and no work. Families became increasingly hungry and ill, the men started begging and then stealing for food. Townspeople felt pity for the migrants in the beginning but then they became angry, and then hated the migrants who began to steal. The migrants’ living conditions became horrific. When the rain stopped, there was still no hope of work and the migrants’ despair turned to anger. (120 words)

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SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 15

GUIDED TASK

3

SUMMARISE the content of the passage following the guided task. STEP 1 Underline or highlight the points in the text which you consider important. Student’s activity. STEP 2 Put the following list of important points from the text in the correct order. The first one has been done for you. 1 A; 2 F; 3 I; 4 C; 5 J; 6 G; 7 D; 8 E; 9 H; 10 B. STEP 3 Compare your choice of important points with the ordered list. Student’s activity. STEP 4 Write a summary of the passage in 120 words. Student’s writing activity. A strong wind was followed by rain, which

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COMPOSITION In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck describes the historical event of the Great Depression. What does he highlight most?

OR Compare and contrast the treatment of migrant workers in the US in the 1930s with the treatment that migrant workers receive today. Write about 300 words. Student’s writing activity: suggested answers. Man’s Inhumanity to Man Steinbeck consistently and woefully points to the fact that the migrants’ great suffering is caused not so much by bad weather or mere misfortune, but by their fellow human beings. Historical, social, and economic circumstances separate people into rich and poor, landowners and tenants, and the people in the dominant roles struggle viciously to preserve their positions. In the text shown, the local town is willing to spend money on extra deputies to enforce the law but not on food to relieve the starving families of the migrants. Steinbeck shows vividly how the California landowners treat the migrants like animals. They are shuffled from one filthy roadside camp to the next, denied liveable wages, and forced to turn against fellow humans simply to survive. In the text shown, the migrant workers must face yet another hardship, this one perhaps the worst of all. With the coming of the rains is the end of the harvest season. The migrant workers face starvation, yet cannot work or receive any government relief. There is obvious

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ESAME DI STATO

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Prova Orale - Part 1

RESEARCH information about: Student’s activity.

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CREATE your own PowerPoint presentation using the material from the Internet. Student’s activity.

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SHOW your presentation to the class. Student’s activity. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 195. Art Lab 26: Andrew Wyeth Photocopiable Lesson on page 226. Teacher’s Key on page 248.

15.11 Comparing Literatures

Steinbeck and Pavese: fury against social injustice

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 197.

Berto’s date Cesare Pavese Paesi tuoi (1941)

1

READ the extract from Paesi tuoi and answer the questions.

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What is the real significance of this scene? What is the prevailing atmosphere? It is a scene of seduction. It is both realistic (‘andremo nelle canne... l’erba’: lines 7-8; ‘che cosa … fare’: line 23) and lyrical because of the references to the moon, which also stands for the danger of being discovered (lines 1, 22); to the crickets (line 10); to the wind (lines 19-20). What kind of mood is Berto in? His mood is characterized by desire (line 4), fear (line 13) and doubts (lines 18-19, 29) about the girl’s coming.

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Specification 15

• the biography of John Steinbeck; • The Grapes of Wrath (the plot, the characters of Tom Joad and Jim Casy, the narrative technique, the themes); • songs about the character of Tom Joad; • film or TV adaptations of the novel.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

discrimination against the migrants as relief is reserved only for those who have been resident for at least a year. For Steinbeck, the treatment of the migrant workers is not only inhumane, but below even the treatment of livestock; he makes the point that no farm owner would leave his horse to starve when it was not used. However, the farm owners are doing just that for the migrant labour force. The novel draws a simple line through the population–one that divides the privileged from the poor–and identifies that division as the primary source of evil and suffering in the world. (280 words) Migrant workers today Migrant workers have always had to face discrimination and suspicion and the same is true today. The modern migrant worker in Europe tends to be from a non-European country or from one that is economically less advanced. The migrant way of life means they are often associated with crime or the spread of disease. It is a natural reaction from the stable population to greet those who move around and live in makeshift accommodation with suspicion, fear and strong dislike. The idea that migrants might be involved in stealing is a natural reaction to those who are so obviously worse off, who don’t necessarily have a job and who look and sound so different. There is the added idea that those who are not settled and attached to a town or area feel less moral responsibility towards it or its population. As in Steinbeck’s time, the migrants are welcomed in times when their physical work is needed for building roads or houses or in picking fruit or vegetables. This work is seasonal, however, and once the time has finished there is a general consensus that the migrants should disappear. In theory everyone would like to feel that there is more help available these days compared to the sad days of the Great Depression and that no-one would be left to starve or go untreated if they were ill. Certainly we would like to think no-one would die of lack of food or shelter but there are still temporary tents and rudimentary living conditions for the migrant workers and tragically each winter there are stories of the homeless who die of the cold. (273 words).

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Improve maternal health Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases Ensure environmental sustainability Develop global partnership

What does the alternation of direct and indirect speech stand for? It stands for the alternation of his mood. How would you define the end of the extract? The end of the extract with the appearance of a goat instead of Gisella is grotesque.

IELTS

4 2

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 15

COMPARE this text to ‘No Work. No Money. No Food’ from The Grapes of Wrath (I15.10) and say what characteristics they have in common. A social, political content characterises both novels. However, the realistic language is what mainly stands out in the two texts. The fury caused by two different social situations finds expression in the violation of syntax and in the use of dialectal expressions, which are an attempt to create a more incisive, immediate language in both texts.

INDIVIDUAL LONG TURN. Prepare a talk. You have one minute to make notes on how to end poverty and hunger in the world. Then you have up to two minutes to talk about it. You should say: • • •

what you have learnt about this problem; how you learnt about it; what ideas you have about improving this situation. Student’s activity.

Christmas Dinner Frank McCourt

15.12 Cultural Issues

Fighting poverty and hunger

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LOOK at the pictures and discuss what it must feel like to be poor.

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What would your problems be? What are the things that you have and take for granted that you would miss most? Student’s activity.

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DISCUSS. Who are the poor in today’s world? Class discussion. READ the words of the United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Then read the list of the Millennium Development Goals and, in small groups, decide on the order of priority.

Teaching tip Ban Ki-moon has been General Secretary of the United Nations since 2007. He is from South Korea.

Student’s activity as different orders are obviously acceptable. The official order is: Eradicate poverty and hunger Achieve universal primary education Promote Gender equality Reduce child mortality rates

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Speaking - Part 2

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Angela’s Ashes (1996) Chapter III

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DISCUSS. What do you usually eat for Christmas? Why is it so important to eat certain things at this time of the year? Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the text and answer the questions. 1

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Why is Angela in a terrible state? Because they have run out of coal and she can’t cook the (Christmas) dinner (lines 1-2). Why is the Dock Road deserted? Because it is Christmas Day and all the people, even the poor, are at home eating their lunch (lines 5-6, 16-17). What do the children gather? They gather lumps of coal or turf (line 18), pieces of paper and cardboard (line 19), anything that will burn. Who do they meet? How does he help them? They meet Pa Keating, their uncle (line 21). He takes them to the pub and buys them lemonade (lines 30-31) and asks the publican to give them some coal (lines 31-32). What makes their return home difficult? The canvas bag they are using has a hole in it (lines 38-39) and pieces of coal keep falling out.

ANALYSIS 3 SAY who the narrator is and from what point of view the story is told. Frank is the first-person narrator and everything is seen from his point of view. 4

POINT OUT the details connected with poverty. The pig’s head is the only meat they can afford, they have to pick up coal from the street, the canvas bag has a hole in it; they drink tea from jam jars; they have no change of clothes.

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IDENTIFY some examples of irony. Frank and Malachy get teased as they walk, dripping with rain and coal, through the streets. At the end of the passage the children identify the pig with Baby Jesus.

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FIND examples of Frank’s positive attitude even in a desperate situation. He manages to find humour, like when they call the brothers ‘Zulus’ in the street (lines 54-55) and to appreciate the little that they have calling the smell of the cooking pig ‘delicious’ (line 76) and describing the glowing fire and the coziness of their bed in spite of the wet clothes (line 71).

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SAY who represents the theme of self-respect and whether the narrator condemns him. Frank’s father struggles to preserve his own dignity. When Frank’s father declares that it is below his dignity to beg or to carry anything through the streets, we see that his first priority is to protect his own self-esteem. Because he drinks the money away, someone must beg, and someone must carry pig’s heads through the streets; the fact that he refuses to do these things simply means that they get done by his pregnant wife and small sons. But again, in this passage, Frank does not wholly condemn his father. He eats almost nothing on Christmas Day so that his sons might fill their bellies, and he clearly adores his family despite his bad behaviour.

YOUR TURN 8 DISCUSS your reactions to what you have read. In your opinion, what was the author’s aim in describing the setting of his childhood? Open answer. He wanted to describe the appalling misery of his childhood in Ireland by making the reader ‘feel’ poverty. The author’s dry humour contrasts with the bleakness of his subject matter.

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Why do the people laugh at them? Their faces are now black because their hands are touching the coal and then wiping their faces (lines 45-47, 54-55). 7 What is their house like? It is flooded downstairs and the family has moved upstairs which is warmer and dry (lines 69-71). 8 What is their mother’s reaction? She laughs with happiness to see them with the coal and to see their strange appearance. Then she cries at their wet clothes (lines 64-65). 9 What does their Christmas dinner consist of? The pig’s head, potatoes with butter and cabbage (lines 76-77, 85-86). The children eat bread and jam as their pudding (line 99). They drink tea. 10 Are they all happy with it? At first Malachy is sorry for the pig and does not want to eat (line 78), but then the family enjoy their dinner together. 11 What else does their father eat? He eats potato skins (line 87). 12 What do they do after dinner? The parents sit in front of the fire and smoke cigarettes (lines 101-102). The children go to bed and dream of the pig which is crying in the crib (lines 102-103, 105-106).

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15 Overview

The Great Gatsby is clearly a highly emotional and evocative criticism of the Jazz Age with its superficial gaiety, its exaggerated use of extravagance in food and alcohol as well as the fast cars, expensive brightly coloured clothes and emphasis on partying and posing. Fitzgerald clearly agreed with the definition of Jazz Age as meaning a period where music and dancing and supposed partying were hiding the reality of a desperate time. Just as the Jazz music appeared all joyous but was born out of the Negro suffering and hid the real situation. The book contains many enlightening descriptions and criticism of American life in the ‘Jazz Age’. The ‘Americanness’ of the novel is emphasised by such themes as the move from West to East; the confrontation between the romantic ideals of courage, honour and beauty and the corrupted world of greed and money; the relationship of Gatsby’s material achievements to the myth of going from ‘rags to riches’; the tremendous growth of the car industry; the corrupting effects of Prohibition; the poverty of spiritual life in America during its most hedonistic decade. Blindness is another central theme: the characters in the novel do not wish to see. They seek out blindness in the form of drunkenness like Daisy and the guests at Gatsby’s parties; Jordan, Daisy, Tom and many others drive carelessly; they remain blind to danger, so caught up are they with the selfish pursuit of pleasure. Only Nick truly sees. He is Fitzgerald’s spokesman in his representation of the decay of his generation. Even in this short extract we can see typical aspects of the Jazz Age like the superficial life style of many of the young people who Fitzgerald compares to moths flying towards the light. Gatsby’s frenetic life style in search of some moral ideal is parodied here where his expensive car becomes a public bus service bringing hoards of party-goers who make use of his beach and his boats and his generosity but leave chaos and devastation behind them.

Prova Orale – Part 2 EXPLAIN why the first decades of the 20th century in America were a good period but were also full of contradictions. By the end of the 19th century, the United States had become the richest country in the world with its economic power based on agricultural prosperity, massive industrial output, the rich mineral resources available, and the rise of ‘trusts’, the huge corporations of firms in the same trade, which gradually came to dominate the market. The economic boom, however, had not prevented the spread of poverty. In the industrial areas of the North – like the metropolises of Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York and Boston – the workers lived in dirty overcrowded slums, and toiled long hours for low wages. These national problems, like the conditions of life in the city slums or corruption in government, were brought to light by books and articles written by investigative journalists called ‘muckrakers’. Their reports shocked most of the American people who started to think that the government should take action to eliminate the problems of society through reform.

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HIGHLIGHT the features of the Lost Generation and say why it was so called. Provide some examples of authors belonging to it. Gertrude Stein referred to the Lost Generation as young disillusioned American writers and intellectuals who emigrated to Europe, chiefly to Paris because of its stimulating atmosphere for the arts. World War I seemed to have destroyed the idea that if you acted virtuously, good things would happen. Many good, young men went to war and died, or returned home physically or mentally wounded, and their faith in the moral ideals that had earlier given them hope, was ‘lost.’ Among the writers of the Lost Generation were F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and the poet and novelist E.E.Cummings.

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Specification 15

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READ this short extract from Chapter III of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and explain what aspects of the Jazz Age are described in the novel.

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LOOK at this painting and point out Edward Hopper’s use of symbolism. Hopper painted the common features of American life like gas stations or street scenes. Urban architecture and cityscapes were major subjects for Hopper. His paintings show a subtle interaction of human beings with their environment often showing isolated figures as in this painting symbolizing solitude, loneliness, regret, boredom, and resignation. His paintings combine apparently contrasting qualities. Modern in their bleakness and simplicity, they

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POINT OUT the role played by Harlem in the development of an African-American identity. From 1910, due to increasing African-American migration from the South, Harlem became the largest and most influential African-American community in the nation, one of the centres of innovation in jazz, and the home of the Harlem Renaissance. By the time the planned subway system and roadways reached Harlem, many of the country’s best and brightest black artists, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals had situated themselves in Harlem. The area soon became known as ‘the Black Mecca’ and ‘the capital of black America’. There were several famous clubs like the Cotton Club where the whites could indulge in two taboos simultaneously: to drink, as well as mix with blacks. Jazz musicians often performed in these clubs, exposing white

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IDENTIFY these lines and discuss the importance of black music in Langston Hughes’s poetry. These lines come from Langston Hughes’s poem The Weary Blues. Hughes became a poet of the people and also experimented by giving poetry readings with a jazz accompaniment. He chose to go back to the roots of blackness, to deal with its conflicts and contradictions, drawing from the folk tradition of the people: the spiritual as it was born in the South, and its modification into the blues under the influence of urban life. From slavery to freedom, music had served as an escape, an affirmation of the beauty of life. Then in the 1920s Louis Armstrong established the standard jazz structure, including solos and improvisation. Hughes came to regard this music as a paradigm of the black experience and a metaphor of human life in general. It was dynamic music, developing, moving. With its free and easy construction, its invitation to joy and the uninhibited movements of the body, jazz represented rebellion in a puritanical society, the vision of an alternative way of life.

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DISCUSS the causes and consequences of the Great Depression. Many factors brought about the Great Depression; however, the main cause was the combination of the unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920s, and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part of that same decade. Money was distributed unequally between the rich and the working classes, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the US and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. The excessive speculation in the late 1920s kept the stock market artificially high, and it eventually led to large market crashes. A major reason for this large and growing gap between the rich and the working class was the increased manufacturing output throughout this period. Therefore wages increased at a lower rate than productivity. In the 1920s there was an oversupply of goods.

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customers to what was typically an AfricanAmerican form of musical entertainment. Other important points were the Abyssinian Baptist Church and the Apollo Theater.

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are also full of nostalgia for the Puritan virtues of the American past. Even if his compositions are supposed to be realist, they also make frequent use of symbolism. He was one of the first representational painters to realise the pictorial possibilities of the contemporary American city and all the kinds of visual material it presents: its heavy masses of concrete; the individual forms of buildings, the effect of light on them; the omnipresence of glass, and the phenomena of light seen through windows; night in the city with its multitude of lights and its shadows. However, he was not interested in the dynamism of the city; his viewpoint was more intimate, so his city was monumental and immobile. There are never crowds in his pictures, he chooses the hours when there are few or no people around to convey the monotony and loneliness of the city. Yet his final emotion is affirmative: clear morning sunlight, stillness, and a sense of solitude that is serene. In many of Hopper’s urban subjects, individual men and women appear, but as parts of the whole scene rather than in leading roles. The closest human intimacy is reached in his scenes of women in city interiors, nude or half-dressed. The woman is often before a window, looking out, the intimacy of her nakedness contrasting with the impersonal city outside. Many of the city interiors are seen through windows, from the point of view of a spectator looking in at the unconscious actors and their setting.

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Specification 15

There was too much bread, too much wheat and corn, meat and oil and almost every other commodity required by man for his subsistence and material happiness. One obvious solution to the problem of the vast majority of the population not having enough money to satisfy all their needs was to allow credit sales. The concept of buying now and paying later became popular. This strategy created artificial demand for products which people could not ordinarily afford. The US economy also relied upon luxury spending and investments from the rich during the 1920s. While the automobile and radio industries were booming, other economic areas, like agriculture in particular, were declining steadily. Several factors had caused prosperity in these two industries: first, during World War I both the automobile and the radio had been significantly improved. If those two industries were to slow down or stop, so would the entire economy. The fundamental problem with the automobile and radio industries was that they could not expand ad infinitum for the simple reason that people could not buy too many cars and radios. When the automotive and radio industries went down all their dependents suffered. Because it had been ignored, agriculture, which was still a fairly large segment of the economy, was already in ruins when American industry declined. When the rich stopped spending on luxury items, and slowed investments, the working class and poor stopped buying things on credit for fear of losing their jobs, and not being able to pay the interest. As a result industrial production fell by more than 9% between the market crashes in October and December 1929. To protect the nation’s businesses the US imposed higher trade taxes, and foreigners stopped buying American products. As a consequence jobs were lost, stores were closed, banks crashed, and factories closed. Unemployment grew to five million in 1930, and up to thirteen million in 1932. The country moved into an economic catastrophe. 8

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EXPLAIN how the Great Depression was reflected in the different arts, from literature to photography. A novel that portrayed the horrors of the Great Depression and the nature of equality and justice in America was The Grapes of Wrath

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(1939) by John Steinbeck (1902-1968), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He was an American author, whose novel portrayed the horrors of the Great Depression and the nature of inequality and justice in the US. The novel revolves around the Joad family, who lose their tenant farm in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma; they join thousands of other dispossessed farmers, travelling the highways towards the promised land of California where they hope to find a piece of land to call their own. Each night on the road, the migrant people recreate society: they choose their leaders, they develop unspoken codes of privacy and generosity, but lust, violence, and murderous rage explode. The grapes of the title symbolize the promised land of California, which turns out to be very different to the expected land of opportunity. So the grapes of hope turn into the grapes of wrath or anger. Steinbeck conveys the harsh realities of the Depression through an imaginative reconstruction which moves the reader rather than a mere objective description of facts. He shows how the endless accumulation of suffering changes the Joads’ initial confusion to discontent, from discontent to hopelessness and from hopelessness to rage. One of the most immediate and visual testimonies of the Great Depression was through photography. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) employed photographers to document the rural poverty and exploitation of small farmers and migrant labourers in an attempt to gain support for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The photographs were distributed free of charge to newspapers across the country and brought the life of displaced farming communities to the public’s attention. The most famous images were made by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Walker Evans (1903-1975) and Margaret BourkeWhite (1904-1971) whose black-and-white photos of starving fruit-pickers became iconic symbols of the Great Depression. Teaching tip Students who have chosen to do individual research into one of the photographers may also produce some of the following information.

Walker Evans (1903-1975) is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. His elegant, crystal-clear photographs and

Floyd Burroughs and his children Tengle, Alabama, 1936 From Let Us Now Praise Famous Men This study of a cotton farmer is one of the masterpieces of Evans’s landmark collaboration for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Evans Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was a famous American documentary photographer, best known for her Depression work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). She was educated in photography at Columbia University in New York. During the Great Depression she decided to look for subjects outside her studio in the streets and started to deal with the problem of the migration of agricultural workers. One of her most famous photographs is Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (1936; Washington, DC, Lib. Congr.), which depicts an anxious, distracted mother and three children. In 1939 she published An American Exodus, which dealt with the same social problems. In 1941 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and this allowed her to take a series of photographs of religious groups in the USA, such as those of the Amish people. In 1942 she worked for the War Relocation Authority and from 1943 to 1945 for the Office of War Information in San Francisco. She also worked in Egypt and the Middle East in 1962–3, producing such photographs as Procession Bearing Food to the Dead, Upper Egypt in the detached, documentary style that characterizes all her work. Migrant Mother, 1936 This is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. The images were made using a Graflex camera. Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) She was an American photographer best known as the first foreign photographer allowed to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent and the first female photographer for Life magazine, where one of her photographs appeared on the first cover.

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spent several weeks with three tenant farmers and their families, observing their lifestyles and studying their daily activities. His honest images of the faces, bedrooms and clothing of individual farmers living on a dry Alabama hillside lead the reader/viewer on a journey to the limits of direct observation. Evans’s photographs seem to have represented the whole tragedy of the Great Depression.

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publications have inspired several generations of artists. He had the extraordinary ability to see the present as if it were already the past and to translate that knowledge and historically inflected vision into an enduring art. His main subject was the indigenous expressions of people found in roadside stands, cheap cafés, advertisements, simple bedrooms and small-town main streets. Most of Evans’s early photographs reveal the influence of European modernism but he gradually developed his own evocative realism. The Depression years of 1935–36 were ones of remarkable productivity for Evans. In 1935 he accepted a job from the U.S. Department of the Interior to photograph a government-built resettlement community of unemployed coal miners in West Virginia. Photographers, like Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, among others, were assigned to document small-town life in order to demonstrate how the Federal Government was attempting to improve life for the rural communities during the Depression. Evans, however, worked with little concern for the ideological agenda or the suggested itineraries and instead answered a personal need to get the essential meaning of American life from the simple and the ordinary. His photographs of roadside architecture, rural churches and cemeteries reveal a deep respect for the neglected traditions of the common man and secured his reputation as America’s most successful documentarian. In 1938 the Museum of Modern Art opened American Photographs, a retrospective of Evans’s first decade of photography. Between 1938 and 1941, Evans produced a remarkable series of portraits in the New York City subway. In 1941 Evans’s photographs were published in the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men with a text by the American writer James Agee. Between 1934 and 1965, Evans contributed to 45 articles published in Fortune magazine with more than 400 photographs.

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Bread line during the Louisville flood, 1937 This photograph was taken in Louisville, Kentucky and was published in Time magazine. A million people were left homeless after the Ohio River flooded in 1937, a period that unhappily coincided with the Great Depression. This photograph shows a line of homeless African-Americans in a food line. Behind them there is a billboard saying, ‘World’s Highest Standard Of Living,’ and, ‘There’s no way like the American Way.’ While the family in the background is happy and the colours are light and bright, the line of African-Americans has a darker and sadder tone of colour. One AfricanAmerican man is looking at the billboard. After looking at the billboard, the viewer’s eyes drop down to the line of African-Americans below and the power of the photograph lies in the dramatic contrast between the two images and what this implies about the inconsistencies of the American dream. 9

JUSTIFY why John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath can be regarded as a document of the Great Depression. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath portrayed the horrors of the Great Depression and the nature of inequality and justice in the USA. The grapes of the title symbolize the promised land of

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California, which turns out to be very different to the expected land of opportunity. So the grapes of hope turn into the grapes of wrath or anger. Steinbeck conveys the harsh realities of the Depression through an imaginative reconstruction which moves the reader rather than a mere objective description of facts. He shows how the endless accumulation of suffering changes the Joads’ initial confusion to discontent, from discontent to hopelessness and from hopelessness to rage. Despite its interest in a particular historical moment, the novel uses the traditional American device of the journey as a quest for a better land. However, California is already corrupted and tyrannical. Its inhabitants have a hypocritical attitude towards the immigrants. On the one hand they abuse people like the Joads, calling them ‘Okies’; on the other hand they want to exploit their labour as much as possible. Steinbeck’s economic views are traditional: he prefers small units of workers rather than large abstract organizations. His code of belief is humanitarian, based on his insistence that people are more important than things. The novel deals with the conflict between the impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by focusing on one’s own needs, and the impulse to risk one’s safety by working for a common good.

LESSON PLAN 16 A New World Order This is just a suggestion of how to use Performer culture & literature Volume 3. Specification 16 deals with World War II, the literature of commitment, dystopian literature and the issue of imagining the future. The development of this Specification ideally covers 12 lessons depending on the class and the level of the students. LESSONS CULTURE & LITERATURE A New World Order 1 16.1 Society Students are introduced to the study of the period between the two World Wars in Britain through IELTS Academic Reading. The British Commonwealth of Nations is introduced in Insights. They do the activity 3 Esame di Stato – Terza Prova Type B.

16.2 Literature Teachers explain the literature of commitment and introduce the poet W. H. Auden. The presentation of A Powerpoint Presentation can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author. Students read and start to analyze the poem Refugee Blues from Another Time. They finish the exercises at home. Further development: Text Bank 114-117

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16.3 History Students are introduced to the study of World War II through Q&A. Further activity: Dictation: Einstein and the atomic bomb Students do activity 5 Esame di Stato – Terza Prova Type B at home. Internet lab This is required by the national curriculum to develop digital competence. Students carry out a research project about The United Nations Organisation.

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16.4 Mapping History Teachers introduce The Blitz and the days of destiny by showing the map (Interactive map 17 in the CD-ROM) and the places mentioned. 16.5 Two Films About... World War II.

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16.6 History Students are introduced to the study of Indian Independence and the figure of Mohandas Gandhi through a timeline and IELTS Listening – Section 4. Insights focuses on the partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

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16.6 History Teachers introduce Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children. Students read and analyse the text 15th August 1947. They practise Esame di Stato – Seconda Prova. Students surf the net about the art of persuasion and famous speeches. This activity is linked to Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 1. The task can be completed at home.

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The presentation of the Context in PowerPoint can be employed either as a support to the introduction of the period or as a summing-up at the end of the specification.

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16.7 Literature Teachers explain the concept of dystopian novel. Further development: Text Bank 120-121 16.8 Literature Teachers introduce George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The presentation of George Orwell in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students read and start the analysis of the text Big Brother is watching you and finish it at home. Practice is given in the Esame di Stato Terza prova – Type B.

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Specification 16

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Further development: Text Bank 122-125 16.9 Comparing Literatures Teachers review George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four and deal with this section which provides a comparison between Orwell and Gadda. 16.10 Literature Teachers introduce William Golding and Lord of the Flies. The presentation of William Golding in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. 16.10 Literature Students read and analyse the text A View to a Death and practise Esame di Stato Terza Prova Type B. Further development: Text Bank 126 16.11 Cultural Issues Students work on the issue Imagining the future. They practice IELTS Speaking – Part 2, read and analyse McCarthy’s text You have to carry the fire.

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Further development: Text Bank 127 16.12 Literature Teachers introduce The Theatre of the Absurd and Samuel Beckett. The presentation of Samuel Beckett in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his works. Students read and analyse the text Nothing to be done and practise Esame di Stato - Terza Prova Type B. Further development: Text Bank 128-129 16.13 The Arts Students are introduced to Francis Bacon’s paintings. They practice Esame di Stato – Terza Prova Type B. Further development: Art Lab 28 Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 2 can be either used as a ‘recupero in itinere’ in the classroom or as homework.

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Specification 16

A New World Order 16.1 Society

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 198.

3 Teaching tip The presentation A New World Order in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the period.

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LOOK at pictures 1-5 and match them with the captions (A-E). Then discuss how you think Britain was changing between the two wars. 1 A; 2 D; 3 C; 4 E; 5 B. Students discuss the ideas elicited by the pictures such as the organization of workers (trade unions), unemployment, a royal crisis, new industries, development of communication and broadcasting, war and journalism. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 197. IELTS

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Academic Reading

READ the text and complete questions 1-14 The passage has SIX paragraphs, A–F. Which paragraph contains the following information? Questions 1-5 1 D; 2 E; 3 F; 4 A; 5 B. Do the statements 6–11 agree with the information given in the passage? Write: TRUE if the statement agrees with the information; FALSE if the statement contradicts the information; NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this. Questions 6-11 6 TRUE (paragraph E) 7 FALSE (paragraph B) 8 NOT GIVEN (paragraph C) 9 FALSE (paragraph E) 10 TRUE (paragraph E) 11 FALSE (paragraph F) For questions 12–14, complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage to write in each gap. Questions 12-14 12 strike 13 poverty 14 rearmament.

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Terza prova

TYPE B. Write ten to twelve lines explaining the changes that took place in British society in the 1920s and 1930s. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: The Twenties and Thirties saw important social changes in Britain. First of all there was the rise of the Labour Party and Trade Unions fighting for equal rights and opportunities in a time of mass unemployment as the result of the Great Depression. Rearmament in expectation of another war led to an economic recovery and the growth of new light industries like chemical, electrical and car production. Birth control allowed for a slowing down in population growth and a more independent role for women. There was also a rise in the popular press and radio broadcasting from the newly established BBC. Exam Reference pag. 611

16.2 Literature

Wystan Hugh Auden and the committed writers

Teaching tip The presentation W.H. Auden in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 114: Wystan Hugh Auden, The unknown citizen from Another time Teacher’s Key on page 346.

Text Bank 115: Wystan Hugh Auden, Funeral blues from Another time Teacher’s Key on page 348.

Text Bank 116: Wystan Hugh Auden, September 1, 1939 from Another time Teacher’s Key on page 349.

Text Bank 117: Wystan Hugh Auden, Musée de beaux art from Another time Teacher’s Key on page 352.

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ESAME DI STATO

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Britain between the wars

Text Bank 118: Dylan Thomas, The force that trough the green fuse drives the flowers from Eighteen poems Teacher’s Key on page 353.

Text Bank 119: Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill from Death and Entrances Teacher’s Key on page 356.

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READ the text on the literature of commitment and then discuss the following in pairs:

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the mood of the literature of the 1930s; Pessimism. its general features; Divisions of class and the burden of sexual repression as common themes in the fiction of the 1930s; great variety, from Modernist experimentation to a new documentary realism. the meaning of commitment for the Oxford poets; Adherence to left-wing propaganda; concerned with the social and political aspects of human life; wanted to develop a social conscience; their stylistic choices; They turned away from complexity and allusiveness in order that they might communicate with their fellow-men and urge them to follow certain morally right courses of action; they used slang and jazz rhythms and drew their images from the world of technology. the reaction of the poets of the 1940s. They reacted against the intellectualism and commitment appealing to emotions and rediscovering individual themes such as love, birth, death, and even sex.

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Specification 16

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READ Auden’s biography and justify these statements.

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He was a voracious reader. His early reading consisted of fairy-tales, myths and legends, especially Scandinavian, but this reading seems to have been paralleled by that of books about psychology and technical works on mining engineering. He was one of the Oxford poets. While studying at Oxford, Auden became familiar with Modernist poetry and he became the centre of the so-called ‘Oxford poets’. He was deeply committed to social and political issues. During the General Strike of 1926 he was one of the few undergraduates who worked for the strikers; in 1928 he went to Berlin where he

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witnessed the rise of Nazism. During the Spanish Civil War he served as an ambulance driver. He showed his solidarity with the Jews persecuted by Hitler after 1933: in 1935 he married Thomas Mann’s daughter Erika, only to provide her with a British passport to enable her to escape from Nazi Germany. He was a homosexual. He was increasingly concerned about his homosexuality. Homosexuality was condemned by the standards of his religious upbringing and was regarded as a criminal offence in England. He started a new life in New York. In 1939 he moved to New York and settled in a house in Brooklyn, which he ran as a sort of intellectual commune. In 1940 he began teaching in New York, and published what is probably his best volume of the decade, Another Time. He changed his poetic attitude. He was still to write much social poetry, but the ‘political’ period was over; from now on his social poetry was to be anti-ideological, anti-political. He returned to Anglicanism. In the 1940s he returned to the religion of his youth, Anglicanism.

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ANSWER the following questions about the work of W. H. Auden.

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What characterised the works of the English period? Freud’s influence, the use of psychological models in relation to the customs and rituals of an entire society. Under the influence of Marx, he believed that it was the duty of citizens to engage with history, to question the social and political climate in which they lived. What was the poet’s task? He believed that the role of poetry was ‘to tell stories of particular people and experiences, from which each according to his own immediate and peculiar needs may draw his own conclusions’. So the poet’s task was to act as a public voice, to support the causes for freedom against tyranny, to express the anxieties of the contemporary left-wing intellectuals. What did his move to America coincide with? With his withdrawal from political commitment and the development of a style that would refuse the identification with a single poetic culture or nation. How did this change affect him? It freed him from the burden of social responsibility, of being the leader of the intellectual left rather than simply a verbal artist. He came to believe that

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They are homeless. Stanzas 1, 2, 5, 8, 11. They have no passport. Stanzas 3, 4. They are seen as intruders in the country they flee to. Stanza 6. D Pets are treated better than they are and enjoy greater freedom. Stanzas 8, 9, 10. E They are persecuted. Stanzas 4, 7, 12. A B C

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Refugee Blues W. H. Auden Another Time (1940)

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IN PAIRS provide a definition of a ‘refugee’. Then discuss the problems refugees encounter while living in different places throughout the world. How can state bureaucracies help refugees? A person who has fled from their region or country because of some danger or problem, especially to do with political persecution. Students’ activity.

Teaching tip The fate of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria from 1933 to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. In the first years of the Nazi regime, most German Jews had to emigrate to neighbouring European countries and to British mandatory Palestine. However, in 1938 the conditions of Jews in Germany became worse and the question of the Jewish refugees remained largely unresolved because the countries of the world had virtually shut their gates. It is estimated that about half of the Jews emigrated from Greater Germany in 1933-1939. Their destinations were primarily the United States, Palestine, Latin America and various West European countries. Auden wrote Refugee Blues at the end of this period. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

MATCH these various aspects of the refugees’ situation with the corresponding stanzas:

IDENTIFY the different functionaries or objects that represent bureaucracy in the poem. The consul (line 10), a committee (line 13), politicians (line 29), old passports (lines 9, 11).

ANALYSIS 5 POINT OUT: 1) the stanza form; 2) the rhyme scheme; 3) the use of repetition; 4) the presence of a refrain. 1) Three-line stanzas with a longer third line; 2) AAB; 3) The repetition of ‘saw’ can be found in lines 22, 23, 26, 28, 31; ‘thousand’ is repeated in lines 31, 32, 35. 4) In general every third line in each stanza is a sort of refrain because it is built on a double repetition of a half line and the words ‘my dear’ (lines 2, 6, 9, 12, 15,18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 32, 33, 36). 6

FOCUS ON the first line of each stanza. Do you notice a device which is common to almost all of them? What effect does the poem achieve? Tick as appropriate. The lack of the subject. It conveys the idea of improvisation and common speech.

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COMPREHENSION 1 READ the poem and identify the three protagonists whose destinies will sadly cross. • The victims German Jews • The perpetrators German soldiers under Hitler’s leadership • The spectators those who stand aside and see what is happening but don’t act or worse – act to condemn without understanding (the consul, line 10, the committee, line 13, the speaker at a public meeting, line 16, the poodle’s and cat’s owners, lines 22-23).

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improvement must begin within the self, not within society. What is the symbolic meaning of the title Another Time? The poet entered another time through the exile which he shared with many other refugees and that would eventually lead to his becoming an American citizen. What is the style of this collection like? It combines intellectual rigour and social conscience with a mixture of styles. The form may be that of free verse, metre, rhyme; Auden also uses simple popular forms such as ballads and songs. How is it organised? Into three sections: ‘People and Places’, the most complex and meditative, where the poet deals with the theme of sorrow and the relationship between man and nature; the second section is called ‘Lighter Poems’ and includes some poems with a light comic tone and domesticity. Finally the third section, ‘Occasional Poems’, both celebrates the death of great figures like Freud and Yeats, in whom Auden recognises examples of transgression, of moral and artistic renewal, and tries to interpret great historical events such as the German invasion of Poland.

It gives a glimpse into the social status of the speaker. It suggests that the speaker may not be a well-educated person.

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UNDERLINE images that can be defined as ‘poetic’ and images belonging to everyday life. Which prevail? There are not many poetic images. Some examples are: an old yew (line 7); the thunder rumbling in the sky (line 19); a great plain in the falling snow (line 34). Details linked to everyday life are: atlas (line 5), the poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin (line 22), the cat (line 23), the harbour (line 25), the fish (line 26), the birds (line 28), windows, doors (line 32).

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WRITE DOWN the contrasting images the poem is built upon and explain their meaning. An example has been provided: (line 2) mansion / holes = it refers to the gap between the rich and the poor. (lines 11-12) officially dead / still alive = the refugees are considered dead by the government of their country but they are alive in body. (lines 22-24) = the contrast between the love shown towards pets and the hostility felt towards the refugees. (lines 25-27 and 28-30)= the contrast between the freedom of fish and birds and the persecution against the refugees.

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SUM UP the issues having a more general relevance that are hinted at in the poem. Homelessness, social injustice, isolation, lack of solidarity.

YOUR TURN 10 DISCUSS. Who are ‘the refugees’ nowadays? Does your country experience this situation directly? What should the role of society be in absorbing refugees? Do you agree with the statement in line 17? Class discussion. 11 LOOK at the paintings The Refugees (1941) by the realist painter Lucian Freud and The Refugee (1939) by Felix Nussbaum. How did the painters portray their subjects? Do you think the pictures can be related to the poem you have just read? If so, how? Do the paintings affect you in a different way than the poem? Students should describe the

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pictures in detail and discuss their mood. Teaching tip FELIX NUSSBAUM Born in Osnabrück in 1904 into a German Jewish family, he was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. In his paintings he recorded the experiences of the decades following the First World War and reflected upon them as part of the situation of the Jews in national-socialist Germany. His pictures are consistent with the spirit of the age, the menace and disorientation of emigration, the threat of war and bombs, the fear in internment camps, and finally the suffering and annihilation of the Jews in Europe by the Nazi regime. No other victim has artistically documented the ‘Holocaust’ of Jews in Europe like Nussbaum. For him, in his hopeless situation, painting became an act of resistance, because it enabled him to retain his human dignity and, for a time, gave him the strength he needed to survive. LUCIAN FREUD (1922-2011) Biography Grandson of the distinguished psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Lucien Freud was born in Berlin and came to England with his parents in 1932. He joined the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, but was injured in 1942, when he became a full-time artist. He became one of the most powerful contemporary figurative painters; his subjects are stripped naked psychologically (usually literally as well) so that the reader of the painting feels there is nothing to hide, in much the same way as a psychoanalyst works with his patient. He normally knows his models well; he knows their flesh, and even concocts special shades of white paint to capture the shade of their skin. Many regard him as the best British painter of his generation, including his contemporary Peter Blake. He died in London in 2011.

Art Lab 27: Lucian Freud Photocopiable Lesson on page 228. Teacher’s Key on page 250.

16.3 History

World War II and after 1

BRAINSTORM what you know about WWII, the term ‘Welfare State’ and Queen Elizabeth II. Use pictures 1-6 for help. Student’s activity.

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READ the Q&A text. Student’s activity.

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FIND the words in the text on pages 520-521 which mean the following:

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ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova

TYPE A. Write a 200-word essay about the key events of World War II and the main consequences of the conflict. Student’s activity. Exam Reference pag. 611 3.4 dictation: Albert einstein, Teacher’s Key on page 199.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 199.

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BROWSE the website www.un.org/en and carry out a research project on the following:

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the UN structure and organisation; the present Secretary-General; the UN process of renewal; the thematic issues linked to peace and security; the thematic issues linked to humanitarian affairs. Student’s activity. Suggestion: The Charter established six principal organs of the United Nations: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the

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IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text on pages 520-521. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Students’ activity. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page xxx.

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Secretariat. The United Nations includes 15 agencies and several programmes and bodies. The Secretary-General acts as the spokesperson and leader of the UN. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon, who took over from Kofi Annan in 2007 and has been elected for a second term until the end of 2016. Process of renewal: The United Nations is engaged in a continuous process of change and reform to strengthen its ability to meet new demands and deliver its vital services in the most effective and efficient ways. This means: constant emphasis on transparency, accountability, integrity, efficiency and flexibility; creating an environment in which improvement is expected and innovation is welcomed. These efforts are aimed at delivering results to those most in need. Thematic Issues of peace and security: • Peacemaking and Preventive Action: Peacemaking activities, reports, documents and other related material. • Peacekeeping: Peacekeeping activities, current and completed missions, maps, documents, statements, statistics. • Peacebuilding: Peace-building architecture, functions, documents, statements and other related material. • Disarmament: Disarmament agenda, Advisory Board, UN Institute for Disarmament Research, documents. • Countering Terrorism: Global strategy to counter-terrorism; implementation of strategy, UN system-wide actions and actors. • Electoral Assistance: Objectives, overview, activities, documents, roster of experts. • Decolonization: History, structure, documents on the UN role in decolonization. • Children and Armed Conflict: Mission statement, reports and statements, issues relating to child soldiers. • Women, Peace and Security: Gender perspective in peace and security issues, documents, statements. • Mine Action: Policies, advocacy, action, victim assistance, mine-risk education, documents. • Sport for Development and Peace: The UN System and Sport, UN Players, News and Events, Resource Centre. • Protection from Sexual Exploitation and

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the practice of ordering people by law to serve in the armed forces; conscription; the policy of limiting the amount of food, fuel; rationing; attacks by a number of aircraft dropping many bombs on a place; air raids; to be in a position where you can be shot at; firing-line; military operations in which enemy forces surround towns or buildings; sieges; created a situation in which something can happen. paved the way.

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Abuse: Overview, addressing it, Task Force, achievements. • Organized Crime: Technical Assistance, Training, Information Sharing, Assessing Trends. The thematic issues linked to the humanitarian affairs. • Climate Change: Coping with the humanitarian impact - videos, slideshow, tools and services, funding and finance. • De-mining: Overview, academic institutions, documents, treaties and law. • Early Warning: Overview, resources, meetings and conferences, documents. • Global Food Security: Background information, key documents, key events, useful links. • Humanitarian Response Coordination: the Inter-Agency Standing Committee principles, subsidiary bodies, documents and products. • Human Security: the UN Trust Fund for Human Security - projects, guidelines, Advisory Board, protection and displacements. • Human Settlements: programmes, countries, publications, resources, events, media centre. • Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: issues, workshops, background, statements, reports. • Question of Palestine: overview, latest news, programmes, publications, statistics.

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ANSWER the following questions about the Blitz.

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How long did the Blitz last? It lasted from September 1940 to May 1941. What had happened during July and August 1940? During July and August, the Germans engaged the RAF over the Channel in an effort to weaken it. But the Luftwaffe lost twice as many planes as the British. What did Hitler decide to do after that? After that, Hitler decided to bomb British cities to damage Britain’s infrastructure and weaken the British morale. What British cities were bombed by the Luftwaffe? London received the initial attacks and soon, bomb after bomb, began to rain down on the docks, factories and houses below. Other cities, ports and industrial centres, like Coventry, Liverpool, Clydebank in Scotland, and Belfast in Ireland were bombed by the Luftwaffe. What preparations had been made for air raids? Preparations had been made for air raids including the distribution of air-raid shelters, the evacuation of civilians to the countryside and the establishment of the Air Raid Precaution organisation, but nonetheless there was significant loss of life. Which shelters did many civilians choose? Despite government efforts, many people were without effective shelters and so underground alternatives, notably tube stations, were used for this purpose. Was the Blitz successful for the Germans? The Luftwaffe failed to exploit this opportunity. One reason was its lack of four-engined heavy bombers, but far more important was the misuse of the available 700 medium bombers. Instead of delivering a limited number of devastating attacks on carefully selected targets, such as aircraft factories or power stations, Göring ordered long processions of bombers to scatter bombs across wide areas of London. What were the consequences of the Blitz? During the entire Blitz more than 40,000 British civilians were killed (half of them in London), 46,000 seriously injured and over 1,000,000 houses destroyed or damaged; approximately 2,500 German airmen died. The Luftwaffe had lost roughly 2,400 aircraft but had failed either to gain air superiority or to terrorize the British people into submission.

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PRESENT your findings to the rest of the class. Student’s activity.

16.4 Mapping History

The Blitz

Interactive Map 17

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DISCUSS. What do you think life was like both for the Allied pilots doing the fighting and for the people watching from below? Students’ activity.

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READ the text and underline the places mentioned. Then locate them on the map. Student’s activity.

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16.5 Two Films About…

DISCUSS in pairs. Think about films based on true stories you have already seen. Should filmmakers deliberately avoid historical accuracy in favour of an entertaining film? Students’ activity. Video Lab 37: Pearl Harbor Photocopiable Lesson on page 275. Teacher’s Key on page 297.

Video Lab 38: The king’s speech Photocopiable Lesson on page 277. Teacher’s Key on page 298.

16.6 History

Indian Independence and Mohandas Gandhi

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 199.

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LOOK at the timeline and say:

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how long India was a British colony; For ninety years, from 1857 to 1947. what happened when India became independent; It split into two countries: India (mostly Hindu) and East and West Pakistan (mostly Muslim). when and how Gandhi died; He was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. what happened to East Pakistan. In 1971 East Pakistan became the new state of Bangladesh.

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IELTS

Listening – Section 4

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3.5 ACADEMIC LECTURE. Listen to the lecture about Mohandas Gandhi and do questions 1-10. Complete the following sentences (1-3) in NOT MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

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Mohandas Gandhi was an unusual leader because he preached non-violence at a time when the first atomic bombs were used in war. Although he highlighted the importance of the

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Choose the best answer A, B or C to complete the following sentences (4-6). 4 A; 5 C; 6 C. Answer the questions (7-10) with information from the listening text. 7 Where did Gandhi suffer discrimination when he started practising as a lawyer? South Africa. 8 What did Gandhi believe about the ownership of capital? That there should be equal distribution of wealth. 9 What happened on 30th January 1948? Gandhi was assassinated. 10 In which way was Gandhi a conscience for the world? He combined being a saint and a politician. TRANSCRIPT Mohandas Gandhi, called the Mahatma or Great Soul, is the archetype of the anti-colonial revolutionary. He was not an ordinary leader. He dared to preach non-violence in a time when the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had dramatically changed the world. He stressed morality when science, technology and capitalism were paramount and he replaced self-interest with group interest though emphasising the importance of the individual. Gandhi’s weapons were fasting, prayer and non-violence. He tried to be a living example of simplicity and self-discipline. The photos show a thin, brown figure, wearing little with cheap glasses on his nose and a tall bamboo staff in his hand. His personal habits were severe. Mondays were ‘days of silence’ and every day he practised vegetarianism avoiding spices as a discipline of the senses. He had a passion for cleanliness: and tried to teach Indian villagers about the connection between human and animal dirt and disease. He would spin on his little hand-wheel to convince Indians that their hand made products could free them from dependence on foreign goods. He practised the cult of celibacy as he believed that all impulses must be controlled in order to reach Truth.

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World War II

individual, he believed in group interest rather than self-interest. He was an easily recognisable figure as he famously wore just a white cloth, glasses and carried a long bamboo staff/stick.

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Gandhi studied law in England where he first read the Bible and the Hindu religious poem that became his ‘spiritual dictionary’. It taught him to renounce personal desires by devoting his life to the service of his fellow man. Here he elaborated the two principles that ruled his public life: the force of truth and love; and the ancient Hindu ideal of non-violence to all living things. He practiced law in South Africa where he experienced cruel discrimination and returned to India at the age of 45. From then on he dedicated himself to Indian self-rule. He became the leader of the movement and turned the Indian National Congress from an upper-class movement to a mass crusade. In spite of their ethnic and religious differences, he convinced legions of Indians to join peaceful protests that undermined the power of the British Empire. He resuscitated native culture and Indian resistance. He revived Indian handicrafts and encouraged the boycott of British products. From his understanding of wealth and poverty came his understanding of labour and capital, which led him to the solution, based on the belief that there is no private ownership of capital but that it is given in trust for a more equal redistribution. He looked for an economic order that could be an alternative to the capitalist or communist, and found it in his belief in self-determination and equality based on non-violence. Gandhi led many crusades to undermine the power and moral defences of the British and spent almost seven of his 74 years in prison. By the end of World War II, Britain was ready to grant India independence. But what should have been Gandhi’s greatest triumph, on August 15, 1947, turned into a defeat. India gained freedom but lost unity when Britain on the same day created the new Muslim state of Pakistan. Partition dishonoured Gandhi’s creed. All the village pilgrimages he made and the famous fasts he undertook could not stop Muslims and Hindus from killing one another. On January 30, 1948 Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who blamed him for not hating Muslims and letting them steal part of the Hindu nation. As contemporary society faces growing unemployment, where small minorities consume while the masses starve, we find Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

ourselves forced to rethink our current globalisation and to ponder Gandhi’s alternative. He shines as a conscience for the world, the saint and the politician go hand in hand, proclaiming the power of love, peace and freedom.

15thAugust 1947 Salman Rushdie Midnight’s Children (1981) Book 1

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 200.

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DISCUSS. Is your country independent? When and how did it become independent? Students’ activity.

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda prova

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ANSWER the following questions.

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Who are Vanita and Amina Sinai? Vanita is a poor woman who dies giving birth to the protagonist/narrator (lines 3-5, 44, 60-62). Amina Sinai is a rich woman in labour in the same hospital (lines 43, 59, 71-72, 88-90) who is having a nightmare. Her baby will be exchanged with the narrator, so she will become his mother. Who is Miss Mary Pereira and what does she do at the end? She is a midwife (lines 60, 73-74) who does her private revolutionary act by changing the name tags of the two babies (lines 76-83). How is Jawaharlal Nehru presented? He is presented as a wiry serious man preparing to make a speech in Delhi (lines 46-47). What happens at midnight? What events are being juxtaposed? The two babies were born and India awakens to life and freedom. The birth of the children and the birth of the independent nation. Who is the narrator? The passage is narrated in the first person by one of the midnight’s children, Vanita’s real son. What is the effect of the shift from the present to the past tense? The present tense coincides with the narration of the birth and gives the event a realistic, impressive, almost haunting

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Historical facts 1. The Governor General of Pakistan, M.A Jinnah, announces that Pakistan will become independent at midnight. 2. There are rumours of strange happenings in the city of Bombay. 3. There is fighting on the borders of the Punjab. 4. Major Zulfikar is laying the foundations of his fortune by buying refugee property cheaply. 5. Mahatma Gandhi sets off on a long walk for peace. 6. Clothes and decorations and lamps all reflect the colours of independence. 7. There are riots in Lahore. 8. The Indian Prime Minister declares independence. 9. The crowd roars in celebration.

STEP 4 Write a summary of the historical events. On the day India gained its independence from Britain there was enormous excitement. The Indian Prime Minister announced that the official declaration would be made at midnight in spite of endless rumours of strange happenings of ill-omen. The crowds were jubilant and the green, white and saffron colours of the new flag were everywhere. It was not all celebration, however, as rioting broke out in Lahore and along the borders of the Punjab while Mahatma Gandhi set off on his epic walk for peace. At Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

GUIDED TASK

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SUMMARISE the content of the passage following the guided task. STEP 1 Read through the text again and complete the sentence below. Two baby boys were born at midnight at the exact time that India became independent, one was from a wealthy family and one from a poor family but one of the attending nurses changed the children/babies round and they grew up in the wrong families, their fate being a reflection of India’s history. STEP 2 Underline or highlight the events in the text. Student’s activity. STEP 3 Divide the events into a list of historical events and a list of events in the story.

Events in the story 1. Vanita, wife of Wee Willie Winkie, goes into labour. 2. At eight o’clock in the morning Vanita is in labour in the charity ward for the poor in the nursing home. 3. Most of the nursing home staff have gone to join in the celebrations. 4. A wealthy lady, Amina Sinai, is also in labour. 5. Two boys are born. 6. Miss Mary Pereira swaps the names round on the two new-born boys. 7. Vanita dies in childbirth.

midnight the crowds all over India roared in celebration and a new India was born. STEP 5 Write a summary of the events from the story. On the morning of the day India became independent from Britain, Vanita, the wife of a poor man, Wee Willie Winkie, goes into labour. She travels to the Nursing Home where the wife of a wealthy man, Amina Sinai, is also in labour. The Nursing Home is short-staffed as so many have gone out to celebrate with the crowds and when the two boys are born, both on the stroke of midnight, Miss Mary Pereira, a nursing aid, is

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What effect does this use of colour achieve in the mixture of fantasy and realism? A unifying, but also hallucinatory, distorting effect. 10 Wath is the metaphor the narrator uses in lines 44-67 for the Indian people? The monster with saffron and green blood. 9

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quality; the past tense is used for digressions and reflections the narrator makes later on. Write down the historical references to India’s past and present contained in the passage. Here is a list of the events mentioned in the extract: M.A. Jinnah announced the midnight birth of a Muslim nation (lines 5-6); a nation which had never previously existed was about to win its freedom (line 16); it invented the game of chess (line 18); it traded with Middle Kingdom Egypt (line 18); the mass blood-letting in progress on the frontiers of the divided Punjab (lines 28-29); an unscrupulous man, Major Zulfikar is buying refugee property at very low prices (lines 30-31) the violence in Bengal (line 32); the long pacifying walk of Mahatma Gandhi (line 33); Nehru delivers a speech at the Assembly Hall (lines 46-47). What colours are in the flag of the new nation? Saffron, white and green (line 97).

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able to swap the babies round. Vanita dies giving birth but her son will be brought up in a rich family in the new India. STEP 6 Write a complete summary of the text. On the morning of the day India became independent from Britain, two very different women went into labour in the same Nursing Home: Vanita, the wife of a poor man, Wee Willie Winkie, and Amina, wife of the rich Sinai. All over the country there was great excitement in spite of endless rumours of strange happenings of ill-omen. Jubilant crowds flaunting the new colours of India began to celebrate in the streets. Many of the staff from the Nursing Home joined them leaving only a couple of nurses to tend to the ladies in labour. Not everyone in the country was celebrating however, as rioting broke out in Lahore and along the borders of the Punjab while Mahatma Gandhi set off on his epic walk for peace. On the stroke of midnight the Indian Prime Minister made the official declaration of independence and exactly at that moment the two women gave birth each to a boy. While everyone was distracted by the celebrations, a nursing aid, Miss Mary Pereira, swapped the babies round. Vanita’s son would grow up without a mother, as she had died giving birth, but would grow up in a wealthy family, whereas the son of the rich Sinai family would grow up in poverty. The boys came into the world at the same time as the new independent India and their lives would reflect the growth of the new country. 4

COMPOSITION: In the novel Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie describes the historical event of Indian independence. What does he highlight most?

OR To what extent are our lives conditioned by the country of our birth and the conditions of our upbringing? Write about 300 words. Student’s writing activity. Exam Reference pag. 611 ESAME DI STATO

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Prova Orale - Part 1

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SURF the Internet to find information about:

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rhetoric - the art of persuasion; The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.

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Mohandas Gandhi’s Quit India speeches of 1942; (1 – see transcript below) Winston Churchill’s speech We shall fight them on the beaches (specifically 10’21’’ – 12’10’’) (2 – see transcript below) the techniques of persuasion employed by these two speakers. Both were great communicators. Both were able to create empathy and spoke truthfully and honestly. Winston Churchill used incremental repetitions with key words like ‘fight’, ’defend’, ‘never surrender’ that are linked to the concept of victory. Gandhi was very effective in using short sentences, clarity, directness. He used verbal and non-verbal resources. His key words were: ‘British’, ‘hatred’, ‘freedom’. Gandhi based his campaigns on important principles such as truth, non-violence and suffering. He didn’t want to defeat his opponents, but to convert them to different and more just positions. As he stated, his life was his message, and he didn’t want to create theories but only practice (pragmatism, not theory). There is an evident contrast: W. Churchill’s appeals for ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’, Gandhi for peace and non-violence. Here are the transcripts of the two speeches: 1 M. Gandhi’s speech, from Quit India speeches (08-08-1942) […] Then, there is the question of your attitude towards the British. I have noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture. It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough

GLOSSARY neglected Trascurato to ride out Uscire indenni da to outlive Sopravvivere a to the utmost Al massimo

grip Morsa We shall not flag or fail Non vacilleremo né falliremo steps forth to the rescue Si farà avanti per salvare

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CREATE your own PowerPoint presentation using the material from the Internet and the mind map below. Student’s activity.

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SHOW your presentation to the class. Student’s activity.

Techniques of persuasion

The art of persuasion

Gandhi’s speech Famous speeches in the 20th and 21st centuries

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Churchill’s speech

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2 W. Churchill’ s speech, We shall fight them on the beaches (1940) We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if they can be locally exercised. I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected 1, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out 2 the storm of war, and to outlive 3 the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost 4 of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe

and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip 5 of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule. We shall not flag or fail 6. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue 7 and the liberation of the old.

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self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbour hatred against anybody.

16.7 Literature

The dystopian novel Text Bank 121: Aldous Huxley, Mustapha Mond from Brave new world Teacher’s Key

Text Bank 120: Aldous Huxley, The conditioning centre from Brave new world Teacher’s Key on page 357.

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LOOK UP the word ‘utopia’ in the dictionary and write down its definition. Then provide your own definition of ‘dystopia’. Utopia: An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. Student’s activity.

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READ the text and answer the following questions.

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What did ‘utopia’ mean to 19th-century writers? Utopia was a thing of the future, the culmination of the forces of historical evolution, prepared by the most powerful and progressive tendencies of modem times: democracy, science and socialism. How did utopia and dystopia differ? Fill in the table below.

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Utopia concentrated on the positive

Dystopia painted the most negative, the blackest picture possible of the present and the future to come lent the persuasive techniques of the literary imagination lent the same techniques to the revolt against to the cause of modern ideas of science and socialism modernity invented whole social orders which were perfect in the invented whole social orders merely perfected, in the moral sense social sense, the dreadful perfection of some modern system or idea ideal, in the sense of the ‘best possible’ represented merely the victory or tyranny of the idea the reader was invited to live the life of a society based the reader was invited to live the life of a society based on certain principles on certain principles the expected response to the experience was delight the expected response to the experience was horror

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How did America and the Soviet Union inspire the dystopian novelists of the 1930s and 1940s? Aldous Huxley drew largely upon American practices for its picture of a benighted future world, sunk in consumerism. George Orwell expressed his bitter feelings about the failure of a socialist utopia in the Soviet Union. How did the concept of utopia change in the novels of the 1950s? In the new utopian conception of the 1950s science and technology played a major role to which fears about nuclear war were the persistent dystopian undercurrent.

YOUR TURN 3 DISCUSS. Can you think of other examples of dystopian books, films and TV programmes? Why do you think this genre has been so popular in the 20th and 21st centuries? Class discussion.

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on page 360.

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16.8 Literature

George Orwell and political dystopia

Teaching tip The presentation George Orwell in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 122: George Orwell, Old major’s speech from Animal farm Teacher’s Key on page 362.

Text Bank 123: George Orwell, The execution from Animal farm Teacher’s Key on page 364.

Text Bank 124: George Orwell, Newspeak from Nineteen Eighty-four Teacher’s Key on page 366.

ANSWER the following questions about the life and work of George Orwell.

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How did Orwell view his country? Orwell had a deep understanding of the English character, of its tolerance, its dislike of abstract theories and insistence on common sense and fair play. On the other hand, his various experiences abroad contributed to his unusual ability to see his country from the outside and to judge its strengths and weaknesses. What conflict did he experience? The conflict between his middle-class background and education and his emotional identification with the working class. What social experiments did he make? He spent short periods living in common lodging-houses in the East End, seeking the company of ‘down-and-outs’. He worked as a dishwasher in a hotel in Paris. He lived among the miners, factory workers and unemployed in the industrial North to investigate their conditions. He went to Catalonia to report on the Spanish Civil War and fought in the trenches of the Aragon front. What did he believe about writing? He believed that writing interpreted reality and therefore served a useful social function. What themes did he deal with? He insisted on tolerance, justice and decency in human relationships, and warned against the increasing artificiality of urban civilisation. Above all, he presented a devastating critique of totalitarianism, warning against the violation of liberty and helping his readers to recognise tyranny in all its forms.

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Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 202. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 202.

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ANSWER the following questions about Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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In what sense is Nineteen Eighty-Four a dystopian novel? Because it does not present an ideal or perfect community embodying the author’s ideals, but shows a future society that is anything but ideal and that satirizes existing

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conditions of society. What sort of society does it describe? Orwell presents a frightening picture of the future as being under the constant control of ‘Big Brother’. There is no privacy because there are monitors called ‘telescreens’ watching every step people take; love is forbidden but there is the ‘Two Minutes Hate’ and the country is in a perpetual state of war. The Party has absolute control of the press, communication and propaganda; language, history and thought are controlled in the interests of the state through the gradual introduction of Newspeak, the official language whose lexis is so limited that people find it impossible to express their own ideas. Any form of rebellion against the rules is punished with prison, torture and liquidation. What is the protagonist like and what does he symbolise? Winston Smith is the last man to believe in humane values in a totalitarian age. ‘Smith’, the commonest English surname, suggests his symbolic value; ‘Winston’ evokes Churchill’s patriotic appeals for ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ during the Second World War. Winston is middle-aged and physically weak; he experiences alienation from society and feels a desire for spiritual and moral integrity. What are its main themes? Nineteen EightyFour is a satire on hierarchical societies which destroy fraternity. The main themes are the attempt to preserve mutual trust, decency and memory.

Big Brother is watching you George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) Part I, Chapter I

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DISCUSS. Do you think the question of privacy is a pressing one in contemporary society? Can you provide examples of ways in which technology has changed access to our private lives and information? Class discussion.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ and gather information about the social and political organisation of Oceania as regards: security and control; people’s private lives; language; politics. Oceania has

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Text Bank 125: George Orwell, How can you control memory? from Nineteen eighty-four Teacher’s Key on page 367.

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a totalitarian government under the leadership of Big Brother, whom nobody has ever seen except on the posters that are hanging everywhere. The government has total control on the life of the citizens, whose private and public behaviour is constantly watched through telescreens (lines 5-6, 24, 32-33) and helicopters (lines 18-20). The Thought Police (lines 21, 28) has the task of controlling and manipulating people’s thoughts and opinions. The main principles of this government are expressed in the slogans at the end of the passage. There is also the Ministry of Truth (line 45).

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NOTE DOWN the details the passage gives you about the protagonist. Consider: his name; physical appearance; clothes; mood; job. Name: Winston Physical appearance: a smallish, frail figure, fair hair, sanguine face, skin roughened by coarse soap, blunt razors and the cold of the winter (lines 7-10). Clothes: blue overalls, the uniform of the Party (line 8). Mood: a sort of vague distaste (line 34). He tries to remember what London was like when he was a child. Job: He works in the Ministry of Truth (line 33).

ANALYSIS 4 DISCUSS the symbolic meaning of the elements concerning Winston Smith’s description. 1 His name ‘Winston’: who may have inspired Orwell in the choice of such a name? His name has heroic connotation; it was Churchill’s name. 2 His surname ‘Smith’: how would you explain the choice of such a common British surname? His surname makes him ‘the man of the street’. 3 His age and appearance: do they correspond to the traditional features of the ‘hero’? No, he is an ordinary man, a sort of anti-hero. 4 His memories: can he remember anything about his past? He cannot remember anything about his past. Nothing remains of his childhood (lines 42-44). 5

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ANALYSE the presence of Big Brother in the extract.

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Through what device is Big Brother conveyed? What does this method remind you of? Through posters with captions (lines 13-14). The conditioning of advertising. Big Brother is also the parody of a historical figure. Single out the details of his description and try to guess who he is. Lines 14-16, Stalin.

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POINT OUT what features of the life in the city of the future created by Orwell particularly strike you. Open answer.

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ANALYSE the three slogans of the Party.

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What kind of words does Orwell employ? Opposite words; Orwell uses paradox. How does this affect the meaning of each slogan? It acquires a satirical meaning.

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DISCUSS What does Orwell attack in the passage? What danger does he warn the reader against? Orwell makes a parody of totalitarianism. He attacks the sense of loss of the finest emotions and values of contemporary Britain. He warns the reader against the danger of total adhesion to a political system and its leader.

YOUR TURN 9 DISCUSS in pairs. What does ‘having an identity’ mean to you? Do you think it is important to preserve the memory of the past? If so, why and how? Students’ activity. ESAME DI STATO

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10 TYPE B. Write ten to twelve lines presenting the totalitarian society described by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Students’ activity Suggested answer: The society Orwell describes in Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of fear and monotony. There is no room for any individuality of any kind whether it be in thought or in action. It is a society that is completely controlled through fear and punishment. There is the constant awareness of being watched and controlled all the time through the ‘telescreens’ that also serve to pump out endless propaganda, by helicopters and the ‘Thought Police’. It is a society where everyone is expected to conform and thoughts and language are resisted to

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READ this extract from Eros and Priapo and do the following activities.

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Look for examples of satire in the text. All the phrases used to refer to Mussolini – ‘il Vigile dei destini principe ragghiare da issu’ balconi’ / ‘Ruggente lïone di tutto coccio stivaluto e medagliuto’ (lines 10-11, 17-18) – are examples of satire. Where can you identify Gadda’s anti-Fascist position? Gadda’s anti-fascist position can be identified in the following sentences: ‘la delinquente brigata ha garentito a sé ogni maggior comodità e sicurezza’, / ‘dar di mazza o di stocco, fucilare, deportare’ (lines 1-2, 8-9). Concentrate on the language: look for examples of archaisms, neologisms and elements of dialects. Archaism: ‘garentito’ (line 2), dello (line 3), a sua posta, (line 5) Neologism: ‘palagiare’ (line 11) Element of dialect: ‘da issu’ balconi’ (line 11). Explain what Gadda’s linguistic mess stands for. Italy was prey to chaos, violence, political disorder and the abuse of power. Gadda thought that only through a fragmentary, incoherent language, made up of elements of dialects, technical jargon and wordplay, he could portray the multiplicity of the disintegrated world.

16.9 Comparing Literatures

Gadda and Orwell: satire on hierarchical societies

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La delinquente brigata Carlo Emilio Gadda Eros and Priapo (1944-45)

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Chapter 1

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REVISE your knowledge about the Italian author Carlo Emilio Gadda and point out any similarities between him and George Orwell (I16.8). Student’s activity. Students should point out that both C.E. Gadda and G. Orwell criticized totalitarian governments. The former, both in the novel, That Awful Mess on Merulana Street (1957), and in the essay Eros and Priapo, is able to engage the reader in the open critic against Fascism by the use of a fragmentary, revolutionary language. The latter uses allegory, linked to something outside the text, that is, something political. In Nineteen Eighty-Four a dystopian future, a totalitarian nightmare is depicted. Its terrors - Big Brother, the Thought Police and Doublethink - have become common cultural jargon. READ the definitions of Eros and Priapo and discuss in pairs how they could be connected to Fascism. Eros: Greek god of love Priapo: Priapus, Greek god linked to virility Eros, the god of love, is linked to the fascination that Mussolini was able to exert on the Italians. Priapus, the god linked to virility in Greek and

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COMPARE this text to George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother is watching you’ from Nineteen EightyFour (I16.8) and say what characteristics they share. Both George Orwell and Carlo Emilio Gadda criticized the totalitarian form of Government. The figure of Big Brother in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four can be compared to Gadda’s Mussolini, who is said to be ‘il Vigile dei Destini’: they both control the crowd and cause fear. While Orwell desired to inform, to reveal facts through clear, realistic language, Gadda employed a linguistic mess to point out the political disorder and chaos characterizing Italy during Fascism.

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Exam Reference pag. 611

Roman mythology, stands for the chauvinist showing off of Fascism.

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what is accepted by the omnipresent ‘Big Brother’. Personal memories or individual emotional attraction is banned and punished. It is a cold, impersonal, heartless and inhuman vision of society.

16.10 Literature

William Golding and dystopian allegory

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Teaching tip The presentation William Golding in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author..

5 Text Bank 126: William Golding, Lord of the flies from lord of the flies Teacher’s Key on page 369.

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READ the biography of William Golding and organise your knowledge under the following headings: Family Golding was the son of a schoolmaster. Education He studied at Oxford, reading about Science and then English Literature. Important experiences He joined the Royal Navy in 1940 and fought in World War II, taking part in the historic D-day landings in Normandy. Important works Lord of the Flies (1954), The Inheritors (1955), Pincher Martin (1956), Free Fall (1959), The Spire (1964), Darkness Invisible (1979), The Rites of Passage (1980), The Paper Men (1984), Close Quarters (1987), Fire Down Below (1989). Reputation In 1983 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature and Queen Elizabeth II knighted him Sir William Golding in 1989. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 202.

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ANSWER the following questions about Lord of the Flies.

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Where does the novel take place? It takes place on an Eden-like island in the Pacific or Indian Ocean after a plane crash. Who are the protagonists of the novel? The protagonists are a group of boys aged between six and twelve. Their plane, while en route for an unknown destination, crashed and all the adults were killed. There is no mention of how many boys were originally on the plane, nor is there an exact count taken of the boys who

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survived the crash. The three main characters of the novel are Piggy, Jack, and Ralph. What is their main task? Their task is survival. What do they initially set up? They initially set up a rational society based on a ‘grown-up’ model; they establish a government and laws under the leadership of Ralph, Simon and the short-sighted Piggy; shelters are built and food supplies are arranged. Who or what is the ‘Lord of the Flies’ and where do these words come from? After killing an enormous sow, Jack cuts its head off and puts it on a stake, transforming it into a kind of god, the ‘Lord of the Flies’. These words are a direct translation of the Greek word ‘Beelzebub’, which, in the Bible, is another name for Satan. When is the climax reached? The climax is reached when the boys’ game turns into the killing of Simon and Piggy. How does the novel end? Ralph is hunted down by those boys who oppose social norms and boundaries, and has to flee in order to stay alive. In the end the adult world intervenes in the person of a British naval officer. The fable ends with the pathetic image of Ralph crying for ‘the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart’. What are the most important themes? The most important themes are: human nature and man’s innate defects that can destroy not only an individual but an entire society; good versus evil; the fear of the dark; two forms of government, a democratic one and an authoritarian one. What do Jack, Ralph, Simon and Piggy symbolise? All the boys in the novel exist on two levels: as individuals and as symbols of human nature. Ralph stands for reason, democracy and civilisation. Jack, who represents savagery, violence and instinct, is Ralph’s natural antagonist. He is the head of a choir of ‘hunters’. He is the aggressive force of evil and imposes a sense of discipline on the others, unlike Ralph. He stands for dictatorship versus democracy. Piggy, Ralph’s most loyal supporter, is the voice of rationalism; he believes in the possibility of rescue by the adult society, in the values of civilisation and in the possibility of directing human effort constructively. Simon stands for intelligence and sensitivity. His death marks the end of civility and rationality in the novel.

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A View to a Death William Golding

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Lord of the Flies (1954) Chapter 9

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LOOK at the painting by Rousseau. What does it make you think of? Comment on the two figures and their relative size to the nature around them. Student’s activity. SAY what the title of this text, which is the title of Chapter 9, allows you to predict as regards its climax. Student’s activity.

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ANALYSIS 4 FOCUS on the narrative technique. Who is the narrator of the text? The narrator is omniscient and obtrusive. 5

CONSIDER Ralph, Jack and Piggy.

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How do Jack’s and Ralph’s personalities differ? Jack represents savagery and violence and this is highlighted by his words and actions. Ralph stands for common sense and reason. In fact, he understands the necessity for maintaining a signal fire to attract a possible rescue. Moreover, as the storm is approaching he is worried about the absence of shelters for Jack and his followers. How is the difference between Piggy, Ralph’s follower, and the other boys highlighted? Piggy stands for reason, too. He advises Ralph to avoid arguing with Jack and suggests going away to him. What are Piggy’s and Ralph’s feelings during the other boys’ dancing and chanting? When the boys in Jack’s camp turn into inhuman savages, Ralph and Piggy themselves are attracted to savagery and get swept up in the ritual dance around Jack’s banquet fire (lines 27-29).

COMPREHENSION 3 ANSWER these questions about the text. 1 2

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What interrupts Ralph and Jack’s argument? The approach of a storm (lines 11-13). What does Jack order his tribe to do? Jack orders his tribe to do its wild hunting dance (line 21). What is Roger’s role in the dance? He plays the role of the pig and he is followed and hunted by Jack’s followers (lines 24-27). What is the boys’ state of mind while dancing and chanting? They are caught up in a kind of frenzy (lines 31-32, 33-35). What do Ralph and Piggy decide to do? They are swept away by the excitement and dance on the fringes of the group. What do the boys reenact after that? They

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reenact the hunting of the pig and reach a frenzied energy while dancing and chanting. What do the littluns point at? They point at a shadowy figure coming from the forest (lines 43-45). Who is it? What does it cry out? It is Simon who is crying out about a dead man on a hill (lines 49-50). Do the littluns recognize him? Why? They do not recognize him because of their wild state. What happens then? Who becomes the beast? Shouting that Simon is the beast, the boys descend upon him and start to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth (lines 51-52). What does Simon try to explain? Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is (lines 52-54). What do the boys do in the end? They fall upon him violently and kill him (lines 55-57). What changes take place in the weather throughout the passage? A violent storm breaks out at the end of the text.

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10 What are the most important symbolic objects? The fire becomes the symbol of destruction, while a white shining conch, found by Ralph near the shore at the beginning of the novel, stands for democracy and order. The skull of a female pig, a victim of the collective ritual killing, becomes both a symbol of a sacrificial victim and the emblem of the forces of evil. Piggy’s glasses are another important symbol: they serve to make fire and therefore they symbolize power. The symbols of savagery are the children’s painted faces, and the Lord of the Flies, created when Jack and his hunters perform the brutal murder of a sow.

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EXPLAIN the following symbols present in the extract.

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The fire. Rescue but also destruction. The conch. Democracy and order. It is, in fact, refused by Jack who stands for an authoritarian form of government. The boys’ dancing and chanting. Savagery, a collective wild rite. The circle made by the boys. Simon’s imminent death. Simon’s murder. With the brutal murder of Simon, the last form of any civilized order on the island is destroyed, and brutality and chaos take over. Just before Simon’s arrival at the feast, there is a sudden pause and silence, the game is suspended. As Simon’s body is carried out to the sea, he becomes the symbol of the beauty of the natural world and its order destroyed by the absence of civilization. The storm. The storm that batters the island after Simon’s death hints at the catastrophe of the murder and physically embodies the chaos and anarchy that have overtaken the island.

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SUM UP the issues having a more general relevance that are hinted at in the extract. The most important issues developed in this extract are: Freedom, which is not possible since it becomes a slave to passions and violence; Civilized society: it is very frail and it brings about corruption and evil; Evil: it is an innate tendency in man’s heart; Violence: it comes from the violation of any rational values and accompanies instinct and savagery.

ESAME DI STATO

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different competitions and vote one person out every week. The full meaning of Lord of the Flies is linked to the very real horrors of World War II. It hints at the concepts of civilization, altruism, political leadership responsibilities, and the history of western imperialism. Gulliver’s Travels, Orwell’s 1984 and Golding’s novel describe a dystopian world: while Swift’s aim is to attack political corruption, Orwell’s is to show the dangers of extreme politics, Golding develops the theme of evil which is innate in man.

Exam Reference pag. 611 Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 202.

16.11 Cultural Issues

Imagining the future

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 203. Text Bank 127: Cormac McCarthy, The road from The road Teacher’s Key on page

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TYPE B. In a ten-to-twelve line paragraph explain Golding’s vision of human nature. Can you find anything in common with Swift (I6.10) and Defoe (I6.8), and Orwell (I16.8)? Suggestion: Golding’s novel is considered a subversion of the adventure tale, comparing it to Robinson Crusoe. Both Robinson and Golding’s children deal with survival, but in this case the participants’ mission is to stay on the island as long as possible. They challenge each other in

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TYPE B. Point out the similarities and differences between Dickens’s (I10.9) and Golding’s children in a ten-to-twelve-line paragraph. Student’s activity. Students should point out that whereas Dickens depicts childhood as pure in order to criticise the impure adult world around them, Golding suggests a primordial capacity for sadism and cruelty in all mankind. Lord of the Flies also hints at the savagery in the Western colonizer.

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IN PAIRS make a list of what you think the most important issues concerning the future are. Students’ activity. IELTS

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Speaking – Part 2

INDIVIDUAL LONG TURN. Draw a spider chart to present your dreams and your fears about a possible future society. You have one

My future dystopia

You have to carry the fire Cormac McCarthy The Road (2006)

COMPREHENSION 1 READ the passage and answer the questions. 1 Who is active at the beginning of the passage and what is he doing? The boy is active and he is searching for food and building a temporary shelter against the rain with pieces of wood he finds on the road. 2 What is the fire the father refers to and where is it? It refers to the goodness and the hope carried in the boy ‘You’re the best guy. You always were.’ (lines 31-32). It is inside the boy. 3 What promise did the father make to his son? He said he would never leave him (line 30). 4 Why won’t he keep this promise? He can’t keep the promise because he is dying. 5 How will the father and son continue to talk to each other? He tells the boy to talk to him in his imagination (line 35). 6 Why does the father have to stop talking? Because he is going to start coughing again (line 41). 7 What does the boy do when he returns and finds his father asleep? He sits with him under the plywood and watches him. He closes his eyes and talks to him, and imagines his father listening to him (lines 43-45). 8 Who is the boy thinking of when he asks about the ‘little boy’? The boy is thinking of himself and how he will be lost without his father (lines 50-51).

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YOUR TURN 3 DISCUSS. How important is having hope for the future? Do you think it is necessary for mankind to think things can get better? What might happen if all hope were lost? Class discussion.

16.12 Literature

The Theatre of the Absurd and Samuel Beckett

Teaching tip The presentation The Theatre of the Absurd and Beckett in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 128: Samuel Beckett, Waiting from Waiting for Godot Teacher’s Key on page 371.

Text Bank 129: Harold Pinter, Rose’s room from The Room Teacher’s Key on page 372.

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My ideal future society

ANALYSIS 2 COMMENT on: the language and style; the atmosphere created at the end of the passage. The style is deliberately very simple, almost childlike in its simplicity. The author underlines this elementary language by often missing out basic grammar like apostrophes. The very basic nature of the language underlines the total lack of any of the comforts of life left around them. It is as if the language, like the world they have to face, has been stripped bare. The simplicity and childlike quality is also in complete contrast to the strength of emotion; the horror at what they have witnessed and the love that binds them. In spite of the horrific reality the boy is having to face with his father’s death, the passage ends on an optimistic note with the father’s belief that ‘goodness’ will somehow win through. This reflects the writer’s belief that even in the most dreadful circumstances, even after a nuclear cataclysm, human nature and the innate humanity ‘the fire within’ will survive and overcome evil.

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minute to prepare; then you have two minutes to talk. Student’s activity.

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READ the text about the Theatre of the Absurd and make notes under the following headings:

Main representatives Subject matter

Style

Aim

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Specification 16

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READ the biography of Samuel Beckett and point out:

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the education he received; He was educated at a boarding school in Dublin, where he was a brilliant student, and then at Trinity College Dublin. how he started his literary career; He began his literary career as a short-story writer and a novelist, however his international reputation was established by his plays. the features of his masterpiece, Waiting for Godot; Beckett’ s play, Waiting for Godot, first written in French in 1952 and translated into English in 1954, was the first play in this style. Though it puzzled some of the critics and shocked the public, it achieved immense success; it was regarded as the most original, influential play of the time and its protagonists, the tramps Vladimir and Estragon, became the emblems of the Absurd. whether he was successful in his lifetime. Beckett’ s further plays develop the character of the naked, helpless, static being. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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LOOK at the photograph from a production of Waiting for Godot. Describe the scenery in detail. What kind of characters are there on the stage? Student’s activity.

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ANSWER the following questions about Waiting for Godot.

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What is the setting of the play? It has no setting but a country road and a bare tree; it has no plot, because events do not mean anything in the course of time. Who are the protagonists? They are Vladimir

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Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard Absurd is what is devoid of purpose, in the absence of religious, metaphysical and transcendental roots man is lost; metaphysical anguish, the absurdity of the human condition These dramatists did not form a school, they considered themselves as outsiders, with their personal approach to form (Debasement of language, seldom recognizable characters). To express the anguish of modern man

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and Estragon, who are never described as tramps: they are two human beings perpetually concerned with questions about the nature of the self, the world and God. Why are the main characters complementary? They are complementary, since they are different aspects of a single whole. Vladimir is more practical, he never dreams and he keeps waiting; Estragon is a dreamer, sceptical about Godot and always complaining about mysterious persons who beat him during the night. As the passing of time is their mutual occupation, Estragon struggles to find games to help them reach their goal. Estragon cannot remember anything about his past; Vladimir, although possessing a better memory, distrusts what he remembers. Estragon needs his friend to tell him his history; it is as if Vladimir establishes Estragon’s identity by remembering for him. Estragon also serves as a reminder for Vladimir of all the things they have done together. Thus both men serve to remind the other man of his very existence. What are the most important themes? The meaninglessness of time as a direct result of chance which is at the basis of human existence. What is the main feature of Beckett’s language? The language of the play is informal, but it does not serve the purpose of communication: dialogue is only sketched and each character, who usually follows his own thoughts, appears to be perfectly aware that the words he produces are just a way to fill his endless waiting. Another device used to show the lack of communication between characters is the use of para-verbal language, such as pauses, silences and gaps.

Waiting for Godot (1952) Act 1

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REFER to the introduction to Waiting for Godot on the previous page and discuss the following questions.

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What do you think the function of the audience is in this play? Do you think we can be caught up in Vladimir’s and Estragon’s dilemmas? Are we supposed to be as confused as these two characters are? Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the text and find out: 1 where the two characters are; They are sitting on a low mound (stage directions in the introduction). 2 what Estragon is trying to do; He is trying to take off his boots. 3 what they have to celebrate; They have to celebrate that they are together again (line 10). 4 where Estragon spent the night; In a ditch (line 14). 5 what / who beat him during the night; Mysterious people beat him during the night (lines 18-19). 6 whether they have a clear memory of their past; No, they do not (lines 20, 21-22). 7 what their main occupation is; We know they are waiting. 8 what Estragon and Vladimir do at the end; Estragon asks for help to take off his boot (lines 28, 35) and he succeeds in taking it off (lines 53-54); Vladimir takes off his hat and peers inside it (lines 48-49,51). 9 whether their actions are meaningful. All their actions are meaningless. ANALYSIS 3 FOCUS on the dialogue between the two characters. 1 State the most important features of the language employed. The dialogue is full of repetitions; it is composed of ready-made phrases; silences and pauses are interspersed with the Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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CONCENTRATE on the stage directions. What do they mostly refer to? They refer to the characters’ actions, their mood and the lack of communication.

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DESCRIBE Vladimir and Estragon in a few sentences. Estragon sleeps in a ditch where he is beaten each night. He has no memory beyond what is immediately said to him, and relies on Vladimir to remember for him. He is impatient and anxious. Vladimir is inquisitive and the more practical of the two. Vladimir has been compared to the intellect which provides for the body, represented by Estragon.

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POINT OUT the devising games which will help the two characters pass the time. What are they the result of? Taking off the boots and the hat, repeating the last words. They are the result of chance, which is the main ingredient of time.

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IDENTIFY the theme developed in this extract. The hopelessness in the daily struggle to pass the time.

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CONSIDER the language used in this scene. How would you define it? The language is informal, simple and essential.

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TYPE B. Explain in not more than ten to twelve lines how Beckett moved away from

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characters’ utterances, each character seems not to be interested in communicating with the other. Several words are repeated throughout the extract, like ‘ditch’ (lines 14,15), ‘beat’ (lines 17-18), ‘help’ (lines 28, 35), ‘It hurts’ (lines 36, 37, 40, 41); ready-made phrases can be found in lines 24, 25-26, 35, 43, 44, 45-46. They all stand for the inconsequential spontaneity of everyday speech. Clues like the phrases ‘The same’ and ‘Nothing to be done’, are repeated several times in this extract. What effect is achieved? What do these sentences stand for? At first the phrase ‘Nothing to be done’ is used in connection to Estragon’s boots, later it is used by Vladimir with respect to his hat. Essentially it describes the hopelessness of their lives.

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Nothing to be done

the traditional features of drama as regards: plot, characters, message, setting, dialogue and stage directions.

Plot Characters Message Setting Dialogue Stage directions

Student’s writing activity. Students should use the data of the following table:

Traditional theatre Series of events developing a theme e.g. Social climbing Stereotypes often middle class To entertain and/or to satirize Definite e.g. London aristocracy Satirical, witty, brilliant Limited

Exam Reference pag. 611

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Specification 16

YOUR TURN 10 DISCUSS in pairs. Pink Floyd in their album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) expressed the alienating condition of contemporary man. The themes of Waiting for Godot are echoed in the lyrics of ‘Eclipse’. Have you ever heard this song? If so, discuss how it relates to the play. If not, think of a song with similar themes. Students’ activity.

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Say where this man is and what is strange about his face. He is in an isolated place and seems imprisoned in a chair. The face is deformed and shadowy with a devilish look. Point out the details concerning the floor. It is deformed by lines going in different directions which might represent light or speed. Find out what Bacon’s painting is deformed by. By a frame of vertical lines and irrational marks which have no representational relationship with those areas of the face they are intended to depict. Identify the colours used by Bacon and state their symbolic significance. The dark colour of the background conveys death, yellow connoting anguish is the colour of the ‘cage’ imprisoning the Pope; violet is used for his robe; greyish white is the colour of his face, gown and hands. What does the image communicate? The soundless, endless scream, the white clenched hands and the figure trapped in a dark, claustrophobic place communicate anguish, fear and desperation.

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LOOK at Painting below and answer the following questions. A photograph of Mussolini shouting was the starting point for this painting, which implied a chain reaction of visual transformations. What is the background scene? It is an old-fashioned butcher’s shop with festoons on the walls and a carcass which, like the Rembrandt carcass (Slaughtered Ox) in the Louvre, is also a headless Crucifixion. What is its dominant image? A black, open umbrella. What can you see under it? A faceless shrieking mouth addressing a battery of microphones.

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What is the atmosphere of the painting? It is full of anguish and reminiscent of death. What typical motifs of Bacon’s painting does this picture present? The haunches of meat, the colour red, the faceless figure, the shriek and the Crucifixion. LOOK at Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X below and do the following activities. In the 1950s, Francis Bacon painted a series of canvases that reflected his obsession with the outstanding Spanish painter Diego Velázquez’s (1599-60) portrait of Pope Innocent X.

Art Lab 28: Francis Bacon Photocopiable Lesson on page 230. Teacher’s Key on page 251.

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Outsiders, tramps Lack of communication Bare, symbolic Repetitive and meaningless Short, essential, frequent.

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16.13 The Arts

Francis Bacon’s dark, distorted images

Beckett’s theatre Nothing happens

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TYPE B. Write ten to twelve lines discussing the view of humanity depicted in Bacon’s works. Student’s activity. Suggestion: The image of humanity present in Bacon’s paintings is disjointed and incomplete. Half monster, half human, Bacon’s creatures are frozen not in a pose or an image, but in time

Exam Reference pag. 611

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Terza Prova

itself. Time is a continuous phenomenon, a dimension that is a more essential part of reality than mere appearance. The aim of the artist is not to make visible a detached moment of general time, a story, or piece of narrative, but to demonstrate time itself as a continuum, that reality is a field of contradictory forces. Bacon wants to demonstrate that man is beyond any figuration, the figure exists beyond identity, corresponding to a principle rather than a living being, a paradoxical principle that is expressed in the fragile state between equilibrium and disequilibrium within.

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YOUR TURN 3 DISCUSS how the themes depicted in the paintings of Francis Bacon are connected to those expressed by Samuel Beckett (I16.12) in his plays. Students’ activity.

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the population from the South to the North, which had been a characteristic of the Industrial Revolution, was reversed as heavy industry in the North declined and light industry in the South and the Midlands expanded. The other significant development was that fewer people lived in the centres of towns. Managers and professionals moved out to the suburbs and dormitory towns, and many working-class families went to live in new subsidised housing estates on the edges of towns. Another striking social change was the boom in the sales of the daily press, as new ‘popular’ newspapers appeared. Radio broadcasting began in the 20s and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was created in 1926.

Prova Orale – Part 2 1

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Specification 16

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PROVIDE a general view of the 1930s in England. The Thirties were a difficult time for most people in Britain. After World War I the Labour Party rose rapidly and the trade unions became more active in trying to get better pay and conditions by holding strikes. During the 1920s, the constant disputes between the coal miners and the mine owners eventually led to the General Strike of 1926. The families of coal miners, shipbuilders, and cotton operatives experienced prolonged periods of hardship, and the areas in the North of England, South Wales, and central Scotland became depressed. For the unemployed, there was misery and often abject poverty. The unemployment of the 1920s and 1930s was certainly one of the most shocking phenomena of the first half of that century. Europe was inevitably affected by the Great Depression in the USA although there were areas of exception like the boom owing to rearmament for the impending war against Germany. The creation of the British Commonwealth of Nations in 1931 marked the end of the British Empire and there was a potential constitutional crisis when the King Edward VIII, who had succeeded his father George V, abdicated rather than renounce his intention to marry an American divorcee. He was succeeded by his brother George VI, the father of the present monarch. These were the years of the rising of dictatorships in Germany and Italy and Civil War broke out in Spain, when the fascist rebel General Francisco Franco with the assistance of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler led an attack against the Republican Government. The left-wing movements in Britain supported the Spanish republican government and many committed intellectuals like the poet W.H. Auden and the novelists George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway joined the anti-fascist International Brigades. The 1930s brought about important social transformations. The growth of the population slowed down, mainly thanks to birth-control practices, families became smaller and women were more and more independent. The drift of

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READ the poem ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ below, which appeared in the section ‘Lighter poems’ of W. H. Auden’s collection Another Time, and do the following activities.

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Describe the layout of the poem as regards: number and length of lines, rhyme scheme, punctuation. The poem consists of 6 lines of different length. The rhyme scheme is ABBCAC. The use of semi-colon divides the poem into three parts of two lines with the second line always beginning with ‘And’. Say what portrait of the tyrant Auden provides. He is ambitious and his power over people is based on the use of a simple language that anybody can understand. He knows human weakness very well and uses it to his own advantage. He is warmonger and surrounds himself with politicians who pay him lip service. When he is disappointed he takes his revenge on the poor and the weak. Explain how you would link this poem to the historical context. The poem is satirical and shows Auden’s disgust with the European dictators of the 1930s.

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TRACE the most important events of World War II.

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September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War started. September 1939 Poland fell. 1940, Belgium, Holland and Norway fell and France surrendered in June 1940 after British and French soldiers retreated from Dunkirk. 1940, the Conservative Winston Churchill

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DISCUSS the consequences of the victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 general election in Britain. In spite of the nation’s deep gratitude towards its charismatic leader, Winston Churchill, the country was tired of war and there was a great desire to move on and create a better way of life. This was reflected in the victory of the Labour Party under the leadership of Clement Attlee in the general election in July 1945. The new government threw itself into a programme of creating a welfare state and nationalizing transport and resources. They took over the control of power and natural resources like gas and electricity; public transport like the airlines and railways, and credit through the Bank of England. This process of nationalization meant that the government bought all the shares of the companies in these fields in exchange for government bonds. The most important move towards the ‘Welfare State’ was through the

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DRAW a brief portrait of Mohandas Gandhi and his legacy. Mohandas Gandhi, called the Mahatma or Great Soul, is the archetype of the anti-colonial revolutionary. He preached non-violence and replaced self-interest with group interest though emphasising the importance of the individual. He used fasting, prayer and non-violence and tried to be a living example of simplicity and selfdiscipline. He wore the minimum amount of clothing, wearing cheap glasses and carrying a bamboo staff. He was a vegetarian and had a day of silence every Monday. He believed in cleanliness and tried to teach Indian villagers about the connection between human and animal dirt and disease. He resuscitated native culture and Indian resistance. He revived Indian handicrafts and encouraged the boycott of British products. From his understanding of wealth and poverty came his understanding of labour and capital, which led him to the solution, based on the belief that there is no private ownership of capital but that it is given in trust for a more equal redistribution. Gandhi led many crusades to undermine the power and moral defences of the British and spent almost seven of his 74 years in prison. By the end of World War II, Britain was ready to grant India independence. But what should have been Gandhi’s greatest triumph, on August 15, 1947, turned into a defeat. India gained freedom but lost unity when Britain on the same day created the new Muslim state of Pakistan. Partition dishonoured Gandhi’s creed. All the village pilgrimages he made and the famous fasts he undertook could not stop Muslims and Hindus from killing one another. On January 30, 1948 Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who blamed him for not hating Muslims and letting them steal part of the Hindu nation.

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creation of the National Health Service (NHS). The National Health Service Act was passed in 1946 although the service began in 1948. It gave free medical, dental, optical and hospital care to everyone. Almost all hospitals were nationalised and run by fourteen regional hospital boards. Maternity care, health visitors and child welfare clinics were set up, too, and run by local authorities. The man in charge of these reforms was the Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan.

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•

became Prime Minister. He appointed ministers from all the political parties and established a ‘War Cabinet’ of five to take important decisions. Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941. The German army was destroyed by the long Russian winter and by resistance in the sieges of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad where it was forced to surrender in January. 1941 Japanese air-attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, was followed by American intervention in the war. 1942 the advance of Montgomery’s army in North Africa, which proved disastrous for the German and Italian troops, marked a turning point. 1943 The Russian Red Army marched through Eastern Europe to liberate the countries invaded by the Germans. D-Day – D for Deliverance. On 6th June 1944, the Allied touched down the coasts of Normandy, and in spite of desperate German resistance, they managed to liberate France. 1945 Germany finally surrendered, after Hitler’s suicide in his Berlin bunker. Japan remained at war but in August 1945 President Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan surrendered.

As contemporary society faces growing unemployment, where small minorities consume while the masses starve, we find ourselves forced to rethink our current globalisation and to ponder Gandhi’s alternative. He shines as a conscience for the world; the saint and the politician go hand in hand, proclaiming the power of love, peace and freedom. His example has been followed by many great figures like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. 6

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Specification 16

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DISCUSS Indian independence and its echoes in the literary field. India gained its independence from Britain with an official declaration from the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru at midnight on August 15, 1947. The day before, Pakistan had been declared a separate nation and this partition of the country was to lead to widespread bloodshed. One of the most important literary works reflecting this period of Indian history is Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. This Indian writer was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, in 1947 into a Muslim family and his work explores the themes of displacement and the confusion between fact and myth in the Third World. His use of magic realism is also a way through which his own multi-cultural identity – a mixture of Indian, Pakistani and British – can find expression. The heart of Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children is the narrator, Saleem Sinai, who, born at midnight, on 15th August 1947, when India gained its independence from British rule, views himself as a metaphor for the nation. Rushdie deals with some of the great events in Indian history, such as the war with Pakistan (1948), Prime Minister Nehru’s death (1964) and the riots in Bombay after the State partition. However, the novel is not meant to be a chronological sequence of the historical events but through flashbacks, foreshadowing and digressions it portrays the atmosphere, aspirations and disillusionments of the new nation. EXPLAIN the difference between utopia and dystopia. What is meant by a ‘dystopian novel’? As utopia concentrated on the positive, so dystopia painted the most negative, the blackest picture possible of the present and the future to come. While a utopia is an ideal or

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perfect community some writers have described to embody their ideals, dystopias show possible future societies that are anything but ideal and that ridicule existing conditions of society. 8

DEFINE the role of the artist, according to George Orwell. In his essay Inside the Whale (1940), Orwell tried to define the role of the writer considering the literature of the 1920s and 1930s. His desire to inform, to reveal facts and draw conclusions from them, led him to believe that writing interpreted reality and therefore served a useful social function. This explains why his most successful novels express political themes. However, Orwell believed that the writer should be independent, that no good writing could come of following a party line.

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DISCUSS. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, is Winston Smith a hero or an anti-hero? The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is the last man to believe in humane values in a totalitarian age. ‘Smith’, the commonest English surname, suggests his symbolic value; ‘Winston’ evokes Churchill’s patriotic appeals for ‘blood, toil, sweat and tears’ during the Second World War. Winston is middle-aged and physically weak; he experiences alienation from society and feels a desire for spiritual and moral integrity. He works at the Ministry of Truth where he alters the records of the past to fit current Party policy. In private he writes on the creamy paper of an old diary in an attempt to maintain sanity in a disorienting world. In the first two parts of the novel it is likely that Winston and the narrator are one, and that he expresses Orwell’s views.

10 EXPLAIN the use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Golding uses a lot of symbolism in this novel. The entire book is symbolic of the nature of man and society in general. A symbol Golding uses throughout the book is the conch. It represents authority and order. The person holding the conch had the power, and it created order and rules since when it was called, everyone had to listen. Another symbol is Piggy’s glasses. They symbolized knowledge and insight. While Piggy had them, he was able to give advice to the group, such as that of the signal fire. It was the

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It has no setting (just a country road and a bare tree). It has no plot (events do not mean anything in the course of time). It has no characters in the traditional sense, as a character presupposes some personality. It has no action, since the static situation of waiting is described. It has no dialogue in the conventional sense, because the characters are unable to provide each other with information either about their present situation, or about their recent experience and current events in the world outside. Time is meaningless as a direct result of chance which is at the basis of human existence. The language of the play is informal, but it does not serve the purpose of communication: dialogue is only sketched and each character, who usually follows his own thoughts, appears to be perfectly aware that the words he produces are just a way to fill his endless waiting. Another device used to show the lack of communication between characters is the use of para-verbal language, such as pauses, silences and gaps. The dialogue is full of repetitions, ready-made phrases, silences and pauses.

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12 JUSTIFY the use of distorted images in Francis Bacon’s paintings to convey a view of humanity. The image of humanity present in Bacon’s paintings is disjointed and incomplete. Half monster, half human, Bacon’s creatures are frozen not in a pose or an image, but in time itself. Time is a continuous phenomenon, a dimension that is a more essential part of reality than mere appearance. The aim of the artist is not to make visible a detached moment of general time, a story, or piece of narrative, but to demonstrate time itself as a continuum, and that reality is a field of contradictory forces. Bacon wants to demonstrate that man is beyond any figuration, the figure exists beyond identity, corresponding to a principle rather than a living being, a paradoxical principle that is expressed in the fragile state between equilibrium and disequilibrium within. Bacon painted landscapes, figure studies and portraits, distorting the readability of the image by a technique of smearing the wet paint. His portraits are deliberately not a ‘true’ likeness. Some have seen these portraits as a way to rework a traditional genre, to reinvent the portrait in a post-photographic age and to use the human face to say something about the human condition. His tortured figures are a depiction of inner suffering, torment, and everyman’s anguish.

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11 TRACE the features of Absurdist drama in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Several words are repeated throughout the extract which all underline the inconsequential spontaneity of everyday speech. Clues like the phrases ‘The same’ and ‘Nothing to be done’, are repeated several times pointing to the hopelessness of the characters’ lives.

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glasses that created the fire. However, after the glasses were broken, the group lost the insight they had. The war paint is also a symbol. It symbolized the rejection of society. In a way, when they put on the mask of war paint, they took off the mask of society and revealed their true inner selves, which were savage.

LESSON PLAN 17 Roads to Freedom This is just a suggestion of how to use Performer culture & literature Volume 3. Specification 17 deals with the 1960s and 1970s in Britain and in the USA, the cultural revolution of the 1960s and the Beat Generation. The cultural issue is about anger and rebellion. The development of this Specification ideally covers 13 lessons depending on the class and the level of the students. LESSONS CULTURE & LITERATURE Roads to Freedom 1 17.1 History Students are introduced to the 1960s and 1970s in Britain through Q&A. They also practice the Terza prova – Type A on page 551 at home. Students research further information about Bertrand Russell doing the activities 6-7 on page 551 Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 1. This task can be completed at home.

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Specification 17

The presentation of Roads to Freedom in PowerPoint can be employed either as a support to the introduction of the period or as a summing up at the end of the specification. 2

17.2 History Teachers explain the 1960s and 1970s in the USA through Q&A. Internet lab Students carry out research about the space race between the US and the USSR. This activity can be completed at home.

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17.3 Culture Students practice TOEFL Academic Reading while studying the cultural revolution. They are also given an Insight into Carnaby Street.

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17.3 Culture Students practice TOEFL Listening – Part 3 while studying youth cultural and street style in Britain. They also do the activities of the Esame di Stato – Seconda Prova about the poem Annus Mirabilis by Philip Larkin. The exercise 3 on page 557 can be completed at home. Further activity: Dictation: Woodstock Further activity: Art Lab 29

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17.4 Mapping Music Teachers introduce The Beatles’ Liverpool showing the map (Interactive map 18 in the CD-ROM) and the places mentioned. 17.5 Literature Teachers introduce John Osborne and Look Back in Anger. The presentation of John Osborne in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work.

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17.5 Literature Students analyse the extract Boring Sundays! from Look Back in Anger. They also practice the Terza prova – Type B on page 561 at home. 17.6 Literature Teachers explain the Beat Generation. Students are also given an insight into City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. Further development: Text Bank 131 to be done at home.

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17.6 Literature Teachers explain On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The presentation of Jack Kerouac in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students are also given an insight into Route 66.

17.7 History Teachers explain the Civil Rights Movement in the US through a table of the most important events linked to this topic. Students read and analyse I have a dream by Martin Luther King, Jr and do TOEFL Writing Task 2 at home.

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17.8 Cultural Issues Students discuss the issue about anger and rebellion and do the activity TOEFL Speaking –Task 4. Teachers introduce the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and students read and analyse the text Holden and old Phoebe. The activity on page 573 can be completed at home.

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17.9 The arts Students study Pop Art and Andy Warhol. Further activity: Art Lab 30

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17.10 Two Films About The Sixties...

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17.11 History Teachers explain the Irish Troubles. 17.12 Literature Teachers introduce Seamus Heaney and Irish politics. Students read and analyse the poem The Tollund Man. They practise the Terza prova – Type B on page 578 at home. Further development: Text Bank 136

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17.13 Comparing Literatures The section provides a comparison between Heaney and Luzi. Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 2 on page 580 can be either used as a ‘recupero in itinere’ in the classroom or as homework.

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Students read and analyse Into the West from On the Road. They practice the Terza prova – Type B on page 565 at home. Further development: Text Bank 132

Specification 17

Roads to Freedom 17.1 History

Turbulent times in Britain

Teaching tip The presentation Roads to Freedom in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the period.

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Specification 17

LOOK at pictures 1-5. Discuss what they tell you about 1960s and 1970s in Britain. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: The pictures show: 1) Britain’s joining the European Community; 2) advertisement of a new product underlining better living conditions; 3) medical centres for women promoting health; 4) protest in favour of Cuba; 5) protest marches against discrimination. The answers may also be inferred from the picture captions.

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MATCH the words (1-4) to their definitions (A-D). 1 C; 2 A; 3 D; 4 B.

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READ the Q&A text. Student’s activity. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 203.

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IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Students’ activity.

ESAME DI STATO

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Terza Prova

TYPE A. Write a 200-word essay about the key concepts regarding British society in the 1960s and 1970s. Student’s activity. Exam Reference pag. 611

ESAME DI STATO

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Prova Orale - Part 1

SURF the Internet to find information about Bertrand Russell regarding:

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his biography; his works on logic; his works on pacifism; his lecture when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Student’s activity. Teaching tip Russell’s life and works are given below for further activity. Bertrand Russell’s life Bertrand Russell was an active pacifist who spent considerable energy working for world peace, especially in his eighties and nineties. He was born in England in 1872, and he died in 1970. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied mathematics, philosophy, economics and political science. Over the course of his long career, Russell made significant contributions to logic and philosophy, education, politics, history, religion and science, and many of his writings have influenced generations of readers. Works on logic Russell’s contributions to logic and the foundations of mathematics include his discovery of paradox and his defence of logic, that is the view that mathematics can be reduced to formal logic. Russell discovered the paradox that bears his name in 1901, while working on his Principles of Mathematics (1903). The paradox arises in connection with the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself. The paradox is significant since, using classical logic, all sentences are entailed by a contradiction. Of equal significance during this same period was Russell’s defence of logic. First defended in his Principles of Mathematics, and later in greater detail in the three volumes Principia Mathematica (1913), Russell’s logic consisted of two main theses: the first is that all mathematical truths can be translated into logical truths; the second is that all mathematical proofs can be recast as logical proofs or, in other words, that the theorems of mathematics constitute a proper subset of those of logic. Russell’s basic idea for defending logic was that numbers may be identified with classes of classes and that numbertheoretic statements may be explained in terms of quantifiers and identity. Thus the number 1 would be identified with the class of all unit classes, the number 2 with the class of all two-membered classes, and so on. Statements such as ‘There are two books’ would be recast as statements such as ‘There is a book, x, and there is a book, y, and x is not identical to y’. It followed that number operations could be explained in terms of set theoretic operations such as intersection, union, and difference.

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In 1963 the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was formed. Russell worked to free political prisoners in over forty countries, and began publishing articles criticising the unofficial war in Vietnam. He explained how the French, Japanese, British, and Americans had prevented the Vietnamese people from obtaining their independence for the sake of imperialism and capitalistic exploitation. He described the atrocities that had been perpetrated by puppet governments of the Western and American ‘advisors’. In 1966 he gave four reasons why the United States should withdraw from Vietnam. First, the U.S. war crimes in Vietnam had been amply documented; second, the U.S. had no right to be there; only a puppet ruler and a few ambitious Vietnamese generals wanted them there; third, U.S. claims of ‘halting aggression’ were absurd since the Geneva agreements had arranged for the unification of Vietnam through election, which the U.S. had blocked; fourth, the U.S. should not be encouraged to think that aggression pays. Russell continued to work for peace till the end of his life, and his last political statement was a condemnation of Israeli’s aggression in 1970. Bertrand Russell, Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1950 What Desires Are Politically Important? The text that follows is an extract of the lecture made by Russell when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. He used his acceptance speech to emphasise, once again, themes related to his social

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1957, asking that they made an agreement which would consider both Russian and American interests. He suggested the following: first neither side should incite war with the aim of gaining world dominion; second, the diffusion of nuclear weapons to other countries had to be stopped; third, lessening hostility could lead to immense savings on armament expenditures; and fourth, by respecting each other’s rights and using argument instead of force, fears of collective death could be diminished. In 1959 Russell expressed his views in the books Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare and Has Man a Future?, where he held that the steps towards peace had to include the abolition of nuclear tests, the solving of differences without the threat of war, complete nuclear disarmament and a reduction of conventional forces. On August 6, 1961 (‘Hiroshima Day’) a sit-down demonstration took place in Hyde Park, and Russell illegally used a microphone. He was arrested and convicted of inciting the public to civil disobedience; his sentence was commuted to one week. Russell wrote eloquent leaflets and gave speeches urging that the seriousness of nuclear peril justified nonviolent civil disobedience against the offending governments which were ‘organising the massacre of the whole of mankind.’ In October and November of 1962 Russell acted as a peacemaker in the serious international crisis of Cuba when President Kennedy ordered the naval blockade of this island to stop any Russian ship from carrying missiles there.

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Works on pacifism During the war Russell wrote several books on politics, war, and peace. Principles of Social Reconstruction and Why Men Fight (1916) were published in America. In these works Russell started with the idea that wars could be prevented by a positive life of passion. Impulse did not have to be weakened but directed ‘towards life and growth rather than towards death and decay.’ Russell suggested that the excessive discipline of impulse not only destroyed vitality but often created impulses of cruelty and destruction; this is why militarism was bad for national character. He recommended, therefore, active pacifism with the impulse and passion to overcome the impulses of war. Great courage, passion, love, and being constructive were necessary to face the onslaught of the hostile public opinion of a nation. In Political Ideals (1917) Russell discussed the need for an international government to secure peace in the world by means of effective international law. Just as police were needed to protect private citizens from the use of force, so an international police could prevent the lawless use of force by states. The benefit of having law rather than international anarchy would give the international government a respected authority so that states would no longer feel free to use aggression. Russell published Which Way to Peace? in 1936; here he criticised isolationism and encouraged international law and government with an international armed force to prevent war. The development of nuclear weapons caused Bertrand Russell deep concern. In November 1945 he gave a speech in the House of Lords warning that atomic weapons were going to be made more destructive and cheaper. Understanding nuclear physics he explained how a hydrogen bomb with much more explosive force could work. He predicted that soon the Russians would have bombs as destructive as those of the United States. In 1950 Bertrand Russell was given the Nobel Prize for Literature. The last twenty years of his life were primarily devoted to warnings against the nuclear danger, advocacy of world government, and the active work of peacemaking and protesting about policies of war. He believed that world government was the only alternative to the disaster of nuclear war. In 1954 he delivered his famous Man’s Peril, broadcast on the BBC condemning the Bikini Island H-bomb tests. He did not speak as a Briton or a European but as a human being. He recommended that some neutral countries should form a commission of experts to report on the destructive effects of the use of hydrogen bombs in war. He suggested that his report should be submitted to the Governments of the Great Powers so that they could agree that a world war could not serve any purpose. Russell asked everyone to remember their humanity and forget the rest so that a new Paradise would open instead of a way to universal death. A year later, together with Albert Einstein, he released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, calling for the reduction of nuclear weapons. Russell urged ‘the governments of the world to realise and to acknowledge publicly that their purposes cannot be furthered by world war.’ Russell addressed an open letter to Eisenhower and Khrushchev in November

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activism and to warn of the dangers associated with nuclear war. I have chosen this subject for my lecture tonight because I think that most current discussions of politics and political theory take insufficient account of psychology. [ …] All human activity is prompted by desire. There is a wholly fallacious theory advanced by some earnest moralists to the effect that it is possible to resist desire in the interests of duty and moral principle. I say this is fallacious, not because no man ever acts from a sense of duty, but because duty has no hold on him unless he desires to be dutiful. If you wish to know what men will do, you must know not only, or principally, their material circumstances, but rather the whole system of their desires with their relative strengths. The desires that are politically important may be divided into a primary and a secondary group. In the primary group come the necessities of life: food and shelter and clothing. When these things become very scarce, there is no limit to the efforts that men will make, or to the violence that they will display, in the hope of securing them. It is said by students of the earliest history that, on four separate occasions, drought in Arabia caused the population of that country to overflow into surrounding regions, with immense effects, political, cultural, and religious. The last of these four occasions was the rise of Islam. [ …] Acquisitiveness - the wish to possess as much as possible of goods, or the title to goods - is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries. I once befriended two little girls from Estonia, who had narrowly escaped death from starvation in a famine. They lived in my family, and of course had plenty to eat. But they spent all their leisure visiting neighbouring farms and stealing potatoes, which they hoarded. Rockefeller, who in his infancy had experienced great poverty, spent his adult life in a similar manner. But acquisitiveness, although it is the mainspring of the capitalist system, is by no means the most powerful of the motives that survive the conquest of hunger. Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic, and saying ‘Look at me’. ‘Look at me’ is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame. There was a Renaissance Italian prince who was asked by the priest on his deathbed if he had anything to repent of. ‘Yes’, he said, ‘there is one thing. On one occasion I had a visit from the Emperor and the Pope simultaneously. I took them to the top of my tower to see the view, and I neglected the opportunity to throw them both down, which would have given me immortal fame’. History does not relate whether the priest gave him absolution. One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about. [ …] But great as is the influence of the motives we have been considering, there is one which outweighs them all. I mean the love of power. Love of power is closely akin to vanity, but it is not by any means the same thing. What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it is easy to have glory without power. The people who enjoy the greatest glory in the United States are film stars,

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but they can be put in their place by the Committee for Un-American Activities, which enjoys no glory whatever. In England, the King has more glory than the Prime Minister, but the Prime Minister has more power than the King. Many people prefer glory to power, but on the whole these people have less effect upon the course of events than those who prefer power to glory. When Blücher, in 1814, saw Napoleon’s palaces, he said, ‘Wasn’t he a fool to have all this and to go running after Moscow.’ Napoleon, who certainly was not destitute of vanity, preferred power when he had to choose. [ … ] Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power, and this applies to petty power as well as to that of potentates. In the happy days before 1914, when well-todo ladies could acquire a host of servants, their pleasure in exercising power over the domestics steadily increased with age. Similarly, in any autocratic regime, the holders of power become increasingly tyrannical with experience of the delights that power can afford. Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure. [ …] I come now to other motives which, though in a sense less fundamental than those we have been considering, are still of considerable importance. The first of these is love of excitement. Human beings show their superiority to the brutes by their capacity for boredom, though I have sometimes thought, in examining the apes at the zoo, that they, perhaps, have the rudiments of this tiresome emotion. However that may be, experience shows that escape from boredom is one of the really powerful desires of almost all human beings. [ … ] What is serious about excitement is that so many of its forms are destructive. It is destructive in those who cannot resist excess in alcohol or gambling. It is destructive when it takes the form of mob violence. And above all it is destructive when it leads to war. It is so deep a need that it will find harmful outlets of this kind unless innocent outlets are at hand. There are such innocent outlets at present in sport, and in politics so long as it is kept within constitutional bounds. But these are not sufficient, especially as the kind of politics that is most exciting is also the kind that does most harm. Civilised life has grown altogether too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting. […] Interwoven with many other political motives are two closely related passions to which human beings are regrettably prone: I mean fear and hate. It is normal to hate what we fear, and it happens frequently, though not always, that we fear what we hate. […] There are two ways of coping with fear: one is to diminish the external danger, and the other is to cultivate Stoic endurance. The latter can be reinforced, except where immediate action is necessary, by turning our thoughts away from the cause of fear. The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itself degrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. Nothing has so beneficent an effect on human beings as security. If an international system could be established which would remove the fear of war, the improvement in everyday mentality of everyday people would be enormous and very rapid. Fear, at present, overshadows the world.

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Commentary Bertrand Russell points out that the desires which are politically important may be divided into a primary and a secondary group. Food, shelter and clothing belong to the former group; the lack of these necessaries may lead man to the wish to possess as many goods as possible, to vanity, which is a motive of great potency, and to love of power, which has recently increased. The latter group includes the love of excitement, which may be destructive when it leads to war. Interwoven with other political motives are the passions of fear and hate. He states that fear overshadows the world because of the atom bomb and bacterial bomb; killing in a modern world is an expensive operation, but if man is able to use his own intelligence he will succeed in reaching happiness. As a matter of fact, it does not take a great philosopher to understand that peace and justice in the world would be for the good of all, while war and oppression benefit a few at the expense of many. Now that we are on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, the time has come for the good people and the goodness in all people to rise up and demonstrate a peaceful way to achieve a stable peace. The threat of nuclear holocaust is too dangerous to offer a permanent peace; war can break out suddenly, but peacemaking takes time, patience, intelligence, and communication. Before the political leaders give up their use of nationalistic military methods to try to solve problems, enough people must be educated to understand better methods. Those who realise that love and understanding are more effective in peacemaking than hatred and force are the people who will be changing the world for the better by communicating and educating others.

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as they desired the misery of their neighbours. But, you will tell me, what is the use of these utopian dreams? Moralists will see to it that we do not become wholly selfish, and until we do the millennium will be impossible. I do not wish to seem to end upon a note of cynicism. I do not deny that there are better things than selfishness, and that some people achieve these things. I maintain, however, on the one hand, that there are few occasions upon which large bodies of men, such as politics is concerned with, can rise above selfishness, while, on the other hand, there are a very great many circumstances in which populations will fall below selfishness, if selfishness is interpreted as enlightened self-interest. And among those occasions on which people fall below self-interest are most of the occasions on which they are convinced that they are acting from idealistic motives. Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power. When you see large masses of men swayed by what appear to be noble motives, it is as well to look below the surface and ask yourself what it is that makes these motives effective. It is partly because it is so easy to be taken in by a facade of nobility that a psychological inquiry, such as I have been attempting, is worth making. I would say, in conclusion, that if what I have said is right, the main thing needed to make the world happy is intelligence. And this, after all, is an optimistic conclusion, because intelligence is a thing that can be fostered by known methods of education.

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The atom bomb and the bacterial bomb, wielded by the wicked communist or the wicked capitalist as the case may be, make Washington and the Kremlin tremble, and drive men further along the road toward the abyss. If matters are to improve, the first and essential step is to find a way of diminishing fear. The world at present is obsessed by the conflict of rival ideologies, and one of the apparent causes of conflict is the desire for the victory of our own ideology and the defeat of the other. I do not think that the fundamental motive here has much to do with ideologies. I think the ideologies are merely a way of grouping people, and that the passions involved are merely those which always arise between rival groups. The time has come to sum up our discussion. Politics is concerned with herds rather than with individuals, and the passions which are important in politics are, therefore, those in which the various members of a given herd can feel alike. The broad instinctive mechanism upon which political edifices have to be built is one of co-operation within the herd and hostility towards other herds. The co-operation within the herd is never perfect. There are members who do not conform, who are, in the etymological sense, ‘egregious’, that is to say, outside the flock. These members are those who have fallen below, or risen above, the ordinary level. They are: idiots, criminals, prophets, and discoverers. A wise herd will learn to tolerate the eccentricity of those who rise above the average, and to treat with a minimum of ferocity those who fall below it. As regards relations to other herds, modern technique has produced a conflict between self-interest and instinct. In the old days, when two tribes went to war, one of them exterminated the other, and annexed its territory. From the point of view of the victor, the whole operation was thoroughly satisfactory. The killing was not at all expensive, and the excitement was agreeable. It is not to be wondered at that, in such circumstances, war persisted. Unfortunately, we still have the emotions appropriate to such primitive warfare, while the actual operations of war have changed completely. Killing an enemy in a modern war is a very expensive operation. If you consider how many Germans were killed in the late war, and how much the victors are paying in income tax, you can, by a sum in long division, discover the cost of a dead German, and you will find it considerable. In the East, it is true, the enemies of the Germans have secured the ancient advantages of turning out the defeated population and occupying their lands. The Western victors, however, have secured no such advantages. It is obvious that modern war is not good business from a financial point of view. Although we won both the world wars, we should now be much richer if they had not occurred. If men were actuated by self-interest, which they are not - except in the case of a few saints - the whole human ace would cooperate. There would be no more wars, no more armies, no more navies, no more atom bombs. There would not be armies of propagandists employed in poisoning the minds of Nation A against Nation B, and reciprocally of Nation B against Nation A. There would not be armies of officials at frontiers to prevent the entry of foreign books and foreign ideas, however excellent in themselves. There would not be customs barriers to ensure the existence of many small enterprises where one big enterprise would be more economic. All this would happen very quickly if men desired their own happiness as ardently

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CREATE your own PowerPoint presentation using the material from the Internet. Student’s activity. SHOW your presentation to the class. Student’s activity.

Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.’ The astronauts received a message from the President, who spoke of the pride of the Americans and said: ‘This certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made.’ Many other nations, including the UK, sent messages of congratulation. A lunar landing had been the theme of science-fiction just a few years before, and around the world millions of people watched the mission with a mixture of fascination, pride and fear.

17.2 History

Mid-century America

Text Bank 130: Bobbie Ann Mason, Dad’s diary from In Country Teacher’s Key on page 373.

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Specification 17

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SURF the Internet to find information about: NASA; the ‘space race’ between the US and the USSR; and the Apollo 11 moon landing, including the astronauts, the purpose of the mission, the famous quotes from the event, and the conspiracy theories which question the truthfulness of the event. Two examples have been provided: www.history.com/topics/space-race www.nasa.gov/home/index.html Student’s activity.

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PRESENT your findings to the rest of the class. Student’s activity.

LOOK at pictures 1-5. Discuss what they tell you about the 1960s and 1970s in the US. Students’ activity. READ the Q&A text. Student’s activity. IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Students’ activity.

LOOK at the picture and say what it shows. Student’s activity. Suggestion: The American astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon. He stepped onto the Moon’s surface, in the Sea of Tranquility, at 02.56 GMT, nearly 20 minutes after first opening the hatch on the Eagle Lunar Module. Armstrong had earlier reported the safe landing with the words: ‘Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.’ As he put his left foot down, he declared: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ He described the surface as being like powdered coal and the landing craft left a crater about a foot deep. Armstrong was joined by his colleague Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin at 03.15 GMT and the two collected data and performed various exercises before planting the Stars and Stripes flag at 03.41 GMT. They also unveiled a plaque bearing President Nixon’s signature and an inscription reading: ‘Here men from the planet

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17.3 Culture

The cultural revolution

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 203. TOEFL

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Academic Reading

READ the article and then answer questions 1-13. Answers: 1 C; 2 D; 3 A; 4 C; 5 C; 6 A; 7 B; 8 D; 9 A; 10 C; 11 D; 12 A; 13 A; B; D. Summary: The Sixties in Britain saw important social changes due to a tangible desire for change in the aftermath of the two world wars and a rise in the spending possibilities of the young. London became the new fashion capital of the world with its rejection of department stores and the introduction of the mini-skirt. Young people also found a form of protest in their choice of music and popular bands from

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Listenig - Part 3

4.1 LECTURE. Listen to the lecture about youth culture in Britain, take notes and then answer the questions (1-6). Answers: 1 B; 2 C; 3 A; 4 D; 5 C; 6 = I D, II E, III F, IV A, V B, VI C.

TRANSCRIPT The Sixties and Seventies saw the rise of youth movements which were characterized by the wish to challenge the boring, cosy normality of the new post-war society. The ideological differences were evident from their appearance and clothes. From the Fifties, the Sixties inherited the Teddy Boys or Teds so called for their long jackets, and pointed shoes with laces which imitated an upper-class style of dress worn at the time of Edward VII when the greatness of Britain had been beyond dispute. Teds cut their hair very short at the back and kept it raised in the front. They had a reputation for violence, acting the part of hooligans, slashing cinema seats. Another predominantly male group were the Bikers or Rockers. They rode motorcycles which they called ‘bikes’ and wore rough working-class clothes, notably the black leather jacket. Both stylistically and ideologically, they were outsiders, and organized illegal races in the High Street, started drunken fights, robbed bars, and made obscene advances to local women. They considered women and immigrants of colour as inferior. Aggressive masculinity, the ability to handle a bike and take needlessly dangerous risks gave one the right to belong to the group. Their rivals were the Mods whose subculture was centred around fashion and music. The Mods rode scooters and wore suits and other tailored outfits. They liked 1960s music genres such as soul, rhythm and blues, ska and beat music. The Sixties was also the time of the gentle, Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Partly as a reaction to the hippies and partly as a response to growing social tension the new distinctive subculture of the Skinheads adopted an aggressively working-class identity with heavy boots, labourers’ jackets, tattoos and shaved heads. Instead of ‘love and peace’, the Skinheads seemed to welcome conflict and aggression. First in the football stadiums but soon demonstrated as violence against the hippies and the ethnic minorities. Skinheads became linked with extreme right-wing political groups and synonymous with racism. Rising unemployment and general economic stagnation gave rise to the Punks with their nihilistic battle-cry of ‘No Future!’. The Punks held nothing sacred. They spat on everything, including themselves, their basic belief being nothingness, a vacuum, a void. Deliberately threatening and offensive, punk style was violent in its ‘cut ups’ with safety pins worn through the cheek, ear or lip. They wore cheap, trashy fabrics and their hair was dyed black or bright yellow, with spikes of orange or green. Typical Punk bands like the Sex Pistols, chose song titles that reflected the deliberate desecration and the voluntary assumption of an outcast status. By the end of the 1970s the Punks had become a tourist attraction particularly associated with Sloane Square and the King’s Road. 4.2 dictation: The Woodstock festival, Teacher’s Key on page 203. Art Lab 29: Mid-century American art, Photocopiable Lesson on page 252. Teacher’s Key on page 232.

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flower-power anti-aggression Hippy. In sharp contrast with the rigid, antagonistic working-class subcultures, their boundaries and categories were fluid and their goals un-materialistic. To show their detachment from mainstream consumerism they rejected time, throwing away their watches. Life was concentrated on the ‘now’. Their style of dress was also characterized by fluidity; hand-made clothes from natural materials – often, ethnic in origin, and were loose and flowing to allow the body the same relaxed freedom as the mind.

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this period became famous internationally. The Sixties were years of lasting gains in sexual and individual freedom, but were followed by a period of disillusion and selfishness.

Annus Mirabilis

reference to the Beatles underlines their importance as symbols of the new young ‘swinging’ culture of the Sixties.

Philip Larkin High Windows (1974)

GUIDED TASK

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 204. ESAME DI STATO

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Seconda Prova

STEP 1 read through the poem and complete the sentences: Student’s activity. Suggested answers: A In 1963 there was an important change in sexual behaviour/sexual freedom because the contraceptive pill was made freely available. B A different attitude towards sex in literature was shown by the end of the ban put on books like Lady Chatterley’s Lover. C It was also the beginning of a new young scene in music as the reference to the Beatles shows. D Before that time sex had been seen as something to be ashamed of or anyway not accepted outside of marriage. E The new atmosphere of sexual freedom was a brilliant opportunity that improved everyone’s lives. F The poem ends by saying that life was so much better for everyone except for the poet himself. STEP 2 Write a 120-word summary of the poem starting: Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Annus Mirabilis’ was written to mark the dramatic change in attitude towards sexual freedom made possible by the widespread availability of the contraceptive pill. This change happened in 1963, the Annus Mirabilis. The poet refers to the lifting of the ban on Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the issuing of the first Beatles LP. Attitudes to sex in literature had changed, the young musical scene had become important and The Beatles dominant. Before 1963, sex was considered shameful or forbidden outside of marriage. The poet saw the new atmosphere of sexual freedom as a brilliant, welcomed opportunity. He was happy about the new sexual freedom although he insisted that it had come too late for him to enjoy.

ANSWER the following questions.

What began in 1963 according to the poet? Free sexual intercourse began in 1963. 2 Why does he express disappointment in line 3? He expresses disappointment in line 3 because he feels that he is now too old to enjoy the new sexual freedom. 3 What does he refer to with the words ‘Chatterley ban’? He refers to the kind of literary censorship that banned D. H. Lawrence’s book Lady Chatterley’s Lover for obscenity, a ban that had just been removed. 4 What does the poet mean by ‘wrangle for a ring’? The ring here clearly refers to an engagement or wedding ring, in other words women would only agree to sexual relations after a promise of marriage. 5 What poetic sound device is being used in line 9 and line 14? Alliteration is used: ‘A shame that started at sixteen’ (line 9) and ‘A brilliant breaking of the bank’ (line 14). 6 What is the ‘shame’ the poet refers to in line 9? Sexual relations outside of marriage were considered shameful and there was great fear of illegitimacy. 7 What emotion is the poet expressing in the third stanza? The poet is expressing optimism and triumph in the third stanza saying every life became a winning game. 8 Is the poet positive or critical about the changes brought about in 1963? The poet is obviously positive using words like; ‘brilliant’, ‘unlosable’ and ‘never better’. 9 Which are the only negative lines in the poem and what do they tell us about the poet? The only negative lines are lines 3 and 18 where the poet expresses a kind of complaint about it being too late for him to benefit from the new sexual freedom. This makes us think the poet was rather a negative person, particularly as regards his own life. 10 What does the mention of The Beatles tell us about their role at this time? The repetition of 1

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SUMMARISE the content of the poem following the guided task.

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COMPOSITION: After reading all the texts in this part of the Specification (17.3), explain in

your own words why and how the Sixties were a ‘cultural revolution’. In which ways has social behaviour changed within your own lifetime? Answer with reference to fashion, mass media and what is considered socially acceptable or unacceptable. Write about 300 words. Student’s writing activity. Suggestions: Students who choose the first title should mention why there was a cultural revolution in the Sixties – making reference to the new social laws connected to sex, divorce, abortion and the introduction of the contraceptive pill. They should explain the new liberal attitudes to same-sex partners and to sex before marriage. They should also mention the way fashion, music and youth sub-cultures all reflected the changes. Then the importance of London and why it became called ‘Swinging London’. In conclusion the students should express their own views on this distinctive time. Students who choose the second title have freer range but good students should reflect on what was frowned upon when they were children but is accepted now. They might also make considerations about how youth culture still dominates fashion and music and make reference to any form of young sub-culture they are aware of. Exam Reference pag. 611

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READ the text and underline the places mentioned. Then locate them on the map. Student’s activity.

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ANSWER the following questions.

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Why was Liverpool so important in The Beatles’ career? Because it shaped The Beatles’ early music and lives. Who were the first three members of The Beatles? They were John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. When did the Beatles’ luck change? The Beatles’ luck changed when a young recordshop owner, Brian Epstein, noticed them at The Cavern Club: he was amazed at what he saw. Liverpool was full of similar young bands at the time, but The Beatles had something else, charisma. By January 1962, Brian was officially their manager, putting the boys in suits, but keeping their long hair and giving them a different look from any other group around. When did Ringo Starr become the official drummer? In 1962, when the band recorded Love Me Do. What did the album Revolver mirror? It mirrored The Beatles’ experimenting with drugs. Why did the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band become the perfect soundtrack for the late Sixties? As it contained many references to death, drugs, and rebellion and provided the perfect soundtrack for the mood of a world, which was immersed in controversy over the Vietnam War, drugs and rebellion. Why was the song ‘All You Need is Love’ so important? Because it was the first world satellite broadcast to reach the entire world. When did The Beatles break up? In 1970 Paul officially announced he was leaving the band, and despite legal arguments, The Beatles went on to pursue individual musical careers and separate lives. Although fans hoped they would reconcile, the reunion came too late, after John Lennon was shot in 1980.

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17.4 Mapping music

The Beatles’ Liverpool 7

Interactive Map 18

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DISCUSS in pairs. Why do you think The Beatles were one of the most influential bands of the 20th century? Have you ever listened to their songs? If so, which one(s) do you prefer and why? Students’ activity. Suggestion: The Beatles were undoubtedly

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one of the most influential bands of the century. In just 8 years, they changed not only rock and roll, but also the face of all music forever.

Boring Sundays!

17.5 Literature

John Osborne: the spokesman of the ‘Angry Young Men’

Teaching tip The presentation John Osborne in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

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Specification 17

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ANSWER the questions about Look Back in Anger.

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What is the setting of the play? The setting is realistic, a one-bedroom flat in the Midlands. What is the structure of the play like? Look Back in Anger is a play conventionally constructed in three acts. Who is the protagonist? Jimmy Porter is the main character; he is the representative of the frustrated British youth of the 1950s. He is an embittered and snobbish university graduate. Why is it possible to state that the plot is circular? The plot of the play can be said to be circular, since in the last act the objective reality is just the same as it was at the beginning. What or whom is Jimmy angry at? He is angry at his wife’s not being angry, at a society which leaves no room to young people. He is an outsider in rebellion against the whole ‘Establishment’, which he sees personified in his wife and her family; he is the embodiment of the ‘protester’ without a clear, definite cause to fight for. However, he continually searches for one, with courage, honesty and sincerity, but also with morbid self-pity and hysterical excesses. Why can he be considered a sort of anti-hero? He is an anti-hero, since he speaks but never acts. What is the main theme? The main theme is a criticism of establishment values. What is the main feature of Osborne’ s style? The language is the most innovative element of the play. It is spontaneous and vital, no longer influenced by middle-class conventions, crude and violent, provoking and revolutionary. Jimmy’s vulgar slang expressions and colloquialisms could be understood by everybody, so that the play was addressed to a wider public, ignored only a few years before.

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John Osborne Look Back in Anger (1956) Act I, Scene I

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DISCUSS. What is your favourite day of the week? Do you like Sunday or do you find it boring? Why? Class discussion.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ lines 1-65 and focus on the information you are given. Then answer the following questions. 1 What do Jimmy’s first words express? They express his disgust with the snobbish tone of the Sunday papers (lines 5-6), which can make an article unintelligible to most people by writing three columns in French (lines 5-6). 2 What does Jimmy tell his friend Cliff? He criticises Cliff ’s ignorance and compares him to a peasant (line 8). 3 What does he try to draw his wife into? Jimmy tries to draw his wife into the conversation (lines 8-9, 14), but she is not listening to him. 4 What do Jimmy’s and Alison’ s words reveal about their relationship? A sort of animosity between them begins immediately, since the further Alison withdraws, the more Jimmy demands a response (lines 11-12, 13-16, 17-18). 5 Does Cliff seem to try to stop the argument between husband and wife? Yes, Cliff tries to stop the argument but he does not succeed in destroying Jimmy’s anger against his wife (lines 15, 23, 26, 33-34). 6 What does Jimmy express while picking up a weekly? He expresses his hunger (line 46). 7 How does Cliff react to such a statement? He calls Jimmy a ‘bloody pig’ (line 48). 8 What does Jimmy order Cliff to make? He orders him to make some tea (lines 61-62). 3

READ the rest of the excerpt and note down:

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what happens; Very little happens; Jimmy and Cliff go on reading the papers and Alison continues ironing. what Jimmy and Cliff exchange; They exchange two ‘posh’ papers (lines 87-88). how Cliff behaves towards Alison. He tries to

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FOCUS on Alison and Cliff. Is their characterisation drawn in detail? What do their reactions to Jimmy reveal about their daily relationship with him? Their characterisation is only sketchily drawn, since they have little independent life at all. Their reactions show their resignation at Jimmy’s anger. READ the stage directions again. Do they affect the overall meaning of the scene? What is/are their function/s? They underline Jimmy’s anger, they are a sort of a spotlight, a bull’s eye that follows his violent actions/ reactions.

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POINT OUT the main themes hinted at in the text. The theme of isolation and frustration. Jimmy is, in fact, a visionary man looking forward to some unknown ideal; what shatters him is the tension of his present situation, since he is forced to seek out and establish relationships in a society which doesn’t understand them.

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TYPE B. Draw a comparison between Beckett (I16.12) and Osborne as regards plot, setting, theme, stage directions and language. Write ten to twelve lines. Student’s writing activity. Students should use the data of the table below in their paragraph.

Beckett Plot: non consequential, obscure Setting: symbolic and bare Theme: the meaninglessness of human experience Stage directions: repetitive and frequent Language: everyday, meaningless

Osborne Plot: consequential, true-to-life Setting: realistic and related to the working class Theme: social criticism against middle-class values Stage directions: detailed, informative and clear Language: everyday, simple, clear

Exam Reference pag. 611

17.6 Literature

Jack Kerouac and the Beat generation

Teaching tip The presentation Jack Kerouac and the Beat generation in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 131: Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California from Collected poems Teacher’s Key on page 375. Text Bank 132: Jack Kerouac, The children of the American bop night from On the Road Teacher’s Key on page 376.

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ANALYSIS 4 CONCENTRATE on the main character, Jimmy Porter. 1 Underline words and phrases indicating: remarks about Alison; outbursts against Cliff; and criticism of the world he himself belongs to. • Remarks about Alison; lines 8-9, 11-12, 16-17, 17-18, 20-22, 31-32, 43-44, 76-79. • Outbursts against Cliff; lines 8, 27, 29, 31, 35-37, 65. • Criticism of the world he himself belongs to. Lines 1-3, 5-6. 2 What causes Jimmy to treat his wife so badly? Her lack of response and affection towards him. She always remains indifferent to both Jimmy’s attacks and to his pleas. Where does his disagreement with his wife come from? It comes from her lack of interest. What do you think Jimmy is battling against? He is battling against inertia and he despairs at the lack of response he sees around him. Why does he go on abusing Cliff? He wants to show his anger against his friend’s being uneducated. What mood dominates Jimmy throughout? Anger and frustration dominate Jimmy throughout the scene. 3 Define Jimmy’s personality. Jimmy is angry, impatient, unpleasant, restless, domineering, irritating, frustrated, pessimistic, violent, revengeful and committed.

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console her by putting out his hand to Alison and grasping her hand (lines 90-91, 93).

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Specification 17

Teaching tip Here are the meanings of the noun ‘beat’: 1. A stroke or blow, especially one that produces a sound or serves as a signal. 2. A pulsation or throb. 3. Physics A variation in amplitude that results from the superpositioning of two or more waves of different frequencies. 4. Music a. A steady succession of units of rhythm. b. A gesture used by a conductor to indicate such a unit. 5. A pattern of stress that produces the rhythm of verse. 6. A variable unit of time measuring a pause taken by an actor, as for dramatic effect. 7. The area regularly covered by a reporter or a police officer. 8. often Beat A member of the Beat Generation.

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ANSWER the following questions about the Beat generation and the beatniks.

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What are the different connotations of the word ‘beat’? The original word ‘beat’ meant ‘down and out’, ‘poor’ and ‘exhausted’. But the word ‘beat’ has a second meaning: ‘beatific’. What were the key ideas of the Beat generation? They were: rebellion and bohemian living, refusal to conform to traditional middleclass puritanical values, rejection of materialism and organized religion, search for alternative ways to find spiritual understanding, like Eastern religion, with its emphasis on meditation and communion with nature, and mind-altering drugs. Where did the term ‘beatnik’ come from? The ‘nik’ suffix was borrowed from ‘Sputnik,’ a satellite that had just been launched by the Soviet Union, striking fear into the hearts of many Communist-fearing Americans. What were the beatniks’ typical actions and clothing? Beatniks lived in dirty apartments, selling drugs or committing crimes for money, hitchhiking across the country because they acted on impulse, did whatever they felt like doing, explored nudity, sexuality and pushed their senses to the limits of understanding; they used to take hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol to expand their world. They used to wear their hair long, grow beards and wear worn-out jeans; old T-shirts and

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LOOK up the definition of the word ‘beat’ in the dictionary and discuss how it could be connected to the cultural context of the Sixties. Student’s activity.

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sandals were their standard uniform. What did they advocate? They advocated escapism.

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DISCUSS in pairs. The myth of the journey has been dealt with in many different ways: from epic to autobiographical report, with introspective or exotic tones. In what literary works and films that you know does a journey play an important role? Students’ activity.

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ANSWER these questions about On the Road.

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Who is the narrator of the novel? Sal Paradise, who stands for Kerouac himself. What is the most important theme? The journey, symbol of the escape from the city and from one’s own past. Who is the hero? Dean Moriarty, who stands for Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassady. Sal idolizes him for his cowboy style, his ease with women and his exuberant joy in living. What language is employed? Kerouac’s style is ‘spontaneous’ and episodic. According to him writing meant expressing whatever came into the mind: a thought, an idea, a scene or an episode, ordered as the mind recalls it. The unsophisticated language used in this novel has been defined as ‘hip talk’ (which is ‘street’ language), and identified with the language of jazz musicians in so far as it is based on spontaneity and on mostly monosyllabic words.

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Into the West Jack Kerouac On the Road (1957) Part One, Chapter 3

COMPREHENSION 1 WRITE a heading for each of the three sections into which the text can be divided. 1 Part 1: lines 1- 24: A bus trip and the sounds of Be Bop music. 2 Part 2: lines 25-39: A ride along Route 66. 3 Part 3: lines 40-49: A walk and a ride uphill. 2

READ the first section and answer the following questions.

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NOTE DOWN in lines 25-39:

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the protagonist’s first ride; It was a dynamite truck with a red flag for about 30 miles into Illinois (lines 25-26). who gave him a lift afterwards; A middle-aged woman who drove him to Iowa (lines 28-30). whether he ‘took over the wheel’; Yes, he was able to drive ‘clear’ through the rest of Illinois to Davenport, Iowa (lines 33-34). what he saw for the first time in his life; He saw his ‘beloved’ Mississippi River, dry in the summer haze (lines 34-35). which place he reached. He reached Rock Island and over the bridge Davenport (lines 36-37).

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READ the text from line 40 to the end and say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

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He walked to the edge of the town. True (line 40). Lots of men driving home from work passed him by without stopping. False. One of them gave him a ride uphill leaving him at the edge of the prairie (lines 42-43). The narrator was afraid of not being seen, since there were no lights in the countryside. True. (lines 46-47) He decided to walk downtown. False. A man gave him a lift (line 48).

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ANALYSIS 5 FOCUS on the narrative method. 1 Who narrates the events? The protagonist of the whole novel, Sal Paradise. 2 How does the narrative technique affect the way the reader perceives the whole scene? The reader is influenced by the narrator’s point of view and is not free to judge. 3 The narrator is presented through his actions. List them and say who/what they are related to. His main actions are: ‘I arrived’ (line 6), ‘went to bed’ (line 8), ‘sat... listening’ (line 17), ‘thought of’ (lines 18-19), ‘went into the West’ (line 20), ‘… I ran after the car’ (line 29), ‘I took over the wheel’ (line 33), ‘I saw … Mississippi River’ (line 35), ‘I walked (line 40)’. Most of the actions are linked to travelling. 4 From what he does, what kind of man do you think he is? He is restless and loves travelling and freedom. 5 What does travelling mean for him? Travelling means going westwards, discovering new lands, freedom, sense of adventure and the joy of life. 6

DEFINE the language used by Kerouac in this extract. The language is realistic, detailed, colloquial and simple.

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CIRCLE all the descriptions of nature. How is nature perceived by the narrator? Natural descriptions: the plain of Ohio (line 4); the wind from Lake Michigan (line 11); the Mississippi River, which is compared to the ‘raw body of America’ (lines 35-36), the prairie (line 43); … It was beautiful there (line 43), the cows … home (lines 44-45). Nature is perceived as something positive, beautiful, in antithesis to the town (lines 42-43). It is also the symbol of the freedom the narrator tries to acquire through his travels.

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TYPE B. Write a ten-to twelve-line paragraph explaining the reasons why On the Road became a ‘cult’ book of the Sixties. Student’s writing activity. Students should point out that On the Road became a cult book in the 1950s and 1960s since its protagonists embodied the youth rebellion and the search for freedom of the Beat Generation. They influenced the style of

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Who was travelling on an ordinary bus? The protagonist, crying babies and country-folk (lines 1-2) were travelling on an ordinary bus. Which city did the protagonist reach? He reached Chicago (line 6) after crossing Indiana. Where did he stay for the night? He spent the night in ‘the Y’, a cheap YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) hostel (line 7). How did he spend the following day? He walked through the city and visited the Loop, the centre of Chicago, where he listened to bop music (lines 11-17). What did he do while listening to ‘bop’ sounds? He thought about his friends who were travelling from one end of the country to the other (lines 18-19) doing something frantic. What was he going to do in the following afternoon? He was going to hitchhike into the West (lines 20-21).

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some newspapers and novels; moreover they contributed to give voice to the uneasiness of the young which led to the students’ riots and rebellions of 1968.

dream? Where did it come from? Is it a realistic dream to hold on to? Why or why not? How do you think young people define the American dream today? Students’ activity.

Exam Reference pag. 611

17.7 History

The Civil Rights Movement in the USA

Text Bank 133: Malcom X, Nightmare from Autobiography of Malcom X Teacher’s Key on page 377.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 17

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GIVE your own definition of racism and expand the following vocabulary network; then share your answers with your classmates. Student’s activity.

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DISCUSS. What is the difference between discrimination and prejudice? What groups do people discriminate against? Class Discussion. Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person, racial group, minority, action based on prejudice. Prejudice is an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. People are discriminated on the basis of age, especially older people, race, religion, political creed, sex, especially women or homosexuals. EXPLAIN what different reactions people might have to the experience of discrimination. Students should draw on what they have already learnt regarding the fights for civil rights, such as the protests of the Suffragettes or Gandhi’s non-violent protest.

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Teaching tip A unitary definition does not exist: the American dream probably has a different meaning to every US citizen. For some it is the dream of freedom and equality, for others it is the dream of a fulfilled life or even the dream of fame and wealth. In general, the American dream can be defined as being the opportunity and freedom for all citizens to achieve their goals and become rich and famous if only they work hard enough. The first settlers hoped for freedom of religion; in their home countries they had been persecuted because of their religious and political views. Bad living conditions in Europe and the hope for better living standards in America attracted more and more settlers to migrate to the new world. The booming US industry during the first half of the 20th century caused the myth ‘from rags to riches’. Today’s role of the American dream is a matter of discussion. Some think that the American dream is still a viable element today, for others it is only an illusion. The American dream focuses on the success of the individual. On the one hand, this has advantages, e.g. lower taxes, little interference of the state. On the other hand, the same advantages are disadvantageous for society: there is no social fond for the poor and there is no serious interest in important issues like environmental protection, etc.

I Have a Dream Martin Luther King, Jr. The Peaceful Warrior 28th August 1968

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READ the text up to line 37 and answer the following questions.

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What semantic area does the speaker employ in lines 1-17 to point out the reason why the blacks have gathered? He employs the semantic area of commerce and finance (to cash a check, signing a promissory note, insufficient funds, bank of justice, bankrupt, great vaults) to point out that the blacks have gathered to cash the cheque of justice. What appeal does King make in lines 16-29? Why? He appeals to rise from the dark segregation and to lift the nation from racial injustice to brotherhood. He exhorts to give voice to the Negro discontent so that America cannot rest in tranquillity.

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 205.

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DISCUSS. You are now going to read Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, which he delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on 28th August 1963. What is the American

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READ the rest of the text and say:

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what he thinks of the white brothers; He thinks that many of them realise that their destiny is tied to the freedom of the blacks. when civil rights will be granted; When they will be able to travel and lodge in the same places as the whites and not be confined to ghettos; when a Negro in Mississippi will be able to vote. what his dream is and where it is rooted. His dream is rooted in the American dream and it wants to see all men equal in a world of freedom and justice where people will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

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lecture by a professor on the same subject. Then you will answer a question that relates to both of them. In your answer, you will have to combine and show the relationship between what you have read and what you listened to. 1

READ the text and make notes on the main points. Main points: • uneasiness among the young increased due to the generation gap, the development of a conformist society and the fear of a nuclear war. • youth protest movements held marches and demonstrations (1968), the main centre was Berkeley. • political protest: pacifism in the United States, Marxism in the European scene and nationalistic movements of independence in the countries of the Third World.

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4.6 Now listen to a talk on the same topic and make notes on the main points. Then answer the following question: What forms did protest take around the world in the 1960s? Preparation time: 30 seconds Response time: 60 seconds Suggested answer: Fidel Castro set up a Marxist-Leninist programme in Cuba overthrowing US economic dominance but depending on Russian aid. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara organised guerrilla uprising in South America. In China Mao Tse-tung launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. In France, in May 1968, a ‘student revolution’ joined the struggle of the workers in Paris. Czechoslovakia was occupied by Soviet forces during the spring of 1968, after a brief attempt at liberalisation.

Writing – Task 2

INDEPENDENT WRITING TASK. Read the question below. You have 30 minutes to plan, write and revise your essay. On a piece of paper take notes on the main points of a response. Then write your response. An effective essay will contain a minimum of 300 words. Give reasons and examples to support your response. What is the best way to protest for one’s rights? Response time: 30 minutes. Student’s activity.

17.8 Cultural Issues

Anger and rebellion

Text Bank 134: Sylvia Plath, Daddy from Ariel Teacher’s Key on page 378. Text Bank 135: Amiri Baraka, The death of reason from Black magic poetry Teacher’s

Holden and old Phoebe

Key on page 379.

J.D. Salinger 1

LOOK at pictures 1-3 below and discuss what the people are protesting about. Student’s activity.

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Speaking – Task 4

INTEGRATED TASK. You will read a short passage and then you will hear a short

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The Catcher in the Rye (1951) Chapter XXII

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DECIDE. Who would you call for help when you needed it the most, and why? Student’s activity.

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What kind of struggle does he call for in lines 34-37? He calls for non-violent struggle, for creative protest conducted on the plane of dignity and discipline.

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Specification 17

COMPREHENSION 2 MAKE NOTES on what Holden says about: 1 his schoolmates; He dislikes them because they are insincere and unkind to him. He criticizes their habit of not allowing dull fellows with pimples to join their meetings, and he does not ‘even feel like talking about it’ (line 11). 2 his History teacher; Mr Spencer. He criticizes his habit of laughing at ‘corny jokes’ told by the headmaster, Mr Thurmer, who was accustomed to interrupting his lessons (lines 23-25). 3 what he likes; He finds it difficult to say (lines 37-38). 4 his brother Allie; He likes his dead brother Allie so much that he prefers him to the people alive living all around him (lines 52-54). 5 his father; His father is a lawyer and he doesn’t want to become like him. 6 what lawyers are like; They make a lot of money and spend their spare time by playing golf and bridge, buying cars and drinking lots of martinis (lines 68-69). They want to save other people’s lives only to increase their own importance (lines 70-71). 7 his sister; She is only a little child; she is the only person Holden cares for and is not in conflict with. 8 his idealistic aspirations. Holden would like to be ‘the catcher in the rye’ (line 93): he wants to stand at the edge of the cliff and catch the children when they come too close to falling off. ANALYSIS 3 FOCUS on the narrative parts and write the adjectives and verbs referring to Phoebe. What are the feelings between brother and sister? The adjectives are ‘old’ and ‘little’. The verbs are: ‘It made me sort of sad’ (line 2), ‘didn’t say anything’ (line 13), ‘but she was listening’(line 13), ‘She always listens’ (lines 14, 76), ‘She really does’ (lines 15-16). She keeps on asking him not to swear (lines 26,62,81), she is only a little child (line 76). Holden Care, concern, affection, rebellion Phoebe Care, concern, affection, tenderness 4

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LIST the social models Holden rejects. He rejects his schoolmates, teachers and school in general, his father and the professions, like lawyers.

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CONSIDER how the expression ‘the catcher in the rye’ refers to the way Holden wants to protect young people in his future adult life.

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What do the field of children and the cliff symbolise? ‘The field of children’ stands for childhood and innocence; the rye is so high that the children cannot see over it, just as children are unable to see beyond the borders of their childhood. The ‘cliff’ represents adulthood. Holden wants to protect childhood innocence from the fall into disillusionment that necessarily accompanies adulthood. What does this idealistic aspiration of Holden’s reveal about his present life? It reveals the lack of communication between Holden and the world of the adults. UNDERLINE some examples of the language used by the American teenagers of the 1950s. ‘Get the axe’ (lines 1-2), ’guys‘ (line 4), goddam (lines 8, 25, 61, 72, 79)’, ‘to crack a lot of corny jokes (line 24)’, ‘dough’(line 68) etc....

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YOUR TURN 7 DISCUSS. Do you think the worlds of childhood and adulthood are as separate as Holden believes them to be? Is it easy being a teenager? Students’ activity. 8

DISCUSS. Do you think there are manifestations of rebellion in art, literature and music nowadays? Students’ activity.

Teaching tip This activity should be done first as pair work, encouraging students to speak and take notes about the other student’s opinions. The teacher should monitor the various groups.

17.9 The Arts

Pop Art and Andy Warhol

Art Lab 30: Pop Art Photocopiable Lesson on page 238. Teacher’s Key on page 255.

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DISCUSS in pairs what you know about Marilyn Monroe. Students’ activity.

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Describe Marilyn Monroe’s physical features in detail. Her hair is blonde, her lips are red and smudges can be seen on the lipstick; her eyes are dark and the eye-shadow is light blue. Say whether all the images are identical. No, they are not. What modifies the outline of Marylin Monroe’s oval face? Her hair. Tick the suitable alternative(s) to define the kind of images produced by Warhol’s method of work. lively impersonal unreal iIlusionistic realistic mechanical visual jokes flat Which techniques and styles does this painting recall? This painting recalls the techniques used in newspapers and advertisements. State the colours used and their connotation. A considerable distortion in colour characterizes this composition. The colours used are: light blue for Marilyn’s eye-shadow and for her clothes, pink for her face, red for her lips, black for the outlines, bright yellow for her hair and orange for the background. These colours connote something unreal.

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his book Exposures (1979): ‘In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes’. What is the real meaning of these words? Why did they undermine assumptions about art practice and the role of the artist in society? Student’s activity. Students should point out that Andy Warhol wanted to tell his public that Marilyn’s myth was not linked to the actress’s qualities and beauty, but to the mass production of her image. He was interested in the problems posed by the mass production of images since the same image can be infinitely reproduced. Exam Reference pag. 611

17.10 Two Films About...

The Sixties

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What kind of music do you associate with the Sixties? Why do you think so many of the songs and musical artists from this period are still popular today? By the 1960s, film had become an important artistic medium, and much of what we think about the decade comes from images in films. What images do you associate with the Sixties? Students’ speaking activity.

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Video Lab 39: Dirty dancing Photocopiable Lesson on page 279. Teacher’s Key on page 299. Video Lab 40: Across the universe

YOUR TURN 3 EXPLAIN what you think Marilyn Monroe’s myth meant for Andy Warhol. Warhol found in Monroe a fusion of two of his consistent themes: death and the cult of celebrity. By repeating the image, he evokes her ubiquitous presence in the media. The contrast of vivid colour with black and white, and the effect of fading in the right panel are suggestive of the star’s mortality. ESAME DI STATO

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TYPE A. Write a twenty-line essay commenting on this quote by Warhol from

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Photocopiable Lesson on page 281. Teacher’s Key on page 300.

17.11 History

The Irish Troubles

Teaching tip The names of the city of Derry or Londonderry in Northern Ireland are the subject of a dispute between Irish nationalists and unionists. Nationalists prefer to use the name Derry, while Unionists use Londonderry. Legally, the city and county are called ‘Londonderry’, while the local government district is called ‘Derry’.

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LOOK at the painting below and do the activities. Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962. In the following four months, Warhol made more than twenty silkscreen paintings of her, all based on the same publicity photograph from the 1953 film ‘Niagara’.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

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LOOK at pictures 1-2. Discuss what they tell you about this period in Ireland. The answer may be inferred through the picture caption.

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MAKE a table comparing the different positions of Unionists, or ‘Protestants’, and Republicans, or ‘Catholics’, specifying the different causes leading to the conflict.

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Specification 17

Unionists/Protestants They wish to keep the ‘Union’ with Britain; after World War II they were guaranteed higher living standards than the Catholics. Most members of the armed police were Protestants; the ‘B-specials’ were exclusively Protestants and against the Catholics.

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Catholics/Republicans They want Ireland to be a united country under one government; after the war Catholics were kept out of responsible positions and were considered enemies of the state. In the 1960s and 1970s they were not given their fair share of council houses.

WRITE a summary of the main events of ‘The Troubles’ and their consequences. Student’s activity.

17.12 Literature

Seamus Heaney and Irish politics

Teaching tip The presentation Seamus Heaney in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author.

Text Bank 136: Seamus Heaney, Digging from Death of a Naturalist Teacher’s Key on page 380.

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READ the text about Seamus Heaney and answer the following questions.

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What was the poet’s relationship to the Irish Troubles? Being born into a society deeply divided along religious and political lines had the effect not only of darkening his mood, but also of giving him concerns

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about the question of poetry’s responsibilities in the world. According to Heaney, the poet’s task is not to condemn, but to draw back and examine the historical reasons and psychological consequences behind the troubles, as he had done for the ‘bog victims’. This gives his work universal meaning and almost mythic resonance. In his Nobel Prize speech, Heaney pointed out the power of art, because the mission of poetry, is not to make peace, poetry is peace in itself. What did the bog victims represent for him? To Heaney, the bog victims became archetypal symbols for the enduring need of communities to exact blood sacrifice.

The Tollund Man Seamus Heaney Wintering Out (1972)

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LOOK at the picture and describe it in detail. What does it represent? Student’s activity. Students should reach the conclusion that the picture represents a victim of a ritual sacrifice.

Teaching tip The ‘Bog People’ of Glob’s book are examples of victims/participants of prehistoric and historical events, variously thought by archaeologists to be sacrificial rituals, murders or executions. Their bodies, sometimes bound in rope or blindfolded and even with the rope that strangled them still around their neck, were left in the marshy peat bogs of Denmark and were thereby preserved over a period of hundreds to thousands of years, until discovered by modern peat cutters. The ‘Bog People’, possibly the ancestors of many people living today, provide us with valuable insights into the culture and religion of that time and place (Northern Europe from pre-Christian times to the Medieval period). The way of life (and death) of these people is made all the more intelligible to the modern observer by the fortuitous preservation of their bodies as they were the day they died, with soft tissue and even their clothing surviving intact. Today it is possible to see bog bodies visiting the archaeological exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland, in Dublin.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the poem and explain: 1

how it opens; It opens with the poet’s

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ANALYSIS 3 ANALYSE the poem’s layout. Consider: 1 2 3 4

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the division into stanzas; 3 stanzas of different length. the length of the lines and of the words; Mainly short lines and monosyllabic words. the rhyme scheme; The poem is free verse. the use of punctuation. Students should notice the use of run-on-lines, commas and full stops. FOCUS on the use of tenses in the poem. Which tenses are employed? What do they tell you about the speaking ‘I’ and the Tollund Man? The use of the future tenses means that the speaker has never seen the Tollund Man. However, the verbs representing the ‘I’ in the second and third sections are not all in the future tense. Some are in the conditional tense (lines 21, 35) while the final stanza returns to the future. Heaney’s response to the Tollund Man is essentially an intellectual one. FIND words and phrases referring to the Tollund Man and explain their connotation. The semantic area of vegetation is used to describe the man (‘peat-brown; pods; winter

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POINT OUT the lines where the poet draws an analogy between the bog man and the victims of sectarian atrocities in Northern Ireland. Can you see any difference in the way the poet speaks about prehistoric and contemporary violence? The way the poet describes the prehistoric ritual betrays a sort of fascination and reverence as is suggested by the lines 11, 15-17, 20. Moreover he implies that the man had been forewarned of his death and, maybe, he had chosen it. The four brothers, instead, had their bodies broken and trailed for miles: contemporary violence is much more savage, it implies hatred and denies its victims any dignity.

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DISCUSS. Why do you think the poet appeals to the Tollund Man to ‘make germinate’ the contemporary victims? Because he hopes to confer meaning and value to their sacrifice. Perhaps because he wants to make the following generations think about the issue of political violence.

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CONSIDER the poet’s identification with the Tollund Man in the last part of the poem.

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Why do you think he chose to speak about him? Because he was offering the poet an image that could become an emblem and also achieve a kind of poetic beauty. In what sense are the last four lines ambiguous? They are ambiguous in the sense that they express hesitancy and uncertainty. Some critics have seen in them a refusal to face the reality of violence in Northern Ireland, others think that Heaney is looking for a consolatory note to be able to stand the atrocities in his country.

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YOUR TURN 9 DISCUSS. How much should an artist respond to the social and political context in which he lives? Is it the artist’s responsibility to question it, to make moral comments or more? Class discussion.

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seeds’). The choice of adjectives is important: ‘mild’ (line 3) suggests that he was gentle and kind; ‘naked’ (line 9) lays emphasis on his vulnerability; ‘sad’ (line 33) underlines his destiny but the term ‘freedom’ suggests that the man may have been a willing victim.

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declaration that he will go to Aarhus in Jutland to see the preserved body of the Tollund Man. what exactly had happened to the Tollund Man; He had been hanged and his body had been laid into the bog during a fertility rite. what the poet suggests in the second stanza; In the first stanza he has drawn a parallel between the preserved body of the man and that of a saint (lines 15-16), so here he consecrates the bog as a holy ground (lines 22-23), which gives the bog a holy quality. why the poet invokes him as if in prayer; He invokes him so that the scattered bodies of the innocent victims of sectarian violence might ‘germinate’ (line 24). what he imagines in the third stanza; The poet imagines himself while he is driving through Jutland, a country whose language he neither speaks nor understands. how the poet thinks he will feel. He thinks he will feel as lost and unhappy as in his own country.

ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova

10 TYPE B. Write ten to twelve lines comparing Heaney’s ‘Irishness’ with Yeats’s (I13.10). Consider the two poets’ upbringing, interests, imagery and aims. Student’s activity. Heaney Brought up in a rural environment Brought up in a Catholic family, experienced the cultural division of Ulster at school Interested in civil rights movement, in archaeology Draws his images from country life and archaeology His poetry aims at enlarging consciousness and bringing about new knowledge.

Yeats Spent long periods in the rural west of Ireland Belonged to the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority Interested in the Irish revival myth, mystical doctrines and magic Draws his images from nature and myth His poetry aimed at reviving Irish culture.

Exam Reference pag. 611 1

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17.13 Comparing Literatures

Heaney and Luzi: voices against terrorism

Acciambellato in quella sconcia stiva Mario Luzi

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Per il battesimo dei nostri frammenti (1985)

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DISCUSS in pairs. What is your personal definition of terrorism? Why is it a threat to society? How can peace be maintained in the world? Students’ activity. REVISE your knowledge about Mario Luzi and point out any similarities between him and Seamus Heaney (I17.12). Student’s activity. Students should point out that both writers have tried to face their troubled contemporary times employing complex, fragmented language. READ the poem and do the following activities.

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Underline all the words employed by Luzi to express his horror at Moro’s death. Luzi uses the following words’ sconcia stiva’, (line 1), ‘crivellato’ (line 2), ‘abbiosciato’ (line 10), ‘sacco di già oscura carne’ (line 11), ‘atrocemente’ (line 14), to express his horror at Moro’s death. Circle words and phrases expressing the poet’s admiration for the Catholic statesman. The poet points out his admiration for the Catholic statesman in line 5 (‘mente fina’) and lines 7-9 (‘esempio vero di essa anche spiritualmente’). Point out what image of death is presented in the poem. Death is seen tragically as a suspension and exclusion because of the following phrases: ‘sacco di già oscura carne’ (line 11), ‘fuori da ogni possibile rispondenza con il suo passato’ (lines 12-13) and ‘fuori atrocemente’ (line 14). Is death also linked to a view of an afterlife guaranteed by divine providence? Yes, it is because of the sentence ‘ben dentro l’occhio di una qualche silenziosa lungimiranza’ in lines 15-16. Is God’s plan clear to man? No, God’s plan can’t be understood by man since mankind can only perceive the superficial aspect of reality, lines 17-18 (‘non lascia tempo di avvistarla la superinseguita gibigianna’). COMPARE Luzi’s poem to Heaney’s ‘The Tollund Man’ (I17.12) and say what characteristics they share. Student’s activity.

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DISCUSS the social developments in England in the 1960s and the sources of social conflict in the 1970s. Social development was rapid in the 1960s in England because of the advances in technology, in domestic products and machines, from detergents to freezing and drying methods of producing convenience foods. These developments ran parallel to a social reality where a greater proportion of women were going out to work. The rapid changes and multiplicity of new inputs created an ever increasing gap between those who proposed the new culture and the older generation. Pressure from the young and from social movements influenced politicians already campaigning for a more civilised and tolerant society. The reforms passed in the 1960s marked a retreat from the social controls imposed in the Victorian Age in favour of what came to be termed ‘permissiveness’. The abolition of capital punishment in 1969 was the most significant of all the pieces of civilised legislation. The year 1967 was an annus mirabilis as regards sexual mores. First, the Abortion Act made it possible to get an abortion on the National Health Service; then the National Health Service (Family Planning) Act allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives. The Sexual Offences Act stated that a homosexual act between two consenting adults in private was no longer a criminal offence. The Divorce Reform Act of 1969 made divorce possible after the couple had lived apart for two years, while the Matrimonial Property Act (1970) established that a wife’s work should be regarded as an equal contribution towards creating the family home. The new social awareness was mirrored in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) which anticipated a decade of popular participation and public involvement in social causes. In 1958 the young supporters of the CND marched from the nuclear research establishment at Aldermaston in south-east England, while the pacifists, led by the elderly philosopher Bertrand Russell, organized a ‘sit-in’ in Trafalgar Square. These actions provided the

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TRACE the main events which marked American history in the 1960s and 1970s. 1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the Democratic candidate, won the elections with 50% of the votes. He was the first Catholic and the youngest president ever elected. He saw that the nation, though economically prosperous, was facing social problems such as poverty in the crowded city slums and racial discrimination. 1961 The building of the Berlin Wall was a tangible symbol of the Cold War between the US and the Communist nations and leaders. 1962 the Cuban crisis created moments of tension and the withdrawal of Russian missiles from the island. 1962 America’s advisory role in the war between South Vietnam and Communist North Vietnam became militarized.

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Prova Orale – Part 2

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model for the marches, demonstrations, and occupations of the universities by the students in the 1960s. Social conflict in the 1970s was still political but increasingly based on race. The immigrants were making a valuable contribution to the British economy, usually in the lowest-paid jobs, but at the same time they had deeply felt cultural and religious traditions. The final goal would be integration as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance. In 1968 a Bill against discrimination was coupled with new legislation to control entry. The new Act aimed at fighting discrimination in employment and housing. A worsening economy and declining living standards marked the middle and late 1970s in Britain. There were increasing episodes of violence, racial tension and terrorism, as well as revelations of corruption in local and national government which all contributed to a lessening of the optimistic consensus that had carried England through the difficult post-war years. In 1974 the IRA’s campaign of violence in Britain materialized and the Conservative government of Edward Heath found itself in confrontation with the miners and involved in an international energy crisis where the main industries were reduced to a three-day week. Unemployment rose steadily. The winter of discontent had begun with new social problems like the first urban race riots; a new generation that was strongly influenced by drugs; juvenile violence; and the new dangers of pollution created by widespread consumerism.

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1963 Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and his death put an end to the social hopes his election had awakened. His vice-president, Lyndon Johnson became President. 1964 Johnson managed to carry forward some reforms. He persuaded the Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, colour, religion, or national origin. The law also provided the federal government with the powers to impose desegregation. He also started a programme of health care for the elderly and the poor. 1960 – throughout the 1960s There were protests in American university campuses and among minorities. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., led the African-American Civil Rights Movement, adopting Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance. Other groups adopted more radical ideologies: the revolutionary movement of the ‘Black Panthers’ was against integration and resorted to violence in the struggle for freedom; the ‘Black Muslims’, led by Malcolm X, advocated separateness from the whites and the assertion of racial identity through a return to African roots. 1969 Richard Nixon replaced Johnson as President. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War gave rise to the greatest anti-war movement the nation had ever experienced. Nixon worked to put an end to the conflict. 1969 the first landing on the moon. 1973 the last American soldiers left Vietnam. 1973 Nixon’s presidency saw severe economic recession: inflation and growing unemployment and the US even suffered a fuel shortage and began to import large quantities of oil. 1974 President Richard Nixon was obliged to resign to avoid impeachment because of the Watergate scandal (which had brought to light political espionage and illegal contributions of the Republican administration to win the election). Nixon’s place was taken by Vice President Gerald Ford who aimed at reasserting the qualities of honesty and reliability in high office. 1976 the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter, won the elections. His greatest achievement was certainly the Camp David Agreements between Egypt and Israel, preparing the ground for a possible settlement of the Middle East Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

question. But Carter did not succeed in obtaining the release of a group of American citizens held hostage by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. This contributed to his defeat in the elections in 1980 by the Republican Ronald Reagan. 3

EXPLAIN how the faces of British society changed in the 1960s regarding: • moral values; The image of the Sixties in Britain is a composite one, marked by a mood of rebellion and by the quest for self-expression and liberation. • family and sex; One-parent families were supported by the public services, premarital sex became quite common, aided by the spread of the contraceptive pill and family planning clinics. Women can legally have an abortion, and homosexual couples openly set up house. In 1968 the ‘Women’s Liberation Movement’ became an organization with groups in the major towns. Feminism, one of the concepts of Women’s Liberation, is currently used to define the emancipation of women. • entertainment and fashion. ‘Pop music’ with the music of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who; the boutiques and bazaars in the King’s Road and Carnaby Street; thin and shapeless models like Twiggy, who were the antithesis of the stereotype of female sexuality which had dominated the 1950s; drugs and discotheques; permissiveness in films, plays and magazines, and in sexual attitudes and behaviour; these were the dominant traits of the ‘swinging Sixties’ in Britain.

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JUSTIFY why John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger represented a watershed between the old and the new in the British theatre. Its novelty was the outspokenness of its language, its criticism of establishment values and its hero. The protagonist of this play, Jimmy Porter, is an anti-hero because he only speaks but never acts. His anger focuses on the past, because it has destroyed the present, and the present, since it leaves no room to young people. The main theme developed in this play is the protagonist’s anger against everyone and everything.

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DEFINE the terms ‘Beat’ and ‘beatniks’ with reference to the 1950s and 1960s.

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READ the quote below from On the Road by Jack Kerouac and do the following activities.

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Identify the key-words of these sentences. What do they reveal about the speaker’s character? The key-words are ‘confusion’ and ‘running’. They point out the confusion and the restlessness of the speaker.

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What does On the Road deal with? The novel is the story of a friendship and a diary-like account of Kerouac’s wanderings across North America with Neal Cassady. It lacks a central plot, since its structure is episodic. What is the main theme developed in this novel? The theme of the journey, symbol of the escape from the city and from one’s own past. Who is the protagonist? What generation does he represent? The hero of the book is Dean Moriarty, a fictionalised Neal Cassady, Kerouac’s best friend, who lives for ‘kicks’, as he describes those moments of intense experience and pleasure, free from all the social and economic restraints. He symbolises the desperate attempt of the post-war generation to live every moment with extreme intensity so as to overcome the sense of void and fear. It is only ‘on the road’ that Dean and Sal Paradise live wild and free. The music the two friends listen to and the people they meet during their journeys are described in a detailed and fascinating way. What is the style employed in this novel? Kerouac’s style is ‘spontaneous’ and episodic. According to him writing meant expressing whatever came into the mind: a thought, an idea, a scene or an episode, ordered as the mind recalls it. The writer saw this exposure of feeling as a significant break with the escape from emotion, and the impersonality of the artist as T.S. Eliot defined it. The unsophisticated language used in this novel has been defined as ‘hip talk’ (which is ‘street language’), and identified with the language of jazz musicians in so far as it is based on spontaneity and on mostly monosyllabic words. TRACE the development of the Civil Rights Movement in the US in the 1950s and 1960s. • 1955: Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of the ‘coloured section’ of a bus to a white passenger. In response to her arrest the black community began a bus boycott, led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., which lasted for more than a year. The buses are desegregated in 1956. • 1957: Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC became a major force in organizing the Civil Rights Movement and founded its principles

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• rebellion and bohemian living; • refusal to conform to traditional middle-class puritanical values; • rejection of materialism and organized religion; • search for alternative ways to find spiritual understanding, like Eastern religion, with its emphasis on meditation and communion with nature, and mind-altering drugs. The beatniks: • lived in dirty apartments, selling drugs or committing crimes for money, hitchhiking across the country all along Route 66; • acted on impulse, did whatever they felt like doing, explored nudity, sexuality; • pushed their senses to the limits of understanding; • used to take hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol to expand their world; • attracted attention because of their being different, disregarding the conventions of dress and personal cleanliness; • used to wear their hair long, grow beards and considered worn-out jeans, old T-shirts and sandals their standard uniform; • advocated escapism and created a so-called ‘underground culture’, which included jazz (highly appreciated because of its spontaneous flow and its freedom of expression), poetry and the oriental philosophy of Zen Buddhism; • had their reference place in the City Light bookstore in San Francisco founded by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953. Here the Beat poets and novelists used to read their works in public; • transitioned and transformed into the hippie movement of the Sixties.

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The word ‘beat’ was a slang term used by postwar jazz musicians to mean ‘down and out’, or poor and exhausted. Jack Kerouac claimed that the word meant both exhausted, at the bottom of the world, rejected by society, and also beatitude or beatific. The key-ideas of the Beat generation were:

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on non-violence and civil disobedience. • 1962: James Meredith was the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. President Kennedy had to send 5,000 federal troops to deal with the violence and riots that surrounded the event. • 1963: About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. The participants assembled at the Lincoln Memorial to listen to Martin Luther King deliver his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. • 1964: President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed major forms discrimination and ended many areas of segregation. • 1965: Black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Malcolm X was shot dead in Harlem, New York. It was believed that the aggressors were members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had ecently re abandoned in favour of orthodox Islam. The federal government passed the Voting Rights Act which outlawed discriminatory practices in voting and voter registration. • 1966: The militant Black Panthers were founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California. The Panthers’ strategy of ‘picking up the gun’ reflected the feelings of many inner-city blacks. • 1967: Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), used the phrase ‘black power’ for the first time. He meant an assertion of black pride and ‘the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary.’ The term radicalism alarmed many who believed the Civil Rights Movement effectiveness and moral authority crucially depend on non-violent civil disobedience. • 1968: Martin Luther King was shot as he stood on the balcony outside his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. The federal government passed the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. 8

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HIGHLIGHT the key ideas in Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on August 28, 1963 was most of all about freedom and equality for his fellow Black Americans. He begins by reminding his

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audience about Abraham Lincoln’s promise for the emancipation of the slaves. King argues that although they are freed from slavery, Black Americans are still not free. King says that in a sense they have come to Washington to ‘cash a check’ issued by Lincoln which has not yet been honoured. He goes on to promise that the members of the civil rights union issue their own check to America, one in which they promise to fight for the continued pursuit of justice. King demands immediate freedom and immediate change for the repressed Black Americans. He says slow change is not good enough, change has to be immediate: ‘now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.’ King’s fight for these rights, however, is through non-violence. He urges his followers to have neither hatred nor bitterness in their hearts and not to resort to the use of guns or violence that does not lead to peace but to an endless vicious cycle of increasing violence. In his ‘Dream’ King sees freedom and equality, freedom from fear and from discrimination. His reference to the ideal of the American Dream gives the speech added poignancy because it is pointing out the difference that exists between the opportunities for Whites and Blacks and the optimistic hope that the situation can change so that all races can dream the same dream. He stresses that even those in his audience who have suffered persecution and violence, must have hope and faith that the ‘promised land’ of complete integration will happen ‘one day’. King ends the speech by stressing that the problem of integration and discrimination is one for all Americans and ‘If America is to be a great nation’ freedom must be gained for everyone. 9

EXPLAIN why J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye has become an icon for youth rebellion in the 1950s and 1960s. In American literature in the 1960s the main trend was set by the writers of the Beat generation who rejected conventional society and its values for a life and writing based on authentic individual experience, celebrated through music, sex, alcohol and drugs. Their outsider lifestyle was taken over by the Hippies. The painful passage from youth to adulthood was embodied by Salinger’s character Holden Caufield who rejected the falsity of grown-ups

10 LOOK at Andy Warhol’s painting Nine Jackies (1964) below and trace the features of his art. Andy Warhol had a commercial art background and in the early 1960s gained public attention with exhibitions of pop art objects from daily life. He chose to present his obsessions, real or induced and was fascinated by the idea of celebrity using single or multiple images to make his point about the manipulation of advertising and publicity. His work was characterized by a cheap, mechanical process, the commercial silkscreen printing or serigraphy, that gave the effect of newsprint reproduction and allowed multiple reproductions of the same image. It creates mechanical, unreal, impersonal and visual-joke images. His painting Nine Jackies is a good example of this technique, similar to the Marilyn Monroe painting. For Warhol, the visual means for expressing detachment from emotions, an attitude he regarded as characteristic of the 1960s in general, was through the replication of images. Like the droning repetition of newscasts, the device dissipates meaning, and with it the capacity of images to move or disturb: ‘The more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away and the better and emptier Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

11 POINT OUT the events that marked the socalled ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Say how England tried to solve the problem. The history of Ireland in the early 20th century saw the country split into two parts with separate Parliaments in Dublin and Belfast. The Irish were themselves divided: many wanted Ireland to be a united country under one government; but the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland wished to keep the ‘Union’ with Britain. The conflict between the Unionists on the one hand and Republicans or Nationalists on the other, was bitter. After the Second World War, new factors strengthened the power of Protestants and made a united Ireland less possible. The introduction of the Welfare State guaranteed Northern Ireland higher living standards and kept Catholics out of responsible positions since they were considered potential enemies of the state. When the British economy weakened, as in the late Sixties and Seventies, Northern Ireland suffered most, and the Catholics of Northern Ireland most of all. Catholics also protested that Unionist authorities did not give Catholic families their fair share of council houses. Finally, not only were most members of the armed police force, the ‘Royal Ulster Constabulary’, Protestants, but the part-time policemen, the ‘B-Specials’, were exclusively Protestants and against Catholics. In 1968 the Catholics organised a civil rights movement, taking inspiration from the black Civil Rights Movement in the United States. ‘The Troubles’ began. A ‘People’s Democracy’ march from Belfast to Londonderry in January 1969 was attacked and broken up by Protestants. In the summer of the same year tension led to rioting between the communities in Londonderry and Belfast. In two nights of rioting in Belfast in August 1969 whole

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you feel.’ Warhol makes his point by repeating each of the three images of Jackie three times, in a simple well-designed non-sequential alternation of strips of photographs taken from the news media. A deliberately careless look gives the painting a sense of chance and hurry, suggesting the quick duplication and dissemination of images. The two main impressions left with the viewer of the fixed smile of the politician’s wife and the shocked expression of the widow are shown as equally unreal and equally creations of the mythologizing American culture Warhol wishes to condemn.

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and used the jargon of American adolescents in the 1950s. Like many young people, Holden is intelligent, but also sensitive and vulnerable, so that he struggles against the society he belongs to and which he considers extremely false, corrupt, hypocritical, that is ‘phoney’, and looks for authentic values and true friends. He is not, however, a rebel in the real sense: after his escape, he expresses his wish to become ‘a catcher in the rye’, that is, somebody who catches children, playing in a field of rye on the edge of a cliff, to prevent them from falling over; this ‘catcher’ has often been interpreted as Holden’ s projection of his ideal father. Perhaps it is this final message, encouraging and hopeful, which has made the book famous both among young people and grown-ups. Holden adopts a conversational style; he uses slang words, like ‘gonna’, swear words, hyperbole, and meaningless expressions. His language is a very effective tool to represent the rebellion of the American teenagers of the late 1950s. Salinger’s model was followed by several contemporary writers who created adolescent heroes or antiheroes

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streets of houses were burned and dozens of Catholic and Protestant families moved to the comparative safety of their own communities. The British sent troops to ensure peace between the Catholics and Protestants. After being welcomed by Catholics, these soldiers came to be seen as the representatives of the British control of Northern Ireland. The B-Specials were disbanded in 1970 and the ‘Ulster Defence Regiment’ was formed, dominated by Protestants. To counter the threat of terrorism, internment without trial was introduced in Northern Ireland in August 1971, and lasted until December 1975. There was also a deterioration in relations between the army and the Catholic population and, in January 1972, thirteen people were shot dead by British troops on a civil rights march in Londonderry. This event is known as ‘Bloody Sunday’. In 1976 a group of IRA prisoners in the Maze prison in Belfast claimed special status because they said they had committed their crimes for political reasons. They took to wearing only their blankets, then soiling their cells with excrements and finally in 1981 they went on hunger strike; ten of the prisoners died before the hunger strike was called off. The first to die was Bobby Sands (1954-1981), who became a symbol of IRA martyrs. In 1985 Britain and Ireland made a formal agreement to involve the Dublin government in the affairs of Northern Ireland. But violence continued and was experienced both in Britain and in Ireland.

Finally, in December 1993, British Prime Minister, John Major, and his Irish counterpart, Albert Reynolds, signed a historic declaration affirming the right of self-determination for the people of Northern Ireland. It was only on 31st

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August, 1994 that Sinn Féin, the IRA’s political wing, announced a cease-fire. 12 DISCUSS how the Irish poet Seamus Heaney responded to the political context of his country. Heaney was born and raised in the County of Derry, Northern Ireland. The impact of his surroundings and the details of his upbringing on his work are immense. As a Catholic in Protestant Northern Ireland, Heaney once described himself as someone who ‘emerged from a hidden, a buried life and entered the realm of education.’ Heaney’s work has always been most concerned with the past although as a poet from Northern Ireland, Heaney used his work to reflect upon the ‘Troubles,’ the often-violent political struggles that plagued the country during Heaney’s young adulthood. The poet sought to weave the ongoing Irish troubles into a broader historical frame embracing the general human situation but he role of political spokesman has never particularly suited Heaney. Some critics, for example, have seen the last lines of Heaney’s poem Tollund Man as a refusal to face the reality of violence in Northern Ireland, others think that Heaney is looking for a consolatory note to be able to stand the atrocities in his country. According to Heaney, the poet’s task is not to condemn, but to draw back and examine the historical reasons and psychological consequences behind ‘The Troubles’. This gives his work universal meaning and almost mythic resonance. In his Nobel Prize speech, Heaney pointed out the power of art, because the mission of poetry is not to make peace, poetry is peace in itself.

LESSON PLAN 18 Moving Forward This is just a suggestion of how to use Performer culture & literature Volume 3. Specification 18 deals with the 1980s and 1990s up to the present day in Britain and in the USA, the literature of the English-speaking countries and the topic of post-apartheid South-Africa. The cultural issue is about building peace. The development of this Specification ideally covers 13 lessons depending on the class and the level of the students.

Further practice: Dictation: The Brighton Bombing 2

18.2 Literature Teachers introduce Ian McEwan and The Child in Time. The presentation of Ian McEwan in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author and his work. Students read and analyse of the text A sense of loss. Practice is given in the Esame di Stato – Terza prova Type B. Further development: Text Bank 137-141

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18.3 History Teachers explain the main historical event in the USA from Reagan to Obama. Students practice IELTS Listening – Section 3. They also study Milestones about 9/11.

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18.4 Literature Teachers introduce Don DeLillo and Falling Man. Students read and analyse of the text Down the Tower. Further development: Text Bank 142-143

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18.5 Mapping the Arts Teachers introduce Skyscrapers and contemporary architecture showing the map (Interactive map 19 in the CD-ROM) and the places mentioned. 18.6 Literature Teachers explain the development of English as a lingua franca and introduce Commonwealth literature. The presentation of Literature of English-speaking countries in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the genre. Further development: Text Bank 144-148

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The presentation of Moving Forward in PowerPoint can be employed either as a support to the introduction of the period or as a summing up at the end of the specification.

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LESSONS CULTURE & LITERATURE Moving Forward 1 18.1 History Students are introduced Britain during the Thatcher years and beyond through Q&A. They also practice the Terza prova – Type A. Milestones is about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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18.7 Literature Students are introduced to the conflict in South Africa through IELTS Academic Reading. Internet lab This is required by the national curriculum to develop digital competence. Students carry out a research project about Nelson Mandela.

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18.8 Literature Teachers explain A Soldier’s Embrace by Nadine Gordimer. Students read and analyse A change of life from A Soldier’s Embrace. Further development: Text Bank 149-150

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Specification 18

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18.9 Society Teachers introduce the topic of AIDS in Africa. Students practise Esame di Stato – Seconda Prova.

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18.10 Two Films About… South Africa

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18.11 The Arts Students study Keith Haring and his art. They surf the net about the art of graffiti and its famous artists. This activity is linked to Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 1. The task can be completed at home.

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18.12 Cultural Issues Students work on the issue Building peace. They read and analyse Barak Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

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18.12 Cultural Issues Students read and analyse Derek Walcott’s poem The Season of Phantasmal Peace. Practice is given in the Esame di Stato – Terza prova Type B. Further development: Text Bank 151

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18.13 Comparing Literatures The section provides an insight into the reaction of Italian men of letters to 9/11 and provides practice in Esame di Stato Seconda Prova. Esame di Stato – Prova Orale Part 2 can be either used as a ‘recupero in itinere’ in the classroom or as homework.

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Specification 18

Moving Forward Ian McEwan and Thatcher’s England

Teaching tip The presentation The UK and US from 1980s in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the period.

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Text Bank 137: Ian McEwan, Kate’s disappearance from The child in time

LOOK at pictures 1-6. Discuss what they tell you about the last few decades in Britain. Student’s activity. The only picture that might need some information is no.2: the ‘Canberra was an ocean liner, named after the federal capital of Australia, Canberra, and part of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. During the 1982 Falklands War, she served as a troop ship, transferring 3,000 troops. During the war the ship was not hit by Argentine pilots, because she was mistaken for a hospital ship. MATCH the years (A-F) to the events shown in the pictures (1-6). Then read the Q&A text and check your answers. 1 C; 2 A; 3 F; 4 B; 5 E, 6 D.

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MATCH the words (1-4) from the text to their definitions (A-D). 1 C; 2 D; 3 A; 4 B.

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IN PAIRS cover the answers ( A s) in the text. Take turns asking and answering the questions ( Q s) using the information that you have read. Students’ activity.

ESAME DI STATO

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Teaching tip The presentation Ian McEwan in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the author..

Terza Prova

TYPE A Write a 20-line essay in which you discuss the key ideas of the Thatcher years. Student’s activity. 4.9 dictation: The Ira attacks Teacher’s Key on page 206.

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Teacher’s Key on page 382.

Text Bank 138: EIan McEwan, A racy attack from Black Dogs Teacher’s Key on page 383.

Text Bank 139: Ian McEwan, Majdanek from Black Dogs Teacher’s Key on page 385. Text Bank 140: Ian McEwan, The force of adult hatred from Black Dogs Teacher’s Key on page 387.

Text Bank 141: Ian McEwan, Briony’s crime from Atonement Teacher’s Key on page 388.

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ANSWER the questions about The Child in Time.

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What traumatic experience do Stephen Lewis and his wife go through? Their three-year-old daughter Kate disappears while Stephen is shopping with her and no ransom is ever asked. Why does Stephen get involved in a British government committee? Because he is a children’s writer and the right-wing government has decided to prepare a report on childcare and to make disciplined childcare part of its policy. What is the setting of the novel? The novel is set in England in a dystopian near future; it offers McEwan’s view of Thatcher’s England. What is history associated with in the book? With loss, with the radical change which has transformed the face of Britain; the past has been destroyed in the name of efficiency and individual freedom.

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Britain: the Thatcher years and beyond

18.2 Literature

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18.1 History

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How does the narrative technique affect the reader? The story is narrated by an anonymous third-person narrator from the point of view of Stephen Lewis. This perspective means that the reader is very limited in the understanding of anything that does not occur in Stephen’s direct sight.

A sense of loss

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READ the rest of the passage and answer the questions.

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Who did Stephen meet on his way to Whitehall? A group of licensed beggars (line 35). What did they look like? They looked overly self-assertive or self-confident with their freedom (line 38). Who did Stephen spot among them? He spotted a skinny pre-adolescent girl (lines 40-41). How did he usually behave with beggars? He gave them some change if he had any in his pocket. He never gave them banknotes (lines 47-48). What did the girl suddenly pick up from the pavement? A piece of chewing gum (lines 52-53). What did Stephen give her? A five pound note. How did she react? She looked at it with a neutral expression, then rolled it into her fist and insulted Stephen (lines 56-59). What did he do then? He gripped her shoulder and asked her to repeat what she had said (line 60).

Ian McEwan The Child in Time (1987) Chapter One

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Specification 18

DISCUSS. What is a writer likely to want to achieve with the opening of a novel? Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ up to line 33 and note down: 1

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Teaching tip The following words are from an interview with Ian McEwan: ‘Novels do resemble buildings. A first chapter, a first line is like an entrance hall, a doorway. The reader has to be drawn in – what first meets the eye is important. So I don’t use or accept the term architecture merely as a metaphor, I think, again, it’s operable, it’s something that works on the reader. You’re asking the reader to step inside a mental space which has a shape. That’s very like someone stepping inside a modern building, going to look at it and deciding whether they like it or not.’

the setting in time and place; It was late May, it was about half past nine and already hot (lines 4-5). The place was London (Vauxhall Bridge, Millbank, Parliament Square, Whitehall). the situation of public transport; Public transport had been cut down by the Government, so the services collapsed twice a day at the rush hour and cars got trapped in the traffic (lines 2-4). the people’s attitude; They seemed resigned (line 7), they even read the newspaper while queuing in their cars or they listened to banal programmes on the radio (lines 8-11). what Stephen was watching out for; He was always on the watch for children, for a five-yearold girl, that is, his lost daughter Kate (lines 13-14).

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how he had come to regard time; He regarded time as a sort of biological clock which was keeping his daughter alive somewhere (lines 18-20). what the essence of time had become for him; Kate’s growing up (lines 26-27). how he would have felt without that fantasy. He would have felt lost and time would have stopped (line 32).

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ANALYSIS 4 ANALYSE the passage by doing the following activities. 1 Underline the words which describe Stephen looking for his daughter. More than a habit, a deep disposition, the outline experience had stenciled on character, not principally a search, it had been an obsessive hunt, it was a longing, a dry hunger (lines 15-17). How long has it been since his daughter disappeared? How is his search connoted? The girl has disappeared two years now (line 17). It is presented as being a part of himself, a necessity and a hunger which cannot be satisfied. 2 Make notes about the beggar girl’s: age, physical appearance, clothes, personal belongings, attitude.

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Read lines 43–48. What is the narrator’s opinion of the government? He has a negative view of the Government, he says that the art of bad government was to create a distinct line between public policy and intimate feeling, the instinct for what was right. Describe the view of London in the 1980s presented by McEwan. He describes a radical change which, in the name of efficiency and individual freedom, has transformed the face of the city, filling it with beggars and, causing the collapse of public transport. The scene presented seems to offer no way out to the sense of loss. What strikes you most? Open answer.

ESAME DI STATO

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Terza Prova

TYPE B. In ten to twelve lines, explain what McEwan achieves in the opening pages of the novel in terms of setting the tone, point of view, presentation of character and themes. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: In McEwan’s opening pages we are taken into a busy London scene which at first seems like a typical city landscape with bustling people and traffic and public transport, but as we continue to view it through Stephen’s eyes we realise it is a more negative picture. The public transport is at a standstill, the cars are gridlocked and it is quicker to walk. There is an atmosphere of tired resignation filled with meaningless actions like drumming on the roof of cars or listening intently to banal radio talkers. The affluence of the car owners, with ringed fingers, is contrasted to the ‘freedom’ of the groups of beggars. They are the ones moving most and achieving most in this

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Exam Reference pag. 611

18.3 History

The USA: from Reagan to Obama

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DISCUSS what you know about the American presidency.

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How long are American presidents elected for?

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barren landscape. Their laughter is contrasted to the bored resignation of the car drivers. The reader is led through this landscape by the protagonist who views the scene with a kind of placid indifference. He is neither part of the transport users or car drivers, nor part of the groups of beggars, he is outside looking in. His only contact is with the child who touches the sensitive part of his loss for his own daughter. His act of unusual generosity, as he normally gives only coins, is viewed with contempt by the child. The negative view of the paralyzed society is combined with a revulsion against the dirt of the beggars as the readers are told of the chewing gum picked up from the street and the deloused hair. It is an unattractive picture. The main character is introduced through his view of the scene. We have the idea of someone of a certain standing who needs to be in a specific place at a specific time. Someone who is independent enough to take the alternative, walking, rather than the ‘drifting slowly backwards’ of the car drivers. Someone who has individual vision enough to condemn the Government’s policy of removing public facilities in the false name of individual freedom. But the character is also one locked into an ‘obsessive sorrow’. In these first pages there are several hints pointing at the loss of his daughter Kate without details of what has happened. We are intrigued by Stephen, by his being part of but also outside the scene, by his sadness and we are carefully led into the main themes of the book, loss and time. Even in these first pages we begin to see that the loss of Kate is a metaphor for the loss of childhood as individuals and the loss within society of individual freedom.

• Age: Pre-pubescent (line 41). • Physical appearance: Skinny (line 41), brown-skinned from sunny days on the street (line 49), her hair was severely cropped (line 50); pretty, impish and freckled, with a pointed chin (line 51). • Clothes: A grubby yellow cotton frock (lines 49-50). • Personal belongings: The regulation black bowl (lines 42,55). • Attitude: She walked slowly, somnambulantly (line 42). The little head tilted back defiantly (line 53).

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Specification 18

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ANSWER the questions about the text.

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In which way was Ronald Reagan already well known before he became president? He was a film actor. Why was his political stance seen as similar to Thatcherism in the UK? Because both Reagan and Thatcher believed in free enterprise and individual effort to achieve success. In which areas was government money invested during Reagan’s presidency? In military spending and space research. Why did George H. W. Bush take America into war with Iraq? Because Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait

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How many times can they be re-elected? What time of year is the American presidential election? Are they elected directly by the American people? Can you name any recent presidents? Students’ activity. Suggested answer: American presidential elections are held every 4 years. Under the American Constitution, each elected President can only be elected twice and have two terms of office. The President is elected by an Electoral College whose delegates are elected in a separate election in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; in these 51 elections, the voters are really voting for ‘electors’ pledged to one of the tickets. These electors make up the ‘Electoral College’ which elects the President and Vice President. Each state has the same number of electors as it has senators and representatives (there are two senators from each state, but the number of representatives depends on the state population in the most recent census). The District of Columbia, although it isn’t a state, also participates in presidential elections – it currently has three electors. The elections are held on the first Tuesday in November every 4 years but the new Presidency officially begins at noon on the following 20th January. Recent Presidents are: Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) George H. W. Bush (1989-1993) Bill Clinton (1993-2001) George W. Bush (2001-2009) Barack Obama (2009 – 2017)

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and refused to comply with the United Nations demand to withdraw. 5 Why was Bill Clinton compared to John F. Kennedy? Because of his youth, good looks, his liberal policies and reform programme. 6 What was Clinton’s greatest achievement in foreign policy? The peace agreement signed between Yasser Arafat’s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel at the White House in 1993. 7 What dramatic event happened at the beginning of George W. Bush’s presidency? The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon were hit by American passenger planes hijacked by AlQaeda terrorists. 8 Why did Bush attack Afghanistan and Iraq? Afghanistan was held to be the basis of AlQaeda and Iraq was accused of having large quantities of weapons of mass destruction. 9 In which ways has the war in Iraq proved costly? It had limited international support and proved very costly in terms of military expense and lives lost, as well as undermining American prestige abroad. 10 What happened in November 2008 to improve American morale? The Democratic nominee Barack Hussein Obama, a young AfroAmerican, became the 44th US President and the first ever black American to hold the office. IELTS

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Listening - Section 3

4.11 ACADEMIC DISCUSSION. You are going to hear two students, Geraldine and Toby, in a tutorial about an American president. Before you listen, read the questions (1-10) below, and then complete them while you listen. Answer questions 1- 3

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1 What happened in November 2008? Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. 2 What was significant about the election? It was the first time an African American had been elected to this office. 3 Which political party does Barack Obama belong to? The Democratic Party. Choose which THREE of the following are true of Barack Obama’s background. C; E; F.

Tutor: As part of our contemporary politics module, our tutorial today will be focussing on the President of the United States. Geraldine, tell me what was so significant about the election of Barack Obama in November 2008? Geraldine: The most significant thing is that it was the first time an African American was standing for election. He had narrowly beaten Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic nominee and when he won the election there was a tremendous feeling of renewal in the American Dream. Tutor: Why was that Toby? Toby: It was due to the fact that this captivating man had risen from such unpromising beginnings. His white American mother was virtually a single parent, since his African father left before Barack was two years old. He grew up in Hawaii with his grandparents after a few years in Jakarta, in Indonesia with his mother and her Malaysian second husband. In spite of this mixed beginning, he graduated in Colombia University and Harvard Law School. Tutor: You speak with real enthusiasm Toby! Toby: He is the kind of public figure that creates an atmosphere of inspiration and optimism. Black Americans commented at the time of his

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Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 206. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 206.

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TRANSCRIPT

election that it was like a final real acceptance and gave positive motivation to their children. Geraldine: His campaign was very inspirational. After the psychological shock of 9/11 and the long war in Iraq, Americans were ready to hear a message of unity and possibility. His slogan was ‘Yes we can!’. Tutor: Did he live up to expectations in your opinion? Toby: Of course not. It was impossible to achieve all that he hoped. But he did implement a modified Health Reform, requiring health insurance for all Americans, some economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 in response to the recession in the United States. Tutor: What about foreign policy? Geraldine: In foreign policy, Obama’s election changed the image of the US abroad and he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He ended US military involvement in the Iraq War, but increased troop levels in Afghanistan and approved military involvement in Libya. A critical point of his first term was authorizing the military operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist held responsible for the Twin Towers attack. Tutor: What about his second term? Toby: His re-election in November 2012, against Republican nominee Mitt Romney, was a different victory. First of all there was a much closer margin than in the 2008 election. There was less optimism in the face of the persistent economic crisis. His slogan in the second election was ‘Forward’ insinuating that he needed more time to achieve results. Tutor: Well done both of you. I see you have done your research and I look forward to receiving your projects on Obama’s presidency by next Monday.

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For questions 5- 9, complete the following sentences using a maximum of THREE words for each gap. In his first term as president, Barack Obama introduced social legislation including the (5) modified health Reform Act and the American (6) recovery and reinvestment Act in 2009. In response to the continued recession, he also signed a (7) job creation act in 2010. His foreign policy included the (8) withdrawal of american troops from Iraq, but he (9) Increased troop levels in Afghanistan. 10 Complete the labels (A-B) on the pie chart. The US Presidential election, November 2012 Electoral College result: Add the correct label: Democrat or Republican. (A)Republican (B)Democrat

18.4 Literature

The people who worked in the tower and had not been killed in the impact, were trying to make their way down the stairs to reach the ground floor.

Don DeLillo and 9/11 America

Text Bank 142: Don DeLillo, Klara’s project from Underworld Teacher’s Key on page 390.

Text Bank 143: Don DeLillo, The cosmology of waste from Underworld Teacher’s Key on page 390.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 18

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ANSWER the questions about Falling Man.

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What does Keith do after the collapse of the tower? Keith feels terribly disoriented, he is covered in blood and walks towards the flat of his estranged wife Lianne, and their son, Justin. How does DeLillo present the terrorists? He does not present them as villains but as men struggling with doubts, but also as people with great power. What is the subject of the novel? The psychological damage that the characters have suffered, together with religion, terrorism, death, and the meaning of life. What is the real effect of 9/11? It is not political but existential. The planes cut everyone loose from whatever anchors of normality allowed them to relate to each other and the world. What characterises the structure of the novel? The plot is circular. Language is fragmented. Vision is distorted.

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Down the Tower Don DeLillo Falling Man (2007) Chapter 14

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DISCUSS. Do you think that art should deal with such events as 9/11? Could it be too painful or rather exploitative, healing or wounding? And what can art possibly add to the event itself? Class discussion.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the passage and say what situation is described. The passage describes the moments after the terrorist attack on one of the towers.

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IDENTIFY the people that are involved in the scene. The people involved in the scene are: Keith, a woman who carried a small tricycle tight to her chest (lines 5, 15), thousands of people (line 7), Rumsey (line 20), the man falling sideways (line 25), an old man on the landing ahead (line 31), someone praying back in the line somewhere, in Spanish (lines 40-41), a man in a hard hat (he is not going down but coming up, he must be one of the rescue team), (line 42), firemen coming up (line 43), a woman (line 53), men with toweled heads, a woman blinded by debris, a woman calling someone’s name (lines 72-73), a woman with her hand in the air, like running to catch a bus (line 81), two men ran by with a stretcher, carrying someone facedown (lines 83-84).

ANALYSIS 4 ANALYSE the passage by doing the following activities. 1 Say from whose point of view the story is told. The story is told from Keith’s point of view. 2 Underline the words and phrases referring to the setting in place. The first part of the extract describes the inside of the tower. The paper is moved around the offices by a wind coming from above, there is a fallen wall and it is almost dark (lines 4-5). There is water running down the stairs (line 9) and it is very hot (line 11). The tower swayed and leant (lines 21-22). The shops in the tower were closed and locked (lines 63-64). From the street the two towers could be seen burning (line 66) and they started to fall, the south tower diving into the smoke (lines 66-69). The windblast sent people to the ground. A thunderhead of smoke and ash came moving toward them. The light drained dead away, bright day gone. In the ash there were ruins of what was various and human, hovering in the air above (lines 70-71,75). There was a line of fire trucks and they stood empty with their headlights flashing (lines 82-83). Everything was falling away, street signs, people, things he could not name (lines 86-87). 3 Focus on Keith’s perceptions and actions. How would you define his mood? He made his way slowly toward the voices (line

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its description of an almost interminable descent. The reader does not share Keith’s impression of a quick descent because the description makes it clear that going down was hard and long. Students should discuss the emotional impact of the extract on the reader.

YOUR TURN 5 DISCUSS the impact that September 11th has had on our daily lives. Class discussion. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 207.

Skyscrapers and contemporary architecture

Interactive Map 19

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LOOK at the skyscrapers in pictures 1-2. Do you know what they are? Compare them by considering their style and location. Use the Internet to help you. Student’s activity. The first picture shows The Twin Towers in the World Trade Center, each climbing more than 100 feet higher than the silver mast of the Empire State Building. Construction of a world trade facility had been under consideration since the end of WWII. In the late 1950s the Port Authority took interest in the project and in 1962 fixed its site on the west side of Lower Manhattan on a superblock. Architect Minoru Yamasaki was selected to design the project. Construction began in 1966 and cost an estimated $1.5 billion. One World Trade Center was ready for its first tenants in late 1970, though the upper stories were not completed until 1972; Two World Trade Center was finished in 1973. Excavation to bedrock 70 feet below produced the material for the Battery Park City landfill project in the Hudson River. When complete, the Twin Towers were the world’s tallest, and largest, buildings until the Sears Tower in Chicago surpassed them both in 1974. The second picture shows the skyscraper One

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18.5 Mapping the Arts

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

4).He walked in a long sleep, one step and then the next (lines 7-8). The pain in his face seemed to shrink his head. He thought his eyes and mouth were sinking into his skin (lines 11-12). Things came back to him in hazy visions, like half an eye staring (line 13). He stood looking into nothing (line 15). He smelled something dismal and understood it was him (line 17), for an instant he saw it again, going past the window, and this time he thought it was Rumsey (lines 24-25). He closed his eyes, maybe because it meant he didn’t have to reply (lines 29-30). It did not seem forever to him, the passage down. He had no sense of pace or rate (line 39). He took one step and then the next, smoke blowing over him. He felt rubble underfoot (lines 77-78). Then he saw a shirt come down out of the sky. He walked and saw it fall (line 88). He seems to be in a state of numbness. He moves taking one step after the other as if he were sleeping. However, his senses are alert to the sounds, the smells and the sights. It is his conscience which is stunned. Pick out the objects or people that acquire a symbolical meaning in the scene. The woman with the tricycle appears twice; one may wonder why she was holding a tricycle in her arms, it might have been a present for her child. The smoke, the dust and ashes recur in the passage as a symbol of death and destruction. The line of people going down symbolizes the desperate attempt to find a way out of hell. The briefcase which passed from hand to hand until it reached the ground floor symbolizes people taking care of others and reinforces the idea of the descent in the repetition ‘This is going down’. The falling man appears twice and is the symbolical image which closes the book and gives it its title. Define the tone of the narration. What strikes you the most in DeLillo’s descriptive technique? The tone is deprived of emotion. The description proceeds by accumulation, with the use of words such as ‘thousands, crowded, people, several, things’ which underline the mass effort and the number of people who got trapped and killed in the towers. The last part of the extract is more dynamic, almost frantic compared to the first part which is very slow in

World Trade Center (formerly Freedom Tower). Ten years after the 9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, 80 stories of a new glassand-steel tower have risen from the ashes of ground zero. The site has cranes in the air, trains running underground and hundreds of trees planted around giant, man-made waterfalls to remember the dead of Sept. 11.

SOLUZIONI DEGLI ESERCIZI DEL TESTO

Specification 18

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READ the text and underline the places mentioned. Then locate them on the map. Students’ activity.

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ANSWER the questions about the text.

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Where and when was the skyscraper born? The skyscraper was born in the USA (Chicago and New York) in the 1870s. Why were skyscrapers built? They were built because of the lack of available land, rising land values and the growth of population. This made building upwards financially viable. What can the most famous towers be linked to? The most famous towers can be tied to ‘boom or depression’, an upward or downward economic process of some sort. What are the most important features of today’s skyscrapers? Their being huge and the symbol of the modernity of the town where they have been built; they are ‘terrorist resistant’ after the collapse of the historic World Trade Center on 9/11; ‘green’ linked to sustainable energy; the use of advanced digital tools (CAD) allow architects to modify certain features of a building without having to re-calculate all the other features that are affected by the changes made. Who are the best-known contemporary architects? They are the English Norman Foster (born 1935), the Canadian Frank Gerhy (born 1929), the Polish-American Daniel Libeskind (born 1946), the Argentine American César Pelli (born 1926) and the Italian Renzo Piano (born 1937). Can you name any of their buildings? Norman Foster’s recent office building projects are ‘the Gherkin’ (1999), which serves as London headquarters for Swiss Re; the London City Hall (2002), in Southwark. Frank Gehry’s most recent skyscraper is the Beekman Tower (2011) in Lower Manhattan. Daniel Libeskind’s London Metropolitan University (2004) has

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become the symbol of the connection between the general public and the university in a commercial context. César Pelli is the architect both of the Petronas Tower in Malaysia and the Garibaldi Tower (2011) in Milan. Renzo Piano’s latest work is the skyscraper ‘the Shard’ (2012) in London’s South Bank.

YOUR TURN 4 DISCUSS. Do you think it is important for a city to keep its historical style, or to reflect its contemporary time by building high-tech skyscrapers? Students’ activity.

18.6 Literature

Voices from Englishspeaking countries

Teaching tip The presentation Voices from Englishspeaking countries in PowerPoint can be employed as a support to the introduction of the genre.

Text Bank 144: V.S Naipaul, The oneness of government and faith from Beyond belief Teacher’s Key on page 392. Text Bank 145: J.M Coetzee, A risk to own anything from Disgrace Teacher’s Key on page 394.

Text Bank 146: Chinua Achebe, The missionaires from Things fall apart Teacher’s Key on page 395.

Text Bank 147: Doris Lessing, The bush avenged itself from The grass is singing Teacher’s Key on page 397.

Text Bank 148: Doris Lessing, Aids, a curse on us from The sweetest dream Teacher’s Key on page 399.

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DISCUSS. What is a lingua franca? What are its advantages? A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues. Lingua francas have arisen around the globe throughout human

from initial revulsion against colonialism and passionate reassertion of indigenous cultural values, through disillusionment with the fruits of independence, and thereafter either to a growing sense of alienation, or to silence, or to further explosions of anger and radicalism. Another general point is that the rapid political and social changes in Africa are likely to exert considerable pressure on African writers, so that they are less interested in introspection and psychological analysis or in elaborate experiments in language and structure.

history, sometimes for commercial reasons (socalled ‘trade languages’) but also for diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities.

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What factors led to the use of English as a sort of lingua franca? This was made possible first of all by historical events: the settlement of English-speaking people in newly discovered lands; the massive emigration of people from England, Ireland and Scotland to North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries; the increase of the world power of the United States since World War II. In the 20th century, English became the language of political and financial transactions, of study and research thanks to the features of adaptability and flexibility of the language itself. The most recent impetus has come from the widespread use of the Internet. What new contributions have enriched English-language literature since World War II? The contributions of countries such as South Africa and Nigeria, the West Indies, Australia and Canada, which used to be part of the British Empire; nowadays they belong to the Commonwealth of Nations, except South Africa, which ceased to be a member state in 1961. What are the reasons why non-English writers write in English? Some authors have chosen to write in English because, although born in another country, they have been educated and live in England. Those writers who come from countries where ethnic languages are still mainly oral and not mutually comprehensible have quickly realised that if they wish to communicate not only with the Englishspeaking world at large, but also with considerable numbers of their fellowcountrymen, they would have to use English. What do African-English literatures have in common? All the new African-English literatures have shared similar styles and approaches, have dealt with the same basic themes, and gone through the same phases of development –

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18.7 History

Handling conflict in South Africa

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 207.

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DISCUSS. What do you know about South Africa? In pairs, make a list of five things you associate with this country and then compare your list with another pair. Students’ activity: Lists could contain: Cape Town Apartheid Nelson Mandela Rugby Diamond mines Gold mines Safari parks Table Mountain Oscar Pistorius

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READ the article quickly, skimming, and say what the ‘conflict’ mentioned in the title of this section (18.7) refers to. Student’s activity: It refers to apartheid and the segregation policy that repressed the black population in South Africa for generations. IELTS

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Academic Reading

READ the article about South Africa on pages 595–596 and answer questions 1–15. For questions 1–5, decide if the statements agree with the information given in the article. Write TRUE if the statement agrees

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READ the text and answer the following questions.

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with the information, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this. 1 2 3 4

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The term ‘apartheid’ came from an African word meaning change. FALSE The Afrikaners ruled in South Africa but they were a minority group. TRUE The black population of South Africa lost their right to be citizens of their own country. TRUE International public opinion became increasingly hostile towards Frederik Willem de Klerk. NOT GIVEN There was no international reaction to apartheid in South Africa. FALSE

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For questions 10-14, complete the summary. Use NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Apartheid was the institutionalisation of the kind of (10) segregation that had been present in South Africa from the time of the first colonial conquests by the Dutch and (11) the british. After the Second World War, the government passed a series of discriminatory laws that created (12) separate areas. In the face of violent opposition both (13) at home and abroad, however, the South African government had to begin talks about ending apartheid for good. Blacks were finally given the right (14) to vote and Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994.

Internet Lab 1

DISCUSS. What do you know about Nelson Mandela’s life? Students’ activity. Students should point out that Nelson Mandela was accused of sabotage and jailed for 27 years during the apartheid regime. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with F.W. de Klerk. He was elected President in 1994.

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BROWSE these websites: www.nelsonmandela.org http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ shows/mandela/ http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/ peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/ mandela.htm Then carry out a research project using the points below about Nelson Mandela’s life-long walk to freedom: 1 Nelson Mandela, the boy from the rural Transkei; 2 the revolutionary; 3 the prisoner; 4 Mandela’s statement from the dock at the opening of his defence in the 1964 trial: ‘An ideal for which I am prepared to die’; 5 the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and Mandela’s acceptance speech; 6 Mandela’s inaugural speech on 10th May 1994. Student’s activity.

For questions 6–9, choose the correct letter (A, B, C or D). 6 B; 7 C; 8 A;9 C.

15 Which of the following sentences (A, B, C or D) best describes the main gist of the article? C.

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Teaching tip 1. Divide your students into groups. Have each group focus on one of the topics suggested. The Web sites include information on each topic. Students can also refer to newspaper and magazine articles for more information. 2. Give students enough time in class to carry out their research. Have each group prepare a short paper. 3. After all the groups have completed their research, have each group present and share their report with the class. 4. Then ask other students for their comments.

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PRESENT your findings to the rest of the class. Student’s activity.

18.8 Literature

Nadine Gordimer and post-apartheid South Africa

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 207. Text Bank 149: Nadine Gordimer, The donkey didn’t cry out from Burger’s daughter Teacher’s Key on page 401. Text Bank 150: Nadine Gordimer, Back home from The pickup Teacher’s Key on page 403.

A change of life A Soldier’s Embrace (1980)

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DISCUSS. What happens when the white minority finds itself out of power? What do they do? Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 READ the extract and answer the following questions. 1

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What happened to the white lawyer after the revolution? He progressively lost his white clients because they left the country. How did the white law and the black way differ? The whites needed a lawyer to settle their disputes (lines 4-5); the blacks had it done by a gathering of the elders under a tree (lines 6-8). What did the lawyer expect or hope for? He expected to be offered a position as a consultant in the new Party (lines 9-10) and hoped he might be asked to help write the country’s new constitution (line 11); but nothing came of this expectation. What other suggestion came to him? That he might be appointed as a professor at the University in the Law Chair (meaning head of department of the Law faculty) (lines 21-22). What news did the wife have when she came back home? That the butcher had closed his shop and left because he was afraid he might be attacked (lines 41, 46, 51-53). What was happening in the streets? Shops were being looted, there were riots and the police patrolled the streets.

ANALYSIS 3 SAY why the wife and husband do not have a name. The unnamed wife and husband suggest a typical example, a sort of ‘every liberal white couple’. 4

EXPLAIN why the position of the progressive white couple is ambivalent. It is a very ambivalent situation because the progressive whites in power support the black majority in its bid for political power. What the story seems to emphasize is the double face of

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TAKE NOTE of the manner in which the newspapers deal with the events. The papers still take a colonial perspective (lines 32-36); one assumes that the majority of readers are white, since most of the blacks would be illiterate.

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SAY whether the story communicates by implication or by direct statement. From whose point of view is it narrated? The story communicates by implication rather than by direct statement. The point of view is that of an unidentified omniscient narrator.

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DISCUSS the theme of the extract. The extract presents the difficulties the whites and even their black servants (see Muchanga who is afraid of going to the market alone) have to face in a country where they have been in power for a long time and where the situation has been reversed.

18.9 Society

AIDS in Africa

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WRITE a list of questions concerning AIDS (for example, the difference between HIV and AIDS, its origin, statistics, symptoms, transmission, prevention, testing, etc.). Then share them with the rest of the class and see if you can find the answers. Student’s activity

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LOOK at the graphs below and answer the following questions.

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Which was the period of lowest life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa? It was in the 1960s. Is life expectancy generally higher or lower today compared to 1960? It is 15 years higher today compared to 1960 – a 55 year life expectancy compared to 40. Is life expectancy rising or declining in this part of Africa? It is rising. How does South Africa compare to the other Sub-Saharan countries as far as life expectancy

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Nadine Gordimer

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black-white relations, in which even as the white couple are innocent of a conscious prejudicial attitude toward the blacks, they inevitably seem to manifest such prejudice.

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is concerned? South Africa comes out as the third African country for higher life expectancy after Kenya and Uganda and is followed by Swaziland and Zimbabwe. How does life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa compare to the world in general? Although there’s a slow, positive rise in life expectancy (a positive rise to 55 years), this is still not very high when compared to the world life expectancy of 70 years.

so slashing the death rate and pushing up life expectancy from under 54 in 2005 to 58 in 2010. 9 What do you understand by ‘life expectancy’? This refers to the average age to which the local population can expect to live. 10 According to the article, is the situation improving, stationary or getting worse? According to the article, the situation is still dramatic but slowly improving (the enemy is at last on the retreat).

READ the following article from The Economist. Student’s activity.

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ANSWER the following questions.

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What is the ‘good news’ referred to at the beginning of the article? The number of new cases of AIDS in South Africa is falling (it is now half what it was in 1999) due to the increased use of condoms. In which way was the South African economy suffering from the AIDS epidemic? So many skilled workers and breadwinners were dying. At the peak of the disease in 2005, it was killing over 700 South Africans a day. What do you think the expression ‘sole breadwinner’ means? It means the only person in the family earning money in order for the family to buy food and survive. How does the number of HIV-positive adults in South Africa compare with the rates in the US and Britain? The rate in South Africa (17%) is nearly three times that of America (6%) and almost nine times that of Britain (2%). What is mainly to blame for the prevalence of AIDS in South Africa, according to the article? The article states it is mainly due to cultural differences. What has brought about a positive change recently? The increased use of condoms by young South African males and the rise in anti-retroviral treatment. What is meant by the phrase: ‘slashing the death rate’? This means dramatically reducing the number of people who die. How has the situation improved under President Zuma? His government have allowed over 1.5m South Africans to receive antiretrovirals so that sufferers can now live longer,

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SUMMARISE the content of the article in about 120 words. Student’s activity. Suggested answer. Although the number of South Africans with AIDS continues to rise, the number of new cases is optimistically falling. This is due to an increased use of condoms. The high numbers of deaths have been a tragedy for children growing up as orphans but also for the economy deprived of skilled workers. The rate of HIV- AIDS in South Africa is still dramatically higher than in the rest of Africa and particularly in the rest of the world. This is due to cultural reasons as black South African men are more promiscuous and have been reluctant to use condoms. The recent increase in the use of condoms with the treatment with retrovirals, have reduced the death rate and improved life expectancy rates. (120 words) Exam Reference pag. 611

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COMPOSITION Comment on the title of the article and express your views on the topic. Do you think enough is being done to educate and warn young people about the threat of HIV/AIDS? What suggestions do you have to offer as ways of lowering the risk of HIV and AIDS? Write a 300-word essay. Student’s activity.

18.10 Two Films About…

South Africa

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DISCUSS in pairs. How difficult do you think it is to show apartheid on film? Why

do you think directors choose to demonstrate the problems of discrimination through the life of an individual rather than a group? Students’ activity.

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Video Lab 41: Cry Freedom Photocopiable Lesson on page 283. Teacher’s Key on page 301.

5 Video Lab 42: Invictus Photocopiable Lesson

intense and lively in contrast with the black lines. What feelings does the mural convey? It conveys the feelings of life, peace, friendship and harmony through its unmistakable shapes linked one to the other in a sort of a multicoloured dance. What is the theme developed? The theme developed is that of universal peace.

on page 285. Teacher’s Key on page 303.

SURF the Internet to find information about graffiti and famous graffiti artists, including:

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where and when the graffiti phenomenon started; Jean-Michel Basquiat – the style he employed, the themes he developed; Banksy - his real identity, the images he often uses and the messages he conveys; JR - who the artist is, why he only uses his initials. Student’s activity. Students should point out: • Graffiti started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the late 1960s. The movement took on very quickly in New York City and names and nicknames started to appear on buildings, post-boxes, phone boxes, underground tunnels, buses and finally on subway cars. • Jean-Michel Basquiat emerged from the ‘Punk’ scene in New York as a street-smart graffiti artist. In a few years, Basquiat swiftly became one of the most celebrated, and possibly most commercially exploited American ‘naif ’ painters of the Neo-Expressionism art movement. Despite his work’s unstudied appearance, Basquiat brought together in his art a host of different traditions, practices, and styles very skillfully, and succeeded in creating a unique kind of visual collage, deriving in part, from his urban origins, and in part from his African-Caribbean origins. Basquiat’s work is an example of how American artists of the 1980s could reintroduce the human figure into their work after the widespread success of Minimalism and Conceptualism, thus establishing a dialogue with the more distant tradition of 1950s Abstract Expressionism. • The graffiti art by Banksy is well-known in Bristol but he prefers to keep his identity hidden and away from publicity. His true

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 208.

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Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 208.

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LOOK at the poster Silence = Death and say what Haring wanted to attack. Haring wanted to attack the prejudice surrounding the growing AIDS crisis with this poster, which features figures covering their eyes, ears and mouths. There is a pink triangle at the basis of the poster: it is a reminder of the badge gay men were forced to wear in the Nazi death camps, and used in the 70s and 80s as a symbol of gay pride.

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ANALYSE the mural Tuttomondo. It is 180 square metres and was the last public work painted by the artist, one year before his death.

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What is the continuity of the drawing linked to? The continuity is tied to the incessant motion of the line, which runs without caesuras, following its flow of awareness and fancy, developing bends and folds, lending weight and concreteness to conflicts. What do all the thirty images create? They create labyrinths filled with dreamlike flashes that absorb the flow of figures and representations – some of them are cruel and tragic, others playful and happy. Exploiting a series of symbols and archetypes that lie in the collective unconscious, Haring introduces a vortex of incredible disorder. What colours are employed? The colours are

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18.11 The Arts

Keith Haring and his time

Prova Orale - Part 1

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name is believed to be Robert Banks born in Yate near Bristol in 1974. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s. His artworks are often satirical pieces of art which include topics from politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world including New York and Los Angeles. Banksy began his career as an underground graffiti artist in Bristol, England in 1989 and his first solo exhibition was held at the London gallery, Cargo, in 2001; his first U.S. exhibition was in Los Angeles in 2006. Sometimes he just put up an official-looking sign with these words: ‘By Order of the National Highways Agency This Wall Is A Designated Graffiti Area.’ • The more famous JR gets, the more he retreats behind his work. The 29-year-old French artist, known only by his initials, has earned world-wide recognition for his largescale portraits of ordinary men and women, which he pastes onto the sides of buildings, street furniture and rooftops. His work deals with freedom, identity commitment and limits. 4

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READ the following quotation by Martin Luther King, Jr., (I17.7) and then make a list of possible peacemaking activities. ‘Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.’ Student’s activity. Peacebuilding activities aim at building understanding and tolerance between individuals, communities and societies and establishing new structures of cooperation. Peacebuilding activities range in scale from personal acts of kindness toward others to global inter-governmental programmes.

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READ the following list of ways to be a peacebuilder and identify the one which you think is most suitable for you. Then explain why to the rest of the class. Student’s activity.

Teaching tip Here is a list of peacebuilding issues to organise possible discussions in class. • Gender and peacebuilding • Genocide prevention • Media, technology, and peacebuilding • Religion and peacebuilding • Youth and peacebuilding

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CREATE a PowerPoint presentation using the material from the Internet. Student’s activity.

• Barack Obama World organizing, arms control and disarmament. • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Albert (Al) Gore, Jr. Care of the environment, humanitarian work, world organizing. • International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei Arms control and disarmament. • Shirin Ebadi human rights. • Médecins Sans Frontières, Mother Teresa Humanitarian work.

Exam Reference pag. 611

18.12 Cultural Issues

Building peace

Text Bank 151: Derek Walcott, A Far cry from Africa from A green night Teacher’s Key on page 405.

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DISCUSS in pairs the difference between ‘peacebuilding’ and ‘peacemaking’. Students’ activity. ‘Peacebuilding’ is different from ‘peacemaking’ and ‘peacekeeping’ because it focuses on creating a long-term culture of peace, rather than solving existing conflicts or preventing old ones from re-occurring.

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READ about some of the people who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the last few decades and, near each one, write down the field in which peacebuilding can be operated.

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READ the following extract from the speech American President Barack Obama (I18.3) gave when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and note down its main ideas. Then compare your notes with the rest of the class and say whether or not you agree with the speaker. Main points:

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The Season of Phantasmal Peace

with ‘light’. What kind of landscape do they evoke? Phantasmal light (line 10); flashed in the icy sunlight (line 14); the light (line 20); brighter than pity (line 29). Even words related to its opposite may be quoted, as reinforcing the role of light: shadows (lines 2, 5, 6, 7, 11) dark (line 30) dusk, darkness (line 34), or colours created by the light: silvery (line 13), yellow (line 22). These images of light evoke an unreal, fantastic landscape.

ANALYSIS 4 FOCUS on the layout of the poem. What do you notice about it? How does it contribute to its development? The poem consists of two blocks connected by a very short line (line 20) in the middle. The organization of the poem helps the development of its content. The first block deals with the description of the scene, whereas the second block deals with its deeper meaning. The linking line contains the central image of light. 5

UNDERLINE examples of repetition and say what their function is. ‘Shadows’ (lines 2, 5, 6, 7, 11), birds (lines 1, 8, 26), ‘lifted’ (lines 1, 4, 31), net (lines 2, 8, 16, 31). Their function is to highlight words that are especially important to the meaning and convey the idea of the number of the birds and their hard work.

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WRITE DOWN what is described as ‘soundless’. Then note down the different ‘shadows’ mentioned in the poem. What connotation does the emphasis on these two qualities give the scenery? Soundless: The net rising, the birds’ cries (line 8), the concern for the fields (lines 25-26). Also: no one hearing (line 22) evokes a no-sound image. Shadows: the huge net of the earth (line 2); long pines down trackless slopes, glass-faced towers, a frail plant on a city sill (lines 5-7). The emphasis on these two qualities gives the scenery a magic and peaceful connotation; they prepare the reader for the image of ‘phantasmal light’ which symbolizes love and peace.

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POINT OUT the verbs connected with the human presence in the poem. What pattern

Derek Walcott The fortunate Traveller (1981)

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IMAGINE you have to create your own symbol for peace. What image would you choose? Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 ANSWER the questions. 1 What did the birds do together? They lifted the huge net of the shadows of this earth. 2 How did this affect the landscape? There was no longer dusk, or season, or weather (line 9), there was only light (phantasmal light, line 10, line 20). 3 Did humans take part? No, they could not see or hear (lines 12,14). 4 Where were the birds flying? They were flying over the world, town and country, on their seasonal passing (lines 2527). 5 Did the event last long? No, it lasted one moment in itself (line 33) but in its meaning it lasted long (line 35). 3 CIRCLE the words and phrases connected Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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People can be active participants in the search for justice it is impossible to rid the world of violence completely some wars are morally justified and therefore necessary non-violence has a strong moral force but sometimes war is needed to preserve peace every nation must adhere to certain standards governing the use of force there are three ways to build a lasting peace: • sanctions must be strong enough to be a real alternative to force • peace must honour and protect individual rights • peace must also ensure economic security and opportunity each individual should take inspiration from those who strive for peace.

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do they share? What impression of mankind does the poet create? Could not see (line 12); could not hear (line 14); a mother drawing... child fluttering to sleep (lines 17-19); no one hearing knew (line 22); ‘wingless ones...them who shared dark holes in windows and in houses (lines 30-31). They are all in the negative form. They underline the state of inability of mankind. Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 208.

18.13 Comparing Literatures

9/11: reflections on death and peace

Ricordiamoci dell’11 settembre Giuseppe Conte Il fuoco che produce luce e fumo (2001)

Extra Activities Teacher’s Key on page 208. ESAME DI STATO

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TYPE B. In ten to twelve lines, discuss the poet’s remark in the last line of the poem as regards the historical context of the contemporary age. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: ‘but, for such as our earth is now, it lasted long’ Derek Walcott’s beautiful poem underlines the desperate need for uplifting peace and light in today’s world. The whole poem reinforces the idea given in the last line that the world has become a negative place: ‘for such as the earth is now’. It is a place that fails to understand, or see, or hear or appreciate the efforts made by nature to lift it up and out of the shadows, out of darkness into the light. The nations of birds, clearly the symbol of freedom, love and peace, unite to give the world a fleeting moment of hope and goodwill. They ‘lift’ the shadows to allow the light of hope to shine through. But this brief ‘season’ is not understood by ‘wingless’ man in his ‘dark holes’ although the urgent desire for relief is seen in the lines: ‘it lasted long’. That fleeting moment which is as brief as the pause ‘between dusk and darkness’ for man becomes a longer deeper possibility. The poem is almost a hymn, a supplication that man can take the opportunity of a brief season of goodwill, when the problems of the world are lifted temporarily away, to see and hear and understand the need for reconciliation, love and peace. Exam Reference pag. 611

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Desiderio di pace Mario Luzi 11 settembre (2002)

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DISCUSS in pairs. Have you read any novels, short-stories, essays, articles published in newspapers, or poems about 9/11 (I18.3)? Do you think there may be a connection between the 21st-century reactions to 9/11 and the Italian experience or memory of political terrorism and war? Students’ activity.

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READ the two poems and do the following activities.

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Explain the antithesis between ‘Inferi’ and ‘Dio’ in Conte’s poem. The massacre has been the triumph of evil, of the devil, that is, of a murderous God; our prayers must be addressed to a right, innocent God, who is able to laugh like a child (line 15). Pick out the part in the text where the poet insists most on the horror of what happened. It is Conte’s poem (lines 3-4). Highlight the different sense of brotherhood conveyed by the poems. Conte expresses brotherhood in prayer (lines 12-13); while Luzi highlights the existence of brotherhood in death (lines 1-5). Explain the symbolic meaning of ‘gigli’ in Luzi’s poem. These flowers symbolize the hope for the birth of a society linked to innocence, as a real premise for a true peace (lines 10-12).

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COMPOSITION Choose one of the following tasks and write a 300-word essay.

do justice to the powerful message of their lives? How does the word ‘peace’ get distorted by politicians and the media to mean something other than peace? Student’s activity. Exam Reference pag. 611

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Is it as important that schools designate an amount of time to teaching about peace? How do you think your life, community, country and world would be any different if more attention were given to studying how to achieve peace? Does simply ‘honouring’ non-violent leaders

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18 Overview

Persian Gulf crisis in 1990 after Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait. Under Bill Clinton’s presidency an achievement in foreign affairs was marked by the peace agreement signed between Yasser Arafat’ s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel at the White House in 1993. In 2001, during the first months of G. W. Bush’s presidency, the USA were stunned by the September 11th-attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, in New York, and on the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, in Virginia. All the buildings were hit by American passenger planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists. President Bush ordered a retaliatory attack in Afghanistan and, in 2003, he declared war against Iraq. November 2008 marked a unique date in American history: the Democratic nominee Barack Hussein Obama, a young AfricanAmerican, became the 44th US president and the first ever black American to hold the office. He was re-elected for a second term in 2012.

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DISCUSS the features of Margaret Thatcher’s policies in Britain in the 1980s. Margaret Thatcher advocated free trade, that is, low protective tariffs, and as little government interference as possible in business and domestic matters. To lower government spending, industries were de-nationalised; she made a series of reforms to develop private enterprise and to reduce the power of the Trade Unions. She encouraged the young in particular to take up their own responsibilities, to try to make a good career and to value the freedom of selfemployment. In 1982 the Falkland Islands were claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory and were invaded by the Argentine army. Britain sent a Task Force to reclaim the islands, and after a two-month campaign, Argentina surrendered. In 1987 Thatcher introduced the unpopular ‘poll tax’, a local tax based on persons and no longer on properties, which was to be paid by all citizens enrolled to vote. EXPLAIN how Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time reflects Thatcher’s England. Set in England in a near dystopian future, the novel offers McEwan’s view of Thatcher’s England, a country where poverty and squalor are to be found everywhere amidst affluence, and where control is exercised in the name of freedom. History seems to be connected with loss, with the radical change which has transformed the face of Britain, filling the cities with beggars, causing the collapse of public transport and running down educational provision. The past has been destroyed in the name of efficiency and individual freedom. TRACE the main events in US history from Ronald Reagan’s presidency to Barack Obama’s. When Ronald Reagan became president, millions of dollars were invested on developing powerful missiles and on space research. This created employment and businessmen made big profits. Republican George H. W. Bush led the United States in its involvement in the

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READ the extract below from Falling Man by Don DeLillo and do the following activities.

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Identify the setting and the main situation. What did the people do? The setting is not specified but students should recognize the description of New York after the attack to the Twin Towers. The people were running holding towels to their faces, or jackets over their heads. They had handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths. They had shoes in their hands, they ran and fell, and there were people taking shelter under cars. How do you think the protagonist felt? He seemed to be walking automatically, without realizing there were blood and glass on his face and in his hair. He looked stunned. What characterised the surroundings? What senses were involved in the experience? The city seemed to have disappeared and had been replaced by falling ash and darkness. The roar was still in the air, the buckling rumble of the fall. ‘Smoke and ash came rolling down streets and turning corners, busting around corners, seismic tides of smoke, with office paper flashing past, standard sheets with cutting edge, skimming, whipping past, otherworldly things in the morning pall.’ All senses were involved in the experience.

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EXPLAIN why skyscrapers came into being and define the most important features of their style today. In the 1870s the lack of available land and the rising land values, together with the growth of population in New York and Chicago, made building upwards financially vital. This led to a race between the two cities to build the tallest building, and so the skyscraper was born. The skyscraper came into being, therefore, through a combination of innovation and accident, in a mixture of unregulated capitalism. The towers were offices, often for financial institutions, so they were linked to boom and depression. The most important features of the today’s skyscrapers’ style are their being:

domination of English on the Internet. The writers who come from countries where indigenous languages are still mainly oral and not mutually comprehensible have quickly realised that if they wish to communicate not only with the English-speaking world at large, but also with considerable numbers of their fellow-countrymen, they have to use English. 7

DEFINE the term ‘apartheid’ and say what attempts have been made to heal the wounds it produced. Apartheid is a racial segregation policy in South Africa from the earliest colonial times under Dutch and British rule. It became institutionalized after the Second World War. The name came from a word in the South African Dutch settlers’ language, Afrikaans: ‘aparthood’, meaning separateness. The system of apartheid was government-enforced racial discrimination laid down by the National Party, which ruled the country from 1948 until 1994. Through a series of laws vigorously enforced, the period of apartheid maintained white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule by suppressing the rights of the black majority. The discrimination imposed covered all areas of public and private life. It affected housing, schooling, medical care and the use of public transport, as well as creating white-only areas on beaches and other public areas. The population was divided and classified into four racial groups: ‘native’, ‘white’, ‘coloured’, and ‘Asian’. After 1970, even non-white political representation was abolished. Black South Africans were deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands. An attempt to heal the wounds of apartheid was made through the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’. This commission set up informal courts all over the country where victims of civil rights abuse and violence could give testimony of their experiences. Perpetrators of violence were also invited to make statements of contrition and request amnesty from prosecution.

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HIGHLIGHT the key ideas in the passage ‘A change of life’ from Nadine Gordimer’s A Soldier’s Embrace. The main characters are a woman and her

• huge and the symbol of the modernity of the town where they have been built; • ‘terrorist resistant’ after the collapse of the historic World Trade Center on 9/11. In fact the newer skyscrapers are built as giant fortresses, with unique, six-inch concrete, bomb-resistant glass, and super-strong steel cores; they also include widened stairways that allow quick evacuation, elevators that function during an emergency, improved communications and monitoring systems; • ‘green’ linked to sustainable energy; • parametric modelling, linked to the use of advanced digital tools (CAD) which allow you to modify certain features of a building without having to re-calculate all the other features that are affected by the changes you make. 6

JUSTIFY why many writers from around the world use English to write their works. In the 20th century English became the language of political and financial transactions, of study and research; it is now a sort of ‘lingua franca’ which people of different nations use to communicate. This is certainly due to the features of adaptability and flexibility of the language itself and increasingly to the

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Specification 18

What theme does the extract try to convey? DeLillo shows how his characters try to deal with the fall of the towers. Everyone tries to move forward, the real effect of 9/11 is not political but existential. The planes cut everyone loose from whatever anchors of normality allowed them to relate to each other and the world.

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lawyer husband. Although they are liberals who have sympathized with the local freedom fighters, their lives change when native Africans take over the unnamed African country. This story is about the removal by force of the white colonials from their positions and homes in the era of the blacks. The couple gradually experience a growing sense of fear and alienation. The lawyer loses clients; in the end he realises that there is no longer a place for him in the country and decides to accept a position in the neighbouring country.

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LOOK at Keith Haring’s painting The Tree of Life (1985) below and trace the features of his art. His images created labyrinths filled with dreamlike flashes that absorbed the flow of figures and representations – some of them cruel and tragic, some of them playful and happy. He took on the job of ‘representing’ a universe in which everything is excrement, sperm, sex, anarchy, cruelty, blood, and death. Exploiting a series of symbols and archetypes that lie in the collective unconscious, Haring introduced a vortex of tremendous disorder, a spasmodic agglomerate of images. In Haring’s paintings and drawings, the continuity is tied to the incessant motion of the line, which runs

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without caesuras, following its flow of awareness and fancy, developing bends and folds, lending weight and concreteness to conflicts. 10 DISCUSS the main ideas expressed by Barack Obama in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. The main ideas are: 1 People can be active participants in the search for justice 2 it is impossible to rid the world of violence completely 3 some wars are morally justified and therefore necessary 4 non-violence has a strong moral force but sometimes war is needed to preserve peace 5 every nation must adhere to certain standards governing the use of force 6 there are three ways to build a lasting peace •

sanctions must be strong enough to be a real alternative to force • peace must honour and protect individual rights • peace must also ensure economic security and opportunity 7 each individual should take inspiration from those who strive for peace.

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Extra Activities • Soluzioni 13.1 History

The Victorian age THE VICTORIAN AGE was one of great contrasts. It was a time of tremendous achievements in industry, trade and transport but also an age of great hardship and poverty. It was the height of the British Empire when Britain really felt ‘Great’ and the monarch gained the new title of ‘Empress of India’. However, it was also a time of child labour, ginbabies, workhouses and poverty.Which of the following events happened during the reign of Victoria?

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The Great Exhibition On the Origin of Species is published The outbreak of the First World War The Irish Free State is declared The American Civil War The first passenger railway is opened The Crimean War The First Parliamentary Reform Act MATCH the following eminent Victorians to their definition. 1 Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 2 Charles Dickens 3 Benjamin Disraeli 4 Charles Darwin 5 Isambard Kingdom Brunel An English naturalist who claimed that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. B The Prince Consort, married to Queen Victoria and responsible for initiating social reform and encouraging industrial innovation. C An engineer whose designs for steamships, bridges and tunnels revolutionised public transport and modern engineering. D A novelist who awakened the social conscience by describing in graphic detail the social conditions of his age. E British Prime Minister and Conservative A

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statesman who supported Parliamentary reform and also introduced the Act which made Queen Victoria Empress of India. 1 B; 2 D; 3 E; 4 A; 5 C.

13.2 Mapping History FIND the words in the text with the same meaning as: 1 the right to vote; suffrage 2 set up, established; founded 3 self-imposed refusal to eat; hunger-strike 4 insert a tube to supply nourishment against a person’s will; force feeding 5 formally given; granted

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Goulden was born in 1858 in Manchester. In 1879 she married Richard Pankhurst; he was a lawyer and supported the fight for women’s suffrage. He had written the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, which claimed the right for women to keep the money and the property they had acquired before and after marriage. In 1889 Emmeline founded the Women’s Franchise League, which asked for the right for married women to vote in local elections. In 1903, she was one of the founders of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), whose members were the first to be called ‘Suffragettes’. On several occasions, Emmeline was arrested and went on hunger strike, often followed by violent force-feeding. In 1918, thanks to the Representation of the People Act, women over thirty were granted voting rights. Emmeline died in 1928, shortly after women acquired equal voting rights with men (at the age of twentyone).

them down or drive them away. In turn, more aircraft were deployed to protect reconnaissance aircraft and combat enemy fighters, and so the modern battle for control of the air was born.

13.4 The Arts DISCUSS. How do these paintings differ from those that you’ve studied up to now? What changes do you think were taking place in the arts at this time?

13.3 History DISCUSS in pairs. 1 What were the trenches? 2 What do you understand by ‘trench warfare’? 3 What do you imagine were the day-to-day difficulties of living in trenches?

13.3 History Dictation LISTEN to the dictation about the Royal Air Force and write down the text. TRANSCRIPT On 1st April 1918, the British established the world’s first independent air service, the Royal Air Force. It was a remarkable statement of confidence in a new weapon. At the outbreak of war in 1914, military aircraft were few in number and primitive in construction. Between 1914 and 1918, a range of roles were developed, including bombing, ground attack and contact patrols, which attempted to locate and communicate with ground troops during battles, but the primary use of the airplane was for reconnaissance. In order to stop enemy aircraft from observing friendly trench systems, other aircraft were sent up to shoot Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

13.7 Comparing Literatures ESAME DI STATO

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TYPE A. Write an essay of between 250 and 300 words explaining how World War I was different from previous wars and how it was dealt with by the War Poets.

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Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst being arrested, ca 1908.

DECIDE if the following statements describe Imagism or Symbolism. • Started from Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal. Symbolism • Gave importance to the ‘sound’ of words because they conveyed ‘the music of ideas’. Symbolism • The name came from the American poet Ezra Pound. Imagism • The reader could bring his or her own meaning to the poem. Symbolism • Often used quotations from other literatures, revealing cosmopolitan interests. Symbolism • Used hard, clear and precise images. Imagism • Used a rhythm freed from metrical regularity. Imagism • Used allusive language and development of the multiple association of words. Symbolism • A free choice of subject matter. Imagism • Short poems with no moral comment. Imagism • Indirect rather than direct statements. Symbolism • Flourished between 1912 and 1917. Imagism • Used free verse. Symbolism

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13.5 Literature

13.8 Cultural Issues LOOK at the two pictures and compare the different attitudes to war they reflect.

The famous US Army recruiting poster with ‘Uncle Sam’, 1917.

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The Bosnian War

Anti-war graffiti of soldiers painting a peace sign by the artist Banksy.

A closer look

Tony Harrison’s life and works Tony Harrison is one of Britain’s leading poets and playwrights. He has written for the National Theatre in London, the New York Metropolitan Opera and for the BBC and Channel 4 television. He was born in Leeds, England, in 1937 and

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educated at Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University, where he read the classics and took a diploma in linguistics. His first two collections of poems The Loiners (1970) and From the School of Eloquence (1978), explore the gap between his own class background and his education. His success comes from the fact that he is a classicist from the working class, a scholar seeking a mass audience. His most controversial narrative poem ‘v’, about some vandals desecrating his parents’ gravestones during the miner’s strike, was broadcast on Channel 4 in 1987 and won a Royal Television Society Award. Since then, he has continued with his quest to make poetry a public art of social and political commitment and a means of describing reality. ‘The Shadow of Hiroshima’ (1995) and Prometheus, which links the myth of Prometheus with the enchainment of workers in the closed coal mines of Yorkshire and with the present day effects of heavy industry in Romania, are his most famous works. In 1995, he was commissioned by ‘The Guardian’ to visit Bosnia and write poems about the war. ‘A Cold Coming’ (1991) speaks up for the burnt corpse of an Iraqi soldier in metrical rhyming. In 2007 he was awarded the Wilfred Owen poetry award.

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The War in Bosnia took place between 1st March 1992 and 14th December 1995. After the break-up of the old Yugoslavia, different areas like Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence. At the end of February 1992, Bosnia held a referendum about becoming independent. The population in Bosnia was multi-ethnic, made up of 44% Muslims, 31% Orthodox Serbs and 17% Catholic Croats. The referendum granted independence but was boycotted by the Serbs, who went on to declare their own republic. The Serbs were supported by the Serbian government, who sent troops to Bosnia, while the Croats supported the opposing side, and the country was soon in a bitter civil war. The conflict was characterised by indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns and mutual accusations of ethnic cleansing and war atrocities. The Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre became iconic symbols of the war in which at least 100,000 people were killed and 2 million displaced. The war ended with the Washington Agreement in February

Albert Einstein at the age of three, 1882.

1994, which divided the territory and set up the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

13.11 Two Films About ... ANSWER these questions in the following quiz to test your knowledge about Ireland. 1 Which is in the North of Ireland? Eire, the Republic of Ireland. Ulster. 2 Which is the flag of the Republic of Ireland?

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Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer in a posed photograph at the Institute for Advanced Study. Image courtesy of the US Government.

Albert Einstein and special and general relativity

14.1 Culture 1 LOOK at the pictures of Albert Einstein. Describe them and try to imagine the aspects of his life they correspond to. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

A. The world has changed far more in the past one hundred years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological, technologies springing directly from advances in basic science. No scientist better

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Which city is the capital of Ulster, and which is the capital of Eire? Dublin in Ulster and Belfast in Eire. Belfast in Ulster and Dublin in Eire. What is the name of the Irish Prime Minister? The Unionist. The Taoiseach. The Eire President. Which is the majority religion in the Republic of Ireland, and which is the majority religion in Ulster? Catholic in the Republic and Protestant in Ulster. Protestant in the Republic and Catholic in Ulster. There is no majority religion in either region.

Albert Einstein receiving his certificate of American citizenship, 1940. Photo by Al Aumuller. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

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Albert Einstein during a lecture in Vienna in 1921. Photo by Ferdinand Schmutzer.

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represents those advances than Albert Einstein (1879–1955) with his theory of relativity. His ideas, like Darwin’s, influenced modern culture from painting to poetry. For many thinkers of the 1920s, from Dadaists to Cubists to Freudians and modernist writers, relativity was a credo reflecting the incomprehensiveness of the contemporary scene and the turbulence of the 20th century. The first child of a middle-class Jewish couple from southern Germany, Einstein was strongly influenced by his domineering, musically inclined mother who encouraged his passion for the violin and such classical composers as Bach, Mozart and Schubert. As he grew up, he developed a lifelong suspicion of all authority and a total indifference to convention.

a round earth, however; people on the other side of the world would have to be accelerating in the opposite direction but staying at a constant distance from us. He realised that the equivalence of gravity and acceleration could work if there was some give-and-take in the geometry of reality. What if space-time was curved, and not flat, as had been assumed? His idea was that mass and energy would distort space-time in some manner yet to be determined. Objects like apples or planets would try to move in straight lines through spacetime, but their paths would appear to be bent by a gravitational field because space-time is curved. This new theory was called general relativity (1916) to distinguish it from the original theory without gravity, which was known as special relativity.

B. In June 1905 Einstein wrote one of the three papers in which he pointed out that the laws of science should appear the same to all freely moving observers. In particular, observers should all measure the same speed for light, no matter how they are moving. This implied that there was not a universal time that all clocks measure, but that everyone had his own personal time. This was the foundation of the theory of special relativity, so called because it implies that only relative motion is important. A very important consequence of relativity is the relation between mass and energy. Einstein’s postulate that the speed of light should appear the same to everyone implied that nothing could be moving faster than light. What happens is that as energy is used to accelerate a particle or a spaceship, the object’s mass increases, making it harder to accelerate any more. To accelerate the particle to the speed of light is impossible because it would take an infinite amount of energy. The equivalence of mass and energy is summed up in Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2, probably the only physics equation to have universal recognition. Among the consequences of this law is that if the nucleus of a uranium atom fissions (splits) into two nuclei with slightly less total mass, a tremendous amount of energy is released.

D. During World War I, Einstein risked the anger of Germany’s last Emperor, Wilhelm II, by signing an anti-war petition. Yet, paradoxically, he helped develop a non-magnetic compass for U-boats. During the 1920s, when Jews were being selected by Hitler’s rising Nazi Party as the cause of Germany’s defeat and economic difficulties, Einstein became a favourite target. Nazis, however, weren’t his only enemies. For Stalinists, relativity represented capitalist individualism; for some churchmen, it meant ungodly atheism. Forced to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power, Einstein accepted an appointment at the new Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States. Despite his earlier pacifism, he spoke in favour of military action against Hitler. He also helped several Jewish refugees get into the US.

C. Einstein realised that there is a close relationship between acceleration and a gravitational field. Someone in a closed box cannot tell whether he is sitting at rest in the earth’s gravitational field or being accelerated by a rocket in free space. This equivalence between acceleration and gravity didn’t seem to work for

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E. In 1939 a group of scientists who realised the implications of Einstein’s theory persuaded him to overcome his pacifist scruples and write a letter to President Roosevelt urging the US to start a programme of nuclear research. This led to the Manhattan Project and the atom bomb that exploded over Hiroshima in 1945. Some people blame the atom bomb on Einstein, but he took no part in the Manhattan Project and was horrified by the explosion. F. Following World War II, Einstein became more explicit. Besides campaigning for a ban on nuclear weapons, he pleaded for an end to bigotry and racism. Einstein’s humane and democratic instincts may be regarded as an ideal political

IELTS

Academic Reading

2 READ the passage and then complete questions 1–14. Questions 1–6: matching headings The reading passage has six sections, A–F. Choose the correct heading from the list below (1–9) for each section. 1 Manipulating scientific discovery 2 The expertise of American scientists 3 What general relativity is based on 4 How relativity affected modern culture 5 An ethical model for the future 6 Increasing the chance of failure 7 The contradictions of a genius 8 A need to preserve flat space-time 9 The foundations and consequences of relativity A 4; B 9; C 3; D 7; E 1; F 5. The extra headings are: 2, 6, 8. Questions 7–10: sentence completion Complete sentences 7–10 with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE words for each answer. 7 The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion. 8 E=mc2 means energy and mass are equivalent and transmutable. 9 As a consequence of the theory of relativity, if the nucleus of a uranium atom fissions into two nuclei whose total mass is slightly inferior, a tremendous amount of energy is produced. 10 Physics could no longer be understood as space by itself, and time by itself. Instead, an added dimension had to be taken into account because space-time is curved space-time. Questions 11–14: short-answer questions Answer the questions with words from the reading passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. 11 What attitude did Einstein develop as he grew up? Suspicion of authority./Indifference to Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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3 TYPE B. Read Einstein’s words about his responsibility for the weapons he helped create: ‘We scientists, whose tragic destination has been to help in making the methods of annihilation more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power in preventing these weapons from being used.’ Write eight to ten lines about the issue of the relationship between science and political power also in light of recent historical events. YOUR TURN 4 DISCUSS the importance of Albert Einstein in 20th-century culture. Einstein’s greatest contributions to physics were his synthesis of mechanics and electrodynamics through his relativity theory, and his challenge to Newtonian physics through his quantum theory. However, the impact of his ideas was not limited to science: Einstein’s achievements influenced philosophy, art, literature and countless other disciplines. As an individual passionate in his convictions and outspoken in his politics, Einstein transformed the image of the scientist in the twentieth century.

14.2 Psychology READ the text and answer the questions. 1 What was Freud’s education like? He had an impressive career in school. He studied at the University of Vienna and drifted from one philosophical subject to another until he decided to study medicine. As he pursued his medical research, he came to the conclusion that the most intriguing mysteries lay concealed in the complex operations of the mind. 2 What is the main argument in The Interpretation of Dreams? That dreams are the disguised fulfilment of a repressed, infantile wish.

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(Abridged from ‘Time’ magazine’s ‘Person of the Century’, 2000)

convention. 12 Who did he help find refuge in the United States? Several Jewish refugees. 13 What did he campaign against after World War II? Against nuclear weapons. 14 What did Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt lead to? The Manhattan Project.

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model for the 21st century, since they embody the very best of the 20th century as well as our highest hopes for the next.

Sigmund Freud

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Born in 1856 to a Jewish family in what is now the Czech Republic, Sigmund Freud moved to Vienna at the age of four; he grew up, was educated and spent most of his life there. After an impressive career in school, he matriculated in 1873 at the University of Vienna and drifted from one philosophical subject to another until he decided to study medicine. As he pursued his medical research, he came to the conclusion that the most intriguing mysteries lay concealed in the complex operations of the mind. Interest in Freud’s theories began to grow after the publication of his essay The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). The argument of this essay can be summarised as follows: 1. Dreams are the fulfilment of a wish. 2. Dreams are the disguised fulfilment of a wish. 3. Dreams are the disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish. 4. Dreams are the disguised fulfilment of a repressed, infantile wish. The Freudian concept of infantile sexuality focused attention on the importance of early development, and childhood regained the importance it had previously had only in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Photo of Sigmund Freud, ca 1910.

to a specific kind of treatment in which the patient gives voice to his thoughts, fantasies and dreams. The analyst stimulates the unconscious conflicts which bring about the patient’s symptoms and problems, and provides an interpretation for the patient to help him resolve his problems. Freud also began to write down his dreams, convinced that they might offer clues to understand the unconscious. Freud believed that the most nonsensical notion, the most casual slip of the tongue, the most fantastic dream, must have a meaning and can be used to explain what we call thinking. He soon found disciples; they met weekly and founded the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1908. Some of them later moved away from him; the best-known two were Alfred Adler and Carl Jung. Adler coined the term inferiority complex and was interested in the aggression with which those people who lack in some quality they desire, express their discontent. Jung’s growing commitment to religion and mysticism drove him away from his master.

DISCUSS in pairs where Freud’s theory of the ‘Oedipus complex’ derived its name from. Detail of a Grecian cup depicting Oedipus and the Sphinx, 5th century BC.

The theory was named after the title character in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, who accidentally kills his father and marries his mother. It was actually Carl Jung who coined the term ‘Electra complex’ in 1913; Freud instead used the term feminine Oedipus attitude.

14.3 Literature Dictation LISTEN to the dictation about psychoanalysis and write down the text. TRANSCRIPT Freud first used the term psychoanalysis to refer to his theory in 1896 while he was specialising in hysterics. It was in this period that he learnt the art of listening to patients. Freudian psychoanalysis refers

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ESAME DI STATO

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TYPE A. Paul’s relationship with his mother is the outcome of many emotional problems. Develop this statement with reference to Freud’s Oedipal complex and the text from Sons and Lovers you have read and analysed (approximately 300 words).

14.4 The Arts COMPLETE the summary below. For questions 1–10, use no more than TWO WORDS for each answer.

the American philosopher and psychologist William James. Photo of Henri Bergson. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, Washington DC, US.

Modernism

A closer look

Henri Bergson Henri Bergson (1859–1941) was born in Paris in 1859 and studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure. In his work Time and Free Will (1889), Bergson claimed that consciousness exists on two levels: the first can be reached through introspection, the second is an external projection of the first. The deeper self is where creative development and free will belong. In Matter and Memory (1896), Bergson continued his study of consciousness, turning his attention to the relation of the mind to the body. He interpreted the limiting concept of matter as a momentary mind which is completely deprived of a memory that makes freedom of choice possible. In Creative Evolution (1907), Bergson further developed his theory of time and applied it to the study of living things. He travelled to London in 1908, where he met Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

William James (1842–1910) was an American philosopher, and brother of the novelist Henry James (I12.6), who spent almost his entire academic career at Harvard. His masterpiece, The Principles of Psychology (1890), contains a blend of physiology, psychology, philosophy and personal reflection about ideas such as ‘the stream of thought’ and a baby’s impression of the world ‘as one great blooming, buzzing confusion’. It influenced generations of thinkers in Europe and America, including Bertrand Russell, John Dewey and Ludwig Wittgenstein. James made an important contribution to experimentation in the modern novel with his notion of the ‘stream of consciousness’. He conceived of ‘consciousness’ as the ‘function of knowing’. He considered it a selective, fluid and personal ‘tool’ founded upon logic which serves to create an inner coherent reality. James also believed consciousness to be a continuous ‘flow’. Photo of William James, ca 1910. Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.

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14.5 Literature

William James

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At the beginning of the (1) twentieth century many artists, writers and musicians saw themselves as the front-runners of a new artistic age. The term used to describe this period, (2) modernism, covers a wide variety of innovative movements in Europe and America, both in art and in literature. In art, (3) there was a volcanic explosion of experimental techniques that incorporated everything from (4) primitive art to classical forms with a passionate use of colour and geometric simplicity leading to Cubism, abstract (5) painting and Futurism. In music, Schoenberg invented a serial system of (6) composition and composers experimented with dissonance and (7) distorted effects. The main characteristic in all areas was a desire to break (8) with tradition and find new ways of reflecting a complicated reality. In literature, the stream (9) of consciousness gained a hold, in poetry slang was used and less adherence (10) to punctuation gave a totally free flow to the poem.

14.9 Literature READ James Joyce’s biography. Then use these pictures to provide evidence of the most important events in his life. The Joyce family, 1888. From left to right: maternal grandfather John Murray, young James, mother Mary Jane and father John Joyce. Taken on the day James entered Clongowes Wood College.

The Joyce family: James, Nora, Giorgio and Lucia. Paris, 1924.

James Joyce, ca 1917, in Trieste, where he met Italo Svevo.

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Joyce and his classmates, 1900. Joyce is second from the left in the back row; leaning on the tree at the right is Robert Kenahan, who appears in Portrait as ‘Moynihan’.

Joyce on his fortieth birthday. Paris, 1922.

Joyce’s grave site, Fluntern Cemetery, Zurich. The site is located near the zoo, which prompted Nora to remark: ‘He was awfully fond of the lions – I like to think of him lying there and listening to them roar.’ James and Nora finally marry in London. The gentleman on their right is their solicitor. London, 1931.

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LOOK at these photographs and try to point out the most important features of Dublin in the early 20th century. Sackville Street, Dublin ca 1890–1910. The National Archives of Ireland.

A dilapidated tenement room in the Coombe area in 1913. The National Archives of Ireland.

14.13 Literature READ Virginia Woolf’s biography and use these pictures to revise the most important events in her life. Virginia with her father, Leslie Stephen, in a portrait by G.C. Beresford, ca 1902

Virginia and Leonard Woolf in July 1912, a month before their wedding.

In the early 20th century Dublin was a mass of contradictions. Rich and poor, immigrant and native, nationalist and unionist, Catholic, Protestant, Jew and Quaker, and so many more, were all bound together in the life of the city. In 1911 Dublin had the worst housing conditions of any city in the United Kingdom. Its extensive slums were not limited to the backstreets, they also incorporated great Georgian houses on previously fashionable streets and squares. These slums were filthy, overcrowded, disease-ridden and full of malnourished children. By 1911, all the quays of the River Liffey, stretching from Kingsbridge Station to the port had been laid out, and the older ones had been renovated in the preceding decades. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Virginia with her mother’s dress for a Vogue photograph, 1927.

Virginia at the Woolf’s home at 52 Tavistock Square, London, 1939.

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A view of Church Street in 1913. The National Archives of Ireland.

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Eden Quay, turn of the century Dublin city life. The National Archives of Ireland.

14.14 Cultural Issues Song READ the text of the song and in pairs discuss what the ‘moment in time’ of the title refers to. ‘One Moment in Time’ is an Emmy Awardwinning song written and recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1988 Summer Paralympics held in Seoul, South Korea. Whitney Houston (1963–2012) sang it live at the main ceremony and it soon became a hit worldwide.

One Moment in Time (1988) By Whitney Houston

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Each day I live. I want to be. A day to give. The best of me. I’m only one. But not alone. My finest day. Is yet unknown. I broke my heart. For every gain. To taste the sweet. I faced the pain. I rise and fall. Yet through it all. This much remains. Chorus: I want one moment in time. When I’m more than. I thought I could be. When all of my dreams. Are a heartbeat away. And the answers are all up to me. Give me one moment in time. When I’m racing with destiny. Then in that one moment in time. I will feel, I will feel eternity. I’ve lived to be. The very best. I want it all. No time for less. I’ve laid my plans. Now lay the chance. Here in my hands. Chorus: Give me one moment in time. When I’m more than. I thought I could be.

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When all of my dreams. Are a heartbeat away. And the answers are all up to me. Give me one moment in time. When I’m racing with destiny. Then in that one moment in time. I will feel, I will feel eternity. You’re a winner. For a lifetime. If you seize that. One moment in time. Make it shine. Chorus: Give me one moment in time. When I’m more than. I thought I could be. When all of my dreams. Are a heartbeat away. And the answers are all up to me. Give me one moment in time. When I’m racing with destiny. Then in that one moment in time. I will be, I will be free.

A closer look

The Hours (1998) The concept of time In keeping with the tradition of Bergson’s theories, the structure of the novel questions chronological time and emphasises the importance of timeless moments. When he chose the title of the book, which was Woolf’s working title for Mrs Dalloway, Cunningham underlined the importance of the hours that make up our existence as human beings. Like Joyce in Ulysses and Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway, he set his novel on one day but included a variety of perspectives from different time periods and settings. The setting By choosing to set the novel on one day for each character, Cunningham shows how one day can symbolise the entire life of an individual. The hours pass and shape the day, a day in which all parts of the self are combined. One day encloses the past, the present, and the future. These three days become quite important as they connect to one another. The one day for Virginia Woolf begins Mrs Dalloway, the work that will save Laura Brown and define Clarissa Vaughan. The one day for Laura Brown explains the psyche and background of

Eternal issues Cunningham covers various generations to show that some of the same external conflicts can continue year after year. Each character deals with three external issues: aging, the expectations of society and death. These three themes touch on some ideas in the contemporary generation that Virginia Woolf could not have covered in the 1920s. Laura Brown fights the external pressures of World War II and post-war societal expectations along with her own suffocating marriage and opinions about her purpose in life. She lives a life constantly reminding herself about what she should be doing, and this external pressure leads her to look for some kind of resolution through self-fulfillment. Clarissa Vaughan finds herself consistently Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Moments of being The characters experience moments of being throughout the novel, and these moments resemble Bergson’s explanation of duration. The past, present, and future merge, and, for an ephemeral moment, the consciousness feels a sense of enlightenment and peace. Inspired by a kiss, the characters experience these moments near the same part of the day. The moments for the characters in Mrs Dalloway are private, internal, whereas the moments for the characters in The Hours create connections so that the readers of the novel feel linked to them and are able to imagine those moments within their own lives. A common resolution to endure Cunningham goes beyond the modernist tradition because he creates resolution for his characters. Each individual finds a personal resolution or deeper awareness from his or her moments of being. The three women must come to a common resolution, one that connects the three of them and helps them endure, even posthumously for Virginia Woolf. The literature itself becomes the moment; it creates connections between the artists of the past and the wave of the future. Cunningham’s character Virginia Woolf hopes to return to London to preserve her vulnerable sanity. Not only does she want to continue living, but she also wants to listen to her internal consciousness and allow it to find expression through her art. Indeed, Virginia Woolf lived another eighteen years, and, as we know, the novel she begins on that successful day in 1923 becomes the eternal Mrs Dalloway. Cunningham’s Virginia has chosen to live, partially because of the moments of being she has experienced that remind her that her art matters. Laura Brown, the darkest of the three characters, barely survives the novel. She contemplates suicide,

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The structure In Mrs Dalloway, Woolf’s narrator floats from one character’s consciousness to the next. There are no chapter breaks, and she presents her characters’ thoughts in one continuous procession through the day. Cunningham, like Woolf, presents the perspectives of various characters; however, he clarifies the shift in perspective with chapter breaks. The Hours also becomes placeless. It would not exist on its own; it needs Mrs Dalloway in order to accomplish its purpose. Just as Clarissa Dalloway goes to buy the flowers, so does Clarissa Vaughan. Cunningham describes her morning walk in a very similar way, but the setting is New York, in contemporary America.

measuring her actions and her choices against society’s expectations. Cunningham creates two homosexual couples, Clarissa with Sally and Richard with Lewis, and addresses the terrible disease AIDS in his novel. Clarissa reveals the anguish experienced when a loved one suffers from AIDS. Cunningham reveals the ways in which suffering continues. Suffering does not listen to a clock or read a map; suffering follows us everywhere.

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Richard Brown, who plays a major role in the one day of Clarissa Vaughan. The one day for Clarissa Vaughan includes not only Virginia Woolf, but also Laura Brown, as Laura must enter Clarissa’s day because of the death of Richard. The one day in Mrs Dalloway becomes three days in The Hours, and these three days mix together. In order to create connections between these three women, Cunningham includes four different time periods, 1923, 1941, 1949 and the late 1990s. He does not position the women in order; the chapters move from character to character and time period to time period as Cunningham chooses. Furthermore, he uses the present tense throughout the novel in order to emphasise the ways in which each day, regardless of the generation, still exists in the present.

and in her son’s book she does commit suicide. Her survival becomes her resolution, and then we learn in Clarissa’s present day that Laura Brown does endure, but she must abandon her family to do so. Laura decides not to kill herself, and ‘reading Mrs Dalloway helps her to overcome despair’. Clarissa Vaughan also experiences an individual resolution at the end of the day; she struggles with the external pressures and regrets from her life in order to continue forward as ‘Clarissa’. Near the end of the novel, Clarissa Vaughan thinks about time emphasising the moments in life worth living. Those moments are the hours that ‘give us everything we’ve ever imagined’:

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‘We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep – it’s as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we’re very fortunate, by time itself. There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.’

15.1 History WRITE your own ideas in the boxes below. Overproduction: the market was saturated, overproduction led to a growing surplus of goods

Speculation: as US industry boomed, company shares went up; millions of people were encouraged to buy shares

Trade: restricted trade, high tariff on foreign imports into America; European nations responded with tariffs on American exports

Economic weaknesses: several families could not afford consumer goods; Deep gap between the rich and the poor

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Loss of confidence: by autumn 1929 some investors sold their shares Causes of the Wall Street Crash

29 October 1929: investors began to panic; banks sold their shares to cover losses made by bankrupt speculators

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15.2 Literature A closer look

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, to wealthy German-Jewish immigrants. She attended Radcliffe College from 1893 to 1897, where she specialised in psychology. In 1903, Stein moved to Paris; from that moment until her death in 1946, she supported the avant-garde and helped the development of an artistic movement that was looking for a new form of expression and a conscious break with the past. Her salon in Paris became a meeting place for talented young artists, among whom were the painters Henri Matisse, Juan Gris and Pablo Picasso. Stein herself experimented in her writings: she rejected the linear, chronological writing of the 19th century for a spatial, process-oriented 20th-century literature.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) A novelist, folklorist and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston was an authority on black culture from the Harlem Renaissance. In this artistic movement of the 1920s she pursued the objective of the definition of black identity by combining literature with anthropology. She first gained attention with her short stories. Her first novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine was published in 1934 to critical success. In 1937 she published Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is considered her greatest work. Zora Neale Hurston never addressed the issue of racism of whites towards blacks in her works and this is why her literary influence faded as this became a theme among black writers in the post-World War II era of civil rights. She died in poverty and obscurity in 1960. Zora Neale Hurston, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1938. Library of Congress, Washington DC, US.

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Set in Paris, Soir Bleu is one of the largest pictures Hopper ever painted. It is probably a reflection on Europe just before the outbreak of World War I. Describe the setting. The setting is a café in the evening. Focus on the man on the left: what does he look like? The man on the left is sitting alone with his gaze fixed in front of him. He is characterised by a solitary quietness and melancholy. He sits stiff and uneasy. Does the woman take part in the event? She does not seem to take part in the event thus becoming a symbol of the subtle melancholy of modern life. Her face seems like a caricature. What figure occupies the centre of the painting? What does he symbolise? A clown is sitting in the middle of the picture giving it a surreal atmosphere. He seems wrapped up in his thoughts even if his mask and costume protect him from the reality around him. Why do you think Hopper assembled such different people? To give the painting a timeless quality in which melancholy is a universal condition. Edward Hopper, Eleven A.M., 1926. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC.

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Edward Hopper, Soir Bleu, 1914. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Hopper entitled many of his paintings with the time of the day, especially those in which he reflected on the most anonymous details. Describe the interior: focus on the details and the colours used. There is a chest of drawers behind the armchair and a picture above it. There are curtains at the window. The colours inside are dark and the light comes from the outside, reflecting onto the woman’s body. Describe the sitter’s appearance and attitude. The woman is naked; her absent gaze is fixed, looking out of the window. What is the atmosphere of the painting? What does it contrast with? The atmosphere of great intimacy conveyed by the everyday, trivial objects and the woman’s nakedness contrasts with the impersonality of the city blocks outside.

Edward Hopper, Second Story Sunlight, 1960. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

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During the 1950s and 1960s, when realism had become unfashionable, Hopper valued the luminous quality of the light on Cape Cod where he had a home. What does the contrast of light and shadow and stark geometries lend to the architecture of the house? It lends the architecture a theatrical quality so that the figures seem like actors on a stage or film set. What is the relationship between the two figures on the balcony? What do they represent? They look as if they’re barely engaged with one another; a lonely emptiness

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fills the space between them. The young one has long hair and uncovered legs, she sits in the sun; her posture is confident, even provocative. The older woman is dressed in black and has her white hair pulled back. She sits farther back on the balcony, holding her book at arm’s length. The two figures could also be seen as the same woman, before and after the passage of time. What allegorical function do the windows have? What about the forest behind the house? The house is shown at a strange angle, with the lower story cut off by the bottom of the canvas. The windows acquire a deep symbolic meaning. They seem linked to a state of being, to a relationship either open or closed to the external world. The trees behind the house aren’t completely in focus – Hopper has given us just a suggestion of a dark, almost menacing forest.

15.6 Music A closer look

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Duke Ellington (1899–1971) Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington brought Jazz to a high level of style and sophistication. Although he was a gifted piano player, his orchestra was his main instrument. He considered himself to be a composer and arranger, rather than just a musician. Duke began playing music professionally in Washington DC in 1917. What really made Ellington’s Orchestra famous was becoming the house band at the Cotton Club. Radio broadcasts from the club made Ellington well known across America and also gave him the financial security to assemble a band that he could write music specifically for. The Duke Ellington Orchestra left the Cotton Club in 1931 and toured the US and Europe. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Ellington Orchestra was able to transform the hot jazz of the 1920s into the swing music of the 1930s. This ability to adapt and grow with the times kept the Ellington Orchestra as a major force in jazz up until Duke’s death in the 1970s. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Duke Ellington poses with his piano at the KFG Radio Studio in 1954.

Louis Armstrong (1901–71) Louis Satchmo Armstrong came from a very poor family in New Orleans and was probably the greatest of all jazz musicians. He defined what playing jazz really meant with his amazing technical skills, joy and spontaneity, and his creative musical mind. He became famous in the 1920s as an inventive cornet and trumpet player, changing the focus from collective improvisation to solo performance. He was also a unique singer with his distinctive gravelly voice. Through his long career Armstrong had a profound influence on popular music in general. In the 1960s he was able to overcome racial prejudice in a divided American society: in other words, the colour of his skin became secondary to his music. In 1968 Armstrong sang one of his most popular songs, ‘What a Wonderful World’, which was later used in numerous films, like ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ in 1987.

Louis Armstrong in 1953. Library of Congress, Washington DC, US.

15.9 History

15.10 Literature

Consequences Unstable economy Market crashes Lower rate of increase of wages Decline of related industries

Cures Creation of the Fed Money inflation New Deal economic programme

Dictation LISTEN to the dictation about the Chrysler Building in New York City and write down the text. TRANSCRIPT The Chrysler Building, completed on 28th May (or May 28th) 1930, towers over Midtown Manhattan and is still considered one of the world’s finest examples of Art Deco architecture. Designed by the architect William Van Alen, it was one of the first buildings to extensively use stainless steel over an exposed building surface. It was the world’s tallest building for eleven months, before the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931. Optimistic and reflective of the Jazz Age, the Chrysler Building rises seventy-seven stories and culminates in a beautiful stainless steel crown supporting a spire that raises the height of the building to 319 metres. It has become a beloved landmark, and is considered by many contemporary architects to be one of the finest buildings in New York City. Walter P. Chrysler maintained his personal offices in the Chrysler Building, and the first floor originally featured a Chrysler car showroom. The Chrysler family sold the building in 1947, and since then the ownership of the building has changed several times.

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John Steinbeck’s life John Steinbeck (1902–68) was born in 1902 in Salinas, California. He left university without a degree in 1925 to start his writing career in New York, but soon went back to California. His first book, Cup of Gold (1929), is a novel based upon the life of Sir Henry Morgan, the notorious pirate. During the Depression he published The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1934) and several of his stories, including The Red Pony, appeared in The North American Review. Tortilla Flat, published in 1935, brought him to the public’s attention, while Of Mice and Men (1937) became a nation-wide success. Steinbeck decided to stick to his intellectual commitment and to embark on a trip from Oklahoma to California with a group of migrant workers. He lived and worked with them in a work camp in California and this experience provided the inspiration for his next novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), whose publication made him financially successful but also created great controversy. Steinbeck was denounced in Congress for his radical social criticism and Transcendentalist views. His production after World War II included the novels Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1947) and East of Eden (1951). Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 and died in 1968. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) The title is a quote from the famous American patriotic song ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’, written in 1862 at the time of the American Civil War: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on. This, in turn, is a reference to the Judgement Day when God’s anger is shown against injustice. The story Tom Joad has served a sentence in the Oklahoma state penitentiary for killing a man in self-defence. While he is travelling back home, he meets Jim

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Causes Unequal distribution of wealth Speculation and inflation Oversupply of goods Credit sales Luxury spending Crisis of automotive and radio industries

John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath

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EXAMINE the causes and the consequences of the Great Depression and collect your data in the table below.

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Casy, a former preacher. They reach Tom’s home together but find it deserted because all the families in the neighbourhood have left or are leaving for California. Tom and Casy find the Joads at Uncle Tom’s house. The Joad family includes Grandma and Grandpa Joad, Pa and Ma Joad; their sons Noah and Al, Tom’s sister, Rose of Sharon and her husband; Ruthie and Winfield, the two youngest children. Casy is invited to join the family on their trip westward. The trip is very hard: Grandpa Joad dies of a stroke at the first stop and Noah runs away as they approach the California line. Grandma dies during a night trip across the desert. The Joads finally move into a migrant camp, Hooverville, where they discover that it is almost impossible to find a job. A contractor offers fruit picking work in another county, but when they ask him for his license, a fight starts. Tom escapes and Casy gives himself up in his place. Rose of Sharon, who is pregnant, is abandoned by her husband. The Joads leave Hooverville and move to a government camp for migrant workers where they feel they are treated as human beings for the first time. However, they move on when the work runs out. One night Tom goes looking for the protesters against unfair wages and finds that Casy is their leader. Deputies who had been looking for Casy find them and during the fight Casy is killed and Tom kills a deputy. Tom escapes with his family; they join other migrant workers camping in abandoned boxcars. The rainy season begins and the Joads are forced to move again by the rising water, while Rose of Sharon gives birth to a dead baby boy. They walk in the rain until they reach a barn, where they find a boy and his starving father. Rose of Sharon feeds the man with the milk from her breasts. Tom Joad and Jim Casy Tom Joad can be regarded as the protagonist of the novel. After being in jail, he dedicates himself to his family. Like all migrants he loses all outward forms of dignity in order to survive. He is insulted, he starves and he has to live like an outlaw. While he is hiding, he decides to adopt Casy’s philosophical ideas and to risk his life to organise the dust-bowl migrants as a way of enabling them to regain respect and dignity. Jim Casy is a former preacher who feels Christian faith is no longer relevant to the plight of the common man. He believes that sin does not exist and life itself is the ultimate good. He feels that every

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man’s soul is part of the greater soul of all living things. When he is imprisoned in place of Tom he realises the importance of organising men to reach a goal. So when he gets out he organises a strike and is murdered for his role. Casy’s mission is taken up by Tom after his death. Narrative technique The story is told by an anonymous narrator who sympathises with the workers, the poor and the dispossessed in general. There are shifts between different points of view. In some chapters the narrator describes and analyses historical events, summarising the experiences of a large number of people. In other chapters he assumes the voice of a typical individual who expresses his own individual concerns. The chapters dealing with the Joad family are narrated from an objective point of view, as if an observer might witness their experiences. On the whole, Steinbeck describes his characters from the outside rather than providing psychological insights so that he creates types rather than individuals. Themes Steinbeck denounces the historical, social and economic circumstances which divide people into rich and poor, and underlines the fact that the migrants’ great suffering is caused not by bad weather or misfortune but by the selfishness of their fellow beings. Steinbeck portrays the California landowners as having created a system in which the migrants are treated like animals, denied decent wages and forced to turn against their fellows simply to survive. In this context, the family and the idea of brotherhood have a saving power. Steinbeck argues that it is not genetics but loyalty and commitment to one another that establishes true kinship. Steinbeck emphasises the importance of preserving selfrespect in order to survive spiritually. Nowhere is this more evident than at the end of the novel, when the value of human life is raised above hardship. The connection between rage and dignity is clear: as long as man can keep a sense of injustice, he will never run the risk of losing his dignity. ANSWER the following questions about The Grapes of Wrath. 1 In what sense can the novel be regarded as a historical document? The Grapes of Wrath portrayed the horrors of the Great Depression and the nature of inequality and justice in America.

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Bruce Springsteen (1949 –) The rock-and-roll star Bruce Springsteen was born in New Jersey, USA. He started to play in local bands around New Jersey and to write songs about his job, his car, his bike, his girlfriend and his hometown in a language his fans could understand. The album Born To Run came in 1975 and immediately put him into Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

rock’s first division. Darkness On The Edge Of Town arrived in 1978; on his 30th birthday the No Nukes album and video showed Bruce’s high energy and humour. The following album, The River, expressed contrasting moods, from depressed to celebratory. Born in the USA arrived in 1984; he supported political and social issues joining the USA for Africa’s ‘We Are The World’. In the following year Tunnel of Love was released; the advance orders took it to number 1 on the day of release in the UK and the USA. 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad was a solo acoustic album, warm and sad, in direct contrast to the austere power of Nebraska. The Ghost of Tom Joad The American folksinger Woody Guthrie (1912–67) witnessed the economic hardship that many migrant workers had to face in California during the Dust Bowl era and composed Dust Bowl Ballads, released in July 1940. Among these songs there is ‘The Ballad of Tom Joad’, which summarises The Grapes of Wrath story in a 17-verse song. The story begins, ‘On the fourteenth day of April of 1935’ when a giant dust storm hits the Great Plains, transforming the landscape. Shortly after, the farmers pack up their families and head west, where they have been promised work in the valleys of California. The trip is eventful but the arrival is disappointing, as the Joads discover California is not a welcoming country. Guthrie’s song goes back and forth across this tale of woe.Sixty years later, listeners could hear these songs again through the music Guthrie influenced, particularly the folk tunes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. The latter composed The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) about the tragic forced movement of farmers from Oklahoma to California. Springsteen’s album of songs turns out to be a collection of stories about the problems of poverty, homelessness, crime and drugs all with the American Southwest as the background.

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DISCUSS in pairs. What does the word ‘ghost’ make you think of?

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ANSWER these questions. Have you ever listened to this song by Bruce Springsteen? If so, can you tell your classmates about the sensations it communicated to you?

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How are Tom and Jim mutually connected? Their destinies cross from the beginning until the end, when Jim dies and Tom takes up his mission. What does the title of the novel symbolise? The grapes of the title symbolise the promised land of California, which turns out to be a disillusion. So the grapes of hope turn into the grapes of wrath. What traditional device of American literature does Steinbeck use and what is his aim? He uses the traditional American device of the journey as a quest for a better land. However, California is already corrupted and tyrannical. Its inhabitants have a hypocritical attitude towards the immigrants. Steinbeck’s economic views are traditional: he prefers small units of workers rather than large abstract organisations. His code of beliefs is humanitarian, based on his insistence that people are more important than things. The novel deals with the conflict between the impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by focusing on one’s own needs and the impulse to risk one’s safety by working for a common good. How is the story told? The story is told by an anonymous narrator who sympathises with workers, the poor, and the dispossessed in general. There are shifts between different points of view. What are the main themes of the novel? Steinbeck denounces the historical, social and economic circumstances which divide people into rich and poor. He speaks about the family and the idea of brotherhood having a saving power. Steinbeck emphasises the importance of preserving self-respect in order to survive spiritually.

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THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD Men walkin’ ’long1 the railroad tracks2 Goin’ someplace there’s no goin’ back3 Highway patrol choppers4 comin’ up over the ridge5 Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge 5 Shelter line stretchin’ ’round the corner6 Welcome to the new world order Families sleepin’ in their cars in the Southwest No home no job no peace no rest

Uomini a piedi lungo i binari diretti non si sa dove, non c’è ritorno; elicotteri della stradale che spuntano dalla collina Minestra a scaldare sul fuoco sotto il ponte la fila per il ricovero che fa il giro dell’isolato benvenuto al nuovo ordine mondiale. Famiglie che dormono in macchina nel sudovest né casa, né lavoro, né sicurezza, né pace.

The highway is alive tonight 10 But nobody’s kiddin’7 nobody about where it goes I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light Searchin’ for the ghost of Tom Joad

La strada è viva stasera ma nessuno si illude su dove va a finire sto qui seduto alla luce del falò e cerco il fantasma di Tom Joad

He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag Preacher8 lights up a butt9 and takes a drag10 15 Waitin’ for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last In a cardboard box ’neath the underpass11 Got a one-way ticket12 to the promised land You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock 20 Bathin’ in the city aqueduct

Il predicatore tira fuori un libro di preghiere dal sacco a pelo accende il mozzicone e fa una tirata in attesa del giorno in cui gli ultimi saranno i primi e i primi gli ultimi in uno scatolone di cartone del sottopassaggio ho un biglietto di sola andata per la terra promessa. Hai un buco in pancia ed una pistola in mano si dorme su un cuscino di sasso si fa il bagno nell’acquedotto municipale

The highway is alive tonight Where it’s headed13 everybody knows I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light Waitin’ on the ghost of Tom Joad

La strada è viva stasera ma nessuno si illude su dove va a finire sto qui seduto alla luce del falò e cerco il fantasma di Tom Joad

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25 Now Tom said ‘Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’14 a guy Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries15 Where there’s a fight ’gainst the blood and hatred in the air Look for me Mom I’ll be there Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand 30 Or decent job or a helpin’ hand Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me.’

Diceva Tom “Mamma, dovunque un poliziotto picchia una persona dovunque un neonato piange per la fame dovunque c’è una lotta contro il sangue e l’odio nell’aria cercami perché ci sarò Dovunque si combatte per uno spazio di dignità un lavoro decente, una mano d’aiuto dovunque qualcuno lotta per essere libero guardali negli occhi e vedrai me”.

Well the highway is alive tonight But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes 35 I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light With the ghost of old Tom Joad.

La strada è viva stasera ma nessuno si illude di dove va a finire sto qui seduto alla luce del falò e cerco il fantasma del vecchio Tom Joad.

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walkin’ ’long. Walking along. Che camminano lungo. railroad tracks. Binari. there’s no goin’ back. Non c’è ritorno. Highway patrol choppers. Elicotteri della stradale. comin’ up over the ridge. Che spuntano dalla collina. Shelter ... ’round the corner. La fila per il ricovero che fa il giro dell’isolato. nobody’s kiddin’. Nessuno si illude. He pulls ... preacher. Il predicatore tira fuori un libro di

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preghiere dal sacco a pelo. lights up a butt. Accende il mozzicone. takes a drag. Fa una tirata. In a cardboard ... the underpass. In uno scatolone di cartone del sottopassaggio. Got a one-way ticket. Ho un biglietto di sola andata. it’s headed. È diretta. a cop beatin’. Un poliziotto che batte. hungry ... cries. Un neonato piange per la fame.

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POINT OUT what features of the traditional ballad are present in this song. This song deals with a dramatic story of which few details are given; there is a mixture of dialogue and narration, an extensive use of alliteration, repetition of words, use of refrain (the third stanza is repeated in the middle of the ballad and at the end).

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STATE what the people presented in this ballad might be symbols of. • Men walking (line 1): wanderers • Families sleeping in their cars (line 7): emigrants looking for a better life in a new country • The preacher (line 14): religion

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SAY what Tom Joad stands for. He stands for the defender of the oppressed.

Your turn 7 DISCUSS with the rest of the class. In the light of what have read, do you think this ballad is up to date? 8

READ about John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath and collect information about Woody Guthrie’s ‘The Ballad of Tom Joad’ (1940). Look for similarities and differences with Springsteen’s song and discuss the results of your research with your classmates.

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REVISE your knowledge about the Italian novelist Cesare Pavese (1908–50) and point out any similarities between him and John Steinbeck. The youngest of five children in a lower middle-class family of rural origin, Cesare Pavese was born in S. Stefano Belbo near Cuneo in 1908. He graduated with a degree in Literature in 1932 with a thesis on Walt Whitman. During the same period he began working as a translator for the publisher Frassinelli, translating Moby-Dick by Melville as well as works by other American authors. Translating the American novels opened his eyes to the possibility of a new Italian literature and the influence of American literature can be found in his own novels. In 1934 he was appointed editor of the magazine ‘Cultura’. In May 1935 he was arrested for political reasons and interned at Brancaleone Calabro. He returned to Turin in 1936, where he wrote a collection of poems Lavorare stanca (Hard Labour). He took refuge with his sister in Serralunga after 8th September, and at the end of the war joined the Italian Communist Party. In 1945 he published ‘I dialoghi col compagno’ in ‘L’Unità’, the party’s newspaper. His most memorable works include the novels Paesi tuoi (1941), La spiaggia (1942), Il compagno (1947), La casa in collina (1948), La bella estate (1949) and La luna e i falò (1950). While suffering from one of his recurrent fits of depression, Cesare Pavese committed suicide in August 1950. One of the main themes in Pavese’s work is the description of the psychological situation of man, inevitably closed in a moral prison of incommunicability. Paesi tuoi represents the result of that cultural operation of widening the Italian literary culture through the introduction of the realistic Anglo-American fiction style. In the same way that the American Steinbeck wanted to reveal the tragedy of man during the Great Depression, so Pavese wanted to describe in Paesi tuoi the hidden and unknown ferments of the life in the fields, reviving them with the experiences and the narrative techniques of the new American literature.

16.1 History MATCH the following words to make phrases relating to Britain between the wars. Then write down their translation into Italian. 1 Birth-control practices 2 Drift of population 3 Decline of heavy industry

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READ the text of the song and answer the following questions. Who are the first characters introduced? Some men walking along the railroad tracks (line 1). What can be seen in the distance over the hill? Some highway patrol choppers (line 3). What sort of world is depicted in the second stanza? The poor world of the Southwest (lines 4–8). Who is the speaking voice searching for? He is searching for the ghost of Tom Joad (lines 12, 24, 36). What details are you given about the story of Tom Joad in the fourth stanza? Tom Joad had probably met a preacher and had problems with the law. What are Tom’s qualities? He was ready to help all the people in trouble or in need.

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3

4 5 6 7 8 9

Expansion of light industry Suburbs and dormitory towns Council housing estates Daily press Mass communication Radio broadcasting

READ the text again and carry out the following activities. 1 FIND OUT how the Depression of the Thirties affected Great Britain. • Unemployment, especially in the northern mining areas • Poverty and the queues for food • The General Strike of 1926 • The drift of population from the North to the South

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EXPLAIN why 1936 was a year of crisis. The year 1936 was one of crisis, with the abdication of King Edward VIII, who had succeeded his father George V, and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

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COLLECT information about Britain’s population between the wars. Point out the reason behind each of the features you find.

Feature Slower growth of population, smaller families

Reason Fall in birth rate thanks to birth-control practices

Shift from the North to the South

Decline of heavy industry in the North, expansion of light industry in the South

Fewer people lived in towns

People moved to the suburbs or to new council housing estates

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WRITE down: a what new newspapers appeared; ‘Quality’ newspapers like ‘The Times’ and the ‘Daily Telegraph’ retained their traditional character, while new ‘popular’ newspapers appeared, such as the ‘Daily News’, the ‘Daily Chronicle’, the ‘Daily Express’ and the ‘Daily Herald’. b what the new forms of mass communication were. The radio and television.

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16.3 History A Closer Look

Winston Churchill (1874–1965) Winston Churchill joined the Liberal Party in 1904. When the Liberals won the 1905 election, Churchill was appointed undersecretary at the Colonial Office. In 1908 he entered the Cabinet as president of the Board of Trade, becoming home secretary in 1910. The following year he became first lord of the admiralty. He held this post in the first months of World War I, but after the disastrous Dardanelles expedition, he resigned. From 1919 to 1921 he was secretary of state for war and air. When war broke out in 1939, Churchill was reappointed first lord of the admiralty. In May 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as prime minister and Churchill took his place. His refusal to surrender to Nazi Germany inspired the country. He built strong relations with US President Roosevelt and maintained a sometimes difficult alliance with the Soviet Union. Churchill lost power in the 1945 post-war election but remained the leader of the opposition, expressing his concerns about the Cold War. In 1951 he became prime minister again. He resigned in 1955, but remained an MP until shortly before his death. In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature after the publication of his six- volume work, The Second World War.

Winston Churchill in Downing Street giving his famous ‘V’ sign, 5th June 1943. Photo courtesy of the British Government.

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Rosa Parks

USIA / National Archives and Records.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo from August 1963, Washington DC.

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Nelson Mandela

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DISCUSS. Do you know what present global issues are addressed by the UN?

16.6 History DISCUSS. Match the people below with their description. In pairs say what their forms of protest have in common and how they can be linked to Mohandas Gandhi. 1

Photo by Dave Hogan, 2008. Stringer / Getty Images.

The Dalai Lama 5

Photo by Olaf Kraak, 2009. EPA / Corbis. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Aung San Suu Kyi

Photo by Htoo Tay Zar, 2011.

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Dictation LISTEN to the dictation about Albert Einstein and write down the text. TRANSCRIPT During his life, Einstein continued to speak out against Nazi aggression and anti-Semitism in Europe. He dreamt of a world dominated by peaceful internationalist institutions rather than warlike nationalistic states. However, by the late 1930s, it had become clear that German scientists had made great progress in carrying out research and had achieved nuclear fission in laboratory tests. The wartime application of fission was the atomic bomb. Among the scientists who had emigrated to the US to escape the Nazis, was Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, who tried to convince Einstein to write to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to persuade him to start America’s own atomic bomb programme. Roosevelt secretly authorised the Manhattan Project, a huge programme of nuclear research that, in 1945, produced the world’s first atomic bombs. So pacifist Albert Einstein might fairly be described as the father of the atomic bomb. Einstein himself recognised the irony, regarding his own role in accelerating the atomic age with a mixture of regret and resignation.

South African statesman and president. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944; for the next 20 years he directed a campaign of defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. B Burma’s opposition leader who espouses non-violence, despite being kept under house arrest for 20 years. She holds that fighting will only perpetuate the tradition that those who are best at wielding arms, wield power. C Tibet’s spiritual guide, he is convinced that the devotion to the cause of non-violence is the only way to conduct politics. D Black minister and civil rights campaigner born in Atlanta, Georgia, known for his policy of passive resistance and his oratorical skills. E Black woman whose refusal to give up a seat in a Montgomery, Alabama, bus galvanised the Civil Rights Movement in the US. 1 C; 2 E; 3 D; 4 A; 5 B. A

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Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1947 into a Muslim family. He spent his childhood in Bombay, which then used to be a courtly, open city, and was educated in an English mission school. In 1964 the family emigrated to Karachi, Pakistan. Rushdie did not like the city because of its lack of urban life, the sexual segregation and the repression of culture. In 1961 he went to school in England where he had a hard time at Rugby School due to the racist persecution practiced by his schoolmates. From 1965 to 1968 he was at King’s College, Cambridge, where he read history. After Cambridge, Rushdie worked for a while as an actor, and eventually got a part-time job in advertising, which enabled him to write for himself. He published his highly acclaimed novel Midnight’s Children in 1981: it won prizes and awards in Britain and was translated into twelve languages. After that Rushdie published Shame (1983) and The Satanic Verses (1988). The latter became the centre of international controversy, as Muslims protested against its supposed insult to their religion and Rushdie was denounced, banned and threatened with death. His latter works include the volume of essays Imaginary Homelands (1991), the collection of short stories East, West (1993) and the novels Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) and Shalimar the Clown (2005). In 2012 Joseph Anton: A Memoir, was published as an account of his life in the wake of the controversy over The Satanic Verses. Rushdie is part of the new internationalism within British literature because, though he has been educated and lives in England, his creative imagination and sensibility are partly those of an immigrant living between two cultures.

Salman Rushdie in 2007. Photo by Beowulf Sheehan/PEN American Center/Opale.

Midnight’s Children (1981) Magic realism Salman Rushdie’s work belongs to the current of magic realism, the mixture of fantasy and reality in which games with language, literary form, structure, history and autobiography enrich the art of fiction. While allowing him to explore the themes of displacement and the confusion between fact and myth in the Third World, magic realism is also a way through which his own multicultural identity – a mixture of Indian, Pakistani and British – can find expression. The hero The heart of Midnight’s Children is the narrator, Saleem Sinai, who, born at midnight, on 15th August 1947, when India gained its independence from British rule, views himself as a metaphor for the nation. Like the other children born in the first hour of the new country, he is endowed with extraordinary powers, such as the ability to make himself invisible, to travel in the supernatural world and to enter the hearts and the minds of other human beings.

Cover of Midnight’s Children 25th Anniversary Edition, published by Random House Trade Paperbacks in 2006.

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Themes Midnight’s Children is fundamentally about the destruction of potential in a new, independent India; in this respect the children become a metaphor for hope and opportunities betrayed, but the book implies that there is another tougher generation on the way. Rushdie was also interested in writing about personality, about what it means to be an individual in the middle of hundreds of millions. The central idea of the book is not just that public life affects private life, but that people can leak into each other ‘like flavours when you cook’, as Saleem says at one point. So, thanks to the act of writing, any historical event or person may flow into people’s lives and thoughts.

ANSWER the following questions about Midnight’s Children. 1 What does magic realism allow Rushdie to do? Magic realism allows Rushdie to explore the themes of displacement and the confusion between fact and myth in the Third World, but it is also a way through which his own multicultural identity – a mixture of Indian, Pakistani and British – can find expression. 2 Who is the narrator and how does he view himself? The narrator is Saleem Sinai, who was born at midnight on 15th August 1947. He views himself as a metaphor for the Indian nation. 3 What special powers does he have? He is endowed with extraordinary powers such as the ability to make himself invisible, to travel in the supernatural world and to enter the hearts and the minds of other human beings. 4 What historical events are described in the novel? Rushdie deals with some of the great events in Indian history, such as the war with Pakistan (1948), Prime Minister Nehru’s death (1964) and the riots in Bombay after the State Partition. 5 What narrative technique does Rushdie use? The sequence of the events in the novel is not chronological but relies on the use of flashbacks, foreshadowing and digressions. Saleem’s first-person voice organises and holds together the material, though restricting the perspective to his own point of view. 6 What are the children a metaphor for? The children become a metaphor for hope and opportunities betrayed, but the book implies that there is another tougher generation on the way. 7 What is the central idea of the book? The central idea of the book is not just that public life affects private life, but that, thanks to the act of writing, any historical event or person may flow into people’s lives and thoughts.

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Narrative technique Rushdie deals with some of the great events in Indian history, such as the war with Pakistan (1948), Prime Minister Nehru’s death (1964), the riots in Bombay after the State Partition. However, the sequence of the events in the novel is not chronological but relies on the use of flashbacks, foreshadowing and digressions. Saleem’s firstperson voice organises and holds together the material, though restricting the perspective to his own point of view. Through his eyes we can see selected events of Indian history described with a prevalently ironic and comic tone, even in the dark moments. In the novel Rushdie makes use of realistic techniques such as detailed references and visual language. In order to visualise verbal images, he uses verbal versions of cinematic techniques such as ‘close-up’ and ‘zooming’.

16.8 Literature USE these pictures to revise the most important events of George Orwell’s life and works.

Orwell and his son, Richard.

Burma Provincial Training School, Mandalay, 1923. Eric Blair is standing, third from the left.

Covers of the new Penguin editions of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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DISCUSS. Nineteen Eighty-Four was published thirty-five years before the year 1984. How do you imagine the world in thirty-five years’ time? What aspects of our society do think will continue to become stronger?

16.10 Literature Orwell (holding cigarette) at the Aragon front, 1937.

DISCUSS in pairs. 1 How would you imagine a society set up by children? 2 Have you ever read novels or seen films with castaways as protagonists and a desert island as the setting in place?

DISCUSS. Why do you think Golding chose to write about children rather than adults?

Orwell (standing at centre) while he was working for the BBC’s Eastern Service to India.

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‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’, directed by Irvin Kershner, 1980. Lucasfilm / 20th Century Fox USA.

‘WALL-E’, directed by Andrew Stanton, 2008. Pixar / Walt Disney Pictures USA.

Extra Activity COMPLETE the table with the reform corresponding to each year and its aim. Year Reform Aim The Abortion Act It made it possible to get 1967 an abortion on the National Health Service. The National It made it possible for 1967 Health Service local authorities to (Family provide contraceptives. Planning) Act The Sexual A homosexual act 1967 Offences Act between two consenting adults in private was no longer a criminal offence. A bill against It aimed at fighting 1968 discrimination discrimination in employment and housing. The Divorce It made divorce possible 1969 Reform Act after the couple had lived apart for two years. Abolition of It abolished capital 1969 hanging punishment. Matrimonial It established that a 1970 Property Act wife’s work should be regarded as an equal contribution towards creating the family home.

17.3 Culture

‘Minority Report’, directed by Steven Spielberg, 2002. Amblin Entertainment / Cruise-Wagner Productions / 20th Century Fox USA.

‘Outbreak’, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, 1995. Warner Bros. USA. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

IN PAIRS discuss what a ‘cultural revolution’ usually implies. It implies changes in mores and attitudes. It is often connected with protest and rebellion and social reforms.

Dictation LISTEN to the dictation about Woodstock and write down the text. TRANSCRIPT A key musical moment in the Sixties was the Woodstock festival, usually simply referred to as Woodstock. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was first held from August 15th to August 18th in 1969, and was advertised as ‘Three Days of Peace

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LOOK at the pictures and in pairs discuss what issues concerning the future they hint at.

17.1 History

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16.11 Cultural Issues

and Music’. It was held at a 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, just forty-three miles southwest of the town of Woodstock. During this historic festival, thirty-two acts performed outdoors in front of 500,000 enthusiastic participants who braved the rain to be part of this pivotal moment in popular music history. The magazine ‘Rolling Stone’ listed it as one of the ‘50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll’. The event became famous internationally when the 1970 documentary film of Woodstock was released with its accompanying soundtrack album. The American singer Joni Mitchell also wrote a song commemorating the festival, called ‘Woodstock’, which became a major hit for the folk singers Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Philip Larkin (1922–85)

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Philip Larkin’s life and works Philip Larkin was born into a middle-class family in Coventry in 1922 and was educated at the University of Oxford. He was considered a sort of misanthrope, who did not like young people, going abroad or giving interviews. His works include The North Ship (1945), a collection of verse in the style of W.B. Yeats (I13.10); The Less Deceived (1955), which established Larkin as an anti-Romantic poet of great wit; The Whitsun Weddings (1964), which contains many of his best-known poems; High Windows (1974), in which many poems reflect his concerns about death; and two novels about his university years, Jill (1946) and A Girl in Winter (1947). Larkin was also a jazz critic; his jazz essays are collected in All What Jazz: A Record Diary 1961–68 (1970). His dominant mood Philip Larkin is the most representative of the ‘Movement’ poets. Like them, he refused the committed poetry of the 1930s (I16.2) and the neo-Romantic surrealism of the 1940s. His loneliness, melancholy and sense of loss are in tune with the deepest insecurities, anxieties and half-values of an English audience (I17.1) suffering the withdrawal from Imperial and colonial power in the aftermath of the war. His characters are wounded by sexual impotence, anxiety, distress, incompetence and incommunicability.

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Main themes Although convinced that knowing other writers’ work was not important for the development of one’s personal style of poetry, he praised Thomas Hardy (I11.5) who had allowed him to understand that commonplace events from daily life were fit for poetry: they are, in fact, recalled in their banal, almost narrow authenticity in his work. The sense of time, nature – which is generally a winter, cold, dark landscape – and childhood are introduced by Larkin in his poems without any sentimentality, and the approach is dry and true-to-life. Larkin’s view of life Larkin’s poetry deals with disillusionment, defeat, solitude, death, isolation and boredom, and it is dominated by a deep pessimism. In fact, there is never happiness, hope or love in it: man can’t be comforted either by love, since it is full of obstacles, or by the past, with which man is not able to establish any contact, because the past is irrelevant to the present. Thus old age is seen as the decline of man, and is characterised by loneliness. Symbolism Two important symbols recur in Larkin’s poetry: the photograph, which stands for the past since it freezes what happened, and the room, which represents loneliness; here man isolates himself within four walls and among some trivial objects and prevents himself from escaping. The room, which mirrors the person who lives in it, is also the symbol of the limits of human experience and knowledge. Style Larkin’s poems usually present a casual, easygoing start, and end up in serious reflection and philosophical questioning. Their language is argumentative, objective and colloquial. But in his last collection, High Windows, there is a development in the adoption of coarse expressions, probably the sign of an emotional involvement and a bitter impatience that increased over the years. Larkin’s reputation He refused to take on the political role of the poet, and he stated: ‘I write to keep things I saw and felt both for me and the other people.

ANSWER these questions about the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. 1 What were the ‘Jim Crow’ laws? These were laws barring black Americans from classrooms and bathrooms, from theatres and train cars, from juries and legislatures. 2 When did the non-violent and civil disobedience protests begin? These started in the 1950s. 3 Which two Acts were passed by the federal government in the Sixties? The federal government passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory practices in voting and voter registration, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. 4 Why was Rosa Parks arrested in 1955? Because she refused to give up her seat at the front of the ‘coloured section’ of a bus to a white passenger. 5 Who founded the SCLC in 1957? Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 6 Why did James Meredith become famous? He was the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi (and President Kennedy had to send 5,000 federal troops to deal with the violence and riots). 7 When and where did the famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech take place? The speech took place in Washington DC in March 1963. 8 Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 significant? Because it outlawed major forms of discrimination and ended many areas of segregation. 9 Who were the Black Panthers? They were a militant black movement who believed in ‘picking up the gun’ and had a lot of followers among the inner city blacks. 10 When was Martin Luther King assassinated and what did his death lead to? Martin Luther King was shot as he stood on the balcony outside his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 and it led to President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing.

DISCUSS. What was blocking sexual liberation before the Sixties? What happened to change the situation? Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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ANSWER these questions about Philip Larkin’s work. 1 What is the dominant mood in Larkin’s poems? Larkin’s poems are dominated by disillusionment, defeat, solitude, death, isolation and boredom, and a deep pessimism. 2 What characters does he create? His characters are wounded by sexual impotence, anxiety, distress, incompetence and incommunicability. 3 What are the main themes developed by the poet? The sense of time, nature – which is generally a winter, cold, dark landscape – and childhood are the main themes developed by Larkin. 4 What is old age a symbol of, according to the poet? Old age is seen as the decline of man, and is characterised by loneliness. 5 What are the recurring symbols in his poetry? Two important symbols recur in Larkin’s poetry: the photograph, which stands for the past since it freezes what happened, and the room, which represents loneliness; here man isolates himself within four walls and among some trivial objects and prevents himself from escaping. The room, which mirrors the person who lives in it, is also the symbol of the limits of human experience and knowledge. 6 What are the main characteristics of his style? Larkin’s poems usually present a casual, easy-going start, and end up in serious reflection and philosophical questioning. Their language is argumentative, objective and colloquial. However, in his last collection there is a development in the adoption of coarse expressions, probably the sign of an emotional involvement and a bitter impatience that increased over the years.

17.7 History

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I don’t know why I do it, but I think that the instinct of self-preservation is the basis of every art.’ He is accused by some critics of ignoring the real problems of his time and withdrawing into his quiet world of insular gentility, decency and politeness. But those who admire him appreciate his technical ability with words and rhythm.

18.1 History

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Dictation LISTEN to the dictation about the IRA during the Thatcher years and write down the text. TRANSCRIPT In one of their most daring and horrifying acts of violence, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, or IRA, planted a bomb in the Grand Hotel in Brighton where the annual Conservative Party conference was being held. The bomber intended to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet who were staying at the hotel. The bomb detonated at 2:54 a.m. on 12th October 1984 killing five people, including two high-profile members of Thatcher’s government, and injuring another thirty-one. Margaret Thatcher was still awake at the time, working on her conference speech for the next day. The blast tore through the mid-section of the hotel, but firemen said that many lives were saved because the wellbuilt Victorian hotel remained standing. Parts of Thatcher’s suite were destroyed, but both she and her husband Denis escaped injury. The IRA issued a statement the next day claiming responsibility for the attack. The statement read: ‘Today we were unlucky, but remember, we only have to be lucky once; you will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no war.’

Into the Fire Bruce Springsteen The Rising (2002)

The sky was falling and streaked with blood I heard you calling me then you disappeared into the dust Up the stairs, into the fire Up the stairs, into the fire I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher Somewhere up the stairs into the fire Refrain (x2) May your strength give us strength May your faith give us faith May your hope give us hope May your love give us love You gave your love to see in fields of red and autumn brown You gave your love to me and lay your young body down Up the stairs, into the fire Up the stairs, into the fire I need you near but love and duty called you someplace higher Somewhere up the stairs into the fire

18.3 History Song

Bruce Springsteen: 9/11 and ‘Into the Fire’ Bruce Springsteen (1949–), also known as ‘The Boss’, grew up in a middle-class family and first started playing the guitar in high school. After graduating from high school, he moved to New York to try and break into the folk music scene. His 1973 albums marked the beginning of Springsteen’s career and since then, he has sold tens of millions of albums and won thousands of loyal fans worldwide in his thirty plus years as a ‘rock and roll legend’. He released the song ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ for the film ‘Philadelphia’, which won him a Grammy award and an Oscar for ‘Best Song’. In the wake of September 11th, Springsteen, together with his E Street Band, delivered the album The

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Rising where he addressed the dead and the survivors of 9/11.

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Refrain (x3) It was dark, too dark to see, you held me in the light you gave You lay your hand on me Then walked into the darkness of your smoky grave Somewhere up the stairs into the fire Somewhere up the stairs into the fire I need your kiss, but love and duty called you

someplace higher Somewhere up the stairs into the fire Refrain (x4) May your love give us love READ the text of this song and do the following activities. 1 What does the title of this song suggest to you? It suggests a fire disaster. 2 Who is introduced in lines 1–6? A rescuer, probably a fireman.

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18.3 History READ the text that follows and do the activities below. On the first anniversary of September 11th this prayer, The Dead of September 11th written by Toni Morrison (1931–), was recited during a memorial ceremony. 1 Morrison’s words have a confessional quality. Why is that important? 2 She speaks of the ‘thread thrown between your humanity and mine’. Is there anything symbolic in her words that brings hope to humanity? Discuss with your classmates. Some have God’s words; others have songs of comfort for the bereaved1. If I can pluck courage2 here, I would like to speak directly to the dead – the September dead. Those children of ancestors born in every continent on the planet: Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas […] But I would not say a word until I could set aside all I know or believe about nations, war, leaders, the governed and ungovernable; all I suspect about armor and entrails3. […] Speaking to the broken and the dead is too difficult for a mouth full of blood. Too holy an act for impure thoughts. Because the dead are free, absolute; they cannot be seduced by blitz. To speak to you, the dead of September, I must not claim false intimacy or summon an overheated heart glazed4 just in time for a camera. I must be steady and I must be clear, knowing all the time that I have nothing to say – no words stronger than the steel that pressed you into itself; no scripture older or more elegant than the ancient atoms you have become. And I have nothing to give either – except this gesture; this thread5 thrown between your humanity and mine: I want to hold you in my arms and as your soul got shot of its box of flesh to understand, as you have Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

done, the wit6 of eternity: its gift of unhinged release tearing7 through the darkness of its knell8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

the bereaved. I familiari dei defunti. I can pluck courage. Posso fare coraggio. entrails. Viscere. glazed. Vuoto, vacuo. thread. Filo. wit. Spirito. unhinged … release. Liberazione sconvolta che si lacera. knell. Rintocco funebre.

18.4 Literature ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova

TYPE A. Write a 20-line essay about how much technology is at the service of man and how much it might cause mass destruction.

18.7 History Vocabulary Review MATCH the words to their definitions. A made official B what you are morally or legally entitled to do or have C enforced separation D triggered E the act of making peace after a quarrel or fight F an official pardon 1 2 3 4 5 6

rights reconciliation institutionalised amnesty sparked segregation

A 3; B 1; C 6; D 5; E 2; F 4.

18.8 Literature A Closer Look

Nadine Gordimer’s life and works Nadine Gordimer (1923–) was born in 1923 in Springs, then a small mining and industrial town, set in the area near Johannesburg which

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What appeal does the refrain contain? It appeals to God and points out notes of optimism. What is the theme of the song? This song seems to fit the American people’s lives and the feelings in a changed world. A sensation of a rising feeling lifted from common people emerges while listening to this song. How do you respond to this song?

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is the source of South Africa’s wealth. Her father was a Russian Jew who married an English woman. She was educated in a convent school, and later studied at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. Her first works, Face to Face (1949) and The Soft Voice of the Serpent (1953), were two collections of short stories, a form to which Gordimer has often returned in the intervals between her novels.Her first novel, The Lying Days (1953), already showed the author’s controlled, unsentimental technique, the constant tension between personal isolation and social commitment, and the refusal of exile. Nadine Gordimer has always lived in South Africa, remaining steadfast in her political, social and literary beliefs. Her strong opposition to apartheid – the South African policy of racial segregation officially dissolved in the early 1990s – led to the banning of some of her novels, and it is present also in her non-fiction works On the Mines and Lifetimes: Under Apartheid and The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places, a collection of essays. Her novels include A Guest of Honour (1970), Burger’s Daughter (1979), July’s People (1981), My Son’s Story (1990), The Pickup (2001). In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nadine Gordimer’s fiction could be said to cast a clear light on the contradictions of a multiracial country; she analyses the relationships, in all their varied and stereotyped forms, between the different-coloured groups that form the population of South Africa: the whites, the Afrikaners (the South African whites of DutchGerman-French descent), the coloureds (people identified as being of mixed racial ancestry, partly white; though denied political and social rights, they enjoy higher living standards than the blacks), the blacks. She also expresses the difficulties a novelist faces in a society where 80% of the population is cut off from normal cultural influences by the colour bar. Thus her works deal with the political and social transformations of South Africa and, at the same time, with the changes in the life of the writer, in her experience and thoughts. Her analytic style, through which she examines people, places and situations, reveals great social sensibility and deep self-consciousness.

18.11 The Arts DISCUSS. Have you ever seen either a painting or a poster by Keith Haring? If yes, what image

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of life did it communicate to you? READ Keith Haring’s biography and take notes about: 1 the origin of his art; He drew on comics and the mass media. 2 why the city was important to him; He used the city as his canvas, making chalk drawings of barking dogs and babies in subway stations around the world on the walls of schools, hospitals and abandoned buildings without receiving any monetary payment. 3 how he tried to make his art more accessible; He opened the Pop Shop in New York City in 1986. The store sold merchandise bearing his images. He considered the shop to be an extension of his work and painted the entire interior of the store as an abstract black on white mural. 4 what he did when he discovered he had AIDS; He created the Keith Haring Foundation to support AIDS organisations and programmes for children. He used his imagery during the last years of his life to speak about his own illness and generate activism and awareness about AIDS. 5 his legacy. His works continue to be exhibited around the world and many are owned by such prestigious museums as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

18.12 Cultural Issues SAY which device is used by the poet to convey the busy work of the birds and images of tenderness and protection. The similes in lines 17–18. RETRACE the elements in the poem that are Caribbean and those which have universal appeal. Caribbean The sense of being outdoors.

Universal The use of symbols such as light and darkness.

The sunlight and open space.

The many references to modern cities.

The infinite horizon, the sunset.

The themes of war, poverty, betrayal and peace.

ART LAB 22 PICASSO AND CUBISM NOME

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Art Lab 22

Pablo Picasso and Cubism

1 Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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Pablo Ruiz Y Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881. His genius manifested itself early, and at 16 he held his first exhibition. In 1900 he made an initial visit to Paris, where he finally settled in 1904. The city’s bohemian street life fascinated him, and his pictures of poor people in dance halls and cafés show how he assimilated the style and the themes of the French painters Edgar Degas (1834–1917) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901). His ‘Blue Period’ 1901–04 and ‘Rose Period’ 1905–06 preceded the revolutionary Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), which paved the way for Cubism. In the stage which followed this picture, ‘Analytical Cubism’, Picasso fragmented natural objects into abstract geometric forms; it was during this period that the Spanish artist worked with the French painter Georges Braque most closely. In the early 1920s Picasso started to practise ‘Synthetic Cubism’, which marked a return to bright colours. In the 1930s his work included metal sculpture, book illustrations and the mural Guernica (1937, Prado, Madrid), which comments on the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. He continued to paint into his eighties. In 1971 he was honoured with an exhibition at the Louvre, in Paris; until then, living artists had not been shown there. He died in 1973.

ART LAB 22 PICASSO AND CUBISM NOME

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1

READ the title, which comes from a notorious street of brothels in Barcelona, Avignon Street.

2

POINT OUT where the group of nude female figures are.

3

SAY why the standing figure on the far left may remind the viewer of an ancient Egyptian king’s pose.

4 1 2

LOOK at the two central figures carefully. Describe their postures. What are they based on? Why is the depiction of their faces so radical?

5

DECIDE. Where is the seated woman, the so-called ‘squatter’, looking? Where is she turning her body?

6

LOOK at the faces of the standing and seated nudes on the far right. They derive from African masks, which artists collected avidly at that time. Point out what they share with this wooden mask from Gabon.

Art Lab 22

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK 2 Wooden mask from Gabon, Africa. Collection Vérité, Paris.

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ART LAB 22 PICASSO AND CUBISM NOME

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FOCUS on the geometric constructions making up both the figures and the background; then say: if they are different; what relationship exists between the female nudes and the space surrounding them; how the sense of three-dimensional form is achieved.

8

DECIDE. Where does the light come from? To what effect?

9

PICASSO abandoned the traditional single point of view of the observer and adopted the revolutionary ‘simultaneous view’. Find examples of this new approach to space in the composition. What dimension is introduced next to length, height and width?

7

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 10 DISCUSS. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was started in 1906 and often altered before Picasso stopped work on it. Earlier versions of this painting contained a medical student carrying a skull and a seated sailor. They both were aspects of the painter himself. What did Picasso achieve by removing them from the final composition? 11 STATE what vision of reality emerges from this composition.

YOUR TURN

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12 FIND possible connections between Picasso and modern poets and authors you have studied, as regards their conception of art and some aspects of their biography.

ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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Art Lab 23

Henri Matisse and Fauvism The leading Fauve artist was Henri Matisse (1869–1954). He was born in northern France in 1869 and studied art in Paris. His first teacher was the Symbolist Gustave Moreau (1826–98), through whom he met Albert Marquet (1875–1947), Henri-Charles Manguin (1874–1949) and Charles Camoin (1879–1965). When Moreau died the group dispersed, but Matisse’s dominant personality inspired them to emulation when he returned from a trip to Corsica with a number of richly coloured canvases. In 1905 Matisse was the foremost of the Fauve painters, exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne, painting with bold brushstrokes, thick paint and strong colours. He soon abandoned traditional perspective and proportion in his continued experiments with colour used to convey emotions. In 1910 an exhibition of Islamic art further influenced him towards the decorative. From the 1920s until his death in 1954, he settled in the South of France, painting local scenes with a thin, fluid application of bright colour.

Art Lab 23

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK 1 Henri Matisse, Harmony in Red, 1908–09. Oil on canvas. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.

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ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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SAY what the actual subject of the painting is.

2

DESCRIBE the setting in detail.

3

LOOK ‘out the window’. What can you see in the background?

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CODE 4

DEFINE the dominant colours used in the composition. Are they linked to any descriptive function?

5 A B C

SAY: why the sense of traditional perspective within the room is minimised; where the linear perspective is confined; if a sense of depth is created.

6 1 2 3 4

COMPLETE the following statements about the shape and spaces of the painting. The forms and spaces are determined primarily by ............ and only secondarily by ............ . The design is built largely on black ............ lines, which Matisse referred to as his ‘arabesques’. The exterior landscape is related to the interior by the repetition of ............ ............ . The inside ‘arabesques’ create ............ forms, both on the table and on the wall, while those outside form ............ and ............ ............ . Smaller ‘arabesques’ define the ............ ............ and the outline of the woman’s ............ .

5

DISCUSS. In his A Painter’s Note, published in 1908, Matisse wrote: ‘lf upon a white canvas I set down some sensations of blue, of green, of red [...] it is necessary that the various marks I use be balanced so that they do not destroy each other... From the relationships I have found in all the tones, there must result a living harmony of colours, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition.’ Explain Matisse’s aim in painting Harmony in Red, and what his ‘living harmony’ is based on.

YOUR TURN 8 … † † † † †

TICK as appropriate. What strikes you most about this Fauve picture? What sensations does Harmony in Red communicate to you? violence harmony anger rebellion peace other ……………….

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EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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Art Lab 23

Georges Braque and Analytic Cubism Georges Braque (1882–1963) was born near Paris in 1882. In 1902 he settled in Paris to pursue the study of painting as a fine art, and here he was deeply impressed by the style of works exhibited by the Fauves. From 1906 to 1907 Braque adopted the style of Fauvism, since he used pure, bright colour. However, by 1908 he had shifted his attention to a geometric style, and during the next few years he and Picasso (IArt Lab 22) worked very closely, developing a similar approach to painting. Both artists produced pictures of neutralised colour and complex patterns of faceted forms, called ‘Analytic Cubism’. Both began to experiment with collage and invented the technique of gluing paper, wood and pieces of fabric to canvas. Braque continued to work throughout his life, producing lots of distinguished paintings, graphics and sculptures. He died in 1963.

Art Lab 23

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK 1 Georges Braque, Violin and Pitcher, 1910. Oil on canvas. Offentliche Kunstammlung, Basel, Switzerland.

1 A B C D E F

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LOOK at the painting. The references to the visible world are few: A pitcher can be seen in the................ . A table is placed .................. next to the pitcher. Towards the .............. on the .............. a violin can be recognised. At the top of the picture is one of Braque’s famous Cubist jokes, a ......... of the kind used for hanging ............ , painted with its ............... . A ............ of ............ is under it. The form on the right is a horizontal ............... but it also suggests a ............ of a wall.

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ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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DESCRIBE the structure of the painting. Tick as appropriate. It is based on horizontal lines. It has a linear framework of verticals, horizontals and intersecting diagonals. All the lines are combined with stippled areas of paint applied in short stabbing strokes.

3

DEFINE what the objects are composed of.

4

DECIDE. Several different characteristic aspects of the same object are sometimes combined together. What spatial relationship exists among the different objects?

5

BRAQUE stated: ‘I am not interested in the traditional perspective.’ Explain why the objects of the composition do not follow the rules of perspective.

6

DECIDE. The nail’s shadow shows it to be illuminated from the left. Where is the rest of the imagery lit from?

7

DESCRIBE. What colours are used in the picture? What sensations do they convey?

DISCUSS. The elements of reality in a composition such as this appear only in fragmented form and are often indicated only in the most allusive way. Where does the attention required for a successful reading of the painting lead to?

9

READ Braque’s definition of art: ‘Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.’ Does this picture express its creator’s aim?

YOUR TURN 10 DISCUSS. Violin and Pitcher is one of many Cubist pictures which refer to music. Which other analogies of painting and music in the last decades of the 19th century have you analysed? What do they reflect? 11 COMPARE Braque’s rendering of the space with that of Picasso (I Art Lab 22).

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ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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Art Lab 23

Wassily Kandinsky and Abstract Art Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), a Doctor of Law and an economist, was born in Moscow in 1866. In 1896 he decided to settle in Munich, where he studied painting and founded the Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) group of artists in collaboration with Franz Marc (1880–16) in 1911–12. There was a mystical, spiritual aspect in the art of the Blue Riders, who were aware of the changes taking place in philosophy, theology and religion. Kandinsky, in particular, was open to all new or popular ways of revealing the spiritual. In his essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912) he expounded the belief that the emotions and the intellect were legitimate subject matter for art. Between 1900 and 1914 he created what is now called ‘abstract painting’ in a series of works composed both of combinations of forms derived from natural sources and of floating ones crossed by aimless lines. To Kandinsky abstraction meant the progression towards a subjective, free expression of an emotional state or sequence, and art was, for him, a matter of rhythmic lines, colours and shapes rather than the depiction of a particular object or narrative. In 1914 he moved back to Russia where he lived until 1921, holding a number of important cultural appointments under the Revolution. From 1921 he taught at the Bauhaus school of design in Weimar in Germany, and in 1933 he went to Paris, becoming a French citizen in 1939. He died in 1944.

Art Lab 23

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK 1 Wassily Kandinsky, Composition IV, 1911. Oil on canvas. Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany.

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ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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LOOK at the painting and complete the sentences. In the centre there is a blue ............ crowned by a building suggesting a ............ . Three figures, all dressed in ............ ............ and ............ ............ appear in front of ............ ............ . Two of them are carrying ............ ............ ............ ............ and the third has his arm extended and is leaning on ............ ............ . D The sky is ............ ............ ............ ............ ............ . 1 A B C

2 A B C

LOOK at the painting and complete the sentences. The most naturalistic shape on the left side is a ............ . It is surmounted by a ............ ............ ............ . This animal is turning on the left and carrying a ............ with a red head and whose body is in the shape of ............ ............ ............ .

3

LOOK at the painting and complete the sentence: In the foreground of the third area there is a ............ ............ .

CODE 4

THE COMPOSITION is mainly based on the use of two vertical lines and diagonal ones. Identify them and state their function.

5

DECIDE. In the essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky stated that colours were able to reveal the true essence of the world. What associations do the colours of the picture suggest?

DISCUSS. One day in Munich, Kandinsky came into his studio and suddenly saw an ‘indescribably beautiful painting, that was saturated with an inner glow’. He saw in it nothing but forms, no subject matter at all. It was a picture he seemed to have made. The next day the spell was gone and he recognised the objects represented in it with painful distinctness. Thus he realised that the object harmed his painting. Although the objects in this composition are barely recognisable, feelings are vividly expressed. Comment on the feelings and sensations conveyed by Composition IV.

7

DEFINE the theme of the painting.

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS. Why do you think Kandinsky’s abstract painting has been defined as ‘musical’?

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ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

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Art Lab 23

Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism Wyndham Lewis was a painter, a novelist, a mythmaker and an aggressive controversialist. He was born off Maine in 1884, on his father’s yacht, and studied at the Slade art school, London, before travelling all over Europe for several years. On his return, a committed modernist, he threw himself into battle for the cause. In 1914 he founded the Rebel Art Centre, as a rival to Roger Fry’s Omega Workshop, and he edited the two numbers of the periodical ‘Blast’ containing the Vorticist manifesto. Lewis was the leading spirit and polemicist of Vorticism; the style of his manifestos and his writings in the review, no less than the pictures and drawings, expressed the critical spirit of aggression which was inseparable from the movement as a whole. Lewis’s own painting at this point was ‘Cubo-Futurist’: he had been greatly influenced by the Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944), who visited London in 1914. From the ‘vortex’ of 20th-century life, Lewis aimed to precipitate what was in effect a classical structure, precise, cool and metallic, yet charged with emotional force. After World War I, his art became increasingly figurative, and he completed some remarkable portraits. He died in 1957.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 23

1 Wyndham Lewis, The Crowd, 1914–15. Oil on canvas. Tate Gallery, London.

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ART LAB 23 MODERNIST PAINTERS NOME

1 A B C

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LOOK at the painting. The composition is made up of pictures within a picture. These include: the ............ ............ , less than six inches high, on the right; the large scene of ............ ............ taking up the lower left corner; the two ............ ............ at top centre.

2

DECIDE. Is this tiny figure separated from the mass? What is it carrying? Look for another figure with the same object.

3

TRY TO GUESS the setting of the picture.

CODE 4 … … … …

TICK as appropriate. What kind of lines does Lewis employ in this painting? shifting diagonal lines horizontal lines harsh angles curved lines What impression does this technique convey?

5

DECIDE. What do the repeated rectangles of the painting suggest?

6

DEFINE the colour scheme of the image.

EXPLAIN why this composition evokes the forms of the modern urban and industrial environment.

8

IDENTIFY the two worlds which seem to be opposed to each other in the picture.

YOUR TURN 9

LEWIS proclaimed in the first issue of ‘Blast’: ‘The New Vortex plunges to the heart of the Present... we produce a New Living Abstraction.’ What social and artistic aspects of the first decade of the present century do you think Lewis wanted to attack?

10 A B C

COMPARE Lewis’s painting to Braque’s Violin and Pitcher; focus on: the subject; the rendering of the space; the theme.

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ART LAB 24 HENRY MOORE NOME

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Art Lab 24

Henry Moore and Sculpture between the Wars Henry Moore was born in Castleford, Yorkshire, in 1898, the son of a miner. After his experience as a soldier in World War I, he studied at the Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. He was deeply influenced by the critical writings of Roger Fry, which underlined the importance of ‘direct carving’, and Clive Bell, who led him to an appreciation of primitive, especially Pre-Columbian, art. Other significant influences on the development of Moore’s art were the massive figures of the Italian masters Michelangelo and Masaccio, and the streamlined figures of the Romanian sculptor Brancusi (1876–1957), and Picasso’s abstract works (IArt Lab 22). By the end of the war, Moore was acknowledged as the greatest English sculptor; his prolific output includes both private work and public commissions in various materials, from stone to wood, bronze and marble.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 24

1 Henry Moore, Reclining Figure,1929. Brown Hornton stone. City Art Gallery, Leeds.

2 Henry Moore, Recumbent Figure, 1938. Green Hornton stone. Tate Gallery, London

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1

DESCRIBE the position of the woman in picture 1.

2

COMPLETE the following sentences about the sculpture in picture 1.

1 2

She reclines naturally on her ................. . Her arm and knees are ................. .

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3 4

She is looking .................... . She is lying on ..................... .

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ART LAB 24 HENRY MOORE NOME

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3

IDENTIFY the parts of the body in picture 2. Is it a man or a woman?

4

COMPARE the figure’s position in picture 2 with that in picture 1.

CODE 5

DISCUSS. One of Moore’s insistent ideas was that of ‘truth to material’, of an active relationship between the sculptor and his material, which can take its part in the shaping of an idea. Talk about how the use of stone may have influenced the realisation of the two figures.

6

COMPARE the use of forms and shapes in the two works.

7

DISCUSS. ‘Complete sculptural expression is form in its full spatial reality... The desire for form completely realised is connected with asymmetry,’ Moore said. Talk about the implications of a three-dimensional asymmetrical realisation.

8

DECIDE. In the 1930s Moore began to pierce and hollow out his works. Why did he make such a choice? Choose from among the following or provide an answer of your own. to emphasise the ‘three-dimensional realisation’ to achieve originality to overcome the limitations of the stone block to puzzle the viewer to provide an infinite number of different views

… … … … …

DECIDE. What feeling do the two sculptures convey? … strength detachment … vitality mystery … energy solidity … stillness dynamism

10 MOORE conceived the woman as a landscape. What correspondences with natural elements do his recumbent female figures suggest? 11 READ this quote by Moore: ‘Between beauty of expression and power of expression there is a difference of function.’ Explain the different aims Moore refers to and say what his own was.

YOUR TURN 12 DISCUSS. Why do you think Moore looked at primitive sculpture for inspiration? 13 DISCUSS this quote by Moore: ‘When looking at one of my sculptures, I think it’s like going on a journey.’ Do Moore’s work have this effect on you?

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EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

ART LAB 25 BLOOMSBURY ARTISTS NOME

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Art Lab 25

Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group included a number of writers and artists who were active around the time of World War I. They reacted against Victorian values, privileging the pleasures of human intercourse and the enjoyment of beautiful objects. Among them were Vanessa (1879–1961) and Virginia (I14.13) Stephen, the daughters of the eminent critic and biographer Sir Leslie Stephen. Almost from the start, women were full and equal members of the Bloomsbury Group; this freedom allowed Virginia to become a writer and Vanessa to establish herself as a painter. Although Vanessa had studied at the Royal Academy Schools, she regarded them as reactionary and retrograde, and she supported the New English Art Club (established in 1886), which provided a focus for experimentation and an alternative approach. Significant influences on her art were her marriage with the critic Clive Bell and her growing friendship with Roger Fry, who organised two Post-Impressionist exhibitions in London. The first was Manet and the Post-Impressionists at the Grafton Galleries from November 1910 to January 1911. The second also included Cubist works and a large number of works by Matisse (IArt Lab 23).

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 25

1 Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf at Asheham, ca 1910.

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ART LAB 25 BLOOMSBURY ARTISTS NOME

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1

DESCRIBE. Does the painting provide any information about the setting?

2

DESCRIBE. Is the sitter’s appearance described clearly?

3

DESCRIBE. Can you guess the sitter’s age?

4

SAY what she is doing.

CODE 5 1 2 3 4 5

COMPLETE the following sentences with the correct alternative. The contours are strong/weak. The design is flowing/geometric. Form is created through light/colour. Colour is built up from related tints/has a monochrome tonality. The picture is filled with/emptied of superfluous information.

SAY how this painting differs from the traditional portraits you have studied so far.

7 … … … …

TICK as appropriate. The painting is suggestive of Virginia Woolf as being: an intensely private person. a frail woman. a bold and confident person. a wealthy and successful woman.

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS. Do you think this portrait has a direct appeal? Do you feel engaged with the subject, as if in a dialogue?

9

DISCUSS. Virginia Woolf (I14.13) was a remarkable novelist with a particular gift, as the critic David Cecil wrote, for conveying ‘the processes of unspoken thought and feeling’. Does her sister’s portrait reflect this quality?

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Art Lab 25

6

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

ART LAB 25 BLOOMSBURY ARTISTS NOME

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Art Lab 25

Duncan Grant and Post-Impressionism Duncan Grant (1885–1978) was born in Rothiemurchus, Inverness-shire in 1885 and spent part of his childhood in India, where his father’s regiment was serving. Back in England, he studied at the Westminster and Slade Schools, then in Italy and in Paris, where he met Henri Matisse (IArt Lab 23). Towards the end of 1910, he began to frequent Bloomsbury and became the most individually varied of its artists; he formed an intimate and lasting friendship and artistic alliance with Vanessa Bell. As a conscientious objector, he was employed as a farm-worker during World War I, and in 1916, together with Vanessa, he settled in Charleston, an old farmhouse on the Sussex coast, which they decorated with fresh, harmonious schemes.

Art Lab 25

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK 1 Duncan Grant, The Tub, 1912. Tate Gallery, London.

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ART LAB 25 BLOOMSBURY ARTISTS NOME

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1

DESCRIBE the woman’s body.

2

SAY what she is doing.

3

EXPLAIN what the setting of the scene is like.

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CODE 4

DECIDE. How would you define the design of the painting? Are the proportions respected?

5

DECIDE. Are the colours naturalistic? Is the painting linked to any descriptive function?

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTIONS 6

DISCUSS. The way Grant depicts an ordinary, everyday action creates a series of echoes which transcend time and space. What sort of associations come to your mind?

DISCUSS. Did you find the context of the painting immediately clear? Justify your answer.

8

COMPARE Grant’s picture with Le Tub by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) on the same subject.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

7

2 Edgar Degas, Le Tub, 1886. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

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Art Lab 25

YOUR TURN

ART LAB 26 ANDREW WYETH NOME

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Art Lab 26

Andrew Newell Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth (1917–2009) was born in Chadd Ford, Pennsylvania, in 1917, and was trained by his father, Newell Convers Wyeth, a distinguished illustrator and painter. Wyeth had his first one-man show when he was only twenty, and achieved immediate success for his depictions of the rural people and landscapes of Pennsylvania and Maine. He has denied any fundamental influence from other painters on his development, though he admitted drawing inspiration from artists as diverse as the German painter and engraver Albrecht Durer (1471–1528) and Winslow Homer (I12.14). In 1939, Wyeth came to know a brother and sister called Olson, on a remote farm in Maine; he spent the summers there, painting the region and portraits of Christina Olson until her death in 1967. Perhaps one of the best-loved painters of his day, he was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, and was the first living artist to be accorded an exhibition at the White House in 1970. In 1976 he was given a major one-man retrospective in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. His last works included 240 studies of a woman named Helga.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 26

1 Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1

DESCRIBE the setting.

2

DECIDE. Where is the figure of the girl seen from?

TICK as appropriate. What do you imagine the woman to be like? … An attractive young girl. … A mature woman. 4

FOCUS on her posture and think of a reason why it could be such. Tick as appropriate. … She is resting on the grass. … Something has suddenly attracted her attention. … She is dragging herself on her arms because she is crippled. 3

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ART LAB 26 ANDREW WYETH NOME

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CODE 5

POINT OUT the organisation of space in the painting. How are the two houses and Christina’s body linked?

6

THE PAINTING was executed with tempera. Read the definition of tempera from the dictionary and then discuss what this kind of medium lends itself to. Tempera: a process of painting in which an albuminous or colloidal medium is employed as a vehicle instead of oil

7

DECIDE. What range of colours did Wyeth employ? How did they suit the subject?

8 … … … …

DECIDE. How would you define Wyeth’s approach? realistic stylised abstract romanticised

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

DISCUSS. What sensation does the relationship between Christina’s body and the two houses convey? How does the sky contribute to create this impression?

10 MAKE inferences about the title. What sort of world did Christina live in?

YOUR TURN 12 DISCUSS. Christina’s World is one of the best-known and loved images of American art. Where do you think its appeal to the viewer lies? 13 WYETH’S WORK is often connected to that of Edward Hopper (I15.5). Compare the works of the two artists as regards: A subject matter; B technical devices; C themes; D mood.

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Art Lab 26

TICK as appropriate. Why do you think Wyeth decided to represent Christina seen from behind? Because he thought she was not attractive. Because he wanted to arouse the viewer’s curiosity. Because he wanted Christina to become a universal symbol.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

11 … … …

ART LAB 27 LUCIAN FREUD NOME

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Art Lab 27

Lucian Freud: a Great Realist Painter Lucian Freud (1922–2011) was born in Berlin in 1922, the son of Ernst Freud, the architect and younger son of Sigmund Freud. His childhood was characterised by the anxieties of an Austrian Jewish family under the growing menace of Nazism. At the age of nine Lucian was brought to England by his parents, where he lived for the rest of his life. He became a naturalised British subject in 1939. During the 1930s he studied drawing and painting and gained a wide knowledge of English painting through visits to art galleries. After the war he began to paint and became one of the foremost artists of his generation for his minute study of the human psyche through the plasticity of man’s face and body.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 27

1

FIND adjectives to define the man’s clothes.

2

DESCRIBE the curious gesture of the right hand.

3

LOOK at the cigarette. What is strange about it?

4

POINT OUT the details concerning the floor.

5

DESCRIBE. What are the leaves of the palm tree like?

6

IDENTIFY the features of the scene outside.

COMPLETE the sentences with the details which convey the plasticity of the face. A The hair is ..................... . B The jaw is .................... . C The chin has a .................... . D The man is wearing .................... . E The man’s gaze is .................... . 7

1 Lucian Freud, Interior at Paddington, The Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

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ART LAB 27 LUCIAN FREUD NOME

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CODE 8 … … … … … …

SAY which statements are correct about the use of light. It is frontal. It comes from the window. It is quiet and clear. It is shining and bright. It casts deep shadows. It favours flat shapes and linear curvatures.

9

READ the following quote by Freud and discuss how it applies to the painting. ‘I don’t want any colour to be noticeable. I want the colour to be the colour of life... Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance that I want to avoid.’

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 10 DISCUSS. Why do you think Freud made the palm tree as much of a protagonist as the man? 11 DECIDE. What feelings do the man’s expression and gestures convey?

13 DECIDE. How would you define the way Freud observes his subjects? Choose from among the following. … exploratory … minute … intimiste … detached … cold … sentimental … dreamlike What effect does it have on the spectator? 14 DISCUSS. Freud’s painting shares the approach and themes of the poetry of the first half of the 20th century. Connect this picture to Auden’s poem Refugee Blues (I16.2).

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Art Lab 27

YOUR TURN

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

12 THE PAINTING is built around a series of internal rhymes between the inside and outside. Point out the correspondences between various elements of the picture: 1 the lower folds of the raincoat and ………….…………. ; 2 the man in the room and ………….…………. ; 3 the topknot of the palm and ………….…………. . What does the analogy between the interior and the exterior mean?

ART LAB 28 FRANCIS BACON NOME

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Art Lab 28

Francis Bacon: a Web of Distorted Images Francis Bacon (1909–1992) was born in Dublin in October 1909. He made an early reputation as an interior designer and painter in the period 1929–34 but then dropped out of sight, painting only sporadically through the 1930s and finally giving up altogether in 1942. The work he produced when he resumed painting in 1944, a triptych called Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, was the first of his mature masterpieces. He refused both narrative painting and abstract art; his human figures revealed his adoption of distorted forms used to capture the anguish, isolation and the certainty of death of the 20th-century man. He achieved this quality by using high-speed photographs.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 28

1 Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944. Oil on board. Tate Gallery, London.

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ART LAB 28 FRANCIS BACON NOME

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1

DECIDE. What sitters are portrayed? Are they either wholly animal or wholly human?

2

DESCRIBE. Where are the three figures confined?

3

DECIDE. What physical features do they have in common?

4

DISCUSS. What might the left-hand figure have at the shoulder-level and an inch or two below?

5

SAY what the creature in the central panel resembles. What has it got on its eyes?

6

DESCRIBE. Which distorted features can you distinguish in the face of the last figure? What can you see under it? What does it remind you of?

7

POINT OUT the postures of the three figures.

CODE 8

THE TRIPTYCH arrangement contributes to the formal frame with which Bacon isolates the main events of his painting. Where are your eyes led? Can you think of a reason?

9

LOOK. What lines are mainly made by the brushstrokes? What do they accentuate?

10 DECIDE. What is the prevailing colour? What does it connote?

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

YOUR TURN 13 BACON made clear that these creatures were not spectators at ‘the Crucifixion’ but at ‘a crucifixion’. Is there any relationship between this picture and the time of its composition? You may refer to 16.1 and 16.3. 14 THREE STUDIES may be connected to the themes expressed by Thomas Stearns Eliot in his early poetry and by Samuel Beckett in his plays. Discuss this statement with reference to sections 13.12 and 16.12.

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Art Lab 28

12 EXPLAIN the symbolic meaning of the distorted physical features of the three figures.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

11 THREE STUDIES had its origins in the strength of the artist’s feelings about the world and his fellow men. Where does Bacon’s genius lie?

ART LAB 29 MID-CENTURY AMERICAN ART NOME

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Art Lab 29

Jackson Pollock: the Leader of Abstract Expressionism Jackson Pollock (1912–56) was born in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, the son of an unsuccessful farmer. When his father started to work as a government land surveyor, Pollock went with him on surveying trips and experienced the vast landscape of Arizona and the Grand Canyon. He also came in contact with Indian culture. In 1929 he moved to New York and studied at the Art Students League, where he was taught by Thomas Hart Benton, a leading figure in the American Realist tradition, who influenced him with his rhythmic control of paint and his independent character. Pollock’s restlessness at first found expression in lonely, hitchhiking journeys around America and in his addiction to alcohol. In 1938 he started to work for the Federal Arts Project and stayed until 1943, when he signed a oneyear contract with Peggy Guggenheim, then the most prestigious collector in New York. He was killed in a car crash in 1956.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 29

1 Jackson Pollock, Blue Poles, 1953. Oil, synthetic enamel and aluminium on canvas. Ben Heller Collection, New York.

By the time of his death, Pollock was already a legendary figure because of his outrageous behaviour and his impressive paintings. His early style was influenced by the expressive, often violent use of paint of Mexican murals; Picasso’s and Surrealist influences, especially Mirò’s, affected the tumultuous symbolism of his works in the late 1930s. The preoccupation with symbols vanished around 1946 and Pollock started to work with the ‘drip’ technique, in which he used his whole body energetically in the act of painting. He dripped, splattered, rolled and even threw paint, enamel and aluminium onto his huge canvases stretched on the floor. After 1950 his style changed once again reverting to a more formal method.

232

1

LOOK at the painting. Does it show any reference to recognisable objects?

2

DESCRIBE. What does the elaborate build-up in the background contain?

3

DECIDE. Does the picture seem to have any edge or frame?

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ART LAB 29 MID-CENTURY AMERICAN ART NOME

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CODE 4 A B C D

SAY if the painting: maintains the traditional perspective; emphasises the flatness of the plane; creates a sense of depth; tries to harmonise lines, shapes and colours.

5

POLLOCK would drip or splash paint onto the canvas and than act on it using brushes like sticks. Can you identify these moments of action painting on the canvas?

6

… … … … …

POLLOCK also rejected the traditional oil and watercolour and used, instead, industrial materials like aluminium and flat enamel. Below is a list of advantages linked to the use of these media. Tick those that seem to suit Pollock’s painting. They: come in bright colours. … can be poured or dripped. are original. … can be applied in layers which do not blend. do not fade. … retain their individual hue. dry quickly. … create a structure of pure colour. can be applied with traditional brushes.

7 … … …

DECIDE. How would you define the colours in the painting? Choose from among the following: … crude bright … warm light … violent cool

TICK as appropriate. What do you feel the painting spontaneously expresses? lack of inspiration … anger despair … madness rebellion … other ...................... violence

9

POLLOCK declared: ‘When I am “in” my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing... because the painting has a life of its own.’ In this respect, what is the painting supposed to give access to?

10 DISCUSS. How do you think the people of the 1950s reacted to this picture? How do you personally respond to it? 11 DISCUSS. Pollock’s art was outrageous and provocative. Besides the artist’s personal experience, it also reflected the post-war mood. What do you think it attacked and revolted against? What did it release instead?

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Art Lab 29

8 … … … …

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

ART LAB 29 MID-CENTURY AMERICAN ART NOME

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Art Lab 29

Jasper Johns: the Precursor of Pop Art Jasper Johns (1930–) was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1930. After studying at the University of South Carolina, he became a painter in New York in 1952, and was attracted to the Dadaist ideas of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968). His early works were often literal and illusionistic. He tended to paint series and to represent objects that were everyday, even banal, yet also charged with universal recognisable symbolism. Johns’s most vital and daring period was between 1950 and 1961, when he chose and developed his main motifs: targets, stencilled words and numbers, flags (the most famous series was The American Flag), rulers, fragments of human anatomy. The impact of his one-man show in 1958 was very great since it offered ways of development out of Abstract Expressionism without rejecting the idea that a painting was primarily a worked surface, subject and object in itself. Johns offered his work to the viewer not only to arouse an aesthetic response but also as a ground for open-ended dialectical discussion. At the beginning of the 1960s his paintings showed a freer arrangement, for example in some of them he attached real objects to the canvas. Johns’s art proved a rich mine for subsequent movements, especially Pop Art.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 29

1 Jasper Johns, Target with Plaster Casts, 1955. Encaustic and collage on canvas with objects. Leo Castelli Gallery, New York.

2 Jasper Johns, Three Flags, 1958. Encaustic on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

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ART LAB 29 MID-CENTURY AMERICAN ART NOME

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1

LOOK at the picture 1. What popular image is represented? What do you generally do with it?

2

DECIDE. Where is your attention drawn while you are looking at it (picture 1)?

3

LOOK at the top of the picture 1. Why have the flaps been lifted?

4

LOOK at picture 1. Can you recognise the elements set in the boxes?

5

LOOK at the picture 2. What flag has been depicted? Do you know what it is called?

6

DECIDE. How many planes does the painting consist of (picture 2)?

CODE 7

DECIDE. What geometric shapes are being explored in the two works?

JOHNS employed the ancient Egyptian technique of encaustic, that is, adding wax to the pigment and then applying colours with brushes or spatulate tools. Discuss the effect this produced, choosing from among the prompts given below: … It created a pronounced sense of surface texture. … It gave the object the quality of a sculpture. … It increased the lustre of the colour. … It conveyed a luminous, naturalistic impression. … It altered spatial organisation. 8

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

JOHNS chose commonplace objects as subject matter. Say whether they continue to function socially once they have become artistic subjects.

YOUR TURN 12 A B C

COMPARE Johns’s achievements with Pollock’s as regards: subject matter; technique; artist’s attitude.

13 EXPLAIN in what sense Johns embodies the transition from the artist of the 1950s to what would become the artist of the 1960s. 14 DISCUSS. What did Johns’s effort to fuse subject and object force the viewer to do?

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Art Lab 29

11 SAY what you associate a flag with (picture 2). Do you think Johns wanted to add any meaning to what is one of the best-known signs in Western culture? How would you define the way he treated it? Tick as appropriate: … playful … respectful … sarcastic … inventive

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

10 FOCUS on picture 1. What gives it a sense of disturbing ambiguity?

ART LAB 29 MID-CENTURY AMERICAN ART NOME

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Art Lab 29

Robert Rauschenberg and ‘Assemblage’ Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) was born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1925. He studied in Paris first, and then at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. He moved through experiments with all white, all black and all red paintings in the early 1950s to the techniques of assemblage. When he had settled in New York in 1949, he had found himself living in the middle of a junk-crammed environment, a landscape of dismissed objects which became a complete ‘palette’ of things to make art with: cardboard cartons, stuffed animals, broken umbrellas, discarded tyres, old postcards. His collage and montage techniques could be seen in his first exhibition in 1955. In the 1960s, Rauschenberg reverted to a flat surface, and implanted much of his imagery in the form of silkscreen transfers. As a whole, Rauschenberg’s assemblage art represented a reaction against the detached grandeur of Abstract Expressionism and paved the way to many of the avant-garde enterprises of the following years.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 29

1 Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1959. Freestanding combine. Moderna Museet, Stockholm. 2 Robert Rauschenberg, Retroactive I, 1964, Silkscreen. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.

236

1

LOOK at the picture 1. What does the composition represent?

2

LOOK at the goat (picture 1). Where is it mounted?

3

DESCRIBE picture 1. What is there around the body of the animal?

4

DESCRIBE picture 1. How has the head been decorated?

5

LOOK at the picture 2. What can be seen in the upper left?

6

DESCRIBE picture 2. What does the work combine?

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ART LAB 29 MID-CENTURY AMERICAN ART NOME

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7

DECIDE. Who is depicted in the middle (picture 2)?

8

DECIDE. What is being re-stated in the lower left frame (picture 2)?

9

LOOK at the lower right-hand corner. Do you recognise this image (picture 2)?

CODE 10 HIGLIGHT the interplay of horizontals and verticals in the organisation of the two works. 11 EXPLAIN how the title of picture 1 is reflected in its composition. First read the definition of a ‘monogram’. A ‘monogram’ is a character composed of two or more letters interwoven or combined, usually representing a name or part of one. 12 SILKSCREEN is a form of printing in which ink is forced through the mesh of a screen, usually made of silk. What other technical devices did Rauschenberg clearly employ in Retroactive I? Where are they apparent? 13 DECIDE. What illusion does the choice of colours create (picture 1)?

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 14 … … …

TICK as appropriate. What main assumption do Rauschenberg’s works attempt to make? That in modern society nothing can inspire the artist’s imagination. That a work of art can exist for any length of time, in any material and anywhere. That modern art should express the alienation of the artist from both his objects and his public.

YOUR TURN 17 DISCUSS. What do you think of Rauschenberg’s achievements? Choose from among the following adjectives. … puzzling … not serious … eclectic … interesting … ugly … challenging … original … delightful … odd 18 DISCUSS. What implicit criticism of contemporary society does Rauschenberg’s art contain?

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Art Lab 29

16 RETROACTIVE I can be read as an iconographic representation of the theme of ‘Fall’. Point out and try to explain the parallels contained in the work.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

15 DISCUSS. What kind of relationship between nature and culture does Monogram express?

ART LAB 30 POP ART NOME

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Art Lab 30

Roy Lichtenstein: from Comic Strips to Painting Born in New York City in 1923, Roy Lichtenstein (1923–97) received his master of fine arts at Ohio State University in 1949. His work in the 1950s was in the Abstract Expressionist style, but after 1957 he started to represent symbols of popular culture employing advertising imagery and comic-strip techniques. Although he was aware of the nature and meaning of his sources, he was always involved with the process of transforming them into pictures, with their formal and pictorial qualities and with the implications of presenting them as art. His favourite themes were popular ideals of romance and heroism.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 30

238

1 Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam!, 1963. Acrylic on canvas. Tate Gallery, London.

1

LOOK at the picture. What does this cartoon represent?

2

DESCRIBE the two scenes filling the whole of the left-hand canvas and of the right-hand one.

3

SAY how the movement of the rocket is indicated.

4

DISCUSS. What kind of word is ‘Whaam’? Where is it used?

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ART LAB 30 POP ART NOME

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CODE THE DIFFERENT STAGES followed by Lichtenstein in his picture are given in jumbled order. Arrange them correctly. A The areas which were not to receive the dot pattern were masked off. B The black lines were painted over the primary colours and dots. C A perforated metal screen was laid on the canvas and the paint brushed through the holes in it. D The artist made a small pencil drawing which served as a guide for the major lines of the composition. E When the screen was lifted off, the dot pattern was revealed. F Lichtenstein then painted the areas of solid colours starting with the lightest and working through the darkest. G When the small drawing was transferred to the canvas, changes were made: two panels were used and the objects were greatly enlarged. 5

6

STATE what technical features this painting and the comic-strip imagery you know share.

7

FIND the contrasting elements the composition is built on.

8

IDENTIFY the colours used in the painting and state their connotation.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

POINT OUT what Lichtenstein wants to underline by using common images and methods.

11 … … … … … …

CHOOSE from among the following to express the idea this picture has communicated to you. menace amusement violence ecstasy serenity astonishment

12 DISCUSS. What society does this painting mirror? You may refer to 17.3.

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Art Lab 30

YOUR TURN

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

10 LICHTENSTEIN said in 1967: ‘I want my images to be as critical, as threatening, and as insistent as possible.’ Explain how these words are reflected in the picture.

ART LAB 30 POP ART NOME

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Art Lab 30

David Hockney and the Swimming Pool David Hockney (1937–) is a painter, a printmaker, a photographer and a set designer. He was born in Yorkshire in 1937 and studied at Bradford School of Art and Royal College of Art, London. He travelled extensively in America and contributed to the Pop Art movement. His works from the 1960s are painted in a bright style and their subject matter is from popular culture. The image which is most conventionally associated with David Hockney is the one of the swimming pool. There are many reasons for this. He has painted, photographed or made prints containing images of swimming pools from the mid-1960s to the present day. As a British expatriate living principally in Los Angeles, he has easily been influenced by the commonplace clichés of its sunny climate, the swimming pool chief among them.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Art Lab 30

1 David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967. Acrylic on canvas. The Tate Gallery, London.

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LOOK at the picture. How many areas does the painting consist of?

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DECIDE. What breaks up these zones?

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DESCRIBE what you can see in the background.

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LOOK. Do you see anyone in the swimming pool?

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DISCUSS. What do the cloudless sky and the shadow under the chair make you think of?

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ART LAB 30 POP ART NOME

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CODE 6

DECIDE. What shape is mainly employed?

7

LOOK. There are only two oblique lines in the painting. Find them and say what they suggest.

8

DECIDE. What colours prevail in the picture? What atmosphere do they evoke?

9

HOCKNEY used acrylic paints in this composition. To what advantage?

10 … … … … …

TICK as appropriate. How would you define Hockney’s style? realistic allegorical photorealistic impressionistic surreal

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 11 DISCUSS. In his book Pictures, Hockney said: ‘It is a formal problem to represent water, to describe water, because it can be anything – it can be any colour it’s movable, it has no set visual description.’ How can these words be applied to the painting? 12 DECIDE. Can you detect a sort of juxtaposition between the whole composition and the splash?

YOUR TURN 14 DISCUSS. How does Hockney position his art in relation to the conventions of his own world? 15 CONNECT this painting to the society and the vision of the world of the 1960s. You may refer to 17.3 and 17.8.

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Art Lab 30

POINT OUT the symbolic functions of: the swimming pool;. the images reflected in the window; the lack of any human figure and the empty chair.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

13 A B C

Art Lab 22

CODE

Pablo Picasso and Cubism

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READ the title, which comes from a notorious street of brothels in Barcelona, Avignon Street. Student’s activity. POINT OUT where the group of nude female figures are. The group of nude female figures are in an indeterminate location, a roughly drawn still-life cameo consisting of a slice of melon, an apple, a pear and some grapes can be seen in the foreground. SAY why the standing figure on the far left may remind the viewer of an ancient Egyptian king’s pose. The standing figure on the far left may remind the viewer of ancient Egyptian King’s pose because the left leg is forward, the right arms is extended straight down and the fist is clenched. Also borrowed from Egypt is the pictorial convention of rendering the face in profile and the eye from a frontview. LOOK at the two central figures carefully. Describe their postures. What are they based on? Their arms are stretched behind their heads. Their postures are based on the traditional one of Venus. Why is the depiction of their faces so radical? The depiction of their faces is so radical because one eye is slightly above the other, and the nose is no longer directly above the mouth.

5

DECIDE. Where is the seated woman, the so-called ‘squatter’, looking? Where is she turning her body? She is looking towards the picture plane and she is turning her body in the opposite direction simultaneously.

6

LOOK at the faces of the standing and seated nudes on the far right. They derive from African masks, which artists collected avidly at that time. Point out what they share with this wooden mask from Gabon. They share a similar elongated, geometric form.

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FOCUS on the geometric constructions making up both the figures and the background; then say: if they are different; They both are fragmented into solid geometric shapes with sharp edges and angles. what relationship exists between the female nudes and the space surrounding them; The nudes and the background seem to have no proper spatial relationship. how the sense of three-dimensional form is achieved. It is achieved by combining shading with bold strokes of colour.

8

DECIDE. Where does the light come from? To what effect? Light, as well as form, is fragmented into multiple sources so that the observer’s point of view is constantly shifting.

9

PICASSO abandoned the traditional single point of view of the observer and adopted the revolutionary ‘simultaneous view’. Find examples of this new approach to space in the composition. What dimension is introduced next to length, height and width? The background and the front of the squatter are depicted at the same time; the facial features of the central figures are out of alignment because these nudes are simultaneously seen from different points of view. The time dimension is introduced next to length, height and width.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 10 DISCUSS. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was started in 1906 and often altered before Picasso stopped work on it. Earlier versions of this painting contained a medical student carrying a skull and a seated sailor. They both were aspects of the painter himself. What did Picasso achieve by removing them from the final composition? He obtained a more powerful, mythic image, rather than a personal narrative. 1

STATE what vision of reality emerges from this composition. A mental, or psychological, vision of reality emerges from this composition.

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Art Lab 23

Henri Matisse and Fauvism 1

SAY what the actual subject of the painting is. The actual subject of the painting is a woman arranging a bowl of fruit on the table.

2

DESCRIBE the setting in detail. There are some still-life objects on the table, a chair on the left and another behind the table; arabesques can be seen both on the tablecloth and on the wall.

3

LOOK ‘out the window’. What can you see in the background? A landscape with branches and tree trunks can be seen in the background.

4

DEFINE the dominant colours used in the composition. Are they linked to any descriptive function? Primary red, blue and yellow are the dominant colours used in the composition. Their function is to create a decorative harmony.

5 A

SAY: why the sense of traditional perspective within the room is minimised; The sense of traditional perspective within the room is minimised because the table and the wall are of the same red. where the linear perspective is confined; The linear perspective is confined to the chair and the window frame. if a sense of depth is created. The demarcation between the table and the wall is indicated not by a constructed illusion of space, but by a dark outline, and by the bright still-life arrangements that lie on the table’s surface. The effect is reinforced by the tilting plates and bowls.

B

C

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COMPLETE the following statements about the shape and spaces of the painting. The forms and spaces are determined primarily by colour and only secondarily by line. The design is built largely on black curved lines, which Matisse referred to as his ‘arabesques’. The exterior landscape is related to the interior by the repetition of black curves. The inside ‘arabesques’ create branch-like forms, both on the table and on the wall, while those outside form branches and tree trunks. Smaller ‘arabesques’ define the flower stems and the outline of the woman’s hair.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 7

DISCUSS. In his A Painter’s Note, published in 1908, Matisse wrote: ‘lf upon a white canvas I set down some sensations of blue, of green, of red [...] it is necessary that the various marks I use be balanced so that they do not destroy each other... From the relationships I have found in all the tones, there must result a living harmony of colours, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition.’ Explain Matisse’s aim in painting Harmony in Red, and what his ‘living harmony’ is based on. Harmony in Red refers to the predominant colour, whose flat planes harmonise the wall and table into a shared space. Matisse builds a second, more animated movement in the arabesques, harmonising the interior with the exterior. Finally, the bright patches on the woman, the still-life objects and the floral designs create a more staccato beat composed of individual accented forms.

YOUR TURN 8

TICK as appropriate. What strikes you most about this Fauve picture? What sensations does Harmony in Red communicate to you? violence harmony anger rebellion peace other ……………….

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12 FIND possible connections between Picasso and modern poets and authors you have studied, as regards their conception of art and some aspects of their biography. Student’s activity.

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MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

YOUR TURN

Georges Braque and Analytic Cubism LOOK at the painting. The references to the visible world are few: A A pitcher can be seen in the centre. B A table is placed vertically next to the pitcher. C Towards the bottom on the right a violin can be recognised. D At the top of the picture is one of Braque’s famous Cubist jokes, a nail of the kind used for hanging pictures, painted with its shadow. E A sheet of paper is under it. F The form on the right is a horizontal picture frame but it also suggests a baseboard of a wall.

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EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 8

DISCUSS. The elements of reality in a composition such as this appear only in fragmented form and are often indicated only in the most allusive way. Where does the attention required for a successful reading of the painting lead to? It leads to a heightened awareness of the realities depicted.

9

READ Braque’s definition of art: ‘Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.’ Does this picture express its creator’s aim? Yes, it does, because each object is seen from different points of view; they are perceived and analysed by senses and not by reason.

CODE 2

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3

DEFINE what the objects are composed of. The objects are composed of geometric shapes.

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DECIDE. Several different characteristic aspects of the same object are sometimes combined together. What spatial relationship exists among the different objects? The violin is both on the table and inside it; the sheet of paper is both on the wall under the nail and placed on the table. No spatial relationship exists among the different objects.

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DESCRIBE the structure of the painting. Tick as appropriate. It is based on horizontal lines. It has a linear framework of verticals, horizontals and intersecting diagonals. All the lines are combined with stippled areas of paint applied in short stabbing strokes.

BRAQUE stated: ‘I am not interested in the traditional perspective.’ Explain why the objects of the composition do not follow the rules of perspective. The objects of the composition do not follow the rules of perspective because the artist’s point of view continually shifts. DECIDE. The nail’s shadow shows it to be illuminated from the left. Where is the rest of the imagery lit from? The rest of the imagery is lit from the right.

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DESCRIBE. What colours are used in the picture? What sensations do they convey? The colours are almost monochromatic, restricted to a narrow range of ochres, greys and greens. They convey harmony and unity of effect.

YOUR TURN 10 DISCUSS. Violin and Pitcher is one of many Cubist pictures which refer to music. Which other analogies of painting and music in the last decades of the 19th century have you analysed? What do they reflect? Other analogies of painting and music in the last decades of the 19th century can be found in Whistler’s pictures (IArt Lab 21). They reflect the painters’ delight in music. 11 COMPARE Braque’s rendering of the space with that of Picasso (IArt Lab 22). They both fragmented the space and did not follow the traditional rules of perspective.

Wassily Kandinsky and Abstract Art 1 A B

LOOK at the painting and complete the sentences. In the centre there is a blue mountain crowned by a building suggesting a fortress. Three figures, all dressed in white cloaks and red hats appear in front of the mountain.

recognisable, feelings are vividly expressed. Comment on the feelings and sensations conveyed by Composition IV. Student’s activity.

Two of them are carrying two long black lances and the third has his arm extended and is leaning on his sabre. D The sky is full of many coloured clouds.

C

B C

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THE COMPOSITION is mainly based on the use of two vertical lines and diagonal ones. Identify them and state their function. The two lances are the vertical lines, while the diagonal ones tilt and clash and intersect throughout the composition conveying restlessness, dynamism and action. DECIDE. In the essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky stated that colours were able to reveal the true essence of the world. What associations do the colours of the picture suggest? The heavy black lines express movement, while the elements of strong colour, the hats, the rainbow and the clouds, distract the eye and reinforce the disturbing effect.

DEFINE the theme of the painting. The theme of the painting is a violent collision between different worlds that are destined to create a new world by fighting each other.

YOUR TURN 8

LOOK at the painting and complete the sentence: In the foreground of the third area there is a reclining couple.

CODE 4

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DISCUSS. Why do you think Kandinsky’s abstract painting has been defined as ‘musical’? Student’s activity

Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism 1

A B C

LOOK at the painting. The composition is made up of pictures within a picture. These include: the tiny abstractions, less than six inches high, on the right; the large scene of uniformed figures taking up the lower left corner; the two ‘crowd’ scenes at top centre.

2

DECIDE. Is this tiny figure separated from the mass? What is it carrying? Look for another figure with the same object. Yes, this tiny figure is separate from the mass; it is carrying a flag. Another figure with the same object is at the top.

3

TRY TO GUESS the setting of the picture. The setting is a city.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 6

DISCUSS. One day in Munich, Kandinsky came into his studio and suddenly saw an ‘indescribably beautiful painting, that was saturated with an inner glow’. He saw in it nothing but forms, no subject matter at all. It was a picture he seemed to have made. The next day the spell was gone and he recognised the objects represented in it with painful distinctness. Thus he realised that the object harmed his painting. Although the objects in this composition are barely

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CODE 4

TICK as appropriate. What kind of lines does Lewis employ in this painting? shifting diagonal lines horizontal lines harsh angles curved lines What impression does this technique convey? It conveys vigour, dynamism and movement.

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A

LOOK at the painting and complete the sentences. The most naturalistic shape on the left side is a rainbow. It is surmounted by a gigantic white horse. This animal is turning on the left and carrying a rider with a red head and whose body is in the shape of a black arc.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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CODE 5

DECIDE. What do the repeated rectangles of the painting suggest? The repeated rectangles of the painting suggest girders, ladders and windows.

6

DEFINE the colour scheme of the image. Cold greys, browns, reds with a patch of brilliant yellow are the dominant colours of the image.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 7

8

EXPLAIN why this composition evokes the forms of the modern urban and industrial environment. In a city sky, segments appear and disappear as street perspectives dictate; strips of buildings are linked together by networks of road and railway. IDENTIFY the two worlds which seem to be opposed to each other in the picture. The stillness of the architecture clashes with the human flurry.

Henry Moore and Sculpture between the Wars 1

DESCRIBE the position of the woman. She is reclining on one side.

2

COMPLETE the following sentences about the sculpture. She reclines naturally on her elbow. Her arm and knees are bent. She is looking in front of her. She is lying on the ground.

1 2 3 4 3

IDENTIFY the parts of the body. Is it a man or a woman? Head, breasts, arms and knees are recognisable. It is a woman.

4

COMPARE the figure’s position in picture 2 with that in picture 1. The figure in picture 2 has been freed from the block and seems to be lying on her back instead of reclining on one side.

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YOUR TURN 9

LEWIS proclaimed in the first issue of ‘Blast’: ‘The New Vortex plunges to the heart of the Present... we produce a New Living Abstraction.’ What social and artistic aspects of the first decade of the present century do you think Lewis wanted to attack? He wanted to attack the flatness, the sense of emptiness of British art and culture.

10 COMPARE Lewis’s painting to Braque’s Violin and Pitcher; focus on: A the subject; The trivial and small objects of Braque’s painting are in antithesis with Lewis’s big ones. B the rendering of the space; Braque’s objects are seen from different points of view simultaneously and they are fragmented; Lewis’s space mirrors dynamism and movement. C the theme. Braque employs a revolutionary technique and his aim was to represent the fourth dimension, time. Lewis pictured his own society.

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CODE 5

DISCUSS. One of Moore’s insistent ideas was that of ‘truth to material’, of an active relationship between the sculptor and his material, which can take its part in the shaping of an idea. Talk about how the use of stone may have influenced the realisation of the two figures. Stone is hard and concentrated. These qualities impose limitations on the artist’s attempt to convey the idea of soft flesh. The effect is that of hard tense stoniness.

6

COMPARE the use of forms and shapes in the two works. The first is squat and massive, with chunky forms, square cut and block-like; the second has fully rounded forms, loosed from the rectangularity of the Pre-Columbian sculptures which influenced Moore’s first works.

7

DISCUSS. ‘Complete sculptural expression is form in its full spatial reality... The desire for form completely realised is connected with

DECIDE. In the 1930s Moore began to pierce and hollow out his works. Why did he make such a choice? Choose from among the following or provide an answer of your own. to emphasise the ‘three-dimensional realisation’ to achieve originality to overcome the limitations of the stone block to puzzle the viewer to provide an infinite number of different views

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

DECIDE. What feeling do the two sculptures convey? detachment mystery solidity dynamism (just the second) strength vitality energy stillness

10 MOORE conceived the woman as a landscape. What correspondences with natural elements do his recumbent female figures suggest? When a woman reclines naturally on her elbow with one knee bent, her body instantly suggests a landscape with mountains, valleys and hills. Moore’s women are images of fertility which also display something of the energy and power of great mountains. 11 READ this quote by Moore: ‘Between beauty of expression and power of expression there is a difference of function.’ Explain the different aims Moore refers to and say what his own was. Moore did not aim at beauty in the later-Greek or Renaissance sense. His first aim was to please the senses; the second was to express the spiritual vitality of the object. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

12 DISCUSS. Why do you think Moore looked at primitive sculpture for inspiration? Primitive sculpture had some real purpose of expression, perhaps a religious purpose. It wasn’t decoration nor was it academic, in the sense of absorbing an influence or tradition. It didn’t look outside itself. 13 DISCUSS this quote by Moore: ‘When looking at one of my sculptures, I think it’s like going on a journey.’ Do Moore’s work have this effect on you? Student’s activity.

Art Lab 25

Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury Group 1

DESCRIBE. Does the painting provide any information about the setting? No, the only visible element is the armchair.

2

DESCRIBE. Is the sitter’s appearance described clearly? No, because she is sitting and because her face is just outlined.

3

DESCRIBE. Can you guess the sitter’s age? Not exactly. She may be middle-aged.

4

SAY what she is doing. She is knitting.

CODE 5 1 2 3 4 5

COMPLETE the following sentences with the correct alternative. The contours are strong/weak. The design is flowing/geometric. Form is created through light/colour. Colour is built up from related tints/has a monochrome tonality. The picture is filled with/emptied of superfluous information.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 6

SAY how this painting differs from the traditional portraits you have studied so

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YOUR TURN

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

asymmetry,’ Moore said. Talk about the implications of a three-dimensional asymmetrical realisation. It produces an infinite number of different points of view creating interest and surprise. It creates a dynamic tension between the different parts of the sculpture.

far.The sitter does not gaze at the viewer directly; there is no suggestion of her role or status through the setting. 7

TICK as appropriate. The painting is suggestive of Virginia Woolf as being: an intensely private person. a frail woman. a bold and confident person. a wealthy and successful woman.

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EXPRESSIVE FUNCTIONS 6

YOUR TURN 8

9

DISCUSS. Do you think this portrait has a direct appeal? Do you feel engaged with the subject, as if in a dialogue? Even though the sitter’s face cannot be seen clearly and she is not looking at the viewer, she conveys a strong emotional impact.

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DISCUSS. Virginia Woolf (I14.13) was a remarkable novelist with a particular gift, as the critic David Cecil wrote, for conveying ‘the processes of unspoken thought and feeling’. Does her sister’s portrait reflect this quality? Student’s activity.

DESCRIBE the woman’s body. It is massive and roughly outlined. The proportions are not respected.

2

SAY what she is doing. She is washing herself in a tub.

3

EXPLAIN what the setting of the scene is like. There is a tub and a toilet with a mirror.

CODE 4

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DECIDE. How would you define the design of the painting? It emphasises geometry at the expense of realistic and natural details. Are the proportions respected? No, it is extremely free.

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DISCUSS. The way Grant depicts an ordinary, everyday action creates a series of echoes which transcend time and space. What sort of associations come to your mind? The setting evokes Eastern cultures; the tub resembles a nut; the woman’s body is like a statue which reminds one of ideas of fertility and of primitive art, with no other motive than the desire to express form.

YOUR TURN 7

DISCUSS. Did you find the context of the painting immediately clear? Justify your answer. Student’s activity.

8

COMPARE Grant’s picture with Le Tub by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834– 1917) on the same subject. Even if the action the two sitters are performing is the same (see the detail of the sponge), they are portrayed differently. The position, the lines and the colours are different. Degas wanted to capture the reality of an intimate moment in the sitter’s life; Grant aimed at representing form through colour.

Duncan Grant and Post-Impressionism 1

DECIDE. Are the colours naturalistic? No, they are not. Is the painting linked to any descriptive function? No, its function is mainly decorative.

Art Lab 26

Andrew Newell Wyeth 1

DESCRIBE the setting. It’s a rural setting with an expanse of grass and a farm on the crest of a slope.

2

DECIDE. Where is the figure of the girl seen from? From behind.

3

FOCUS on her posture and think of a reason why it could be such. Tick as appropriate.

TICK as appropriate. What do you imagine the woman to be like? An attractive young girl. A mature woman. At the time Wyeth painted her, Christina Olson was a mature woman.

CODE 5

POINT OUT the organisation of space in the painting. How are the two houses and Christina’s body linked? They form a triangle.

6

THE PAINTING was executed with tempera. Read the definition of tempera from the dictionary and then discuss what this kind of medium lends itself to. Tempera: a process of painting in which an albuminous or colloidal medium is employed as a vehicle instead of oil. This medium lends itself to precise details and clear edges, to layers of minute brushstrokes. It dries fairly quickly.

7

DECIDE. What range of colours did Wyeth employ? How did they suit the subject? He used the colour of the earth, which conveyed the realism of the rural scene. The choice of pink for Christina’s dress conveys the idea of her fragility and contributes to create the illusion of her young age.

8

DECIDE. How would you define Wyeth’s approach? realistic stylised abstract romanticised

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

DISCUSS. What sensation does the relationship between Christina’s body and

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10 MAKE inferences about the title. What sort of world did Christina live in? Student’s activity. 11 TICK as appropriate. Why do you think Wyeth decided to represent Christina seen from behind? Because he thought she was not attractive. Because he wanted to arouse the viewer’s curiosity. Because he wanted Christina to become a universal symbol. She symbolises at the same time the tragedy and the urge towards life and happiness of the human condition.

YOUR TURN 12 DISCUSS. Christina’s World is one of the bestknown and loved images of American art. Where do you think its appeal to the viewer lies? Student’s activity. 13 WYETH’S WORK is often connected to that of Edward Hopper (I15.5). Compare the works of the two artists as regards: A subject matter; B technical devices; C themes; D mood. Hopper

Wyeth

Subject matter Technical devices

American urban environment massive, simplified but realistic

American rural environment intense realisation of details through precise brushwork

Themes

isolation and loneliness haunting, sad

isolation and loneliness haunting, claustrophobic, tragic

Mood

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the two houses convey? How does the sky contribute to create this impression? It creates the sense of huge distance, seemingly unbridgeable, physically or psychologically, between the woman and the main house. The grey sky, which sits so claustrophobically on the house, makes this sensation overwhelming.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

She is resting on the grass. Something has suddenly attracted her attention. She is dragging herself on her arms because she is crippled. Christina Olson was in fact a woman so severely crippled that she moved by dragging herself on her arms.

Art Lab 27

Lucian Freud: a Great Realist Painter 1

FIND adjectives to define the man’s clothes. They seem rather old and shabby.

2

DESCRIBE the curious gesture of the right hand. The fingers are clasped, hiding or about to lob something.

3

LOOK at the cigarette. What is strange about it? It is unlit.

4

POINT OUT the details concerning the floor. The floor is made up of wooden planks with a red carpet on it.

5

DESCRIBE. What are the leaves of the palm tree like? They are dry, slicing and whipping.

6

IDENTIFY the features of the scene outside. It must be a city street with a lamp and a male figure in the distance.

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COMPLETE the sentences with the details which convey the plasticity of the face. A The hair is spiky. B The jaw is square. C The chin has a cleft. D The man is wearing glasses. E The man’s gaze is fixed. 7

saturated colours have an emotional significance that I want to avoid.’ Apart from the red carpet, the painting contains cool colours with no symbolic function whatsoever.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 10 DISCUSS. Why do you think Freud made the palm tree as much of a protagonist as the man? To provide a setting for the man’s personality and highlight his uneasiness and sense of estrangement; to point out the theme of untidiness and aridity. 11 DECIDE. What feelings do the man’s expression and gestures convey? Alienation, solitude, isolation, uneasiness. They also convey unexplained strangeness: the viewer might wonder why he is wearing his coat indoors, what he has got in his hand, what his name is. 12 THE PAINTING is built around a series of internal rhymes between the inside and outside. Point out the correspondences between various elements of the picture: 1 the lower folds of the raincoat and the curve of the iron window-railings; 2 the man in the room and the distant male figure in the street; 3 the topknot of the palm and the street lamp outside. What does the analogy between the interior and the exterior mean? It may mean that alienation permeates the world all over.

CODE 8

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SAY which statements are correct about the use of light. It is frontal. (See the shadow on the wall and the man’s face.) It comes from the window. It is quiet and clear. It is shining and bright. It casts deep shadows. It favours flat shapes and linear curvatures. READ the following quote by Freud and discuss how it applies to the painting. ‘I don’t want any colour to be noticeable. I want the colour to be the colour of life... Full,

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YOUR TURN 13 DECIDE. How would you define the way Freud observes his subjects? Choose from among the following. exploratory minute intimiste detached cold sentimental dreamlike What effect does it have on the spectator? It produces a sense of dislocation and unease.

14 DISCUSS. Freud’s painting shares the approach and themes of the poetry of the first half of the 20th century. Connect this picture to Auden’s poem Refugee Blues (I16.2).

your eyes led? Can you think of a reason? The viewer is led to nowhere. In fact, nothing happens in this triptych except what is revealed to us in our interior reading of the painting. 9

Art Lab 28

Francis Bacon: a Web of Distorted Images 1

DECIDE. What sitters are portrayed? Are they either wholly animal or wholly human? The sitters have only some human forms.

2

DESCRIBE. Where are the three figures confined? They are confined in an empty space.

3

DECIDE. What physical features do they have in common? They have no eyes but only mouths.

4

DISCUSS. What might the left-hand figure have at the shoulder-level and an inch or two below? It might have mutilated wing-stumps. An inch or two below these there might be either a shower curtain or a pair of oversized pyjama trousers.

5

SAY what the creature in the central panel resembles. What has it got on its eyes? It resembles a huge flightless bird rather than a human, and it has a bandage on its eyes.

6

DESCRIBE. Which distorted features can you distinguish in the face of the last figure? What can you see under it? What does it remind you of? The upper part of the face is missing and the neck is abnormally long, ending in savage jaws/mouth. A shadow can be seen under it. It recalls a ghost.

7

POINT OUT the postures of the three figures. They are suspended horizontally.

LOOK. What lines are mainly made by the brushstrokes? What do they accentuate? Curved lines are mainly made by the brushstrokes; they accentuate the distortion of the figures.

10 DECIDE. What is the prevailing colour? What does it connote? The prevailing colour is red; it connotes isolation, anguish, violence and horror.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

CODE 8

THE TRIPTYCH arrangement contributes to the formal frame with which Bacon isolates the main events of his painting. Where are

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11 THREE STUDIES had its origins in the strength of the artist’s feelings about the world and his fellow men. Where does Bacon’s genius lie? It lies in his ability to create very precise and powerful pictorial equivalents for the feelings of horror and violence.

13 BACON made clear that these creatures were not spectators at ‘the Crucifixion’ but at ‘a crucifixion’. Is there any relationship between this picture and the time of its composition? You may refer to 16.1 and 16.3. These creatures were the spectres who gather round any scene of human degradation: April 1945 was to see a whole parade of them before the body of Mussolini as it hung from a butcher’s hook in Milan; Hitler’s bunker had its share of them in May, and with the liberation of Dachau in June they were revealed as real monsters. 14 THREE STUDIES may be connected to the themes expressed by Thomas Stearns Eliot in his early poetry and by Samuel Beckett in his plays. Discuss this statement with reference to sections 13.12 and 16.12. Bacon’s work recalls Eliot’s The Waste Land and Beckett’s plays since his characters are placed against a backdrop of anguish, desolation and emptiness.

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YOUR TURN

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

12 EXPLAIN the symbolic meaning of the distorted physical features of the three figures. They represent the horrific present in the contemporary world.

Art Lab 29

Jackson Pollock: the Leader of Abstract Expressionism 1

LOOK at the painting. Does it show any reference to recognisable objects? The only recognisable objects are the blue poles of the title.

2

DESCRIBE. What does the elaborate build-up in the background contain? It contains interwoven lines, drips of colour, splashes of paint.

3

DECIDE. Does the picture seem to have any edge or frame? No, it has no boundaries.

retain their individual hue. create a structure of pure colour. 7

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 8

TICK as appropriate. What do you feel the painting spontaneously expresses? lack of inspiration despair rebellion violence anger madness other ......................

9

POLLOCK declared: ‘When I am “in” my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing... because the painting has a life of its own.’ In this respect, what is the painting supposed to give access to? The unconscious world of the artist.

CODE SAY if the painting: maintains the traditional perspective; No, it does not. B emphasises the flatness of the plane; Yes, it does. C creates a sense of depth; Yes, it does. D tries to harmonise lines, shapes and colours. No, it does not. 4 A

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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5

6

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POLLOCK would drip or splash paint onto the canvas and than act on it using brushes like sticks. Can you identify these moments of action painting on the canvas? The poles were probably made with the brush; the white looks as if it had been dripped. POLLOCK also rejected the traditional oil and watercolour and used, instead, industrial materials like aluminium and flat enamel. Below is a list of advantages linked to the use of these media. Tick those that seem to suit Pollock’s painting. They: come in bright colours. are original. do not fade. dry quickly. can be applied with traditional brushes. can be poured or dripped. can be applied in layers which do not blend.

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DECIDE. How would you define the colours in the painting? Choose from among the following: bright light cool crude warm violent

YOUR TURN 10 DISCUSS. How do you think the people of the 1950s reacted to this picture? They were bewildered. They found it insultingly incomprehensible, meaningless, chaotic. How do you personally respond to it? Student’s activity. 11 DISCUSS. Pollock’s art was outrageous and provocative. Besides the artist’s personal experience, it also reflected the post-war mood. What do you think it attacked and revolted against? What did it release instead? It revolted against form and the rational knowledge which derives from it. It released passions, tensions and uneasiness beyond any conventional or accepted rule.

LOOK at the picture. What popular image is represented? What do you generally do with it? A target. You pick up a gun and shoot at it.

2

DECIDE. Where is your attention drawn while you are looking at it? To the bullseye (the exact centre), because it is the unique point of interest and it scores 10.

3

LOOK at the top of the picture. Why have the flaps been lifted? To show some plaster casts.

4

LOOK. Can you recognise the elements set in the boxes? They are parts of the human body.

5

LOOK at the picture. What flag has been depicted? Do you know what it is called? The American flag. It is called the ‘Stars and Stripes’.

6

DECIDE. How many planes does the painting consist of? Three.

CODE 7

DECIDE. What geometric shapes are being explored in the two works? Rectangles and circles.

8

JOHNS employed the ancient Egyptian technique of encaustic, that is, adding wax to the pigment and then applying colours with brushes or spatulate tools. Discuss the effect this produced, choosing from among the prompts given below: It created a pronounced sense of surface texture. It increased the lustre of the colour. It altered spatial organisation. It gave the object the quality of a sculpture. It conveyed a luminous, naturalistic impression.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

JOHNS chose commonplace objects as subject matter. Say whether they continue to

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10 FOCUS on the first painting. What gives it a sense of disturbing ambiguity? The anonymity of the human specimens, removed from life. They are like fossils or signs that stand for classes of things. One might wonder whether they are what remains of the human target and they engage the mind in moral considerations about the function of a target. 11 SAY what you associate a flag with. Do you think Johns wanted to add any meaning to what is one of the best-known signs in Western culture? No, he said it was not a flag, but a painting sharing some of its characteristics with the American flag. Paint can make anything abstract. How would you define the way he treated it? Tick as appropriate: respectful inventive playful sarcastic

YOUR TURN 12 COMPARE Johns’s achievements with Pollock’s as regards: A subject matter; B technique; C artist’s attitude. Pollock

Johns

subject matter

hardly recognisable

familiar objects

technique

dripping, objectivity and industrial material precision, encaustic

artist's attitude

rebellion, need to release emotions and passions

wanted to engage the reader in open-ended dialectical discussion

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1

function socially once they have become artistic subjects. Johns pointed out the abstract forms upon which social usage had conferred meaning, but which, displaced into their new context, cease to function socially. The sign becomes an image, a painting.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Jasper Johns: the Precursor of Pop Art

YOUR TURN 13 EXPLAIN in what sense Johns embodies the transition from the artist of the 1950s to what would become the artist of the 1960s. John’s work had an emblematic quality; it served as a still, enigmatic centre to the turmoil of Pop Art, which it helped to provoke. In Johns the artist of the 1950s, imagined as ‘hot’, expressive and tragic, was displaced by the didactic onlooker of the 1960s: a man of distances, margins and blocks, detachedly rendering the nuances of ambiguity through the most commonplace objects. 14 DISCUSS. What did Johns’s effort to fuse subject and object force the viewer to do? To think about representation and the paradoxes it entails.

Robert Rauschenberg and ‘Assemblage’ MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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254

1

LOOK at the picture. What does the composition represent? A stuffed angora goat.

2

LOOKat the goat. Where is it mounted? On a horizontal canvas treated with collage and paint.

3

DESCRIBE. What is there around the body of the animal? An automobile tyre.

Masaccio’s fresco for the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.

CODE 10 HIGLIGHT the interplay of horizontals and verticals in the organisation of the two works. In the first work, the horizontal canvas contrasts with the goat standing on it and the tyre around the animal. In the second work, verticals introduce the subjects whereas horizontals focus on the details. 11 EXPLAIN how the title of the first work is reflected in its composition. First read the definition of a ‘monogram’. A ‘monogram’ is a character composed of two or more letters, interwoven or combined, usually representing a name or part of one. The title is self-explanatory, since monograms are drawn with their letters lacing through one another, as the goat laces through the tyre. 12 SILKSCREEN is a form of printing in which ink is forced through the mesh of a screen, usually made of silk. What other technical devices did Rauschenberg clearly employ in Retroactive I? Where are they apparent? Brushstrokes and drips running down the surface – in particular, in the right-hand corner.

4

DESCRIBE. How has the head been decorated? With paint.

13 DECIDE. What illusion does the choice of colours create? It conveys a documentary flavour and reproduces the coloured flicker of the TV set.

5

LOOK at the picture. What can be seen in the upper left? An astronaut.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION

6

DESCRIBE. What does the work combine? TV images and magazine cut-outs.

7

DECIDE. Who is depicted in the middle? American President John F. Kennedy.

8

DECIDE. What is being re-stated in the lower left frame? Kennedy’s pointed finger.

9

LOOK at the lower right-hand corner. Do you recognise this image? It looks like the figures of Adam and Eve expelled from Eden in

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14 TICK as appropriate. What main assumption do Rauschenberg’s works attempt to make? That in modern society nothing can inspire the artist’s imagination. That a work of art can exist for any length of time, in any material and anywhere. That modern art should express the alienation of the artist from both his objects and his public. 15 DISCUSS. What kind of relationship between nature and culture does Monogram express?

YOUR TURN 17 DISCUSS. What do you think of Rauschenberg’s achievements? Choose from among the following adjectives. puzzling eclectic ugly original odd not serious interesting challenging delightful Student’s activity. 18 DISCUSS. What implicit criticism of contemporary society does Rauschenberg’s art contain? In Monogram he explored the relationship between mass-produced objects and natural objects. In Retroactive I he criticised the montages based on chance which are created by a culture which relies heavily on the mass media.

Art Lab 30

Roy Lichtenstein: from Comic Strips to Painting 1

LOOK at the picture. What does this cartoon represent? This cartoon represents a war scene.

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DESCRIBE the two scenes filling the whole of the left-hand canvas and of the right-hand one. A rocket is reaching his target in the lefthand canvas and it has destroyed it in the righthand one.

3

SAY how the movement of the rocket is indicated. The movement of the rocket is indicated by the coloured vertical lines under it.

4

DISCUSS. What kind of word is ‘Whaam’? Where is it used? Whaam is an onomatopoeic word. It is used in comic strips.

CODE THE DIFFERENT STAGES followed by Lichtenstein in his picture are given in jumbled order. Arrange them correctly. A The areas which were not to receive the dot pattern were masked off. B The black lines were painted over the primary colours and dots. C A perforated metal screen was laid on the canvas and the paint brushed through the holes in it. D The artist made a small pencil drawing which served as a guide for the major lines of the composition. E When the screen was lifted off, the dot pattern was revealed. F Lichtenstein then painted the areas of solid colours starting with the lightest and working through the darkest. G When the small drawing was transferred to the canvas, changes were made: two panels were used and the objects were greatly enlarged. 1 D; 2 G; 3 A; 4 C; 5 F; 6 B; 7 E. 5

6

STATE what technical features this painting and the comic-strip imagery you know share. The technical features this painting and the comic-strip imagery share are the illusion of depth in space and the flatness of the picture plane.

7

FIND the contrasting elements the composition is built on. The composition is built on the strong contrast between the vehemence and brutality of the image and the cool detachment of the pictorial and typographic style, and between the illusion of depth in space and the flatness of the picture plane.

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16 RETROACTIVE I can be read as an iconographic representation of the theme of ‘Fall’. Point out and try to explain the parallels contained in the work. The dripping motion of paint at the top parallels the fall of the astronaut, and one drip lands humorously in a glass of liquid embedded in the green patch on the right. More hidden is the iconographic parallel between the falling paint, the astronaut, and the ‘Fall of Man’, which resulted in the expulsion from Paradise. Kennedy’s ‘mythic’ character is implied by his formal similarity to the Christ of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement.

2

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

The goat represents a survivor of nature in a flood of culture.

8

IDENTIFY the colours used in the painting and state their connotation. Black, white, yellow, red and grey are the colours employed in the composition. They connote violence.

3

DESCRIBE what you can see in the background. Two palm trees and a window can be seen in the background.

4

LOOK. Do you see anyone in the swimming pool? No figure can be seen in the swimming pool, but the splash has just been made by a now-submerged human being.

5

DISCUSS. What do the cloudless sky and the shadow under the chair make you think of? The cloudless sky and the shadow under the chair make one think of the heat.

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTION 9

POINT OUT what Lichtenstein wants to underline by using common images and methods. He wants to turn the seriousness of art into a visual joke.

10 LICHTENSTEIN said in 1967: ‘I want my images to be as critical, as threatening, and as insistent as possible.’ Explain how these words are reflected in the picture. In Lichtenstein’s work the two-dimensional comic-strip imagery and the clichéd fragments of dialogue are rendered all the more phoney and sentimental when blown-up on a monumental scale.

CODE 6

DECIDE. What shape is mainly employed? The square shape is mainly employed. It conveys flatness.

7

LOOK. There are only two oblique lines in the painting. Find them and say what they suggest. The two oblique lines of the diving board invite the viewer into the clean, radiant clarity of the pool.

8

DECIDE. What colours prevail in the picture? What atmosphere do they evoke? Blue and pink prevail in the picture. They evoke a Californian atmosphere.

9

HOCKNEY used acrylic paints in this composition. To what advantage? Hockney used acrylic paints in this composition to represent a flat regularity.

YOUR TURN MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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11 CHOOSE from among the following to express the idea this picture has communicated to you. menace amusement violence ecstasy serenity astonishment Student’s activity. 12 DISCUSS. What society does this painting mirror? You may refer to 17.3. This painting mirrors the post-war, consumer society.

David Hockney and the Swimming Pool

256

1

LOOK at the picture. How many areas does the painting consist of? The painting consists of two areas: a blue swimming pool and a blue sky.

2

DECIDE. What breaks up these zones? A villa and a diving board break up these zones.

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10 TICK as appropriate. How would you define Hockney’s style? realistic allegorical photorealistic impressionistic surreal

EXPRESSIVE FUNCTI

ON

11 DISCUSS. In his book Pictures, Hockney said: ‘It is a formal problem to represent water, to describe water, because it can be anything – it can be any colour it’s movable, it has no set visual description.’ How can these words be applied to the painting? It is the diving board that tells us it is a swimming pool.

13 POINT OUT the symbolic functions of: A the swimming pool; It stands for peace and harmony. B the images reflected in the window; They represent the everyday world. C the lack of any human figure and the empty chair. They symbolise the loneliness of contemporary man.

YOUR TURN

15 CONNECT this painting to the society and the vision of the world of the 1960s. You may refer to 17.3 and 17.8. In the profound upheavals of the 1960s – social changes in which the artist himself was deeply engaged – Hockney’s committed embrace of the world as constituted was met by the countervailing force of an inflicted sense of loss.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

14 DISCUSS. How does Hockney position his

art in relation to the conventions of his own world? Formal, stylistic, material, technical and, not least of all, social conventions are simultaneously adopted and contradicted. Hockney’s passion for the world he lives in is matched by a desire to make the enigma of simple experience more congenial and habitable, to render it less mystifying but no less mysterious.

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12 DECIDE. Can you detect a sort of juxtaposition between the whole composition and the splash? The juxtaposition between flatness and movement can be detected in the composition.

VIDEO LAB 30 MICHAEL COLLINS NOME

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CLASSE

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Video Lab 30

DATA

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Production USA 1996 Director Neil Jordan Starring Liam Neeson (Michael Collins); Aidan Quinn (Harry Boland); Julia Roberts (Kitty Kiernan).

Michael Collins

The Truce COMPREHENSION 1 1 2

WATCH the sequence carefully and do the following activities. Describe the setting. Answer these questions: 1 What is the atmosphere like? 2 Who is the woman? 3 Where is Michael Collins? 4 What does her partner tell the woman? 5 Who is she in love with? 6 What does the man who comes into the hall tell him?

2

IDENTIFY the feelings Michael Collins goes through. 1

At the beginning ................................................................................................................................

Video Lab 30

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

................................................................................................................................

2

In the middle of the sequence ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................

2

3 At the end ................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................

3 1 2 3 4 5

258

DECIDE if these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. Kitty tosses up a coin to choose her dancer. Kitty’s partner’s name is Mick. Harry has just arrived from a journey. Kitty and her partner speak about a race. Kitty does not want to interfere with Mick and Harry’s friendship.

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T F T F T F T F T F

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VIDEO LAB 30 MICHAEL COLLINS CLASSE

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DATA

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4 1 2 3

DISCUSS the following questions. Why does Collins get angry? What does the man tell him? Why does Collins reproach him?

5 1 2 3

TRY to pick out the word(s) from the dialogue which correspond to these definitions. The name of the man who was the British prime minister at the time. The way Collins defines the Irish Republic. It is a sign of the will to make peace.

6 1 2 3 4 5 6

FIND the wrong word in these lines of dialogue. Then say who utters them. Which one of you gangsters... Heads, it’s Harry. Cross, it’s Mick. They called a brute. It’s finished? The whole hell thing? Lloyd George has thrown in the handkerchief? We’ve brought the British Empire to its toes?

7

MATCH the sentences from exercise 6 to their literal meaning. There is one extra sentence which you do not need.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Which one of you gunslingers... Heads, it’s Harry. Tails, it’s Mick. They called a truce. It’s finished? The whole damn thing? Lloyd George has thrown in the towel? We’ve brought the British Empire to its knees?

When you toss up a coin, you say this. The Anglo-Irish war is over. Mick and Harry are gunmen, that is, they have committed crimes. D The British prime minister has surrendered. E The career of Michael Collins is over. F We have beat the British Empire. G The British government is ready to speak peacefully about the Irish Question. A B C

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

SAY which shot or camera movement is used in the following parts and what effect is achieved. Mick, Harry and Kitty at the table. Harry and Kitty go dancing. Harry and Kitty are dancing and speaking. Collins at the table. Collins and O’Reilly. Collins hits the table with his fist. Collins and O’Reilly hug.

YOUR TURN 9

IN PAIRS discuss your reaction to this sequence. Is Michael Collins consistent with the character you have studied?

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MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

NOME

VIDEO LAB 31 THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY NOME

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CLASSE

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Video Lab 31

DATA

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Production UK 2006 Director Ken Loach Starring Cillian Murphy (Damien O’Donovan); Pádraic Delaney (Teddy O’Donovan); Liam Cunningham (Dan).

The Wind that Shakes the Barley A meeting after the treaty COMPREHENSION

BEFORE YOU WATCH, complete the following exercise. You will hear the words (1–10) in the dialogue. Match them with the appropriate meaning (A–J). 1 desecrate A ........................ determined not to change your opinion 2 reject B ........................ try to reach an agreement by formal discussion 3 stubborn C ........................ damage a holy thing or place 4 negotiate D ........................ very small in size 5 surrender E ........................ refuse to accept 6 tiny F ........................ give in 7 ratify G ........................ the general health, happiness and safety of a person 8 mandate H ........................ an agreement made between two people or groups 9 compromise I ........................ the authority to do something given to a 10 welfare government by the people who vote for it J ........................ make an agreement officially valid by voting for it 1

Video Lab 31

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

260

2

AS YOU WATCH the sequence, identify the setting in place. What can you see on the walls?

3

LOOK at the picture and describe Teddy. What mood is he in?

4

LOOK at the women listening to Teddy’s brother, Damien. How do you think they feel?

5 1 2 3

WATCH the first part of the sequence again and answer the following questions. What does rejecting the treaty mean to Teddy? What did the Irish heroes die for? What does Teddy think about Michael Collins?

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VIDEO LAB 31 THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY NOME

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CLASSE

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DATA

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What does one of the women listening to Teddy think about Michael Collins’s mission in London? What does one of the men say about Michael Collins? How does Teddy define all those who criticise Michael Collins? What is Ireland like, according to the Tories in Lloyd George’s coalition government? What territories of the British Empire does Teddy mention? What does Teddy invite all the people to do? Could Michael Collins have succeeded in getting a complete independence for Ireland?

6

WATCH the last part of the sequence and concentrate on Damien’s words. Then correct the mistaken words in these statements. If we do not accept this treaty... ...we’ll get the two most precious gifts that we won with these last elections. One, being a compromise for complete freedom... The second, being a nationalist programme.... The priority [is] the private welfare. This treaty will copper-fasten the hold of the poor over the powerful. Damien thinks that everything will be better in Ireland thanks to the treaty.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

TICK the camera movement most employed in the sequence. Tracking shot Zoom Rotating camera What is its function?

8

IDENTIFY the following shots. What occupies the screen in each case? What is highlighted?

1

...............................................

2

...............................................

3

...............................................

4

...............................................

YOUR TURN 9

READ the plot of the film in section 13.11 of your book. What meaning do Damien’s final words acquire in the sequence?

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MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE

VIDEO LAB 32 APOCALYPSE NOW NOME

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CLASSE

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DATA

Video Lab 32

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Production USA 1979 Director Francis Ford Coppola Starring Marlon Brando (Colonel Kurtz); Martin Sheen (Captain Willard); Robert Duvall (Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore).

Apocalypse Now

On the Patrol Boat Captain Willard is sent into the Vietnam jungle with orders to find Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army there. As he sails down the river on a patrol boat, he is slowly overtaken by the magnetic powers of the environment, the battles and insanity which surround him. His crew are slowly killed off one by one. As Willard continues his journey he becomes more and more like the man he was sent to kill. In fact, at the end, in the darkest part of the jungle, he meets Kurtz, who is neither a man nor a soldier, but a cruel savage.

WARM-UP 1 1 2

Video Lab 32

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

3

BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, do the following activities. Do you know what the Apocalypse is? The Apocalypse is described in the final chapter of the New Testament (the book of Revelation), which finishes with the words THE END. It is believed to have been written by St John and portrays a war in the heavens, a battle between the forces of good and evil, God and Satan. It warns of signs (the seven seals) and omens of the coming darkness, and tells of four figures of chaos and darkness, great destruction of the Earth, and the return of Satan and his evil forces. Some scholars have identified some of these evils in Napoleon, Hitler, the atomic bomb, the rise of Communism in the former Soviet Union. But some are yet to come. How do you think they could be? Have you ever heard of ‘black prophecies’? What are they about? Discuss in groups and then report your ideas back to the rest of the class. The Vietnam War marked a very painful time in the modern era. You surely noticed that in the title there is the word ‘now’. Why do you think the Apocalypse and the Vietnam War are linked by this word?

COMPREHENSION

262

2 1 2 3 4

WATCH the scene with the sound off and answer these questions. Where is the protagonist? What is he doing? Do you imagine any sound in the background? What sounds? How does he feel? What makes you think so?

3 1 2 3

BEFORE YOU WATCH the scene again, match these abbreviations with their meaning. Lt A Captain Cpt B Headquarters HQ C Lieutenant

4 1 2 3

WATCH the scene with the sound off again and say: who the papers are addressed to; who they are about; what the subject is;

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VIDEO LAB 32 APOCALYPSE NOW CLASSE

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DATA

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4 5 6 7

what period of time they cover; the university qualifications that are mentioned; the steps of his military career; the information about his private life.

5 1 2 3

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and answer these questions. Who is the speaking voice? Where is he going? Who is Kurtz?

6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

DECIDE if these sentences are true and which is false. Correct the false ones. Willard has been given the wrong dossier. Willard wishes he were dead. He is listening to a tape recorder. Kurtz has failed in his military career. When Kurtz returned from Vietnam in 1964 things started to go wrong. Kurtz made requests to be transferred to airborne training. Kurtz is now 38. Kurtz never returned to Vietnam.

7

DECIDE what Willard’s task is and who wants Kurtz dead.

8

IMAGINE a possible antecedent. State: whether Willard has ever met Kurtz; what Kurtz could have been doing; why he seems to be a dangerous man and soldier.

9 1 2 3 4 5 6

STATE what register these expressions mainly belong to: formal, informal or slang? handed me the wrong dossier it really put the hook in me I couldn’t connect up that voice with this man he was being groomed for one the top slots in the corporation they didn’t dig what he had to tell ‘em why the fuck would he do that?

T F T F T F T F T F T F T F T F

10 WRITE the ‘subjects’ in the following sentences, and then match them with the correct sentence below. A ............... attracted me very much. B ............... can’t link the voice he heard with the photographs of …..... . C ............... really can’t understand why ................. asked to be transferred to airborne training. D ............... was being trained for the top levels of a military career. E ............... didn’t understand what ….............. wanted to tell them. F ............... gave me the wrong dossier. 1 handed me the wrong dossier 2 it really put the hook in me 3 I couldn’t connect up that voice with this man 4 he was being groomed for one the top slots in the corporation 5 they didn’t dig what he had to tell ‘em 6 why the fuck would he do that Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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263

Video Lab 32

...........................................................................................................................

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

NOME

VIDEO LAB 32 APOCALYPSE NOW NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 11 EXPLAIN the logical link between these shots:

12 RECOGNISE the prevailing shot. 13 CONCENTRATE on the soundtrack. What is it? What is its effect? 14 STATE how the atmosphere of mystery and danger is built up. Video Lab 32

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

264

YOUR TURN 15 DISCUSS in pairs. What does Kurtz symbolise? Do you think that the title of the film is appropriate? Why or why not?

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VIDEO LAB 33 HEART OF DARKNESS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

Video Lab 33

Heart of Darkness

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

Production USA 1993 Director Nicolas Roeg Starring John Malkovich (Colonel Kurtz); Tim Roth (Marlow).

Marlow and the Chief Accountant Marlow has just arrived in a remote colony in the Belgian Congo, the source of ivory supply. He is there to retrieve some missing cargoes.

WARM-UP

COMPREHENSION 2 1 2

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and answer the questions. Where is the scene set? Can you guess what time of the day it is?

3

DIVIDE the sequence into two parts and write down a title for each of them. 1st part: ………………………………………………….. 2nd part: …………………………………………………..

4

DESCRIBE the characters involved in the sequence and complete the table below. Marlow

The chief accountant

The slave

Approximate age Physical appearance Present occupation First impression given

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265

Video Lab 33

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

FIND information about the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Internet. Make notes following this guideline: where the present Democratic Republic of Congo is situated and what it is bordered by; when European exploration took place in this region; who privately controlled the Congo basin from 1885 to 1908; what he used this country for; why this country eventually earned infamy; what the report of the British Consul there led to; what Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness was inspired by; what other writer was also active in exposing the activities of the Congo Free State; when the Congo Free State became a colony of Belgium.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

1

VIDEO LAB 33 HEART OF DARKNESS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

FOCUS on the first part of the sequence and answer these questions. Does the chief accountant have a particular accent? Why? What is he worried about? What is he showing Marlow while speaking about these stations? What is he reading? What has happened to Kurtz’s station? Who is in the photo Marlow is looking at? What does Kurtz look like? Is Marlow aware of the real problem concerning the ivory cargoes? What does the chief accountant reveal to Marlow about Kurtz? Does the chief accountant allow Marlow to analyse the photo in detail?

6 1 2 3 4

COMPLETE these sentences spoken by the chief accountant about Kurtz. There are ………… about him that he’s ………… . He ………… guarded a mountain of ………… . There are ………… too ………… rumours one ………… not ………… to. ………… begins to go, you know, a little ………… .

7 1 2 3 4 5

WATCH the second part of the sequence and say: whether Marlow agrees with the chief accountant as regards the importance of rumours; why he quotes doctors; what he asks about the captain of the boat carrying ivory; what he does while asking for some information about the captain; what the chief accountant says in answer to him.

Video Lab 33

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

WRITE down the names of these shots. What does each shot represent?

1

....................................................

2

....................................................

4

.................................................... ....................................................

266

CLASSE

.................................................... ....................................................

5

3

.................................................... ....................................................

.................................................... ....................................................

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VIDEO LAB 33 HEART OF DARKNESS NOME

9

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

FOCUS on this part of the sequence. When does the camera move forward? Why?

10 SAY when the music appears in this sequence and what it points out.

YOUR TURN

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267

Video Lab 33

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

11 DISCUSS. After seeing the two sequences from ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’, which film do you like best? Why? Which one do you think better reproduces the atmosphere and the themes of Conrad’s novel? Which do you think appeals more to contemporary audiences?

VIDEO LAB 34 THE HOURS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

Video Lab 34

DATA

.....................................................................................

Production USA 2002 Director Stephen Daldry Starring Nicole Kidman (Virginia Woolf); Julianne Moore (Laura Brown); Meryl Streep (Clarissa Vaughan).

The Hours

Clarissa Vaughan Based on Michael Cunningham’s book by the same title, ‘The Hours’ is presented as a tribute to Virginia Woolf and her novel Mrs Dalloway. The film follows ‘the hours’ in one day of the lives of three women who live at different times. The first is Virginia Woolf herself, presented on the day she begins to write Mrs Dalloway. The second character is Laura Brown, who lives in Los Angeles in the 1950s; she is pregnant and the mother of a young son, who is helping her to prepare a birthday dinner for her husband. The other character is a contemporary New York editor who shares Mrs Dalloway’s first name, Clarissa. She is preparing a party for Richard, a poet friend that is dying of AIDS.

WARM-UP 1 1 2

Video Lab 34

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION 2

BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, look at this still and describe it. What mood is this woman in?

3

WATCH the first part of the sequence and answer the following questions. Where is this woman? When does this sequence take place? What is the protagonist’s name? Whom is she speaking to? What is she going to have that evening? For whom? Who is Richard? What does he do? Why is Clarissa so proud of Richard? What is she going to buy?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

268

DISCUSS in pairs. Have you ever seen the film ‘The Hours’? Do you know who Meryl Streep is? What films has she been in?

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VIDEO LAB 34 THE HOURS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

4 1 2 3 4 5 6

WATCH the second part of the sequence and say: what the florist thinks about lilies; what Clarissa’s opinion about the same flowers is; what she orders first; whether she orders some roses; if she is going to take some flowers with her; who is going to make her a bunch of these flowers.

5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

COMPLETE these lines while watching the last part of the sequence. Then say who speaks them. I ........................ tried to ........................ Richard’s novel. I know. It’s not ........................ . It did ........................ him ten ........................ to write. Maybe it just ........................ another ........................ to read. It’s you, ........................ it? In the novel. Richard uses things ........................ actually ........................ . Years ago he and I were ........................ . He ........................ things. I don’t ........................ in a bad way.

IDENTIFY the prevailing colours. What atmosphere do they convey?

7

RECOGNISE the kind of shot the scene begins with. To what effect?

8

WRITE down the names of these shots:

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

6

1

.................................................................

2

.................................................................

3

................................................................. .................................................................

................................................................. .................................................................

4

................................................................. .................................................................

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269

Video Lab 34

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE

VIDEO LAB 34 THE HOURS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS in pairs. What links this sequence to the text from Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf you have analysed?

10 1 2 3 4 5

ASK your teacher if you can watch the whole film, and then write a review following these guidelines: write a very short summary of the content; say whether or not you like the film; describe the actresses’ performances; say which scene you liked the most and why; say whether you would recommend it to a friend and why.

Video Lab 34

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

270

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VIDEO LAB 35 THE GREAT GATSBY NOME

...........................................................................................................................

Video Lab 35

The Great Gatsby

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

ProductionUSA 1974 Director Jack Clayton Starring Robert Redford (Jay Gatsby); Mia Farrow (Daisy Buchanan); Sam Waterston (Nick Carraway); Bruce Dern (Tom Buchanan).

Gatsby Impresses Daisy BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, match the following words with the appropriate meaning. A to ask someone about something clipping B give you orders quad C something cut off or out, especially from a newspaper or magazine check with D to cause something to be taken to some place old sport E a rectangular area surrounded on all sides by buildings push you around F autumn send over G a friendly person who accepts jokes fall

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and choose the correct alternative. Gatsby is about to pour/drink champagne. Nick is looking at a book/photograph. Gatsby answers the phone/makes a phone call. Daisy goes up/down the stairs. Daisy follows Nick/Gatsby into the room. Gatsby closes/opens a wardrobe. He throws away/spreads around his shirts. Daisy is smelling the shirt/crying.

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and say whether the following are true or false. Gatsby has collected some articles about Daisy. The picture is of Gatsby’s days in the army. Gatsby wants to talk to the man on the phone. Daisy is excited because the sun is shining outside. Daisy wishes she could have one of the clouds. Gatsby buys his own clothes. The shirts are all the same colour. Daisy likes the shirts.

4

FIND the wrong word in these lines. Correct them, and then say who speaks them: Gatsby or Daisy. All these photos about me! The man on my right is now the Earl of Doncaster. Just make it. Here you see, old sport. Set you in it and push you around. He sends over a choice of things.

1 2 3 4 5 6

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T F T F T F T F T F T F T F T F

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271

Video Lab 35

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 35 THE GREAT GATSBY NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

DATA

.....................

.....................................................................................

5 1 2 3 4 5 6

LISTEN to the dialogue and join the two halves to make sentences. That’s a souvenir A one of those pink clouds. It was taken B such beautiful shirts before. Well, check C in Trinity Quad. I’d like to just get D of my Oxford days. I’ve got a man in London E who buys all my clothes. I’ve never seen F with Wolfsheim.

6

COMMENT on Nick’s role in the sequence. Tick as appropriate. He wants to control Daisy. He acts as an impartial observer. He watches and judges the scene.

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 7

MATCH each picture to the right kind of shot.

1

..........................................................

2

.........................................................

Video Lab 35

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

A B C D

4

3

.........................................................

Medium shot Close-up Extreme close-up American shot

.........................................................

YOUR TURN 8

272

DESCRIBE the characters of Gatsby and Daisy as they appear in the sequence.

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VIDEO LAB 36 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

Video Lab 36

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

Production USA 2011 Director Woody Allen Starring Owen Wilson (Gil Pender); Tom Iddleston (F. Scott Fitzgerald); Alison Pill (Zelda Fitzgerald); Corey Stoll (Ernest Hemingway).

Midnight in Paris

Writers at the Bar

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and decide if the following statements are true or false. T F Gil is wearing a red tie. T F Fitzgerald is wearing a waistcoat. T F Hemingway is drinking whiskey. T F He stands up to meet Gil. T F There is a mirror behind Hemingway. T F Zelda is wearing a fur coat. T F The toreador, or bullfighter, has gloves. T F Fitzgerald smokes a cigarette. T F Fitzgerald and Gil leave the bar together. T F The bar is full of customers.

3

LOOK at the still and try to describe Gil’s reaction. What is he thinking, in your opinion?

4

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and tick all the words you hear. whiskey sensible wine sensitive greetings competition salvation freedom dying jealous swimming loyal

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273

Video Lab 36

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, match the following words from the dialogue with the appropriate meaning. establishments A in a beautiful way mud B nervous gracefully C really unfulfilled D engaging in casual activities jumpy E places where a business is carried out fooling around F talent actually G not completed gift H soft, wet, sticky earth

1

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 36 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

Video Lab 36

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

WATCH the sequence again and decide if the following statements are true or false. Fitzgerald introduces Gil to his wife. Gil enjoyed Hemingway’s books. Hemingway thinks dying is horrible. Hemingway criticises Zelda’s work. Zelda leaves with her husband. Hemingway thinks his friend is making a terrible mistake. Fitzgerald is annoyed by people talking about his private life.

6 1 2 3 4 5 6

CORRECT the mistakes in the sentences. They do a ruby whiskey sour. It was a good book because it was an unforgettable book. There was some nice writing in it, but it was unbelievable. Please, old friend, you make things extremely difficult. Would you take her back at a late time? She’s spoiling you because she’s really a bad counselor.

7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

SAY who speaks these lines: Hemingway, Gil, Fitzgerald or Zelda. This is one of the finest establishments in Paris. And that’s what war does to men. I might have known you’d hate it! I don’t like the atmosphere here anymore. She’ll drive you crazy, this woman. You need time to write, not all this fooling around. Actually, I don’t know the Fitzgeralds that well. You’re a writer, you make observations. Can we not discuss my personal life in public? And it’s a fine gift. It’s rare.

T F T F T F T F T F T F T F

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE TICK as appropriate. What type of shot mainly characterises the sequence? American shot medium shot close-up To what effect? It makes the scene more realistic. It creates suspense. It increases tension.

8

YOUR TURN 9

274

DISCUSS. If you could travel in time, what famous writers would you like to meet and talk to? What would you ask them?

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VIDEO LAB 37 PEARL HARBOR NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

Video Lab 37

.....................................................................................

Production USA 2001 Director Michael Bay Starring Ben Affleck (Rafe McCawley); Josh Hartnett (Danny Walker); Kate Beckinsale (Evelyn Johnson).

Pearl Harbor

Anxious to Matter MATCH the following words with the appropriate meaning. crate (colloquial) A a quantity of goods that are sent patching up a decrepit aircraft B runway depriving of vital elements or resources C to matter a strip of level ground on which aircraft take off and land D chap arms E shipments ruffians F tanks man, fellow G thugs repairing H weapons to be of importance I cannibalizing enclosed combat vehicles which are armed with machine guns J

2

LOOK at the pictures and describe the setting of the two parts of the sequence.

Part 2: ………………………….. 3

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Part 2: …………………………..

LOOK at the pictures and use them to describe what is happening.

1

2

3

4

5

6

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275

Video Lab 37

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 37 PEARL HARBOR NOME

...........................................................................................................................

4 1 2 3 4 5

MATCH the two halves of the sentences. This is We’ll get you settled and then introduce you maybe we ought to skip housekeeping Are all yanks as anxious as you

5 1 2 3

ANSWER these questions about part 1. What is the Lieutenant’s surname? What are the pilots repairing? How many planes came back?

CLASSE

.....................

.....................................................................................

A B C D E

to get themselves killed, Pilot Officer? and get me right into an aeroplane. into your quarters. to the crate you’ll be flying. a real mess.

4 5

What is Rafe anxious to do? What did the pilot shut down before dying?

WATCH the second part and do the following activities. 2 List what Europe needs. Complete the sentences. …………........... The president invites the men to remain ………......…. . ……................. B He is in a bad ……….….. ….................... C ……......…. and ...…...…. asked ….................... him for help in the war. ……................. D America has increased .......... and ........ supplies to Europe. 6 1 A

DATA

3

America has to send more: ………............ …..................

4

Write down what America and its enemies are building. America: ………......... Its enemies: …….........

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE Video Lab 37

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

7

CONSIDER the use of extreme close-up in the sequence. What does each shot highlight?

8

FOCUS on the acting of the three main characters. What feelings do they manage to convey?

YOUR TURN 9

276

DISCUSS in pairs. What crucial moments of World War II does this sequence deal with?

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VIDEO LAB 38 THE KING’S SPEECH NOME

...........................................................................................................................

Video Lab 38

The King’s Speech

In This Grave Hour

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

Production UK 2010 Director Tom Hopper Starring Colin Firth (King George VI); Geoffrey Rush (Lionel Logue, the speech therapist); Helena Bonham Carter (Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother).

WARM-UP 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

REFER to 16.1 and 16.5 and answer these questions about King George VI. When and why did King Edward VIII abdicate? Who was he succeeded by? What was the king’s nickname? What did the king suffer from? Who was Lionel Logue? What did Logue aim at? Was the king able to overcome his stammer? What did the king succeed in doing in the end?

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

CHOOSE the correct alternative while watching the sequence with the sound on. The king doesn’t know how / want to thank Logue. Logue aspires to be knighted / to be called an expert speech therapist. Logue suggests the king should think about anything / forget everything else. The king has lost / has never lost his impediment. During the speech Logue seems to be conducting an orchestra / listening motionless. Everyone is relieved / anxious in the nearby room. The king delivers his speech to those living in the UK / both at home and overseas. George VI remains hesitant and insecure / relaxed and sure.

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277

Video Lab 38

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and say if the following sentences are true and or false. Correct the false ones. T F The scene takes place in a sitting room. T F The king is wearing a tuxedo. T F Logue is beside the microphone and behind the king. T F George VI seems nervous. T F The red lights blinks only once before the beginning of the broadcasting. T F Logue does not accept to mark the time for the king. T F The queen is relaxed while listening to her husband’s speech in the nearby room. T F Mr Woolf, the BBC’s chief technician, is next to the king during the speech. T F When the king starts to speak, he turns out to be relaxed.

2

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 38 THE KING’S SPEECH NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

COMPLETE these sentences with the exact words and phrases. Logue, however this …………. , I don’t know how to thank you for …………. . Forget …………......................... and just say it to me. Say it to me …………. . In this ………….............................. , perhaps the …………............................ in our history, I send to every household …………. , both ………….......................... this message.

5 1 2

SAY which gestures and/or facial expressions show the feelings both of the king and Logue. Anxiety: …………. Confidence: ………….

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 6

MATCH each picture with the right kind of shot. A B C D

Video Lab 38

........................................................

2

........................................................

3

........................................................

4

........................................................

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

1

medium shot close-up pan extreme close-up

1 2

RECOGNISE the use of the subjective gaze, in which the camera takes up the position of an object so that the viewer looks at the action from that point of view. Identify the object. Which feelings does this use of the subjective gaze convey?

8

IDENTIFY a voice which comes from off camera and state what it highlights.

9

FOCUS on the soundtrack. When does the music appear? To what effect?

7

10 CONCENTRATE on the acting. 1 Does Colin Firth turn the king, as a character with a stutter, into a caricature? 2 How is the character of the speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush?

YOUR TURN 11 DISCUSS the themes explored in this sequence.

278

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VIDEO LAB 39 DIRTY DANCING NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

Video Lab 39

DATA

.....................................................................................

Production USA 1987 Director Emile Ardolino Starring Patrick Swayze (Johnny Castle); Jennifer Grey (Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman); Jerry Orbach (Dr Jake Houseman); Cynthia Rhodes (Penny Johnson).

Dirty Dancing

Dance With Me MATCH the following words with the appropriate meaning. A courage treated afraid B juju beans dealt with C stuffing (v.) loosing blood, suffering D bleeding entire E guts putting F scared types of candy G most of all especially H whole

2

LOOK at the picture and describe Johnny’s room.

3 1 2 3 4 5 6

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and complete the sentences. Johnny is wearing a pair of ............ . Baby is dressed in ............ . Johnny invites Baby to ...................................... . He throws his clothes onto .............................. . There is a ......................................... and there are some records against the wall on the right. There is a ............ with a bullfighter on the wall.

4

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and tick the words you hear. leave everything brother men saved pockets reason better emotion worse nothing saw

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279

Video Lab 39

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 39 DIRTY DANCING NOME

...........................................................................................................................

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

.....................................................................................

Video Lab 39

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

DECIDE if the following sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. Baby is annoyed by the music. She apologises for the way her father behaved towards Johnny. Johnny is not self-confident. Johnny’s life is very easy. Johnny admires the way Baby looks at the world. Baby is not afraid of anything. Baby is scared she might never feel like she is feeling again. She refuses to dance with Johnny.

6 1 2 3 4 5 6

DECIDE who says these lines: Baby or Johnny. It’s really me it has to do with. I could never do anything like that. You don’t understand the way it is. Last month, I’m eating juju beans to keep alive. It doesn’t have to be that way. Somebody’s lost, you find them.

7 1 2 3 4 5 6

LISTEN again to the last part of the dialogue and fill in the missing words. This month women are stuffing ............ in my pocket. I’ve never known ............ like you. You look at the ............ and you think you can ............ it better. That’s really ............ , like you said. That took a lot of ............ to go to him. I’m scared of what I ............ , I’m scared of what I ............ .

T F T F T F T F T F T F T F T F

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

MATCH each shot to its name. Then write a heading for each shot to summarise its meaning. American shot Close-up Long shot Low-angle shot

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YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS in pairs what impresses you about this sequence.

10 DISCUSS. What aspect of the cultural revolution of the Sixties does it deal with?

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VIDEO LAB 40 ACROSS THE UNIVERSE NOME

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Video Lab 40

DATA

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Production USA 2007 Director Julie Taymor Starring Jim Sturgess (Jude); Evan Rachel Wood (Lucy); Joe Anderson (Max); Dana Fuchs (Sadie).

Across the Universe

I’m Dropping Out

MATCH the words with the appropriate meaning. clubs A food put into the cavity of a piece of meat unwinding gave up, abandoned B whack unpleasant stuff, mess C dropped strike with a sharp blow D androgyny fixed sums charged by an institution E stuffing (n.) sticks used in golf to drive the ball F fees being neither distinguishably masculine nor feminine G crap becoming free of nervous tension H

2

LOOK at the still and describe the setting of the scene.

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones. T There are two girls sitting at a table. T All the women are wearing necklaces. T The room is just lit by candles. T All the men are wearing ties. T There is a bottle of wine behind the flowers on the table. T The turkey is behind the brown-haired boy. T The man in the suit bangs his fists on the table. T The brown-haired boy keeps his arms folded on his breast.

4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

WATCH the first part of the sequence with the sound on and choose the correct alternative. Max’s father plays football / golf. Max finds his lessons heavy / interesting. Max finished / gave up two courses. Lucy thinks Max’s haircut looks masculine / feminine. Max’s father had to / didn’t have to work to go to college. Jude helps himself / doesn’t help himself to more stuffing. The university fees are cheap / expensive. Max is going / isn’t going to get his university degree.

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F F F F F F F F

281

Video Lab 40

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 40 ACROSS THE UNIVERSE NOME

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DATA

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5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

FIND the mistakes in these lines and then say who speaks them: the father, the mother or Max. I went to the cellar under the stairs. Those lectures can spoil your brains. Is that comfortable? Your haircut, or want of one. These kids are so clever. He won’t have to buy them much longer. You gonna buy a smashing station wagon. Why isn’t the problem here who I am?

6

Look at the picture and describe Max and Jude. What mood are they in?

7

LOOK at Lucy and her mother listening to Max talking. How do you think they feel?

Video Lab 40

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

RECOGNISE the prevailing shot in the sequence. Long shot Medium shot Close-up Extreme close-up

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS in pairs your reaction to this sequence. Is it consistent with what you have studied about the mood of the Sixties?

10 DISCUSS. What theme does this sequence highlight in particular?

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VIDEO LAB 41 CRY FREEDOM NOME

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Video Lab 41

DATA

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Production UK 1987 Director Richard Attenborough Starring Denzel Washington (Steve Biko); Kevin Kline (Donald Woods); Penelope Wilton (Wendy Woods).

Cry Freedom Biko and Woods in a Township

WARM-UP 1 1 2 3 4 5

FIND OUT information about Steve Biko on the Internet. Make notes following these guidelines: when black university students began to react against the apartheid system; what Black Consciousness was; who one of its founders was; who Steve Biko was; what happened to him.

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and describe: the setting in time and place: the characters:

3

BEFORE YOU LISTEN to the dialogue, guess the main topic of conversation dealt with by the two characters.

4

READ the first part of the script and fill in the gaps with the words given. scared miracle drunks bloody get thought years permits desperate

Sundays

Run, son, run. It’s a 1 ……………… a child survives here at all. Most of the women who have work 2 ……………… are domestic maids, so they only 3 ……………… to see their kids for a couple of hours on 4 ……………… . The place is full of 5 ……………… , thuggery, people so 6 ……………… for anything they’ll beat a kid 7 ……………… if they 8 ………………. he had five rand. Woods: Was that kid you, a few 9 ……………… ago? Biko: Yeah. Maybe more 10 ……………… . Biko:

5 1

2

CHOOSE the correct meaning of these words from A, B or C. Thuggery is A a theft. B violent aggression. C an aggressive man. Rand is A a South African hill. B a South African sweet. C the basic South African monetary unit.

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283

Video Lab 41

2 1 2

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

COMPREHENSION

VIDEO LAB 41 CRY FREEDOM NOME

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CLASSE

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DATA

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6

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and check your work.

7 1 2 3 4 5

FOCUS on Biko’s words and answer the following questions. Where do black South African children grow up? What kind of education do the blacks get? What happens to the blacks when they start to work or shop in the cities? What do they begin to feel? What is the difference between a white child and a black one?

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

ANALYSE the shots on the screen carefully, name them and state what each of them conveys.

Video Lab 41

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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STATE what aspects of the township Biko wants Woods to see. What does Woods understand for the first time?

10 CONCENTRATE on the soundtrack. What noises can be heard? Are they appropriate to the scene? What do they highlight?

YOUR TURN 11 DISCUSS in pairs. What is your reaction to the scene you have just seen? Did you find it shocking, compelling, unreal or other?

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VIDEO LAB 42 INVICTUS NOME

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CLASSE

Video Lab 42

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DATA

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Production USA 2009 Director Clint Eastwood Starring Morgan Freeman (Nelson Mandela) and Matt Damon (François Pienaar).

Invictus Mandela and the Captain of the Springboks WARM-UP

2 1 2 3 4 5 6

PUT these moments of the rugby match in the correct order. Use the Internet to help you do this exercise. The referee gives the other team a penalty kick. Each team lifts a player up to catch the ball from the throw in. The player scores a penalty goal. The players grab from behind. The player runs to score a try. A scrum.

COMPREHENSION 3 1 2 3 4 5

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and say: who the characters are; where they are; the time of the day; what they are doing; what they might be speaking about.

4

DESCRIBE the two protagonists of the film.

5 1 2 3 4 5 6

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and say who speaks these lines: Mandela or François. By example. I’ve always thought to lead by example, sir. How do we inspire ourselves to greatness, when nothing less will do? I sometimes think it is by using the work of others. They helped me to stand when all I wanted to do was to lie down. And we listen to the words together. And it helps. At the time the future, our future, seemed very bleak.

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285

Video Lab 42

1 2 3 4 5

FIND OUT information about South Africa’s rugby team, the Springboks, and New Zealand’s, the All Blacks, on the Internet. Make notes following these guidelines: what the official colour/s of the Springboks’ uniform is/are; where the name of the team comes from; what colour the All Blacks have made famous; what this team should have been called; what the All Blacks perform before every match or event.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

1

VIDEO LAB 42 INVICTUS NOME

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DATA

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DECIDE if these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. Mandela has decided to use the rugby championship for moral purposes. Mandela and François Pienaar are meant to embody two sides of the same coin necessary to achieve South African unity. 3 To test whether François is the man for the great task he has in mind, Mandela asks him about his philosophy of training. 4 To lead by example is François’s reply. 5 It was a modern South African poem which helped Mandela bear injustices, hard labour and torture while in prison on Robben Island. 6 François gets the players of his team to listen to the South African anthem while they are on the bus on the way to the stadium. 7 Mandela was invited to the 1992 Olympics in Madrid. 8 Everybody in the stadium greeted him with a song. 9 At that time the future of South Africa seemed happy. 10 To hear that song in the voices of people coming from his own land made Mandela proud to be South African. 6 1 2

T F T F T F T F T F T F T F T F T F T F

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE

Video Lab 42

ANALYSE the shots on the screen,carefully, name them; and state what each of them conveys.

8

FOCUS on the two characters’ and the acting. Describe them using some of the adjectives in the box below. convincing human real able poetic superb ironical

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

7

Nelson Mandela: …………………………………… François Pienaar: ………………………………….. 9

CONCENTRATE on the soundtrack. Are there any noises? Why?

YOUR TURN 10 WRITE a composition about the couplet which closes the Victorian poem by W.E. Henley quoted by Nelson Mandela: ‘I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul.’ Do you believe in these statements? Why or why not? Can you think of important historical, political or literary men who have followed these words? 11 DISCUSS in pairs. What is this shot the emblem of?

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The Truce 2

COMPREHENSION 1 1

2 1

2 3 4 5 6

WATCH the sequence carefully and do the following activities. Describe the setting. There is a great and elegant dancing room. Some couples are dancing; lights are hanging from the ceiling. A band is playing and a singer is performing. There are some beautiful plants around the table where the three friends are sitting. Answer these questions: What is the atmosphere like? It is very relaxed, friendly, a common life situation. Who is the woman? Kitty. Where is Michael Collins? He is sitting at the table. What does her partner tell the woman? He seems to be declaring his love for her. Who is she in love with? It’s not clear, but she seems to love Collins. What does the man who comes into the hall tell him? Something very annoying, disturbing, as it seems.

3

5 1 2 3 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

2 1 2 3 3 1 2 3 4

5

IDENTIFY the feelings Michael Collins goes through. At the beginning He is sad – probably in love, but fearing she doesn’t love him back. In the middle of the sequence He gets angry. At the end He is moved, very happy. DECIDE if these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. Kitty tosses up a coin to choose her dancer. T Kitty’s partner’s name is Mick. False, it is Harry. Harry has just arrived from a journey. T Kitty and her partner speak about a race. False, Kitty says that the friendship between them is not a race. Kitty does not want to interfere with Mick and Harry’s friendship. T

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7

1 2 3 4 5 6

DISCUSS the following questions. Why does Collins get angry? Collins gets angry because he would like to have at least one day for himself, and the man is disturbing him in his free time. What does the man tell him? The man tells him that the Anglo-Irish war is over. Why does Collins reproach him? Collins reproaches him for not having told him the news earlier. TRY to pick out the word(s) from the dialogue which correspond to these definitions. The name of the man who was the British prime minister at the time. Lloyd George. The way Collins defines the Irish Republic. Bloody. It is a sign of the will to make peace. Truce. FIND the wrong word in these lines of dialogue. Then say who utters them. Which one of you gangsters... Kitty: Which one of you gunslingers... Heads, it’s Harry. Cross, it’s Mick. Kitty: Heads, it’s Harry. Tails, it’s Mick. They called a brute. O’Reilly: They called a truce. It’s finished? The whole hell thing? Collins: It’s finished? The whole damn thing? Lloyd George has thrown in the handkerchief? Collins: Lloyd George has thrown in the towel? We’ve brought the British Empire to its toes? Collins: We’ve brought the British Empire to its knees? MATCH the sentences from exercise 6 to their literal meaning. There is one extra sentence which you do not need. Which one of you gunslingers... Heads, it’s Harry. Tails, it’s Mick. They called a truce. It’s finished? The whole damn thing? Lloyd George has thrown in the towel? We’ve brought the British Empire to its knees?

When you toss up a coin, you say this. The Anglo-Irish war is over. Mick and Harry are gunmen, that is, they have committed crimes. D The British prime minister has surrendered. A B C

287

6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

Michael Collins

4 1

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Video Lab 30

E The career of Michael Collins is over. F We have beat the British Empire. G The British government is ready to speak peacefully about the Irish Question. 1 C; 2 A; 3 G; 4 B; 5 D; 6 F; E is the extra sentence.

COMPREHENSION 1

BEFORE YOU WATCH, complete the following exercise. You will hear the words (1–10) in the dialogue. Match them with the appropriate meaning (A–J). 1 C; 2 E; 3 A; 4 B; 5 F; 6 D; 7 J; 8 I; 9 H; 10 G.

2

AS YOU WATCH the sequence, identify the setting in place. What can you see on the walls? The meeting room of the Irish freedom fighters. Big leaflets about Irish independence.

3

LOOK at the picture and describe Teddy. What mood is he in? He is a tall, young man. He has brown hair. He is wearing a dark grey suit, a striped necktie and a white shirt. He is determined and domineering.

4

LOOK at the women listening to Teddy’s brother, Damien. How do you think they feel? They look disappointed and a bit angry.

5

WATCH the first part of the sequence again and answer the following questions. What does rejecting the treaty mean to Teddy? To desecrate the graves of their heroes and insult their memories. What did the Irish heroes die for? For the treaty with the British Crown. What does Teddy think about Michael Collins? He thinks he is a hero. What does one of the women listening to Teddy think about Michael Collins’s mission in London? He was seduced by the wining and dining, and he was not able to negotiate a proper treaty. What does one of the men say about Michael Collins? He sold the Irish to the British Crown; his was a bloody surrender. How does Teddy define all those who criticise Michael Collins? They are stubborn. What is Ireland like, according to the Tories in Lloyd George’s coalition government? As far as they are concerned, Ireland is a tiny dot in a much bigger picture. What territories of the British Empire does Teddy mention? He names Ireland, India, Africa and the whole Empire. What does Teddy invite all the people to do?

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

1

2

3

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

4

5 6

SAY which shot or camera movement is used in the following parts and what effect is achieved. Mick, Harry and Kitty at the table. Harry and Kitty go dancing. The camera rotates, suggesting the dancing movement. It creates a light atmosphere, of serenity and even of hope. Harry and Kitty are dancing and speaking. It is a middle close-up on the two, from a low-angle point of view, suggesting that the viewer is Collins. It gives us the perception of what Collins might be thinking and what instead are Kitty’s and Harry’s actual words. Collins at the table. It conveys Collins’s feelings. Collins and O’Reilly. The viewer is with Collins and his comrade now, but the particular shot suggests that what they represent, the war and the bloodshed, are in a certain way ‘behind their shoulders’, apart from their everyday life. Collins hits the table with his fist. The camera trembles, so that we perceive the hit. Collins and O’Reilly hug. Low-angle shot, it expresses the rising of hope and high spirits.

YOUR TURN 9

IN PAIRS discuss your reaction to this sequence. Is Michael Collins consistent with the character you have studied? Student’s activity

1

2 3 4

5

6 7

Video Lab 31

The Wind that Shakes the Barley A meeting after the treaty 288

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8

9

1 2

3

4

5 6

7

WATCH the last part of the sequence and concentrate on Damien’s words. Then correct the mistaken words in these statements. If we do not accept this treaty... If we ratify this treaty... ...we’ll get the two most precious gifts that we won with these last elections. ...we’ll destroy the two most precious gifts that we won with these last elections. One, being a compromise for complete freedom... One, being a mandate for complete freedom.... The second, being a nationalist programme.... The second, being a Democratic programme. The priority [is] the private welfare. The priority [is] the public welfare. This treaty will copper-fasten the hold of the poor over the powerful. This treaty will copper-fasten the hold of the powerful over the poor. Damien thinks that everything will be better in Ireland thanks to the treaty. Damien thinks that nothing will change in Ireland thanks to the treaty.

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 7

8

1 2

TICK the camera movement most employed in the sequence. Tracking shot Zoom Rotating camera What is its function? To let the viewer grasp the different characters’ reactions and feelings about Teddy’s and Damien’s words. IDENTIFY the following shots. What occupies the screen in each case? What is highlighted? medium shot. extreme close-up on Teddy’s finger pointing at his fellows.

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American shot. close-up on Damien’s back.

YOUR TURN 9

READ the plot of the film in section 13.11 of your book. What meaning do Damien’s final words acquire in the sequence? Peace will be short-lived since one faction of the freedom fighters accepts the treaty with the British that is regarded as unfair by the other faction. This will lead to a civil war, and will put Irishmen against Irishmen, brothers against brothers, Teddy against Damien.

Video Lab 32

Apocalypse Now On the Patrol Boat WARM-UP 1

BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, do the following activities. Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2 1 2 3

4

3

WATCH the scene with the sound off and answer these questions. Where is the protagonist? He is on a patrol boat. What is he doing? He is reading some papers. Do you imagine any sound in the background? What sounds? Perhaps there could be the sounds of the river, the boat, voice-over or music. How does he feel? What makes you think so? He is very hot. In fact he is sweating hard. He also feels worried, doubtful, puzzled. BEFORE YOU WATCH the scene again, match these abbreviations with their meaning. 1 Lt A Captain 2 Cpt B Headquarters 3 HQ C Lieutenant Lt Lieutenant Cpt Captain HQ Headquarters

289

6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

6

3 4

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

He invites them to think about the concessions the English made to the Irish. 10 Could Michael Collins have succeeded in getting a complete independence for Ireland? No, he couldn’t and everyone knew it.

4 1 2 3 4 5

6

7

5

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

1 2 3 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

7

290

WATCH the scene with the sound off again and say: who the papers are addressed to; They are addressed to Benjamin Willard. who they are about; Walter Kurtz. what the subject is; Special Warfare information. what period of time they cover; They cover the years 1946–51. the university qualifications that are mentioned; Master’s degree Harvard University, History degree. the steps of his military career; Graduates West Point; assigned West Berlin, US Sector Command; promoted 1st Lt; Assigned general staff, US command Seoul Korea; requests transfer to Intelligence; promoted Captain. the information about his private life. No information about his private life is given. WATCH the sequence with the sound on and answer these questions. Who is the speaking voice? Benjamin Willard. Where is he going? He is going to find Kurtz. Who is Kurtz? Kurtz is a soldier. DECIDE if these sentences are true and which is false. Correct the false ones. Willard has been given the wrong dossier. F He thinks they gave him the wrong dossier. Willard wishes he were dead. F They want Kurtz dead. He is listening to a tape recorder. F Willard heard Kurtz’s voice on a tape. Kurtz has failed in his military career. F His career was perfect. When Kurtz returned from Vietnam in 1964 things started to go wrong. T Kurtz made requests to be transferred to airborne training. T Kurtz is now 38. F He was 38 when he asked to be transferred. Kurtz never returned to Vietnam. F He returned to Vietnam in 1966 and he probably is there now. DECIDE what Willard’s task is and who wants Kurtz dead. Willard’s task is to kill Kurtz. His superiors, the military staff, want Kurtz dead.

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8 • • •

IMAGINE a possible antecedent. State: whether Willard has ever met Kurtz; what Kurtz could have been doing; why he seems to be a dangerous man and soldier. Student’s activity.

9

STATE what register these expressions mainly belong to: formal, informal or slang? handed me the wrong dossier Formal it really put the hook in me Slang I couldn’t connect up that voice with this man Informal he was being groomed for one the top slots in the corporation Formal they didn’t dig what he had to tell ‘em Slang why the fuck would he do that? Slang

1 2 3 4 5 6

10 WRITE the ‘subjects’ in the following sentences, and then match them with the correct sentence below. A Kurtz’s voice attracted me very much. B Willard can’t link the voice he heard with the photographs of Kurtz. C Willard really can’t understand why Kurtz asked to be transferred to airborne training. D Kurtz was being trained for the top levels of a military career. E The military staff didn’t understand what Kurtz wanted to tell them. F The military staff gave me the wrong dossier. 1 handed me the wrong dossier F 2 it really put the hook in me A 3 I couldn’t connect up that voice with this man B 4 he was being groomed for one the top slots in the corporation D 5 they didn’t dig what he had to tell ‘em E 6 why the fuck would he do that C

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 11 EXPLAIN the logical link between these shots: The river on which the boat is sailing; papers; photographs; Willard’s face. The river, that is the external world, gradually shifts away; in this way the viewer’s attention is drawn to spoken thoughts. The thoughts are about a man called Kurtz, and the viewer sees

13 CONCENTRATE on the soundtrack. What is it? What is its effect? There is subtle, suspenseful music. It is as if the external reality were cut off and the viewer were immersed in Willard’s mind. 14 STATE how the atmosphere of mystery and danger is built up. Through the soundtrack and images that underline the supposed ‘unknown’ change in Kurtz’s life.

2

3

4 5

6

7

YOUR TURN 15 DISCUSS in pairs. What does Kurtz symbolise? Do you think that the title of the film is appropriate? Why or why not? Kurtz symbolises evil, the dark side of human beings when they express their animal instinct through violence and exploitation. The title could be appropriate, in the sense that the apocalypse of humanity can come if men allow this horror to prevail.

Video Lab 33

Heart of Darkness Marlow and the Chief Accountant

8

9

COMPREHENSION 2 1

2

WARM-UP 1

FIND information about the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Internet. Make notes following this guideline:

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where the present Democratic Republic of Congo is situated and what it is bordered by; It is located in central Africa. It is bordered by the Central African Republic and southern Sudan in the north; Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi in the east; Zambia and Angola to the south; the Republic of the Congo, the Angola province of Cabinda and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. when European exploration took place in this region; It took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. who privately controlled the Congo basin from 1885 to 1908; Leopold II, King of the Belgians, privately controlled the Congo Free State. what he used this country for; He used it to gather and sell ivory, rubber and minerals. why this country eventually earned infamy; It earned infamy because of the increasingly brutal mistreatment of the local peoples and exploitation of natural resources. what the report of the British Consul there led to; It led to the arrest and punishment of white Belgian officials who had been responsible for several killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903. what Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness was inspired by; It was inspired by these deaths and atrocities. what other writer was also active in exposing the activities of the Congo Free State; The British writer Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a book, The Crime of the Congo, which was widely read in the early 1900s, about Leopold’s crimes in the Congo basin. when the Congo Free State became a colony of Belgium. In 1908.

3

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and answer the questions. Where is the scene set? The scene is set in the chief accountant’s office, which is richly furnished. Can you guess what time of the day it is? The scene takes place in the morning because the sun is up in the sky and the sunlight is dazzling. DIVIDE the sequence into two parts and write down a title for each of them. 1st part: Rumours about Mr Kurtz. 2nd part: Marlow’s mission.

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12 RECOGNISE the prevailing shot. The prevailing shot is extreme close-up on the papers and on Willard’s face. A strong link is established between the two men and the mystery about Kurtz.

1

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

his face. The man who is thinking is Willard. There seems to be a contrast between the photographs and what is uttered by the voice of Willard’s thoughts: they show a handsome man, with a perfect career, but Willard has been asked to kill him.

4

DESCRIBE the characters involved in the sequence and complete the table below.

First impression given

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

Present occupation

Physical appearance

Approximate age

Marlow

5 1

2

3

4 5 6

292

The chief accountant He is in his He is in his fifties. forties.

The slave

He has fair hair and is dressed in white.

She is a black servant, slim and beautiful.

He is the new captain of a boat. His mission is to retrieve some stranded cargoes of ivory. He is proud of his mission and curious about Mr Kurtz.

He has grey hair, a grey moustache and a grey beard. He is wearing a pair of grey trousers, a white shirt, a light necktie and a light brown waistcoat. The glasses and a pair of black sleeves make him a true clerk. Chief accountant.

She is very young.

Marlow is looking at a photo of two men, one of whom is Mr Kurtz. 7 What does Kurtz look like? He is a tall man with a mysterious appearance. There is a tent behind him built in the jungle. 8 Is Marlow aware of the real problem concerning the ivory cargoes? No, he is not; he is amazed at the chief accountant’s words concerning the stations up the river. 9 What does the chief accountant reveal to Marlow about Kurtz? He states that there are rumours about Kurtz that he has changed and become mad. 10 Does the chief accountant allow Marlow to analyse the photo in detail? No, he hides it under some papers and a small book. 6

She is sewing something sitting on a balcony.

1 2 3 4 7

He is highly realistic; he increases the mystery surrounding Mr Kurtz by hiding his picture under some papers.

She is a sweet, subdued woman.

FOCUS on the first part of the sequence and answer these questions. Does the chief accountant have a particular accent? Why? Yes, he does. He speaks with a French accent since he is a Belgian officer. What is he worried about? He is worried about the stations up the River Congo because they have been isolated for too long. What is he showing Marlow while speaking about these stations? He is showing Marlowe a map, probably of the Congo basin. What is he reading? He is reading papers about the ivory cargoes. What has happened to Kurtz’s station? It has been completely cut off. Who is in the photo Marlow is looking at?

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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COMPLETE these sentences spoken by the chief accountant about Kurtz. There are rumours about him that he’s changed. He has guarded a mountain of ivory. There are always too many rumours one must not listen to. One begins to go, you know, a little foolish. WATCH the second part of the sequence and say: whether Marlow agrees with the chief accountant as regards the importance of rumours; He states that one must not give importance to rumours. why he quotes doctors; Because rumours may drive people mad and doctors may have to cure them. what he asks about the captain of the boat carrying ivory; He asks the chief accountant what has happened to the last captain of the boat carrying ivory. what he does while asking for some information about the captain; He tries to look at Kurtz’s photo again while the chief accountant is in another room. what the chief accountant says in answer to him. He states that the last captain died some time before.

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

WRITE down the names of these shots. What does each shot represent?

9

FOCUS on this part of the sequence. When does the camera move forward? Why? The camera zooms gradually onto Kurtz’s photo to create a mysterious atmosphere surrounding this character.

10 SAY when the music appears in this sequence and what it points out. The music accompanies the zooming camera; it is mysterious music.

YOUR TURN 11 DISCUSS. After seeing the two sequences from ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’, which film do you like best? Why? Which one do you think better reproduces the atmosphere and the themes of Conrad’s novel? Which do you think appeals more to contemporary audiences? Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2

BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, look at this still and describe it. What mood is this woman in? This woman is wearing a camelhair coat, a grey scarf and a light-blue polo-neck jumper. She is carrying a pair of leather gloves in her hands and a bag. She seems to be happy and to be enjoying this moment of her life.

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WATCH the first part of the sequence and answer the following questions. Where is this woman? She is at a florist’s. When does this sequence take place? In the morning. What is the protagonist’s name? Clarissa. Whom is she speaking to? To the florist. What is she going to have that evening? For whom? She is going to have a party for Richard. Who is Richard? He is Clarissa’s friend. What does he do? He is a poet. Why is Clarissa so proud of Richard? Because he has just won a literary prize for his life’s work. It is the most prestigious prize for a poet. What is she going to buy? She is going to buy some flowers for her party.

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Video Lab 34

The Hours

Clarissa Vaughan WARM-UP 1 1 2

DISCUSS in pairs. Have you ever seen the film ‘The Hours’? Do you know who Meryl Streep is? What films has she been in? She is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Her most important films of the 2000s, whereshe has played the leading role, are: ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ (2006); ‘Mamma Mia’ (2008); ‘Julie & Julia’ (2009); ‘The Iron Lady’ (2011); ‘Hope Springs’ (2012).

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WATCH the second part of the sequence and say: what the florist thinks about lilies; She thinks they are perfect. what Clarissa’s opinion about the same flowers is; Clarissa states these flowers are too morbid for her. what she orders first; She first orders some hydrangeas. whether she orders some roses; Yes, she orders buckets of roses. if she is going to take some flowers with her; Yes, she is going to take some multi-coloured carnations with her. who is going to make her a bunch of these flowers. Rodney, the florist’s boy. COMPLETE these lines while watching the last part of the sequence. Then say who speaks them. I actually tried to read Richard’s novel. Æ The florist. I know. It’s not easy. Æ Clarissa.

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close-up = Kurtz’s station extreme close-up = Kurtz’s mysterious gaze medium shot = It allows the director to give the viewer a picture of the two people present in the scene: Marlow and the chief accountant low-angle shot = Marlow’s point of view high-angle shot = It expresses Marlow’s feeling of superiority towards black people

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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It did take him ten years to write. Æ Clarissa. Maybe it just takes another ten to read. Æ The florist. It’s you, isn’t it? In the novel. Æ The florist. Richard uses things which actually happen. Æ Clarissa. Years ago he and I were students. Æ Clarissa. He changes things. I don’t mean in a bad way. Æ Clarissa.

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 6

IDENTIFY the prevailing colours. What atmosphere do they convey? The prevailing colours are yellow, red, orange, white, pink and violet. They all contribute to create a lively, joyful atmosphere.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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RECOGNISE the kind of shot the scene begins with. To what effect? It is a high-angle shot. It points out the importance the flowers have for the protagonist since they are linked to her future party.

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WRITE down the names of these shots: low-angle shot medium shot close-up medium shot

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS in pairs. What links this sequence to the text from Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf you have analysed? Both the text and the sequence take place at a florist’s; they both seem to be pervaded by the smell of flowers. But while in the text from Mrs Dalloway what really matters is the different response each character has to the world around them, in the film sequence Clarissa shows she is still dominated psychologically by a past and fleeting love, the poet and author Richard, who has just received an award.

10 ASK your teacher if you can watch the whole film, and then write a review following these guidelines: 1 write a very short summary of the content; 2 say whether or not you like the film; 3 describe the actresses’ performances;

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4 5

say which scene you liked the most and why; say whether you would recommend it to a friend and why. Student’s activity

Video Lab 35

The Great Gatsby

Gatsby Impresses Daisy COMPREHENSION 1

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BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, match the following words with the appropriate meaning. clipping quad check with old sport push you around send over fall

to ask someone about something give you orders something cut off or out, especially from a newspaper or magazine D to cause something to be taken to some place E a rectangular area surrounded on all sides by buildings F autumn G a friendly person who accepts jokes 1 C; 2 E; 3 A; 4 G; 5 B; 6 D; 7 F. A B C

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WATCH the sequence with the sound off and choose the correct alternative. Gatsby is about to pour/drink champagne. Nick is looking at a book/photograph. Gatsby answers the phone/makes a phone call. Daisy goes up/down the stairs. Daisy follows Nick/Gatsby into the room. Gatsby closes/opens a wardrobe. He throws away/spreads around his shirts. Daisy is smelling the shirt/crying. WATCH the sequence with the sound on and say whether the following are true or false. Gatsby has collected some articles about Daisy. T The picture is of Gatsby’s days in the army.

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F It’s of his days in Oxford. Gatsby wants to talk to the man on the phone. F He can’t talk to him. Daisy is excited because the sun is shining outside. F Because it is raining. Daisy wishes she could have one of the clouds. T Gatsby buys his own clothes. F A man buys his clothes. The shirts are all the same colour. F The shirts are different colours. Daisy likes the shirts. T FIND the wrong word in these lines. Correct them, and then say who speaks them: Gatsby or Daisy. All these clippings about me! D The man on my left is now the Earl of Doncaster. G Just do it. G Here you are, old sport. G Put you in it and push you around. D He sends over a selection of things. G

LISTEN to the dialogue and join the two halves to make sentences. 1 That’s a souvenir 2 It was taken 3 Well, check 4 I’d like to just get 5 I’ve got a man in London 6 I’ve never seen A one of those pink clouds. B such beautiful shirts before. C in Trinity Quad. D of my Oxford days. E who buys all my clothes. F with Wolfsheim. 1 D; 2 C; 3 F ; 4 A; 5 E; 6 B.

B Close-up C Extreme close-up D American shot 1 B; 2 C; 3 D; 4 A.

YOUR TURN 8

DESCRIBE the characters of Gatsby and Daisy as they appear in the sequence. Gatsby uses his wealth to impress Daisy so that she might come back to him. Daisy looks very fragile and moody. She also appears very superficial when she cries because of the beauty of the shirts. The two characters represent a shallow world that is based on material gain and moral emptiness.

Video Lab 36

Midnight in Paris Writers at the Bar

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COMMENT on Nick’s role in the sequence. Tick as appropriate. He wants to control Daisy. He acts as an impartial observer. He watches and judges the scene.

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 7 A

MATCH each picture to the right kind of shot. Medium shot

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COMPREHENSION BEFORE YOU WATCH the sequence, match the following words from the dialogue with the appropriate meaning. 1 establishments 2 mud 3 gracefully 4 unfulfilled 5 jumpy 6 fooling around 7 actually 8 gift A in a beautiful way B nervous C really D engaging in casual activities E places where a business is carried out F talent G not completed H soft, wet, sticky earth 1 E; 2 H; 3 A; 4 G; 5 B;6 D; 7 C; 8F. 2

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and decide if the following statements are true or false.

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1

Gil is wearing a red tie. F He has no tie Fitzgerald is wearing a waistcoat. T Hemingway is drinking whiskey. F He is drinking red wine. 4 He stands up to meet Gil. F He remains seated. 5 There is a mirror behind Hemingway. T 6 Zelda is wearing a fur coat. F She is wearing a black dress. 7 The toreador, or bullfighter, has gloves. F No, he does not. 8 Fitzgerald smokes a cigarette. T 9 Fitzgerald and Gil leave the bar together. F Gil remains in the bar with Hemingway. 10 The bar is full of customers. F There are some empty tables. 1 2 3

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LOOK at the still and try to describe Gil’s reaction. What is he thinking, in your opinion? He looks stunned. He might be thinking that he has gone crazy or that they are kidding him because the people he is talking to belong to a different age – they were the writers of the Lost Generation. WATCH the sequence with the sound on and tick all the words you hear. whiskey wine greetings salvation dying swimming sensible sensitive competition freedom jealous loyal WATCH the sequence again and decide if the following statements are true or false. Fitzgerald introduces Gil to his wife. F He introduces him to Hemingway. Gil enjoyed Hemingway’s books. T Hemingway thinks dying is horrible. F He thinks it can be noble and brave. Hemingway criticises Zelda’s work. T Zelda leaves with her husband. F She leaves with a toreador.

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Hemingway thinks his friend is making a terrible mistake. T Fitzgerald is annoyed by people talking about his private life. T CORRECT the mistakes in the sentences. They do a diamond whiskey sour. It was a good book because it was an honest book. There was some fine writing in it, but it was unfulfilled. Please, old sport, you make matters extremely difficult. Would you bring her back at a reasonable time? She’s wasting you because she’s really a competitor.

SAY who speaks these lines: Hemingway, Gil, Fitzgerald or Zelda. 1 This is one of the finest establishments in Paris. F 2 And that’s what war does to men. H 3 I might have known you’d hate it! Z 4 I don’t like the atmosphere here anymore. Z 5 She’ll drive you crazy, this woman. H 6 You need time to write, not all this fooling around. H 7 Actually, I don’t know the Fitzgeralds that well. G 8 You’re a writer, you make observations. H 9 Can we not discuss my personal life in public? F 10 And it’s a fine gift. It’s rare. H 7

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

TICK as appropriate. What type of shot mainly characterises the sequence? American shot medium shot close-up To what effect? It makes the scene more realistic. It creates suspense. It increases tension.

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS. If you could travel in time, what famous writers would you like to meet and talk to? What would you ask them? Student’s activity.

Anxious to Matter COMPREHENSION 1

MATCH the following words with the appropriate meaning. 1 B; 2 H; 3 D; 4 I; 5 G; 6 A; 7 J; 8 F; 9 E; 10 C.

2

LOOK at the pictures and describe the setting of the two parts of the sequence. Part 1: Europe, England, a military airfield which is situated on what used to be the surroundings of an estate. Part 2: America, the White House, probably the oval office.

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 7

LOOK at the pictures and use them to describe what is happening. F Rafe has just arrived at the airfield. B The British officer salutes him. C They walk around the airfield. D Another officer reports the number of planes which have landed. A Rafe thinks before answering the officer’s question. E Rafe looks at the blood on the cockpit. 3

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MATCH the two halves of the sentences. 1 E; 2 C; 3 D; 4 B; 5 A. ANSWER these questions about part 1. What is the Lieutenant’s surname? McCawley. What are the pilots repairing? Bullet holes. How many planes came back? Eleven. What is Rafe anxious to do? To matter. What did the pilot shut down before dying? The engine.

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1 A B

WATCH the second part and do the following activities. Complete the sentences. The president invites the men to remain seated. He is in a bad mood.

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FOCUS on the acting of the three main characters. What feelings do they manage to convey? Rafe shows self-confidence, his pride to get a plane and take part in the war. The British officer shows disillusionment and weariness. The president shows determination and concern.

YOUR TURN 9

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CONSIDER the use of extreme close-up in the sequence. What does each shot highlight? It highlights the tired face of the British officer and the shabbiness of his uniform due to fighting. It highlights the blood on the cockpit and the sacrifice of the pilot who got wounded during the Blitz but managed to take the plane back before dying. It highlights the detail of the wheelchair. It highlights the president’s emotions.

DISCUSS in pairs. What crucial moments of World War II does this sequence deal with? The importance of the Blitz and the decision of America to join the war.

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Pearl Harbor

Churchill and Stalin asked him for help in the war. D America has increased food and oil supplies to Europe. 2 List what Europe needs. • tanks • planes • bullets • bombs • men to fight 3 America has to send more: • ships • anti-aircraft weapons 4 Write down what America and its enemies are building. America: refrigerators Its enemies: bombs C

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Video Lab 37

Video Lab 38

The King’s Speech In This Grave Hour WARM-UP 1 1

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MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

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REFER to 16.1 and 16.5 and answer these questions about King George VI. When and why did King Edward VIII abdicate? King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 because he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American woman. Who was he succeeded by? He was succeeded by his brother, Prince Albert, who became King George VI. What was the king’s nickname? It was ‘Bertie’. What did the king suffer from? He had a terrible stammer. Who was Lionel Logue? He was an Australian speech therapist who used unorthodox, unexpected techniques. What did Logue aim at? He aimed at convincing the king that he could use his voice properly and at creating a relationship where the traditional deference owed to royalty was much diminished. Was the king able to overcome his stammer? Yes, he was. What did the king succeed in doing in the end? He succeeded in delivering a radio address that inspired his people and united them to face the battle ahead.

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COMPREHENSION 2

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WATCH the sequence with the sound off and say if the following sentences are true and or false. Correct the false ones. The scene takes place in a sitting room. F It takes place in a recording room where there is a great microphone in the centre of it. The king is wearing a tuxedo. F The king is wearing a white shirt, a black tie and a pair of braces. Logue is beside the microphone and behind the king. F Logue is both in front of the king and the microphone.

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George VI seems nervous. T The red lights blinks only once before the beginning of the broadcasting. F It blinks three times before the broadcasting begins. Logue does not accept to mark the time for the king. F Logue marks the time for the king as if he had a stick in his hand. The queen is relaxed while listening to her husband’s speech in the nearby room. F She is extremely nervous. Mr Woolf, the BBC’s chief technician, is next to the king during the speech. F He is in a room outside the recording one. When the king starts to speak, he turns out to be relaxed. F He is extremely nervous. CHOOSE the correct alternative while watching the sequence with the sound on. The king doesn’t know how / want to thank Logue. Logue aspires to be knighted / to be called an expert speech therapist. Logue suggests the king should think about anything / forget everything else. The king has lost / has never lost his impediment. During the speech Logue seems to be conducting an orchestra / listening motionless. Everyone is relieved / anxious in the nearby room. The king delivers his speech to those living in the UK / both at home and overseas. George VI remains hesitant and insecure / relaxed and sure. COMPLETE these sentences with the exact words and phrases. Logue, however this turns out, I don’t know how to thank you for what you’ve done. Forget everything else and just say it to me. Say it to me as a friend. In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas this message. SAY which gestures and/or facial expressions show the feelings both of the king and Logue. Anxiety: Anxiety characterises the king. Bertie

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MATCH each picture with the right kind of shot. A 2; B 4; C 1; D 3. RECOGNISE the use of the subjective gaze, in which the camera takes up the position of an object so that the viewer looks at the action from that point of view. Identify the object. The microphone. Which feelings does this use of the subjective gaze convey? It points out Logue’s confidence in the king.

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IDENTIFY a voice which comes from off camera and state what it highlights. The voice appears about halfway through the scene. It says ‘Twenty seconds’ and its aim is to increase the tension of the scene.

9

FOCUS on the soundtrack. When does the music appear? To what effect? The music appears at the beginning of the broadcasting. It increases the solemnity of the scene.

10 CONCENTRATE on the acting. 1 Does Colin Firth turn the king, as a character with a stutter, into a caricature? As a character with a stutter, the king could have been overplayed or made into a caricature, but Firth plays it with realism. He conveys a wealth of emotions – pride, shame, fear, desire – with an incredible economy of expression. He makes the plight of a very privileged man sympathetic. 2 How is the character of the speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush? Rush’s character is given great depth. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

11 DISCUSS the themes explored in this sequence. The themes explored, though not particularly challenging, still send an interesting message. The most important is the idea of being called on to do something out of one’s comfort zone. Bertie is uncomfortable with the vocal training, and even more uncomfortable with wearing the crown. He has to rise to the challenge, face the occasion, and be who he was called to be.

Video Lab 39

Dirty Dancing Dance With Me COMPREHENSION 1

MATCH the following words with the appropriate meaning. 1 C; 2 G; 3 F; 4 D; 5 A; 6 B; 7 H; 8 E.

2

LOOK at the picture and describe Johnny’s room. The room is rather bare; it has a wooden floor and plain curtains at the window. There is a mirror and there are some jackets hanging on the left, a basket in the left-hand corner, two carpets, two lamps, a table, a chest in the right-hand corner, three chairs, a ventilator and some empty bottles on the floor.

3

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and complete the sentences. Johnny is wearing a pair of black trousers. Baby is dressed in white. Johnny invites Baby to sit down. He throws his clothes onto the floor. There is a record player and there are some records against the wall on the right. There is a picture with a bullfighter on the wall.

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WATCH the sequence with the sound on and tick the words you hear. leave brother

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CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE

YOUR TURN

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

2

tries to concentrate more on the speech he is going to deliver by closing his eyes; he breathes in to calm himself down. He coughs to clear his throat and has false starts at first. Confidence: This feeling is linked to the speech therapist, Logue, who appears relaxed and confident in the king’s success. He speaks slowly and smiles at the king in order to reassure him.

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saved reason emotion nothing everything men pockets better worse saw

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE

DECIDE if the following sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. Baby is annoyed by the music. F She asks Johnny to leave it on. She apologises for the way her father behaved towards Johnny. T Johnny is not self-confident. T Johnny’s life is very easy. F He does not earn much money. Johnny admires the way Baby looks at the world. T Baby is not afraid of anything. F She is scared of everything. Baby is scared she might never feel like she is feeling again. T She refuses to dance with Johnny. F She asks him to dance with her.

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DECIDE who says these lines: Baby or Johnny. It’s really me it has to do with. B I could never do anything like that. J You don’t understand the way it is. J Last month, I’m eating juju beans to keep alive. J It doesn’t have to be that way. B Somebody’s lost, you find them. J LISTEN again to the last part of the dialogue and fill in the missing words. This month women are stuffing diamonds in my pocket. I’ve never known anybody like you. You look at the world and you think you can make it better. That’s really brave, like you said. That took a lot of guts to go to him. I’m scared of what I saw, I’m scared of what I did.

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MATCH each shot to its name. Then write a heading for each shot to summarise its meaning. Long shot View of Johnny’s room Low-angle shot Baby’s perspective Close-up Johnny admires and is attracted to Baby American shot Baby asks Johnny to dance with her

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS in pairs what impresses you about this sequence.

10 DISCUSS. What aspect of the cultural revolution of the Sixties does it deal with? The sexual revolution.

Video Lab 40

Across the Universe I’m Dropping Out COMPREHENSION 1

MATCH the words with the appropriate meaning. 1 F; 2 H; 3 D; 4 B; 5 G; 6 A; 7 E; 8 C.

2

LOOK at the still and describe the setting of the scene. The setting is a wealthy American dining room during Thanksgiving dinner.

3

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones. There are two girls sitting at a table. T All the women are wearing necklaces. F Only the older woman. The room is just lit by candles. F There is also a lamp. All the men are wearing ties. F Max is not.

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WATCH the first part of the sequence with the sound on and choose the correct alternative. Max’s father plays football / golf. Max finds his lessons heavy / interesting. Max finished / gave up two courses. Lucy thinks Max’s haircut looks masculine / feminine. Max’s father had to / didn’t have to work to go to college. Jude helps himself / doesn’t help himself to more stuffing. The university fees are cheap / expensive. Max is going / isn’t going to get his university degree. FIND the mistakes in these lines and then say who speaks them: the father, the mother or Max. I went to the closet under the stairs. F Those lectures can fry your brains. Max Is that fashionable? M Your haircut, or lack of one. M These kids are so spoiled. F He won’t have to pay them much longer. Max You gonna buy a broken-down station wagon. F Why isn’t the issue here who I am? Max LOOK at the picture and describe Max and Jude. What mood are they in? Max looks concerned with what he is saying; he is actually rebelling against his parents and their way of thinking. Jude seems a bit embarrassed. He might not be used to behaving towards his parents in that way. LOOK at Lucy and her mother listening to Max talking. How do you think they feel? Max’s mother looks amazed; she tries to control herself but she can’t believe her son dares defy his parents. Lucy looks as if she admires her brother’s courage.

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CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

RECOGNISE the prevailing shot in the sequence. Long shot Medium shot Close-up Extreme close-up

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS in pairs your reaction to this sequence. Is it consistent with what you have studied about the mood of the Sixties? Student’s activity.

10 DISCUSS. What theme does this sequence highlight in particular? The generation gap.

Video Lab 41

Cry Freedom Biko and Woods in a Township WARM-UP 1

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FIND OUT information about Steve Biko on the Internet. Make notes following these guidelines: when black university students began to react against the apartheid system; In the late 1960s and early 1970s when the main resistance groups were outlawed and Nelson Mandela was in prison. what Black Consciousness was; It was a movement that exalted black culture and soon became the cry of an entire generation. who one of its founders was; It was Steve Biko. who Steve Biko was; He was a medical student who proved to be a talented political analyst and a clever speaker in his short life. what happened to him. He was arrested by the police and killed in prison by policemen. His death was officially described as a suicide.

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There is a bottle of wine behind the flowers on the table. T The turkey is behind the brown-haired boy. T The man in the suit bangs his fists on the table. F The man in the cardigan does. The brown-haired boy keeps his arms folded on his breast. F The blond boy does.

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

5

COMPREHENSION 2 1 2

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and describe: the setting in time and place: The scene takes place in a township at night. the characters: Steve Biko and Donald Woods are walking along a lane of the township. Two friends of Biko’s are following them.

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CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 8

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CHOOSE the correct meaning of these words from A, B or C. 1 B; 2 C.

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WATCH the sequence with the sound on and check your work. Student’s activity.

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FOCUS on Biko’s words and answer the following questions. Where do black South African children grow up? They live in the streets and houses of townships. What kind of education do the blacks get? They get the education the white man gives them. What happens to the blacks when they start to work or shop in the cities? They understand they are different from the whites, after their realising the whites have houses, cars and streets that are different from theirs. What do they begin to feel? They begin to feel that there is something not

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BEFORE YOU LISTEN to the dialogue, guess the main topic of conversation dealt with by the two characters. It may be the hardships of living in a township. READ the first part of the script and fill in the gaps with the words given. 1 miracle 2 permits 3 get 4 Sundays 5 drunks 6 desperate 7 bloody 8 thought 9 years 10 scared

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quite right about themselves, about their humanity. What is the difference between a white child and a black one? The black child will die in the same place where he was born.

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ANALYSE the shots on the screen carefully, name them and state what each of them conveys. Medium shot of Biko and Woods while walking. Close-up on a poor black child who looks at the four men walking suspiciously. Long shot of the two main characters; it allows the viewer to grasp the poverty of the people living in that place. People have to stand around the fire for warmth; there is neither electricity nor running water. Long shot of the poor people sleeping on the ground in the open air next to a fire. Close-up of Biko and Woods. Their feelings are highlighted. Woods turns out to be astonished at what he sees and hears. Close-up of a poor old man who turns around to look at Biko and Woods. Pan of the township. STATE what aspects of the township Biko wants Woods to see. What does Woods understand for the first time? Biko wants Woods to see the utter poverty of the people living in the township and the segregation from the world of the whites they are obliged to accept.

10 CONCENTRATE on the soundtrack. What noises can be heard? Are they appropriate to the scene? What do they highlight? Voices, cries and the breaking of glass are heard in this sequence. They highlight that this black township is noisy and crowded.

YOUR TURN 11 DISCUSS in pairs. What is your reaction to the scene you have just seen? Did you find it shocking, compelling, unreal or other? Student’s activity.

Mandela and the Captain of the Springboks

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WARM-UP 1

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FIND OUT information about South Africa’s rugby team, the Springboks, and New Zealand’s, the All Blacks, on the Internet. Make notes following these guidelines: what the official colour/s of the Springboks’ uniform is/are; They are green and gold. where the name of the team comes from; ‘Springbok’ is the name of a wild South African animal. what colour the All Blacks have made famous; It is black. what this team should have been called; They should have been called ‘All Backs’, but it is said that the team name is the result of a typing mistake in an English newspaper. what the All Blacks perform before every match or event. They perform a war dance, the haka. Its words are shouted in a menacing way accompanied by the players’ arm movements and foot stamping. PUT these moments of the rugby match in the correct order. Use the Internet to help you do this exercise. The players grab from behind. A scrum. The player runs to score a try. Each team lifts a player up to catch the ball from the throw in. The referee gives the other team a penalty kick. The player scores a penalty goal.

4

DESCRIBE the two protagonists of the film. François Pienaar is the typical middle-class man; he is dressed conventionally and seems uneasy at times while speaking with the president. Mandela is wearing a grey suit; he is always relaxed and authoritative.

5

WATCH the sequence with the sound on and say who speaks these lines: Mandela or François. By example. I’ve always thought to lead by example, sir. François. How do we inspire ourselves to greatness, when nothing less will do? Mandela. I sometimes think it is by using the work of others. Mandela. They helped me to stand when all I wanted to do was to lie down. Mandela. And we listen to the words together. And it helps. François. At the time the future, our future, seemed very bleak. Mandela.

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6 1

2

3

COMPREHENSION 3 1

WATCH the sequence with the sound off and say: who the characters are; They are President Nelson Mandela and François Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks rugby team.

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where they are; They are in the president’s studio. the time of the day; Tea-time. what they are doing; They are having tea and talking. what they might be speaking about. They might be talking about upcoming rugby matches.

4 5

DECIDE if these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. Mandela has decided to use the rugby championship for moral purposes. F He has decided to use the rugby championship for both moral and political purposes. Mandela and François Pienaar are meant to embody two sides of the same coin necessary to achieve South African unity. T To test whether François is the man for the great task he has in mind, Mandela asks him about his philosophy of training. F Mandela asks him about his philosophy of leadership. To lead by example is François’s reply. T It was a modern South African poem which helped Mandela bear injustices, hard labour and torture while in prison on Robben Island. F It was a Victorian poem which helped Mandela bear his imprisonment.

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6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

Invictus

2

MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

Video Lab 42

François gets the players of his team to listen to the South African anthem while they are on the bus on the way to the stadium. F François gets his players to listen to a song they all know. 7 Mandela was invited to the 1992 Olympics in Madrid. F He was invited to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. 8 Everybody in the stadium greeted him with a song. T 9 At that time the future of South Africa seemed happy. F At that time the future of South Africa seemed bleak. 10 To hear that song in the voices of people coming from his own land made Mandela proud to be South African. F Mandela heard a song sung by people coming from all over the world. 6

CINEMATIC TECHNIQUE 7

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MATERIALI DELL’EBOOK

6IDEO ,ABS s 3OLUZIONI

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3 4

304

ANALYSE the shots on the screen carefully, name them and state what each of them conveys. American shot of Mandela who is sitting in an armchair; he has a cup of tea in his right hand. The importance of his character is highlighted. Medium shot of François. He is sitting in an armchair and seems interested in what the other character is telling him. His personality is conveyed. Close-up of Mandela. This shot conveys the gravity, the solemnity of this leader’s words. Mandela’s subjective gaze of François. We are made to feel on the same level with him.

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8

FOCUS on the two characters’ and the acting. Describe them using some of the adjectives in the box below. Nelson Mandela: superb, human, real François Pienaar: able, convincing

9

CONCENTRATE on the soundtrack. Are there any noises? Why? There are no noises, which increases the solemnity of the words spoken both by Mandela and by François.

YOUR TURN 10 WRITE a composition about the couplet which closes the Victorian poem by W.E. Henley quoted by Nelson Mandela: ‘I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul.’ Do you believe in these statements? Why or why not? Can you think of important historical, political or literary men who have followed these words? Student’s activity. 11 DISCUSS in pairs. What is this shot the emblem of? The shot stands for the unity brought about by Nelson Mandela in South Africa. After that match millions of South African of all races celebrated; that was the birth of the ‘Rainbow Nation’. It was President Mandela who brought hope to all South Africans, white and black.

5

Text Bank Soluzioni

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305

Specification 13 T88-T89

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (1929) 1

ANSWER these questions about Farewell to Arms.

1

Who are the protagonists of this novel? They are Lieutenant Henry Frederick and an English nurse, Catherine. What are the most important themes? They are war and love. What is Hemingway’s narrative technique? The narrative technique adopted is the first person. What language is employed? The language is simple, straightforward but the active participation of the reader is required since the meaning of the story is revealed through suggestions, omissions and frequent use of free direct speech. What does the new edition include? The appendix in the new edition of A Farewell to Arms, published in July 2012, contains fortyseven alternate endings to the novel found by Hemingway’s grandson Seán among the author’s manuscripts. These endings range from a short sentence or two to several paragraphs.

2 3

4

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night and they saw the gigantic retreat of the Italian army near the river Tagliamento. 4 What the Italian country and army were doing. They were moving and their retreat was gigantic (lines 7-8). 5 What Bonello, an ambulance driver under Henry’s command, had decided to do. He had decided to be taken prisoner (line 11). 6 What had happened to Aymo. He had been killed (lines 12-13). 7 Whether someone had bothered Henry and his men during their walk. No one had bothered them when they were in plain sight along the railway (lines 14-15). 8 What a soldier announced and what another shouted. A soldier announced the war was over and they were coming back home (line 29), while another shouted ‘Viva la pace’ (line 43). 9 What Piani said the soldiers were doing while they were marching. He said the soldiers were taking their rifles off and dropping them down while they were marching. 10 How a soldier called the brigade he belonged to. He used the name ‘Brigata di Pace’ (line 57).

ANALYSIS 2

FOCUS on the description in the first paragraph.

1

What are the main stylistic features? What does the style succeed in communicating? The main stylistic features of the 1st paragraph are: the use of short, simple sentences, active verbs, everyday language, absence of unnecessary adjectives and adverbs. This style communicates strong emotions and tension. The reader is given very little access to Henry’s feelings. There is, however, a sentence which conveys the protagonist’s fear and tension. Identify it. The sentence linked to Henry’s fear of war and death can be found in line 15, where death is said to be unreasonable.

Viva la pace TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms (1929) Book III, Chapter 30

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the text and find out:

1

Why the narrator considered that night very strange. That night was very strange because the narrator had expected death and shooting but nothing happened (lines 1-2). How Henry and his men succeeded in avoiding the German troops. They succeeded in avoiding the German troops by lying flat beyond the ditch (line 3). How long they walked and what they saw near the river Tagliamento. They walked all

2

3

306

2

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3

FOCUS on lines 17-57 where a straightforward conversation, isolated from the context, can be found.

1

How does the author achieve it? The author achieves it by the use of broken sentences and avoiding introductory verbs. What mood does this essential dialogue

2

4

TYPE B. Develop the following topic using not more than 12 lines: A Farewell to Arms is one of the most famous war novels ever written. Unlike many war stories, however, the novel does not glorify the experience of combat or offer us portraits of heroes as they are traditionally conceived. What is the novel’s attitude toward war? Student’s writing activity. Students should point out that Hemingway suggests that war is nothing more than the dark, murderous extension of a world that refuses to acknowledge, protect, or preserve true love; war is the inevitable outcome of a cruel, senseless world.

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4

FOCUS on Catherine. How is she depicted? She is domineering and overly sweet to Henry.

5

RECOGNISE the symbols of the passage Then explain what they stand for. The colour gray (line 21) is the symbol of death; the statue (line 61) stands for death and the rain (line 63) is another symbol of death.

6

IDENTIFY the theme of the extract and say how it is related to the novel’s largest thematic unit. The theme of the extract is death, which is related to the largest thematic unit of the novel because both love and war lead to losses for which there is no compensation. The rain that now falls on Henry as he leaves the hospital highlights the same destructive forces that render one powerless, speechless, and hopeless.

7

UNDERLINE examples of free direct speech. Whom is Henry speaking to? Examples of free direct speech can be found in lines 10-15. Henry is speaking to God.

Catherine’s Death Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms (1929) Book V, Chapter 41

COMPREHENSION 1

DIVIDE this passage into three parts. Then write a heading for each section.

1 2 3

1st section: lines 1- 22  Henry is terrified. 2nd section: lines 22-46  Catherine’s last words. 3rd section: lines 47-63  Catherine’s death.

2

READ the text and say:

1

How Henry feels; He feels a sense of loss (lines 2, 9). what Catherine’s last words are; ‘Don’t worry... trick’ (line 46). what Henry does to overcome his pain; He got the nurses out of the room, shut the door and turned off the light (line 61). how Catherine’s death is reported. ‘It seems... she died’ (lines 52-54).

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4

ANALYSIS 3

CONCENTRATE on Henry.

1

What does his sense of loss and impotence suggest about his character?

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YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS. The final words of A Farewell to Arms were rewritten ‘39 times before I was satisfied’, the author himself stated. How is the actual ending related to the alternate ones? The actual ending is perhaps darker and more passionless after an epic tale of war and love, with the protagonist leaving a hospital in the rain. It was this melancholy conclusion which helped turn the book into a bestseller and establish Hemingway’s reputation as one of the great American writers.

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Soluzioni

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA

Henry’s profound sense of loss and impotence – never welcomed among Hemingway’s male characters – suggests that one of the reasons behind these somewhat stereotypical representations might be a belief that women possess an inherent ‘unmanly’ helplessness. How does he try to shield himself from the pain for Catherine’s death? Does he succeed in doing it? He tries to shield himself from the pain following Catherine’s death by staying next to her corpse alone.

TEXT BANK

mirror? Their awareness that the only chance of escaping the horror of war was their strength, lack of sentimentalism and their ability to react.

T90

A destroyed talent Ernest Hemingway The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1938)

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS in pairs. The contact with nature and the mixing with simple people whose main life aim is survival may be a stimulus for contemporary man to reflect upon the real values of his existence. Do you agree with this statement? Students’ speaking activity.

j k

COMPREHENSION 2

READ lines 1- 65 and note down: a

b

c d

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TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

f

g

h

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308

what kind of landscape was described; It was evening; a wild landscape was described with lots of birds (vultures) perched in a tree next to the narrator. what the servant asked the narrator; The narrator’s servant asked him if he needed something. who had gone to kill a piece of meat; The narrator’s woman. how the narrator defined himself and why; He defined himself as a failure: he was accustomed to telling lies (lines 15-16) since he did not have any truth to tell (line 17). why he despised his past life; He despised himself because he had never been able to write stories about those very rich people he knew very well since he himself mixed with that world. what Africa meant for him; Africa was the country where he had been very happy and now he had come back there to start a new life (lines 30-31). why he had decided to go on that safari; He had thought that he could get back into the training of writing (line 33). how he described his wife Helen; She loved everything exciting, everything involving a change of scene. She was very clever at shooting but she is said to be ‘a rich bitch’, a ‘caretaker’ and a ‘destroyer of talent’ (lines 43-44). how he had destroyed his talent; The narrator was inclined to blame his wife

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Helen, but he knew that he himself had ‘destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.’ And it ‘was strange, too, wasn’t it,’ he went on in his continuing self-excoriation, ‘that when he fell in love with another woman, that woman should always have more money than the last one?’ (lines 44-54). what he had discovered; One’s talent lies on how you make your living (lines 61-62). why he would never write about that truth. Because he was near dying.

3

READ the second section (lines 66-135) and answer the following questions:

1

What sort of vision can be found just before the end? A hallucinatory vision comes just before the end. What did the narrator dream while dying? He dreamed that the rescue plane had come for him, but could carry only one passenger (lines 67-77). Where was he taken up during his visionary flight? Harry was taken up to see the square top of Kilimanjaro (lines 117-118). What did the hyena stop doing the following morning? It stopped whimpering (line 119). What did Helen see in the tent and what did she realise? Helen could see her husband’s bulk under the mosquito bar, his leg hanging down the cot with all the dressings down (lines 126-128). She realised Harry was dead (line 135). How did the woman react in the end? She was not able to hear the hyena for the beating of her heart (lines 134-135).

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ANALYSIS 4

RECOGNISE the features of Hemingway’s style as regards narrative technique, point of view, and language. The style used is essential, characterised by a simple syntax, colloquial, concise dialogue and short descriptions of landscapes. A third-person narrator is employed; he openly turns to the reader to express general comments about life (lines 17-19). The point of view adopted is Harry’s from line 1 to line 118 and Helen’s in the last part of the text.

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PICK OUT references to the setting of the story. What atmosphere does it convey? The setting is wild and mysterious; it is functional to Harry’s bitter meditation on his life. FOCUS on the figure of the writer Harry. Identify the positive and negative aspects of his personality. He is mainly characterised by negative features: he is a failure both as a man and as a writer because of his habits of telling lies, of drinking, of living in comforts thanks to his rich wives, of betrayals of himself. He has become aware of having destroyed his talent of a writer and he has organised that safari to redeem himself but it is too late. FIND the words symbolising death and point out the effect they achieve. Vultures and hyenas, the animals of this story, are symbol of death; the visionary flight to the top of Kilimanjaro can be seen as a symbolic progression towards death. SUM up the autobiographical elements present in this story and say what the message of the text is. In Hemingway’s own case, his second wife, was a wealthy woman, and it was through her generosity that he was able to buy a house at Key West, go on safari in Africa, and otherwise indulge his enthusiasm for hunting, and fishing. The message of the text is the contact with nature and the mixing with simple people whose main life aim is survival considered as a stimulus for contemporary man to reflect upon the real values of his existence.

T91

Glory of Women Siegfried Sassoon Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918)

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the poem and answer the following questions.

1

Who do ‘you’ and ‘us’ (line 1) refer to? ‘you’ refers to women and ‘us’ refers to the soldiers. What is women’s attitude towards men at war? They idealise their men and consider them as Romantic heroes. What do they do at home in the meantime? They make shells (the poet refers to the women who replaced men in industry during the war) or they knit socks. Is the poem about ‘real’ war or ‘reported’ war? About reported war.

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ANALYSIS 2

ANALYSE the rhyme scheme of the poem. Is it regular? What type of poem is it? ABAB CDCD EFG EFG. Yes, it is. It is a Petrarchan sonnet.

3

POINT OUT the technical device Sassoon uses to draw the reader’s attention away from the rhyme scheme. Enjambment (lines 3-4; 9-10; 13-14).

4

FOCUS ON the use of imagery. List the images of the poem under the following headings: • • •

5

CONSIDER some aspects of the reality of war mentioned in the poem. Write down what the following phrases suggest:

1

home on leave: soldiers were sent back home because of wounds or shell-shock.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 10 TYPE B. Write not more than twelve lines about Hemingway’s fiction as a celebration Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Domestic life: lines 12-13 Honour and glory: lines 1, 3, 7, 8 Horror: lines 2, 6, 9-11, 14

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Soluzioni

6

of a specific type of manhood. What kind of man does The Snows of Kilimanjaro celebrate, and how does Hemingway achieve this effect? Students’ writing activity.

TEXT BANK

5

The meditation of a dying man rather than the description of action is given in this story. IDENTIFY the parts of this story which present a cinematic quality. Explain how this quality is achieved. A panoramic view is employed in lines 93-118 when Harry’s visionary flight is described, and a zooming technique can be found in the last part (lines 119-129) when the woman discovers her husband’s death. This quality is achieved through visual description.

wounded in a mentionable place: sometimes soldiers were maimed. tales of dirt: they fought in the mud of the trenches or the fields. hell’s last horror: the battlefield is compared here to hell. trampling the terrible corpses: after the attack, the panic-struck soldiers trampled the corpses of their companions during the retreat.

COMPREHENSION

6

EXPLAIN how Sassoon succeeds in universalizing the experience of war. By using the image of English and German mothers who are united in the tragic experience of war.

4 5 6

7

DEFINE the tone of the poem. Choose from among the adjectives provided and justify your choice with examples from the text. angry - sober - polemical - ironical - rough sympathetic It is ironical (lines 5-6; 12-14).

7

2 3 4 5

2

READ the poem and answer these questions.

1 2

What time of the day is it? It is dawn. What is the speaker doing? He is reaching out of the parapet for a poppy to put round his ear. What happens to him suddenly? A rat leaps over his hand. What is it going to do? To cross the battlefield. What is the place setting? A trench in France. What does the speaker wonder? He wonders what the rat sees in the men’s eyes during the attack and if it hears their hearts beating with terror. Where is the flower at the end? It is safe, round the speaker’s ear.

3

ANALYSIS 3

WRITE DOWN the words used to describe the rat. What connotation do they give to the animal? The words are: ‘a live thing’ (line 3); ‘queer’, ‘sardonic’ (line 4); ‘Droll’ (line 7); ‘cosmopolitan sympathies’ (line 8); ‘you inwardly grin’ (line 13). The rat represents life and the freedom to go around without fear; it is a moment of fun in the dreary life of the soldier.

4

DESCRIBE the soldiers. How does their condition contrast with that of the rat? Lines 14-17 and line 22 focus on the description of the soldiers who used to be strong and proud athletes but are now slaves to death and fear. They are not free and cannot escape their terrible situation. While the rat leaps, they are ‘sprawled’, trying to find shelter in the ‘bowels’ of earth.

5

FIND the images the poet uses to convey the horror of warfare. He mainly uses personification (lines 20-21).

6

EXPLAIN what the poppy symbolises. It is a symbol of life, of a simple, gentle action a soldier does in the middle of horror. It is also the symbol of precariousness (line 24), like the blood which runs in the soldiers’ veins.

7

DEFINE the tone of the poem. It is ironical and unromantic. Lines 7-12 are examples of irony.

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS. the way in which the poem reflects the contrast between the propaganda and the social realities connected with war. Class discussion. Students should reflect on the role of propaganda during the war and the active part played by women in British economy.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

T92

Break of Day in the Trenches Isaac Rosenberg Collected Poems (1937)

WARM-UP 1

310

DISCUSS with the rest of the class in what way World War I was different from the previous wars. Class discussion. Students should draw on their knowledge of history and describe the conditions of life in the trenches, the new weapons used and the gap between the soldiers and the civilians who remained at home and continued to conceive of the war as a romantic adventure.

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feeling of loneliness in a foreign country? Class discussion.

The opening of the poem is unromantic in its juxtaposition of a romantic image (the break of day) with the horror of the battlefield.

COMPREHENSION

T93

READ the poem and match each caption with the corresponding stanza:

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

A

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1

the function and development of his concept of symbol; Yeats’s symbols have an effective role in shaping both the individual and the collective consciousness, they are not only devices he uses to present his themes, but they are also themes in themselves. The symbol has a ‘visionary’ dimension, it offers ‘revelation’. In his maturity Yeats changed from the concept of ‘symbol’ to that of ‘image’. what the ‘gyre’ is; The gyre is a spiral or whirling cone and is based on the idea that history occurs in cycles. Yeats described the mind’s evolution as a process of circling toward the wide end of an idealistic cone, or gyre, until ‘the centre cannot hold’. At that point a revelation takes place, and the mind shifts to a new centre, the narrow end of a cone of opposing idealism, inverted and superimposed on the first, with its narrow end at the centre of the wide end of the first. the characteristics of Yeats’s stanzas; The ‘complete coincidence between period and stanza’ is a characteristic feature, which is made possible by frequent enjambment. recurring images and words in his poetry. The ‘falcon’, which may stand for a violent and cruel rapacity which has broken free from control, or the grace and beauty of the free spirit; the ‘swan’, which usually symbolises the soul.

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ANALYSIS 4

POINT OUT the sound devices which emphasise the musicality of the poem. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF. The alternating rhyming words create musicality. The use of punctuation. Lines 1, 3, 5, 7, 11 end with a comma; lines 2, 6, 10 end with colon or semi-colon. Each quatrain ends with a full stop and is therefore self-contained. Repetitions: Lines 1, 9; 5; 5-6; 10, 12. They underline the poet’s wish to leave and look for peace. Alliteration: /c/ (line 2); /h/ (line 3); /g/ (line 7); /l/ (line 10); /h/ (line 12). The sounds create a benign sense of relief in the poet’s mind and an atmosphere of enchantment. Inversion: lines 2-3. It points out the poet’s objects of desire. Onomatopoeia: ‘bee-loud glade’ (line 4); ‘dropping’ (lines 5-6). The landscape is visualised through the reproduction of the gentle sound of the bees and the water of the lake.

5

FOCUS on the use of tenses. Circle the verbs and point out the tense shift and its functions. Lines 1, 5-6, 9-12. The tenses shift from volition future to simple present tense. The future stands for the dream, the present stands for reality. The two states coexist in the poet’s heart.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree William Butler Yeats The Rose (1893)

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS Have you ever felt homesick? What images and memories of your country do you think might help you overcome the

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311

Soluzioni

EXPLAIN in your own words:

TEXT BANK

1

the poet’s dream of physical and psychological peace; 2 B the coexistence of dream and reality; 3 C the poet’s determination to fulfill his dream; 1 FILL in the blanks with the details about the poet’s dream: While the poet is in town, he expresses his intention to go to Innisfree to build a cabin and have a hive. He dreams of leading a solitary life in contact with nature, in which he hopes to find peace.

6

COMPLETE the following table with words referring to the senses. How is the world of nature contrasted with the life in town?

Sight a glimmer and a purple glow (line 7); pavements grey (line 11)

Hearing Smell bee-loud glade (line 4); the cricket sings (line 6); linnet’s wings (line 8); water lapping with low sounds (line 10); I hear (line 12)

Taste honey-bee (line 3)

Touch of clay and wattles made (line 2); dropping (line 5); lapping (line 10)

The town is sad and grey whereas nature is characterised by sweet, gentle sounds and warm colours.

7

8

UNDERLINE examples of metaphors and comment on their meaning. Metaphor: lines 5, 6. Peace is connected with the dropping of the water and the mist (veil) of the morning. Synaestesia: the poet can see, hear and feel the island inside himself. DEFINE the tone and the language of the poem. The language is sensory, physical, evocative. The tone is dreamy, nostalgic, escapist.

YOUR TURN 9

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

312

DISCUSS. The poem belongs to Yeats’s early poetic production; in what sense can it be regarded as ‘Romantic’? What values connected with the Irish cultural renaissance does it promote? The poem can be regarded as ‘Romantic’ for its dreamy, escapist quality. In fact, it expresses the desire to escape from the boredom and sadness of everyday city life into a world of freedom and close contact with nature. The language of the senses together with poet’s presence and the working of his imagination play a fundamental role in the poem. The mood and theme of the poem show the influence of Wordsworth and Thoreau. The poem reassesses the relationship between the poet and the Irish landscape and the emotions it arises. It expresses nostalgia for a simple, rural life, probably belonging to childhood memories.

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T94

The Second Coming William Butler Yeats Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS Are you afraid of the future? If so, are your fears more concerned with private or public life? Class discussion.

COMPREHENSION 2

READ the first stanza and say what is happening to the world. What characterises the best people? What about the worst? The world is characterised by anarchy and blood. The picture introduced in this first stanza is one of violence and change. The last two lines of the first stanza are simply a commentary on the times. Yeats says ‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity’. This also suggests a dissociation between the best, which Yeats identifies as head people, the intellectuals, and the worst, whom Yeats associates with the mob who are those who react with passionate intensity, not with careful intellectual study and expression.

3

READ the second stanza and explain: a

what the poet is sure of; He is sure that there will be soon a second coming, that is, a new cycle in history according to his theory of the gyre.

ANALYSIS 4

5

UNDERLINE examples of repetition; what effect do they create? Words and phrases, such as ‘surely’ and ‘is at hand’ in lines 9 and 10, ‘turning’ in line 1, ‘is loosed’ in lines 4 and 5, and the very title, ‘Second Coming’ in lines 10 and 11, are repeated, creating an onomatopoeic effect suggesting the repetitive movement of the gyre, a spiral or repeated circling motion, which is a symbol and a concept that Yeats used repeatedly in his poetry. FOCUS ON the metaphor of the falcon. What does it stand for? The poem starts with the image of a falcon wheeling about in the sky, far away from the falconer who released it. This metaphor stands for the young people who have given up the standards of their parents and grandparents for the new art, the new literature, the new music, and the other novelties of Yeats’ time. There is another interpretation of the falcon-falconer image, and that is the image of the head or intellect as the falcon and the rest of the body and the body sensations and feelings (heart) as the falconer.

6

ANALYSE the image of the beast. How is it described physically? What does it remind you of? What does it symbolise? The ‘rough beast’ is ‘sphinx-like’: physically it has ‘lion body and the head of a man,’ its eyes are ‘pitiless as the sun’ and it is ‘moving its slow thighs’ (lines 14-16). It reminds of the sphinx and of a monster because it is foreign, unfamiliar and not so tame. It symbolises a godlike creature of the desert whose era will replace the Christian era. It is the symbol of the new world order.

7

EXPLAIN what role the poet acquires in the text. Quote the relevant lines.

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8

STATE the theme of the poem. In what sense is Yeats challenging the images of conventional Christianity? The poem is an apocalyptic vision of the future of mankind. A second theme of the poem is that of paganism as opposed to Christ. Yeats had come to view Christianity as weak and its innocence as idealistic and impractical in the real world (line 6), in which the Spiritus Mundi can promise satisfaction and earthly fulfillment. The idea of the power of the new order is amplified by the size of the Sphinx. This suggests the power of the process which integrates the human intellect with the animal power of the bodily intelligence of the beast. This idea challenges the conventional Christian idea that Christ overcomes the Beast of Revelation.

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS. What historical events do you think Yeats had in mind when he wrote this poem? Do these lines sound current in today’s society? Support your answer with examples. Class discussion. Suggestion: Many critics remark that this poem is deeply concerned with the drama of modern war, including World War I as well as the Russian Revolution and the Black-and-Tan War in Ireland. Yeats himself described his poem as a reaction to ‘the growing murderousness of the world’ to which these wars were alerting him; this concern with war marks ‘The Second Coming’ as a modernist work. One of Yeats’ early manuscripts of ‘The Second Coming’ actually makes direct reference to the Germans

313

Soluzioni

c

At the beginning of the second stanza Yeats calls for a revelation, saying ‘Surely some revelation is at hand’ (line 9). And Yeats himself becomes the revelator. Yeats is a revelator or prophet because he gives us a powerful image for The Second Coming. He presents this brilliant visionary image then he says: ‘The darkness drops again’ (line 18). His vision ends and he starts thinking again. He concludes that ‘twenty centuries of stony sleep/ Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle’ (lines 19-20). This poem is a riddle. Yeats ends by asking a question. Throughout the poem there are hints as to what the answer to the riddle is. But Yeats doesn’t come right out and give the answer to it.

what powerful image Yeats uses to describe the event; This is the image of a ‘rough beast’ (line 21) which has the headintellect of a man and the fierce emotions and body intelligence of a beast. what line 20 refers to. This is a puzzling line, because the rocking cradle suggests the manger where Jesus was laid.

TEXT BANK

b

only / Of empty men’ (lines 46-47). They seem to appeal to a God who may be infinitely distant, but who is independent of their minds and therefore may have power to save them.

in Russia. And, years after the poem was written and published, Yeats said in a letter that ‘The Second Coming’ predicted ‘what is happening in Europe,’ that is, World War II.

ANALYSIS

T95

This is the dead land

3

FOCUS on the hollow men.

1

Identify the two similes used in the first section to present them and state their function. Their voices are compared to the sound of the wind over dry grass (line 6) or the rats’ feet over broken glass (line 7); these two images point out the emptiness and vacuity of their being straw dummies and detached from any reality. State what the cactus used to describe the place where they live is the symbol of. The cactus is the symbol of aridity and sterility. The hollow men live in an empty land where there are no objects, tones, colours, forms to distract their soul from seeing the nothingness all around them. They are sightless but they desire the eyes in the next life. What do the eyes represent? A possible salvation linked to the awareness of their negative condition.

Thomas Stearns Eliot The Hollow Men (1925)

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the first section and find out:

1

where the poem takes place; The poem takes place in a realm of disembodied men and forces (lines 1-4). who the speakers are; They are the hollow, stuffed men (line 1-2). what their voices are like; Their voices are whispers, ‘quiet and meaningless’ (lines 4-5). what their shape is; Their shape is characterised by the vagueness and impalpability of ‘Shape without form, shade without colour, / Paralysed force, gesture without motion’ (lines 10-11). What the colour linked to them is; They have been deprived of any colour. How they are remembered. They are remembered as the hollow men, as empty walking corpses (lines 13-16).

2 3 4

5 6

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

2

FOCUS on the third and fourth sections and answer these questions.

1

Where do the hollow men live? They are detached from nature, and live in a place which is devoid of any spiritual presence, a ‘dead land,’ a ‘cactus land,’ a ‘valley of dying stars,’ (lines 19-20, 34) What gathers this place to its inhabitants? Its being hollow like the men themselves. What are the stone images? They are the gods of the hollow men. Are there any eyes in this valley of death (lines 32-35)? There are no eyes in the hollow valley, and the empty men are deprived of God. Who do the sightless eyes belong to? They belong to the hollow men. May they see again? What does this imply? The sightless eyes of the hollow men may see again, and confront the divine eyes which are ‘The hope

2 3 4

5 6

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2

3

4

CONSIDER the musical devices.

1

Do these lines rely on rhymes? No, they do not. Look for examples of alliteration and repetition. What effect do they create? There are several examples of alliteration (we / whisper, line 4; shape / shade, line 10; …) and repetition. The technique of constant repetition and negation (‘Shape without form, shade without colour,’ (line 10); ‘The eyes are not here / There are no eyes here’ (lines 32-33) is widely used and it creates anguish and emptiness.

2

5

DEFINE the theme developed in these lines. The emptiness of the modern world, spiritual death, paralysis, the search for God, the inability to pray, the blurred boundaries between the world of the living and the dead.

YOUR TURN 6

DISCUSS. Eliot defines Nativity as a ‘hard and bitter agony’. What does this imply about his attitude to Christianity? Student’s activity.

Mother and son David Herbert Lawrence Sons and Lovers (1913) Chapter VIII

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the extract and answer the following questions:

Where did the scene take place? It probably took place in the Morels’ kitchen in front of the pantry. 2 What was Paul’s mother’s custom on Friday night? Why? To bring her son some trifle because Friday night was devoted to luxury by the colliers. 3 Why did she think it was unreasonable for Paul to go to Selby with Miriam on Friday night? Because it meant walking with difficulty in the mud for miles and coming back home late. 4 What were Mrs Morel’s reactions to her son’s exclamation ‘I do like her (Miriam)’ in line 20? She used biting tones to exclaim that her son was interested in nothing and nobody but Miriam (lines 21-23). 5 What did Paul like doing when he was with the girl? He liked talking about books and painting when he was with the girl. 6 Could Paul ever try to speak with his mother about paintings and books? No, he could not, since his mother was not interested in those topics. 7 What did Paul mean by saying ‘you’re old, mother, and we’re young’ (line 45)? He referred to the generation gap, to the difference of interests existing between the young and the old. 8 What did he immediately realise? He immediately realised he had hurt his mother by telling her she was old. 9 What did Paul represent for his mother? What did his mother really mean for him? He knew how important his love was to her, he was ‘life to her’ (line 51). His mother was vital to him. 10 Why did Mrs Morel dislike Miriam? Would she really let another woman be with Paul? Because she could not bear her leaving no room next to her son. She would not probably let another woman be with Paul because of the overdependent relationship she had with her son.

ANALYSIS 2

FOCUS on Paul.

1

At the beginning of the dialogue with his mother he is rather angry; substantiate this impression by looking for words and phrases linked to his anger and uneasiness. At first he is too angry to go and find some trifle prepared for him by his mother in the pantry (lines 2-3); then he clearly expresses his interest in Miriam because he is able to talk about the issues he likes with this girl (lines 9, 16-17, 27, 29). Then his attitude changes, when he understands he has offended his mother. Can you identify the turning point? What expressions highlight this change of behaviour? He has offended her saying she is old (line 35). As he knows how important his love is to her, he assures that he does not love Miriam (line 56) because he has become more and more aware that his mother is the only supreme thing to him (line 51). The second part of the extract is sexually charged, full of intimate physical contact between Paul and his mother. Identify the words and phrases which signal this passionate relationship. His interaction with his mother is sexually charged: in lines 66 he kisses her throat, then she hugs him, kissing him (lines 68-69).

1

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2

3

3

CONCENTRATE on Mrs Morel.

1

What sort of woman is she? She is a repressed woman, afraid of novelty. What effect does she hope to get declaring ‘I’ve never had a husband - not really’ (line 65)? Mrs Morel‘s words ‘I’ve never had a husband - not really’ are almost as a plea for an authentic romance in her life. How does she win the argument with her son? She wins the argument with Paul because her son understands how weak and unhappy she is. What do the last lines of the text tell you about the relationship between Mrs and Mr

2

3

4

315

Soluzioni

T96

11 How did Paul console his mother? He stated he did not love Miriam hiding his eyes on his mother’s shoulder (line 59-60). 12 Who arrived at the end? Mr Morel. 13 What were Mrs Morel’s feelings for her husband? Why? She hated him because of his being a drunkard (line 81).

TEXT BANK

Specification 14

Morel? She hates her husband because of his being a drunkard; this has contributed to create the abnormal passionate relationship between mother and son. 4

DECIDE what the atmosphere of the extract is characterised by. Tension characterises the first part of the text made up by short affirmative sentences; it is relieved at the end when the two characters seem to declare their love to each other.

5

SUMMARISE the main theme of the novel contained in the passage. The theme of the Oedipus complex is hinted at in this text.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 6

TYPE B. Explain in not more than eight to ten lines which aspects of this text from Sons and Lovers (setting, characterisation and theme) are modern and which ones are linked to the 19th century. Student’s writing activity. Students should point out the modern psychological analysis of characters and the exploitation of the Oedipus complex. While the typical 19th century features are the setting, which points out the contrast between nature and the industrial town, and the use of a third-person narrator.

YOUR TURN TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

7

DISCUSS. What is your reaction to the passage? What is your relationship with your mother? Have you ever read anything about a classic Oedipal situation? Exchange your opinions with your classmates. Class discussion.

The setting in time and place; The scene takes place at Miriam’s farm at twilight (Lines 1, 15-19). 2 what Paul is doing; He is picking some cherries (lines 3-4, 8-11). 3 who appears under the tree; Miriam. 4 what the boy throws at her; He throws some cherries at her. 5 what she hangs over her ears; She hangs some cherries over her ears (lines 32-33). 6 what the girl watches from the fence; She watches the gold clouds at a distance and the sky sinking from rose to crimson (lines 40-41). 7 what happens to Paul while scrambling down from the tree; He tears his shirt. 8 where they decide to have a walk; They decide to have a walk in the darkness of the wood (lines 53-60). 9 what Miriam decides to do and how she feels; She decides to relinquish herself to Paul in a ‘sacrifice in which she felt something of horror.’ (lines 65-68). 10 what Paul realises; He realises that Miriam’s soul has been apart in a sort of horror while he has taken her in his arms; therefore there has not been a communion of their souls. 11 what happens while they are lying on the ground; It starts to rain. 12 what death is for Paul and how Miriam reacts to his words. Death is like sleeping in wonder for Paul and these words, full of a sort of mysticism, make Miriam afraid. 1

ANALYSIS 2

DISCUSS. Who is the narrator of this passage? Whose point/s of view is/are adopted? A third-person narrator. Paul’s (for example in lines 29-32) and Miriam’s points of view (for example in lines 62-66 73-74, 76-78) are adopted throughout the text.

3

FOCUS on the first part of the extract which is characterised by a close interplay of human and natural elements.

T97

Miriam’s sacrifice David Herbert Lawrence Sons and Lovers (1913) Chapter XI

COMPREHENSION 1

316

READ the passage and note down:

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1

Fill in the following table with Paul’s and Miriam’s emotional response to the elements of nature. Images of nature

3

4

5

Now describe their feelings. Paul is attracted more by Miriam than by nature; he gives great importance to instinct. Miriam is attracted by Paul when she is overwhelmed by the beauty of nature, but being a typical Victorian woman, she lives sexuality as a sacrifice and she is afraid of the sexual act. Nature is described in terms of colours; decide which colours prevail and specify their connotation. The prevailing colours are: • red (the red of the cherries and of the sky at twilight) which is the symbol of love; • the gold of the sky flaming to scarlet, then the scarlet sinking to rose, and rose to crimson representing the increase of passion coming out of the sky; • the darkness of the wood symbolising the prevalence of instinct over reason. CONCENTRATE on the language of sense impressions employed throughout the text. Which senses are involved? Which ones are not? Sight and touch are the prevailing senses. Smell is the least involved. DISCUSS Where do you think the climax of the passage is? What kind of experience do Paul and Miriam seem to have undergone? How do they live it? The climax of the passage can be found in lines 64-70, when the two characters live a sort of sexual experience. The words ‘relinquish,’ ‘sacrifice’ (line 62) reflect both what the prudish Paul and Miriam would say and what was permissible in literature at Lawrence’s repressive time.

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the sunset (line 36); the darkness of the wood; the rain (line 66); the quietness of the night (line 97). The cherries and the sunset (lines 24, 29-30, 31-33); the darkness of the wood; the hush of the night (line 97).

6

IDENTIFY the bondage existing between Paul and Miriam. Is she a modern or a Victorian woman? Miriam is the typical Victorian woman. She feels enslaved to Paul, but she is upset that he has so much power over her. This bondage is one of Lawrence’s main concerns: he seems to wonder how a woman can be free and still enjoy the romantic and sexual company of a man.

YOUR TURN 7

DISCUSS in pairs. Do you find Lawrence’s concept of life, shaped by instinct rather than by intellect, convincing? Student’s speaking activity.

8

LOOK for contemporary literary works and songs based on the same idea of love that is dealt with in this text. Exchange your opinions with the rest of the class. Class discussion. Students should quote some songs by Beatles, U2 (‘One’), …

T98

Clifford and Constance David Herbert Lawrence Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) Chapter I

COMPREHENSION 1

DIVIDE the whole passage into five sections according to the following headings.

1

The two main characters are presented: lines 1-15

317

Soluzioni

2

The crop of cherries (lines 1, 10, 11-12);

TEXT BANK

Paul’s feelings Happiness because of his being one with nature; anxiety; great importance given to instinct and passion; at first sadness, then his being aware of the importance of instinct (lines 75-78) and of the sexual act itself. The love for nature. Miriam’s feelings Eagerness; fear, horror of the sexual act; fear of the mystic Paul (line 99.)

2 3 4 5

Clifford at home after the war: lines 16-38 Constance’s family: lines 39-49 Constance and her sister: lines 50-69 The new 20th-century woman: lines 70-98

2

READ the first section and complete the following sentences.

1 2 3

Constance Chatterley lived during a tragic age. The war had caused all her troubles. She had married Clifford Chatterley when he was home for a month on leave. They had had only a month’s honeymoon. Then her husband was sent to fight to the Flanders. He came back after six months with the lower part of his body crippled forever.

4

4 5 6

3

READ the second section and find out:

1

when Constance and Clifford came back home; They came back home in 1920, after Sir Clifford had been cured by doctors for two years. what their family house was called; It was called Wragby Hall. who lived with the married couple; They lived alone since Clifford’s elder brother was dead in the war and his sister had left after their father’s death. whether Clifford could have any children; He knew he could never have any children. how Sir Clifford moved around his house and garden; He moved around his house and garden in a wheeled chair. how he felt; He was strange, bright and cheerful. what he used to wear; He used to wear expensive suits and neckties from Bond Street. what he was proud of. He was proud of being alive after the great shock of the war.

2 3

4 5

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

6 7 8

4

FOCUS on the 3rd and 4th sections and make notes about:

1

Constance’s father, mother and sister; Constance’ s father was a well-known man, Sir Malcom Reid; her mother was one of the cultivated Fabians; her sister’s name was Hilda. the two girls’ upbringing; Their upbringing was unconventional. the countries the two girls had visited; They had visited lots of countries, like Rome, Florence

2 3

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5 6

7

and Paris where they appreciated arts, Hague and Berlin where they had been taken to great Socialist conventions, and Dresden, where they had studied music. the topics of their discussions with men; They lived freely among the students and they discussed about philosophical, sociological and artistic matters with them. their most important gift; Their most important gift was their freedom. what they were most interested in; They were interested in the impassioned interchange of talk. how they spent their time when they were together with young men. They used to talk passionately, sing and camp under trees.

5

READ the text to the end and decide whether the following statements are true or false. Correct any false ones.

1

Hilda and Constance gave great importance to love-making and connexion. False. The arguments and the discussions were the great things to them. The girl’s dignity and meaning in life consisted in finding a husband and in devoting herself to him completely. False. The girl’s dignity and meaning in life consisted in reaching an absolute, perfect, pure freedom. A woman could yield her man what he wanted without giving him her inner, free self. True. She could use the sex thing to have power over him. True.

2

3 4

ANALYSIS 6

FOCUS on the narrative technique.

1

Who is the narrator in this passage? A third-person narrator. From whose point of view is the story told? The narrator’s One of the character’s An external observer’s Who does the pronoun ‘we’ (line 4) stand for? It stands for the narrator’s contemporary readers who experience his same problems. Can you detect the narrator’s presence in the passage? Yes, in the first paragraph (lines 1-15), the narrator expresses general considerations about the age in which he lives and the condition of the new woman.

2

3

4

7

CONSIDER lines 6-49 where two of the main characters of the whole novel, Constance and Clifford, are introduced. Decide whether they are presented through: their feelings a precise physical description items of physical description combined with their main feelings what they say what they do REFER to the same lines and complete the following table concerning Sir Clifford Chatterley.

Look His movements His interests His attitude to life

29 (line 11) ‘Ruddy, healthy-looking’ (line 30), ‘pale blue, challenging eyes’ (lines 30-31) ‘Crippled from hips down’ (line 15), ‘broad shoulders’ (line 31), ‘very strong hands’ (line 31) ‘Watchful, the slight … of a cripple’ (line 33) ‘He could wheel … chair’ (lines 24-25), ‘He had a bath-chair … attachment’ (line 25) His house, his clothes Cheerful, attached to what remained of life to him (lines 34-35), proud of being alive; Something inside him, ‘some of his feelings had gone’ (lines 36-37).

9

REFER to the whole text and underline all the information about Constance.

1

Then collect your data in the following chart:

Age Physical features

Her movements Her interests Her attitude to life

2

23 (line 11) ‘ruddy country-girl’ (line 39); ‘soft brown hair’ (line 39); ‘sturdy body’ (line 40); ‘big, wondering eyes’ (lines 40-41); ‘soft, mild voice’ (line 41) Slow, full of unusual energy (line 40) Art, music, philosophical and sociological matters (lines 54-57), talk with men (lines 62-63) The achievement of absolute freedom (lines 77-79).

How do husband and wife differ? Their main difference is their attitude to life: Clifford lives only for his house, that is, for material things because of his being a cripple and having suffered a lot; Constance, instead, is projected to the development of her inner force in order to reach absolute freedom, thanks to education and life experiences during her youth.

10 FOCUS on the world where Constance and Clifford live, which is described in terms of the aftermath of the war and industrialisation. 1

Look for words and phrases linked to the semantic area of war. How is it connoted?

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2

3

The most important words and phrases linked to the semantic area of war are: tragic age, tragically (line 1); cataclysm, the ruins (line 2); many skies have fallen (line 5); half of his body, … for ever (lines 14-15); was dead in war (line 21). War is connoted tragically since it destroys lives and places. Is there any hope for the future? Will modern man be able to build up a new world? Modern man has new little hopes (line 3), but he has got to live scrambling over obstacles (line 5). State why the Midlands, where Wragby Hall is set, is related to industrialisation. Lots of factories were built in the Midlands which are said to be ‘smoky’;

319

Soluzioni

Age Face Build

TEXT BANK

8

11 REFER to the theme of the new, modern woman which is introduced in the last two sections. Square words connoting both an idea of woman’s supremacy over man and that of her submission to him. Collect your data in the chart below. Supremacy ‘Meaning in life … noble freedom’ (lines 78-79); ‘The beautiful pure … sexual love’ (lines 84-85); ‘A woman could take … away’ (lines 92-93); She could use her tool (lines 94-95)

Submission ‘they had given the gift of themselves’ (line 72); ‘the love-making … an anti-climax’ (lines 74-75); ‘A woman had to yield … what he wanted’ (lines 88-89)

Now summarise Lawrence’s position towards woman. Woman is presented as superior to man in this text, since she is able not to yield her inner self to man.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 12 TYPE B. Explain in not more than eight to ten lines how Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley’s Lover reflect Lawrence’s time. Student’s writing activity.

Suggestion: Both novels are books about modern civilisation; they highlight the changes in the environment, work and new living conditions, and the new position of women.

T99

The wood David Herbert Lawrence Lady Chatterley’ s Lover (1928)

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the passage and find out:

1

the setting in time and place; This text takes 3 place in the wood at night. what Mellors can see from the top of the knoll; He can see the bright rows of lights at Stacks 4 Gate, the smaller lights at Tevershall pit, the yellow lights at Tevershall.

2

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

ANALYSIS 2

CONCENTRATE on the narrative technique.

1 2

From whose point of view is the story told? The story is told from Mellor’s point of view. Can you detect the narrator’s presence in the passage? The narrator’s presence can be detected in some exclamation sentences (lines 7-8, 29-30).

3

FOCUS on the gamekeeper, Mellors.

1

Underline all the information about him and collect your data in the following chart.

His movements His attitude to the town

320

how he feels at the thought of Connie; He thinks with infinite tenderness of the woman but he feels sorry for what happened. why he calls her ‘poor young thing’ (line 52). He calls Connie ‘poor young thing’ since the woman is a young female creature to him.

Oliver Mellors ‘climbed’ (line 3), ‘went down’ (line 12), ‘ went home’ (line 35), ‘started the fire’ (line 36), ‘made his round in the wood’ (lines 57-58). ‘sharp wicked electric lights’ (lines 7-8), ‘undefinable quick of evil in them’ (line 8), ‘all the unease … Midlands’ (lines 8-9), ‘The industrial noises … mocked it’ (lines 13-14), ‘the world of the mechanical greedy … the vast evil thing’ (lines 20-22), ‘Soon it … the wood’ (line 23), ‘vulnerable things … iron’ (line 24), ‘the malevolent Thing outside’ (line 57).

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‘he thought with infinite tenderness of the woman’ (line 25), ‘poor forlorn thing … modern girl’ (lines 27-29), ‘She was tender’ (line 30), ‘if she could … world’ (lines 48-49), ‘She, poor young thing, … again’ (lines 52-53).

2

What does Lawrence point out in the description of Mellors’s character?Tick and support your answer quoting from the text: conscious decisions: lines 32-34, 43-47 actions: lines 1-3, 35-41, 55-56 influence of the unconscious: lines 25-29, 48-53

4

CONCENTRATE on the first three paragraphs of the passage which provide a clear example of Lawrence’s hostility towards industrial civilisation, expressed through a contrast between the wood and the village of Tevershall. Circle all the words/phrases referring to the former and square the ones linked to the latter. Then collect your data in a table.

The wood ‘dark of the wood’ (line 1), ‘darkness and seclusion of the wood’ (line 12), ‘He loved the darkness … into it’ (line 58).

Tevershall ‘bright rows … everywhere’ (lines 4- 5), ‘Sharp, wicked … shifts’ (lines 7-11), ‘The industrial noises … it’ (lines 13-14), ‘The world … did not conform’ (lines 15-23), ‘that outside Thing … lights’ (lines 50-51), ‘malevolent Thing outside’ (line 57).

2 3

Which are the symbols of the ugliness and squalor of the village? The electric yellow lights. Find out whether this scene is described in terms of shapes or in terms of colours and, in the latter case, decide which colours prevail, specifying their connotative meaning: This scene is described in terms of colours. Colours Meaning  Yellow industrial exploitation Rosy melted metal/industrial world dark green nature

5 1

REFER to the second part of the passage. Industrialisation has been personified, since it is able to create oppression and dread in Mellors’s soul. a Look for the expressions that justify this statement. Thing (lines 53, 59) written with the capital letter. b Many words which express physical properties are used. Complete the chart below with words associated to the various senses:

Hearing Touch ‘still’ (line 1), ‘noises’ (line 2), ‘traffic’ (line 2), ‘winding engines’ (line 10), ‘industrial noises’ (line 13), ‘diabolical ratings’ (line 19)

Sight ‘country … metal’ (lines 4-7), ‘electric lights’ (line 8), ‘darkness’ (line 58)

Smell

Sensuality ‘she was tender’ (line 30), ‘the woman bird’ (lines 48-49), ‘a young female … again’ (lines 52-53), ‘driven by desire’ (lines 56-57)

c 2

Which senses are involved? Which ones are not? Hearing, sight, sensuality are the senses involved. Touch and smell are not involved. Now focus on ‘sensuality’. The text says: ‘If she could be there with him, and there were nobody else in the world!...’ (lines 48-53). How does Mellors think of solving the problems caused by the ‘Thing’? Mellors thinks of solving the problems caused by the ‘Thing’ by the force of his sexual passion.

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321

Soluzioni

1

TEXT BANK

His reaction to Connie

6

FIND examples of: Alliteration and assonance: noises / night (line 2), could / country (lines 3-4), dark / distant (line 6), … Repetition of key words: wood, lights, fault, tender, poor thing (referring to the woman). Figures of speech: Connie’s fragility and tenderness are compared to those of a hyacinth (lines 27-32). Draw conclusions as regards the language of this extract. The language used is poetical.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 7

TYPE B. Explain in not more than eight to ten lines what is unusual in Lawrence’s way of presenting characters and why he was dissatisfied with the traditional techniques of characterisation. Student’s writing activity. Students should develop the issue that Lawrence analysed the characters’ inmost feelings.

T100

He was hollow at the core

2

READ the passage to the end and answer the following questions.

1

What did the heads around Kurtz’s house show? They showed that Kurtz had no restraint in satisfying his desires (lines 26-28). Whose heads were they? They were the heads of rebels (line 58). What relationship did Kurtz have with the natives? He had an extraordinary ascendancy over them (line 45): the chiefs would crawl every day to see him. Can you make out what kind of man Kurtz’s admirer is? He seems to admire, almost to worship Kurtz for his noble ideals of love, justice and the behavior to keep in life.

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ANALYSIS 3

POINT OUT the lines where you realise that Marlow’s method of narration is ‘retrospective’. Lines 25-28.

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What device does he use? Tense shift from past to present tense. Whom do you think he is addressing? Marlow’s listeners, i. e., the passengers on the Nellie, a boat on the Thames.

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Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness (1902)

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COMPREHENSION

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Soluzioni

1

READ the first paragraph of the extract and note down:

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the details about the house; Ruined roof, long mud wall (line 2) with three little square window-holes, no two of the same size (line 3), posts of that vanished fence (line 5). the discovery Marlow makes about the ‘round knobs’; They were heads with their faces turned to the house (lines 14-15). Marlow’s reaction; Now I had suddenly a nearer view, and its first result was to make me throw my head back as if before a blow (lines 7-9); The start back I had given was really nothing but a movement of surprise’ (lines 16-17). what the head facing him looks like. Black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids – a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and, with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too (lines 19-23).

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FOCUS ON the description of the ‘certain attempts at ornamentation’ outside Kurtz’s house. Trace the steps through which Marlow apprehends these objects: a) posts (line 5) b) round knobs (line 10) c) food for thought and also for vultures (line 12) d) those heads on the stakes (lines 14-15) Marlow deliberately delays providing the full information. To what effect? Tick as appropriate: to be able to recreate his experience in detail to charge the objects with deeper symbolic meaning to arouse the reader’s expectation and then shock him PROVIDE examples of Conrad’s ‘obliqueness’ in the passage. Kurtz has not appeared yet, though he has been introduced through several people’s words throughout the story.

Pick out the positive and negative aspects of Kurtz’s personality mentioned in the extract and fill in the table below:

Positive

Negative

He had influence on the natives (lines 42-43) He preached noble ideals (lines 52-53)

He was hollow at the core (lines 35-36) He subdued the natives (lines 42-43) He used cruel methods (lines 46-49)

The halo of mystery surrounding Kurtz is conveyed also through a device that both Marlow and Kurtz’s admirer use. Identify it. The suspension of speech (lines 39, 47, 66, 72).

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DISCUSS what Conrad’s aim was in presenting Kurtz like this. Conrad’s concern was with man’s inner self rather than with his relationship with society. This kind of presentation enabled him to deal with the coexistence of good and evil in human personality.

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FIND the image that justifies the interpretation of Heart of Darkness as a journey into the evils of colonialism but also as a journey into the self. The wilderness (line 31) symbolises a condition of freedom from any social restraint. In such a situation man faces his true self: he either gives in to his primitive instincts or holds on relying on inner restraint. PROVIDE evidence of the device Conrad uses to convey it. Personification (lines 31-35). EXPLAIN the effects that the confrontation with the wilderness, far from the restraints imposed by society, has had on Kurtz. He has yielded to the appeal of the wilderness and to his primitive instincts. He had once had great ideals but had forgotten them and turned into a ruthless man.

10 DISCUSS The quest for Kurtz acquires the value of a journey towards self-knowledge for Marlow too. Is he able to express the meaning of this experience? No, he is not (lines 23-25, 29-30).

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 11 TYPE B. Consider what you have gathered through the analysis of the passage and Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

point out the innovative elements of Heart of Darkness. Do not write more than ten lines. Student’s writing activity. Suggestions: •

•

•

•

The breaking down of limitations in space and time: Marlow’s experience is universal, not linked to a particular place or time. Even the narrative frame of the book reflects this, by moving backward and forward on two levels. The awareness that our perception of reality is necessarily uncertain: Marlow finds it difficult to explain his experience. An interest in the primitive: Conrad’s choice of the African setting, the importance of the unconscious as well as the conscious life: Marlow’s journey can be read both as a geographical journey and a journey into the self. The impossibility to give a final or absolute interpretation of reality: the use of the suspension of speech shows this; the novel can be interpreted in different ways.

Edward Morgan Forster, A Room with a View (1908) 1

REVISE your knowledge about the novel A Room with a View with by explaining:

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where Forster chose to set the novel; The first part of this romantic comedy takes place in Italy and opens in an English pensione in Florence; the second part of the novel is set in Surrey, England. what the novel is based upon; It is built upon linked antitheses – room/views, inside/outside, medieval/classical, lies/truth, earth/sky, blood/ water. Painting, architecture, sculpture, and music offer parallels for character, setting and argument. what kind of narrator Forster uses; The narrator is an observer who sets the scene, sometimes commenting on what the characters do and say. However, he is often very close to their point of view.

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Soluzioni

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what codes of morality and behaviour the different characters represent; The Emersons, were challenging old ideas about class, religion, emotion and sexuality. Through Lucy’s growth toward self-awareness Forster gives an insight on the subject of repressed passion and the war between desire and society’s conventions. why the word ‘muddle’ recurs many times in the novel; The muddle is linked with growing up, it is frightening and confusing, but in passing through it Lucy becomes a stronger and wiser person. Lucy’s anguish in choosing between George and Cecil becomes a contest of modernity against convention, honesty against hypocrisy, clarity against muddle. how Forster viewed the British tourist. He thought British tourists often had a superficial experience of Italy, mainly because they stayed with other British travellers, and visited museums and churches with their guidebooks.

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READ the extract to the end and say whether these statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

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George did not let Lucy go home alone. True. He gave her the photographs. False. He threw them into the Arno because they were covered with blood. George was not impressed at all by what had happened. False. He thought that something terrible had happened. Lucy felt perfectly at ease. False. She was worried about her behaviour that would be regarded as inconvenient by the other people at the Pensione. She asked George not to tell anyone about what had happened. True. She was not sure she could trust him. False. She perceived that he was reliable and intelligent. She thought they could go back to their usual life and George agreed with her. She said they could return to their old lives but George did not agree.

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Piazza Signoria

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Edward Morgan Forster A Room with a View (1908) Chapter Four

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WARM-UP TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

1

DISCUSS with a partner. Have you ever found yourself in a ‘muddle’? Have you ever desired to live some great adventure just by going around your town? Student’s activity.

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COMPREHENSION 2

READ up to line 65 and find out:

ANALYSIS

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what Charlotte thought about women; She thought that women were not inferior to men but should however hold a different, less active position in society. They should keep chaste not to be censured. whether Lucy stood for the medieval woman; No, from time to time she felt restless and looked forward to transgression. what she bought and why; She bought some

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photographs of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ because they represented the nude. what she looked forward to; She looked forward to living an adventure. what happened in the Piazza Signoria; Two Italian men quarrelled over a debt and one was killed just in front of Lucy. how she reacted and who rescued her; She fainted and was rescued by George who was in the surroundings. what she worried about.She worried about the fact that she had come to in a man’s arms and that she had lost her photographs in the square.

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WRITE down what kind of narrator Forster uses. What is Lucy’s function in the narrative frame? In the first part of the text there is an omniscient obtrusive narrator who makes remarks about the figure of the woman and Lucy’s character. She acts as a sort of camera through which the reader sees the scene.

FOCUS ON the two characters of Lucy and George in lines 36-141 and fill in the table: Lucy

George

Actions

She fainted; she nodded and smiled; she tried to steal away but was stopped; she leant her elbows against the parapet and listened to the noise of the water.

He held her in his arms and was kneeling by her (lines 45-46); he held out his hand to help her; he fetched her photos; he escorted her home; he threw the photos into the river.

Reactions and attitude

Lucy is sensitive and is shocked by the sight of the murder. Then she is ashamed and worried about the convenience of her situation according to the Edwardian standards. She pretends she is all right. She does not fully realized what is happening to her.

He reacts in a more rational way at first but when they leave the Piazza, he looks confused and impressed.

Way of speaking

She addresses George in a very formal way even if at the end she realizes that this kind of language is useless with this kind of man.

He speaks in a very simple, straightforward way, apart from his last remark ‘I shall probably want to live’ which puzzles Lucy.

DISCUSS the variations of light and shadow in the passage. What atmosphere do they create? Lines 20-28 contain references to sunlight (line 20) but especially to the twilight which casts shadows on the square giving Neptune an unsubstantial quality and the Loggia the aspect of a cave. This creates an atmosphere of unreality and dream which suits Lucy’s desire of transgression.

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EXPLAIN what view of Italy is conveyed in the passage. What atmosphere do they create? Italy is presented from two different points of view: on the one hand, it is the land of marvels (line 19), on the other hand, it is ‘unfamiliar’ (line 25) and it can become aggressive and dangerous. It is also the land of passions and lack of restraint (see the fight between the two men) in opposition to the land of propriety, that is, England (see the first two paragraphs).

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DISCUSS how the themes of women’s position in society and of the ‘muddle’ are presented in the passage. The theme of women’s position is dealt with in the first two paragraphs through Charlotte’s words concerning Edwardian women and the metaphor of the medieval woman. Lucy

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contrasts with both images since she has interiorised the Victorian code of behaviour but feels the urge to overcome it. The theme of the muddle is a consequence of this situation: Lucy searches for an experience that adult people would disapprove of and when she lives it, she is confused about her reactions, feelings and the perception of a new world to be explored (lines 130-133).

YOUR TURN 9

DISCUSS with the rest of the class. Is there an event in your life which marked the passage from the world of childhood to that of youth? Class discussion.

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Cecil’s proposal Edward Morgan Forster A Room with a View (1908) Part two, Chapter 8 - Medieval

COMPREHENSION 1

AS YOU READ the extract, answer the following questions.

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Soluzioni

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Where does the scene take place? It takes place in England, in a room at Windy Corner. Who are the characters involved? They are Cecil, Freddy Honeychurch, Mrs Honeychurch, Lucy. What is the main event? Cecil has proposed to Lucy and she has accepted to marry him. How does Cecil announce it? He uses an Italian phrase first – I promessi sposi – then he says it in English (lines 26, 28). What are Mrs Honeychurch’s and Freddy’s reactions? Mrs Honeychurch says she is glad and welcomes Cecil in the family. Freddy shakes hands with him. What does Cecil remember once he is alone? He remembers the other two times he asked Lucy to marry him. Who does he want to inform? His mother.

Physical Tall, shoulders that seemed braced appearance square by an effort of the will, and a head that was tilted a little higher than the usual level of vision; well endowed, and not deficient physically; he looks more human when he smiles. Attitude Refined, well educated, selfconscious, he flushes; Smiling indulgently. Compared to a Gothic statue, a fastidious saint.

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ANALYSIS

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Soluzioni

2

FOCUS ON the description of the setting at the beginning. What characterises it? What do the curtains symbolise? The setting is a room which is dark because the curtains have been drawn to screen the furniture from the sun. The room looks onto a terrace overlooking the valley. The terrace is perfectly arranged with trees, flower-beds and a little rustic seat. They symbolise a boundary between the inside and the outside: once they are drawn, the room is intimately connected with its view, the inside and the outside blend.

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DEFINE the kind of narrator. It is a thirdperson obtrusive narrator. Write down the lines where he expresses his own opinions. Lines 12-13, 19-22, 32-34.

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CONSIDER the character of Cecil.

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Say what method of characterisation is employed by Forster. At first Cecil is presented through the narrator’s words (Lines 1-10). In lines 39-42 and 60-63 the reader is given access to his thoughts through free indirect thought. Fill in the table with the details concerning his description:

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What does the opposition between ‘medieval’ and ‘Greek’ point out about him? Medieval is connected with celibacy, asceticism and repression of feelings. Greek is linked to fruition, enjoyment, impulse. Forster associates Cecil with the medieval; he uses the medieval as a symbol of the sexless, the severe, and the humourless. There is a paradigm of Western history that sees the medieval as an unenlightened period that followed the end of the classical world. In this paradigm, the end of the medieval comes with the rebirth of classical learning in the Renaissance. Italy is the land of both the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Forster structures his novel in a way that mirrors this paradigm of history. We begin in Italy, but Part 2 is dominated by Lucy’s relationship with Cecil and a return to England. The very last chapter of the novel has Lucy with George back in Italy, and so we finish the novel with Lucy’s own private Renaissance. It is no accident that Lucy compares George to a figure from myth while Forster compares Cecil to a Gothic statue. Although Lucy met Cecil in Italy, Forster deliberately makes sure that we never see him there. He associates George with Italy, the mysterious, the individualistic, the imaginative, the living myth. Cecil is tied to England, the all-too-known and knowing, the snobbish, the indoctrinated, the statue. Find evidence of Cecil’s condescension and feeling of superiority. He feels superior and regards the Honeychurches with a certain condescendence (lines 56-62). Even though they are financially comfortable, they are far from the refinement and high aristocracy to which Cecil is accustomed. Many of their habits, like drawing the curtains to spare the new furniture, are embarrassingly bourgeois. What do you think the narrator’s opinion of Cecil is? He thinks he is too self-conscious, affected and repressed.

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GATHER information about Cecil’s three proposals in lines 71-86. Fill in the table. First proposal

Second proposal

Third proposal

Place

Rome

The Alps

England

Time

An afternoon several months before

Three months later

Lucy

Had not broken away; her She reminded him of a refusal had been clear and Leonardo more than ever; gentle her sunburnt features were shadowed by fantastic rocks; at his words she had turned and stood between him and the light with immeasurable plains behind her

Cecil

Had hinted to her that they might be suitable for each other

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DEFINE Lucy’s role in the passage. Trace her development through time, according to Cecil. What had changed her most? She is rather passive. She is mainly seen through Cecil’s eyes who compares her to a woman of Leonardo and acknowledges the wonder that Italy has created in her. Her development: a commonplace girl who happened to be musical  a typical tourist shrill, crude, and gaunt with travel  he detected in her a wonderful reticence  like a woman of Leonardo da Vinci’s  She did develop most wonderfully day by day. Italy changed her most. It had given her light and shadow, that is, depth and complexity.

Clear and gentle as ever, she had accepted him, giving no coy reasons for her delay, but simply saying that she loved him and would do her best to make him happy

He had asked her again in He had asked her once bald, traditional language more

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WRITE down the themes of the text. The passage is built up around contrast: the contrast between the medieval and the modern, control and impulse, light and shadow, spontaneous and conventional.

YOUR TURN 9

COMPARE this extract with other texts dealing with the theme of love and marriage (ISpec 8) as regards the context, the suitor and the heroine’s attitude. Student’s activity.

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The echo Edward Morgan Forster A Passage to India (1924) Chapter 14

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the extract and make notes about:

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what Mrs Moore tries to do once she is alone; She tries to write a note to her children Ralph and Stella. how she feels; She feels fatigued. what memory disturbs her most; The sensory experience inside the cave, especially the echo. why the Marabar Caves cannot be

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Soluzioni

EXPLAIN how the Honeychurches are presented. What kind of people are they? Freddy and Mrs Honeychurch are sitting in the dark so that the sunlight won’t damage the furniture. But they are not pretentious social climbers. They are a loving and generous family, kind to each other and to their friends. Their frugality hints at a past when the family was not so rich, and their treatment of friends shows their basic goodness and generosity. Freddy also appears as unconventional when he gives Cecil a hand yellow with chemicals. Mrs Honeychurch behaves in a civil way but is a bit embarrassed because she realises Cecil’s snobbery.

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romanticised; Because they robbed infinity and eternity of their vastness, the only quality that accommodates them to mankind. the rational explanation she tries to find for what is happening to her; That she was only an elderly woman who had got up too early in the morning and journeyed too far, that the despair creeping over her was merely her despair, her personal weakness. what crisis she undergoes. Forster presents the vision of ‘panic and emptiness’ that challenges Christianity and the pretensions of the Western liberal mind (lines 27-30).

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IDENTIFY the main theme in the text. Alienation. Mrs Moore has always assumed that her own humanity will find an answering voice somewhere in the universe: she has never seriously doubted that the universe began with a voice saying, ‘Let there be light’ or that when Christ in the moment of death said, ‘It is finished’, he was in some sense speaking with the voice of God as well as that of a human being (lines 29). For the first time in her life she realises that in the end there may be no answering voice in the universe (lines 30-31).

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DISCUSS What vision does Mrs Moore surrender to? What meaning do the last lines acquire? The moment Mrs Moore experiences this terrifying sense of emptiness, she loses interest in life, in her children, even in Aziz, with whom she had managed to establish an affectionate and sincere relationship ( Aziz and Mrs Moore). She faces and surrenders to the vision (line 36), to what later in the novel Forster will define as the ‘double vision’, ‘that state where the horror of the universe and its smallness are both visible at the same time’ (Chapter XXIII). The image of the last lines is one that pursues liberation from all involvement with matter towards complete detachment. This effect of distancing is conveyed also through the conventions of reported thought. The account of the effect of the echo might either be a thought on Mrs Moore’s part, or else be regarded as a detached reflection on the part of the narrator (lines 13-22).

ANALYSIS

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Soluzioni

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2

SAY how the passage is narrated. Through the convention of reported thought.

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DISCUSS the symbolic meaning of the caves. What is their effect on the visitor? The Marabar Caves ‘are older than all spirit’, therefore in bringing his characters to the caves, Forster is confronting them symbolically with a part of India – and indeed the universe – that is not allowed for in Western religions and philosophies of life. The Caves magnify what one enters them with, and the effect of the visit on Mrs Moore is devastating, overwhelming (lines 8-11). It destroys her principles (lines 12-13), it affects her religious beliefs, it removes her confidence or any attempt at a rational explanation (lines 24-27). What view of nature is conveyed in the passage? Nature is not necessarily on the side of a benevolent view of things but may show itself as indifferent, or even sinister.

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EXPLAIN why the ‘ou-boum’ becomes so terrifying. ‘Ou-boum’ is the sound that echoes in the caves, the sterile syllable that merely repeats itself, a sound without meaning, emanating from the dark, distant, prehistoric distance before language – and before morality. It is a time and condition that wipes out distinctions – all the distinctions on which Anglo-India built its culture and empire. That is why it is so terrifying. In one sense the caves are places where human capabilities are tested to their uttermost, where human relationships are put under strain, where the outlook of an individual may be altered for ever.

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ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 7

TYPE B. It has been said that A Passage to India moves from physical reality to a complete denial of it, into the mystery of the universe. Write 10 lines to comment this statement. Student’s writing activity.

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Araby James Joyce Dubliners (1914)

COMPREHENSION (1) 1

DIVIDE the story into three sections and find a heading for each of them.

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READ the first section and do all the activities suggested. Find out:

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the setting in place; North Richmond Street, a quiet, blind street in Dublin (line 1). how the interior of the protagonist’s house is described; The interior of the house is connoted in a negative way: the air is ‘musty’ in all the rooms, the waste room is littered ‘with old useless papers’, among which the boy finds three books (lines 7-11). whether a story about a present or a past experience is told; A story about a past experience is told; in fact the narrator uses expressions like ‘when the short days of winter came’ (line 16), ‘Every morning I lay’ (line 36), ‘on Saturday evenings’ (lines 44-45). who represents authority. The boy’s uncle (lines 26-28) who causes the boys to hide in the shadow when he appears round the corner, and ‘Mangan’s sister’ who comes out of her house to call her brother in (lines 28-30).

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STATE:

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how the girl is always mentioned; She is nameless and is always mentioned as ‘Mangan’s sister’. what physical features the boy perceives of that female character; Her body, her hair (lines 34-35), and her brown figure (line 39). what makes him follow the girl every morning; An uncontrollable emotion makes him follow the girl every morning (line 41). what his indefinite tension causes; his tears (lines 53-54). when he finally gives a name to his feelings for the girl. One evening he goes into the back drawing room; everything is silent and dark and he murmurs ‘O love! O love!’ many times (lines 59-66).

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DISCUSS. The waking memory of the girl makes the boy behave in a different way during his everyday activities.

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What happens to him at school? He neglects school and is not able to concentrate (lines 83-85, 91). What does he always think about? The image of the girl accompanies him night and day and he always thinks about Araby (lines 85-87, 87-91). Why is his aunt surprised? She is surprised at the boy’s wish to spend the following Saturday at Araby (lines 94-95).

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In the morning his uncle replies ‘curtly’ to his request to go to the bazaar (lines 95-97). B His uncle arrived late for dinner (lines 101, 115). C Mrs Mercer comes to visit his aunt and he has to bear their gossips at tea-table (lines 112-114). D At nine his uncle arrives but wastes time before giving him the money to go to Araby (lines 121-126).

COMPREHENSION (3) 7 1

START to read the second section. Analyse:

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the boy’s feelings when the girl first speaks to

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LIST the few inconveniences which irritate and worry the boy about his visit to Araby. A

COMPREHENSION (2) 4

him; He is confused (lines 67-68). what she asks him and how he answers; She asks him if he is going to Araby on the following Saturday; but the boy is so shocked that he is not able to answer her (lines 68-69). in what perspective the boy perceives the girl talking to him; He sees her lit by the lamp light opposite her door (lines 76-77). what the boy is particularly fascinated by. He is particularly fascinated by the white curve of her neck, her hair, her hand upon the railings and especially by her petticoat (lines 77-79).

2

READ up to the end of the story and answer the following questions. How does the boy reach the bazaar? He reaches the bazaar by train (lines 137-138). When does he arrive at Araby? He reaches it at ten to ten in the evening (lines 143-144).

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Soluzioni

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Section 1: lines 1-66: The narrator’s falling in love with his friend’s sister. Section 2: lines 67-134: The girl’s request of a present from Araby. Section 3: lines 135-180: The boy’s visit at the bazaar of Araby.

TEXT BANK

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What does he see inside? He finds himself in a big hall girdled by a gallery; unfortunately the stalls are closing or closed; silence and darkness characterise this place (lines 148-150). Does the girl at the stall pay attention to him? No, she does not, since she continues talking and laughing with two men (lines 156-157). Does he buy anything? He buys nothing (lines 176-177). Why does he feel so angry at the end of the story? He feels frustrated and angry since he has realised it is impossible to turn a dream into reality (lines 179-180).

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ANALYSIS 8

CONCENTRATE on the narrator. Note down: a b

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

9

FOCUS on the character of the boy.

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Does Joyce introduce the character of the boy in a traditional way? What is the reader obliged to do? The character of the boy is not introduced in a traditional way since we are not given information about his physical appearance, age, family and school. The reader is obliged to infer the pieces of information from the story. In line 66 the boy understands he is in love with Mangan’s sister. What sort of relationship does he establish with the external world from now on? Where does he always perceive the girl? He separates himself from the rest of the world since he is able to imagine his beloved only when he is alone and in the darkness (lines 60-66, 74-75). He always projects the girl, that is his object of desire, from the reality of the light into the darkness (lines 28-29, 39, 75-78). The boy uses some words connected with religion in lines 51-58. Square them; then say how they are related to his feelings for the girl. The words connected with religion are: ‘chalice’ (line 51), ‘prayers’ (line 53) and

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what kind of narrator he is; He is an internal narrator whose point of view is adopted. The point of view of an omniscient narrator is employed in the first paragraph of the story (lines 1- 5), then the boy’s point of view is adopted throughout the short story.

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‘adoration’ (line 57). The ‘chalice’ represents the boy’s beloved, the ‘prayers’ his feelings of love and ‘adoration’ for the girl. Therefore the experience of the boy’s first falling in love is interpreted in a religious way. He uses particular expressions to signal his feelings. Underline them. The most important expressions used to signal the boy’s feelings are: • My foolish blood (line 43) • In places the most hostile to romance (line 44) • I imagined that I bore my chalice (line 51) • In strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand (line 54 53) • My confused adoration (lines 56-57) • Feeling that I was about to slip from them (lines 64-65) • What innumerable follies (line 82) • My soul luxuriated (lines 86-87) • Timidly (line 151) • Humbly (line 167) • I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity (lines 179-180) Then state how he judges his attitude towards his adolescent love. You may choose from the following adjectives: Ironical Sympathetic Frustrated Resigned Objective Rebellious At first he is sympathetic towards himself as a boy in love, but at the same time slightly ironical because of the words ‘foolish, confused…’; at the end he is highly ironical towards his feelings because of his disappointing, frustrating experience at the bazaar.

10 FOCUS on lines 179-180. The access to the character’s consciousness is provided by Joyce through the technique of ‘epiphany’, that is ‘the sudden revelation of a hidden reality’ through ‘casual words or events’. 1

Explain what revelation the boy has through his visit to Araby. The long day of expectation for the visit at Araby finishing up with his disappointment can be considered as the

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epiphany of this story; at the end the boy understands the emptiness and the meaninglessness of his dreams and of his platonic love. What does the narrator want to suggest about his ‘escape’ to the bazaar from his flat reality? Escape is illusory since people are rejected to their world of paralysis.

•

Presentation of the characters from the inside;

• • •

Use of a new concept of time; Theme of escape and moral paralysis; Use of epiphany.

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platonic love; A sort of madness. inability to express his feelings; Paralysis. passage from childhood to adolescence. Death, the end of a period in one’s life.

12 NOTICE that ‘Araby’ opens and ends in darkness: trace the various images of light and shadow through the story and show how they define the boy’s feelings. Most of the story is wrapped up in the dark because of expressions like: • • • • • •

Dusk (line 16) Dark muddy lanes (line 21) Dark dripping gardens (line 23) Dark odorous stables (line 24) Shadow (line 31) The sight of the streets … glaring with gas (lines 136-137) The hall was in darkness (lines 149-150) Gazing up into the darkness (line 179)

• • The dark images of the third paragraph are also linked to odours: note the linguistic relationship existing among ‘musty-muddy-ash pits-stables’ connoting both unpleasant odours and negative images. The images of light, connoting the boy’s platonic love, are used for the girl who appears from the darkness and is always lit by artificial light.

James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) Chapter IV

WARM-UP 1

COMPREHENSION 2

GO through the extract and consider the references to the setting, then answer the questions below.

1

Where does this scene take place? It takes place on a shore. What is Stephen doing? He is gazing at the wild, beautiful scenery of the sea in front of him.

2

3

NOTE down the lines where:

1

Stephen expresses his wish for the future; Lines 1- 4 he decides to wander along the beach; Lines 5-9 he climbs down a sand slope; Lines 13-14 he watches drifts of seaweeds along the beach; Lines 15-16 he suddenly realises his boyhood is over; Lines 22-25 his loneliness is in antithesis with the multitude of happy children in front of him; Lines 30-34 a lonely, still girl appears in front of Stephen; Line 35

2 3 4

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 13 TYPE B. Explain in not more than eight to ten lines the most important stylistic devices and the themes of Dubliners present in ‘Araby’. Student’s activity. Students should develop the following notes: • Naturalistic descriptions; • Use of limited point of view; Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

TELL about the moment when you realised that your childhood was over. Then discuss your hopes for the future with your classmates. In particular say what you want to be when you leave school. Student’s speaking activity.

5 6

7

331

Soluzioni

1 2 3

Where was his boyhood now?

TEXT BANK

11 STATE what his platonic love, his inability to express his feelings openly and his passage from childhood to adolescence are symbol of:

8

Stephen? Stephen’s reaction, which is described in physical terms (lines 54-55), reveals intense emotion and excitement.

the girl is compared to a bird;

Lines 35-39 9 the girl and Stephen become aware of each other’s presence; Lines 45-49 10 Stephen is excited at the sight of the girl; Lines 53-57 11 Stephen recognises the existence of mortal beauty in this vision. Lines 56-61

6

1

ANALYSIS 4

FOCUS on the narrative technique.

1

Who is the narrator of this extract? Whose point of view is adopted? The narrator is a third person and Stephen’s point of view is adopted. Is there action in the usual sense of the term? What is the narrator more concerned with? There are not any actions in the usual sense of the term since the narrator is concerned only with emotions (lines 1-3, 17-19 22-25, 32-46 53-63). Find examples of free direct speech and state their function. Some examples can be found in lines 1 (‘Yes! Yes!), 8 (‘On! On!’), 22-25, 60 (‘To live … of life!’), 63 (‘On and …on’). These expressions allow the reader to get directly in touch with the character’s mind.

2

3

5

CONSIDER the character of the girl.

1

Identify and explain all the images used to describe her.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

Image ‘Her long slender bare legs …as a crane’s’ (line 37) ‘Her tights … as ivory’ (line 39) ‘the white fringes … like featherings of soft white down’ (lines 40-41) ‘Her bosom … soft and slight … as the breast of … dove’ (lines 42-43)

2

3

332

2

3

Meaning Softness, purity and freedom Purity Purity and elegance Chastity and purity

Does this imagery convey a positive or a negative view of the girl? What does the girl symbolise? This imagery conveys a positive image of the girl who becomes the symbol of purity and freedom. What kind of mood does she create in

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CONCENTRATE on the image of the wading girl looking at the sea who is an example of epiphany. ‘Epiphany’ in Joyce is ‘the sudden revelation of a hidden reality’ through ‘casual words or events’. What does it reveal of Stephen’s consciousness? It reveals his wish to break free from all the constrictions imposed by the Catholic Church and the small world of Dublin. Several negative words and phrases are employed to describe Stephen’s negative boyhood: ‘the grave of boyhood’ linked to ‘grave-clothes’ (line 1), that is, constrictions; ‘the shame of wounds… her house of squalor and subterfuge… at the touch’ (lines 27-29) are the images used to describe the squalor of Stephen’s life in his hometown. This moment of the boy’s self-revelation is registered as ‘mystical’. Explain this statement pointing out words belonging to this semantic area. The expressions ‘Worship of his eyes’ (line 46), ‘Heavenly God’ (line 53), ‘soul’ (line 53), ‘holy’ (line 59), ‘ecstasy’ (line 59) belong to the semantic area of ‘mysticism’, which is antithetical to ‘profane joy’ (line 53), ‘A wild angel … and beauty’ (lines 60-61). This contrast points out Stephen’s break with religion. Consider the sentence: ‘To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!’ (line 60). It might be considered a statement of Stephen’s artistic creed, in which great emphasis is placed on error. Can you think of a reason? Like Daedalus, Stephen wants to be an artist to enjoy creativity and freedom; but if an artist has to escape from the labyrinth of his world, he is destined to be alone, an outcast.

7

FOCUS on the language of this extract which can be considered poetic.

1

Joyce pays particular attention to sight and sound. Find expressions connected with these senses. All the words and expressions used to describe the seashore are connected with sight; hearing is linked to expressions like ‘voices childish’ (lines 33-34), ‘the first faint noise’ (line 49-50), ‘On and On’ (line 65).

3

4

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 8

TYPE B. Point Out the development of Joyce’s style from Dubliners to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in not more than 8 to 10 lines. Student’s writing activity.

YOUR TURN 9

THINK about past experiences of yours. Whose influence became important in making your decisions? A friend? Family? Teachers? Media? What / Who helped you make the right choices? Discuss in groups. Student’s speaking activity.

5

6

T106

James Joyce Ulysses (1922) 1

ANSWER these questions about the novel Ulysses.

1

What are the main events of the novel? The whole novel takes place on a single day, Thursday, June 16, 1904, which was special to Joyce because it was the day that Nora Barnacle, his future wife, made her fondness clear to him. During the course of this day, three main characters, Leopold Bloom, his adopted son Stephen Deadalus, and Bloom’s wife Molly, wake up, have various encounters in Dublin, and go to sleep eighteen hours later. How is Ulysses related to the Odyssey? Joyce used the Odyssey as a structural framework for his book, arranging its characters and events around Homer’s heroic model, with Bloom as Ulysses, Stephen as his son Telemachus, and

2

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Molly as the faithful Penelope. In what sense is Dublin a character in the novel? ‘Ulysses’ was designed as a detailed account of ordinary life on an ordinary Dublin day and Joyce planned each movement of each character on each street as though he were playing chess. He made the very air of Dublin, the atmosphere, the feeling, the place, almost indistinguishable, certainly inseparable, from his human characters. Consequently, Dublin becomes itself a character in this novel. Who are the three main characters and what do they represent? Stephen Dedalus, Mr Bloom and Mrs Bloom are more than individuals: they represent two aspects of human nature. Stephen is pure intellect and embodies every young man seeking maturity; Mrs Bloom stands for flesh, since she identifies herself totally with her sensual nature and fecundity; Mr Bloom, uniting the extremes, is everybody, the whole of mankind. What does the mythical method allow the writer to make? It allowed the author to make a parallel with the ‘Odyssey’ and provides the book with a symbolic, crosstemporal meaning. Where does the complex structure of Ulysses derive from? Joyce combined several methods to present a variety of matters. The stream of consciousness technique; the cinematic technique with the literary equivalents of close-ups, flashbacks, tracking shots, suspension of speech; question and answer; dramatic dialogue; and the juxtaposition of events, with the consequent construction of order and unity from their randomness, enabled the writer to render his characters’ inner life creating the so-called ‘collage technique’, quite similar to the techniques used by the cubist artists who depicted a scene from all perspectives.

I said yes I will James Joyce Ulysses (1922) Penelope, Chapter 28

COMPREHENSION 1

RECOGNISE the two sections of the text. Find the line references for each of them.

333

Soluzioni

Several sound devices are exploited. Identify them and explain how they affect the atmosphere of the whole passage. Onomatopoeia: hither and thither (line 49), on and on (line 63). Alliterations: impalpable/imperishable (line 4), soft/slight/ slight and soft (lines 42-43), first/ faint (line 49), … Assonances: slender/legs (line 37), thighs/white (lines 39-40), … All these sound devices contribute to underline the magic atmosphere created by the vision of the wading girl.

TEXT BANK

2

1 2

Molly remembers events of her childhood in Gibraltar: lines 1-20. She enjoys a recollection of her first lovemaking with Bloom: lines 20-24.

has the last word in the novel and that word is ‘Yes’. This word is Molly’s affirmation of life. 3

ANALYSIS 2

FOCUS on Molly.

1

How does she describe the place of her childhood? She describes it using the language of sensual impressions; in fact coloured flowers and gardens (lines 16-19), the crimson sea (line 16), laughing Spanish girls (line 5), the Moors in white turbans (line 11) characterise her description of Gibraltar. Why do her thoughts turn to Bloom? What does she admit about her husband? Her thoughts constantly turn to Bloom because he has been the centre of her life. She admits that Bloom’s ‘heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will yes.’ What is the meaning of her last word? Molly

2

3

CONCENTRATE on Molly’s soliloquy. Is there any external element that interrupts the woman’s monologue? What does the absence of punctuation underline? Molly’s monologue is a mazy outpouring, where time and identity slip and dissolve. From the first to the last word no external element interrupts Molly’s soliloquy; her thoughts are free to move backwards (lines 3-20) and forwards in time (line 25), to mix present, past and future (lines 19-25); her apparently chaotic flow of thoughts is underlined by the complete absence of punctuation and introductions to people or events, by the presence of spelling (lines 1, 18-19 16) and grammar mistakes (line 21). In the last part the character reaches more abstract levels of consciousness, until she falls asleep and the book and the soliloquy end together.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 4

TYPE B. Compare this extract from Joyce’s Ulysses to the Victorian novels you have studied as regards: the setting in time and place; the narrative technique and points of view; the subject matter; the characters and the language employed. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines. Student’s writing activity. Students should use the data of the following table:

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

Setting in time and place

Victorian novel Victorian towns (London); English countryside

Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ Dublin

Narrative technique

Third-person narrative technique

Stream-of-consciousness technique

Subject matter

Realistic, naturalistic

The character’s mind

Characters

Presented from the outside

Presented from the inside

Language

Realistic and concrete

The language of the mind

T107

A young man has committed suicide by throwing himself from the window.

Clarissa’s party Virginia Woolf

2

AS YOU READ the rest of the passage, collect evidence that the setting is a party. Lines 1-2, 8, 10-11, 38, 58-59, 69.

3

FOCUS ON the figure of Clarissa Dalloway and write down:

1

her reaction to the news; She is annoyed by

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

COMPREHENSION 1

334

READ the first paragraph and explain the details concerning the piece of news brought to the party by the Bradshaws.

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4 4

9

IDENTIFY the ‘young man’ and ‘they’ (lines 1-2). If students have read ‘Clarissa and Septimus’, they should realise the young man is Septimus Warren Smith. ‘They’ are the Bradshaws and the people at the party.

1 2 3 4 5

ANALYSIS 5

TRY to distinguish the present and past thoughts which are juxtaposed in Clarissa’s mind and mark them with different colours. The passage exemplifies Woolf’s technique of fusing the character’s stream of thought into a third-person, past tense narrative. Past thoughts can be seen in lines 10-11 and 40-49.

6

READ lines 1-35 and underline the parts of the text in which Clarissa responds to experience by translating her emotions into physical metaphors which become indistinguishable from the emotion itself. Lines 3-5, 33-35.

7

EXPLAIN the kind of relationship between Clarissa and her husband. Quote from the text. Richard is a very conventional man (he reads the Times) but Clarissa feels protected and reassured by him. Their relationship is not based on love and passion but provides her with a shelter from her weakness and insecurity. Lines 32-34.

8

THE PARTY represents the climax of the novel, one of those ‘moments of being’ when the character can grasp reality behind appearance. What does Clarissa realise? What brings about this realization? She experiences a moment of clarity, or ‘moment of being,’ she realises that the social life she values so much is false and superficial. However, she finally accepts herself and chooses to go on living. She identifies with the young man. Unlike Septimus who is not always able to distinguish between his personal response and the nature of external reality, Clarissa never loses her awareness of the outside

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IN THE PASSAGE there is a clear statement of the connection between Clarissa and Septimus. Fill in the diagram connecting the two characters with the words and phrases listed below. Try to arrange them in the order they are hinted at in the passage Clarissa  the party  Septimus tolerance of superficial and false life/ inability to conform sanity/madness social success/alienation from society final self-acceptance/rejection of existence life/death

10 FOCUS ON the description of the suicide. Identify the poetic devices used. (line 5) Up had flashed the ground  inversion (line 6) blundering, bruising  alliteration (lines 6-7) a thud, thud, thud  onomatopoeia and repetition (line 7) a suffocation of blackness  metaphor What impression do you get? Tick as appropriate. the author conveys the lyricism of the experience, however tragic the stress is on the brutality of the act the language is given a quality of fluidity which parallels the action taking place 11 THE THEME of death is also introduced through two quotations from Shakespeare. 1

2

Write them down and say what vision of death they imply: From Othello; ‘If it were now to die, ‘twere now to be most happy’ (line 19). It is better to die in a moment of absolute happiness rather than to bear the suffering of life. From Cymbeline. ‘Fear no more the heat of the sun’ (line 64). Death is seen as a shelter from the hardship of nature and the blows of life. However, Clarissa repeats this line from Cymbeline, and she continues to endure. How do they help you to understand the meaning of Septimus’s suicide? By choosing death he has protected himself from further suffering and freed his soul from the constraints of society.

335

Soluzioni

3

world as something external to herself. In the end she recognizes her deceptions, accepts old age and the idea of death, and is prepared to go on.

TEXT BANK

2

the fact the Bradshaws talk about death at her party. She identifies with the young man and wonders why he has killed himself. what she sees out of the window; An old woman staring at her from the window in the opposite room. what she hears; The clock striking and the voices of the people at the party. what she resolves to do. To join her guests.

12 COMPLETE the table below. There are three images in the passage which act at the same time as structural connections and as symbols. Try to read them in this double perspective. Image

Structural connection

Symbol

The sky

Past  present  future

The continuity of life

The older woman

Clarissa sees herself when she will grow older

The awareness of the passing of time

The clock

Inner and external reality

The voice of reality

13 CONSIDER the elements you have gathered from the analysis of Mrs Dalloway. Discuss the way Virginia Woolf deals with the following elements: a

b

c d

subject of the novel The novel deals with the characters’ inner reality (their emotions, thoughts and memories) and their response (physical and psychological) to external reality. Woolf juxtaposes the themes of youth and old age, life and death, sanity and madness. concept of time It is not chronological but linked to ‘moments of being’. There is a continuous shift from inner to external time and vice versa. narrator Woolf fuses stream of thought into a third-person past tense narrative. characterisation The characters are introduced through their perceptions, thoughts and feelings.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 14 TYPE B. Trace the influences on the development of Woolf’s narrative method with reference to the context of the age. Student’s activity. Suggestion: The feeling of rootlessness, anxiety and frustration following the First World War is reflected in Woolf’s choice of themes and in the use of short, broken sentences. Freud’s influence can be seen in the importance given to the human psyche, William James’s and Henri Bergson’s in the concept of time. The technical experimentation of the stream of consciousness is one of the features of Modernism in literature as well as the idea that reality is not perceived objectively but subjectively and the importance of isolated moments which provide an insight into the nature of things.

T108

Shakespeare’s sister TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

Virginia Woolf A Room of One’s Own (1929) Part VI

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS with the rest of the class supporting your answers with examples. Do you agree that women are considered equal to men nowadays or do you think they are still regarded as second-class citizens? Is it the same all over the world? Class discussion.

COMPREHENSION 2

READ lines 1-14 and fill in the table with the arguments for and against women’s equality.

Arguments against They have never made important discoveries They have never shaken an empire or led armies into battle They have never written plays like Shakespeare’s They have never brought white civilization to a barbarous race

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Arguments for They have done another kind of work They have borne and bred They have washed and taught

• Colleges for women have been founded in England since 1866 • Law has allowed women to possess their own property after 1880 • Women were given the vote in 1909 • Most of the professions have been open to women for 10 years • Attention has been drawn on child bearing and the need to reduce its rate from tens and twelves to twos and threes. 4

READ the extract to the end and answer these questions:

1

What female activity is Woolf hinting at through the metaphor of Shakespeare’s sister? She is hinting at the writing profession. What conditions should women meet in order to take it up? They should have: 1 a five hundred a year income; 2 a room of their own; 3 the freedom and courage to write what they think; 4 the capacity to relate to reality outside the sitting-room; 5 no arm to cling to. Where else will ‘Shakespeare’s sister’ draw life from? From the past women writers.

2

3

Specification 15 T109

Robert Frost (1874-1963) 1

ANSWER the following questions about Frost’s life and works.

1

When did Frost’s reputation as a poet start? Frost’s first collection of poems, A Boy’s Will, was published in 1913 to great acclaim, and was followed by North of Boston in 1914. His reputation as a poet was then established. Which are his most famous collections of poems? He published several volumes of poems including New Hampshire (1923), Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1937), A Witness Tree (1942), which were all awarded the Pulitzer Prize. What is the subject matter of Frost’s poetry? All of Frost’s poems are linked to the region of New England. Frost chose American rural and provincial life as the subject matter of his poetry. What was his approach to nature like? Frost’s approach to nature was Romantic, since he used it to reflect man’s inner thoughts and emotions. He was particularly fond of wintry settings, which enabled him to express the harshness of man’s life and the eternal presence of death in it. What is the poet’s task, according to Frost? He thought that his task as a poet was to reach the general reader and remind him of the values of simple life and ordinary things. In his poetry he pointed out how the pressure of everyday responsibilities and the shallowness of urban life lead man to forget his feelings. How did he convey his message? Frost conveyed his message through implication and symbolism. A moment of life involving man and nature in what to most people would be a routine and meaningless act becomes a complete symbol of truth in his poems. The emotion is intense but controlled, the speaker makes each word count, amid intervals of silence. What are the most important features of his style? Frost was a conservative as well as an experimenter. He achieved great subtlety, carefully choosing the sound of words,

2

3

4

5

ANALYSIS 5

6

EXPLAIN how Woolf develops her argument. How would you define her tone? What is her aim? She addresses her female audience through frequent questions; she supports her argument with historical or statistical evidence; she emphasises her own beliefs. Her tone is straightforward, passionate and also ironical, especially in the first 36 lines. Her aim is to encourage women to get engaged into reality and also to write about it.

6

SUM UP what she really means by ‘rooms of our own’. What movement of the contemporary age do her words anticipate? This is a metaphor for woman’s equality and independence. It anticipates the feminist movement.

7

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337

Soluzioni

READ lines 15-28 and list the women’s achievements mentioned by Woolf.

TEXT BANK

3

exploiting the language of sense impressions, taking the traditional verse forms, such as the sonnet and blank verse, and developing them to his own ends into a blend of colloquial and traditional features.

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost Mountain Intervals (1916)

COMPREHENSION 1

2

3

DESCRIBE the situation in which the poet found himself. He had to decide which road he should take, that is, he had to make a decision.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

5

9

IDENTIFY the theme of the poem. The poem dramatises the choices we are presented with in life and their consequences.

YOUR TURN 10 DESCRIBE the steps that lead you to make important decisions in life. What is, in your opinion the way in which man can fulfil himself? Student’s activity.

T110

Chicago Carl Sandburg

EXPLAIN how his choice affected his life. It changed his life completely.

COMPREHENSION

DESCRIBE the layout of the poem: is there a rhyme scheme? Find examples of assonance and alliteration. It consists of four five-line stanzas rhyming ABAAB. Assonance is the repeated short ‘e’ sound throughout the poem. Alliteration: ‘wanted wear’ (line 8), ‘lay in leaves’ (lines 11-12). DEFINE the season portrayed by the poet? Justify your answer by quoting from the text. It is autumn. The wood is yellow (line 1).

Chicago Poems (1916)

1

READ the poem up to line 8.

1

Write down the adjectives referring to the town. Stormy, husky, brawling, wicked, crooked, brutal. List the social evils that affect Chicago. Prostitution (line 6); crime (line 7); poverty (line 8).

2

2

READ the rest of the poem and answer the following questions.

1

Is the poet’s attitude to the town merely accusatory? No, he also points out its qualities. What qualities of the town does he praise? Its pride, strength and creative energy. What does he contrast it with? The little soft cities (line 11). Can you say what feature of the town the poet insists most upon? Its laughter.

2 6

7

338

DEFINE the language of the poem. It is simple and direct.

SAY what decision he made and why. He took the second road because it looked less travelled by.

ANALYSIS 4

8

EXPLAIN what the road traditionally is symbol of. State how the two roads of the poem differed. What did each of them represent? Roads have traditionally been symbolic of progress through life’s journey. They were both fair but the one chosen by the poet was more grassy and less trodden. The one chosen seemed to be more adventurous and new; the other one stood for the mainstream. SAY what tone the words ‘sorry’ (line 2) and ‘sigh’ (line 16) give to the poem. They give the poem a tone of regret.

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3 4

ANALYSIS 3

FOCUS ON the layout. The poem can be divided into 5 sections.

1

Identify them. Section 1: (lines 1-5) Section 2: (lines 6-12) Section 3: (lines 13-17)

4

FIND examples of repetition and discuss their effect. Which other rhetorical devices are used? The last section almost repeats the first one. It has the effect of a musical refrain and it underlines the most important aspects of the town. Other rhetorical devices: alliteration ( ‘l’ line 6; ‘s’ line 9; ‘b’ line 17); inversion (line 21).

5

CONSIDER the way Sandburg uses syntax.

1

Tick the kind/s of sentences present in the poem: questions negative statements assertions exclamations Then circle the commonest conjunctions employed. And. ‘For’ appears at line 6, ‘that’ at line 21. How would you define the syntactic structure of the poem? Simple.

2

3

6

FOCUS ON the language referring to the town.

1

Square the nouns and say:

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2

what their structure is, for example root + suffix; Butcher, Maker, Stacker, Player, Handler (lines 1-3), slugger (line 11). All these nouns denote people engaged in action and are formed by the verb + the suffix ‘er‘. b what their main connotation is. Great physical energy. Write down the form of the verbs and point out how they connote the town. Present participle. They give the town a connotation of vitality and material, concrete action.

7

SAY what basic figure of speech is used by Sandburg to describe the city. What central dominating image does he achieve? Personification. A young working man.

8

DEFINE the theme of the poem and the poet’s attitude. The theme is the life of a big industrial American town. Although the poet describes the town in a realistic way, pointing out its strength and weaknesses, he celebrates its energy and vitality.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 9

TYPE B. Draw comparisons between Sandburg’s poetry and:

1 2

Modernist poetry Whitman’s poetry as regards the choice of subject matter, language, and style. Write 10 to 12 lines. 1 The fragmentation of culture, allusive language working through association, free verse. 2 Whitman: America as the expression of democracy, brotherhood and love; colloquial language; free verse. Sandburg: the life of urban America, the natural flow of speech, loose free verse as regards the choice of subject matter, language and style.

10 TYPE B. Explain what aspects of American society are reflected in the poem. Write 10 to 12 lines. Sandburg sings America with all its voices, good and evil; he presents an optimistic view of progress, where the toil of the workers in the big industrial towns is seen as a contribution to the building of the American dream.

339

Soluzioni

3

a

TEXT BANK

2

Section 4: (lines 18-21) Section 5: (lines 22-23) Analyse the structure of each section. Section 1: consists of short, heavily stressed lines. Section 2: is formed by long lines linked by the conjunction ‘and’. Section 3: turns to short, heavily accented lines again. Section 4: is made up of longer rhythmical metres. Section 5: is introduced by a single abrupt word and ends with long heavily accented lines. How is the rhythm affected by the layout of the poem? Which adjectives or phrases would best describe the rhythm? Which musical instrument/s do you associate with it? The rhythm is based on the variations of colloquial speech which convey the rhythm of city life. The words that best describe the rhythm are ‘hammering’ and ‘forceful’ in the shorter sections, ‘slow’ and ‘loose’ in the longer ones. Open answer. Teachers may point out that Sandburg would accompany the recitals of his poems with a guitar.

T111

John Dos Passos (1886-1970) 1

ANSWER the following questions about John Dos Passos.

1

What did his first novel record? It recorded his experience as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War. What were his novels marked by? His novels were marked by the influences of Marxism and reflected the impact of historical events such as the Sacco and Vanzetti trial and the Great Depression of 1929. Why can 1938 be considered a milestone for Dos Passos? Because his experiments in realism and narrative continued in The 42nd Parallel (1930), Nineteen Nineteen (1932) and The Big Money that were collected in the famous trilogy U.S.A.. What did he openly attack in his novels of the 40s? He openly attacked the three political systems which seemed to him to threaten the ideals of democracy: Communism in Adventures of a Young Man (1939), Fascism in Number One (1943) and the New Deal in The Grand Design (1949). How has U.S.A. been described? Why? U.S.A. has been described as an example of ‘the collectivist novel’ in which the author tried to represent ‘both the lonely individual and the sensations of the crowd’. What does it portray? It portrays the development of American materialism from the 1890s to the early 1930s through the lives of a multitude of characters seen in their rise and fall in the social scale. Among these people there are famous and important men and women, common men and outcasts. What narrative methods characterise this trilogy? Dos Passos juxtaposes three narrative methods to present the same figure or event from different perspectives. The first technique is the ‘Newsreel’, which opens each volume and individual section. It consists of a collage of newspaper headlines, popular songs, advertising slogans. Its aim is to provide a satirical comment of the image the Americans have created of themselves and to convey the mood of the times. The second device is the ‘Camera Eye’ which

2

3

4

5

6

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

7

340

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8

shows the influence of Joyce’s stream-ofconsciousness technique. Finally, Dos Passos writes the biographies of important historical people, for example Woodrow Wilson, America’s President during World War I, the motor car magnate Henry Ford, the dancer Isadora Duncan, the actor Rudolph Valentino, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. All these famous figures become the objective correlative of the historical period they belong to. What are its most important themes? The main theme is certainly America itself, with its variety and mobility. The author does not try to find symbols to express the present reality of his country but introduces it as the representation of the human condition in the 20th century. The general idea is that of a world where there are no winners, where man has lost all the links of solidarity with nature and is alone. In this world God is absent and the key-word is loneliness. The theme of war is also important as a catalyst of public and private events. Dos Passos does not provide answers to existential questions or ways out of alienation; in this respect he hints at another theme, the power of words and the cynicism of those who use words to deceive or betray.

The man through the crowd John Dos Passos U.S.A. (1938)

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS in pairs. What do these pictures share? What do they communicate to you? What idea of a modern metropolis do they convey? Students’ activity.

COMPREHENSION 2

READ the first paragraph and say:

1

who the protagonist is; He is a young man, a common man. what he is doing; He is walking alone in the streets at night.

2

3

EXPLAIN why the streets are empty after reading the second paragraph. The streets are empty because people have gone home at the end of the working day.

4

READ lines 22-49 and answer the following questions.

1

What is the most pressing problem for the young man? Time that is running too fast, the frantic life of the city. Line 30 suggest that the young man might be a lonely vagabond, without a job, a family and a home. What is the man listening to? He is listening to people’s speech in the various places of the city. How does the setting change in these lines? The perspective broadens to embrace the whole of America (see the references to different landscapes).

2 3

5

IDENTIFY what sort of experiences are recorded in lines 50-63. What unifies them? They are all communal experiences such as family, school, the army, groups of friends.

6

READ the list the author uses to describe the USA and explain what aspects of life he has taken into consideration. He has considered the world of business and finance, the world of the workers, the field of justice, the mass media, the world of education, the magnificence of nature, the war, the language.

ANALYSIS 7

FOCUS on the way the story is told: • Narrator: A third-person narrator. Only at line 51 there is a shift to the ‘I’. • Point of view: It is the young man’s point of view. • Use of tenses: There is a shift from present to past at line 40, and back to the present at line 54.

8

SAY in what sense Dos Passos’s technique can be defined as experimental. Provide examples. Dos Passos does not provide the reader with any background information. The reader is given

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access to the character’s thoughts and the whole passage reads as a stream of consciousness since it does not follow a logical sequence and avoids the use of articles or possessives (lines 1-2), subject and verbs (line 30), capitalisation (lines 50,53), correct use of punctuation (lines 52-53). 9

CONSIDER how the character is presented.

1 2

Is he given a name? No, he is not. Is there a physical description? The only visible detail is that of the ‘greedy eyes’ (line 2). The other parts of the body are linked to sensations: Do you get an insight into his personality? If so, how? There is little psychological insight. The reader infers the man’s mood from what he sees and thinks during his walk. Does the author seem interested in the character’s portrayal? No, the character serves as a camera to record what is happening around him, to provide a description of the town.

3

4

10 UNDERLINE the references to jobs and say what social class Dos Passos seems interested in. The roadmender (line 6), the fisherman (line 6), the bridgeman (line 8), the engineer (line 8), the dirtfarmer (line 9), the windowdressers (line 16), welders (line 18). He seems most interested in manual work, in the working class. 11 FOCUS on lines 1-49 and fill in the table below with the words referring to the contrast between the young man’s humanity and his alienation. Man’s humanity Eyes greedy for warm Blood tingles with wants (line 4) Mind is a beehive of hopes (lines 4-5) Greedy ears taut to hear (lines 11-12) Head swimming with wants (line 28)

Man’s alienation Walks by himself through the crowd, alone The streets are empty (line 13) A sad streetwalker fidgets (line 19) Faces slide out of sight (line 22)

What does the young man stand for? He does not stand for his own individuality but as the representative of all the Americans, he is the Man USA.

341

Soluzioni

how he feels; He feels lonely and tired. what he needs. He needs warmth (lines 2-3) and human contact.

TEXT BANK

3 4

12 RECOGNISE the aspects of city life stressed by the author. Dos Passos underlines the fact people feel lonely even in the middle of the crowd. He describes people running, working, busy doing things, almost deprived of their humanity.

The image of the ‘unreal city’ in Eliot’s The Waste Land may be taken into consideration as an example of the aridity of urban life in the 20th century. As in Dos Passos’s city, the people do not communicate but, unlike the young man in this passage, they seem to have lost hope and desire. Fitzgerald reached similar conclusions to those of Dos Passos: also in The Great Gatsby the key-note is the failure of the American dream and loneliness in the midst of a crowd, even if Fitzgerald dealt with this issue in personal terms, through his hero’s personal defeat.

13 CONCENTRATE on lines 50-63: they are linked to the character’s memories. How do they contrast with his present situation? They contrast with the previous examples of loneliness amid busy crowds of people because they refer to moments of aggregation and communication. 14 UNDERLINE the phrases where one of the themes of the passage, the importance of words, is stated and explain what the power of speech is according to Dos Passos. Lines 31-36; 50-53 and in the last sentence of the passage. Dos Passos assigns a unifying power to the word. After describing several aspects of American life (its cities, its people and their jobs, its means of transport, roads, mountains, rivers and beaches), he points to speech as the most important and distinctive trait of a country.

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Soluzioni

15 DESCRIBE the main features of Dos Passos’s language as regards syntax and vocabulary. Dos Passos uses very long sentences where he piles up short phrases which provide a vivid description of people or objects (the first paragraph is a good example). These long periods alternate with very short and dry sentences (lines 13, 20-21, 30) conveying the mood of the situation described. A peculiar feature of the language is its colloquial tone and the use of words running together, for example ‘apartmenthouses’ (line 16), ‘fillingstation’ (line 37), ‘longago’ (line 50).

T112

Boats against the current Francis Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby (1925) Chapter IX

WARM-UP 1

COMPREHENSION 2

READ about Gatsby’s funeral in lines 1-24. Make notes about: the time five o’clock (line 1) the cars the motor hearse, the limousine, Gatsby’s station wagon the weather it’s drizzling (line 2) the people Mr Gatz (Gatsby’s father), the minister, the narrator (Nick), the postman from West Egg, the man with owl-eyed glasses. the narrator’s thoughts he wonders how the man with owl-eyed glasses knew of the funeral; he tries to remember Gatsby but finds it difficult; he thinks that Daisy hasn’t even sent a flower. the epitaph The poor son-of-a-bitch (line 24).

3

READ lines 25-77 and say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones. The narrator is still fascinated by the East.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 16 TYPE B. Write not more than twelve lines about the theme of the alienation and fragmentation of modern life in the works of T.S. Eliot (I13.12), F.S. Fitzgerald (I15.3) and Dos Passos. Student’s writing activity. Suggestions:

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DISCUSS. How important are dreams and illusions in a man’s life? Do you think it is possible to devote a whole life to fulfilling a desire? Student’s activity.

1

READ lines 78-116 and answer the questions below.

1

What was Gatsby’s house like when Nick left? It was empty and the grass had grown long, which was a sign of neglect. (lines 78-79). Why did Nick spend his Saturday nights in New York? Because he could still remember Gatsby’s parties, and the memory was painful (lines 84-87). What does he mean when he says that ‘the party was over’? He meant that Gatsby was dead (line 89). What did he find when he visited the house for the last time? He found an obscene word on the white step and erased it (lines 91-93). Where did he go after that? What did he think about? He went to the beach and lay down on the sand (lines 94-95). He thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he saw the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock for the first time (lines 106-107). What was Gatsby’s failure, according to Nick? He had failed by thinking he could achieve his

2

3

4

5

6

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ANALYSIS 5

CHOOSE from among the following to define the narrator, Nick Carraway. The story is told from his point of view He is involved in the action He observes and comments upon the action He is omniscient He is objective and detached He is the author’s moral conscience

6

FOCUS ON the use of tenses and say whether the story is narrated in chronological order. Why do you think Fitzgerald chose this type of narrative? At lines 28-29 the tense shifts into the present: the picture in the narrator’s mind is thus made alive. This shift also underlines that the previous and following sections are flashbacks. Another shift into the present occurs at the end of the passage where the narrator’s words take on a universal meaning.

7

ANALYSE the character of the man with owleyed glasses. A

B

Has he got a name? What does the narrator call him? Is his physical appearance described? No, the narrator does not know his name. He calls him ‘Owl Eyes’. The only detail regarding his physical appearance is the one of the glasses. The narrator just describes his actions. Underline them and try to explain their meaning.

Actions

Meaning

Splashing after us (line 6) He wanted to be on time for the funeral Marvelling over Gatsby’s library

He admires Gatsby’s house

Took off his glasses and wiped them to see

He was interested in the ceremony

Said ‘Amen to that’

He participated

Said ‘The poor son-of-abitch’

He felt sympathy towards Gatsby

343

Soluzioni

4

dream through material power and romantic devotion. He had not realised that his dream was already behind him (lines 108-110).

TEXT BANK

False: he decides to leave it because he finds it distorted (lines 37-40). 2 He pictures West Egg to himself as a grotesque painting. True (lines 28-31). 3 The people in the East are happy and concerned. False: they are sick and drunk, and they do not care (lines 33-35). 4 The narrator looks forward to speaking to Tom Buchanan. False: he slows up to avoid overtaking (line 44). 5 Tom’s behaviour is very polite. False: his actions are rude, for example he grabs Nick’s arm (line 53-54). 6 Wilson had gone to Tom’s house to kill him. False: he wanted to know who the owner of the car was (lines 57-58). 7 Tom thought that Gatsby had run Myrtle over. True (lines 61-62). 8 The narrator knows it was not true. True (lines 63-64). 9 Tom had moved to the flat he used to share with his mistress Myrtle. False: he had given it up (lines 65-66). 10 The narrator sympathises with Tom. False: he cannot forgive him and does not like him (lines 68-69).

8

9

FOCUS ON Tom Buchanan. Make notes about his way of walking alert, aggressive, to fight off interference (lines 41-43). his head moving sharply here and there (line 43). his eyes restless (line 44). How would you describe his character? He is rude, a man of direct action based on selfpreservation and self-interest rather than any idealism. WRITE DOWN the phrases from the text referring to Daisy and say what kind of person she is. Hadn’t sent a message or a flower (lines 14-15). Smashed up things and creatures (line 70). Retreated back into money and carelessness (line 71). Let other people clean up the mess they had made (lines 72-73). She is ‘careless’ with the power that comes with wealth; completely self-centred with the selfishness of moral primitives.

his life to an empty dream. Nick represents a hope for moral and spiritual growth, especially at the end, when he decides to return home to the West.

YOUR TURN 13 COMPARE The Great Gatsby and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (I14.6) as regards: •

•

•

•

14 EXPLAIN in what sense Fitzgerald’s work may be regarded as:

10 FIND the dominant image in the lines devoted to the funeral. What atmosphere does it create? The rain is the dominant image. It reinforces the gloomy sad atmosphere of loneliness and desolation.

An autobiographical work Fitzgerald wrote about deeply felt experiences (see his biography: the kind of life he led after his marriage, his relationship with his wife Zelda, the fact he was haunted by money and success) and used them to illustrate general truths. A document of American society in the 1920s He dramatized the dreams and illusions which he felt to be the core of America’s greatness and loss of greatness. He described the Jazz Age, a world in which idealism had been corrupted into appetite and the demands of materialism, a world which had lost innocence and had become superficial and morally empty.

11 FOCUS on the symbols in the text.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

1

2

3

Point out the signs of power Gatsby has surrounded himself with. His house, his parties, his prodigality. What image stands out as the symbol of his hopes and dreams? The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. The myth of the ‘American Dream’ is introduced by means of a comparison. Point out its terms and try to explain its meaning. Gatsby’s wonder is compared to the wonder of the first American settlers.His dream is compared to the dream of the Dutch sailors, the vision of a New World, of unbounded opportunities, of a potential garden of Eden.

12 SAY what Gatsby and Nick stand for. Gatsby is the embodiment of spiritual desolation or waste, since he has devoted all

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The narrative technique; Both novels reject chronological narration and use fragmentation of time and flashbacks. The figure of the narrator; Both Marlow and Nick are retrospective narrators and participants in the novels. The hero; Both Kurtz and Gatsby are alone at the end, both driven by their faithfulness to a vision: Kurtz, the idealist, losing touch with feeling; Gatsby, the romantic egotist, losing touch with reason. The author’s aim. Both Conrad’s and Fitzgerald’s aim is moralistic; Fitzgerald’s is also aesthetic.

T113

The Negro Speaks of Rivers Langston Hughes The Weary Blues (1926)

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS. What does the symbol of the river usually connote? Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2

READ the poem and underline the rivers mentioned by the speaker. Then consider the situations connected to each river and say what idea they evoke. Complete the table below:

Rivers

Situations

Ideas

The Euphrates

Dawns were young, i.e. it was the beginning of civilisation

Freedom (suggested by ‘bathed’)

The Congo

I built my hut, it lulled me to sleep, Freedom i.e. the beginning of the black race

The Nile

Raised the pyramids

The Mississippi

Heard the singing when Abe Lincoln Emancipation of black Americans went down

Slavery (black men were brought there as slaves)

LOOK at the layout of the poem and say how many parts make it up. Then comment on the way each section is arranged. Does the poem have a rhyme scheme and a traditional metre? The poem is made up of five parts which are arranged symmetrically: part 1 (2 lines: lines 1-2), part 2 (1 line: line 3), part 3 (4 lines: lines4-7), part 4 (2 lines: lines 8-9), part 5 (1 line: line 10). No, it is written in free verse.

4

POINT OUT some of the sound devices that Hughes employs. Refrain-like repetitions: ‘I’ve known rivers’; ‘My soul has grown deep like the rivers.’

5

DEFINE the tone of the poem and explain how the sound patterns you have analysed so far contribute to evoke a certain atmosphere. The tone is meditative and thoughtful. This is underlined by the alternating of shorter and longer sections and the use of repetition which reproduces the rhythm of black music.

6

FOCUS ON the ‘I’ of the poem. Do you think it stands for the subjective ‘I’ of the poet or a collective ‘I’? It is a collective ‘I’ referring to the black man.

7

WRITE DOWN the experiences the ‘I’ has gone through and highlight what they have brought to him:

Experiences

Result

I’ve known rivers

My soul has grown deep like rivers

I bathed I built I looked … and raised I heard I’ve see it turn golden

Then point out the device Hughes uses to convey the identification between the ‘I’ and the rivers. He uses simile. 8

EXPLAIN the message Hughes is trying to express by choosing the word ‘soul’ in the final line of the poem. This is the definition of ‘soul’ given by a dictionary of Afro-American talk: ‘Soul: the sensitivity and emotional essence that derives from the blues; the heritage that is black; a natural

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345

Soluzioni

3

TEXT BANK

ANALYSIS

process; black authenticity; feeling for one’s roots, as demonstrated in black music and literature.’ Hughes wants to say that as the rivers change with time, so does the soul of black men (line 10). The blacks have seen the beginning of civilisation and will survive in a future America by revaluing their roots and authenticity. 9

FIND the lines which underline the idea of development linked to the river. Lines 4-9.

1

What does the transformation symbolise? The magic transformation of the Mississippi from mud into gold symbolises the passage from slavery to freedom. Why do you think Hughes chose the image of the river? The river is the symbol of eternity; the black man has bathed in it and drank its water, so he has become immortal and his soul has grown deeper.

2

Rivers.’ He believed in the ‘American Dream’ and saw America as a nation in progress.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 11 TYPE B. Discuss the way Hughes deals with the problem of being Afro-American in a country to which black people belong but which exploits and marginalises them. Write 10-12 lines. Student’s writing activity. Suggestion: He believed in the need to preserve and exalt the characteristics of the black people and looked at Africa as the place where the roots of the black people could be retrieved. Students should also point out Hughes’s leading role in the Harlem Renaissance.

Specification 16 T114

The unknown citizen

YOUR TURN 10 GO THROUGH this extract from Hughes’s autobiography The Big Sea and say what insight it provides into: 1

2

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Soluzioni

346

the poet’s method of composition; his method of composition was not traditional: he worked by association and was influenced by the mood of the moment, like blues singers. his view of America. ‘... Now it was just sunset, and we crossed the Mississippi, slowly, over a long bridge. I looked out of the window of the Pullman at the great muddy river flowing down toward the heart of the South, and I began to think what that river, the old Mississippi, had meant to Negroes in the past – how to be sold down the river was the worst fate that could overtake a slave in times of bondage. Then I remembered reading how Abraham Lincoln had made a trip down the Mississippi on a raft to New Orleans, and how he had seen slavery at its worst, and had decided within himself that it should be removed from American life. Then I began to think about other rivers in our past – the Congo, and the Niger, and the Nile in Africa – and the thought came to me: ‘I’ve known rivers’, and I put it down on the back of an envelope I had in my pocket, and within the space of ten or fifteen minutes, as the train gathered speed in the dusk, I had written this poem, which I called The Negro Speaks of

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Wystan Hugh Auden Another Time (1940) II. Lighter Poems

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS. Do you usually trust statistics? Why/why not? How do you think they can contribute to the welfare of society? Student’s activity.

2

DISCUSS What role does conformism play in people’s lives as far as their speech, behaviour, fashion and ideas are concerned? In your opinion, who or what should be held responsible for our tendency to conform? Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 3

READ the epigraph to the poem. What does it remind you of? The epigraph to the poem is a parody of the symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorating unidentified soldiers; tombs of unknown soldiers were first created following the First World War.

4

READ the poem and find out: who the speaker is: a spokesman for the State Bureau of Statistics.

how the citizen is referred to: a saint, as one against whom there was no official complaint, a perfect citizen. what the speaker wonders about: whether the citizen was free and happy. GATHER information about the unknown citizen.Fill in the table with the details about his life and the sources of information mentioned: Details

Sources

Job

Workman in a factory

Fudge Motors Inc.

Everyday habits

Bought a paper

The Press

Health

Was once in hospital

His health-card

Possessions

Phonograph, radio, car, fridge

Producers Research

Family life

Married with five children

Our Eugenist

Education

Never interfered

His teachers

7

GROUP the information about the citizen’s personality under these headings: his conduct: no official complaint (line 2), never got fired (line 7), he served the Greater Community (line 5). his views: he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views (line 9), he held the proper opinions (line 23). his relationship with his mates: he was popular and he liked a drink (line 13). SUM UP in your own words the qualities of the citizen praised in the poem. He was an ordinary man, he worked, had a family, served his country. He participated in society, was orthodox in his views, never rebelled against authority and bought material goods.

ANALYSIS 8

IDENTIFY the rhyme patterns and comment on the function of the couplet in the last two lines. The rhyme patterns are: a b

alternate rhymes (ABAB) couplets (AA-BB) The couplet in the last two lines sums up the argument of the whole poem. Focus on the run-on line in lines 1-2. What is its effect? To give pace to the poem by stressing ‘to be’.

9

UNDERLINE the words beginning with capital letters and say what effect is obtained through this device. Tick as appropriate:

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it achieves personification it makes the poem sound serious and official it imitates the style of advertising it stresses important words 10 CONSIDER the variety of register in the poem. Provide examples of bureaucratic language, slang and everiday speech. lines 1-2; ‘reports’ (line 3), ‘prove’ (line 16), ‘declare’ (line 18), ‘question’ (line 28). slang: ‘scab’ (line 9). everyday speech: ‘he was a saint’ (line 4), ‘got fired’ (line 7), ‘he liked a drink’ (line 13), ‘mates’ (line 13). 11 FIND some examples of irony and explain them. Line 4; ‘Fudge Motors Inc.’ (line 8; to fudge means to avoid making a clear and definite decision or statement); line 15; lines 18-19; line 23; lines 28-29. Through the anonymity of the citizen and the names referring to the institutions, Auden conveys a satirical description of life in the consumer society. 12 EXPLAIN in your own words the view of modern society presented in the poem. It is a materialistic, technological society in an urban environment, where there is no place for imagination, feelings and spiritual depth. In such a context life is seen as a question of statistics rather than individual happiness.

347

Soluzioni

6

TEXT BANK

5

Stanza 3 The speaker is taking a break from giving orders and instead reflects on the loss of love and what the person meant to him. Stanza 4 The speaker says that life is pointless now that his love is dead.

13 DEFINE the poet’s aim. Tick as appropriate: he acts as a public, committed voice he speculates about man’s condition he wants to moralise and teach

YOUR TURN 14 DISCUSS the relevance of this statement to the poem. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), whose works Auden knew well, once said: ‘I am a man, not a number; put me in a system and you negate me’. What other influences can you perceive in the poem? Class discussion. Auden is concerned with the danger of state control over the individual, who is denied his personality and praised for conformity. The other influences which can be perceived in the poem are Freud’s psychological theories and Marx’s idea of man’s alienation under capitalism.

ANALYSIS 2

WRITE down the rhyme scheme. Is it regular? The poem has a regular rhyme scheme: aa bb cc dd ee ff gg hh.

3

SAY how the poem begins and why the speaker uses so many imperatives. The beginning of the poem is in medias res. The use of demanding imperatives gives the poem a dramatic quality. The speaker also wants to inform the readers of his authority in order to magnify his sorrow.

4

FIND the contrasting images. The contrasting images are light vs dark (white - black), life vs death (working – rest).

5

UNDERLINE the words related to the sense of hearing and to the measuring of time. They are in the first stanza: ‘clock’, ‘telephone’, ‘dog’ … ‘barking’, ‘pianos’, ‘drum’, ‘mourners’. Why does the speaker want to silence the clocks and telephones? The clock being stopped may signify the fact that he who died has run out of time and also to ask those who knew him to stop what they are doing and reflect. The telephone being cut off brings forth the idea of silence. Auden does this to show the deceased the respect they deserve. He believes in honouring the dead with a moment of silence to pay respect.

6

FIND the personification in the second stanza. The planes are given human qualities and so are transformed into servants of mourning.

7

EXPLAIN the symbolic meaning of the word ‘circle’ in line 5. It is a symbolical reference to the circle of life. The pointlessness of flying in circles is compared to the speaker’s life without his love.

8

ANALYSE the metaphor used in lines 9 and 14.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 15 TYPE B. Consider the elements you have gathered in your analysis of Auden’s poems and say what aspects of his technique are modern. Write 10 to 12 lines. Student’s activity. Suggestion: The complexity of form, the range of subjects, particularly the concern with the theme of alienation inside modern society, and his verbal energy.

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Soluzioni

T115

Funeral blues Wystan Hugh Auden Another Time (1940) II. Lighter Poems

COMPREHENSION 1

348

READ the poem and write a caption to describe the content of each stanza. Stanza 1 The speaker introduces the mourning for the death of a loved one by giving orders to achieve silence. Stanza 2 The speaker continues to give orders and acknowledges death.

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The poet uses the metaphor of the compass: it shows that his lover was everything to the speaker. These markings are most often found on a compass, which gives direction. Having lost his ‘compass’ (lover) the speaker’s life loses direction also. Finally, ‘the stars are not wanted now’ again emphasises the uselessness and worthlessness of a life without love. Why do you think the speaker wants to remove the moon and the sun? Removing the sun would eliminate the cycle of day and night, and so allow time to drift into an endless and painless oblivion. Auden gives us the sense that measured time is

ultimately meaningless because it is relative: for some, time moves all too rapidly; for those who have lost everything time stands still. 9

DESCRIBE the poet’s attitude in line 12. Auden evolves the mood of sorrow into disappointed anger. His romantic expectation clashes with hard reality.

10 EXPLAIN how the hyperbole in the last line adds to the poem. The exaggerated ending underlines the depth of the speaker’s grief.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 11 TYPE B. Draw a comparison between W.B. Yeats (I13.10), T.S. Eliot (I13.12) and W.H. Auden as regards choice of poetic forms; language; themes; view of the function of poetry. Auden

choice of poetic forms

Employed a great deal of Used a mixture of different Used a mixture of forms forms and stylistic devices. styles. (free verse, rhyme, metre).

language

Sensual language, dynamic syntax, recurring symbols.

Metaphor and symbol Energetic language, replaced direct statement. everyday speech.

themes

Irishness, love, old age, death, history.

Myth, the spiritual quest, alienation, hope for redemption.

Dualism, alienation, death, technology, quest for a new society and a new self.

view of the function of poetry

The role of the poet was to create a new culture, based on Ireland’s past, which could be shared by all the Irish people alike.

The poet has not a personality to express but is a medium in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar ways.

The poet’s task is to act as a public voice, to tell stories from which each may draw his conclusion.

T116

September 1, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden Another Time (1940) III. Occasional Poems

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the first three stanzas of the poem and answer these questions. Stanza 1 a Where is the poet? He is sitting in a bar in Fifty-second Street in New York. b How does he feel and why? He feels uncertain and afraid because waves of war

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circulate over the earth together with the smell of death. Stanza 2 a What ‘culture’ is the poet referring to in line 15? The German culture (the poem was written on the occasion of the German invasion of Poland). b Who is the ‘psychopathic god’ in line 18? Hitler. c What do the poet and his readers know for sure? They know that those who have received some evil do evil in return. Stanza 3 a How do dictators get power? They get the power by talking rubbish to apathetic listeners.

349

Soluzioni

Eliot

TEXT BANK

Yeats

b

2

READ stanzas 4-6 and explain: a

b

c

3

a

What are the consequences of dictatorship? The death of reason (line 30), the risk of getting used to pain (line 31), bad government and suffering (line 32).

the wrongs Auden denounces in stanza 4; The blindness of materialism and competition, the euphoria of dreams of greatness, imperialism and international politics. the condition of man described in stanza 5; Men live average dull days in the name of conventions in order to create a sort of fortress where they can feel safe or where they can escape from truth. Modern men are like children who have never been happy or good. Man’s terrible mistake as it is presented in stanza 6. His mistake is to wish what he cannot have, that is, all forms of love just for himself. The poet is suggesting that Man should pursue universal love instead.

b

c

d

6

READ the last three stanzas and discuss:

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

• what the poet wonders about; He wonders who will be able to free the dull men, to reach the deaf and speak for the dumb (Stanza 7). • what his task is; His task is ‘to undo the folded lie’, both man’s private sensual lie of living in a dream and the lie of Authority (lines 78-82). • his attitude towards the state and authority; He thinks that Authority and the State build skyscrapers to impress Man but he must seek universal love otherwise his only choice will be to die (lines 83-88). • his final wish. He wishes he could be part of the Just, of those people who stay awake in the night with a candle lit to witness their despair and their wish for peace.

350

SAY how the poem is organised. Is there a regular rhyme scheme? The poem is organised into 9 stanzas of 11 lines each. It doesn’t have a regular rhyme scheme.

5

ANALYSE the language employed in the first stanza.

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PICK OUT the words connected with psychoanalysis in the second stanza. The words are: ‘unearth, mad, imago, psychopathic’. a

b

What relationship of cause and effect is the poet concerned with? He is concerned with the fact that those to whom evil is done do evil in return. What do Hitler and ‘I and the public’ have in common? He is not interested in Hitler as a political but as a human personality and states that all men are somehow evil.

7

PROVIDE some examples of the juxtaposition of low and lofty registers in the third stanza. Lofty register: ‘exiled Thucydides’, ‘enlightenment’, ‘grief’. Low register: ‘elderly rubbish’, ‘apathetic grave’, ‘habit-forming’, ‘Mismanagement’. Why is the poet thinking of Thucydides? Just as Thucydides wrote about the fall of Athens and its democracy, Auden realises the great change awaiting modern democracy. Nazi Germany resembled Sparta while the civilised world was modern Athens. Where does he find the origin of the ‘malaise’ of his time? Not in the rubbish contained in the dictators’ speeches, but in the apathy of their listeners.

8

FOCUS ON the fourth and fifth stanzas.

ANALYSIS 4

What is the atmosphere set by ‘dives of Fifty-second Street’ like? The atmosphere is that of a popular place: concrete and realistic. It conveys an idea of permanence which, however, will be upset by the second part of the stanza. What are the ‘clever hopes’ of line 4? They imply several ideas: pacifism, all the events that encouraged the rise of Nazism and Fascism in Europe. The result is satirical. Why does Auden speak of a ‘low dishonest decade’? Because he implies the collective guilt of those nations that were involved in World War I and did not do enough to prevent the danger of a second slaughter. What do ‘waves’ and ‘circulate’ refer to? They are the radio waves which circulate the news regarding the German invasion of Poland. Anger and fear are the content of the radio broadcast.

a

b

c

9

Why is the air ‘neutral’? The adjective explicitly refers to America’s neutral position at the beginning of the war. Why are the skyscrapers ‘blind’? What does their height actually proclaim? They are blind because they refuse to see what is going on and in this way they reflect the indifference and the political ideas of those who have built them. Their height proclaims the economic strength of the Collective Man but also his paralysis, his apathy. How does the fifth stanza reinforce the theme of the previous one? The metaphor of the fort (line 50) is the ironic counterpart to the uncertainty and meanness deriving from an apathetic society.

LINES 56-66 deal with the central theme of the poem. In his attempt to find out the origin of the new tragedy the world is going to face, Auden shifts from the political world to the private one. Where are the roots of what he calls ‘error’? The mistake is our selfishness, our readiness to

blame authority for the world’s wrongs. The distinction Auden makes is between the generous and the selfish, between giving and taking, loving and having. 10 CONSIDER the figure of the poet in the last three stanzas. How have his collocation and perspective changed since the beginning of the poem? At the beginning of the poem the poet performs the part of a reporter who is sitting in a bar in New York and hears the news of the invasion of Poland on the radio. His perspective is that of the people of the street. In line 78 there is a shift from impersonal objectivity to a highly personal perspective. It is the second time that the poet has spoken in the first person but this time his is the voice of pain deriving from the realisation of the failure of mankind. How would you define the tone of the last stanza? The tone is that of a prayer. Suggestions: Teachers should point out that this poem contains references to the three influences on Auden’s development as a poet: the Marxist and Freudian ones and the religious one which marked his later works.

YOUR TURN 11 COMPARE this poem to Yeats’s Easter 1916 (I13.10) with the help of the table below:

Tone Role of the poet

September 1, 1939 Realistic, concrete language sometimes juxtaposed to lofty language. Semantic fields of psychoanalysis, politics and sorrow.

The shame of the collective guilt in front of the beginning of a new World War; the apathy of the modern world and its helplessness. Celebratory. From declamatory to intensely lyrical. To celebrate the leaders of the To denounce the public lies and let rebellion to turn them into symbols his voice be heard in order to create of the Irish heritage that all the Irish a model of moral behaviour. people can share.

12 DISCUSS. This poem appeared in many of the memorials that sprang up throughout New York City in response to the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th 2001. It was reprinted in a variety of Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

newspapers across the country. Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky commented how ‘More often than not, the best poems about an event are written long before it happens... [They] anticipated, in indelible form, things

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Soluzioni

Theme

Easter 1916 Use of extended metaphors (Enchanted to a stone // To trouble the living stream) and oxymoron (a terrible beauty); semantic area of the theatre to denote hypocrisy. Political commitment, the sacrifice of heroes in the name of freedom, the contradictions of nationalism.

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Language

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that many were saying or feeling.’ What part of Auden’s poem can be re-read in the light of this historical event? Class discussion. Suggestions: What’s striking about ‘September 1, 1939’ is how precisely it matches much of what happened on September 11th 2001, how weirdly prescient it seems. Of course, that’s the point: fanaticism and violence are cyclical— ‘The habit-forming pain,/ Mismanagement and grief:/ We must suffer them all again’ (Lines 31-33). The passages that actually seem more specific to September 11th than to the poem’s occasion are ‘Where blind skyscrapers use/ Their full height to proclaim/ The strength of Collective Man,’ (lines 35-37) and ‘Into the ethical life/ The dense commuters come’ (lines 68-69). The poem, which is set in Manhattan, opens with the ‘unmentionable odour of death/ Offend[ing] the September night,’ (lines 10-11) something it could have done only figuratively in 1939, and the poem closes with a candlelight vigil: ‘May I [...]/ Beleaguered by the same/ Negation and despair,/ Show an affirming flame.’ Even when Auden is writing explicitly about Hitler, his language could hardly be altered to better fit the hijackers. Borrowing terms from Jungian psychoanalysis, he wonders ‘What huge imago made/ A psychopathic god.’ (lines 17-18). Other appropriate lines may be: ‘Those to whom evil is done/ Do evil in return’(lines 21-22) and ‘There is no such thing as the State/ And no one exists alone [...]/ We must love one another or die’ (lines 84-88) or ‘Defenceless under the night / Our world in stupor lies’ (lines 89-90).

and discuss it in general terms, while the second half of the poem develops and illustrates the general idea with a specific example. 2

FOCUS ON lines 1-13 and explain: • who the Old Masters were; They were the Renaissance painters. • what they could understand; They could accurately understand individual human suffering viewed with apathy by others. • the two exceptional events quoted by the poet; The first event is Christ’s birth which is awaited with reverence and passion by aged people (possible reference to the Magi). The second event is a martyrdom. • the reactions of the people and animals in the surroundings. The people are indifferent: the children are skating and do not seem to want what is going to happen; the dogs and the horse continue their activities.

3

READ lines 14-21 and do these activities. • Summarise the myth of Icarus in your own words. In Greek mythology Icarus was the son of Daedalus. His father made him wax wings to escape from Crete but he flew too near the Sun, the wax melted and he fell into the Aegean Sea. • Describe Bruegel’s picture. What elements does Auden insist upon? Bruegel’s painting presents Icarus, a tiny figure in the bottom right with only his pale legs visible, who dives below the waves in a cloud of feathers, and no one else in the painting seems to notice. The fall of Icarus occupies a very small portion of the canvas compared to the space devoted to the figure of the ploughman, the animals and the ship. Auden, instead insists on Icarus’s fall as the symbol of human tragedy.

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Musée des Beaux Arts

ANALYSIS 4

CONSIDER the rhyme scheme. Is it regular? No, the poem is written in free verse. How does this affect the tone of the poem? In Auden’s lyric, the long irregular lines, subtly enforced by the irregular end rhyme pattern, create a casual, conversational tone which is more prosaic than poetic.

5

FOCUS ON the language of the poem. How would you define it? It is simple and colloquial

Wystan Hugh Auden Another Time (1940) I. People and Places

COMPREHENSION 1

352

READ the poem. It is divided into two parts related to one another. Say what the poet introduces in each of them. The first thirteen lines of the poem introduce the poem’s theme

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(line 13). Circle the adverbs used by the poet: what do they suggest about this world’s attitude towards tragedy? The adverbs are ‘dully’ (line 4); ‘reverently’, ‘passionately’ (line 5); ‘leisurely’ (line 15); ‘calmly’ (line 21). They suggest the laziness and indifference of the world both towards miracles and tragedies. Only the aged seem to retain some passion and respect. Auden’s poem tries to disenchant or deromanticise death, martyrdom and suffering. 6

EXPLAIN the theme of the poem and the poet’s aim. The poem explores the enduring human response to tragedy and challenges the accepted categorisation of ‘ordinary’ life experiences. Juxtaposing images of suffering and tragedy with the banal actions of everyday life, it suggests that individual tragedies are individual burdens as humankind responds with indifference. What does he challenge the reader to do? The poem places the reader in front of a painting in a

museum, challenging the reader to develop the analogy between the world within the painting and the world outside the museum. By leading the reader through various periods of time (through the images in the poem), a continuity of events is implied. The perspective shifts constantly to put the reader into the position of being able to see, to see things in a way one normally would not see. Such shifts make the reader ‘aware of his human position.’

YOUR TURN 7

DISCUSS Do you think that Auden’s lines can be applied to today’s reality? Can you provide some examples of the juxtaposition of suffering with the banal actions of everyday life? Class discussion. Suggestion: An example could be that of the individual who reads of human tragedy in the newspaper as he/ she engages in a mundane activity such as consuming breakfast.

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The Force That through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower Dylan Thomas Eighteen poems (1934)

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the first three stanzas and complete the diagram below, bearing in mind that ‘ ‘ means ‘interaction’. Macrocosm / Nature Force

Minerals Decay / Death

Man - Microcosm

1 2 3

Is the energy of the universe identical to that through which the poet lives? Yes, all life, both animal and vegetable, is generated by the same energy. How does this energy work? It follows the following natural law: birth  life  death. Which analogies are established in the final couplet of each stanza? The poet is unable to explain the process ‘life- death’ he is only aware of it.

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Soluzioni

Mountains

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Vegetables

2

1 2 3

3

READ the rest of the poem and complete the following sentences using the words from the list below. love - decays - love - heaven The fourth stanza refers to the power of love. Love provides the justification for life and survival. Everything grows old, decays and dies, and is embraced by the whole of heaven. STATE what each stanza stresses. The poet’s inability to express the process lifedeath.

3

4 5

6 7

Layout of each stanza: each stanza is composed of two long lines, a short line and two long lines. Run-on lines: lines 1-2; 4-5, 6-7, 9-10, 11-12, 14-15, 17-18, 19-20, 21-22. Alliteration: force / fuse/ flower (line 1); bent / by (line 5); drives / dries (line 6); mouth / my (line 9), same / sucks (line 10); … Assonance: drives / my (line 2); my / by (line 5); my / lime (line 15), … Repetition of words: ‘green’ (lines 1-2); ‘And I am dumb’ (lines 4, 9, 14, 19, 21).

5

IDENTIFY the function/s each item fulfils within the poem. It points out particular concepts.

6

RECOGNISE the effect achieved by the recurring words ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘mine’. These sound devices underline that everything grows old, decays and dies.

ANALYSIS 4

TAKE NOTES about the sound devices used in this poem. Then fill in the blanks.

1 2

Basic iambic metre: The unstressed-stressed pattern can be found almost in all lines. Rhyme scheme: irregular rhyme scheme.

7

CONCENTRATE ON a recurring feature of the poem, the use of words with multiple meanings.

1

Look at the diagram below about the meanings associated with the word ‘fuse’: Stem of a flower

Fuse

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Explosion because of blasts (line 2)

2

Bomb (the combustible strip to ignite a bomb)

Draw similar diagrams concerning the various meanings of: ‘crooked rose’ (line 4); ‘quicksand’ (line 12); ‘shroud sail’ (line 13); ‘fountain head’ (line 16); ‘lover’s tomb’ (line 21). Position: bent, crooked

Dishonest, involved in crime

Crooked rose

Smile, grin

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Death

Paralysis

Quicksand

Imprisonment Death

Secret

Shroud sail

Hiding-place Life

Spring

Fountain head

Fertility Love, life because of ‘lovers’

End of love / life

Lover’s tomb

FILL in the following table with words belonging to the semantic areas of: ‘Youth’, ‘Growth/Force’, ‘Decay/Death’.

Youth ‘flower’ (line 1), ‘green age’ (line 2), ‘youth’ (line 5), ‘red blood’ (line 7), ‘fountain head’ (line 16).

Growth/Force ‘force’ (line 1), ‘drives’ (line 1), ‘blasts’ (line 2), ‘the hand that whirls’ (line 11), ‘love drips’ (line 17).

Decay/Death ‘dries’ (line 7), ‘wax’ (line 8), ‘quicksand’ (line 12), ‘shroud sail’ (line 13), ‘clay’ (line 15), ‘leech’ (line 16), ‘fallen blood’ (line 17).

What is the most recurring colour? What is it the symbol of? The most recurring colour is ‘green’ which is the symbol of life. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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Soluzioni

8

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Contrast life / death

9

EXPLAIN the images you have listed in the previous task using the diagram below. Tenor

Common Ground

Vehicle

Youth Force death

Spring of life, action, movement, lack of life, they deprive man of life

Flower The hand that whirls Clay leech

10 CHOOSE among the following statements the one that best expresses the theme of the poem.

1

all forms of life, both animal and vegetable, are subject to the same natural laws the force that controls the growth of human life is similar to the one working in nature the poet is unable to explain the antithetical processes caused by natural forces

2

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 11 TYPE B. Write ten/twelve lines to explain how Dylan Thomas’s approach differed from the committed intellectualism of Auden (I16. 2). Consider the following:

3 4 5 6

2

1 subject matter; 2 the language; 3 the themes of their poems. Student’s writing activity.

The child’s perception of the life existing within nature during the night: stanza 3 The lost world of childhood re-created thanks to the recollection of the farm landscapes, birds and beasts: stanza 2 The child’s different perception of time: stanza 5 The world’s coming back to its original beauty with the new day: stanza 4 Intimations of mutability and mortality: stanza 6 The poet introduces a tale about his childhood: stanza 1 FILL in the blanks with the details about the poet’s remembrances concerning his childhood.

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Thomas’s childhood tale is told not ‘once upon’ but ‘once below a time ’. The child/poet is the only person in the poem: he used to wander all around the farm perceiving the time passing slowly during the happy days. The boy’s excited delight/happiness/feelings in the fields was/were created by beasts like the calves singing to his horn and rural sounds like the tunes from the chimneys. Night, too, and its natural worlds of owls and night-jars protected the child who went on living within the farm world even during the/his sleep. There were, however, indirect suggestions of mutability and mortality, for soon came lengthening shadows and migrating swallows at the end of summer.

12 TYPE B. Explain similarities and differences between the poetry belonging to the Romantic tradition and Dylan Thomas’s in a ten- /twelveline essay. Student’s activity. Suggestion: The themes of love and death; the idea that nature where human sensations and feelings are reflected; childhood and growing up link Dylan Thomas to the Romantic tradition. The importance he gave to musicality is another significant linking factor. A difference might be the more approachable language used by Thomas.

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Fern HillI

ANALYSIS 3

LOOK at the layout and say how the poem is organised. There are six nine-line stanzas; the corresponding lines, with rare exceptions, have the same number of syllables.

4

FIND examples of assonance, alliteration, run-on lines.

Dylan Thomas Death and Entrances (1946)

COMPREHENSION 1

356

READ the poem and match each caption with the corresponding stanza.

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Here are some examples. Assonance: time/climb (line 4), rivers/ windfall (line 9), happy/as (line 11), …fled/ land (line 51), … Alliteration: house/happy (line 2), grass/ green (line 2), heydays/his (line 5), green/ golden (line 15), house/high/hay (line 41), … Run-on line: lines 1-8, 10-16, … Also the repetition of the word ‘green’ (lines 2,

the association of images generally belonging to different semantic areas; the magic, religious relationship established between the child and the surrounding nature; the time perceived from the child’s point of view. Circle all the relevant expressions linked to these devices and collect your data in the table below:

Associations of image

Magic relationship with nature

New perception of time

‘Apple-towns’ (line 6); ‘Had the trees and leaves … barley’ (lines 7-8); ‘I was green’ (line 10); ‘The tunes from the chimneys’ (line 20); ‘Fire green as grass’ (line 22) ‘Chains … sea’ (line 54).

‘Calves sang to my horn’ (lines 15-16); ‘Holy streams’ (line 18); ‘Blessed among stables’ (line 25); ‘The spell-bound horses’ (line 34); ‘Honoured among foxes and pheasants’ (line 37).

‘Once below a time’ (line 7); ‘Time let me hail and climb’ (line 4); ‘Time let me play and be’ (line 13); ‘All the sun long it was running’ (line 19); ‘As I rode to sleep’ (line 24); ‘And the sun … very day’ (line 32).

2

3

4

What do the image associations point out? They point out that the rural settings remembered by the child were part of his emotional and sensuous life. Is nature conveyed with realism by the poet? Nature is not conveyed with the static realism of a still-life presentation but through an active, emotional evocation. How is the time perceived by the child? Time moves slowly when the child wanders all around the farm during the summer; however slow movements alternate with fast movements in his mind. In the 3rd stanza, for example, when the child falls asleep after an exciting day, he continues to perceive the moving of time.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 7

TYPE B. Explain in a ten-/twelve-line essay whether Dylan Thomas shared William Blake’s (I7.4) and William Wordsworth’s (I8.3) idea of childhood as the ideal age for man. Student’s activity. Suggestion: Dylan Thomas neither philosophies, like Wordsworth, on childhood’s lost visionary ‘gleam’, nor evokes it with the simplicity of Blake, but re-creates in a physical and direct way the experience of his childhood.

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EXPLAIN the symbol of the farm in the fourth stanza and the theme of the poem.

1

The farm is made the symbol of a heavenly childish innocence like a kind of Garden of Eden. The theme of the poem is the wish for a rural world where man can live happily in permanent contact with nature.

2

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Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) and Brave New World 1

ANSWER the following questions about Aldous Huxley’s works.

1

What did Huxley write? He wrote novels, travel-books, short stories, biographies and essays about various subjects,

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Soluzioni

1

CONCENTRATE ON the childish images and visions characterised by innocence, immediacy and excitement contained in the poem. The most important devices employed by the poet to create the boy’s ecstatic movement, ‘his heydays’ and ‘fairy flight’, are:

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5

10, 54) and the phrase ‘green and golden’ (lines 15, 44) increase musicality. What is the effect produced by these musical devices? Tick as appropriate: They contribute to create precise images. They create great ease and rapidity of movement, combined with a precision of form. They create a difficult poetic pattern.

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3

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3

4

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6

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Brave New World (1932) 2

ANSWER the following questions about Brave New World.

1

Where does the title of this novel come from? It comes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, when Miranda, the daughter of the main protagonist who has grown up in isolation on an island, seeing other human beings for the first time, says: ‘How beauteous mankind is! Oh brave new world that has such people in it!’. When does it take place? The novel is set in A. F. 632 (a. d. 2540) – A. F. = ‘after Ford’; the Ford in question is the American Henry Ford,

2

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like painting, music, science, philosophy, and religion. What did he express in his early works? What did these novels mock? He expressed a refusal of ‘modern civilisation’, its mechanisation and corrupted rationalism. The apparent positive surface of these novels is only used to mock the intellectual mood of the 1920s, and to express the writer’s bitter satirical attitude, pessimism and scepticism. What does the setting of his second novel remind you of? Huxley’ s second novel, Antic Hay (1923), is set in post-war London, which has much in common with T.S. Eliot’ s The Waste Land: it is a world of ‘broken images’, where the ‘dead tree gives no shelter’ and men and women try to forget the atrocities of war by living a crazy life; only in the world of pure Art can one hope to find some order to set against the prevailing anarchy. What kind of novel is Brave New World? It is a dystopian novel. What is the theme of his masterpiece? The theme of this novel is that the true enemy of mankind was ordinary human selfishness, which prevented man from seeing himself as a part of the great chain of beings. What new interests did he develop in the third phase of his literary production? Huxley’s pessimism as regards the future of modern man seems to have led him to explore metaphysics and mysticism in his third phase. These new interests made him experiment with various hallucinogenic drugs used to widen the area of consciousness, as the key to a deeper understanding of reality.

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who introduced the assembly-line in the car industry. What world has been created after a terrible Nine Years’ War? A new world has been created, where private property has been abolished and the State controls everything. People, both intellectuals and labourers, are classified and selected according to their future role in society; generation and birth are not natural, but artificially produced in hatcheries and conditioning centres, and from the time of their birth, people are brainwashed into a happy state. Who are the main characters? John, the Savage, is a ‘natural man’ who has the opportunity to leave his ‘wild’ country, a New Mexican village, to come into ‘civilisation’. At first he is attracted by the new world, but later on he, disgusted by almost everything he has seen in the Fordian society and, overwrought by his mother’s death for soma abuse, causes a riot. The other important character is Mustapha Mond, the Resident Controller for Western Europe and the villain of the book. What are the main themes? The most important themes are: the value of the individual in a highly organised society; whether people really want to be happy, whether or not hardship and sacrifice are essentials of human existence and what happens to human beings if utopias can be achieved. What are the most important stylistic features? The tone used in this novel is ironic, allusive, full of references and quotations; flashbacktechnique is frequently adopted to connect the various episodes of John’s past life to his new experiences. A constantly shifting point of view, often achieved through free indirect discourse, makes for a fluid narrative, which dissolves the author’s opinions into those of the characters.

The Conditioning Centre Aldous Huxley Brave New World (1932) Chapter 2

COMPREHENSION 1

DIVIDE this passage into three parts. Then write a heading for each section. 1st section: lines 1- 10  A strange hospital

ANSWER these questions.

1

What does the passage deal with? It deals with the conditioning treatment of children who will be incapable of an unpredictable passion. Where do you think this passage take place? The passage takes place in a hospital room. What are the babies’ main features? They are identical and they are all dressed in the same way. How are they identified? What does the colour of their clothes remind you of? They are identified with the letter ‘Delta’ of the Greek alphabet. The colour of their clothes – khaki – reminds us of a military uniform. What causes their delight and joy at the beginning? Bright roses and the pictures of natural objects. What does the conditioning treatment consist of? As soon as the babies start to touch the flowers and the pictures, a deafening explosion and electric shocks coming from the floor happen. What transformation do the children undergo? They are turned from autonomous individuals into victims. What is the point of connecting pleasure and pain in the treatment? This connection makes the babies hate nature for the rest of their lives. What is the result of the treatment? When the babies are shown the books and the roses again, they shriek with fear.

2 3

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6

7

8

9

ANALYSIS 3

DECIDE. Who is the narrator of the extract? From whose point of view is the conditioning process recounted? The narrator is a thirdperson omniscient narrator. The main point of view employed is that of the students, but Huxley shifts the point of view frequently taking us into the babies’ viewpoint (lines 19-20, 20-22, 42-44, 53-55).

4

FOCUS on the setting in place. What is it filled with? The setting in place, a luminous room, is filled with coloured books and bowls of roses.

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CONCENTRATE on the characters.

1

Who are the characters involved? What is their social role? The characters involved are: the Director, the nurses and the head nurse. The Director is the person in charge of the Central London Hatchery, the nurses and the head nurse work at the Hatchery. What kind of man is the Director? He is a figure of unquestioned authority. What characterises the nurses’ actions? They follow the Director’s orders without asking any questions. What verbs are linked to the children? The verbs linked to the children before the treatment are lively and point out the babies’ pleasure. After the treatment all the verbs are linked to their pain. What does the simile in line 38 point out? This simile points out that the babies are like puppets, because their actions are dictated by others, the nurses.

2 3

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6

IDENTIFY the climax of the text. It is in lines 29-31.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 7

TYPE B. Write ten/twelve lines to explain why Brave New World has been classified as a dystopian novel. Student’s writing activity. Suggestion: Students should develop these notes: Even if it is classified as Dystopian literature, Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ starts out looking much like a utopia. In fact the key ideas are happiness and free love. Sexual gratification is encouraged and even demanded. If one does not feel happy, one should take soma, a powerful drug with no ill side effects. Society is broken into castes where each group loves what they do, but they have been conditioned to love their role from the moment that they were ‘hatched’. Unlike savages, they use the Bokanovsky process in order to grow eggs in bottles where they are conditioned. People are conditioned to belong to everyone else and see death as normal. Knowing and happiness do not fit hand in hand. This novel is another case of totalitarian government gone wrong. Huxley himself classified this book as an anti-utopian story which had to be a warning of what may happen when government has control over the new and powerful up and coming technologies.

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Soluzioni

2

5

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2nd section: lines 11-49  The conditioning treatment 3rd section: lines 49-61  The results of the treatment

8

POINT OUT differences and similarities between the world depicted by Huxley in Brave New World and the one portrayed by G. Orwell (I16.8) in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Do not write more than ten lines. Student’s writing activity. Suggestion: The two books offer a glimpse into worlds that most people would prefer to stay far away from. They offer a glimpse into the future and what our future could be. They present a society that is in the grip of a totalitarian government; a society that began as an attempt toward a perfect world but ended as anything but Utopia. Having witnessed totalitarian government at first hand in Spain and Russia, Orwell published Nineteen

Eighty-Four in order to sound an alarm bell in the Western nations who were still unsure about how they would approach the rise of communism. Like Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four had warnings about the use of new technology in already oppressed societies. Nineteen Eighty-Four shows a society which uses modern technology in order to monitor and control society. The society is so controlled that even having disloyal thoughts is against the law. The Oceania of 1984 has parallels in both Stalinist Russia and Hitler’s Germany. There are informants everywhere and Big Brother is always watching. Along with Animal Farm and Brave New World, Nineteen eighty-Four has a rigid social caste system.

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Mustapha Mond Aldous Huxley Brave New World (1932) Chapter 3

COMPREHENSION 1

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Soluzioni

Section

Setting

People

First

Garden full of trees, flowering shrubs, roses

Six or seven hundred children; The Director The students A nurse

Second

The same garden

The DHC The Controller Mustapha Mond

Third

The ‘home’ Girls’ Dressing room

Mustapha Mond Lenina Crowne Fanny Crowne

2

READ the first section and answer the following questions.

1

When was the passage set? In the warm June sunshine (line 1) in ‘Our Ford’s day’ (line 14). What were the children wearing? They were all naked (line 1). What were they doing? They were running, playing ball games among the flowering shrubs (lines 1-5). What were the Director and his students watching? They were watching the children’s simple games. (lines 7-12). What was said to be ‘charming’? A very

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SAY where the three sections of the text, lines 1-64, lines 65-81 and lines 82-113, is set and what people are involved in each of them.

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rudimentary sexual game played by a little boy of about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older (lines 20-24). How did the students react to the two children’s actions? They showed contempt since they had recently put aside such childish amusements (lines 26-29). Who was the nurse leading by the hand? She was leading a small boy who was reluctant to join the ordinary erotic play (lines 32-37). What treatment was the little boy going to undergo? A sort of a psychological treatment (lines 42-44).

FIND out in the second section:

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who was speaking in line 80; A stranger where DHC was sitting and what he did when he saw the stranger; He was sitting on one of the benches scattered through the gardens; he immediately stood up at the sight of the stranger (lines 68-71). who DHC introduced the students to; The Controller of Western Europe, Mustapha Mond (lines 72-73). what the Controller asked the students to imagine. The Controller asked the students to imagine having a viviparous mother and living with one’s family (lines 76-78).

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READ the last section and decide whether the following statements are true or false. Correct any false one.

1

Lenina Crowne entered a sort of a classroom. False; She entered a sort of a public bathroom. Vibro-vacuum massage machines were kneading and sucking the firm flesh of eighty women. True Fanny had Lenina’s same surname, Crowne. True That was a particularly strange coincidence. False; the two thousand million inhabitants of the planet had only ten thousand names between them (lines 94-95). The Controller pictured the ‘home’ in lurid exaggerated terms. True; the ‘home’ was said to be ‘stifling, over-inhabited by a man, a periodically teeming woman, a rabble of boys and girls of all ages’ (lines 100-102). That sort of life was typical of pre-Fordian days. True. Lenina had a bath and left that room. False, she towelled herself dry, a blast of warmed air dusted her with talcum powder, she dabbled herself with perfume and went to see if one of the vibrovacuum machines were free (lines 106-113).

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ANALYSIS 5

CONCENTRATE on the narrative technique and answer these questions.

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2

Who is the narrator of this passage? From whose point of view is the story recounted? The narrator of this passage is a third-person, omniscient one. The story is told from a neutral point of view. Can you find any examples of free indirect thought? What is the aim of this technique? Examples of free indirect thought can be found in lines 52-60, where the Director’s opinions about history are openly stated; in line 60 the verbal reactions of the students are written in brackets; in line 100-102 the Controller’s evocation of what happened in the past is expressed. This technique leaves more space to the characters and makes the role of the narrator invisible.

6

FOCUS on the characters of the Director and his students.

1

What world does the Director live in? Give reasons from the text. The world the Director lives in clashes with the traditional one we are accustomed to: everything in ‘Brave New World’ is perfect (lines 1-6), but cool; even the children’s plays have become routine activities. The inhabitants of this world seem not to be able to express spontaneous feelings. How would you define the relationship between the Director and his students? He explains basic concepts to his students who are submissive to him. What feelings are the students linked to? The students are cool persons: they do not accept plays or actions which are different from the rule (lines 25-29).

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ANALYSE the presence of Mustapha Mond in the extract.

1

Through what device is he introduced? He is introduced through the device of the voice over. Single out the details of his description and say who he reminds you of. He is a man of middle height, black-haired, with a hooked nose, full red lips and very piercing, dark eyes; his voice is deep and resonant (lines 65-67). He reminds us of a totalitarian leader. What is the target of his speech? The target of his speech is the institution of the family; he pictures the ‘home’ in lurid, exaggerated terms; it is as squalid physically as psychically.

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Soluzioni

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1

TEXT BANK

What were the students not accustomed to? They were not accustomed to History (lines 54-55). 10 What happened before the time of ‘Our Ford’? Erotic play between children was considered immoral and had been abolished (lines 56-60). 9

4

What need does he express for all the inhabitants of the new world? He expresses the need to subdue and channel off emotions in order to make their life emotionally easy.

8

FOCUS on the two important female characters, a nurse in the first part and Lenina at the end.

1

What does the nurse represent? She represents a psychological authority who must condemn and punish all the people who try to express their own ideas and feelings. What kind of woman is Lenina? She is a perfect

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example of a super-woman. What actions is she linked to? She is only linked to mechanical actions: her having a bath has been turned into a mechanical process (lines 106-112). Lots of people in Brave New World have Lenina’ s surname. What does this reveal about this utopian society? This reveals the lack of identity and personality which characterises these people. Do you think she is able to express her own feelings? No, she is not (lines 109-112), because she has a bath, she uses different scents but everything is mechanical to her.

SELECT the most relevant examples of words and phrases which refer to the two main semantic areas: the ‘brave’ new race’s life and man’s traditional vision of life.

The ‘brave’ new race’s life

Man’s traditional vision of life

Naked hundreds of children playing in gardens (lines 1-6); Games were planned activities (lines 7-12); The children who refused to join the ordinary erotic game were punished (lines 7-12); The results (of history) were terrible (line 63); Lenina’s mechanical bathroom activities (lines 82-86, 104-112)

Children are linked to unprogrammmed, spontaneous activities; Their games are not imposed by any adults or state rules; The present is the result of what happened in the past; Bathroom activities are pleasant.

Then state the effect the author tries to achieve by using such a language. He wants to convey the sense of a mechanical life, which has been reduced to a conditioned process.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

10 UNDERLINE the symbolic names contained in the passage and say what they add to the dreary picture of this future world. Polly Trotsky (line 48) and Lenina can be easily recognised and linked to the Russian Revolution. These names add a sort of colour to the dreary picture of this future world. 11 INDICATE the lines in which informal, ironical, scientific, serious and technical registers appear. Informal linguistic register: lines 75, 76 Ironical linguistic register: lines 46-57, 128-131 Scientific/serious linguistic register: lines 18-25, 67-77, 97-103 Technical linguistic register: lines 7-12, 82-86, 104-112

Suggestion: Huxley saw Brave New World as a revolt against the horrors of totalitarian regimes; he extrapolated his vision of the future from his sceptical, detached observations of the present.

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George Orwell Animal Farm (1945) 1

ANSWER the following questions about Animal Farm.

1

What caused Orwell to write Animal Farm? The news of Stalin’s Purge Trials in the late 1930s, which led to the death of three million people and sent many others to forced labour camps. A non-aggression pact with Hitler signed by Stalin in 1939, which enabled the Germans to take over Poland and Czechoslovakia. What kind of book is it? An animal fable, a dystopia.

YOUR TURN 12 DISCUSS in pairs whether Huxley wanted to address a learned few or a wider readership and see if his attitude to science was typical of the age in which he lived. Students’ activity.

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Old Major’s Speech George Orwell Animal Farm (1945) Chapter 1

COMPREHENSION 1

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READ the passage and write a caption to describe the content of each of the four parts. Part 1 (Lines 1-19) Beginning of Major’s speech: he introduces himself as an old and wise animal. Part 2 (Lines 20-31) Man is identified as the enemy. Part 3 (Lines 32-58) Argument against Man: Old Major lists the reasons why man is an enemy and describes the miserable life of the animals. Part 4 (Lines 59-75) Old Major rouses the animals into planning a rebellion. SAY how Old Major addresses the animals and how he presents himself in the first two paragraphs. By addressing his audience as ‘comrades’ and prefacing his remarks with the statement that he will not be with the others ‘many months longer,’ Major ingratiates himself to his listeners as one who has reached a degree of wisdom in his long life of twelve years and who views the other animals as equals — not a misguided rabble that needs advice and correction from a superior intellect. AS YOU READ, underline examples of Old Major’s rhetorical skills:

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4

EXPLAIN what Man’s crimes against the animals are, according to Old Major. He destroys families, consumes without producing, withholds food, kills the weak, and prevents them from owning even their own bodies.

5

LIST Old Major’s instructions to the animals. Get rid of Man; Fix your eyes; pass on this message; Never listen.

ANALYSIS 6

ANALYSE how Orwell quickly characterises some of the animals assembled in the barn. What features does he stress for each of them? Moses, the raven, is not present but is sleeping behind the door. This hints at his role as a spy and informer to Jones. Major is old and wise, Clover is motherly and sympathetic, Boxer is strong yet narrow-minded. All of these characteristics become more pronounced as the novel proceeds.

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Soluzioni

4

use of questions: ‘what is the nature of this life of ours?’; ‘is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?’; ‘Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?’; ‘how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year?’; ‘what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves?’; ‘how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens?’; ‘where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age?’; ‘what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?’; ‘Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings?’; ‘What then must we do?’. lexical repetition: ‘comrades’; ‘No animal in England’; ‘no’; ‘Man is the only’; ‘And you’. slogans: ‘Rebellion!’; ‘All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.’ Major possesses great rhetorical skill. His barrage of rhetorical questions makes his argument more forceful.

How did Orwell portray the animals? Besides being a symbol, each animal possesses the traits of its species and Orwell has the ability to view it as if from the inside of its mind and thoughts. What is the tone of the book? It blends humour and sarcasm with horrifying scenes and a painful atmosphere. What is its main theme? The book shows how an initial idealism can turn into exploitation and how ordinary people can lose their freedom in small incremental steps. Tyranny is by definition evil, regardless of its political nature.

TEXT BANK

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SAY how Major connotes Man and the animals in his speech. He presents Man as a tyrant and his fellow animals as victims of oppression and incapable of any wrongdoing.

8

PROVIDE examples of vivid bloody imagery used by Major to make his argument more forceful. ‘the cruel knife’; ‘you will scream your lives out at the block’; ‘that horror; the knacker’; ‘cut your throat and boil you down’; ‘ties a brick round their necks and drowns them’.

9

SUM UP the devices used by Old Major in his speech to explain how the art of persuasion can be used to move or manipulate the crowds. First he announces that he wishes to share the contents of his strange dream with his companions. All the animals comply, demonstrating their great respect for him. Then he states that although he has reached a degree of wisdom thanks to his age, he views the other animals as equals. He uses rhetorical skills such as rhetorical questions, lexical repetition, parallelism, methodical enumeration of man’s wrongs against the animals, vivid imagery and slogans.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

10 EXPLAIN why the main notion upon which the rebellion is based will prove the flaw in Old Major’s thinking. You can refer to the plot of the novel. The flaw in Major’s thinking is the assumption that only humans are capable of evil — an assumption that will be overturned as the novel progresses. Although he tells his listeners, ‘Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever,’ this will not prove to be the case. 11 SAY what historical figures you think Old Major embodies. Old Major plays the role of philosopher, creating a detailed model for a utopian society. His role is also that of visionary or prophet because part of Major’s vision of the future came to him in a dream. In his roles of philosopher and visionary, Major represents the

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political theorist Karl Marx. Major also represents Vladimir Lenin, the foremost author of the Russian Revolution and of the formation of the Soviet Union. If historically Marx played the role of grandfather theorist, then Lenin played that of young interpreter and motivator.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 12 TYPE B. Write 10 lines. Based upon Animal Farm, what deductions can you make about the kind of political system of which Orwell would approve and his attitude towards totalitarianism? Student’s writing activity. Suggestion: A good way to answer this question is to pick a specific example of totalitarianism in any country, historical or current, and explain how the ideas Orwell puts forth in Animal Farm apply to it. Go back and forth between the historical facts and the events of the novel. Note the actions of the leaders, the mechanisms of fear and power, and the reactions of the people over time.

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The Execution George Orwell Animal Farm (1945) Chapter 7

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the passage and define the setting afternoon, the yard of the farmhouse. the characters involved the animals, Napoleon and his nine huge dogs, Boxer, four pigs, three hens, a goose, three sheep, Clover, Muriel, Benjamin, Squealer, Snowball, Jones and Old Major are mentioned. the situation Napoleon and his dogs oblige some of the animals to confess and execute them on the spot.

2

MATCH these references to the history of USSR between 1917 and 1943 with their corresponding symbols in the text. Some have been provided for you.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Stalin The Kremlin Stalin’s secret police The representatives of the proletariat Trotsky Hitler Tsar Nicholas II The Five-Year Plans Stalin Purge Trials in the 1930s Marx L’Internationale The propagandist of the regime

Napoleon the farmhouse nine huge dogs Boxer and Clover Snowball Mr Frederick Mr Jones The Windmill the confessions and executions Major Beasts of England Squealer

ANALYSIS 3

SAY whether the narrator interferes with the narration. From whose point of view is the story narrated? The narrator simply reports what is said and done without moralization and reflection.He speaks from the perspective of the animals other than the pigs,so he acts as an observer who points out the most important details without interfering. The reader then can draw his own conclusions about the symbolism, concordance with historical events, and the cruelty of the events themselves.

4

DISCUSS. Animal Farm is a ‘beast-fable’. What is the advantage of this form? Do you think the novel would be more effective in another form? Student’s activity. A nonfiction account would have had to work more accurately with history, while Orwell’s fiction has the advantage of ordering and

5

FOCUS ON the way the animals are portrayed. Analyse the figure of Napoleon.

shaping events in order to make the points as clear as possible from a theoretical and symbolic point of view. If Orwell had used the form of a political treatise, he could be more effective in treating the details and theoretical understandings at greater length and with more depth, but the audience for such a work would therefore become quite different and less numerous.The symbolism ranges from the obvious to the more cryptic. Compare Napoleon with the historical Frenchman and Moses with the figure from the Bible. Take Snowball as representative of something that grows larger and more forceful. Squealer has something to do with the spoken word. Boxer suggests strength. Make sure each character is considered at various stages of the story and specific examples from the text are used.

Traits of his species ‘put out his great hoof’ (lines 6-7) ‘looked at Napoleon to know whether…’ (line 9) Remained on his feet (line 46) ‘He fidgeted … whinny of surprise’ (lines 46-48) ‘He collected … and dragged’ (line 54) Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Symbolic role He stood against repressive power He is dependent on his master He is stubborn He is restless and does not understand He is hard-working

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Soluzioni

Write down his actions. Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high-pitched whimper (line 1); appeared to change countenance, and sharply ordered (line 10); called upon them to confess their crimes (lines 14-15); abolished the Sunday Meetings (line 16); demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess (lines 22-23). b How is his personality connoted? He is presented as a dictator. c Does his name suit his role? Yes, it does. Now concentrate on Boxer. a What does the choice of his name suggest? That he is strong and hard-working. b Fill in the table below with the words and phrases referring to the traits of his species and those conveying his symbolic role:

TEXT BANK

a

6

CONSIDER the character of Clover.

animals are the protagonists. Open answer. Suggestion: To answer this question it is important to consider the function of animals as characters. For instance, in the fable ‘Three Little Pigs’ each of the pigs expresses a different approach to planning for the future and managing risk. Each character embodies a moral or physical quality. As regards the narration the narrator lets the characters speak in their own voices and lets the story tell itself. In terms of structure, consider how critical events upset the quiet (such as getting lost in the woods or meeting an enemy) in order to lead to a moral.

Teaching tip Clover: a small, usually three-leafed plant with pink, purple or white flowers, often grown as food for cattle. Clover is a simple, common plant often associated with freshness and spring.

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Go through Clover’s reflections after the execution and underline the words and phrases denoting her character. Then say what she is like. Phrases denoting her character: Lines 65-68, 70-73. She is characterised by unspoken awareness and unhappiness. She is disillusioned, kind, protective towards the weaker, and tender. She is honest, reliable and faithful. Indeed, Clover can be regarded as Orwell’s spokesman. What subject do her reflections bring about? The failure of the revolutionary ideals, the end of a dream. DISCUSS The confession and execution of the animals marks a crucial point in the book. What themes does it introduce? What do they suggest about Orwell’s political views? The failure of the revolutionary ideals, totalitarianism, the subversion of truth and the manipulation of information. Orwell attacked Stalinism and warned his readers against totalitarianism. He believed in justice, liberty and brotherhood.

T124

Newspeak George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) Part 1, Chapter 5

COMPREHENSION 1

WRITE a caption to describe the content of each of the four parts the passage can be divided into. Part 1 (Lines 1-39) Introduction of Syme and of the way of life at the Ministry of Truth. Part 2 (Lines 40-52) Description of the regulation lunch. Part 3 (Lines 53-87) Description of Newspeak Part 4 (Lines 88-116) Explanation of the real objectives of Newspeak.

2

ANSWER the following questions.

1

What are personal relationships like in the Ministry of Truth? It is impossible to have friends, people have comrades. How does Syme describe the destruction of language in lines 61-75? Syme describes the destruction of words with a savage relish. For example, if you have the word ‘good’ then you do not need another word ‘bad’ to express its opposite - ‘ungood’ will do the job. And you don’t need words like ‘Excellent’ or ‘Splendid’; instead you can say ‘plusgood’ or ‘doubleplusgood’. What does he consider Winston guilty of in lines 78-84? Syme tells Winston that he is

YOUR TURN 8

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

9

366

COMPARE this text with Text Bank 122 as regards the lives of the animals under Farmer Jones and under Napoleon. The irony of the episode of the assembly in the barn is that the animals will eventually betray the ideals set forth by Old Major. At the end of his speech, for example, he warns them to stick to their ideals and never come to resemble their human oppressors. However, at this point of the story Napoleon has become a tyrant and by the end of the novel, the tyrannical pigs begin to walk on two legs, they are indistinguishable from their human companions. Old Major’s dream of an animal utopia has become a totalitarian nightmare. DRAW a comparison between Animal Farm and a classic fairy tale or fable in which

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ANALYSIS 3

FIND the words and phrases referring to Syme and describe his character. He is zealously attached to the party, enjoys the hangings as a show, is devoted to Big Brother and Winston knows he would denounce anyone to the Thought Police if he suspected them of unorthodoxy. Syme discusses Newspeak with the fervour of a fanatic. Yet Winston feels that Syme himself is the sort of person who is in danger of becoming an ‘unperson’, of being vaporized as he knows too much, has read too many books and is too intelligent. The Party doesn’t really like that sort of person and they are in constant danger.

4

UNDERLINE the details regarding life in London. Shortage of necessary goods, public hangings, manipulated news, a state of war and terror, regulation lunch with disgusting food, availability of gin. Thinking can become a crime, discipline and control are required.

5

HIGHLIGHT the details of the project. Destroying the variety of language, cutting it down to the bone.

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EXPLAIN what the objectives of the project are. To abolish literature, thought and consciousness. Once newspeak has taken over completely, thought-crimes will be impossible, because there will be no language to express rebellious thoughts in. Even doublethink slogans like ‘freedom is slavery’ will be unnecessary, as the concept of freedom will be forgotten. DESCRIBE Winston’s reactions. He is uneasy and afraid of being observed and of showing his real emotions. He is even afraid of speaking.

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TYPE B. Write 10 lines about the theme of language in Nineteen Eighty-Four. What message was Orwell trying to convey? Student’s writing activity. When language is corrupted, thought is contaminated. Syme, who is the authority on Newspeak, informs Winston on its features. Whereas, for example, one would think that a language should grow in order to facilitate communication of invention, of newly discovered subtleties, and of changing times and attitudes, Syme explains that exactly the opposite is true. The language is streamlined by destroying words because some words, such as synonyms and antonyms, are not needed and only confuse issues.Oldspeak contains ‘vagueness and useless shades of meaning.’ According to Syme, the mission of Newspeak, of course, is to narrow the range of thought to such a degree that thoughtcrime is impossible.Newspeak, then, is a language created to control thought, thus controlling action. Orwell believed that the decline of language ultimately had political and economic consequences. He is warning his readers that language can become a weapon. Newspeak was created only to control, not to enhance personal communication and expression. In the novel, this narrowing of thought facilitates doublethink, the primary instrument of control that the Party uses on its people.

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How can you control memory? George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) Part 3, Chapter 2

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the text and answer the following questions. a

Who caused pain to Winston and what kind of pain was it? O’Brian caused him pain through an electrical shock. It was a frightening pain because Winston felt his body torn apart and was afraid his backbone might break (lines 1-8).

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Soluzioni

5

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA

TEXT BANK

4

guilty of actually thinking in Oldspeak and then translating it into the new idiom; what is ideally required is that the thought process itself takes place in Newspeak. How long will it take to complete the project? The project will be completed in 2050. What does orthodoxy mean for Syme? It means not thinking, unconsciousness.

b

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What was Winston warned against? He was warned against the possibility of increasing the degree of the shock up to a hundred if he told lies or tried to prevaricate. What was Winston’s problem according to the man? That his memory was defective, that he pretended to remember things that had not happened. What questions was Winston asked and what is he shown? He was asked what power Oceania was at war with. He was shown a photograph of three Party members who were executed for treachery and sabotage. What did the man do with it? He put it into a memory hole where it was burned and turned into ash. How did Winston feel? Why? He felt helpless because he was not sure whether O’Brian was playing him a trick or telling the truth. What did Winston and the man argue about? Whether the past exists and where. O’Brian held that the Party controlled memory while Winston argued that it was impossible to control his own memory. What was Truth according to the man? What the Party held to be Truth. What did Winston have to do if he wanted

ANALYSIS 2

SAY what kind of narrator is used by Orwell. Third-person omniscient narrator.

3

FOCUS ON Winston Smith. How does he behave in this text? He swings between fear and bravery; he desperately tries to hold on although he is frightened and is suffering horribly.

4

GATHER information about O’Brian as regards his physical appearance and attitude. Do you think he is simply a torturer? The reader is not given a physical description of O’Brian, except for the detail of spectacles. We are told that he looks like a teacher, a doctor or a priest. His attitude resembles that of a teacher: he takes steps up and down, he is thoughtful, his voice is gentle and patient and less severe. He sounds like a doctor when he uses the language of medicine referring to Winston’s memory: ‘curable’, ‘cured’, ‘disease’ (lines 32-35). Orwell creates the impression in the reader that O’Brian is not interested in torture but in psychological persuasion.

FILL IN the table with references to Winston’s truth and the Party’s truth.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

Winston’s truth To remember is a virtue (line 35). When he was arrested Oceania was at war against Eurasia (line 44.) The three men were not guilty of the crimes they were charged with (lines 49-50). He had seen a photograph which proved they were innocent (lines 50-51). The photo exists in memory (line 66). The past exists in written records and in the human memory (lines 95-97). The Party cannot control his memory (line 102).

The issue of truth is central to the text.

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to survive? He had to humble himself and to impose self-discipline on himself.

6

DESCRIBE the features of the life in Oceania that are presented in this text. Torture, the memory whole, doublethink, brain control, the rewriting of the past. Which do you find most dangerous? Open answer.

7

EXPLAIN in what sense Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel. Orwell combined

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The Party’s truth Winston is mentally deranged (lines 29-30). Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. The three men made the fullest possible confession (line 49). The photo did not exist, it was a hallucination (line 52). The photo never existed (lines 64-65). The Party controls the future, the past and all memories (lines 78-81; 98-99). Winston cannot control his memory (line 104).

documentary realism and an acute eye for detail with parody and satire. The tone of the novel is pessimistic, violent and even sadistic in the last part. While a utopia is an ideal or perfect community some writers have described to embody their ideals, dystopias show possible future societies that are anything but ideal Orwell presents a frightening picture of the future as being under the constant control of

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CONSIDER the first and second sections and answer the following questions:

1 2

Who stabs the sow while on the top of it? Jack. What are Jack’s hands covered with? With blood (lines 7-8) Why do the boys need a fire? They need a fire to cook the meat of the sow. What is the head of the sow surrounded by? Buzzing flies.

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YOUR TURN

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DRAW a comparison between Ninetween Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. Student’s activity. Suggestion: Students should consider the ways in which both novels are allegories with a political message against the evils of state control and totalitarianism. The way in which totalitarian control affects the common people should be illustrated and the political regimes in the two novels ought to be compared. DISCUSS. Do you think the issues raised by Orwell in his novel are still up-to-date? Can TV and the press be genuinely independent? Are there any countries where books are still banned and intellectuals persecuted? Class discussion.

ANALYSIS 4

CONCENTRATE on the narrative method.

1

Whose point of view is used at the beginning? Jack’s point of view is mainly employed in the first and second sections. Where does the point of view shift? There is a shift to Simon’s point of view in the third part.

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CONSIDER Jack and the other boys of his tribe.

1

What does the killing of the sow reveal about his character? The killing clearly shows his emotions of anger and his savage personality. What does he represent for the other boys? He is their leader. What does the paint (line 38) on the boy’s faces stand for? The war paint represents the rejection of society: when the children put on the mask of war paint, they take off the mask of society and reveal their true inner savagery.

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Lord of the Flies William Golding The Lord of the Flies (1954) Chapter 8

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the text carefully. Divide it into the three parts in which:

1

The sow is killed by the boys: lines 1-10

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SUMMARISE Simon’s meeting the pig head in the third section briefly. Simon encounters the sow’s head, and manages to start talking to the thing, although it is mostly in his imagination. The black cloud of flies buzzing over the head causes it to be called ‘The Lord of the Flies’.

6

FOCUS on Simon. Square all the words and expressions referring to him.

1

Which semantic area do they belong to? Words like ‘a small brown image’ (line 66), ‘concealed by the leaves’ (line 66), ‘the half-shut eyes were dim’ (lines 67-68), ‘licking his dry lips’ (line 74), ‘Simon lowered … hand’ (lines 85-86), ‘At last … back’

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Soluzioni

8

Jack puts the head of the sow on a stick: lines 11-65 Simon calls it the Lord of the Flies: lines 66-95.

TEXT BANK

‘Big Brother’. There is no privacy because there are monitors called ‘telescreens’ watching every step people take; love is forbidden but there is the ‘Two Minutes Hate’ and the country is in a perpetual state of war. The Party has absolute control of the press, communication and propaganda; language, history and thought are controlled in the interests of the state through the gradual introduction of Newspeak, the official language whose lexis is so limited that people find it impossible to express their own ideas. Any form of rebellion against the rules is punished with prison, torture and liquidation. The novel does not offer consolation but reveals the author’s acute sense of history and his sympathy with the millions of people persecuted and murdered in the name of the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century.

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(lines 92-93), belong to the semantic area of uneasiness and fear. In fact, Simon feels uneasy and afraid of the unknown, that is the head. Who is he really speaking to when he is in front of the sow head? He is really speaking to his imagination, which seems to express a message coming from the unknown. EXPLAIN the symbol of the sow’s head. The head is personified and made able to speak to Simon; it stands for the great danger of evil.

6

The Road Cormac McCarthy The Road (2006)

COMPREHENSION

DESCRIBE the language used in this text. It is realistic, precise and colourful.

3

10 IMAGINE that the castaways are girls, not boys. Discuss with the rest of the class the way in which you believe girls would have responded to the situation described in this text. Class discussion.

T127 TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

1

READ the extract and answer the questions:

1

Who is the narrator at the beginning of the passage? It is the father. Whose is the precious breath and why is it precious? The precious breath is referring to the son who is all that the father has left in the world. Where was he in his dream? In his dream he was in a cave where his son was leading him by the hand. In the cave there were wet walls and water and light. What are the images he sees in his dream and what is their possible meaning? The father sees images of stone walls with dripping water and light and a lake with a sightless pale monster – it seems to embody the transparency and light that they have lost. What does he decide while looking out over the countryside? The father decides that they will not survive the winter so they must head south. Why does he call the child his ‘warrant’? For the father, the son represents hope for the future and is his guarantee that life is still worth while. In which way was the place where they slept unsafe? The father considers the place where they have slept as unsafe because it can be seen from the road.

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Cormac McCarthy and The Road 1

ANSWER the following questions about Cormac McCarthy’s works.

1

What kind of family did McCarthy grow up in? He was the son of a Tennessee lawyer and grew up as one of 6 children in a Catholic family. Why did he never graduate from university? He didn’t graduate because first of all he interrupted university to join the military and then when he returned to university he left to concentrate on his writing. When did he first win awards for his writing? He won Ingram-Merrill Foundation grants for creative writing in both 1959 and 1960. Why does he criticise authors like Henry James and Marcel Proust? He says he is not a fan of authors who do not ‘deal with issues of life and death’.

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What themes does he deal with in his writing? His genres are the Southern Gothic, Western, and Post-apocalyptic. Which literary work won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize? The Road.

IDENTIFY the dominant theme of the passage. Golding shows that savagery can come to light without society’s rigid rules, and that morals come directly from our surroundings, and if there is no civilisation around us, we will lose these values.

YOUR TURN

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7

ANALYSIS 2

EXPLAIN the importance of the boy’s simple response at the end of the excerpt. The boy’s simple, brief response ‘I know’ at the end of the passage shows the complete trust the boy has in his father.

3

DESCRIBE the atmosphere created in the passage. The atmosphere is dark and gloomy with repeated reference to darkness, gray and lack of light. There is also anxiety created by the

5

POINT OUT the features of McCarthy’s style In The Road, McCarthy uses simple, basic vocabulary with very short dialogues. It is a very factual style belying the awfulness of the surroundings. By using very little description, he laves the reader to imagine the extent of devastation. The description of the dream is an exception as there is detailed description given here of the cave and the monster within but this is outside of their reality and the contrast again gives terrible strength to what the boy and his father are actually facing. EXPLAIN the sentence ‘If he is not the word of God, God never spoke’. For the father, the son is his only hope in any positive outcome to their journey. The boy and his inherent goodness represent a kind of belief in the goodness of religion.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 6

TYPE B. Write ten/twelve lines to explain the appeal of such a bleak vision of the future. Is it confirming people’s worst fears or is it a warning? Student’s writing activity.

7

TYPE B. At one stage of the story, the father dreams that it is his son who is leading him not the other way around. Write ten/twelve lines on the strength of the relationship between a parent and their child, making reference to The Road. Student’s writing activity.

3 4 5

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ANALYSIS 2

FOCUS on the dialogue between the two characters.

1

State why from beginning to end the dialogue is dying. Choose from the following list. It is full of repetitions It is composed of ready-made phrases Lots of silences and pauses are interspersed with the characters’ s utterances Each character is torn by his own passions Each has experienced a universe through his five senses and is not interested in communicating it to the other. Several words are repeated throughout the extract, like ‘Mr Godot’ (lines 8, 20, 28, 32), ‘Shall we go’ (lines 43, 90, 97), ‘dropped’ (line 55), ‘trousers’ (lines 91, 93, 94, 95); ready-made phrases can be found in lines 52-57 41-45, 80-90 64-74. They all stand for the inconsequential spontaneity of everyday speech. The usual cues ‘Where shall we go?’, ‘We can’t’, ‘Well’ Shall we go?’ are repeated several times in this extract. What effect is achieved? They create expectation, but they also underline the idea of repetitiveness linked to human experience.

T128

Waiting for Godot (1952)

Waiting Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot (1952) Act 2

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the text and find out:

1

who the boy wants to speak to; To Vladimir.

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why he has come; Because he has a message from Mr Godot: he will not come that evening. what Vladimir hopes; He hopes that Mr Godot will come on the following day. what Estragon is doing while Vladimir is talking to the boy; He is sleeping. what the two tramps decide to do after the boy leaves; They decide to go somewhere not very far from the place where they are (lines 43-48) since they have to come back the next day. if they manage to commit suicide; No, they do not. what might prevent them from hanging themselves; Estragon’s rope is too short and not strong enough (lines 64-77), therefore they are not able to hang themselves. whether there is any conclusion to the play. The end is open.

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Soluzioni

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2

TEXT BANK

watchfulness of the father who is forever looking, watching obviously fearful of being discovered or not being able to go on.

3

CONCENTRATE on the stage directions. What do they mostly refer to? To the actors’ movements and to the absence of a real communication.

4

DEFINE Vladimir and Estragon in a few sentences using the expressions provided below: dreams, is the more practical of the two, often forgets about the past, is hopeful, is grotesque is inquisitive, is anxious, is suicidal Vladimir is inquisitive and the more practical of the two. Estragon is anxious and suicidal.

5

DISCUSS This scene, just like the whole play, is centred on the postponed appearance of a mysterious figure, Mr Godot. Whom could Godot stand for? Some possible interpretations are given; choose the one/s you consider the most suitable and provide reasons for your choice. Godot may be identified with God, and the play results in a satire about religion Godot might represent social and political power Godot may stand for some hope in a radical change in the human condition Godot may represent man’s search for a purpose in life Godot may be a symbol of eternal salvation Student’s individual answer.

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Soluzioni

6

Student’s writing activity. Suggestions: Pirandello’ s theatre portrays the alienation of contemporary man. No answer is given and no solution is revealed; everything can be seen as the opposite to what it appears. This ‘reversed feeling’, that is a reflection which goes beyond human conventions, is the so-called ‘humour’. While Pirandello represents existential problems, Brecht shows real historical, social conflicts in his plays. The technique he employs is that of ‘estrangement’: the spectator is asked to play an active role within the theatrical performance and to judge critically what is happening on the stage. Beckett’s theatre denies the existence of a solution for the present alienating human condition. He, too, uses the technique of humour and ‘estrangement’, but it is the whole life that is alienating.

T129

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) and The Room 1

ANSWER these questions about Pinter’s work.

1

What is the typical setting of Pinter’s plays? A scene of domesticity inside a house, usually in a room. How do the characters relate to it? What does that symbolise? It represents their only refuge against the hostile world outside. These characters are afraid they may be driven from it and their fear increases when the arrival of an intruder completely upsets the balance of their life. That is a metaphor for what Pinter perceives as the essential isolation of the individual and his wish to avoid communication with the outside world. What is new about Pinter’s characters? How does that affect the audience? The audience is not given any information about the characters’ past, their social background, their physical appearance. Even their names are not certain, so that the audience’s desire for verification is frustrated. Why is Pinter’s theatre defined ‘comedy of menace’? Because the impossibility of identifying truth becomes a source of suspense; the plays are thrillers of a new, disturbing kind, where the author does not give a solution to the mystery, nor does he expect his audience to solve it. What does ‘Pinteresque’ mean? This is a new

2

DEFINE the language used in this scene. You can choose from the following adjectives or add any other you consider suitable. simple/complex, informal/formal, abstract/essential

3

The language is simple, informal and essential.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 7

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TYPE B. Refer to the section devoted to the 1930s and 1940s in your syllabus of Italian literature. The Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) and the German dramatist and poet Bertold Brecht (18981956) anticipated the themes of Waiting for Godot by Beckett. Try to highlight what the three playwrights have in common. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines.

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4

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word which refers to the qualities of Pinter’s language with its colloquialisms, repetitions, incorrect syntax, non sequitur and pauses. What characterises Pinter’s dialogues? The fact that they are one-sided dialogues, with one character doing most of the talking while the other preserves a protracted silence.

7

8

What does Pinter think of silence? He thinks that there are two types of silence: one when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is employed. What is the function of speech? Speech becomes a sort of screen man uses to conceal his vulnerability.

T129

Rose’s room Harold Pinter The Room (1957)

COMPREHENSION 1

MAKE NOTES about Rose’s and Mr Kidd’s trains of thought in the chart below.

Rose She would like Mr Kidd to sit down She wonders whether he has a helping hand Mr Kidd’s bedroom

Mr Kidd The pipes The old rocking-chair Bert’s van

What sort of people do they sound like? Rose sounds gossipy and apprehensive; Mr Kidd seems absentminded, elderly and possibly deaf. Can you make any guesses about their relationship? They are landlord and tenant. Are they alone on the stage? No, there is Bert Hudd.

DISCUSS the way Pinter builds up dialogue.

1

Are questions and answers consistent? No, they are not. How does Mr Kidd reply to Rose most of the time? He says: ‘Eh?’, ‘What?’. What effect does Pinter achieve through this sort of ‘oblique dialogue’? He shows what really interests or worries his characters as they continue their own line of thought. He also underlines that they do not wish to communicate.

2 3

3

FOCUS on Bert, the third character on the stage.

1

Does he ever say a word? No, he does not. How do you know he is present? We know that he is on the stage because Rose says ‘We heard you’ (line 4) and Mr Kidd addresses him directly. Try to explain: what his job is; his relationship to Rose. He is a van driver and must be married to Rose.

2

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LIST the elements in the passage that are typical of the Theatre of the Absurd. • • • • •

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No plot Silence and pauses No background information about the setting and the characters A sense of ambiguity Incoherent dialogue

DEFINE the atmosphere characterising the text. An atmosphere of uncertainty, mystery and menace.

Specification 17 T130

Bobbie Ann Mason and In Country

Dad’s Diary Bobbie Ann Mason In Country (1985) Chapter 28

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Soluzioni

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TEXT BANK

ANALYSIS

COMPREHENSION 1

AS YOU READ the text, take notes in the following table.

Actions of the soldiers

Physical conditions

Dwayne’s feelings

Marched; Were on point holding their rifles; Cut trees; Wade swamps; Dig; Sleep; Wait; Get ambushed; Opened fire; Smoke.

Have got direah; Have wet feet; All sore, have bite and scabs; A boy has malaria; Feet like boiled chicken’s feet; Feet killing him.

Misses fall days; His knees are shaking; He’ll never forget the death of Darrel: he is full of anger and fear at the same time (lines 41-42); Goes wild for the cigarettes; Too tired to write; Surprised at killing a V.C. so easily; Feels lucky to be alive.

Links with their home country Memories of biology lessons; Sundays when company came; Cherry bombing people’s mailboxes on Halloween; The taste of the turkey at home; Thinks of Mama riding little Donna on her knee; The world is a dream; The test with round pegs in the square holes at school.

What impression do you get of the life of American soldiers during the Vietnam War? Students should point out the repetitiveness of daily duty, the physical pain, the sense of pride which keeps the soldiers going on, the sensation they have of living in another world which is completely apart. Their feelings range from despair and fear to exaltation. Only the memories of home and the hope to come back one day keeps them alive.

ANALYSIS

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Soluzioni

1

UNDERLINE the sentences referred to the enemy. How is it connoted? Lines 12, 21, 28, 31-32, 33, 40, 53, 72, 79. The enemy is called with different names: ‘V.C’., ‘Charlie’, ‘gooks’. It is connoted with a sense of menace. It is either something to be scared of or scientifically be interested in.

2

FOCUS on lines 64-85 and answer the following questions. a

b

374

What was Sam’s reaction to her father’s words? Why? Sam was sick and disgusted because she identified with the scene of the corpse under the banana leaves narrated by her father. What questions arose in her mind? She wonders what she would have done in the same situation, why people kill and how they feel about it.

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c

What new image of her father took form and how did it compare to what her grandparents had made her believe? The diary exposes more about her father than she could have ever wanted to know. In it, Dwayne reveals the soul-shattering experiences from which he has shielded his family. Sam sees for the first time her father’s fear, hatred, confusion, ignorance; his companions, his smoking, drinking, and cursing, and she finds it disturbing. This is not the man her grandparents remember: the one who was so thoughtful and who never took a drink and never smoked. Nor is he the heroic icon of her imagination. In fact, his diary disgusts her. She is ashamed of him, she is shocked to find that the lost and frustrated voice from the diary is the voice of her father.Unable to believe in the father that had seemed to promise her security and certainty, she feels spiritually and emotionally on her own.

T131

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

6

A Supermarket in California Allen Ginsberg

3

READ the poem to the end and answer the following questions.

1

What is the speaker wondering about? He wonders where Walt Whitman and himself are going to spend the night. How does he feel? He feels absurd, out of place. What image of the future takes shape in his mind? An image of solitary streets, dark houses and loneliness. How does he regard Walt Whitman? As a father and a teacher.

Collected Poems (1955)

COMPREHENSION READ the first five lines of the poem and identify: a b c

2

the scene: a supermarket in California. the speaker: the poet the addressee: the poet Walt Whitman.

3

2

READ lines 6-16 and correct the following statements.

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1

The poet sees housewives doing their shopping while their husbands are at work. He sees whole families doing shopping. He meets the great poet Garcia Lorca buying some fruit. He imagines seeing Garcia Lorca by the watermelons. Walt Whitman is having an argument with the grocery boys. The speaker imagines seeing Walt Whitman choosing some meat and watching the grocery boys. He wants to know how much the pork chops are. The speaker imagines Walt Whitman asking who killed the pig. The store detective is controlling the cans in the shelves. The speaker imagines the store

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4

RECOGNISE the kind of verse employed in the poem? Tick as appropriate. Traditional Experimental Free

5

CONSIDER the use of punctuation. What kind of sentences prevail? Affirmative Exclamations Interrogative Negative

FILL in the following table about the juxtaposition between Walt Whitman and the poet himself.

Main stylistic feature

Walt Whitman The poet Nature and the contact with people Shopping for images (line 4) in a supermarket Enumerations (line 5) Enumerations (line 5)

Mood Subject-matter

Lonely (line 9), questioning (line 11) Lonely (line 22), questioning The America of love (line 23) Consumer society

Source of inspiration

What image of the contemporary poet emerges from this juxtaposition? The image of the poet is linked to illness (line 2), loss of inspiration (line 4), displacement (line 19-20) because of the unpoetic reality he lives in. 7

CONCENTRATE on the insight into contemporary American life the poem gives. What aspects are being underlined? Ginsberg describes the consumerism of contemporary American society by

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enumerating the goods in the supermarket. The typical American family is split. It is not a world of fantasy but an artificial one where the light of the moon is replaced by neon light (line 4).

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ANALYSIS

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detective is following him. The speaker tastes the artichokes before buying them. Again he fancies tasting artichokes.

8

IDENTIFY what the supermarket symbolises. The new American dream.

9

FIND examples of irony in the text. What do they suggest about the poet’s attitude? All the exclamations are ironical since the poet pretends he is admiring something artificial and grotesque.

10 RECOGNISE the mythological images which close the poem and say what semantic area they belong to. ‘Charon’ (line 26) and ‘Lethe’ (line 27). They belong to the semantic area of the journey (in this case it is the journey towards death) and forgetfulness (it is the dream of old America which has been forgotten).

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ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 11 TYPE B. Compare Ginsberg’s view of America with Whitman’s (I12.12) in I Hear America Singing in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph. Student’s activity. Students should point out that while Ginsberg’s view is ironical and regretful, Whitman celebrated the American dream in an optimistic portrayal of a healthy nation at work and sensing its potential.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

12 TYPE B Write a ten/twelve line paragraph about similarities and differences between Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac (I17.6). Student’s writing activity. Suggestions: They were both disillusioned with the possibility of changing the materialistic, capitalistic society in which they lived.

3

CONCENTRATE on Dean and find evidence of:

1 2

his enthusiasm for life; Lines 6, 16-20, 25 his influence on Sal; It is Dean who decides they have to go no matter where (line 21). his wish to be on the move. Line 24.

3 4

SAY how the musician Charlie Parker and his jazz music fascinated Sal and Dean and attracted the two boys. He shared his life style with the Beats: he left his home town and wandered all around the country playing his instrument, he used to wear his hair long and he became lazy (lines 33-39). His spontaneous flow and freedom of expression were highly appreciated by the Beats.

5

IDENTIFY the most important features of Kerouac’s spontaneous prose in this extract. The most important features of Kerouac’s style are: juxtaposition of short and long sentences (lines 1-4), exclamations (lines 6, 25), repetitions (‘Cadillac’, lines 7, 9; ‘we gotta go’, lines 19, 22), use of slang and colloquial terms (lines 6, 8, …), use of monosyllabic words, place names (lines 1, 10).

On the Road

Jack Kerouac On the Road (1951) Part Three, Chapter 10

COMPREHENSION 1

376

FOCUS on lines 1-25 and note down:

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READ the last paragraph of the text and trace the history of jazz music. At first there were Sousa marches in ragtime; then was Louis Armstrong who blew his beautiful top in New Orleans. Then there was swing, and Roy Eldridge, and jazz with Charlie Parker.

ANALYSIS

T132

The Children of the American Bop Night

The features of Chicago; It was great (line 1), trolleys, neons and hootchy-kootchy joints could be seen downtown (lines 5-6, 15), fried food and beer could be smelt in the air (lines 5-6), and the be-bop sound could be heard (line 15). The people Sal and Dean met there; They met lots of hobos (lines 1-2) sprawling out on the street, newsboys and girls cutting by (line 5). Where they succeeded in parking their Cadillac; They succeeded in parking their car in a dark spot next to the YMCA (lines 6-8). Who they met while standing in front of a bar. A gang of young bop musicians carrying their instruments out of cars (lines 22-23).

TYPE A. Write a 200-word essay to point out the reasons why On the Road became a cult book of the 1950s and 1960s. You may refer to I17.6). Student’s writing activity. Students should point out that On the Road became a cult book in the 1950s and 1960s since its protagonists embodied the youth rebellion and the search for freedom of the Beat Generation. They influenced the style of some newspapers and novels; moreover they contributed to give voice to the uneasiness of the young leading to the riots and the students’ rebellions of 1968.

2

READ the fourth paragraph and note down:

1

what Malcom X’s father decided to do; He decided to move. whether he was a frightened Negro; He was not a frightened Negro. what he looked like; He was a big, six-foot-four, very black man with only one eye. where he was from; He was from Reynolds, Georgia. what he believed in; He believed in the Negroes’ freedom, independence and selfrespect which could only be achieved in Africa. what he had devoted his life to and why; he had devoted his life to disseminating this philosophy among his people after he had seen four of his six brothers die by white men’s violence. how he died. He died by the white man’s hands.

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T133

Malcom X (1926-1965)

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Nightmare Malcom X Autobiography of Malcom X (1968)

7

COMPREHENSION 1

FIND the following information while you are reading lines 1-21:

3

READ the last two sections of the extract and complete the following sentences:

1

What happened to Malcom X’s mother while she was pregnant with him? A party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to their house, surrounded it brandishing their shotguns and rifles. What did the hooded party shout out? The hooded party shouted for Malcom X’s father to come out. Why was the woman standing? She was standing in order to let them see she was pregnant. What warning did the party give Malcom X’s mother? The party warned that Malcom X’s family had better leave the town. What was Malcom X’s father? He was a Baptist minister. Where were Marcus Garvey’s headquarters? They were in New York City’s Harlem. What did Garvey exhort the Negro masses to do? He exhorted the Negro masses to return to their ancestral African homeland. How was Marcus Garvey considered by the

1

his mother was born in Grenada, in the British West Indies. she looked like a white woman, because her father was white. she had straight black hair, and her accent did not sound like a Negro’s. Malcom X knew nothing about his grandfather except his mother’s shame about him. it was because of him that Malcom X had reddish-brown colour of skin. he was among the millions of Negroes who was mad enough to feel that it was a sort of status symbol to be light-complexioned.

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ANALYSIS 4

CONSIDER the narrative method.

1

Is the narrator a voice outside the story or a character inside it? A character inside it. Is the reader free or does he have to share the narrator’s point of view? He has to share the narrator’s point of view.

2

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Soluzioni

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public opinion? He was considered the most controversial black man on earth. What did the Klansmen do at the end? They spurred their horses, rode around the house and shattered every window pane with their gun butts.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA

5

FOCUS on Malcom X.

1 2

Say how he died. He died by violence. Note down when and why he learned to hate. Later he learned to hate every drop of that white rapist’s blood that was in him. From what he says and from the way he speaks, what kind of man do you think he is? Choose from among the following. Malcom X: is ambitious. is aggressive. is restless. is indulgent towards the whites. likes preaching. is provocative. is straightforward. behaves rudely.

3

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Daddy Sylvia Plath Ariel (1963)

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the poem and focus on the description of the father.

1

Fill in the blanks below with the details given: Appearance: ‘marble-heavy’; ‘ghastly statue’; ‘neat moustache’; ‘Aryan eye’, ‘bright blue’; ‘a cleft in your chin’; ‘a man in black with a Meinkampf look’. Origin: ‘German tongue’; ‘Polish town’. Past experiences: ‘wars’; ‘your Luftwaffe’. Clothes: ‘a black swastika’; ‘boot’. Character: ‘brute’; ‘panzer-man’. Job: teacher (it is implied in line 51) 2 List the figures the speaking voice compares her father to. A Nazi officer, a devil, a vampire.

2

WRITE DOWN the autobiographical details contained in the poem: line 57: the father’s burial. line 58: attempt at suicide. lines 61-62: she spent time in a mental hospital.

3

FIND the lines where the speaking voice explains how she felt towards her father and match them with the corresponding adjectives: trapped (line 3); inferior (line 4); inhibited (line 5); scared (lines 24-25, 41); victimised (lines 3240); broken-hearted (line 56).

4

LOOK the term ‘to be through’ up in your dictionary and state what meaning it acquires in the poem. ‘to be through’: to achieve success (to get through an exam), to finish. The term in the poem hints at the end of the relationship between daughter and father but also at the idea of suicide (I’m exhausted, I’ve had enough).

YOUR TURN 6

DISCUSS Does the racism Malcom X was protesting against exist in Italian society? Class Discussion.

T134

Sylvia Plath (1932-1953) 1

ANSWER the following questions about the work of Sylvia Plath.

1

Why did she become a cult figure? Because her poems were intense explorations of the individual self, and voiced the conflicts and the restlessness of America’s young generation in the Sixties. How did she conceive death? She conceived death as inevitable loss, as release from suffering or even regeneration. However, Plath did not believe in the possibility of a new life after death. Why do her poems appeal to the contemporary reader? For their concern with the search for a personal identity through the awareness of the weight of taboos, of the importance of past memories, of the existence of a wide gap between individuals, which leads to the failure of human relationships, especially inside the family. What did she protest against? Against the patriarchies of autocratic fathers, treacherous husbands, and even a God who has condoned the atrocities of genocide. Why are her poems regarded as ‘confessional’? They reveal the most subjective feelings, the deepest emotions and torments as if in a confession.

2

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Soluzioni

3

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378

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What are the main features of her style? She used free verse, accomplished language of the senses, cinematic techniques – flashback, slow motion, leitmotifs, close-ups – shocking metaphors and symbols.

it disturb you or do you identify with the narrator? Discuss the influence your relationship with your father has on your life. Class discussion.

ANALYSIS 5

6

UNDERLINE examples of similes. ‘Like a foot’, ‘poor and white’ (lines 3-4); ‘like a Jew’ (line 34). Who are they referred to? To the speaking voice. How do they connote the personal relationship between daughter and father? It is based on subjection and it evokes the image of the Holocaust. Plath uses an image of modern history to give unbearable weight to a personal relationship. GROUP the images of the poem according to the following semantic areas: Imprisonment lines 3-5; 25-26. Violence Lines 31-32; 45; 49-50; 66. The supernatural Lines 38-39; 54; 72-73; 76-78.

7

8

CIRCLE the words referring to colour. ‘Black shoe’ (line 2); ‘white’ (line 4); ‘bean green over blue’ (line 12); ‘bright blue’ (line 44); ‘a swastika so black’ (lines 46-47); ‘blackboard’ (line 51); ‘red heart’ (line 56); ‘black man’ (line 65); ‘black telephone’ (line 69); ‘fat black heart’ (line 76). What/whom do they refer to? Mainly to the father. Which is the dominant one? Black. To what effect? It suggests oppression, despair and death. DEFINE the tone of the poem choosing from among these adjectives: jolly • aggressive • exaggerated • childish • resentful • forgiving • hypnotic • anguished • plain Suggestion: aggressive, resentful, anguished.

T135

LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) 1

COMPLETE these statements about the AfroAmerican poet LeRoi Jones.

1

When he was at school and in the Air Force he was disappointed by the attempts to train black students to be white and by white prejudice. He was interested in the Beats because they were transgressive. He changed his name into Imamu Amiri Baraka when he converted to Islam. He founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater where only drama by black playwrights was staged. His political commitment was influenced by Malcom X and black nationalism. The members of the Black Community Development and Defense Organization wore traditional African dress, conversed in both Swahili and English, and dedicated themselves to Islam. The main issues explored in his works are black identity, racism and integration, political commitment.

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7

The Death of Reason

DISCUSS the view of the daughter/father relationship given in the poem and say in what sense it reflects a widespread attitude of the Sixties. Class discussion. Suggestion: Students should point out the sense of failure and regression that characterises the speaker. Discussion should focus on love/hate relationships, on the appeal that ambiguous figures may have, on the feeling of inferiority women felt before the liberation of the Sixties.

WARM-UP 1

COMPREHENSION 2

READ the poem and answer the questions.

1

What feeling does the poet describe in the opening lines of the poem? A feeling of anger. What is it compared to? To something calling him out of reason in the cold wind.

2 10 DESCRIBE your reaction to the poem. Does Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

READ the title of the poem and discuss its possible meaning in the light of the civil rights struggle. Class discussion.

379

Soluzioni

9

Black Magic Poetry (1969)

TEXT BANK

LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) YOUR TURN

3 4

5

6

7

What is dead in the black man? His humanity and his capacity to reason (lines 12-13). What was the poet’s grandfather like? He was a big man and made a big corpse once he was killed. Who does the poet invoke in stanza 2? He invokes ‘anybody’s God’, a God who is different according to the people and is also absent. What does the poet claim? He claims that the condition of suffering of the blacks is not shared by other people. What does the poet remember in the last stanza? He remembers his grandfather’s funeral, which he attended when his was a boy. He remembers that he kicked at the coffin and that the diggers were cursing while dropping it into the grave. Teaching tip: the following activities should be carried out in pairs or small groups to encourage students to discuss their understanding of the poem. Each pair or group can choose a chairman to report to the rest of the class.

Violence is common to the landscape and to man. The mood of the poem is one of anger and protest. 5

YOUR TURN 6

3

DISCUSS the symbolic meaning of the following images with the rest of the class.

1

The colored man’s hell (line 5) It symbolises the condition of the black man who lives in a hostile, racist society. Ghosts sit breathing its blood (lines 16-17) The image stands for the black men who have lost their souls and humanity in the attempt to be accepted by the white society. This has deprived them of life itself. The chalk city (line 23) It is a symbol of the white city characterised by hypocrisy and ready to destroy the power of reason of the black minority. His cut-down coat (line 30) It is a symbol of the link between two generations of black men and the necessity to preserve the heritage of the black people.

2

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

3

4

DISCUSS how Amiri Baraka’s attitude compares with Martin Luther King’s and Malcom X’s. Student’s activity.

T136

Seamus Heaney (1939) 1

ANALYSIS

FIND evidence of the task the poet sets to himself in the poem. The poet’s voice can be heard in lines 1, 1719,26-29. Poetry is presented as a mission, as a means to urge the poet’s fellow men to reason. Poetry is an instrument of denunciation, a tool against those who try to make black men weak.

READ Heaney’s biography and write the questions to the following answers. a b c

d e

f g

h i

4

380

PICK OUT images of violence in the poem and say what its mood is like. The poem is full of violent images such as: ‘anger’ (line 1), ‘cold shit wind’ (line 4), ‘sharp wind pulling’ (lines 1011), ‘breathing its blood’ (lines 16-17), ‘killed him’ (line 22), ‘choking and death’ (line 29), ‘kicked’ (line 34), ‘dropped… cursing’ (line 35).

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j k

Where was Seamus Heaney born? At Mossbawn. Where is it exactly? In the county of Derry, Northern Ireland. What kind of atmosphere characterised his childhood? / What was his childhood characterised by? Warmth and affection. What characterised the world outside his home? Conflict and division. Why did he go to the Catholic boarding school of St. Columb’s College? Because he won a scholarship. Where did he move next? First to Belfast, then to the Irish Republic. What has he been doing in America since 1982? He has been working there as a teacher. When did he begin to write and publish poetry? In the early 1960s. Has he just been writing poetry? No, he has also published articles and broadcast on TV and on the radio. What else has contributed to his popularity? His poetry readings. What change took place in the 1970s? He got more involved in the civil rights movement in the 1970s.

l

Why was 1980 an important year for Heaney? Because he published both Selected Poems and a prose collection. m What was he awarded in 1985? The Nobel Prize for Literature. READ about Heaney’s literary career and fill in the missing details. Death of a Naturalist

1969

Door into the Dark

1972

Wintering Out

1975

North

1980

Selected poems, a prose collection, Preoccupations

1984

Station Island

1995

The Nobel Prize for Literature

1996

The Spirit Level

1999

published a translation of Beowulf

3

Digging Seamus Heaney Death of a Naturalist (1966)

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS. Can you remember any moment in your childhood when you observed your father or grandfather at work? Describe what they did, how you felt watching them and what idea of work you perceived. Student’s activity.

ORGANISE your knowledge about the work of Seamus Heaney under the following headings:

COMPREHENSION

•

2

READ the poem and say:

1 2 3

where the speaker is; At home, by the window. if he coincides with the author; Yes, he does. what he is doing; He is writing when he hears someone under his window. what he can see; He can see his father, bent among the flowerbeds. what this scene makes him remember; He remembers when his father used to drill potatoes twenty years before. who else he remembers; His grandfather. what the man was very good at; At handling the spade to cut the turf. what the poet brought him one day; Some milk in a bottle. what the poet decides to do; To dig with his pen.

•

•

importance of the rural world of his childhood It provided the primary material for Heaney’s early poems. The poet conveys what man and Nature share, which is underlined in his emphasis on human work. The interchange between man and nature also enlarges the poet’s consciousness; the incidents described always bring about new knowledge and enforce the notion of the poet as intimately involved with his own community, the inheritor of rural traditions of labour and service. the elegiac themes of some of his poems Some of Heaney’s poems evoke figures who suffer some kind of human diminishment: isolation, repression, disenchantment, exploitation or betrayal. They stand for those historically dispossessed and maltreated, and act as exemplars of suffering and endurance. For Heaney, the recognition of death is an absolute necessity for a poet, because it is only then that the writer’s soul can open up to what the wider universe has to say, what matters in this life, and what our forefathers can teach us. his quatrain form

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4 5

6 7 8 9 3

GO THROUGH the poem again and consider the sequence of the scenes described. Distinguish between those belonging to the poet’s reflection and those associated with his memory: Reflection Memory Lines 1-6 lines 7-14 Lines 15-18 lines 19-24 Lines 25-31

381

Soluzioni

1966

TEXT BANK

2

The poet has elaborated his own quatrain form where there is the dissolving of line into line and image into image, often through the use of enjambment. It is heavily stressed, characteristically with two stresses to a line, like the half-line of Anglo-Saxon alliterative metre; it often breaks its line to coincide with the grammatical phrase; and it makes much use of the colon or its equivalent, the dash.

ANALYSIS 4 1 2 3 4 5

6

7

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

382

8

‘DIGGING’ is used by the poet as a metaphor to establish a similarity and continuity between his own work and that of the rural community he comes from. Find the terms of the analogy and explain what view of poetry and of the poet they point to. The terms of the analogy are the pen, the spade and the gun. Poetry is viewed as archaeology and the poem is seen as an act of personal and cultural memory. It becomes a means of selfawareness but also a weapon to fight in the context of Irish history.

9

DEFINE the kind of feelings conveyed through the poet’s memories. Intimacy, respect, warmth, tenderness.

SAY if the following statements about the sound of the poem are true or false. The poem has a regular rhyme scheme. F The stanzaic division follows a regular pattern. F There are several run-on lines. T The poem is free verse. T RECOGNISE which sound device is being used in the following lines: line 4 Alliteration line 25 Onomatopoeia lines 1-2 and 29-30 Repetition UNDERLINE the words referring to the activity of agriculture. ‘the spade’ (line 4); lines 8-9; lines 12-13; lines 22-24. Then say what vision of labour Heaney expresses through the image of his digging forefathers. He sees it as productive and rewarding at the same time. EXPLAIN. The penultimate and final stanzas of the poem give an almost cinematic series of images recalling the different types of digging before achieving a conclusion which repeats aspects of the opening lines with an important difference. The order of the images is inverted in terms of the original occurrence in the poem. In the earlier stanzas the first digging was in a flowerbed, the second in the potato drills, while the third in ‘Toner’s bog’. In the last two stanzas we move from potato drills to the bog and back to the flowerbeds, which are under the writing poet’s window, and thence to the poet. The movement is almost like a camera panning from image to image before finally focusing in close-up on the poet, and then entering into his mind, with the line stressing that, as he has no spade to carry on the tradition, he will instead use a pen to dig, a metaphor which will gradually unfold throughout his work. At another level, repeating the opening couplet and stressing the word ‘dig’ bring the closing line into direct contrast with the ‘snug as a gun’ line: not only is he choosing the pen over the spade; he is also choosing the pen as a means of digging, rather than using it as a metaphorical gun.

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YOUR TURN 10 COMMENT. This poem clearly shows the way Heaney’s imagination works and the importance of memory in the process. Student’s activity. Heaney’s inspiration springs from ‘remembering’, through a process of looking back rather than forward. At the same time ‘digging’ becomes a metaphor of the probing of the unconscious.

Specification 18 T137

Kate’s disappearance Ian McEwan The Child In Time (1987) Chapter 1

WARM-UP 1

DISCUSS Do you like doing the shopping at the supermarket. Do you think it is a safe place for children? Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2

READ the first paragraph and say what the narrator wonders about. He tries to remember what else he bought and whether there was someone following him along the aisles trying to go unnoticed.

1 2

how many tills there were; Eight. which one he joined and why; The one nearest the door because he knew the girl at the till worked fast. how many people there were in front of him and behind him; There were three people ahead of him and there was no one behind him. whether Kate wanted to be lifted from her seat and why. She was enjoying herself and was reluctant to be disturbed. However, she looked a bit irritable.

3

4

4

READ the extract to the end and describe:

1

Stephen’s mood; He felt barely conscious of what was happening around him because he was concerned with the shopping. Kate’s reactions; She tried to imitate her father’s faces. the main event. Stephen took a carrier bag and when he turned Kate had disappeared.

2 3

2

3

4

ANALYSIS 5

CONSIDER the narrative technique employed.

1

How is the scene narrated? The crucial scene is told as a memory. Why? There is the reconstruction of the event in the search for clues. Where is the climax? At the end of the extract. To what effect? The crucial event regards disappearance which goes unnoticed. The main event happens on the margins thus adding objectivity to the perspective.

2

5

6

YOUR TURN 6

DISCUSS. in pairs your reaction to the scene. Do you think Stephen was careless or could such things happen? Student’s activity. 7

T138

Black Dogs (1992) 1

ANSWER the following questions about Black Dogs.

1

Where does the novel take its title from? The novel takes its title from an incident. While hiking in Southern France in 1946, June was

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attacked by two huge black dogs which she perceived as the embodiment of the evil in the universe. In that moment she discovered a sense of the divine inside her that enabled her to resist the dogs. Who are the main characters and how are they related? The narrator of the story is middle-aged Jeremy, who lost his parents in a road accident when he was eight. Since then, he has tried to substitute them first with his friends’ parents, and finally with his parents-in-law, June and Bernard Tremaine. Where and when does the story take place? Black Dogs moves around Europe: some sections take place in an English nursing home where June is, others are set in Southern France, in Poland and in Berlin in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall was dismantled. The novel combines two different narrative levels: one, dealt with in the first three parts, referring to the late-1980s and the other, in Part IV, referred to the mid-1940s. How is the narrative organized? Black Dogs is a first-person narration by Jeremy and it is presented as a memoir through the use of shifting perspectives and its doubling back through time for multiple reconstruction. What are McEwan’s main concerns in the novel? The clash of science and mysticism, rationality and magic, the theme of evil, the excesses of violence and the redeeming power of love. The novel also explores some of the major events of late-twentieth-century European history. What do the black dogs represent? The black dogs are the dogs the Gestapo had originally brought to the French village to intimidate its inhabitants. After the landing of the Allies in Normandy, the Germans moved away; the dogs were left behind and they ran wild, becoming a menace for the area. After attacking June, the two dogs disappear but the book ends with Jeremy’s visionary warning that the black dogs will return at some other time in Europe. What kind of novel is Black Dogs? There are elements of genre mixture in Black Dogs. The book is in part a ‘memoir’ both of the Tremaines and Jeremy himself and that makes it a psychological study as well as an act of self-analysis. It has a discursive, essay-like element in it and, to some extent, it is a philosophical novel in which different positions are constantly in dialogue with each other.

383

Soluzioni

READ the second paragraph and note down:

TEXT BANK

3

that become objects of contempt even in a democracy. His description and the zoom in on the red flag are a bit grotesque: he is compared to a tango dancer doing his performance.

T138

A racy attack Ian McEwan Black Dogs (1992) Part II

WRITE a caption to describe the content of each section. Section 1 Lines 1-24 The Turkish demonstrator Section 2 Lines 25-104 The attack of the Naziskins

2

READ the first paragraph and describe the demonstrator. He is alone, he carries a red flag. He is a thin man in his early twenties. He looks Turkish. He has black curls and black clothes – a black double-breasted jacket worn over a black t-shirt and black jeans.

3

DESCRIBE the crowd’s behavior. The ‘respectable’ German citizens that witness the odd demonstration abuse the Turk both verbally and physically. Although they look respectable, they behave aggressively towards the Turkish demonstrator. They are racist.

4

SAY what interrupts the demonstration. The arrival of a dozen Nazi-skins.

5

HIGHLIGHT Bernard’s behaviour and say what happens to him. He reacts against racism and violence; he believes that better social and political systems could eradicate ‘evil’. He tries to prevent violence against the Turkish man and becomes himself a victim of the violence of the Naziskins.

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

1

6

READ the last three paragraphs and explain who succeeds in stopping the attack. A young woman from the street comes to Bernard’s rescue. If the old system of values has ceased to command, sexual appeal still functions. The Nazi-skins give up their attack because they are judged as naughty boys and therefore not virile - by a young woman.

ANALYSIS 7

384

SAY what the Turkish demonstrator symbolises. He symbolises the minorities

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8

UNDERLINE the sentences referring to Jeremy. ‘I hadn’t seen what he had seen’ (line 1); ‘As far as I was concerned, the flag-man could have what he was asking for. My anxiety was for Bernard’ (lines 25-26); ‘I heard the words they were calling, but at the time I ignored them’ (line 31); ‘Stay out of this Bernard’ (lines 44-45); ‘I looked around for help.’ (line 62); ‘I stepped forwards and swung out at the boy and missed.’ (lines 76-77); ‘I jerked one of the boys back by his collar and was trying to reach for another. There were too many for me’ (lines 80-81). ‘He is worried about Bernard’s health and does not want to get involved in the fight. He tries to take action only when he can’t help it’. How does his behaviour contrast with Bernard’s? While Bernard is able to understand what will happen and wants to be involved to prevent violence, Jeremy seems detached and even when he tries to defend Bernard, he does not seem convinced and in vain looks for help from the soldiers. His continuous remarks to the reader show that he is living the experience on an intellectual level trying to make sense of history.

9

FOCUS on the description of the Nazi-skins.

1

How old were they? They were between sixteen and twenty. What did they look like? They were pale, had shaved heads, and loose wet mouths. Some of them had silver swastikas pinned to their lapels. Another had a swastika tattoo on his knuckle. What galvanised them? Violence. They were ready to kick Bernard to death. What do they embody? They respect nothing and embody evil, the pervasive, ever-present force of violence that can arise anywhere at any time.

2

3 4

10 POINT OUT the narrator’s remarks. What do they emphasise? Lines 40-47 36-43; 52-53 48-49; 57-58 53-54; 75-77 70-73; 90-93 85-87. The narrator’s remarks

11 DISCUSS. What did the fall of the wall symbolise? What does McEwan seem to point out here instead? Student’s activity. It seems that while the destruction of the wall is meant to mark the end of racial hatred and the triumph of reason and humanity, it has merely signalled the end of one period of oppression under the Cold War to be replaced by another under democracy. The novel presents violence and a rejection of civilisation.

3

FIND out the relationships between the different characters mentioned. Jeremy and Jenny are friends but they fancy each other.

4

READ the first two paragraphs and write down:

1

the reason why Jenny wants to visit Majdanek; To take photographs for a friend who is writing a book. if she has already been there; No, she has not; she has never visited a concentration camp before. Jeremy’s reaction to the invitation; He kisses her. how they get to Majdanek; By taxi. what they talk about while going there. About their lives and families.

2 3 4 5

5

LIST the information about Bernard and June: Bernard He used to work on the radio and wrote a biography of Nasser. June She has a difficult relationship with her daughter who defines her as ‘prickly’ (line 26); she lives alone in a remote place in France and has abandoned the world in pursuit of a life of spiritual meditation. What impression do you get about them? What visions of life do they seem to embody? They seem to embody two different visions of life: Bernard is socially and politically committed; June is attracted to mysticism.

6

FOLLOW Jeremy’s and Jenny’s steps from the entrance to the exit of the camp and note down what they see. ‘A sign’ (line 32); ‘outer fences’ (line 42); ‘guardroom’ (line 43); ‘watchtowers’ (line 46); ‘double inner fence’ (lines 47-48); ‘the huts’ (line 48); ‘the incinerator’ (line 51); ‘wire cages’ (line 53); ‘the brick building with a chimney’ (lines 80-81); ‘the oven’ (line 81); ‘an old container of hydrogen cyanide’ (line 8283). Then in your own words explain what each of these things was for. Student’s activity. The details of the description should be used to help students recollect what they know about concentration camps and their function.

12 DISCUSS. What do you think of the way the individual people behaved in the situation described? Would you have behaved in the same way? Class discussion.

T139

Majdanek Ian McEwan Black Dogs (1992) Part III

WARM-UP 1

DRAW from your knowledge of the history of World War II and write down the words you associate with the idea and the image of a concentration camp. Have you ever visited one? If so, talk about your experience to the rest of the class. Alternatively read the text and see how many of your words it contains or if you can add more. Student’s activity.

COMPREHENSION 2

AS YOU READ, pick out information about where the concentration camp is situated.

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ANALYSIS 7

CONSIDER the use of personal pronouns and say from whose point of view the story is told.

385

Soluzioni

YOUR TURN

‘Lublin’ (line 2); ‘the drab outskirts of Warsaw’ (line 14); ‘the Lada’ (line 16). It is situated in Poland.

TEXT BANK

interrupt the narration: they emphasise Jeremy’s helplessness towards the disappearance of moral and intellectual standards by which to judge not only his personal experience, but also the upheavals that have taken place in Europe since the end of WWII and culminated in the fall of communism, one of the central motifs of the novel.

How does this affect your response as a reader? ‘I’ is the prevailing pronoun in the first part of the passage and it is then replaced by ‘we’. The reader sees the camp from Jeremy’s and Jenny’s point of view and shares their emotions.

• ‘curled like dried fruit’ (line 54) (simile): the shoes, which are the symbol of life walking into the future, are compared to fruit deprived of juice to symbolise the waste of human life. • ‘Tat’ (line 57) (metaphor): it connotes the disregard for human life.

8

MARK the lines where Jeremy’s narration is broken by dialogue. Lines 36-37; 89-90. What function do you think these interruptions have? They introduce Jenny’s reactions and the symbol of the ‘black dogs’.

9

FOCUS on the narrator’s reactions before, during and after the visit to the camp.

1

Highlight the words and phrases which convey them. ‘A momentary reluctance to enter’ (line 34); ‘my emotions died’ (lines 61-62); ‘shame’ (line 66); ‘I could no longer bear the victims’ (line 70); ‘inverted admiration’, ‘bleak wonder’ (lines 75-76); ‘released from long captivity’ (line 98); ‘excited’ (line 98). Now write a short paragraph to explain the impact of this experience on the development of Jeremy’s awareness. Student’s activity. Students should point out the change from fear to detached observation to despair, and the final sense of relief.

12 UNDERLINE words and phrases referring to quantity and number. To what effect does the narrator use them? ‘hundreds of thousands’ (line 32); ‘full bottles of milk’ (lines 43-44); ‘more numerous’ (line 48); ‘a single’ (line 50); ‘tens of thousands’ (line 53); ‘thousands’ (line 55); ‘tens and hundreds of thousands’, ‘millions’ (line 58). They add realism and objectivity to the description and convey the monstrosity of the slaughter.

2

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

10 WRITE DOWN the phrase the narrator uses to define the function of the camp and its connection with the surroundings (lines 2832). Then discuss its meaning. ‘They lay side by side, Lublin and Majdanek, matter and anti-matter’. Discussion should focus on the problem of moral and historical responsibility linked to the fact that the destruction of millions of lives was carried out during World War II. 11 FIND the poetic devices (symbols, metaphors, similes) the narrator employs in the description of the camp and explain their connotation. • ‘two bottles of milk’, ‘an inch of snow’ (lines 43-44) (symbols): the colour white, which traditionally symbolises purity, here connotes the obsessive neatness of the camp. • ‘like a dirty tramp steamer with a single stack’ (line 50) (simile): it is the shameful vehicle to death.

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13 GO THROUGH lines 63-79 and point out the use of satire. 1

2

3

4

What kind of identification is suggested by the narrator? ‘Like tourists’ (line 63); ‘like the commandant’ (line 67); ‘their persecutors’ (line 71). Point out the repetitions and their effect. ‘How well’; ‘and this was only to’; ‘such’. The effect is satirical. What is the implied meaning of the last sentence? The last two sentences are ironical. The narrator implies that so much dedication and energy were devoted to the destruction of human lives. What do you think McEwan’s aim is in using this technique? To condemn and to make the reader respond emotionally and rationally to these historical events. The implied message is that people should not forget.

14 DISCUSS the symbolical meaning of the black dogs in Jenny’s remarks. The black dogs are a powerful symbol from the universal unconscious. Black usually denotes death, the shadow or the evil side of the psyche and dogs stand for man’s animal nature, his instincts and uncivilised impulses. Myths are full of dogs which bite, tear, dismember and are the objects of terror and the instruments of death and damnation. June understands the dogs to be the embodiments of evil, of a pervasive, everpresent force that can arise anywhere at any time.

d

YOUR TURN 15 DISCUSS. 1

2

3

Do you agree that people should regard concentration camps as monuments, as ‘an honourable civic defiance of oblivion’, or do you think we should forget and just think of the future? Student’s activity. In the last pages of the novel, McEwan writes about the black dogs: ‘these animals were the creation of debased imaginations, of perverted spirits no amount of social theory could account for. The evil I’m talking about lives in us all’. What further dimension, besides that of history, is he hinting at? He is hinting at the moral dimension and at the need to build the future looking critically at the past. ‘They will return to haunt us, somewhere in Europe, in another time’. What events is McEwan referring to? To the war in Bosnia. Can you find any link with the passage you have read? Student’s activity. Students should point out that the war in Bosnia was connected with racial prejudice and that the press dealt with the horror of concentration camps and mass slaughter.

2

the narrator’s feelings in front of the scene. He feels oppressed by the family’s situation and wishes he could go and eat somewhere else. Then he begins to identify himself with the little child and remembers the feeling of isolation when his parents died.

READ the text to the end and answer the questions. a

b

c

d

e

Why did the boy start to cry? Because he realised his complete isolation and could not control his despair. What did his father do? He struck his face with violence and caused him to fall off his chair. Who tried to console the boy? The waitress gathered up the child and tried to console him with sweet words. What did the narrator think? He thought that a strong man should not hit a child in that way. What did he do at the end? He challenged the man outside of the restaurant and knocked him down.

ANALYSIS a

The force of adult hatred Ian Mc Ewan Black Dogs (1992) Part III

b

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the text up to line 55 and make notes about: a

b

c

the characters mentioned and their role in the story; The characters are: a seveneight-year-old boy, his parents, the narrator and the Parisian lady, who are the other customers of the restaurant, Mme Auriac, the restaurant’s owner, and the waitress. the parents’ behaviour towards the child; They repeatedly hit the child or threaten him (see the mother’s ‘cautionary forefinger’). the child’s reactions; At first he gazes at his lap and rubs his forearm, then he whimpers.

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c

Identify the kind of narrator employed. McEwan employs a third-person obtrusive narrator who sometimes intrudes into the narration to make some personal remarks (Lines 51-53; 62-64). Point out how he builds up the atmosphere of the text. At the beginning there is ‘larger quietness’ then the atmosphere gradually becomes tense and menacing. Where is the climax? Lines 60-64 62-67.

4

IDENTIFY the lines which convey the narrator’s suppositions about the three members of the family and what is going on among them. Lines 8-9 11-13; 17 19-20; 25-26; 27-28; 31 34-35; 37 36-38.

5

NOTE DOWN the words that describe the husband’s appearance and attitude. Lines 5, 6, 7, 14-15, 24-25 32-34, 72 80, 75-76 84-85, 77, 81. a

How is he connoted? The metaphor of the cock underlines his role of boss inside

387

Soluzioni

FOCUS ON McEwan’s style.

TEXT BANK

3

T140

b

6

7

the family; the tattoos and the brand of cigarettes he smokes convey an idea of menacing virility. His attitude is unfriendly and rude. At the end he is arrogant and scornful and does not expect his defeat. How does the figure of the narrator contrast with his? He is connoted as a clumsy sensitive man of medium height: lines 105-106.

PICK OUT the words referring to violence. ‘a sharp slap’ (line 18-19); ‘pushed … jolted’ (lines 32-33); ‘sweep… hand’ (line 45). Why is the boy hit so many times by his parents? Because he cannot sit up straight and wipe his mouth properly with his napkin. Do you approve of their method of education? Open answer.

4

5

READ lines 47-48 again and explain what is meant by the author. He implies that domestic violence is usually regarded as a private matter rather than as a public crime. 6

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS. Do you agree with the behaviour of the waitress and of the narrator at the end of the story? Would you have reacted in the same way? Class discussion.

T141

Atonement (2001) TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

1

ANSWER the following questions about Atonement.

1

How many parts does the novel consist of and where are they set? Three parts. The first part is set in an English country house in 1935; the second part takes place in Normandy in May 1940 during the British retreat to Dunkirk; the third part is set in London in 1999. What narrative technique is used? The thirdperson narrative is attributed not to an anonymous authorial voice but to Briony, a character within the story. There are divergent perspectives, flashbacks, overlapping narratives and replayed scenes. What are the modernist and post-modernist elements? The novel displays a modernist interest in consciousness and in the use of shifting perspectives, however it emerges as a post-

2

3

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modernist novel, because it questions its own fictive status, exposing itself as a construction. What is the role of the weather? The weather plays an important role especially when the author uses the heat wave to suggest highrunning passions. Heat hangs over the first part of the novel and shapes its action: Robbie and Cecilia become lovers and are interrupted by an appalled Briony; the mysterious act of violence is committed just as Briony’s crime of false testimony. What message does McEwan convey through the character of Briony? Through the character of Briony McEwan presents the figure of the child and the writer at the same time, in the sense that they both specialise in fashioning worlds from their own imagination. This is one of the author’s most insistent messages: ‘believing is seeing’, which is perhaps to say that he thinks that imagination fails when it works more with the products of opinion than observation. What are the main themes of the novel? The recognition of others’ consciousness which is necessary to the apprehension of an equal humanity and informs the novelist’s attempt to represent social interaction. The book has also a political dimension in its concern with the Second World War. However, the most disturbing aspect of Atonement is the exploration of the problem of knowing other minds, and the role of imagining, narrating, and story-telling in our efforts to understand reality and escape isolation.

Briony’s crime Ian McEwan Atonement (2001) Chapter 13

COMPREHENSION 1

READ up to line 22 and find out:

1

what Briony was conscious of; That she was sharing the space of the night with a maniac. whom she was looking for; She was looking for the twins. what she was thinking about; She was thinking about her passion for writing and how she could describe what she might see.

2 3

2

READ lines 23-56 and do the following activities.

1

Describe Briony’s mixed feelings towards the maniac. She is determined to pin him down on paper even if she feels a bit afraid because he might be waiting for her and punish her for discovering him and his sister in the library. She feels elated because of adult hatred. Identify who the maniac was, according to Briony. Robbie. Find out what linked him to the Tallis family and to Briony. They had provided him with a home, trips to France, school and university studies. He had carried Briony on his back and helped her swim in the river. Say what Briony’s final resolution was. To see him off their lives.

2 3

4

3

READ the text to the end and answer the following questions.

1

What did Briony realise about the bush near the temple? That it was moving and it was actually a person. Who did she find there? Her cousin Lola. How did she attend to her? She touched her shoulder and tried to reach her hand. She knelt down trying to embrace her and asked her who had done that to her. How did the girl behave? She sat with her arms crossed around her chest, hugging herself and rocking slightly. What did Briony want to do? She wanted to seal the name of the maniac. Did she give the girl the time to explain? No she did not let her say anything. At the beginning of the text you are told that ‘Briony would commit her crime’? What do you think her crime was? She drew her conclusions following her belief, she confused fact and fiction.

2 3

4

5 6 7

ANALYSIS 4

EXPLAIN how McEwan presents the image of the child and the writer together. Briony’s story is fictionalised by Briony herself: she is a character in the story and its narrator, but she is also a writer. Both the child and the

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novelist specialise in fashioning worlds of their own imagining, they are both ‘daydreamers’ in the novel’s terms. The 13-year-old Briony believes that observing and conjecturing upon Robbie’s sexual advances to her sister has ‘made her into a real writer’. So her desire to craft fiction gives rise to the story she will fabricate for the police of Robbie’s assault on her cousin Lola. 5

FOCUS ON the description of the setting in the first paragraph. How is it connoted? Find the lines with reference to the season and discuss its symbolic meaning. The scene is set at night (line 2) with emphasis on the contrast between the outside darkness (‘shadowed’, line 2; ‘dry night air’, line 12; ‘dark’, line 14) and the light inside the house (line 4). This reinforces the idea of mystery and danger which is in Briony’s mind. The lines containing reference to the season are 19-20: it is summer and the heat of the day can still be felt during the night. The heat symbolizes passion and loss of restrain in the novel.

6

CONSIDER the theme of the transition from childhood to adulthood. How did that happen to Briony? This transition happened to Briony when she experienced the idea of being hated by an adult. It seemed a sort of promotion to her (lines 29-31).

7

FOCUS ON Lola. What is she compared to? She is compared to a winkle. She is described as helpless and confused. Does her behaviour suggest that she is hiding something? She is numb, she does not say anything, she does not accuse anybody nor deny it was Robbie. Her behaviour is left ambiguous by the author. What do you think really happened on the island? Lola was sexually attacked.

8

ANALYSE lines 99-100. What do they suggest about the power of words? Words make things real. Saying Robbie’s name means that he is guilty.

9

FIND the lines that refer to writing and describe the relationship between experience and fiction in the text. The lines referring to writing are: lines 10-11, 14, 17, 21-22, 25-27, 78, 116-117. In a world of her own creation, the novelist can know everything, but this can never be true of life.

389

Soluzioni

how she felt; She felt smooth and agile in the dark. what she could describe. Anything, from the gentle pad of the maniac to the night setting.

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4 5

10 SAY what McEwan’s message in the text is. One of the author’s most insistent messages is a warning against ‘believing is seeing’, which means that imagination fails when it works more with the products of opinion than observation. The novelist’s attempt to represent social interaction must be informed by the recognition of others’ consciousness which is necessary to the apprehension of an equal humanity.

4

5

YOUR TURN 11 READ the plot of the novel. The way events really turned out defies a belief in any order and shows that atonement is not possible. This view is typical of the contemporary novel; how does it compare with the nineteenth-century novel? Student’s activity. Students should draw a comparison with Dicken’s novels where there is a belief in the order of things, where the narrator is in complete control of reality and where there is a system of retribution and punishment.

6

7

What does Klara Sax do? She is a conceptual artist, supervising a project in the desert, painting B-52 bombers and other military waste. What is the narrative structure of the novel? ‘Underworld’ is divided into six main parts, with a prologue and an epilogue, plus three short inserts which move against the prevailing chronological sequence covering a period of 45 years. De Lillo builds a series of fictional fragmented narratives around the course of history. Individuals and incidents are held together by the formal repetition of certain ideas and motifs. What does ‘underworld’ mean? ‘Underworld’ may refer both to the burial of waste and to plutonium, which comes from Pluto, god of the dead and ruler of the underworld. What does the desert symbolise in the novel? The desert is a breeding ground and a wasteland of the modern world.

Klara’s project Don DeLillo Underworld (1997) Part I, chapter 2

T142

Don DeLillo Underworld (1997) ANSWER these questions about Underworld.

1

How does the novel begin? The novel begins with the description of the final game of the 1951 championship between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. The match is finally won by the Giants with a home run by Bobby Thomson. On the same day, the Soviet Union is carrying out its first nuclear test: the piece of news is communicated to J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, who is watching the game from a private box. What is the setting? The novel shifts to the 1990s and then goes backwards in time, moving between the city of New York and the southwestern desert, which is the testing ground of the American weapons. Against the background of the Cold War, De Lillo traces the story of a brief love affair that took place in the Bronx in the 1950s. Who is the protagonist? Nick Shay, an executive at a Phoenix-based corporation that manages dangerous waste.

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Soluzioni

1

2

3

390

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COMPREHENSION 1

READ the text up to line 32 and explain:

•

who was involved in the project; Art students, history majors and teachers on leave, nomads and runaways and hackers. how they worked; With their hands, scraping and painting, stirring the mixture. where they lived; In a set of abandoned barracks at the edge of an enormous air base; they slept in pup tents or sleeping bags or in their dusty cars. whether the narrator was going to join the work; No, he was not. He was there only to see their project and to say hello to Klara Sax. where Klara came from; New York. how the narrator he reached the operation center; By car. who was already there. Several people, a woman with a clipboard, maybe forty spectators.

• •

•

• • •

2

READ the rest of the passage and answer the questions. a

What did the project exactly consist of? Making an artwork from old war planes.

d

e

no-land, the area of nothingness where nothing grows and nothing happens.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 6

ANALYSIS 3

FOCUS ON the narrative technique. a

b

4

5

What kind of narrator is there? Does he ever make general remarks? First-person narrator. He openly intervenes in the narration in lines 7-8. What strikes you about the dialogue in the second part of the extract? It is free direct speech since few introductory sentences are used.

ANALYSE how the character of Klara is presented. What kind of woman does she look like? What is her aim as an artist? She is presented through her voice, her posture and through her words. She is an artist with a social function, that is, to remind people of their negative past. CONSIDER the setting. What is it like? What is its symbolic meaning? The setting is in the desert in an area where American weapons were tested and the craters and old planes act as reminders of World War II and of the Cold War. The symbolic meaning is given by the vastness and cold beauty of the area and of its misuse as a criticism of men’s violence and use of the weapons of war. Students might also mention the creative actions of attempting to make something artistic out of the waste and destruction. There is also the irony of the vast potential for evil in the planes that are now useless waste in the desert, always seen as the

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TYPE B. Draw a comparison between Underworld and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land as regards style, theme and symbols. Write 1012 lines. Student’s writing activity. Students should mention the fragmented style and the presence of motifs as a unifying element; the theme of moral waste, which in De Lillo’s novel becomes also physical; the symbol of the desert. Traditionally the desert is the biblical cradle of civilisation and the absence of society, a place where violent sandstorms don’t alter the panorama, a homogeneous content of soil without grounding, dimension, or root. It’s a contained chaos, a tumultuous constant, a shifting plateau. The desert ‘creates a vision expurgated of all the rest: cities, relationships, events, media. It forms the mental frontier where the projects of civilisation are run to the ground.’

T143

The cosmology of waste Don DeLillo Underworld (1998) Part I, chapter 2

COMPREHENSION 1

IDENTIFY the six parts of the extract and write down a heading for each of them. Part 1: Lines 1-7 The narrator worked for a firm involved in waste. Part 2: Lines 8-12 The narrator remembers seeing a man on the via della Spiga in front of a mirrored column. Part 3: Lines 13-19 The Jesuits taught him how to examine things for deeper connections. Part 4: Lines 20-40 His son believed he could look at a plane flying in the sky and make it explode by simply thinking about it. Part 5: Lines 41-45 How they collected waste at home. Part 6: Lines 45-51 How technology influences man’s perception of reality.

391

Soluzioni

c

Who cooperated to the project? How? The military cooperated to the project. They let the volunteers paint and they promised to keep the site intact, to isolate it from other uses and to maintain the integrity of the project. What was the aim of the project? They were using abandoned aircrafts. They were painting them and saving them from the cutter’s torch. What kind of painting was Klara doing? She was making a landscape painting where the desert was the surrounding frame, the four-part horizon. Why did Klara choose such a context to work upon? Because the desert bore the signs of past detonations and its craters could serve as warning signs.

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b

2

READ the extract and explain:

1

what new figure of post-modern society DeLillo describes; The waste handler who acquires a sort of religious connotation. where the narrator travelled and what he witnessed; He travelled to the coast lowlands of Texas and here he witnessed the burial of drums of dangerous waste in subterranean salt beds (lines 1-3). what waste is equated to; Waste is equated to something holy which is worth reverence and respect. what the Jesuits taught the narrator; They taught him to examine things for second meanings and deeper connections. how people regard their litter; People regard their litter in a planetary context (lines 18-19). what contrast there is between the narrator’s son’s view and the adult view; The narrator contrasts the view of his adolescent son, who thinks that he can make things happen, that he can change the world, with the adult view deprived of interest and conviction. how people separated waste; People separated waste into glass, cans and paper products; then they cleared glass versus coloured glass, tin versus aluminium. what effect technology has on man. Technology connects man to the things that slip through the world unperceived.

2

3

4

5 6

7

8

ANALYSIS 3

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Soluzioni

4

5

392

EXPLAIN what narrative technique DeLillo mainly uses. To what effect? He uses first-person narrative technique which creates a strong relationship with the reader. UNDERLINE the lines which contain the narrator’s remarks. The narrator’s remarks are in lines 6-7; 18-19; 49-51. FOCUS on the phrases where the narrator describes the handling of waste. What connotation is it given? Handling waste is like creating a system. DeLillo is obsessed with systems. He recognises that individuals have a symbiotic/parasitic love/hate relationship with systems. Systems are loops that people get caught up in, but systems, be they belief systems, institutional, mystical, work, or

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personal systems, are things that people cling to in times of trouble, because if something is part of a system, it has a reason - it is within human control. 6

DISCUSS What themes related to contemporary society does the narrator hint at in the extract? The themes are memory and the way in which the past conditions our present. The recycling of waste is an urgent issue. There is an awareness of our time in the work of De Lillo, but it is not a comforting one. Science, religion, etc. cannot explain away the complexities of human experience. Man must face the simple fact that the world does not make sense in any simple way, according to any single system.

YOUR TURN 7

DISCUSS. with the rest of the class.

1

Are you for or against nuclear power stations? Open answer. Are you interested in the environment? What environmental issues are you most concerned with? Open answer.

2

T144

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932) 1

ANSWER these questions about Beyond Beliefs.

1

What does Naipaul recollect in Beyond Beliefs? Naipaul recollects his excursions among the converted peoples in four Islamic countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran and Malaysia. What does he claim in the prologue? He claims that as a ‘manager of narratives,’ he has written ‘a book about people... not a book of opinion’; but, indeed, while telling the stories of his encounters with Muslims in non-Arab Islamic countries through a series of interviews, Naipaul’s opinions of the laws and conditions of these countries emerge. What is the main theme of the book? The main theme is political philosophy which cannot and should not be combined with religious faith.

2

3

The oneness of government and faith Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul Beyond Beliefs (1998) From, Part II, IRAN; chapter 2, Mr Jaffrey’s Round Trip

community served the faith. Now Mr Jaffrey was suffering because of religious fanaticism (lines 17-21, 49-50). 2

READ the second part of the extract where Mr Parvez read the writer two stories about the political situation of his country. Then answer the following questions.

1

What word did journalists have to use in their reports instead of ‘students’? Hooligans (line 52). What was the ‘basic system’? It was the institution of leadership and obedience in Iran established by Khomeini (line 62). Were the journalists allowed to criticise their government? Was there any formal censorship in the country? There was no formal censorship at that time, but only self-censorship. Journalists knew how far they could go; they were allowed to criticise presidents, ministers, but they were not permitted to hurt or destroy the basic system (lines 56-60). What was the subject of the first story told by Mr Parvez? The importance of ‘ulama’, the clerics, the religious teachers, the men in turbans and gowns (lines 66-68). What did the second story restate? Though it was presented as an interview with a ‘left-wing’ deputy, it was an explicit restatement of the principle of leadership and obedience (lines 70-72) . What did Articles 5 and 49 of the Constitution in Iran state? Article 5 stated that the highest authority in the Islamic Republic was the Leader, who exercised the supreme political and religious powers and was a manifestation of the integration of politics with religion according (lines 73-76). Article 49 established that the government had the responsibility to confiscate all wealth accumulated through usury, usurpation, bribery, embezzlement, theft, gambling, misuse of endowment, misuse of government contracts and transactions, the sale of cultivated land and other resources subject to public ownership, operation of centres of corruption (lines 82-86). Why were the aims of Article 49 typically Islamic? The aims of this Article were Islamic because it stated the integration between politics and religion and the absolute obedience due to the Leader (lines 87-89). What did Islam mean? Islam meant

2

3

COMPREHENSION 1

NOTE DOWN while reading the first part of the extract (lines 1-50):

1

who Mr Jaffrey was; Mr Jaffrey was an Indian, a Shia from Lucknow (line 1). why he had left India in 1948 and where he had moved; He had left India in 1948, because he knew that as a Muslim he was not going to get far in the Indian air force. He went to Pakistan, but after ten years he had begun to feel unhappy as a Shia there and he had decided to move to Iran, where nearly everyone was Shia (lines 1-5). what the Shah had brought about; The Shah had brought about tyranny, great wealth linked to corruption and general wickedness (lines 6-8). what had caused the revolution in Iran; Religion (line 9). what the consequences of revolution had been; The revolution had gone bad; the ayatollahs, the spiritual leaders, had not gone back to their religious centres but they had usurped the Shah’s authority and the country was now in the hands of religious fanatics (lines 12-16). how Khomeini ruled his country; Ayatollah Khomeini ruled politically and spiritually by almost universal consent. He had created high religious excitement and the oneness of government and faith (lines 31-36). what Jaffrey had always dreamt of and why he was now suffering. Mr Jaffrey had dreamt of the ‘jamé towhidi’, the society of believers, where the spiritual and the secular were one, and everything that was done by the

2

3

4 5

6

7

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4

5

6

7

8

393

Soluzioni

5

Has Islamic belief succeeded in altering the living standards of people? No, it has not. What are the living conditions of Islamic peoples? The peoples of the Islamic countries, according to Naipaul, are poor, fragmented, backward and confused, and neither the advocates of the religion nor the rulers of the state could lead them to a positive difference.

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4

9

‘submission’, and in an Islamic republic, such as the people of Iran had wanted and had voted for in a referendum, everyone had to submit (lines 92-94). Why could this basic system explain the enormous painted photographs on the sides of several buildings? This ‘basic system’ of a leadership mysteriously developing and people obeying explained the enormous painted portraits on the side of buildings, linking the present spiritual leader to the Imam Khomeini and making a simple call for obedience (lines 101-103).

ANALYSIS 3

STATE how Islam is depicted by Naipaul. Islam is a religion, which makes imperial demands on its converts. In this way it is more than a private faith; and it can become a neurosis.

YOUR TURN 4

DISCUSS in groups one of the following prompts:

•

Islam is generally considered a backward religion, which advocates terrorism and religious fanaticism. Islamic peoples are against progress, lead miserable lives and they are incapable of competing with the rest of the world. Then exchange your opinions with the rest of the class. Student’s speaking activity. For the Teacher: Divide your students into groups. Have each group focus on one question. Then let your students share their opinions. Students may refer to Web sites and newspaper and magazine articles for details about Islamism for more information.

•

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Soluzioni

T145

A risk to own anything

COMPREHENSION 2

READ this excerpt and note down:

1

the setting in place and time; David and Lucy’s house and the garden where the dog kennels are. All the text takes place late in the afternoon (lines 57-58). David’s and Lucy’s actions;

2

DAVID

LUCY

He tries to forget what has happened to him and his daughter (lines 1-2). He realises the three black men have stolen his car but he understands that the violence is over (lines 3-4). He tries to embrace his daughter (lines 17-18). He looks at himself in the mirror and becomes aware of what they have done to him (lines 21-24). He understands that it is a risk to own anything (line 37). He is overwhelmed by emotion and starts to cry and shiver (lines 30-31; 48). He embraces his daughter (lines 69-70).

She has just had a shower, probably to cleanse herself of the black men’s violence (line 8). She enters her dog kennel and bends over one of the dogs (lines 13-14). She becomes aware of her father’s injuries (line 16). She avoids her father’s hug (lines 17-18). She does not try to soothe her father’s sores (line 49). She coldly advises her father to use baby-oil for his injuries (lines 50-51). She decides to walk over to a friend of hers, Ettinger, for help (lines 59-60). She asks her father to only tell his story but not to quote her (line 64). She does not respond to David’s attempts at comforting her (lines 70-71).

3 4

John Maxwell Coetzee Disgrace (1999) From chapter 11

WARM-UP 1

394

THINK about the plot of the novel. What predictions can you make about David’s and Lucy’s feelings? Student’s activity.

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what has happened to the dog; It is near dying but wags its tail faintly (line 14). what Lucy is probably afraid of. She is afraid of possible future violence against her and her father in reprisal.

ANALYSIS 3

CIRCLE the words and phrases referring to David’s and his daughter’s feelings. David shows affection towards his daughter (lines 17-18, 30, 68-69); he can’t recollect what has happened to him (lines 57-58) and

PICK OUT and recognise the climax of the text. The climax is in lines 59-64 when Lucy openly expresses her resignation.

5

DEFINE the atmosphere of the whole text. The atmosphere is tense and resigned throughout the text.

6

SAY whose point of view you as the reader share. The reader shares David’s point of view and is invited to live his story.

7

STATE what reality Coetzee tries to describe. Coetzee wants to demonstrate that the political change brought about by Nelson Mandela can do almost nothing to eliminate the human violence linked to racial prejudice.

3

4

5

6

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS in pairs. How do you respond to the scene? What impresses you the most? Students’ activity.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 9

TYPE A. Write a twenty-line essay about the future of South Africa analysing Nadine Gordimer’s and J. M. Coetzee’s different points of view about the prospects for their country. Then state how they differ from Mandela’s vision of his beloved country. Student’s activity.

T146

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) Things Fall Apart (1958) 1

ANSWER the following questions about C. Achebe’s work.

1

What does Achebe describe in Things Fall Apart? He describes the gradual decay of the Ibo traditional society from colonial times to independence and neo-colonisation.

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7

8

Where is this novel set? It is set in the fictional town of Umofia. What story does it tell? It tells the story of Okonkwo, an important man in the Ibo tribe from the days when white men appeared on the scene and through the events that led him to be exiled from his country, to his suicide. What is the aim of the novel? The aim of the novel is to show Nigerian people how the strength of their own culture could help them build a nation, a strength that had been diminished through the imposition of an alien culture. Thus the development of a modern national consciousness was Achebe’s main aim. Where does the title of the novel come from? What does it refer to? The title of the novel comes from W.B. Yeats’s poem The Second Coming. It refers to the crumbling of African society in its encounter with colonialism and Christianity at the turn of the 19th century. What connection can be found between Achebe’s novel and Yeats’s vision of history? There is a connection between the theme of the novel and Yeats’s vision of history as a succession of civilisations, a ‘widening gyre’, in which each great cycle of ages gives birth to another that is, in some way, its antithesis. However, there are ironies and reversal in Achebe’s appropriation of Yeats’s imagery: for the cycle, that is ending, is, for Achebe, an age of autonomy in his Ibo homeland, and the cycle that will follow will be a Christian cycle, the cycle that, for Yeats, is coming to an end. What is the theme of the novel? The theme is double: the personal tragedy of Okonkwo, ‘a well-known man in his country’, and the public one of the eclipse of one culture by another. These two tragedies are fused at the end, when Okonkwo’s suicide is shown to be a part of a general fracturing. What paradox emerges in this novel? A paradox central to all African writers in English emerges in this novel: Achebe’s artistic commitment is to communicate the essence and the values of the traditional native way of life, but he must use the tools of the alien invader – form and language – to create this vision of life. Thus Achebe is paradoxically the heir of both Okonkwo and the district commissioner, the white leader in Umofia after the coming of the whites.

395

Soluzioni

4

2

TEXT BANK

tries to wash off the ash from his head (lines 29-30). Lucy keeps calm throughout the whole text; she is cold and refuses her father’s attempts at comforting her (lines 17-18, 68-71).

The missionaries

3

How does the choice of this point of view affect the way the reader perceives the whole scene? The choice of this point of view makes the reader perceive the whole scene with the same detachment and suspicions as the Ibo people.

4

IDENTIFY the two social groups portrayed in the passage.

1

Point out the opposite realities they mark and the colours they are associated with.

Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart (1958) Part II, Chapter XVI

COMPREHENSION 1 1 2

MAKE NOTES about: Setting in time ‘It was the time.... was over’ (lines 5-6) Social groups portrayed ‘six missionaries...one man’ (line 2) and the inhabitants of the Nigerian village of Mbanta.

2

ANSWER the following questions.

1

Were the inhabitants of Mbanta excited at the arrival of the missionaries? Yes, they were; the arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir (line 1). How did the clansmen react to the Ibo interpreter? At first everybody laughed at him, then all listened to him (lines 9-12). What was the missionary’s ‘iron horse’? It was a bicycle, which was completely unknown to the Natives of Mbanta (lines 28-30). Which points of the Christian doctrine proved puzzling for the inhabitants of the Nigerian village? The points of Christian doctrine which proved puzzling for the inhabitants of the village were the existence of only one God ‘who has the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us’ (lines 42-43), the fact that their gods are ‘pieces of wood and stone’ (lines 46-47) and the Holy Trinity (lines 64-69). What conclusion did Okonkwo reach in the end? He reached the conclusion the missionary was mad (lines 78-79). Who was Nwoye? He was Okonkwo’s first son (lines 70-71). Why was he attracted by the new religion? Because he did not accept some aspects of the Ibo culture (lines 75-76).

2

3

4

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Soluzioni

5

6 7

ANALYSIS 3 1 2

396

CONCENTRATE on the narrative technique. Identify the type of narrator. Third-person narrator. From whose point of view is the story narrated? Find evidence quoting from the text. The natives’ point of view is adopted (lines 49-51).

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Colour Black

Social group The inhabitants of Mbanta

White

The missionaries, that is the European colonizers.

2

Use different colours to underline the parts referring to the religions of these two worlds (Native religion / Christian religion). Then collect your data in the table:

Native religion It is polytheistic with gods of stone and wood; Gods represent different natural elements; The ancestors are worshipped since they are believed to protect their relatives on earth; All the twins born in the village are killed; Human sacrifices are admitted.

3

4

Christian religion It is monotheistic; God does not correspond to any natural elements; People are invited to brotherhood; God loves all the men like a father; God does not want men’s blood to be spread; Holy Trinity.

What is the distinctive difference between the Christian God and the gods of the natives? The distinctive difference between the Christian God and the gods of the natives is that the former loves all human beings like a father. Okonkwo, an important man of the village, shows a particular attitude towards the missionaries. Complete the chart below:

His attitude He does not understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity; Lines 65-67 He was convinced the missionaries were mad: Line 68 He shrugs his shoulders and goes away: Lines 68-69

Their reaction The missionaries ignore him; Line 67 They go on speaking; Line 67

2 5

DEFINE the language used in this passage. Choose from the list and give reasons for your choice: • realistic • effective • complex • neutra • elevated, • colloquial • concrete The language is realistic, effective, concrete.

6

RECOGNISE the effect created by the humorous tone adopted by the narrator. Tick as appropriate. it makes the story amusing it invites the reader to accept the clash between two cultural worlds it gets the reader to think about cultural differences

7

3

DEFINE the dominant theme of the passage. The effects of European colonialism on the African culture.

4

5

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS. From the text you have read, which key element do you think may provide a clue to how the story will develop? Students’ activity.

her childhood memories and her commitment with politics and social issues, Lessing explored the clash of cultures, the injustices of racial inequality, the struggle among opposing elements within an individual’s own personality, and the conflict between the individual conscience and the collective good. What has Lessing tried to do in the course of her writing career? She has tried to accommodate what she admires in the novels of the nineteenth century - their ‘climate of ethical judgement’ - to the demands of twentieth-century ideas about consciousness and time. She has described society in terms of realism and at the same time questioned it by means of other literary modes, such as utopia and dystopia. What is the artist’s task according to Lessing? The responsible artist should be ‘an architect of the soul’ working to strengthen good against evil. The artist’s responsibility is to describe the world with energy and despair, never in a spirit of passive acceptance, to seek a relationship between individuals and the community. What are the main concerns of her novels? In her novels, she traces the most urgent concerns of contemporary society: the collapse of empires and idealisms, the shadow of war and the threat of the nuclear bomb, urban disaster and the destruction of the environment through pollution, the free will of the individual within a historical and social continuum, the condition of women in relation to marriage, politics, sex. Is Lessing an experimental writer? No, she is deeply involved with the changing patterns of thought, feeling and culture, rather than with formal experimentalism. Her style is realistic, though her language is rich in symbolism. The characterisation in her novels draws on psychological introspection; the development of theme often implies acute political analysis and social documentation.

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Doris Lessing (1919) The grass is singing (1950) 1 1

ANSWER these questions about Lessing’s works. What role does Africa play in Lessing’s works? Africa was her starting-point, an experience that became a mirror for the universe. Drawing upon

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The bush avenged itself Doris Lessing The Grass is Singing (1950) Chapter I

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the first two paragraphs and note down

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Soluzioni

On the basis of the data you have collected so far, what conclusions can you draw about the nature of the two worlds? The two worlds are completely different; the encounter of the natives with Christianity refers to the crumbling of traditional African society at the turn of the century.

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the elements related to the setting and the weather. Then answer the following questions about the content of these lines. Place setting: ‘The veranda’ (line 1); ‘slim pillars’, ‘geranium plants’ (lines 5-6); ‘the trees’ (line 7); ‘Rough brick’ (line 10); ‘the bush’ (line 33). Time setting: ‘From the dark’ (line 20). The weather: ‘The lightening flickered’ (line 4); ‘a cloud-packed sky’ (line 8); ‘stormy ranges of cloud’ (line 15); ‘the thunder growl’ (line 19). 1 2

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Who did the woman see? Moses. What was the dogs’ attitude? When they saw the man, they stood alertly watching and wagged their tails in welcome. What did the man hold in his hand? Why? He held a long curving shape. He used it as a weapon to kill the woman. Why couldn’t the woman cry? Because he silenced her by inserting his hand between her jaws. READ the third and fourth paragraph. Find evidence of Moses’s two contrasting reactions: fear and controlled indifference.

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Fear

Controlled indifference

he started up, straightening his body (lines 40-41)

‘he checked himself (line 51)

dropped the weapon sharply on the floor as if in fear (lines 50-51)

‘held his hands under the rain, and, cleansed, prepared to walk off… ready to protest his innocence’ (lines 54-56)

‘he hesitated, looking about him’ (line 53)

‘suddenly indifferent’ (line 57)

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CONSIDER. In the introduction to the extract you read the beginning of the novel, whereas in the passage you found its ending.

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What do the two extracts tell you about Lessing’s technique? It is experimental, since the novel starts from the end of the story. To arouse the reader’s interest the author relies on: the suspense created by delaying the a information; l the analysis of social and individual b motives; the use of irony to mean the opposite c of what she says.

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SAY what kind of narrator is employed and whose point of view prevails. Lessing employs third-person non-omniscient narrator. Mary’s point of view prevails in the passage. Moses’s is in lines 74-75.

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FOCUS on the characters: Mary and Moses.

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Say if they are presented mainly through: description of physical appearance; a actions and movements; b as regards Moses thoughts and feelings. c as regards Mary Which words or phrases convey Mary’s feelings? ‘The fog of terror’ (line 3); ‘all her senses stretched, rigidly breathing in little gasps’ (lines 17-18); ‘her emotions unexpectedly shifted, to create her an extraordinary feeling of guilt’ (line 24-25); ‘the terror’ (line 27); ‘collapsing in a ruin of horror’ (line 25). Mary’s feelings are fear and horror and she is compared to a helpless animal. Moses is introduced through references to the parts of his body. Underline them and explain what connotation they add to the character. ‘Great shoulders’, ‘his head’, ‘the glistening of his eyes’ (lines 22-23); ‘his hand’ (line 28); ‘the big arm’ (line 36); ‘Moses’s back’ (line 46). Moses’s character is introduced through references to his physical superiority and strength and menacing presence. He symbolises the dark, obscure side of human nature to which Mary feels attracted.

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READ the last paragraph and tick the sentence which best sums up the end of the novel. Moses goes for Dick and the Englishman, whom he considers his enemies, and completes his revenge by killing them. Watching the small farm and Mary’s body, Moses feels regret for what he has done but decides to escape not to be caught. Following his first impulse, Moses rushes away into the bush but, on second thoughts, he stops and waits by a tree.

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ANALYSIS

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7

FIND the words and phrases usually found in connection with human categories that here

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READ what the author writes early in the novel: ‘it was ‘white civilisation’ fighting to defend itself [...] ‘white civilisation’ which will never, never admit that a white person, and most particularly, a white woman, can have a human relationship, whether for good or evil, with a black person. For once it admits that, it crashes, and nothing can save it’. In the light of these words, discuss the traditional assumptions about the relationship between: a master and servant; b man and woman; c black people and white people. Class discussion. Then point out how Moses’s action subverts them, quoting from the text to support your answer. His action is an assertion of individuality and challenges racist ideology. Lines 26-29; 33; 35-36; 51-52; 54-58; 68; 74-76. IDENTIFY the symbolic images in the passage and try to explain them. Suggestions: The bush: the wild aspect of nature; the lightening: the warning of death which coincides with Moses’s triumph; the rain: purification and freedom; darkness: murder, mystery and death.

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ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 10 TYPE B. Compare Conrad’s view of Africa as the ideal setting for exploring inner reality and seeking the truth (I14.6) to Lessing’s treatment of the wilderness. Write 10-12 lines. Student’s writing activity.

AIDS, a curse on us Doris Lessing The Sweetest Dream (2001)

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The Sweetest Dream (2001) 1

ANSWER these questions about The Sweetest Dream.

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When and where is the novel set? The novel covers three decades of the 20th

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the extract up to line 65 and say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

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When Mr Phiri opened his eyes he saw a black woman. F He saw a brown woman

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century starting from the Sixties. The first part is set in London while the second part moves to a fictional post-independent African state named Zimlia. What social issues does it deal with? It explores anorexia, Aids, the dynamics of human relationships, while accurately satirising the further shortcomings of reductive ideals: Catholicism, feminism, hippies, and aspects of international development work. What does Lessing dislike as a writer? She has a dislike of fixed and prescriptive positions, and particularly of those ideologies which moulded some of her time’s sweetest dreams. What aspects of women’s life does she deal with? She describes the blend of desire and guilt, passivity, resentment and responsibility which shaped women in the middle and latter part of the 20th century. Who does Comrade Johnny represent and how is he described? His portrait verges on satire. He is the irresponsible son of Julia, he is a celebrity of the hard left, and an absentee father. He is a vainglorious rabble-rouser, indifferent to individual pain in his blind dedication to the revolutionary (and Stalinist) cause, for whom he becomes a frequent flyer to new pro-Soviet nations. Through the character of Johnny Lessing attacks career politicians and mass-produced thinking. What dream does Sylvia try to fulfil? She becomes a mission doctor in a remote part of Zimbabwe, here named Zimlia, where dictatorship together with Aids destroy life as well as hope. There Sylvia patches together a little hospital and school, trying to find supplies and fighting corrupt, interfering officials from a black-run government that has betrayed countless promises to provide for its people.

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are referred to nature. Then discuss the relationship between wild nature and the white settlers presented by Lessing. Lines 6-7; 11; 14-15; 19; 33-34; 37. The personification of wild nature underlines the menacing effect it has on the white man, who feels alien and inferior to it.

whose skin had had too much sun (Lines 2-3). He thought she was criticising him. T (Lines 4-5). The woman had received the money to buy books from the government. F She had bought the books with her own money (Lines 9-10). She had also the qualifications to be a teacher. F She simply taught the children how to read. (Lines 16-18). The priest tried to avoid annoying Mr Phiri. T (Lines 26-27). Rebecca behaved politely towards the inspector. F She deliberately pushed the tea tray before Sylvia (Lines 40-41), then she sang songs from the Liberation War (Lines 46-47). Mr Phiri regretted having to leave. F He was relieved when his car came to fetch him (Lines 51-52). Sylvia was resentful towards Mr Phiri. T (Lines 63-65).

ANALYSIS

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READ the extract to the end and answer the following questions.

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What distressed Sylvia about Mr Phiri’s visit? She was distressed about the little attention he had paid to the children and by the fact he had not brought any books for them. What justification did the priest provide for the situation in Africa? It was history: the powerful take the bread out of the mouth of the poor, so the poor will always exist. How did Rebecca feel about politicians? She felt cheated, because they made promises that they broke. How did she explain the failure of the Liberation Movement? With a curse, since they did not bury the dead of the war but left their bodies in caves on the hills. How did she define AIDS? As a curse, a sort of punishment. What did Sylvia compare it to? Why? She compared it to the Black Death because it was an epidemic and was going to kill many people. What was Father McGuire’s mood? He was tired and down because he had malaria. How did Rebecca try to comfort Sylvia? What did the doctor realise then? She sang her a children’s song. Sylvia saw a sore on her arm and realised that she had AIDS. What ornaments were there in Sylvia’s room? A crucifix, pictures of the Virgin and of Leonardo women.

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3

SAY what kind of narrator is employed and whose point of view the reader shares. A third-person narrator is employed and the reader shares Sylvia’s point of view.

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FOCUS on the characters: Mr Phiri, Sylvia, Father McGuire and Rebecca.

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Say if they are presented mainly through: a description of physical appearance; b actions and movements; c thoughts and feelings; d what they say. Mr Phiri is mainly presented through his actions feelings and thoughts; Sylvia through her physical appearance (small, brown woman), what she says and her reactions; Father McGuire through his actions; Rebecca through her actions and words. Which words would you use to describe each character’s main mood? Mr Phiri: rage and a slight sense of guilt. Father Mc Guire: irritation and weariness. Sylvia: determination and helplessness (especially when she finds out that Rebecca is sick). Rebecca: disillusion and resignation.

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DISCUSS How is the theme of AIDS introduced? What problems connected with the disease are hinted at in the text? The theme of AIDS is introduced through Rebecca’s words but given prominence by Sylvia’s comparing it with the Black Death. The text hints at the fact that African people think of AIDS as of something supernatural; they are not informed and have unsafe sex (Rebecca got it from her husband). The doctors have no financial means to cure the disease, there is nothing they can do.

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 6

TYPE A Write a short essay (20 lines) in which you highlight the main problems connected with the AIDS epidemic in Africa and say what could be done in your opinion to face this emergency. Teaching tip What do we need to do? The good news is that experts and AIDS workers in Africa know what works. Successes in a handful of countries such as Uganda and Senegal have shown that HIV rates can be brought down through effective prevention

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T149

1

ANSWER these questions about Nadine Gordimer’s life and works.

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Where has Nadine Gordimer always lived? Nadine Gordimer has always lived in South Africa, remaining steadfast to her political, social and literary beliefs. Why were some of her novels banned? Some of her novels were banned because of her strong opposition to apartheid – the South African policy of racial segregation officially dissolved in the early 1990s. When was she awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature? In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. What does her fiction analyse? Her fiction analyses the relationships, in all their varied and stereotyped forms, between the differentcoloured groups that form the population of South Africa: the Whites, the Afrikaners (the South African Whites of Dutch-German-French descent), the Coloureds (people identified as being of mixed racial ancestry, partly white; though denied political and social rights, they enjoy higher living standards than the Blacks) and the Blacks. What is the most important issue developed in her novels? It is the political and social transformations of South Africa and, at the same time, the changes in the life of the writer, in her experience and thoughts. Where and when is Burger’s Daughter set? It is set in South Africa during the 1970s. Who is the protagonist? The protagonist is Rosa Burger, a white woman who attempts to achieve autonomy by breaking free from her father’s influence: she is a rebel against another rebel. What does she rebel against? Rosa rebels against the ideology of the previous generation; this rebellion is connected with her sexual liberation and self-assertion. How does the novel end? In her quest for self-awareness, Rosa leaves South Africa and spends a period of time in Europe; but after her father’s death, she comes back and resumes his political commitment. She is now Burger’s daughter, and starts to work as a

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Soluzioni

Burger’s Daughter Nadine Gordimer: Life and works

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programmes, and that treatment to keep people alive really works. The bad news is that AIDS has had a 20year head start. Much more needs to be done to build on these models of success and turn back the impact of AIDS. History already shows that the longer we wait to respond, the bigger the problem gets and the more it will cost us to beat it. First we need to find the money, this is the biggest threat to humanity since the bubonic plague in the middle ages. This emergency cannot be solved by philanthropy alone. While individual donations can make a huge difference in the lives of the people that benefit directly, governments need to come together to stop AIDS. Deeper debt relief and massively increased aid are needed to beat back the emergency. Kofi Annan, secretary General of the UN, has called for at least $10 billion a year from the international community currently, governments spend under half this. By 2005, the need will be at least $15 billion a year. Last year, Europe and America spent nearly five times as much ($17 billion) on pet food as they did on fighting global AIDS ($3.6 billion). The world as a whole spends $4.7 billion on AIDS each year - the US spends almost twice this ($8 billion) annually on cosmetics. Europe spends more than twice this ($11 billion) on ice cream. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was set up in response to Kofi Annan’s call for the world to unite around fighting these epidemics. This fund, if fully funded, could provide desperately needed money to buy the drugs, train the healthcare workers, build more clinics, and set up more prevention and care programmes. Governments will only increase their contributions to the Global Fund if their citizens put pressure on them to do so. People can have the power to make a difference - if there are enough people. Celebrities involved in the Jubilee 2000 campaign to Drop the Debts of the poorest countries had a huge impact in raising awareness of the debt crisis and getting people to sign the petition, which broke the world record, and forced world leaders to act. Secondly, treatment should be provided. Only in the last year have people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa dared to hope that they might get access to drugs that will keep them alive to work and care for their families. The ‘Larazus’ effect is astonishing - patients on death’s door can be back at work within 2 months of starting treatment. Evidence shows that Africans taking the life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) adhere to their regimens much better than Americans or Europeans the success rate is about 80 per cent. Most Africans however do not get access. This is partly because of the price - the cheapest drugs are a dollar a day, but most cannot afford this. It is also because of availability - in some places, only more expensive drugs are available, plus in many communities, there isn’t the infrastructure or trained healthcare workers to monitor and administer the treatment. Finally, one of the greatest barriers to fighting AIDS is still the stigma. The hopelessness and shame still associated with AIDS means that people do not want to get tested or be open about their status. This perception has to change - African governments, role models, celebrities, and national and local media have to fundamentally tackle this issue.

physiotherapist at a black hospital, trying to restore feeling to the limbs of injured black people. 10 What are the main themes? Although the novel deals with the themes of political struggle, racism, the difficulty for committed whites to live in a country which denies human rights, it can be read also as a journey into the self, as the story of the emancipation of a woman who is trying to find out her own identity and the role she wants to play in a multiracial society. 11 What are the most important characteristics of Burger’s Daughter’s style? The conflict between external and internal realities is conveyed by the alternation of first- and third-person narratives. Through several flashbacks, Rosa remembers and observes her past self in her attempt to recapture and reconstitute it, and to engage with the outside world.

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The donkey didn’t cry out Nadine Gordimer Burger’s Daughter (1979) Part I

COMPREHENSION 1

READ the first paragraph and do the following activities.

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Find out where the narrator is. The narrator is driving across the field. Circle the words and phrases referring to the setting and say what kind of landscape is evoked. ‘The track’ (line 1), ‘main road’ (line 4), ‘a cemetery... across the veld’ (line 5), ‘the pale open veld’ (line 7), ‘a cambered dirt road without signposts’ (line 8). The expressions refer to the tracks and there does not seem to be much around. Point out the lines which give the setting a connotation outside time and space. Lines 2-3, 8-10. The fact the place does not appear on the map gives the scene which follows an emblematic, symbolic quality, outside space and time. Explain what the narrator witnesses. The narrator sees a funeral and a cart drawn by a donkey coming in the opposite direction. On the cart there are sacks, a woman, a child and a man who is beating the animal (lines 9, 15-17). Focus on the figure of the man and make

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notes about his: 1 age: old (line 45) 2 appearance: precarious spread of legs (line 15-16) 3 race: black (line 45) 4 clothes: torn pants (line 16), old (line 46) Point out the narrator’s reactions. She is obstinate (lines 3-4), shocked (lines 24-25, 27-28), she feels rage (lines 37-39), then after a series of doubts (lines 58-62, 68-69, 71-72), she does not react and remains passive (line 81). SUM UP what you have learnt or inferred about the narrator throughout the passage: 1 character: she considers herself vain and feels guilty for not intervening in the scene. We can infer she is sensitive and has a great sense of justice. 2 function: she is a witness to a scene of violence. 3 relation to the other people involved: she does not know them but, being white, she feels responsible for their poverty and misery 4 sex: she is a woman 5 race: she is white (line 65) 6 name: Rosa Burger (line 83).

ANALYSIS 3

SAY whether action, sensory perception, or thought, prevails in the passage. Focus on the tense shift and say what each tense conveys. The passage focuses on the narrator’s perception of the scene and her thoughts. Action is limited to the narrator’s driving her car and the black man’s whipping the donkey. The tenses shift from past simple to present simple to conditional. They convey the passage from the narration of the event to the narrator’s thoughts.

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EXPLAIN who ‘you’ (lines 38-39) and ‘her’ (line 83) are, provided ‘I’ is the narrator. ‘You’ refers to Conrad, with whom Rosa has had a relationship, but it might as well relate to the reader. ‘Her’ refers to Rosa herself and creates a tension between the external and internal voice, between ‘I’ and ‘she’.

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CONSIDER the use of punctuation. What features strike you? What is their effect? The use of dashes. They convey the flow of the narrator’s thoughts.

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RECOGNISE the senses mainly involved in the text. How do they contribute to your understanding of the passage? Sight is mainly involved in the scene as the frequent use of the verb ‘to see’ shows. The prevalence of this sense underlines the narrator’s role as a witness and highlights the antithesis between thought and action.

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REFER to the second paragraph and fill in the table with the details provided by the narrator.

What Agony; The infinity variety and gradation of suffering; Deaths by questionings; Deaths by dehydration; Lights beating all night on faces.

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Who The donkey; Mandela...; Kgosana; Lionel; Babies.

Where The track; On the island;

John Vorster Square; Places of banishment cells.

11 FIND evidence of the question of commitment which clearly emerges from the narrator’s sense of guilt. Lines 41-42, 51-53 5354, 56-58, 60-62 59-61. The crucial questions are: ‘What more can one do?’ (line 69) and ‘I don’t know …. for me’ (line 77).

ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 12 TYPE B. Nadine Gordimer (I18.7 and 18.8) is one of the most outstanding writers in the English language. Write ten/twelve lines to point out in what way the passage you have read might exemplify the context of South African literature and Gordimer’s experience. Student’s activity. Suggestion: Students should underline the pressure exerted on African writers by the rapid political and social changes. The passage exemplifies the author’s controlled, unsentimental approach to the question of the individual’s moral responsibility, to the tension between personal isolation and social commitment. Students should point out that Gordimer strongly opposed apartheid and constantly refused exile.

T150

The Pickup (2001) 1

ANSWER the following questions about The Pickup.

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How does the novel differ from Gordimer’s previous works? Gordimer continues to deal with problems of race and class, bureaucratic arbitrariness and the connection between the private and the political, but The Pickup lifts these problems from a local or national level to a global one, with the story’s setting changing from liberal post-apartheid Johannesburg to an unnamed Arab country in the second and longer part of the novel. Who are the protagonists? The heroine, Julie Summers, is the daughter of a prominent citizen and has grown up in the affluent suburbs of Johannesburg. However, she rejects her upper-class roots and moves to a formerly black part of the town where she rents a small cottage, drives a second hand car and works for

FIND the details belonging to the semantic areas of ‘violence’ and ‘pain’. Violence: whip, infliction, ravishment, cruelty, thumbscrew, rack, electric shock, lash, concentration, labour, camps, deaths, banishment, beating. Pain: agony, contracted against itself in desperation, gradation of suffering, hunger, solitary contentment, dehydration. 2

10 ANALYSE the metaphor of the donkey. Then discuss its meaning in this context. Tenor: The donkey Vehicle: black people, oppressed people, the sum of suffering Common ground: fatigue, exploitation, torture, subjection. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

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CONCENTRATE on the description of the cart where the author uses a cinematic device. Can you recognise it and explain how it works? The author uses the zooming technique which gradually focuses on an object until it reaches the foreground and eventually fills the screen. Students should point out examples from lines 12-28.

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a rock ‘n roll agency. Her life revolves around the EL-AY Cafe, a local café where she meets a multiracial and liberal group of friends. When Julie’s car breaks down, she meets Abdu, a Muslim immigrant who is in the country illegally, and is trying to escape from his unnamed Arab homeland. What is the structure of the novel? The Pickup is strongly dominated by structural parallels, chiasmic inversions, as well as binary oppositions. The story takes place in two radically different settings, neatly dividing the novel into two almost symmetrical parts, and it develops between two radically different people, each of whom seems to be a sort of split personality him/herself. On what levels is the theme of the ‘Other’ explored? Racial, social, sexual, cultural and psychological. How does Gordimer deal with the theme of identity? Traditional gender roles are clearly questioned in the relationship between Julie and Abdu; for example, it is Julie who ‘picks up’ Abdu. However, each adapts to, but neither dominates the other.

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Back home Nadine Gordimer

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The Pickup (2001)

COMPREHENSION 1

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READ lines 1-56 and explain: a

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DIVIDE the text into two parts. Then write a caption to describe the content of each section. Part 1: Lines 1-56: Julie and Abdu arrive at the airport. Part 2: Lines 57-139: Abdu’s family and home.

what Julie became aware of on her arrival at the airport; She became aware of herself; for the first time in her life she realised what home must be like (lines 4-10). who was waiting for Julie and Ibrahim and how they welcomed them; The male members of the family were waiting for them: they embraced them and the father made a speech of welcome (lines 11-29).

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what the men looked like and where they took them; The father did not look like Ibrahim, some wore casual Western clothes, others wore the traditional long white tunics. They took them to the house in their cars (lines 31-45). the people and setting around the house. Around the house there were other male relatives and neighbours, some children and women peering down from behind the house wall (lines 46-56).

What impression did Julie get of Ibrahim’s mother? Julie got the impression that she was the centre of the house, that she must have been beautiful but had had a hard life, that her son took after her and that she was not actually interested in Julie, even if she addressed her with a formal speech, but in her son (lines 61-67). What was going on inside the house? The men were giving orders and the women were arranging the food (lines 70-77). What was the first approach with one of his sisters like? It was difficult because of the language and the different culture (lines 78-93). What impressed Julie about the bedroom? The fine bed and the crocheted white spread (lines 98-99). What were Ibrahim’s worries? That Julie had underestimated the difficulties of life in his country (the absence of a bathroom, the climate, the fact she could not go around by herself or without wearing a scarf ) (lines 113-135). What did he resist? He resisted his mother’s expectation that Julie should wear a scarf (lines 135-139).

ANALYSIS 4

FOCUS on the narrative technique. a

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Identify the kind of narrator and the point/s of view adopted. Gordimer uses the third-person narrator with shifting points of view (Julie’s and Ibrahim’s). Consider the use of punctuation. What features strike you? The use of dashes which convey the flow of the narrator’s

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EXPLAIN the contrast between the Eastern and the Western figure of the woman which emerges in the extract. Julie stands for the Western woman and the references in the text are in the first and in the last paragraphs where she is given a name and surname and her independence and determination are underlined. Ibrahim’s mother and sisters stand for the Eastern, Muslim women on whom society imposes behavioural rules. However, Ibrahim’s mother is the core of the family. ANALYSE the image of ‘family’ presented in the text. Do Julie and Ibrahim have the same attitude towards it? Julie is fascinated by her husband’s family and for the first time she feels part of a family. He wishes he could escape from his family, although he wants to take his mother away from that reality one day.

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ESAME DI STATO – SECONDA PROVA 7

COMPOSITION. Write a 300-word essay about this topic: In a world of rapid social change also due to immigration, Gordimer offers an insight into the different meaning which ‘another country’ has for those who can choose to move and those who must overcome odds in order to be chosen. What is it like to move to another country, another culture, a strange place, language and customs? What sort of people do so? Student’s writing activity.

YOUR TURN 8

DISCUSS in pairs. Do you think it is possible to escape the effects one’s family has on one’s identity? Students’ activity.

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A Far Cry from Africa Derek Walcott In A Green Night (1962)

COMPREHENSION 1

T151

Derek Walcott (1930) 1

REVISE your knowledge about Derek Walcott’s work following the prompts:

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the link between his career and his native

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READ the poem and write down a heading to each stanza. Stanza 1: The cruelty of the slaughter spoils the beauty of the African landscape. Stanza 2: Justification of man’s violent nature. Stanza 3: The political responsibility shared by the colonizer and the colonized. Stanza 4: The poet’s dilemma.

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Soluzioni

5

Caribbean; Walcott’s career coincides with the growth of an independent artistic culture in his native Caribbean, with the attempt to break free from colonial attitudes and to establish an indigenous identity after the gaining of independence in the early Sixties. Walcott’s position; Walcott’s position is that of a ‘castaway’: on the one hand the island where he was born was cut off from the main currents of world events; on the other hand, history made that island a kind of meeting point of different cultures: French and English, Amerindian and Afro-American. his education; He had a wide education in the classics as well as the moderns, and this cosmopolitan range of reference made him feel ‘a citizen of the world’. his greatest achievement; His contribution to the resurrection of landscape poetry. his landscapes; Walcott’s poetry offers the sense of being alive and out-of-doors in the West Indies: sand and salt on the skin, sunlight and space in the open beach, sea-grapes and sea-almonds, islands and the infinite horizon. The landscape in his poems is usually conveyed by atmospheric effect rather than by descriptive detail, and is often given a symbolic dimension. the poet’s task. For Walcott the poet is like a diarist, evoking and creating literary landscapes. At his best, he fuses the outward scene with inward experience. His poems are often concerned with the theme of love, with the creation of a centre of consciousness, and a relationship of safety with the place where one lives.

TEXT BANK

thoughts, the absence of inverted commas and introductory sentences for direct speech.

2

FOCUS on the first stanza and fill in the table about the contrast between the beautiful African landscape and the cruelty of the slaughter.

Beauty Ruffling wind, ‘tawny pelt’, ‘the veldt’ (lines 1-3),’ a paradise’ (line 4).

3

Cruelty ‘the bloodstreams’ (line 3); ‘Corpses are scattered’ (line 4); ‘carrion’ (line 5); ‘the white child hacked’ (line 9)

b c d

Who has been slaughtered? Innocent black and white people. What are they compared to? To the Jews sacrificed in World War II. How is their killing justified? It is justified in the name of colonial policy. What role does the African landscape acquire in these lines? It provides a background to the poem.

ANALYSIS ANALYSE and discuss the comparison between violence in the animal and human world in the second stanza. Violence in nature is presented as the cruelty of beast to beast (line

TEXT BANK

Soluzioni

406

5

RECOGNISE the metaphor the poet uses in the third stanza to denounce political responsibility. The metaphor of the dirty cause which wipes its hands upon a napkin. Both the gorilla and the superman, respectively the wild and the divine side of man, struggle within the human conscience.

6

IDENTIFY the poet’s contradictory feelings in the last stanza. The poet seems confused because on the one hand he identifies with Africa and its people, on the other he cannot reject his English education. He lives a shared identity. How would you define his attitude? He feels pity and disgust mixed with the anger of denunciation (line 27- 28; 32-33).

ANSWER these questions. a

4

15) which is regarded as a natural law (line 16). Human violence is described as a religious ritual (lines 19-21) in which man seeks his divinity by inflicting pain on others.

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ESAME DI STATO – TERZA PROVA 7

TYPE B. Write ten/twelve lines about the situation of protest and uneasiness you have found in this text. Student’s writing activity.

6

Tests

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407

Criteri per la valutazione delle prove Questa sezione fornisce prove strutturate e semi-strutturate già pronte che consentono di: • verificare l’apprendimento in itinere in modo rapido e omogeneo; • valutare gli allievi nel modo più oggettivo possibile; • individuare con maggiore precisione le lacune o gli ostacoli all’apprendimento; • individuare con maggiore precisione le competenze sviluppate da ogni singolo studente; • risparmiare tempo nella correzione e nella valutazione; • disporre di materiale per le attività di sostegno e di recupero; • disporre di materiale per la preparazione alla Terza Prova del NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato).

Tipologie dei test Le prove di verifica proposte prevedono: • quesiti a scelta multipla; • domande a risposta chiusa; • quesiti di tipologia A e B per l’Esame di Stato.

Risposte La chiave degli esercizi a risposta chiusa è fornita nella sezione “Chiavi di correzione”. Per i quesiti a risposta aperta vengono fornite delle indicazioni.

Modalità di esecuzione Ogni test è diviso in tre sezioni. L’insegnante può decidere di somministrarlo in più parti in momenti diversi. Per verificare le abilità e le conoscenze degli studenti è possibile assegnare loro le parti 1, e 2 del test. La parte 3 è adatta a verificare le competenze.

Punteggi per la valutazione del test

TESTS

L’attribuzione del punteggio è strettamente connessa alle specifiche situazioni delle classi e alla natura delle domande. In linea di massima il punteggio potrebbe oscillare da 1 (per le risposte alle domande a scelta multipla o più semplici e per i quesiti a risposta chiusa) a 3 (per le domande a risposta aperta). Pertanto l’insegnante assegnerà convenzionalmente un punteggio massimo a ogni risposta della prova. Stabilito il punteggio massimo che assegnerebbe nella scala decimale che si usa a scuola, con una semplice proporzione è possibile determinare il punteggio della prova. Ad esempio, se: • il punteggio massimo della prova è 19; • il voto massimo è 10; • il numero degli errori commessi dallo studente è 4 e quindi il suo punteggio è 15; • il voto della prova sarà dato dalla seguente proporzione. 19 : 10 = 15 : X X = 10 x 15 19

408

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Tabella con indicazioni di massima per la valutazione della prova scritta di tipologia A o B dell’ Esame di Stato.

Obiettivo indicatore di

Descrittore

Livello/Punti (massimo 15 punti)

Prova in bianco

In bianco o evidentemente manomessa

1

Prova fuori traccia

Svolta ma senza alcuna attinenza con la consegna

2

Conoscenza dei contenuti specifici e relativi al contesto

Il candidato conosce gli argomenti richiesti

1. in modo gravemente lacunoso 2. in modo generico, con lacune e scorrettezze 3. in modo approssimativo e con alcune imprecisioni 3,5. in modo essenziale e complessivamente corretto 4. in modo completo ed esauriente 5. in modo approfondito e dettagliato

Competenze linguistiche e/o specifiche (correttezza formale, uso del lessico specifico, calcolo)

Il candidato si esprime - applicando le conoscenze ortografiche, morfosintattiche, lessicali e di lessico specifico - applicando la teoria alla pratica

1. in modo gravemente scorretto tale da impedirne la comprensione/ in modo scorretto, calcolo errato 2. in modo scorretto/con una terminologia impropria, calcolo non sempre corretto 3. in modo non sempre corretto ma globalmente comprensibile/in modo semplice ma corretto, calcolo corretto 3,5. in modo per lo più appropriato e corretto 4. in modo chiaro, corretto e appropriato 5. in modo chiaro, corretto, scorrevole e con ricchezza lessicale/ in modo completo e preciso

Capacità

- di sintesi - logiche - zdi rielaborazione

1. nessi logici assenti, sintesi impropria 2. nessi logici appena accennati, sintesi poco efficace 3. nessi logici non del tutto esplicitati 3,5. nessi logici esplicitati in modo semplice 4. nessi logici appropriati e sviluppati, sintesi efficace e/o rielaborazione con scarso senso critico 5. coerenza logica, sintesi efficace e appropriata, rielaborazione critica e personale

TESTS

Punteggio totale: 15 punti così suddivisi

409

SPECIFICATION 13 TEST FILA A NOME

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CLASSE

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DATA

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La parte B del test può essere utilizzata anche per un test orale. Per la valutazione si può utilizzare la seguente tabella.

Tabella per la valutazione della prova orale Pronuncia

Correttezza grammaticale

Varietà lessicale

Conoscenza contenuti e loro organizzazione logica

Scorrevolezza

0

Errori gravi e frequenti

Errori gravi e frequenti

Povera

Conoscenza scarsa e frammentaria

Esposizione faticosa

1

Errori rari

Errori occasionali e/o con autocorrezione

Abbastanza varia

Conoscenza appropriata con qualche salto logico

Esposizione lenta e/o ripetitiva

2

Nessun errore

Errori rari o assenti

Ricca e appropriata al contesto

Conoscenza appropriata e ben organizzata

Esposizione fluida

Punteggio Totale punteggio:

Tests su DVD-Rom Tutti i tests proposti in queste pagine sono disponibili in formato rtf sul DVD-ROM allegato al presente volume. I file sono liberamente modificabili e adattabili in base alle esigenze della classe.

TESTS

410

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SPECIFICATION 13 TEST FILA A

Part A

CLASSE

1

The reign of Edward VII was A gloomy. B prosperous and stable for everybody. C characterised by a gap between the rich and the poor. D marked by Victorian assumptions and conventions.

2

3

4

5

The victory of the Liberals in the 1906 general elections A brought about a series of social reforms concerning old people. B took the first steps towards the creation of a welfare state. C set up a Commission to look at the 19th century Poor Law. D marked the beginning of the Government’s nationalisation process of major industries. The rebellion of the Irish Volunteers in 1916 A resulted in the setting up of an Irish Republic free of British rule. B changed the mood in Ireland against the British. C prevented Germany from helping the Irish. D caused the six northern counties to be part of the Irish Free State. Britain declared war on Germany when A the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbs in Sarajevo. B Germany attacked France. C Germany invaded the neutral Belgium in August 1914. D Russia agreed to help Serbia against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The League of Nations wanted to A place European countries under the control of the United States. B secure the peaceful settlement of international disputes. C limit the power of France and Britain inside Europe. D punish Germany.

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Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Symbolist style? A It made use of free verse, indirect statements and allusive language. B It used quotations from other nation’s literature. C It was characterised by conventional diction, metrical regularity and direct statements. D It made use of the sound of words and the music of poetry.

7

The War Poets A composed rough songs about the life in the trenches. B expressed patriotic idealism. C tried to convey the horror of warfare. D acted as a public voice.

8

Wilfred Owen wanted to write poems about A heroes. B the pity of war. C foreign lands. D the idea that war is cleansing.

9

W.B. Yeats thought the artist’s role was A to be detached from his own world. B to record the collapse of Western civilisation. C to give shape to a changing world in his poetry. D to create a new culture, based on Ireland’s past.

Suggested time: 15 minutes CHOOSE the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each multiple-choice question.

DATA

6

Multiple-choice questions 1

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TEST

13 Fila A

10 Yeats regarded death as A a common experience to man and animals. B a victory. C an experience man lives many times before it really occurs. D a link between the poet and the Irish people. 11 T.S. Eliot studied at Harvard but his cultural background was A at first English and then European. B linked to the world of Irish mythology and traditions. C exclusively English. D linked to the American Renaissance. 12 In 1927 he obtained British citizenship and A moved to Devonshire. B joined the Church of England. C married a British ballet dancer. La riproduzione di questa pagina tramite fotocopia è autorizzata ai soli fini dell’utilizzo nell’attività didattica degli alunni delle classi che hanno adottato il testo

411

Test 13 Fila A

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TESTS

NOME

SPECIFICATION 13 TEST FILA A NOME

D suffered from a nervous breakdown.

TEST

13 Fila A

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13 In his critical essays he A stated that the artist had to interpret reality for his readers. B stressed the importance for the artist to commit himself to society. C concentrated on the style of The Waste Land. D pointed out the importance for the artist to be impersonal. 14 The Waste Land A describes the horrors of modern alienated society. B gives an image of man’s secret life. C describes a world where all the people share what they possess. D provides a record of England’s transformation into a new country. 15 The unity of this long poem is reached by the use of A the same speaking voice. B a fragmentary style. C the mythical method. D a cluster of images belonging to the past.

CLASSE

ESAME DI STATO

CHOOSE one of the following topics and write a short essay.

1

Describe the variety of trends and currents that characterised modern poetry in a twentyline essay.

2

Write a twenty-line essay about the representation of war in Rupert Brooke’s and Wilfred Owen’s poems.

3

Trace the innovative techniques employed by T.S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land. Do not use more than 20 lines. ESAME DI STATO

TESTS

Test 13 Fila A

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Terza Prova - TYPE B

Suggested time for each answer: 15 minutes 4

CHOOSE three of the following questions and write a ten- to twelve-line answer.

1

Compare Hemingway’s description of the bomb explosion in the text ‘There is nothing worse than war’ from A Farewell to Arms to the gas attack in Dulce et Decorum Est by the poet Wilfred Owen as regards the soldier’s mood, the writer’s attitude to war, the imagery and the message. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines.

2

Write a text of ten/twelve lines to discuss Yeats’s attitude towards the Irish cause and to explain how this attitude can be traced in the poem Easter 1916.

3

Discuss the themes and the new concept of history developed by T.S. Eliot in these lines from The Waste Land. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines.

1

412

Terza Prova - TYPE A

3

Suggested time: 30 minutes

Why was the Edwardian Age characterised by strikes and unrest? 2 What did the Suffragettes want? 3 How did Rupert Brooke present war? 4 What did ‘Home Rule for Ireland’ mean? 5 Was Britain prepared for modern warfare at the outbreak of World War I? 6 Which countries were involved at the beginning of the war? Which followed? 7 What war poem does the picture The Menin Road by Paul Nash remind you of? 8 What developments took place in Ireland soon after the war? 9 What is the main theme developed by T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land? 10 What is the ‘objective correlative’ employed by T.S. Eliot?

......................................................................................

Suggested time for each answer: 20 minutes

Answer the questions ANSWER the following questions. Provide only the information required.

DATA

Part C

Part B

2

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5

10

Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: ‘Stetson! ‘You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!

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SPECIFICATION 13 TEST FILA A

4

Write ten/twelve lines about the characters involved and the main themes developed in the second part of the section ‘The Fire Sermon’ from The Waste Land. Comment on these lines from The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 by the

CLASSE

.....................

DATA

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British historian Eric Hobsbawm in a ten-/ twelve-line paragraph: ‘Mankind survived. Nevertheless, the great edifice of the nineteenth-century civilization crumpled in the flames of world war, as its pillars collapsed. There is no understanding the Short Twentieth Century without it. It was marked by war.’

TEST

13 Fila A

TESTS

5

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413

Test 13 Fila A

NOME

SPECIFICATION 14 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

14 Fila A

Part A

CLASSE

CHOOSE the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each multiple-choice question.

1

According to Freud’s structural model of the psyche A the ‘id’ is a set of instinctual impulses lacking organisation. B the ‘ego’ is the moralising force. C the ‘super-ego’ educates the ‘id’. D the ‘ego’ can profoundly distort man’s behaviour.

3

4

5

TESTS

Test 14 Fila A

6

In D.H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers A the children are estranged from their mother. B the protagonist is full of resentment towards his father. C Mr and Mrs Morel provide an example of a happy marriage. D Paul Morel finally marries Miriam. According to D.H. Lawrence, humanity can escape self-destruction only through A the exaltation of the intellect. B a romantic relationship between the sexes. C the exploitation of nature. D a new relationship between men and women based on sensual passions and sexuality. Lawrence’s style is characterised by A the extensive use of symbolism. B the use of the first-person narrator. C sensual language. D a shifting point of view. Which of the following was NOT a feature of modernism? A The distortion of shapes. B The importance of conscious life. C The stream of consciousness. D The breaking down of limitations in space and time. The modern novelist rejected A memories and associations. B moral and psychological uncertainty. C the analysis of a character’s consciousness. D omniscient narration.

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DATA

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The interior monologue A is the verbal expression of the stream of consciousness. B respects chronological order. C has a formal logic. D rejects the narrator completely.

8

Joseph Conrad was born in A England. B France. C Poland. D Russia.

9

Conrad thought that the writer’s aim was to A keep his readers amused. B teach his readers a lesson. C explore the meaning of the human situation. D express his interiority.

Suggested time: 15 minutes 1

.....................

7

Multiple-choice questions

2

414

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10 In his novels, Conrad A broke free from the constraints of an omniscient narrator. B employed an omniscient narrator. C often intruded into the narration with his own voice. D followed the chronological time sequence. 11 E.M. Forster’s work A is marked by the optimism of the Victorian tradition. B lays emphasis on personal vision and relationships. C is old-fashioned in the choice of themes. D lacks humour. 12 Forster’s novel A Passage to India primarily explores A questions of rule and race. B adventure in an exotic setting. C Hindu mythology. D people’s difficulties in trying to understand each other and the universe. 13 Joyce’s aim in writing Dubliners was to A represent both the physical and the moral paralysis of Dublin. B point out the importance of his Jesuit education. C describe his childhood in Dublin. D present the cultural heritage of modern Irish civilisation. La riproduzione di questa pagina tramite fotocopia è autorizzata ai soli fini dell’utilizzo nell’attività didattica degli alunni delle classi che hanno adottato il testo

SPECIFICATION 14 TEST FILA A

14 Joyce’s Dubliners A break the chains that bind them. B are aware of their condition. C are spiritually weak and scared people. D reject their familiar, moral, cultural, religious and political lives. 15 In Joyce’s work ‘epiphany’ is A the abundance of external details. B a sudden self-realisation caused by a trivial event. C the result of long self-scrutiny. D a religious festivity. 16 Virginia Woolf died A killed by bombs in London during World War II. B in a mental hospital. C of old age in her house in Bloomsbury. D by drowning herself in a river. 17 Virginia Woolf was interested in giving voice to A the experience of the war. B the relationship between the individual and society. C the complex inner world of feeling and memory. D ordinary life. 18 Virginia Woolf A let her characters show their thoughts directly through extreme interior monologue. B used the omniscient narrator. C employed dry language and accumulation of details. D let her characters’ thoughts flow but maintained logical organisation.

CLASSE

Suggested time: 30 minutes 2

ANSWER the following questions. Provide only the information required.

1

What were the effects of Freud’s theory in the sphere of family life? What did modernism give voice to? How do historical time and psychological time differ? Why is Joyce’s Ulysses regarded as a seminal

2 3 4

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DATA

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work of the 20th century? 5 Why did Conrad choose exotic settings? 6 What is the difference between Marlow and Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness? 7 How did Forster view imperialism? 8 What technique is mainly employed by Joyce in Dubliners? 9 What did the artists of the Bloomsbury Group challenge? 10 What were Woolf’s ‘moments of being’?

TEST

14 Fila A

Part C ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova - TYPE A

Suggested time for each answer: 20 minutes 3

CHOOSE one of the following topics and write a short essay.

1

Describe the development of modernism in the different arts and highlight its main features (20 lines).

2

Compare the novelists of the first decades of the 20th century that you have studied with respect to the key idea concerning their works (20 lines).

3

Trace Joyce’s relevant contribution to the literary production of the beginning of the 20th century (20 lines). ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova - TYPE B

Suggested time for each answer: 15 minutes 4

CHOOSE three of the following questions and write a ten- to twelve-line answer.

1

Describe the deep cultural crisis which characterised the first decades of the 20th century (10-12 lines).

2

Explain the differences between the traditional and the modern novel (10-12 lines).

3

Describe the character of Paul Morel in D.H. Lawrence’s novel Son and Lovers (10-12 lines).

4

Explain in what sense Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness can be regarded as a journey of quest (10-12 lines).

5

Discuss India as a physical and mental landscape in Forster’s A Passage to India (10-12 lines).

Part B Answer the questions

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Test 14 Fila A

...........................................................................................................................

TESTS

NOME

415

SPECIFICATION 14 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

14 Fila A

6

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CLASSE

DATA

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the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead.’

Explain the importance of this extract in ‘The Dead’. What has Gabriel just realised? (10-12 lines) ‘Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in

.....................

7

Discuss the relationship between Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith in Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (10-12 lines).

TESTS

Test 14 Fila A

416

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SPECIFICATION 15 TEST FILA A CLASSE

Part A Multiple-choice questions Suggested time: 15 minutes 1

CHOOSE the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each multiple-choice question.

1

At the beginning of the 20th century the economic boom in America A made the conditions of life in the city slums better. B was only due to agricultural prosperity. C had not prevented the spread of poverty. D was linked to the American pursuit of happiness.

2

The term ‘muckraker’ refers to A a World War I infantry soldier. B a suffragist. C a temperance advocate. D an investigative journalist.

3

Which of the following is NOT true? A Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican and an expansionist. B The USA did not grant independence to their dominions except for Cuba. C Imperialism was considered contrary to the democratic values of the American constitution. D Wilson’s main aim in the Peace Treaty was to set up a world peace-keeping organisation.

.....................

DATA

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D the USA acquired a leadership role in world affairs. 6

The Red Scare in the 1920s was A only linked to Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian anarchists charged with murder. B linked to the fear of socialism. C caused by political activists. D followed a lot of strikes.

7

When did the Wall Street Crash happen? A In October 1930. B In October 1928. C In October 1929. D In October 1919.

8

Part of the reason for the stock market crash was A the high rate of deflation in the 1920s. B the tax policies of the 1920s. C the sudden selling of a huge quantity of shares. D the low tariffs on imports.

9

President Franklin Roosevelt was granted special powers by Congress at the beginning of his term because A the Great Depression was a serious national crisis. B of the massive unemployment. C Congress and Roosevelt represented opposing political parties. D he was related to former president Theodore Roosevelt.

4

American foreign policy towards Europe during the 1920s was characterised by A isolationism. B the willingness to forget the World War I debts owed to the US government by former allies. C a desire to dominate the League of Nations. D refusal to participate in the League of Nations.

10 The New Deal had all these aims EXCEPT A to bring immediate relief to the unemployed by providing money and jobs. B to help the economy recover. C to provide universal employment throughout the country. D to restructure the banking and business systems to prevent a future economic crash.

5

The Twenties are called the ‘Roaring Twenties’ because A foreign trade prospered after World War I. B of widespread social and economic change. C political reforms made the government more democratic.

11 What was the name given to a group of American writers who gathered in Paris after World War I and who were highly critical of society? A The Great Depression writers. B The Naturalistic writers. C The Jazz writers. D The Lost Generation.

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TEST

15 Fila A

Test 15 Fila A

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TESTS

NOME

417

SPECIFICATION 15 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

15 Fila A

...........................................................................................................................

12 Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby A represents the self-made man. B is linked to the opposition between the East and the West. C stands for corruption. D is the symbol of the power of money. 13 Gatsby in the text ‘Nick meets Gatsby’ is introduced A through Nick’s gradual awareness of him. B in a direct way. C through common social encounters. D through flashbacks. 14 The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a period when African Americans A left the USA to settle in South Africa. B migrated to the West in search of lands and jobs. C used civil disobedience to fight segregation in the army. D created important works of art and literature. 15 Langston Hughes was influenced by A F.S. Fitzgerald and his view of the decay of the American Dream. B T.S. Eliot for the symbols he employed. C W. Whitman in breaking with traditional forms. D C. Sandburg because of the everyday speech he employed in his poems. 16 Which condition increased the negative effects of the Great Depression? A Factories had to decrease production because of low demand. B The Federal Government raised taxes. C The demand for imported products increased. D Low levels of unemployment caused labour shortages.

TESTS

Test 15 Fila A

418

17 The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck describes the experiences of A farmers migrating westward in search of work. B African Americans moving north to find jobs. C people relying on breadlines in big cities. D New Deal workers building factories.

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CLASSE

.....................

DATA

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18 The Dust Bowl was caused by A not planting soil-replenishing crops. B poor irrigation. C tornadoes. D all the above. 19 Dorothea Lange was an important American in the field of A politics. B photojournalism. C big business. D transportation. 20 Where in New York did the McCourts from Angela’s Ashes live? A Staten Island. B Long Island. C Manhattan. D Brooklyn.

Part B Answer the questions Suggested time: 30 minutes 2

ANSWER the following questions. Provide only the information required.

1

What characterised American society at the beginning of the 20th century? What were the main features of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency? Why were the 1920s exciting years? What happened on the so-called ‘Black Thursday’? What happened during the Great Depression? What did the New Deal aim to achieve? What mood characterised American literature in the 1920s? How does the character of Gatsby evolve in F.S. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby? What narrative technique is employed in this novel? What was the Harlem Renaissance? How is L. Hughes’s poetry related to black music? What are the themes developed in The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck? What do J. Steinbeck and the Italian novelist Cesare Pavese have in common? What is one of the main themes in Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt?

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13

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SPECIFICATION 15 TEST FILA A ...........................................................................................................................

Part C ESAME DI STATO

CHOOSE one of the following topics and write a short essay.

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DATA

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1

Write ten/twelve lines about the features of the new generation of American writers known as the ‘Lost Generation’.

2

Explain the causes and effects of the Great Depression in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph.

3

Explain in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph why F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby can be seen both as an autobiographical work and as a document of American society in the 1920s.

Terza Prova -TYPE A

Suggested time for each answer: 20 minutes 3

CLASSE

1

Explain the causes and the consequences of the Wall Street Crash (20 lines).

2

Write a twenty-line paragraph to justify this sentence: ‘Edward Hopper is the painter of silence’.

4

Discuss the importance of the Millennium Development Goals to fight poverty and hunger in the world (20 lines).

Highlight the message of the poem The Weary Blues by L. Hughes. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines.

5

Explain in what sense The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck is a controversial novel. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines.

6

Point out how the experience of poverty is highlighted in the novel Angela’s Ashes by F. McCourt. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines.

3

ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova -TYPE B

Suggested time for each answer: 15 minutes CHOOSE three of the following questions and write a ten- to twelve-line answer.

15 Fila A

TESTS

4

TEST

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419

Test 15 Fila A

NOME

SPECIFICATION 16 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

16 Fila A

CLASSE

Part A

1

2

During the 1930s in Britain A the population increased. B the population drifted from south to north. C more people lived in the centres of towns. D light industry expanded in the Midlands and the south. Which of the following is NOT true? A Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in 1936. B The BBC was created in the 1930s. C Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. D The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939.

3

The poets of the 1930s A had an optimistic outlook. B maintained complexity and allusiveness in their poems. C dealt with social and political problems. D used elevated language.

4

W.H. Auden thought that the task of the poet was A to act as a public voice. B to distance himself from society. C to interpret reality for his readers. D to create psychological models.

5

After his move to America, Auden A became a political leader. B started to believe that improvement must begin within the self. C began to write simpler poetry. D felt the burden of social responsibility even more.

TESTS

Test 16 Fila A

6

7

Auden’s poetry is characterised by A serene images. B static syntax. C a mixture of styles. D regular rhyme scheme. Mohandas Gandhi was an unusual leader because A he was always dressed in white.

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DATA

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he encouraged the use of spices and the practice of fasting. C he slept alone. D he preached non-violence at a time when the first atom bombs were used in war.

Suggested time: 15 minutes CHOOSE the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each multiple-choice question.

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B

Multiple-choice questions 1

420

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8

The Labour Government that won the general elections in 1945 A started a process of nationalisation. B introduced rationing. C gave up the control of communications. D encouraged private enterprise.

9

The ‘New Elizabethan Age’ was characterised by A pride in one’s roots. B the protection of the Empire. C the illusion that England was a world power. D excitement mixed with anguish.

10 Dystopia in literature A concentrated on the positive. B created a social order that was perfect in the moral sense. C lent the persuasive techniques of the imagination to the revolt against modernity. D represented a society based on rightful principles. 11 George Orwell’s life and work were characterised by A the debt to his working-class origins. B the conflict between his bourgeois education and his emotional identification with the working class. C the prejudice against the working class deriving from his bourgeois origins and education. D the English public school tradition. 12 As regards theme, Orwell A warned against totalitarianism and tyranny. B supported the idea of heroic individuals guiding the masses. C provided an idealised view of the poor. D praised urban civilisation. 13 Nineteen Eighty-Four describes a world where A the individual can develop his own ideas. B every aspect is subordinate to the state. C all the people share what they possess. D there is sympathy for those who suffer. La riproduzione di questa pagina tramite fotocopia è autorizzata ai soli fini dell’utilizzo nell’attività didattica degli alunni delle classi che hanno adottato il testo

SPECIFICATION 16 TEST FILA A CLASSE

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14 The character of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four A works for the Thought Police. B works for the Ministry of Truth. C is Julia’s husband. D sticks to his identity till the end.

Part B

15 Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is set A in an English school. B on a plane that is going to crash. C on a Mediterranean island. D on an island in the Pacific or Indian Ocean.

1

16 The characters of Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies A stand for innocent childhood. B are native savages. C exist on two levels as individuals and as symbols of aspects of human nature. D are taken from the world of fantasy. 17 Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot was a shocking experience for the public because A it has no plot, as events do not mean anything in the course of time. B the protagonists are two tramps. C the protagonists commit suicide. D all the events take place on a country road. 18 The situation described in Waiting for Godot is A the symbol of adulthood. B static because nothing happens. C the conventional father-son relationship. D hard but has a happy handing. 19 The characters are A stereotypes, since they do not undergo an evolution. B the playwright’s mouthpieces. C antagonists. D complementary since they complete each other. 20 The devices used by Beckett to show the lack of communication are A sketched dialogues, silences, pauses, each character following his own thoughts. B long prefaces and detailed stage directions. C one-sided dialogues, with one character doing most of the talking. D colloquial language, humour and irony. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

DATA

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TEST

Answer the questions Suggested time: 30 minutes 2

16 Fila A

ANSWER the following questions. Provide only the information required.

What led to the General Strike of 1926 and what were the effects on the lives of the miners’ families? 2 What is the British Commonwealth of Nations? 3 What were the influences on Auden’s poetry during the English period? 4 How did the US foreign policy demonstrate a new opening towards Europe after World War II? 5 What was the Cold War? 6 When and how was the National Health Service created in Britain? 7 When was the United Nations Organisation founded and what were its aims? 8 How did Orwell develop his idea of the artist’s role? 9 What kind of character is Winston Smith? 10 Describe the different roles of Ralph and Jack in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. 11 What concept of time is developed in Waiting for Godot? 12 What kind of images did Francis Bacon paint and what was their aim?

Part C ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova - TYPE A

Suggested time for each answer: 20 minutes 3

CHOOSE one of the following topics and write a short essay.

1

Trace the development of the concept of utopia in the novels of the 1950s (20 lines).

2

Describe the use of symbolism in W. Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies (20 lines).

3

Discuss the importance of the Blitz in British history (20 lines). ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova - TYPE B

Suggested time for each answer: 15 minutes 4

CHOOSE three of the following questions and write a ten- to twelve-line answer.

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421

Test 16 Fila A

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TESTS

NOME

SPECIFICATION 16 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

16 Fila A

1

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Write 10-12 lines to describe the poetry of the 1930s and 1940s in Britain.

2

Explain why the collection Another Time deserves a special place in Auden’s production (10-12 lines).

3

Discuss why Gandhi is the embodiment of human

CLASSE

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DATA

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rights and faith in non-violence (10-12 lines). 4

Explain in what sense Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four can be regarded as a dystopian novel (10-12 lines).

5

Explain the origins of the Theatre of the Absurd and its main features (10-12 lines).

TESTS

Test 16 Fila A

422

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SPECIFICATION 17 TEST FILA A

Part A

CLASSE

1

In the early 1960s Britain experienced A a decrease in the level of employment. B agricultural prosperity. C an economic boom. D the nationalisation of the major industries.

2

3

4

5

6

Which of the following is NOT true? A The National Health Service was founded in 1967. B Homosexual relationships and abortion were made legal in 1967. C The reforms of the 1960s were in favour of permissiveness. D Individual freedom was perceived as a right. In 1958 thousands of protesters staged a demonstration in London against A apartheid in South Africa. B food rationing. C increased taxation. D nuclear weapons. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 protected people from A segregation in schools and in the workplace. B discrimination in employment and housing. C wage disparity based on sex. D violent crimes against women. The 1970s were characterised by A cuts in public expenditure. B high inflation, strikes, episodes of violence and terrorism. C sacrifices required only from the poor. D an alarming growth of criminality. The UK joined the European Community in 1973 A because it was considered essential to share European wealth. B to expand British banks. C to acquire the right to travel in other EU countries. D to be more competitive in foreign markets.

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The 1960s and the 1970s in the USA were characterised by A the expansion of communism. B race riots. C protest, equality and a strong distrust of the government. D women’s fighting for their right to be treated as equals.

8

What happened in 1961 in the USA? A There was the Cuban Missile Crisis. B The Democratic candidate J.F. Kennedy won the elections. C The Civil Rights Act was passed. D Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

9

The Vietnam War A was resolved in 1973 under Nixon’s presidency. B led to an immediate end of the Cold War. C ended with the Watergate scandal in 1974. D increased the confidence that American people had in their strength.

Suggested time: 15 minutes CHOOSE the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each multiple-choice question.

DATA

7

Multiple-choice questions 1

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TEST

17 Fila A

10 The issue that led to Jimmy Carter’s defeat in 1980 was A the failure of the Camp David Agreements between Egypt and Israel. B inflation and growing unemployment. C the collapse of oil prices. D his inability to obtain the release of American hostages held in Iran. 11 Which of the following is NOT a keynote of the Swinging Sixties? A Youth culture. B London and Carnaby Street. C Horror of the present and fear of the future. D Reaction against what they considered to be a boring society. 12 John Osborne’s first play Look Back in Anger A was welcomed by the critics and considered one of the finest examples of the Theatre of the Absurd. B turned him into one of the spokesmen of the Angry Young Men. C was rejected by the Royal Court Theatre in London and staged in New York. D rejected traditional theatrical features such as the setting in time and place and plot. La riproduzione di questa pagina tramite fotocopia è autorizzata ai soli fini dell’utilizzo nell’attività didattica degli alunni delle classi che hanno adottato il testo

423

Test 17 Fila A

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TESTS

NOME

SPECIFICATION 17 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

17 Fila A

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13 The play captured the rebellious nature of a generation which A had been deprived of childhood by World War II. B experienced the sense of loss due to the crisis of middle-class values. C no longer shared the middle-class values but could not find any new and original ones. D was deeply linked to anxiety and fears. 14 The language used in this play is A no longer influenced by middle-class conventions; it is spontaneous and vital. B not as innovative as the theme of the play. C heavily influenced by the anguish and sense of loss of modernism. D used to create important works of art and literature. 15 Which of the following is NOT a key idea of the Beat Generation? A A rejection of the received standard of living and of materialism. B Innovation in style and an explicit portrayal of the human condition. C An interest in Eastern religion. D A reawakened interest in nature. 16 In 1957 Jack Kerouac published On the Road A where he recalled his university years. B which became the ‘Bible’ of the Beat Generation. C where he dealt with the corruption and loss of the ideals of the ‘Lost Generation’. D where he analysed the relationship between jazz music and pop music.

TESTS

Test 17 Fila A

424

17 The 1960s A were Kerouac’s decade because his books were read on college campuses and young people imitated him. B showed his love for nature. C marked the beginning of his decay. D represented the beginning of his leading a solitary life. 18 The most important theme of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is A an outsider’s lifestyle. B the civil rights of minorities. C the rebellion against adults. D the emancipation of women.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

CLASSE

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DATA

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19 Seamus Heaney’s writing was influenced by A his rural Irish life and Catholic upbringing. B his fascination with World War II. C the mental problems of his wife. D his university years. 20 In his poem The Tollund Man, the bog people A are ordinary Irish people. B are linked to the ancient myth of fertility. C are anonymous victims of the Irish government. D are metaphors for the atrocities and the rituals of the Irish religious and political troubles.

Part B Answer the questions Suggested time: 30 minutes 2

ANSWER the following questions. Provide only the information required.

1

What did the rapid changes and multiplicity of new inputs create in the 1960s? What happened in England in 1958? What did the reforms passed in 1967, 1969 and 1970 make possible? What did the worsening of the economic situation in the 1970s bring about? What did Britain do to share the new European wealth? Why did the USA become the most prosperous country in the world? What was the American foreign policy in the early Sixties defined by? What important Act was passed in 1964? How were black people divided? What characterised Richard Nixon’s presidency? What was Jimmy Carter’s greatest achievement? What were the Sixties in Britain characterised by? Why is Jimmy Porter from John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger considered an anti-hero? What did the Beats react against? What did they ignore? Who is the hero of the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac? What is the most important theme developed in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye?

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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SPECIFICATION 17 TEST FILA A ...........................................................................................................................

17 What image of society did Pop Art give? 18 What did S. Heaney compare the conflict in Northern Ireland to?

CLASSE

Terza Prova - TYPE A

ESAME DI STATO

CHOOSE one of the following topics and write a short essay.

......................................................................................

Terza Prova - TYPE B

4

CHOOSE three of the following questions and write a ten- to twelve-line answer.

1

Explain the features of the Theatre of Anger contained in the text ‘Boring Sundays!’ from Look Back in Anger by J. Osborne. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines.

2

Indicate the character/author (poetry/novel/ drama) who best represents rebellion in the second half of the 20th century. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines.

Suggested time for each answer: 20 minutes 3

DATA

Suggested time for each answer: 15 minutes

Part C ESAME DI STATO

.....................

Explain why the 1960s and 1970s were turbulent times in Britain (20 lines).

2

Write a twenty-line paragraph about the cultural revolution which marked the 1960s in Britain.

3

3

Discuss the importance of the civil rights movements in the US in the 1960s (20 lines).

Explain in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph the main themes developed and the style employed in J. Kerouac’s On the Road.

4

Write a ten-/twelve-line paragraph about the Irish Troubles and their main consequences.

4

Write 20 lines about this topic: the ‘on the road’ motif is one of the distinctive themes of American literature. Provide references to authors and texts you have read.

5

Discuss S. Heaney’s position and commitment in the political, religious struggle in Ireland in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph.

17 Fila A

TESTS

1

TEST

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425

Test 17 Fila A

NOME

SPECIFICATION 18 TEST FILA A NOME

TEST

18 Fila A

CLASSE

Part A Suggested time: 15 minutes 1

CHOOSE the best answer (A, B, C or D) for each multiple-choice question.

1

Margaret Thatcher advocated A government interference. B the nationalisation of industry. C more power to trade unions. D free trade.

2

Which of the following is NOT true? A The Eighties brought about a general increase of material wealth. B Young people were encouraged to value self-employment. C A new class of ambitious urban professionals emerged. D A tax on persons and not on property was introduced.

3

Tony Blair A had progressive views on law and order issues. B rejected decentralisation. C held liberal views on the subject of education. D won the elections twice.

4

In Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time, Stephen A is a musician. B is a politician. C works in a supermarket. D writes children books.

5

In Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time, history A means positive change. B is connected with loss. C is idealised. D destroys efficiency.

TESTS

Test 18 Fila A

7

President Ronald Reagan A invested a lot of money on space research. B discouraged free enterprise. C was re-elected with a narrow majority. D involved the US in the Gulf War. President Bill Clinton A won the elections in 2000. B was very young but charismatic when he was elected. C was compared to J.F. Kennedy for his

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DATA

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liberal policies. D failed to reach the peace agreements in the Middle East.

Multiple-choice questions

6

426

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8

Which of the following statements is true about DeLillo’s Falling Man? A According to the author, what the hijackers did was right. B The subjects of religion, terrorism and death are never dealt with. C it focuses on the mourning of the victims. D Everyone in the book tries to overcome the past and move forward.

9

Writers living in the ex-colonies and the Commonwealth who write in English A judge England as outsiders. B find themselves torn between their two cultures. C reject the popular tradition of their countries. D have created new literary conventions.

10 All the new African-English literatures have A recorded the disillusionment with the outcome of independence. B dealt with different themes. C created revolutionary techniques. D focused on introspection. 11 Apartheid was A the rule of the black majority in South Africa. B institutionalised racial segregation in South Africa. C the prejudice against the white minority in South Africa. D the discrimination imposed in schools in South Africa. 12 The system of apartheid brought about A black political representation. B the granting of citizenship to all racial groups. C a long international arms and trade embargo against South Africa. D the killing of Nelson Mandela. 13 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa A was created by the family of Steve Biko. B refused to grant amnesty for civil rights abuses. C punished the perpetrators of violence. La riproduzione di questa pagina tramite fotocopia è autorizzata ai soli fini dell’utilizzo nell’attività didattica degli alunni delle classi che hanno adottato il testo

SPECIFICATION 18 TEST FILA A ...........................................................................................................................

D allowed the victims of violence to testify their about experiences. 14 In Gordimer’s story A Soldier’s Embrace the white lawyer A embraces two celebrants of the cease-fire. B experiences a growing sense of fear and alienation. C gets a job in the new order. D finds new clients among the blacks. 15 The International Day of Peace was established in A 1981. B 1982. C 2000. D 2002. 16 Barack H. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize A in 2007 for his work in spreading knowledge about man-made climate change. B in 2008 for being the first AfricanAmerican president. C in 2009 for his efforts in international diplomacy. D in 2012 after his re-election.

CLASSE

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DATA

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What was the purpose of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? 8 Why did Haring become a popular figure of youth culture? 9 What did President Obama say about war in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech? 10 What image did Walcott create in his poem The Season of Phantasmal Peace to convey the idea of peacebuilding? 7

ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova - TYPE A

Suggested time for each answer: 20 minutes 3

CHOOSE one of the following topics and write a short essay.

1

Trace the development of skyscrapers since the end of the 19th century (20 lines).

2

Discuss the development of the literature from English-speaking countries as regards the themes, the writer’s attitude and aim (20 lines).

3

Describe the impact of AIDS on South Africa’s society and economy (20 lines). ESAME DI STATO

Terza Prova - TYPE B

Suggested time for each answer: 15 minutes

Answer the questions

4

CHOOSE three of the following questions and write a ten- to twelve-line answer.

1

Explain Thatcher’s nickname, ‘the Iron Lady’, with reference to her home and foreign policies. Write 10-12 lines.

2

Discuss the symbolism of the title of DeLillo’s novel Falling Man (10-12 lines).

3

Describe how the system of apartheid worked in South Africa (10-12 lines).

4

Explain which practical steps towards peacebuilding were highlighted by President Obama in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (10-12 lines).

Suggested time: 30 minutes ANSWER the following questions. Provide only the information required.

1 2

Why was the poll tax unpopular? What kind of novel is McEwan’s The Child in Time as regards its setting? What event marked George W. Bush’s presidency? What were its consequences? What are the structure and style of DeLillo’s novel Falling Man? Why has English developed as a lingua franca? What led to the end of apartheid in South Africa?

3 4

TESTS

5 6

18 Fila A

Part C

Part B

2

TEST

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427

Test 18 Fila A

NOME

7

Esame di Stato Seconda Prova

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429

SPECIFICATION 13 ESAME DI STATO NOME

TEST

1

Seconda Prova

...........................................................................................................................

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

READ the following text from The Great War: Myth and Memory by Dan Todman (London, Hambledon and London, 2005) and do the activities that follow.

Misrepresentation of a Conflict

TESTS

Esame di Stato

430

Forgotten victory ‘Everybody knows’ what World War I was like and what it meant. Modern Britons think of the war as a muddy, bloody mess – a futile massacre in which a generation of young men were slaughtered at the behest of asinine generals. Those who survived barbed wire and machine gun bullets went mad or wrote poetry. Their sacrifice achieved nothing, succeeding only in laying down the foundations for another bloody conflict twenty years later. World War I has become a byword for how awful, stupid and useless war can be. The positive meanings ascribed to the war have been all but forgotten. Yet these modern beliefs bear only a passing resemblance to the ways the war was experienced at the time. During and immediately after the conflict, Britons built a wide range of different meanings out of the war years. Notwithstanding the enormous casualty lists, in 1918 many Britons thought they had achieved a miraculous deliverance from an evil enemy. They celebrated a remarkable military victory and national survival. For those who had served in the trenches, and for those left at home, the war experience encompassed not only horror, frustration and sorrow, but also triumph, pride, camaraderie and even enjoyment, as well as boredom and apathy. For most, it was capable of being all these things, often at the same time. We should not make value judgements about how individuals come to understand their wars, but we do need to recognise the variety and ambiguity of that understanding.

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CLASSE

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DATA

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Some aspects of how the war is now remembered have been constant. The shock of three-quarters-ofa-million dead men still lingers in British culture. Other aspects – particularly the positive meanings which could be ascribed to the war – have been all but forgotten. In the years after the war, Britons commemorated it in print, on stage, in stone and in ceremonies. Although we now remember the production of a few classic ‘war books’ in the late 1920s – such as those by Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden and Robert Graves – in fact these were just part of an enormous outpouring of writing, much of which described the war in traditional terms of valour and victory. Different meanings for the war co-existed uneasily. It was widely feared that veterans who wished to celebrate survival, camaraderie and victory would upset bereaved families. The presumed emotional needs of bereaved parents in particular also exercised a powerful social taboo against saying that the war lacked meaning, even for those who were tempted to term it ‘futile’. What everybody could agree on, was what the war had been like – horrible. A sometimes sensationalist emphasis on the horror of war, particularly evident during the late 1920s, could be used both by those who wished to prevent any future conflict, and by those who wanted to stress the heroism of the soldiers who had struggled through it. How the war had been fought remained a subject of controversy, with many wartime debates being carried on in post-war memoirs by leading politicians and generals. Not least because of his post-war work for veterans’ pensions, however, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force Sir Douglas Haig was widely seen as a heroic figure, despite his close association with the bloody struggles of the Somme and Passchendaele. When he died, in early 1928, the streets of London and Edinburgh were lined with huge crowds of mourners. (Adapted from ‘World War One: Misrepresentation of a Conflict’ by Dr Dan Todman, www.bbc.co.uk)

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SPECIFICATION 13 ESAME DI STATO

1 1 2

3 4 5 6 7

ANSWER the following questions. What is the generally held opinion of World War I according to the article? Explain the phrase ‘slaughtered at the behest of asinine generals’ (lines 4-5) in your own words. What happened to the survivors, according to the article? In which conflicting ways was the war seen at the time? How many men died in the war? Was this number considered as many? How was the war mainly represented in literature immediately afterwards? Why was it difficult to insist that the war had been ‘futile’? How was the emphasis on the horror of the

CLASSE

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DATA

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war used, according to the article? What was the main debate carried on by politicians and generals after the end of the war? 10 Explain the reference to the Somme and Passchendaele. 9

2

SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 150 words.

3

COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of world war. Explain how World War I was different from any wars that preceded it and compare the fighting which took place then to modern warfare.

TEST

1

Seconda Prova

TESTS

8

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431

Esame di Stato

NOME

SPECIFICATION 14 ESAME DI STATO NOME

TEST

2

Seconda Prova

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ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

READ the following text from E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View (1908), Chapter 8, and do the activities that follow. ‘Welcome as one of the family!’ said Mrs. Honeychurch, waving her hand at the furniture. ‘This is indeed a joyous day! I feel sure that you will make our dear Lucy happy.’ ‘I hope so,’ replied the young man, shifting his eyes to the ceiling. ‘We mothers – ’ simpered Mrs. Honeychurch, and then realized that she was affected, sentimental, bombastic – all the things she hated most. Why could she not be Freddy, who stood stiff in the middle of the room, looking very cross and almost handsome? ‘I say, Lucy!’ called Cecil, for conversation seemed to flag. Lucy rose from the seat. She moved across the lawn and smiled in at them, just as if she was going to ask them to play tennis. Then she saw her brother’s face. Her lips parted, and she took him in her arms. He said, ‘Steady on!’ ‘Not a kiss for me?’ asked her mother. Lucy kissed her also. ‘Would you take them into the garden and tell Mrs. Honeychurch all about it?’ Cecil suggested. ‘And I’d stop here and tell my mother.’ ‘We go with Lucy?’ said Freddy, as if taking orders. ‘Yes, you go with Lucy.’ They passed into the sunlight. Cecil watched them cross the terrace, and descend out of sight by the steps. They would descend – he knew their ways – past the shrubbery, and past the tennis lawn and the dahlia-bed, until they reached the kitchengarden, and there, in the presence of the potatoes and the peas, the great event would be discussed. Smiling indulgently, he lit a cigarette, and rehearsed the events that had led to such a happy conclusion.

CLASSE

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DATA

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He had known Lucy for several years, but only as a commonplace girl who happened to be musical. He could still remember his depression that afternoon at Rome, when she and her terrible cousin fell on him out of the blue, and demanded to be taken to St. Peter’s. That day she had seemed a typical tourist – shrill, crude, and gaunt with travel. But Italy worked some marvel in her. It gave her light, and - which he held more precious – it gave her shadow. Soon he detected in her a wonderful reticence. She was like a woman of Leonardo da Vinci’s, whom we love not so much for herself as for the things that she will not tell us. The things are assuredly not of this life; no woman of Leonardo’s could have anything so vulgar as a ‘story’. She did develop most wonderfully day by day. So it happened that from patronizing civility he had slowly passed if not to passion, at least to a profound uneasiness. Already at Rome he had hinted to her that they might be suitable for each other. It had touched him greatly that she had not broken away at the suggestion. Her refusal had been clear and gentle; after it – as the horrid phrase went – she had been exactly the same to him as before. Three months later, on the margin of Italy, among the flower-clad Alps, he had asked her again in bald, traditional language. She reminded him of a Leonardo more than ever; her sunburnt features were shadowed by fantastic rocks; at his words she had turned and stood between him and the light with immeasurable plains behind her. He walked home with her unashamed, feeling not at all like a rejected suitor. The things that really mattered were unshaken. So now he had asked her once more, and, clear and gentle as ever, she had accepted him, giving no coy reasons for her delay, but simply saying that she loved him and would do her best to make him happy. His mother, too, would be pleased; she had counselled the step; he must write her a long account.

TESTS

Esame di Stato

432

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SPECIFICATION 14 ESAME DI STATO ...........................................................................................................................

1

ANSWER the following questions.

1 2

Who are the characters involved in the scene? What has just happened to make it a ‘joyous day’? What are Mrs. Honeychurch’s and Freddy’s reactions? What is meant by ‘conversation seemed to flag’ (lines 13-14)? How does Lucy respond to her brother’s cross expression? What does Cecil remember once he is alone? What was Cecil’s initial reaction to Lucy? How did his opinion of her change? How many times has Cecil proposed to Lucy

3 4 5

.....................

DATA

......................................................................................

and what was her response? 10 Whom does he want to inform and will she be surprised? 2

SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 150 words.

3

COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of romance. Discuss how courtship and romance have changed since the time of Forster’s novels. Give examples of what you think has been gained or possibly lost in these changes.

TEST

2

Seconda Prova

TESTS

6 7 8 9

CLASSE

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433

Esame di Stato

NOME

SPECIFICATION 15 ESAME DI STATO NOME

TEST

3

Seconda Prova

...........................................................................................................................

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

READ the following text from Frank McCourt’s novel Angela’s Ashes (1996), Chapter 8, and do the activities that follow.

My real father

TESTS

Esame di Stato

434

I know when Dad does the bad thing. I know when he drinks the dole money and Mam is desperate and has to beg at the St. Vincent de Paul Society and ask for credit at Kathleen O’Connell’s shop but I don’t want to back away from him and run to Mam. How can I do that when I’m up with him early every morning with the whole world asleep? He lights the fire and makes the tea and sings to himself or reads the paper to me in a whisper that won’t wake up the rest of the family. Mikey Molloy stole Cuchulain, the Angel on the Seventh Step is gone someplace else, but my father in the morning is still mine. He gets the Irish Press early and tells me about the world, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco. He says this war is none of our business because the English are up to their tricks again. He tells me about the great Roosevelt in Washington and the great de Valera in Dublin. In the morning we have the world to ourselves and he never tells me I should die for Ireland. He tells me about the old days in Ireland when the English wouldn’t let the Catholics have schools because they wanted to keep the people ignorant, that the Catholic children met in hedge schools in the depth of the country and learned English, Irish, Latin and Greek. The people loved learning. They loved stories and poetry even if none of this was any good for getting a job. Men, women and children would gather in ditches to hear those great masters and everyone wondered at how much a man could carry in his head. The masters risked their lives going from ditch to ditch and hedge to hedge because if the English caught them teaching they might be transported to foreign parts or worse. He tells me school is easy now, you don’t have to sit in a ditch learning your sums or the glorious history of Ireland. I should be good in school and some day I’ll go back to America and get an inside job where I’ll be sitting at a desk with two fountain pens in my pocket, one red and one blue, making decisions. I’ll be in

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CLASSE

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DATA

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out of the rain and I’ll have a suit and shoes and a warm place to live and what more could a man want? He says you can do anything in America, it’s the land of opportunity. You can be a fisherman in Maine or a farmer in California. America is not like Limerick, a gray place with a river that kills. When you have your father to yourself by the fire in the morning you don’t need Cuchulain or the Seventh Step or anything. At night he helps us with our exercises. Mam says they call it homework in America but here it’s exercises, the sums, the English, the Irish, the history. He can’t help us with Irish because he’s from the North and lacking in the native tongue. Malachy offers to teach him all the Irish words he knows but Dad says it’s too late, you can’t teach an old dog a new bark. Before bed we sit around the fire and if we say, Dad, tell us a story, he makes up one about someone in the lane and the story will take us all over the world, up in the air, under the sea and back to the lane. Everyone in the story is a different colour and everything is upside down and backward. Motor cars and planes go under water and submarines fly through the air. Sharks sit in trees and giant salmon sport with kangaroos on the moon. Polar bears wrestle with elephants in Australia and penguins teach Zulus how to play bagpipes. After the story he takes us upstairs and kneels with us while we say our prayers. We say the Our Father, three Hail Marys, God bless the Pope. God bless Mam, God bless our dead sisters and brothers, God bless Ireland, God bless de Valera, and God bless anyone who gives Dad a job. He says, Go to sleep, boys, because holy God is watching you and He always knows if you’re not good. I think my father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland. I feel sad over the bad thing but I can’t back away from him because the one in the morning is my real father and if I were in America I could say, I love you, Dad, the way they do in the films, but you can’t say that in Limerick for fear you might be laughed at. You’re allowed to say you love God and babies and horses that win but anything else is a softness in the head.

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SPECIFICATION 15 ESAME DI STATO ...........................................................................................................................

1

ANSWER the following questions.

1 2

What is the ‘bad thing’ referred to in line 1? What does the mother have to do when there’s no money left? Why doesn’t Frank condemn his father? What are the things Frank is told by his father? Why, according to Frank’s father, did the English forbid the Catholics in Ireland to have their own schools? How does Frank’s father describe America to his son? Explain the meaning of the phrase ‘you can’t teach an old dog a new bark’ and say what it refers to in the text. What kind of stories does Frank’s father tell his children? What simile does Frank use to describe his

3 4 5

6 7

8

.....................

DATA

......................................................................................

father and why do you think he chooses such a term of comparison? 10 How would you describe Frank’s attitude to his father in this text? 2

SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 150 words.

3

COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of domestic violence. Imagine you are a social worker who has to write a report about Frank’s family based on a questionnaire to different members of the family. OR Discuss the effects domestic violence can have on children and adults.

TEST

3

Seconda Prova

TESTS

9

CLASSE

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435

Esame di Stato

NOME

SPECIFICATION 16 ESAME DI STATO NOME

TEST

4

Seconda Prova

...........................................................................................................................

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

READ the following article from The Observer written by Moira Young, an author for young adults, and do the activities that follow.

Why is dystopia so appealing to young adults? Vampires, fallen angels and their brooding kin still crowd the young-adult shelves of your local bookstore. But they are having to make room for a new wave of dystopian fiction, kicked off by the jawdropping success of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy, set in a post-apocalyptic North American totalitarian state. Books for young people set in post-apocalyptic or dystopian worlds are not new. Three notable early examples are Madeleine L’Engle’s science fantasy A Wrinkle in Time (1962), William Sleator’s suspense novel House of Stairs (1974) and the politically intriguing The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry. Some of the big names of the new wave, along with Collins, are British-based American author Patrick Ness, Mortal Engines writer Philip Reeve, and young adult science-fiction novelist Scott Westerfeld. But what is it that attracts teenage readers to dystopian fiction? There are a number of opinions, but the main drift seems to be that books set in either chaotic or strictly controlled societies mirror a teenager’s life; at school, at home, with their peers and in the wider world. Let’s call it the ‘my own private dystopia’ theory. I’m going to offer a much simpler explanation. Teenagers like to read dystopian fiction because it’s exciting. It all comes down to the story. The story comes first, and the setting – extraordinary though it may be – is of secondary importance.

CLASSE

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DATA

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For the most part, dystopian fiction owes more to myth and fairytale than science fiction. These are essentially heroes’ journeys – they just happen to be set in an imagined future world. The hero, reluctant or willing, is just as likely to be female as male. Something happens – an event, or a messenger arrives bearing news – and the teenage protagonist is catapulted out of their normal existence into the unknown. They cross the threshold into a world of darkness and danger, of allies and enemies, and begin a journey towards their own destiny that will change their world. They will be tested, often to the very edge of death. The stakes are high. The adults are the oppressors. The children are the liberators. It’s heady stuff, far removed from the routine of everyday life. The outer, global journey of the characters is matched by an inner, emotional and psychological journey. These are no cartoon superheroes. They, like their teen readers, have to deal with recognisable concerns and problems, including friendship, family, betrayal, loss, love, death and sexual awakening. A new wave of dystopian fiction at this particular time shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It’s the zeitgeist. Adults write books for teenagers. So anxious adults – worried about the planet, the degradation of civil society and the bitter inheritance we’re leaving for the young – write dystopian books. We create harsh, violent worlds. These are dark, sometimes bleak stories, but that doesn’t mean they are hopeless. Those of us who write for young people are reluctant to leave our readers without hope. It wouldn’t be right. We always leave a candle burning in the darkness. And we write good stories. That’s why teenagers read them. (Adapted from ‘Why is dystopia so appealing to young adults?’ by Moira Young in ‘The Observer’, 23 October 2011)

TESTS

Esame di Stato

436

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SPECIFICATION 16 ESAME DI STATO ...........................................................................................................................

1

ANSWER the following questions.

1

What kind of fiction is popular with young people according to the writer? Why do most people think young people are attracted to post-apocalyptic or dystopian worlds? What alternative explanation does the writer of this article give for young people’s interest in this genre of literature? Which are the main sources of dystopian fiction according to the writer? How does the writer summarise the typical dystopian story? What is meant by the phrase ‘the stakes are high’? What are the two different journeys commonly described in a dystopian novel, according to the writer?

2

3

4 5 6

.....................

DATA

......................................................................................

What are the most important problems teenagers have to face, according to the article? 9 What are the adult authors who write these stories concerned about, in the writer’s view? 10 Explain the sentence: ‘We always leave a candle burning in the darkness’. 8

2

SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words.

3

COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of dystopia and utopia. Can you imagine what the world will be like in 100 years’ time? Give your vision of the future describing it as either a utopia or a dystopia.

TEST

4

Seconda Prova

TESTS

7

CLASSE

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437

Esame di Stato

NOME

SPECIFICATION 17 ESAME DI STATO NOME

TEST

5

Seconda Prova

...........................................................................................................................

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

READ the following poem by Derek Walcott from The Gulf and Other Poems (1969) and do the activities that follow.

Blues Those five or six young guys lunched on the stoop that oven-hot summer night whistled me over. Nice and friendly. So, I stop. MacDougal or Christopher Street in chains of light. A summer festival. Or some saint’s. I wasn’t too far from home, but not too bright for a nigger, and not too dark. I figured we were all one, wop, nigger, jew, besides, this wasn’t Central Park. I’m coming on too strong? You figure right! They beat this yellow nigger black and blue. Yeah. During all this, scared in case one used a knife, I hung my olive-green, just-bought sports coat on a fire plug. I did nothing. They fought each other, really. Life gives them a few kicks, that’s all. The spades, the spicks. My face smashed in, my bloody mug pouring, my olive-branch jacket saved from cuts and tears, I crawled four flights upstairs. Sprawled in the gutter, I remember a few watchers waved

CLASSE

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DATA

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loudly, and one kid’s mother shouting like ‘Jackie’ or ‘Terry,’ ‘now that’s enough!’ It’s nothing really. They don’t get enough love. You know they wouldn’t kill you. Just playing rough, like young America will. Still it taught me something about love. If it’s so tough, forget it.

1

ANSWER the following questions.

Who are the characters involved in the scene? When and where does the action take place? How is the speaker stopped and what happens to him? 4 How does the atmosphere change in line 15? 5 What does he mean by the words ‘I figured we were all one’ (lines 12-13)? 6 What is he worried about? 7 How does the speaker try to justify what is happening? 8 In which ways is the speaker injured and what is saved? 9 What does the experience ‘teach’ the speaker? 10 What aspect of racism is emphasised in the poem? 1 2 3

2

SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words.

3

COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of racism. Discuss the aspects of racism present in your community. What is the difference between racism and intolerance? Which means can be used in your opinion to promote good racial relations within a community?

TESTS

Esame di Stato

438

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SPECIFICATION 18 ESAME DI STATO

ESAME DI STATO

Seconda Prova

READ the following text from an article in The Guardian newspaper in December 2012.

AIDS drugs increase South African life expectancy by five years South Africa has witnessed an ‘unparalleled’ fiveyear increase in life expectancy since 2005 thanks to the world’s biggest programme of HIV/AIDS drug treatment, researchers say. The trend marks a spectacular reversal from when former president Thabo Mbeki was branded an ‘AIDS denialist’ whose dogma was blamed for 330,000 deaths. In a few short years, South Africa has gone from global disgrace to shining example. It is also a rare shaft of light for President Jacob Zuma and his government, recently besieged by violent industrial unrest, scandals over corruption and frustration over failing schools and a lack of jobs. Professor Salim Abdool Karim, president of the South African Medical Research Council, said the rise in life expectancy – from 54 years in 2005 to 60 in 2011 – was of the order usually only seen after a major societal shift, such as the abolition of slavery. In this case, the catalyst was the industrial scale distribution of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs by the public health sector, greatly reducing deaths among people in their 30s. In 2005, under Mbeki and health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang – who promoted a ‘treatment’ of beets and garlic – only 133,000 patients were on ARVs. Now the total stands at 1.9m, the biggest programme on the planet. AIDS-related deaths decreased from 257,000 in 2005 to 194,000 in 2010, according to the Actuarial Society of South Africa. The rate at which HIVpositive mothers transmitted the virus to their babies decreased from 8.5% in 2008 to 2.7% in 2011. A national HIV counselling and testing campaign that was launched two years ago has notched 20m HIV tests in 20 months. South Africa has increased its domestic expenditure on AIDS to $1.6bn, the highest by any low- and middle-income country. The advances were hailed by the medical journal The Lancet, in a paper co-authored by Karim. ‘The Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

CLASSE

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DATA

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rapid transition from the failed stewardship of expresident Thabo Mbeki and the disastrous policies of his health minister, Mantombazana TshabalalaMsimang, to the leadership shown by the present health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, and his team, could not have been more striking.’ The mood is very different from when Karim and colleagues began their research, he said. ‘Three years ago there were really doom and gloom stories about how bad things were and how we were going in the wrong direction. Now it’s so refreshing to write a positive story.

TEST

6

Seconda Prova

(Adapted from ‘AIDS drugs increase South African life expectancy by five years’ by David Smith in ‘The Guardian’, 3 December 2012)

1

ANSWER the following questions.

What do you understand by the phrase ‘life expectancy’? 2 Why was South Africa considered a global disgrace under its former president, Thabo Mbeki? 3 What recent problems have had to be faced by President Jacob Zuma? 4 What is the ‘major societal shift’ referred to by Professor Salim Abdool Karim (line 19)? 5 What single action has dramatically reduced deaths in South Africa among young people in their 30s? 6 What treatment for AIDS was advocated by the former health minister? 7 By what percentage did AIDS-related deaths change between 2005 and 2010? 8 Is the money spent on AIDS by South Africa considered to be adequate by the author? 9 How does the author view the change in health policy and leadership compared to the former government in South Africa? 10 What do the terms ‘doom and gloom’ and ‘refreshing’ mean? 1

2

SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words.

3

COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of national health. Is the nation’s health a matter of government concern and legislation or should each individual be responsible for their own wellbeing? Discuss.

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439

Esame di Stato

...........................................................................................................................

TESTS

NOME

Test 13 Fila A PART B 1 1C; 2B; 3A; 4C; 5B; 6C; 7C; 8B; 9D; 10C; 11A; 12B; 13D; 14A; 15C.

TESTS

Soluzioni

440

PART B 2 1 Why was the Edwardian Age characterised by strikes and unrest? The Edwardian period was a time of industrial unrest, strikes and violence. The strikes, meant to be weapons against the government, were called because of high prices and low wages. They were remarkable for the number of men involved and for the violence which often accompanied them.Violence came also from women. 2 What did the Suffragettes want? The Suffragettes were educated ladies who, together with a very small number of male sympathisers, had been arguing in favour of voting rights for women since the 1860s. However, no one paid much attention to them until 1903, when Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. The ‘Suffragettes’ wanted women to have the vote and soon won massive publicity for their cause. 3 How did Rupert Brooke present war? Brooke’s reputation as a War Poet rests on his five war sonnets of 1914. Here he advanced the idea that war was clean and cleansing. He tried to testify to the safeness of war, in which the only thing that can suffer is the body, and even death is seen as a reward. Traditional not only in form, his poems show a sentimental attitude which was completely lost in the brutal turn that war poetry took in the works of the other War Poets, who lived to witness the horrors of trench warfare. 4 What did ‘Home Rule for Ireland’ mean? The Home Rule for Ireland was the right of the Irish people to control their own affairs, to have their own parliament, but still to remain loyal to the British King. 5 Was Britain prepared for modern warfare at the outbreak of World War I? No, it was not. Apart from the Crimean War, this was Britain’s first European war since the Napoleonic Wars, and the country was unprepared for the terrible, destructive modern artillery, machine guns and tanks, and the use of gas and shells during the attacks. 6 Which countries were involved at the beginning of the war? Which followed? The war involved the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) on one side and the Allies, or Triple Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France and Russia and their allies, including the United States), on the other. The United States joined the war on 2nd April 1917, considering it a crusade to make the world ‘safe for democracy’, a ‘war to end all wars’. 7 What war poem does the picture The Menin Road by Paul Nash remind you of? This painting can be associated with Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. In fact Nash’s war is not that of burning patriotism, but that of suffering and corporate endurance. Human suffering, and therefore by implication human hope, is linked to the vast suffering of nature. 8 What developments took place in Ireland soon after the war? In the 1918 election, the Sinn Féin party won nearly all the seats except in the province of Ulster, but instead of going to Westminster, they set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin, the Dáil, and once more proclaimed an Irish Republic. In 1919 the Irish Volunteers became the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and prepared for civil war, which began during Easter, in 1920. The war was only ended with the establishment of the Irish Free State (1921), under the leadership of Eamon de Valera (1882–1975) as a dominion of the Empire, while the six predominantly Protestant counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom with their own parliament in Belfast. This partition of the country led to future violence in the tragic events of the 1970s and 1980s, known as the ‘Troubles’. 9 What is the main theme developed by T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land? All the five fragmentary parts of the poem are connected by one main theme: the contrast between the fertility of a mythical past and the spiritual sterility of the present world, peopled by alienated characters. This poem reflects the breakdown of a historical, social and cultural order, destroyed by the war and by those forces operating under the name of modernity. 10 What is the ‘objective correlative’ employed by T.S. Eliot? Eliot adopted the technique of the ‘objective correlative’, that is, the attempt at communicating philosophical reflections and feelings by means of a simile, a description or a monologue by a character in order to provide a vision of the world or a feeling of the lyrical ‘I’. For example, in the text The Fire Sermon the objective correlative of the squalid, passionless present age is the banal and loveless scene of the seduction of a typist by her lover. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Describe the variety of trends and currents that characterised modern poetry in a twentyline essay. Student’s activity. 2 Write a twenty-line essay about the representation of war in Rupert Brooke’s and Wilfred Owen’s poems. Student’s activity. 3 Trace the innovative techniques employed by T.S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land. Do not use more than 20 lines. Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Compare Hemingway’s description of the bomb explosion in the text ‘There is nothing worse than war’ from A Farewell to Arms to the gas attack in Dulce et Decorum Est by the poet Wilfred Owen as regards the soldier’s mood, the writer’s attitude to war, the imagery and the message. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines. Student’s activity. 2 Write a text of ten/twelve lines to discuss Yeats’s attitude towards the Irish cause and to explain how this attitude can be traced in the poem Easter 1916. Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the themes and the new concept of history developed by T.S. Eliot in these lines from The Waste Land. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines. Student’s activity. 4 Write ten/twelve lines about the characters involved and the main themes developed in the second part of the section ‘The Fire Sermon’ from The Waste Land. Student’s activity. 5 Comment on these lines from The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph: ‘Mankind survived. Nevertheless, the great edifice of the nineteenth-century civilisation crumpled in the flames of world war, as its pillars collapsed. There is no understanding the Short Twentieth Century without it. It was marked by war.’ Student’s activity.

Fila B

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

441

Soluzioni

PART B 2 1 Why was the Edwardian Age characterised by strikes and unrest? The Edwardian period was a time of industrial unrest, strikes and violence. The strikes, meant to be weapons against the government, were called because of high prices and low wages. They were remarkable for the number of men involved and for the violence which often accompanied them. Violence came also from women. 2 What did the Suffragettes want? The Suffragettes were educated ladies who, together with a very small number of male sympathisers, had been arguing in favour of voting rights for women since the 1860s. However, no one paid much attention to them until 1903, when Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. The ‘Suffragettes’ wanted women to have the vote and soon won massive publicity for their cause. 3 How did Rupert Brooke present war? Brooke’s reputation as a War Poet rests on his five war sonnets of 1914. Here he advanced the idea that war was clean and cleansing. He tried to testify to the safeness of war, in which the only thing that can suffer is the body, and even death is seen as a reward. Traditional not only in form, his poems show a sentimental attitude which was completely lost in the brutal turn that war poetry took in the works of the other War Poets, who lived to witness the horrors of trench warfare. 4 What did ‘Home Rule for Ireland’ mean? The Home Rule for Ireland was the right of the Irish people to control their own affairs, to have their own parliament, but still to remain loyal to the British King. 5 Was Britain prepared for modern warfare at the outbreak of World War I? No, it was not. Apart from the Crimean War, this was Britain’s first European war since the Napoleonic Wars, and the country was unprepared for the terrible, destructive modern artillery, machine guns and tanks, and the use of gas and shells during the attacks. 6 Which countries were involved at the beginning of the war? Which followed? The war involved the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) on one side and the Allies, or Triple

TESTS

PART A 1 1A; 2D; 3C;.4A; 5D; 6B; 7A; 8D; 9C; 10A; 11C; 12D; 13B; 14C; 15A.

Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France and Russia and their allies, including the United States), on the other. The United States joined the war on 2nd April 1917, considering it a crusade to make the world ‘safe for democracy’, a ‘war to end all wars’. 7 What war poem does the picture The Menin Road by Paul Nash remind you of? This painting can be associated with Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. In fact Nash’s war is not that of burning patriotism, but that of suffering and corporate endurance. Human suffering, and therefore by implication human hope, is linked to the vast suffering of nature. 8 What developments took place in Ireland soon after the war? In the 1918 election, the Sinn Féin party won nearly all the seats except in the province of Ulster, but instead of going to Westminster, they set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin, the Dáil, and once more proclaimed an Irish Republic. In 1919 the Irish Volunteers became the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and prepared for civil war, which began during Easter, in 1920. The war was only ended with the establishment of the Irish Free State (1921), under the leadership of Eamon de Valera (1882–1975) as a dominion of the Empire, while the six predominantly Protestant counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom with their own parliament in Belfast. This partition of the country led to future violence in the tragic events of the 1970s and 1980s, known as the ‘Troubles’. 9 What is the main theme developed by T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land? All the five fragmentary parts of the poem are connected by one main theme: the contrast between the fertility of a mythical past and the spiritual sterility of the present world, peopled by alienated characters. This poem reflects the breakdown of a historical, social and cultural order, destroyed by the war and by those forces operating under the name of modernity. 10 What is the ‘objective correlative’ employed by T.S. Eliot? Eliot adopted the technique of the ‘objective correlative’, that is, the attempt at communicating philosophical reflections and feelings by means of a simile, a description or a monologue by a character in order to provide a vision of the world or a feeling of the lyrical ‘I’. For example, in the text The Fire Sermon the objective correlative of the squalid, passionless present age is the banal and loveless scene of the seduction of a typist by her lover. PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Describe the variety of trends and currents that characterised modern poetry in a twentyline essay. Student’s activity. 2 Write a twenty-line essay about the representation of war in Rupert Brooke’s and Wilfred Owen’s poems. Student’s activity. 3 Trace the innovative techniques employed by T.S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land. Do not use more than 20 lines. Student’s activity.

TESTS

Soluzioni

442

ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Compare Hemingway’s description of the bomb explosion in the text ‘There is nothing worse than war’ from A Farewell to Arms to the gas attack in Dulce et Decorum Est by the poet Wilfred Owen as regards the soldier’s mood, the writer’s attitude to war, the imagery and the message. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines. Student’s activity. 2 Write a text of ten/twelve lines to discuss Yeats’s attitude towards the Irish cause and to explain how this attitude can be traced in the poem Easter 1916. Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the themes and the new concept of history developed by T.S. Eliot in these lines from The Waste Land. Do not use more than ten to twelve lines. Student’s activity. 4 Write ten/twelve lines about the characters involved and the main themes developed in the second part of the section ‘The Fire Sermon’ from The Waste Land. Student’s activity. 5 Comment on these lines from The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph: ‘Mankind survived. Nevertheless, the great edifice of the nineteenth-century civilisation crumpled in the flames of world war, as its pillars collapsed. There is no understanding the Short Twentieth Century without it. It was marked by war.’ Student’s activity.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Test 14 Fila A PART A 1 1A; 2B; 3D; 4C; 5B; 6D; 7A; 8C; 9C; 10A; 11B; 12D; 13A; 14C; 15B; 16D; 17C; 18D.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

443

Soluzioni

PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Describe the development of modernism in the different arts and highlight its main features (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Compare the novelists of the first decades of the 20th century that you have studied with respect to the key idea concerning their works (20 lines). Student’s activity. Suggestion: a Exploration of the character’s mind through subjective narrative technique: Joyce.

TESTS

PART B 2 1 What were the effects of Freud’s theory in the sphere of family life? The effects in the sphere of family life were deep: the relationship between parents and children was altered; and the conventional models of relationship between the sexes were re-examined. 2 What did modernism give voice to? To the modern consciousness and it contributed to expressing the nature of modern experience. Modernism expressed the desire to break with established forms and subjects. 3 How do historical time and psychological time differ? Historical time is external, linear and measured in terms of the spatial distance travelled by a pendulum or the hands of a clock. Psychological time is internal, subjective and measured by the relative emotional intensity of a moment. Bergson suggested that a thought or feeling could be measured in terms of the number of perceptions, memories and associations attached to it. 4 Why is Joyce’s Ulysses regarded as a seminal work of the 20th century? In Ulysses Joyce combined several methods to present a variety of matters: the stream of consciousness technique; the cinematic technique, with the literary equivalents of close-ups, flashbacks, tracking shots, suspension of speech; question and answer; dramatic dialogue; and the juxtaposition of events, which enabled the writer to render his characters’ inner life. Joyce brought to perfection the interior monologue, employing both the two levels of narration – one external to the character’s mind, and the other internal – and only the mind level of narration, with the character’s thoughts flowing freely. 5 Why did Conrad choose exotic settings? Because they enabled him to isolate his characters so that their problems and inner conflicts stood out with particular force. The ship, for example, became a sort of microcosm in its isolation. 6 What is the difference between Marlow and Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness? Kurtz is a Company agent who supplies more ivory than the other agents and has become a sort of idol for the natives. Marlow, the narrator, has to reach Kurtz and bring him back to civilisation, since he is seriously ill. The difference between Marlow and Kurtz is that while Kurtz, through brutal action, has reached new experiences of the self and, against the indifference of the universe, has felt all the excitement that life can give, Marlow does not transgress his limits and comes back without fully understanding his experience. 7 How did Forster view imperialism? He dealt with the dissolution of British dominion over India. He criticised the system of distant, condescending sovereignty in which the English bureaucracy did not associate with the people they ruled. Forster shared the views of the non-cooperation movement and Gandhi who wanted complete social equality between the British and the Indians. He criticised the imperialistic policies of discrimination under which personal relations were ruined. 8 What technique is mainly employed by Joyce in Dubliners? The omniscient narrator and the single point of view are rejected: each story is told from the perspective of a character. Narrated monologue, in the form of free direct speech and often of free direct thought, is widely used; it consists of the direct presentation of the protagonist’s thoughts, through limited mediation on the part of the narrator, and allows the reader to acquire direct knowledge of the character. 9 What did the artists of the Bloomsbury Group challenge? They challenged Victorian values which were founded on an ideal of morality and respectability. They also questioned the conventional values of sexual and personal relationships. This is the reason why they were ostracised and ignored by the establishment they despised. They had no mission; they were not political in the ordinary sense of the word. Instead, they held dinners and gatherings where any number of topics was the subject of serious discussion and contemplation. 10 What were Woolf’s ‘moments of being’? They were rare moments of insight during the characters’ daily life when they can see reality behind appearances.

b Recording of the mystery of human experience by overcoming the surface of external reality: Conrad. c Discovery of sex as a way to survive the destructive effects of industrialisation: Lawrence. d Analysis of the possibilities of relationship between different people and cultures: Forster. 3 Trace Joyce’s relevant contribution to the literary production of the beginning of the 20th century (20 lines). Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Describe the deep cultural crisis which characterised the first decades of the 20th century (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Explain the differences between the traditional and the modern novel (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Describe the character of Paul Morel in D.H. Lawrence’s novel Son and Lovers (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Explain in what sense Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness can be regarded as a journey of quest (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 5 Discuss India as a physical and mental landscape in Forster’s A Passage to India (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 6 Explain the importance of this extract in ‘The Dead’. What has Gabriel just realised? (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 7 Discuss the relationship between Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith in Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (10-12 lines). Student’s activity.

Fila B PART A 1 1C; 2D; 3A; 4B; 5D; 6C; 7B; 8A; 9D; 10C; 11D; 12A; 13C; 14B; 15D; 16B; 17A; 18C.

TESTS

Soluzioni

444

PART B 2 1 What were the effects of Freud’s theory in the sphere of family life? The effects in the sphere of family life were deep: the relationship between parents and children was altered; and the conventional models of relationship between the sexes were re-examined. 2 What did modernism give voice to? To the modern consciousness and it contributed to expressing the nature of modern experience. Modernism expressed the desire to break with established forms and subjects. 3 How do historical time and psychological time differ? Historical time is external, linear and measured in terms of the spatial distance travelled by a pendulum or the hands of a clock. Psychological time is internal, subjective and measured by the relative emotional intensity of a moment. Bergson suggested that a thought or feeling could be measured in terms of the number of perceptions, memories and associations attached to it. 4 Why is Joyce’s Ulysses regarded as a seminal work of the 20th century? In Ulysses Joyce combined several methods to present a variety of matters: the stream of consciousness technique; the cinematic technique, with the literary equivalents of close-ups, flashbacks, tracking shots, suspension of speech; question and answer; dramatic dialogue; and the juxtaposition of events, which enabled the writer to render his characters’ inner life. Joyce brought to perfection the interior monologue, employing both the two levels of narration – one external to the character’s mind, and the other internal – and only the mind level of narration, with the character’s thoughts flowing freely. 5 Why did Conrad choose exotic settings? Because they enabled him to isolate his characters so that their problems and inner conflicts stood out with particular force. The ship, for example, became a sort of microcosm in its isolation. 6 What is the difference between Marlow and Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness? Kurtz is a Company agent who supplies more ivory than the other agents and has become a sort of idol for the natives. Marlow, the narrator, has to reach Kurtz and bring him back to civilisation, since he is seriously ill. The difference between Marlow and Kurtz is that while Kurtz, through brutal action, has reached new experiences of the self and, against the indifference of the universe, has felt all the excitement that life can give, Marlow does not transgress his limits and comes back without fully understanding his experience. 7 How did Forster view imperialism? He dealt with the dissolution of British dominion over India. He criticised the system of distant, condescending sovereignty in which the English bureaucracy did not associate with the people they ruled. Forster shared the views of the non-cooperation movement and Gandhi who wanted complete social equality between the British and the Indians. He criticised the imperialistic policies of discrimination under which personal relations were ruined. 8 What technique is mainly employed by Joyce in Dubliners? The omniscient narrator and the single point Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

of view are rejected: each story is told from the perspective of a character. Narrated monologue, in the form of free direct speech and often of free direct thought, is widely used; it consists of the direct presentation of the protagonist’s thoughts, through limited mediation on the part of the narrator, and allows the reader to acquire direct knowledge of the character. 9 What did the artists of the Bloomsbury Group challenge? They challenged Victorian values which were founded on an ideal of morality and respectability. They also questioned the conventional values of sexual and personal relationships. This is the reason why they were ostracised and ignored by the establishment they despised. They had no mission; they were not political in the ordinary sense of the word. Instead, they held dinners and gatherings where any number of topics was the subject of serious discussion and contemplation. 10 What were Woolf’s ‘moments of being’? They were rare moments of insight during the characters’ daily life when they can see reality behind appearances. PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Describe the development of modernism in the different arts and highlight its main features (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Compare the novelists of the first decades of the 20th century that you have studied with respect to the key idea concerning their works. (20 lines). Student’s activity. Suggestion: a Exploration of the character’s mind through subjective narrative technique: Joyce. b Recording of the mystery of human experience by overcoming the surface of external reality: Conrad. c Discovery of sex as a way to survive the destructive effects of industrialisation: Lawrence. d Analysis of the possibilities of relationship between different people and cultures: Forster. 3 Trace Joyce’s relevant contribution to the literary production of the beginning of the 20th century (20 lines). Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Describe the deep cultural crisis which characterised the first decades of the 20th century (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Explain the differences between the traditional and the modern novel (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Describe the character of Paul Morel in D.H. Lawrence’s novel Son and Lovers (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Explain in what sense Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness can be regarded as a journey of quest (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 5 Discuss India as a physical and mental landscape in Forster’s A Passage to India (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 6 Explain the importance of this extract in ‘The Dead’. What has Gabriel just realised? (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 7 Discuss the relationship between Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith in Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (10-12 lines). Student’s activity.

Test 15 Fila A

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

445

Soluzioni

PART B 2 1 What characterised American society at the beginning of the 20th century? In the early years of the 20th century, a large number of national problems, like the conditions of life in the city slums or corruption in government, were brought to light by books and articles written by investigative journalists called ‘muckrakers’. Their reports shocked most of the American people who started to think that the government should take action to eliminate the problems of society through reform. 2 What were the main features of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency? The Republican Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president of the USA. He was an ‘expansionist’ and made the navy stronger, insisted on the regulation of trusts and carried out a moderate programme of social legislation.

TESTS

PART A 1 1C; 2D; 3B; 4A; 5B; 6B; 7C; 8C; 9A; 10C; 11D; 12B; 13A; 14D; 15C; 16A; 17A; 18C; 19B; 20A.

TESTS

Soluzioni

446

3 Why were the 1920s exciting years? During the 1920s, confidence in the USA was high and the economy grew quickly. This was due to many reasons: huge resources were invested to create new industries; there was little competition from Europe; the population was increasing and taxes on profits and industries were cut by the Republican government. However, large areas like the south-western mining towns, the farmers of the Midwest and the urban industrial workers remained untouched by wealth. 4 What happened on the so-called ‘Black Thursday’? There was the collapse of the American stock market, known as the Wall Street Crash, since Wall Street was the home of the New York Stock Exchange. It marked the end of the prosperous Twenties and the beginning of the Great Depression. 5 What happened during the Great Depression? Thousands of businessmen were ruined, and millions of common people, who had invested their savings in shares, found themselves facing debt and ruin. Factories shut down, banks crashed, goods were produced but no longer sold. Nearly eight million Americans were unemployed in the 1930s and spent hours queuing in ‘breadlines’, where they received free rations of food. 6 What did the New Deal aim to achieve? In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and promised the Americans a New Deal of reforms. The three aims of the New Deal were ‘relief, recovery, reform’. The federal government spent billions of dollars on relief for the unemployed, on public works, and on the conservation of natural resources. 7 What mood characterised American literature in the 1920s? The so-called Jazz Age of the 1920s was full of excitement and contradictions due to the radical changes in the way people behaved and thought. The new manners were a reaction against the strict Puritan morality of the previous century. They were especially evident among young people with their roaring cars and the new daring dances like the Charleston. In spite of Prohibition, parties and cocktails became smart, and women began to wear their hair and dresses short. 8 How does the character of Gatsby evolve in F. S. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby? Jay Gatsby is presented as a mysterious character, since he seldom takes part in the lavish parties he organises. Rich and attractive, with some secret hidden in his past, he has the stature of a romantic hero who dies for his dream; but he also embodies the self-made man who tries to recreate the past through the power of money and is finally destroyed. Fitzgerald puts across the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by the desire for materialism. We see that Gatsby had a pure dream, but became corrupt in his quest towards that dream. What narrative technique is employed in this novel? Nick Carraway is the narrator from whose point of view all the events and characters of the story are presented. 9 What was the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was a literary, artistic, cultural, intellectual movement that began in Harlem after World War I and ended around 1935 during the Great Depression. The movement raised important issues affecting the lives of African Americans through various forms of literature, art, music, drama, painting, sculpture, films, and protests. 10 How is L. Hughes’s poetry related to black music? L. Hughes chose to go back to the roots of blackness, to deal with its conflicts and contradictions, drawing from the folk tradition of the people: the spiritual as it was born in the South, and its modification into the blues under the influence of urban life. From slavery to freedom, music had served as an escape, an affirmation of the beauty of life. Then in the 1920s Louis Armstrong established the standard jazz structure, including solos and improvisation. Hughes came to regard this music as a paradigm of the black experience and a metaphor of human life in general. 11 What are the themes developed in The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck? The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck portrays the horrors of the Great Depression and the nature of equality and justice in America. It also deals with the conflict between the impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by focusing on one’s own needs, and the impulse to risk one’s safety by working for a common good. 12 What do J. Steinbeck and the Italian novelist Cesare Pavese have in common? A social, political content characterises their novels. However, the realistic language is what mainly stands out in their works. The fury caused by two different social situations finds expression in the violation of syntax and in the use of dialectal expressions, which are an attempt to create a more incisive, immediate language. 13 What is one of the main themes in Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt? Hunger and food are the main themes of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. They characterise Ireland’s history during the early part of the twentieth century. Every chapter, except the last two when Frank reaches America, makes mention of the protagonist’s overwhelming desire for food. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Explain the causes and the consequences of the Wall Street Crash (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Write a twenty-line paragraph to justify this sentence: ‘Edward Hopper is the painter of silence’. Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the importance of the Millennium Development Goals to fight poverty and hunger in the world (20 lines). Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Write ten/twelve lines about the features of the new generation of American writers known as the ‘Lost Generation’. Student’s activity. 2 Explain the causes and effects of the Great Depression in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph. Student’s activity. 3 Explain in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph why F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby can be seen both as an autobiographical work and as a document of American society in the 1920s. Student’s activity. 4 Highlight the message of the poem The Weary Blues by L. Hughes. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. 5 Explain in what sense The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck is a controversial novel. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. 6 Point out how the experience of poverty is highlighted in the novel Angela’s Ashes by F. McCourt. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity.

Fila B

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

447

Soluzioni

PART B 2 1 What characterised American society at the beginning of the 20th century? In the early years of the 20th century, a large number of national problems, like the conditions of life in the city slums or corruption in government, were brought to light by books and articles written by investigative journalists called ‘muckrakers’. Their reports shocked most of the American people who started to think that the government should take action to eliminate the problems of society through reform. 2 What were the main features of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency? The Republican Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president of the USA. He was an ‘expansionist’ and made the navy stronger, insisted on the regulation of trusts and carried out a moderate programme of social legislation. 3 Why were the 1920s exciting years? During the 1920s, confidence in the USA was high and the economy grew quickly. This was due to many reasons: huge resources were invested to create new industries; there was little competition from Europe; the population was increasing and taxes on profits and industries were cut by the Republican government. However, large areas like the south-western mining towns, the farmers of the Midwest and the urban industrial workers remained untouched by wealth. 4 What happened on the so-called ‘Black Thursday’? There was the collapse of the American stock market, known as the Wall Street Crash, since Wall Street was the home of the New York Stock Exchange. It marked the end of the prosperous Twenties and the beginning of the Great Depression. 5 What happened during the Great Depression? Thousands of businessmen were ruined, and millions of common people, who had invested their savings in shares, found themselves facing debt and ruin. Factories shut down, banks crashed, goods were produced but no longer sold. Nearly eight million Americans were unemployed in the 1930s and spent hours queuing in ‘breadlines’, where they received free rations of food. 6 What did the New Deal aim to achieve? In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and promised the Americans a New Deal of reforms. The three aims of the New Deal were ‘relief, recovery, reform’. The federal government spent billions of dollars on relief for the unemployed, on public works, and on the conservation of natural resources. 7 What mood characterised American literature in the 1920s? The so-called Jazz Age of the 1920s was full of excitement and contradictions due to the radical changes in the way people behaved and thought. The new manners were a reaction against the strict Puritan morality of the previous century. They were especially evident among young people with their roaring cars and the new daring

TESTS

PART A 1 1B; 2C; 3A; 4D; 5C; 6A; 7B; 8A; 9D; 10D; 11B; 12A; 13C; 14B; 15D; 16C; 17B; 18A; 19D; 20C.

dances like the Charleston. In spite of Prohibition, parties and cocktails became smart, and women began to wear their hair and dresses short. 8 How does the character of Gatsby evolve in F. S. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby? Jay Gatsby is presented as a mysterious character, since he seldom takes part in the lavish parties he organises. Rich and attractive, with some secret hidden in his past, he has the stature of a romantic hero who dies for his dream; but he also embodies the self-made man who tries to recreate the past through the power of money and is finally destroyed. Fitzgerald puts across the idea that the American dream has been corrupted by the desire for materialism. We see that Gatsby had a pure dream, but became corrupt in his quest towards that dream. What narrative technique is employed in this novel? Nick Carraway is the narrator from whose point of view all the events and characters of the story are presented. 9 What was the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was a literary, artistic, cultural, intellectual movement that began in Harlem after World War I and ended around 1935 during the Great Depression. The movement raised important issues affecting the lives of African Americans through various forms of literature, art, music, drama, painting, sculpture, films, and protests. 10 How is L. Hughes’s poetry related to black music? L. Hughes chose to go back to the roots of blackness, to deal with its conflicts and contradictions, drawing from the folk tradition of the people: the spiritual as it was born in the South, and its modification into the blues under the influence of urban life. From slavery to freedom, music had served as an escape, an affirmation of the beauty of life. Then in the 1920s Louis Armstrong established the standard jazz structure, including solos and improvisation. Hughes came to regard this music as a paradigm of the black experience and a metaphor of human life in general. 11 What are the themes developed in The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck? The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck portrays the horrors of the Great Depression and the nature of equality and justice in America. It also deals with the conflict between the impulse to respond to hardship and disaster by focusing on one’s own needs, and the impulse to risk one’s safety by working for a common good. 12 What do J. Steinbeck and the Italian novelist Cesare Pavese have in common? A social, political content characterises their novels. However, the realistic language is what mainly stands out in their works. The fury caused by two different social situations finds expression in the violation of syntax and in the use of dialectal expressions, which are an attempt to create a more incisive, immediate language. 13 What is one of the main themes in Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt? Hunger and food are the main themes of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. They characterise Ireland’s history during the early part of the twentieth century. Every chapter, except the last two when Frank reaches America, makes mention of the protagonist’s overwhelming desire for food. PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Explain the causes and the consequences of the Wall Street Crash (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Write a twenty-line paragraph to justify this sentence: ‘Edward Hopper is the painter of silence’. Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the importance of the Millennium Development Goals to fight poverty and hunger in the world (20 lines). Student’s activity.

TESTS

Soluzioni

448

ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Write ten/twelve lines about the features of the new generation of American writers known as the ‘Lost Generation’. Student’s activity. 2 Explain the causes and effects of the Great Depression in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph. Student’s activity. 3 Explain in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph why F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby can be seen both as an autobiographical work and as a document of American society in the 1920s. Student’s activity. 4 Highlight the message of the poem The Weary Blues by L. Hughes. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. 5 Explain in what sense The Grapes of Wrath by J. Steinbeck is a controversial novel. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. 6 Point out how the experience of poverty is highlighted in the novel Angela’s Ashes by F. McCourt. Do not write more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Test 16 Fila A

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

449

Soluzioni

PART B 2 1 What led to the General Strike of 1926 and what were the effects on the lives of the miners’ families? During the 1920s the constant disputes between the coal miners and the mine owners eventually led to the General Strike of 1926. The families of coal miners, shipbuilders, and cotton operatives experienced prolonged periods of hardship, and the areas in the north of England, South Wales, and central Scotland, became depressed. For the unemployed there was misery and often abject poverty. They spent their time hanging around at street corners, waiting in queues for food and sheltering for warmth in the reading-room of the public library. 2 What is the British Commonwealth of Nations? The British Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organisation including fifty-four countries led by the United Kingdom. All members except Mozambique and Rwanda were part of the British Empire. The commonwealth countries recognise the Queen as their Head of State and are bound to Britain by trading agreements. The member states cooperate within a framework of common values and goals which include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. 3 What were the influences on Auden’s poetry during the English period? Auden was deeply influenced by Freud and psychoanalysis but thought about psychological models in relation to the customs and rituals of an entire society, rather than exclusively with reference to the personal history of the individual. Another influence was that of Karl Marx. His way of arguing took for granted the engagement of the individual with history, to continually question the social and political climate in which they lived. 4 How did the US foreign policy demonstrate a new opening towards Europe after World War II? The US Marshall Aid Plan (1947) was the American programme to help European countries recover economically and prevent the weaker ones from falling under Russian influence. Thanks to this plan, which was in operation for four years, Britain received large US loans. The USA signed an agreement of mutual defense with Western Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, known as NATO. This was in addition to the United Nations Organisation (U.N.O) (1945) which replaced the League of Nations created after the First World War. 5 What was the Cold War? Competition and fear between the USA and the USSR was seen as a ‘Cold War’, which was to dominate international affairs for decades when many major crises occurred, like the wars in Korea and the Vietnam War. For many the nuclear race, that is, growth in weapons of mass destruction, was the most worrying problem. 6 When and how was the National Health Service created in Britain? The National Health Service Act was passed in 1946 but the service began in 1948. It gave free medical, dental, optical and hospital care to everyone. Almost all hospitals were nationalised and run by fourteen regional hospital boards. Maternity care, health visitors and child welfare clinics were set up, too, and run by local authorities. The man in charge of these reforms was the Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan. 7 When was the United Nations Organisation founded and what were its aims? The UN was founded in 1945 when the representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the UN Conference on International Organisation to draw up the UN Charter. Its forerunner was the League of Nations, an organisation conceived in similar circumstances at the end of World War I and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles. Its aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, security, economic development, social progress, and human rights as well as keeping peace throughout the world. 8 How did Orwell develop his idea of the artist’s role? Orwell was receptive to new ideas and impressions. He tried to define the role of the writer considering the literature of the 1920s and 1930s. Whereas the writers of the Twenties had concerned themselves with language and form to express a tragic, post-war pessimism, those of the Thirties had valued social purpose and content over form, and had left-wing sympathies. He believed that writing interpreted reality and therefore served a useful social function. However, he believed that the writer should be independent, that no good writing could come of following a party line. 9 What kind of character is Winston Smith? Winston Smith is the last man to believe in humane values in a totalitarian age. ‘Smith’, the commonest English surname, suggests his symbolic value; ‘Winston’ evokes Churchill’s patriotic appeals for ‘blood, sweat and tears’ during the Second World War. Winston is middle-aged

TESTS

PART A 1 1D; 2B; 3C; 4A; 5B; 6C; 7D; 8A; 9D; 10C; 11B; 12A; 13B; 14B; 15D; 16C; 17A; 18B; 19D; 20A.

and physically weak; he experiences alienation from society and feels a desire for spiritual and moral integrity. In the first two parts of the novel it is likely that Winston and the narrator are one, and that he expresses Orwell’s views. 10 Describe the different roles of Ralph and Jack in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Ralph stands for reason, democracy and civilisation. He is elected to govern the island and to organise the building of shelters and possible rescue. He fails as a leader because the situation facing him cannot be solved by a rational approach. In the end, hunted by the others, he turns from leader into victim and recognises the failure of the kind of human moderation he thought he embodied. Jack, who represents savagery, violence and instinct, is Ralph’s natural antagonist. He is the aggressive force of evil and imposes a sense of discipline on the others, unlike Ralph. He stands for dictatorship versus democracy. He becomes blood-thirsty and thinks of nothing but killing; in fact the victims of the sacrifices he makes to the ‘beast’ are, at first, pigs, then human beings. 11 What concept of time is developed in Waiting for Godot? Time is meaningless as a direct result of chance which is at the basis of human existence. This is why there is a cyclic pattern to events in Waiting for Godot. Vladimir and Estragon return to the same place each day to wait for Godot and experience the same general events with variations each time. It is not known for how long in the past they have been doing this, or for how long they will continue to do so: time essentially is chaos. 12 What kind of images did Francis Bacon paint and what was their aim? His images appeared transformed, distorted, fragmented, exaggerated, split, broken up, but their aim was to capture the anguish, isolation and the certainty of death of contemporary man and at the same time to shock the viewer. PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Trace the development of the concept of utopia in the novels of the 1950s (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Describe the use of symbolism in W. Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies (20 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the importance of the Blitz in British history (20 lines). Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Write 10-12 lines to describe the poetry of the 1930s and 1940s in Britain. Student’s activity. 2 Explain why the collection Another Time deserves a special place in Auden’s production (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Discuss why Gandhi is the embodiment of human rights and faith in non-violence (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Explain in what sense Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four can be regarded as a dystopian novel (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 5 Explain the origins of the Theatre of the Absurd and its main features (10-12 lines). Student’s activity.

Fila B PART A 1 1B; 2D; 3A; 4C; 5D; 6A; 7B; 8C; 9A; 10D; 11A; 12B; 13C; 14A; 15C; 16D; 17B; 18A; 19C; 20B.

TESTS

Soluzioni

450

PART B 2 1 What led to the General Strike of 1926 and what were the effects on the lives of the miners’ families? During the 1920s the constant disputes between the coal miners and the mine owners eventually led to the General Strike of 1926. The families of coal miners, shipbuilders, and cotton operatives experienced prolonged periods of hardship, and the areas in the north of England, South Wales, and central Scotland, became depressed. For the unemployed there was misery and often abject poverty. They spent their time hanging around at street corners, waiting in queues for food and sheltering for warmth in the reading-room of the public library. 2 What is the British Commonwealth of Nations? The British Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organisation including fifty-four countries led by the United Kingdom. All members except Mozambique and Rwanda were part of the British Empire. The commonwealth countries recognise the Queen as their Head of State and are bound to Britain by trading agreements. The member states cooperate within a framework of common values and goals which include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. 3 What were the influences on Auden’s poetry during the English period? Auden was deeply influenced by Freud and psychoanalysis but thought about psychological models in relation to the customs and rituals of an entire society, rather than exclusively with reference to the personal history of the individual. Another influence Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

451

Soluzioni

PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Trace the development of the concept of utopia in the novels of the 1950s (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Describe the use of symbolism in W. Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies (20 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the importance of the Blitz in British history (20 lines). Student’s activity.

TESTS

was that of Karl Marx. His way of arguing took for granted the engagement of the individual with history, to continually question the social and political climate in which they lived. 4 How did the US foreign policy demonstrate a new opening towards Europe after World War II? The US Marshall Aid Plan (1947) was the American programme to help European countries recover economically and prevent the weaker ones from falling under Russian influence. Thanks to this plan, which was in operation for four years, Britain received large US loans. The USA signed an agreement of mutual defense with Western Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, known as NATO. This was in addition to the United Nations Organisation (U.N.O) (1945) which replaced the League of Nations created after the First World War. 5 What was the Cold War? Competition and fear between the USA and the USSR was seen as a ‘Cold War’, which was to dominate international affairs for decades when many major crises occurred, like the wars in Korea and the Vietnam War. For many the nuclear race, that is, growth in weapons of mass destruction, was the most worrying problem. 6 When and how was the National Health Service created in Britain? The National Health Service Act was passed in 1946 but the service began in 1948. It gave free medical, dental, optical and hospital care to everyone. Almost all hospitals were nationalised and run by fourteen regional hospital boards. Maternity care, health visitors and child welfare clinics were set up, too, and run by local authorities. The man in charge of these reforms was the Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan. 7 When was the United Nations Organisation founded and what were its aims? The UN was founded in 1945 when the representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the UN Conference on International Organisation to draw up the UN Charter. Its forerunner was the League of Nations, an organisation conceived in similar circumstances at the end of World War I and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles. Its aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, security, economic development, social progress, and human rights as well as keeping peace throughout the world. 8 How did Orwell develop his idea of the artist’s role? Orwell was receptive to new ideas and impressions. He tried to define the role of the writer considering the literature of the 1920s and 1930s. Whereas the writers of the Twenties had concerned themselves with language and form to express a tragic, post-war pessimism, those of the Thirties had valued social purpose and content over form, and had left-wing sympathies. He believed that writing interpreted reality and therefore served a useful social function. However, he believed that the writer should be independent, that no good writing could come of following a party line. 9 What kind of character is Winston Smith? Winston Smith is the last man to believe in humane values in a totalitarian age. ‘Smith’, the commonest English surname, suggests his symbolic value; ‘Winston’ evokes Churchill’s patriotic appeals for ‘blood, sweat and tears’ during the Second World War. Winston is middle-aged and physically weak; he experiences alienation from society and feels a desire for spiritual and moral integrity. In the first two parts of the novel it is likely that Winston and the narrator are one, and that he expresses Orwell’s views. 10 Describe the different roles of Ralph and Jack in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Ralph stands for reason, democracy and civilisation. He is elected to govern the island and to organise the building of shelters and possible rescue. He fails as a leader because the situation facing him cannot be solved by a rational approach. In the end, hunted by the others, he turns from leader into victim and recognises the failure of the kind of human moderation he thought he embodied. Jack, who represents savagery, violence and instinct, is Ralph’s natural antagonist. He is the aggressive force of evil and imposes a sense of discipline on the others, unlike Ralph. He stands for dictatorship versus democracy. He becomes blood-thirsty and thinks of nothing but killing; in fact the victims of the sacrifices he makes to the ‘beast’ are, at first, pigs, then human beings. 11 What concept of time is developed in Waiting for Godot? Time is meaningless as a direct result of chance which is at the basis of human existence. This is why there is a cyclic pattern to events in Waiting for Godot. Vladimir and Estragon return to the same place each day to wait for Godot and experience the same general events with variations each time. It is not known for how long in the past they have been doing this, or for how long they will continue to do so: time essentially is chaos. 12 What kind of images did Francis Bacon paint and what was their aim? His images appeared transformed, distorted, fragmented, exaggerated, split, broken up, but their aim was to capture the anguish, isolation and the certainty of death of contemporary man and at the same time to shock the viewer.

ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Write 10-12 lines to describe the poetry of the 1930s and 1940s in Britain. Student’s activity. 2 Explain why the collection Another Time deserves a special place in Auden’s production (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Discuss why Gandhi is the embodiment of human rights and faith in non-violence (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Explain in what sense Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four can be regarded as a dystopian novel (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 5 Explain the origins of the Theatre of the Absurd and its main features (10-12 lines). Student’s activity.

Test 17 Fila A PART A 1 1C; 2A; 3D; 4B; 5B; 6A; 7C; 8B; 9A; 10D; 11C; 12B; 13C; 14A; 15D; 16B; 17A; 18C; 19A; 20D.

TESTS

Soluzioni

452

PART B 2 1 What did the rapid changes and multiplicity of new inputs create in the 1960s? The rapid changes and multiplicity of new inputs created an ever increasing gap between those who proposed the new culture and the older generation. Pressure from the young and from social movements influenced politicians already campaigning for a more civilised, tolerant society. 2 What happened in England in 1958? In 1958 the young supporters of the CND marched from the nuclear research establishment at Aldermaston in south-east England, while the pacifists, led by the aged philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), organised a ‘sit-in’ in Trafalgar Square. These actions provided the model for the marches, demonstrations, and occupations of the universities by the students in the 1960s. 3 What did the reforms passed in 1967, 1969 and 1970 make possible? The reforms passed in the 1960s marked a retreat from the social controls imposed in the Victorian Age in favour of what came to be termed ‘permissiveness’. First, the Abortion Act made it possible to get an abortion on the National Health Service; then the National Health Service (Family Planning) Act allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives. The Sexual Offences Act stated that a homosexual act between two consenting adults in private was no longer a criminal offence. The Divorce Reform Act of 1969 made divorce possible after the couple had lived apart for two years, while the Matrimonial Property Act (1970) established that a wife’s work should be regarded as an equal contribution towards creating the family home. 4 What did the worsening of the economic situation in the 1970s bring about? There were increasing episodes of violence, racial tension and terrorism, as well as the revelations of corruption in local and national government which all contributed to a lessening of the optimistic consensus that had carried England through the difficult post-war years. 5 What did Britain do to share the new European wealth? Britain was doing less well economically than its European neighbours and partly to share the new European wealth; the country joined the European Community in 1973. 6 Why did the USA become the most prosperous country in the world? Because apart from Pearl Harbor, they did not suffer bombing or invasion and the war brought economic advantages such as increased production and higher wages. Between 1947 and 1971 Americans bought more and more consumer goods like cars, television sets, refrigerators and washing machines. 7 What was the American foreign policy in the early Sixties defined by? American foreign policy was defined by the Cold War and the US perceived antagonism towards Communist nations and leaders. There were moments of tension with the building of the Berlin Wall (1961) and the Cuban crisis (1962) which ended with the withdrawal of Russian missiles from the island. Moreover, America’s advisory role in the war between South Vietnam and communist North Vietnam became militarised. 8 What important Act was passed in 1964? The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, colour, religion, or national origin, was passed. The law also provided the federal government with the powers to impose desegregation. They also started a programme of health care for the elderly and the poor. 9 How were black people divided? Black people were divided into the Black Muslim movement led by Malcom X and non-violent resistance led by Martin Luther King. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

10 What characterised Richard Nixon’s presidency? Richard Nixon worked to put an end to the Vietnam War and finally, in 1973, the last American soldiers left Vietnam. Though marked by the success in space competition with the USSR and the first landing on the moon in 1969, Nixon’s presidency saw severe economic recession: inflation and growing unemployment. Moreover the Watergate scandal had brought to light political espionage and illegal contributions by the Republican administration to win the election and obliged Nixon to resign in 1974 rather than face impeachment. 11 What was Jimmy Carter’s greatest achievement? His greatest achievement was certainly the Camp David Agreements between Egypt and Israel, preparing the ground for a possible settlement of the Middle East question. 12 What were the Sixties in Britain characterised by? The Sixties were characterised by an irreverent mood, by an effort to get rid of all artificial constraints, and by a quest for self-expression and liberation. 13 Why is Jimmy Porter from John Osborne’s play Look back in Anger considered an anti-hero? He is the embodiment of the protester without a clear, definite cause to fight for. However, he continually searches for one, with courage, honesty and sincerity, but also with morbid self-pity and hysterical excesses. He is an anti-hero, since he speaks but never acts. His psychological attitude clearly shows the consequences of a childhood trauma, a sense of personal failure – though he is well-educated, he has no profession and very little income –, a persecution complex, since he regards Alison’s contacts with her family as a conspiracy against himself. He is also sexually immature, impatient with good manners and vulgar. 14 What did the Beats react against? What did they ignore? The Beats reacted against the spread of capitalism and the Puritanical values of the middle class. They ignored the conventions of dress and personal cleanliness. 15 Who is the hero of the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac? The hero of the book is Dean Moriarty, who lives for ‘kicks’, as he describes those moments of intense experience and pleasure, free from all the social and economic restraints. He symbolises the desperate attempt of the post-war generation to live every moment with extreme intensity so as to overcome the sense of void and fear. It is only on the road that Dean and Sal Paradise live wild and free. 16 What is the most important theme developed in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye? The most important theme of The Catcher in the Rye is Holden’s struggle against the society he belongs to and which he considers extremely false, corrupt, hypocritical, that is ‘phoney’, and his looking for authentic values and true friends. Holden is not, however, a rebel in the real sense: after his escape he expresses his wish to become ‘a catcher in the rye’, that is, somebody who catches children, playing in a field of rye on the edge of a cliff, to prevent them from falling over; this catcher has often been interpreted as Holden’s projection of his ideal father. Perhaps it is this final hopeful message which has made the book famous both among young people and grown-ups. 17 What image of society did Pop Art give? Pop Art coming from America gave a realistic representation of subjects drawn from advertising, comics, popular idols and everyday life. 18 What did S. Heaney compare the conflict in Northern Ireland to? S. Heaney compared the conflict in Northern Ireland to prehistoric religious struggles and blood sacrifices as in his poem about the Tollund Man, the corpse of a sacrificial victim found buried in a peat bog. Heaney was deeply impressed by The Bog People, a book by the Danish archaeologist P.V. Glob dealing with the discovery in peat bogs of the preserved bodies of people sacrificed over 2.000 years before during tribal rituals. To him, the bog victims became archetypal symbols for the enduring need of communities to exact blood sacrifices. The poet’s task is not to condemn, but to draw back and examine the historical reasons and psychological consequences behind the actions. This gives his work universal meaning and almost mythic resonance.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

453

Soluzioni

ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Explain the features of the Theatre of Anger contained in the text ‘Boring Sundays!’ from Look Back in Anger by J. Osborne. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity.

TESTS

PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Explain why the 1960s and 1970s were turbulent times in Britain (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Write a twenty-line paragraph about the cultural revolution which marked the 1960s in Britain. Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the importance of the civil rights movements in the US in the 1960s (20 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Write 20 lines about this topic: the ‘on the road’ motif is one of the distinctive themes of American literature. Provide references to authors and texts you have read. Student’s activity.

2 Indicate the character/author (poetry/novel/drama) who best represents rebellion in the second half of the 20th century. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. 3 Explain in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph the main themes developed and the style employed in J. Kerouac’s On the Road. Student’s activity. 4 Write a ten-/twelve-line paragraph about the Irish Troubles and their main consequences. Student’s activity. 5 Discuss S. Heaney’s position and commitment in the political, religious struggle in Ireland in a ten-/ twelve-line paragraph. Student’s activity.

Fila B PART A 1 1D; 2B; 3A; 4C; 5D; 6B; 7A; 8C; 9D; 10B; 11A; 12C; 13D; 14B; 15A; 16D; 17C; 18B; 19D; 20A.

TESTS

Soluzioni

454

PART B 2 1 What did the rapid changes and multiplicity of new inputs create in the 1960s? The rapid changes and multiplicity of new inputs created an ever increasing gap between those who proposed the new culture and the older generation. Pressure from the young and from social movements influenced politicians already campaigning for a more civilised, tolerant society. 2 What happened in England in 1958? In 1958 the young supporters of the CND marched from the nuclear research establishment at Aldermaston in south-east England, while the pacifists, led by the aged philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), organised a ‘sit-in’ in Trafalgar Square. These actions provided the model for the marches, demonstrations, and occupations of the universities by the students in the 1960s. 3 What did the reforms passed in 1967, 1969 and 1970 make possible? The reforms passed in the 1960s marked a retreat from the social controls imposed in the Victorian Age in favour of what came to be termed ‘permissiveness’. First, the Abortion Act made it possible to get an abortion on the National Health Service; then the National Health Service (Family Planning) Act allowed local authorities to provide contraceptives. The Sexual Offences Act stated that a homosexual act between two consenting adults in private was no longer a criminal offence. The Divorce Reform Act of 1969 made divorce possible after the couple had lived apart for two years, while the Matrimonial Property Act (1970) established that a wife’s work should be regarded as an equal contribution towards creating the family home. 4 What did the worsening of the economic situation in the 1970s bring about? There were increasing episodes of violence, racial tension and terrorism, as well as the revelations of corruption in local and national government which all contributed to a lessening of the optimistic consensus that had carried England through the difficult post-war years. 5 What did Britain do to share the new European wealth? Britain was doing less well economically than its European neighbours and partly to share the new European wealth; the country joined the European Community in 1973. 6 Why did the USA become the most prosperous country in the world? Because apart from Pearl Harbor, they did not suffer bombing or invasion and the war brought economic advantages such as increased production and higher wages. Between 1947 and 1971 Americans bought more and more consumer goods like cars, television sets, refrigerators and washing machines. 7 What was the American foreign policy in the early Sixties defined by? American foreign policy was defined by the Cold War and the US’ perceived antagonism towards Communist nations and leaders. There were moments of tension with the building of the Berlin Wall (1961) and the Cuban crisis (1962) which ended with the withdrawal of Russian missiles from the island. Moreover, America’s advisory role in the war between South Vietnam and communist North Vietnam became militarised. 8 What important Act was passed in 1964? The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, colour, religion, or national origin, was passed. The law also provided the federal government with the powers to impose desegregation. They also started a programme of health care for the elderly and the poor. 9 How were black people divided? Black people were divided into the Black Muslim movement led by Malcom X and non-violent resistance led by Martin Luther King. 10 What characterised Richard Nixon’s presidency? Richard Nixon worked to put an end to the Vietnam War and finally, in 1973, the last American soldiers left Vietnam. Though marked by the success in space competition with the USSR and the first landing on the moon in 1969, Nixon’s presidency saw severe economic recession: inflation and growing unemployment. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Moreover the Watergate scandal had brought to light political espionage and illegal contributions by the Republican administration to win the election and obliged Nixon to resign in 1974 rather than face impeachment. 11 What was Jimmy Carter’s greatest achievement? His greatest achievement was certainly the Camp David Agreements between Egypt and Israel, preparing the ground for a possible settlement of the Middle East question. 12 What were the Sixties in Britain characterised by? The Sixties were characterised by an irreverent mood, by an effort to get rid of all artificial constraints, and by a quest for self-expression and liberation. 13 Why is Jimmy Porter from John Osborne’s play Look back in Anger considered an anti-hero? He is the embodiment of the protester without a clear, definite cause to fight for. However, he continually searches for one, with courage, honesty and sincerity, but also with morbid self-pity and hysterical excesses. He is an anti-hero, since he speaks but never acts. His psychological attitude clearly shows the consequences of a childhood trauma, a sense of personal failure – though he is well-educated, he has no profession and very little income –, a persecution complex, since he regards Alison’s contacts with her family as a conspiracy against himself. He is also sexually immature, impatient with good manners and vulgar. 14 What did the Beats react against? What did they ignore? The Beats reacted against the spread of capitalism and the Puritanical values of the middle class. They ignored the conventions of dress and personal cleanliness. 15 Who is the hero of the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac? The hero of the book is Dean Moriarty, who lives for ‘kicks’, as he describes those moments of intense experience and pleasure, free from all the social and economic restraints. He symbolises the desperate attempt of the post-war generation to live every moment with extreme intensity so as to overcome the sense of void and fear. It is only on the road that Dean and Sal Paradise live wild and free. 16 What is the most important theme developed in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye? The most important theme of The Catcher in the Rye is Holden’s struggle against the society he belongs to and which he considers extremely false, corrupt, hypocritical, that is ‘phoney’, and his looking for authentic values and true friends. Holden is not, however, a rebel in the real sense: after his escape he expresses his wish to become ‘a catcher in the rye’, that is, somebody who catches children, playing in a field of rye on the edge of a cliff, to prevent them from falling over; this catcher has often been interpreted as Holden’s projection of his ideal father. Perhaps it is this final hopeful message which has made the book famous both among young people and grown-ups. 17 What image of society did Pop Art give? Pop Art coming from America gave a realistic representation of subjects drawn from advertising, comics, popular idols and everyday life. 18 What did S. Heaney compare the conflict in Northern Ireland to? S. Heaney compared the conflict in Northern Ireland to prehistoric religious struggles and blood sacrifices as in his poem about the Tollund Man, the corpse of a sacrificial victim found buried in a peat bog. Heaney was deeply impressed by The Bog People, a book by the Danish archaeologist P.V. Glob dealing with the discovery in peat bogs of the preserved bodies of people sacrificed over 2.000 years before during tribal rituals. To him, the bog victims became archetypal symbols for the enduring need of communities to exact blood sacrifices. The poet’s task is not to condemn, but to draw back and examine the historical reasons and psychological consequences behind the actions. This gives his work universal meaning and almost mythic resonance.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

455

Soluzioni

ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Explain the features of the Theatre of Anger contained in the text ‘Boring Sundays!’ from Look Back in Anger by J. Osborne. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity. 2 Indicate the character/author (poetry/novel/drama) who best represents rebellion in the second half of the 20th century. Do not use more than ten/twelve lines. Student’s activity.

TESTS

PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Explain why the 1960s and 1970s were turbulent times in Britain (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Write a twenty-line paragraph about the cultural revolution which marked the 1960s in Britain. Student’s activity. 3 Discuss the importance of the civil rights movements in the US in the 1960s (20 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Write 20 lines about this topic: the ‘on the road’ motif is one of the distinctive themes of American literature. Provide references to authors and texts you have read. Student’s activity.

3 Explain in a ten-/twelve-line paragraph the main themes developed and the style employed in J. Kerouac’s On the Road. Student’s activity. 4 Write a ten-/twelve-line paragraph about the Irish Troubles and their main consequences. Student’s activity. 5 Discuss S. Heaney’s position and commitment in the political, religious struggle in Ireland in a ten-/ twelve-line paragraph. Student’s activity.

Test 18 Fila A PART A 1 1D; 2A; 3C; 4D; 5B; 6A; 7C; 8D; 9B; 10A; 11B; 12C; 13D; 14B; 15A; 16C.

TESTS

Soluzioni

456

PART B 2 1 Why was the poll tax unpopular? Because it was a local tax on persons and no longer on properties, which was to be paid by all citizens enrolled to vote. Poorer people and large families considered this tax extremely unfair, but Mrs Thatcher refused to back down. 2 What kind of novel is McEwan’s The Child in Time as regards its setting? It is set in England in a dystopian, near future and offers McEwan’s view of Thatcher’s England, a country where poverty and squalor are to be found everywhere amidst affluence, and where control is exercised in the name of freedom. 3 What event marked George W. Bush’s presidency? What were its consequences? During the first months of Bush’s presidency American passenger planes hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on September 11th. Thousands of civilians died. President Bush ordered a retaliatory attack on Afghanistan which was held to contain Al Qaeda bases and, in 2003, he declared war against Iraq accusing Saddam Hussein of having large quantities of weapons of mass destruction. The American invasion proved very costly in terms of military expense and lives lost as well as undermining American prestige abroad. 4 What are the structure and style of DeLillo’s novel Falling Man? Falling Man does not have a linear plot. The form is circular, moving the reader around and around a central point and then ending up where he started – at the falling twin towers after jet airliners have been hijacked and crashed into them. In the ruins of 9/11, relationships are interrupted. Language is fragmented. Vision is distorted. The whole city, not just its centre, is in the physical and emotional limbo of a frozen zone. 5 Why has English developed as a lingua franca? This was made possible first of all by historical events: the settlement of English-speaking people in newly discovered lands; the massive emigration of people from England, Ireland and Scotland to North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries and the increase of the world power of the United States since World War II. In the 20th century English became the language of political and financial transactions, of study and research; it is now a sort of lingua franca which people of different nations use to communicate. This is certainly due to the features of adaptability and flexibility of the language itself and increasingly to the domination of English on the Internet. 6 What led to the end of apartheid in South Africa? International pressure began to yield results and in 1990 the President of South Africa, Frederik Willem de Klerk, who was leader of the National Party began reluctant negotiations to end apartheid culminating in multiracial democratic elections in 1994. These elections marked a true handing over of power when Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president of South Africa. 7 What was the purpose of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? It was not intended as a court of law. Its purpose was to uncover the truth about past abuse using amnesty as a means towards reconciliation. Even those who objected to the use of reconciliation rather than justice could see the huge psychological impact of public contrition. 8 Why did Haring become a popular figure of youth culture? Drawing on comics and mass media, his paintings eliminated distinctions between black and white, heterosexual and homosexual, human and animal, natural and artificial. He used the city as his canvas, making chalk drawings of barking dogs and babies in subway stations in New York, Chicago, Pisa, Sydney, Berlin, Atlanta, Barcelona – on the walls of schools, hospitals, and abandoned buildings – without receiving monetary payment. Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

9 What did President Obama say about war in his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech? He said that we must begin by acknowledging that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. Like Martin Luther King, he is convinced that violence never brings permanent peace. But if the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace, this truth must coexist with another – that, no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. War itself is never glorious but he concedes that there is such a thing as a ‘just’ war. 10 What image did Walcott create in his poem The Phantasmal Season of Peace to convey the idea of peacebuilding? The nations of birds, clearly the symbol of freedom, love and peace, unite to give the world a fleeting moment of hope and goodwill. They ‘lift’ the shadows to allow the light of hope to shine through. PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova –TYPE A 3 1 Trace the development of skyscrapers since the end of the 19th century (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Discuss the development of the literature from English-speaking countries as regards the themes, the writer’s attitude and aim (20 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Describe the impact of AIDS on South Africa’s society and economy (20 lines). Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Explain Thatcher’s nickname, ‘the Iron Lady’, with reference to her home and foreign policies. Write 10-12 lines. Student’s activity. 2 Discuss the symbolism of the title of DeLillo’s novel Falling Man (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Describe how the system of apartheid worked in South Africa (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Explain which practical steps towards peacebuilding were highlighted by President Obama in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (10-12 lines). Student’s activity.

Fila B

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

457

Soluzioni

PART B 2 1 Why was the poll tax unpopular? Because it was a local tax on persons and no longer on properties, which was to be paid by all citizens enrolled to vote. Poorer people and large families considered this tax extremely unfair, but Mrs Thatcher refused to back down. 2 What kind of novel is McEwan’s The Child in Time as regards its setting? It is set in England in a dystopian, near future and offers McEwan’s view of Thatcher’s England, a country where poverty and squalor are to be found everywhere amidst affluence, and where control is exercised in the name of freedom. 3 What event marked George W. Bush’s presidency? What were its consequences? During the first months of Bush’s presidency American passenger planes hijacked by Al Quaeda terrorists hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on September 11th. Thousands of civilians died. President Bush ordered a retaliatory attack on Afghanistan which was held to contain Al Quaeda bases and, in 2003, he declared war against Iraq accusing Saddam Hussein of having large quantities of weapons of mass destruction. The American invasion proved very costly in terms of military expense and lives lost as well as undermining American prestige abroad. 4 What are the structure and style of DeLillo’s novel Falling Man? Falling Man does not have a linear plot. The form is circular, moving the reader around and around a central point and then ending up where he started – at the falling twin towers after jet airliners have been hijacked and crashed into them. In the ruins of 9/11, relationships are interrupted. Language is fragmented. Vision is distorted. The whole city, not just its centre, is in the physical and emotional limbo of a frozen zone. 5 Why has English developed as a lingua franca? This was made possible first of all by historical events: the settlement of English-speaking people in newly discovered lands; the massive emigration of people from England, Ireland and Scotland to North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries and the increase of the world power of the United States since World War II. In the 20th century English became the language of political and financial transactions, of study and research; it is now a sort of lingua franca which people of different nations use to communicate. This is certainly due to the features of adaptability and flexibility of the language

TESTS

PART A 1 1B; 2C; 3D; 4A; 5D; 6B; 7A; 8C; 9D; 10B; 11A; 12D; 13C; 14A; 15B; 16D.

itself and increasingly to the domination of English on the Internet. 6 What led to the end of apartheid in South Africa? International pressure began to yield results and in 1990 the President of South Africa, Frederik Willem de Klerk, who was leader of the National Party began reluctant negotiations to end apartheid culminating in multiracial democratic elections in 1994. These elections marked a true handing over of power when Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president of South Africa. 7 What was the purpose of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? It was not intended as a court of law. Its purpose was to uncover the truth about past abuse using amnesty as a means towards reconciliation. Even those who objected to the use of reconciliation rather than justice could see the huge psychological impact of public contrition. 8 Why did Haring become a popular figure of youth culture? Drawing on comics and mass media, his paintings eliminated distinctions between black and white, heterosexual and homosexual, human and animal, natural and artificial. He used the city as his canvas, making chalk drawings of barking dogs and babies in subway stations in New York, Chicago, Pisa, Sydney, Berlin, Atlanta, Barcelona – on the walls of schools, hospitals, and abandoned buildings – without receiving monetary payment. 9 What did President Obama say about war in his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech? He said that we must begin by acknowledging that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. Like Martin Luther King, he is convinced that violence never brings permanent peace. But if the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace, this truth must coexist with another – that, no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. War itself is never glorious but he concedes that there is such a thing as a ‘just’ war. 10 What image did Walcott create in his poem The Phantasmal Season of Peace to convey the idea of peacebuilding? The nations of birds, clearly the symbol of freedom, love and peace, unite to give the world a fleeting moment of hope and goodwill. They ‘lift’ the shadows to allow the light of hope to shine through. PART C ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE A 3 1 Trace the development of skyscrapers since the end of the 19th century (20 lines). Student’s activity. 2 Discuss the development of the literature from English-speaking countries as regards the themes, the writer’s attitude and aim (20 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Describe the impact of AIDS on South Africa’s society and economy (20 lines). Student’s activity. ESAME DI STATO Terza Prova – TYPE B 4 1 Explain Thatcher’s nickname, ‘the Iron Lady’, with reference to her home and foreign policies. Write 10-12 lines. Student’s activity. 2 Discuss the symbolism of the title of DeLillo’s novel Falling Man (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 3 Describe how the system of apartheid worked in South Africa (10-12 lines). Student’s activity. 4 Explain which practical steps towards peacebuilding were highlighted by President Obama in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech (10-12 lines). Student’s activity.

Specification 13 Test 1 ESAME DI STATO Seconda prova

TESTS

Soluzioni

458

READ the following text from The Great War: Myth and Memory by Dan Todman (London, Hambledon and London, 2005) and do the activities that follow. 1 ANSWER the following questions. 1 What is the generally held opinion of World War I according to the article? That the war was a terrible mess and a massacre where a generation of young men were killed. 2 Explain the phrase ‘slaughtered at the behest of asinine generals’ (lines 4-5) in your own words. This phrase means – uselessly or unnecessarily killed under the orders of idiotic army commanders. 3 What happened to the survivors according to the article? According to the article the survivors either went mad or wrote poetry. 4 In which conflicting ways was the war seen at the time? For those who had served in the trenches, and for those left at home, the war experience encompassed not only Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

horror, frustration and sorrow, but also triumph, pride, camaraderie and even enjoyment, as well as boredom and apathy. For most, it was capable of being all these things, often at the same time. 5 How many men died in the war? Was this number considered as many? Three-quarters of a million men died and this was considered shocking. 6 How was the war mainly represented in literature immediately afterwards? Most of the literature immediately after the war wrote about the war in traditional terms of heroism, courage and victory. 7 Why was it difficult to insist that the war had been ‘futile’? It was difficult emotionally to criticise the war or refer to it as useless because of all those families who had lost sons or brothers or fathers fighting. It was like saying their loved ones had died for nothing. 8 How was the emphasis on the horror of the war used according to the article? According to the article the horror could be used to prevent another war happening and also to emphasise the bravery of those had had fought in the war. 9 What was the main debate carried on by politicians and generals after the end of the war? The main debate after the war among politicians and generals regarded the way the war had been conducted. 10 Explain the reference to the Somme and Passchendaele. These were two places in France along the trenches where famous battles took place with horrendous casualties. They both came to represent the useless slaughter and horror of trench warfare. 2 SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: Today most Britons regard the First World War as a time of useless slaughter especially as the ‘war to end all wars’ led to another conflict just twenty years’ later. At the time, however, the victory was seen as a deliverance from evil and the horrors were overshadowed by the relief and triumph of victory. In spite of the huge numbers killed, the war was mainly praised in literature with a few notable exceptions, as while agreeing on the horror of the experience many also felt they owed it to the survivors and to the families of those who had died, to play down the criticism and emphasise the heroism. Although there was some post-war debate among politicians and generals about the way the war had been conducted, the commander-in-chief, in spite of his connection with the slaughter in the trenches, was widely seen as a national hero. (150 words) 3 COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of world war. Explain how World War One was different to any wars that preceded it and compare the fighting which took place then to modern warfare. Student’s activity. The composition should contain reference to: • The multi-national nature of World War I and how so many countries were involved • Trench warfare – fighting mainly involving armies • Modern wars based mainly on bombardment of towns and cities and involvement of civilian populations

Specification 14 Test 2

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459

Soluzioni

READ the following text from E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View (1908), Chapter 8, and do the activities that follow. 1 ANSWER the following questions. 1 Who are the characters involved in the scene? They are Cecil, Freddy Honeychurch, Mrs. Honeychurch and Lucy. 2 What has just happened to make it a ‘joyous day’? Cecil has proposed to Lucy and she has accepted his proposal and agreed to marry him. 3 What are Mrs. Honeychurch’s and Freddy’s reactions? Mrs. Honeychurch says she is glad and welcomes Cecil into the family. Freddy stands in the middle of the room looking cross. 4 What is meant by ‘conversation seemed to flag’ (lines 13-14)? This means there was a moment of unease in which no-one knew what to say.

TESTS

ESAME DI STATO Seconda prova

5 How does Lucy respond to her brother’s cross expression? She throws her arms around him and gives him a kiss. 6 What does Cecil remember once he is alone? He remembers when he first met Lucy and all the events which have led to this proposal and acceptance. 7 What was Cecil’s initial reaction to Lucy? At first Cecil thought Lucy was very ordinary, just like any other tourist and not very interesting. 8 How did his opinion of her change? As he got to know her better, he appreciated her quietness like a Leonardo painting and thought Italy had given her new possibilities. 9 How many times has Cecil proposed to Lucy and what was her response? Cecil has proposed three times, twice in Italy and once back in England. The first two times Lucy refused him and then accepted his third proposal. 10 Whom does he want to inform and will she be surprised? Cecil wants to inform his mother. She won’t be surprised because he has discussed it with her and she has advised him to go ahead. 2 SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words. Student’s activity: suggested answer At the beginning of this extract Cecil tells his future mother-in-law, Mrs. Honeychurch, about his successful proposal to her daughter Lucy. She welcomes him into their family though her son Freddy seems unhappy and cross. Cecil calls Lucy into the room to disperse the unease and suggests that the family go out into the garden while he writes to his mother. Cecil then thinks back to when he met Lucy and remembers his first negative reaction to her. He goes over the way his attitude to her changed and how he proposed to her in Rome and later in the Alps. Lucy turned him down on both occasions but on his third proposal she had quietly agreed to marry him promising to try to make him happy. He was pleased that his mother too had advised this step and decides to write her a detailed account. (146 words) 3 COMPOSITION Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of romance. Discuss how courtship and romance have changed since the time of Forster’s novels. Give examples of what you think has been gained or possibly lost in these changes. Student’s activity.

Specification 15 Test 3 ESAME DI STATO Seconda prova

TESTS

Soluzioni

460

READ the following text from Frank Mc Court’s novel Angela’s Ashes (1996), Chapter 8, and do the activities that follow. 1 ANSWER the following questions. 1 What is the ‘bad thing’ referred to in line 1? It is the fact that his father uses his unemployment money for drinking (and not to feed the family). 2 What does the mother have to do when there’s no money left? She has to beg for charity at a religious society (the St. Vincent de Paul Society) and ask for credit at the shop. 3 Why doesn’t Frank condemn his father? Because in the morning he is a different person who makes breakfast and reads his son the paper. 4 What are the things Frank is told by his father? Frank’s father tells him about the wars in Europe (Hitler, Mussolini, Franco) blaming it on England. He also tells him about Roosevelt in Washington and de Valera in Dublin and the old days in Ireland when Catholic children met in secret to learn. 5 Why according to Frank’s father did the English forbid the Catholics in Ireland to have their own schools? Because the English wanted to keep the Irish Catholics ignorant and uneducated. 6 How does Frank’s father describe America to his son? He calls it the land of opportunity where anything is possible and you can become anything you want to be. 7 Explain the meaning of the phrase ‘you can’t teach an old dog a new bark’ and say what it refers to in the text. It means you can’t learn new things easily when you’re older and it refers to Frank’s father’s lack of knowledge of Irish (because he was born in the North). 8 What kind of stories does Frank’s father tell his children? His stories are very imaginative and full of strange events like submarines flying in the air. 9 What simile does Frank use to describe his father and why do you think he chooses such a term of comparison? He says: ‘My father is like the Holy Trinity’ and he chooses this simile because he has had an Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

Irish Catholic upbringing and the comparison with the religious image of the Trinity is the only one that can make him explain the complexity of his father’s personality. 10 How would you describe Frank’s attitude to his father in this text? Frank loves his father in spite of the drinking as he feels his ‘real father’ is the one who looks after his children, says their prayers with them and tells them wonderful stories.

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

461

Soluzioni

3 COMPOSITION Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of domestic violence. Imagine you are a social worker who has to write a report about Frank’s family based on a questionnaire to different members of the family. OR Discuss the effects domestic violence can have on children and adults. Student’s activity. Suggestions: It has been suggested in several studies that there is a greater chance that a child who is a victim of violent acts will tend to approve of, or engage in, violent acts as an adult. The victim will learn the roles of both victim and abuser simultaneously and may enact either at a later date depending upon situational factors. Thus the home becomes a ‘training ground’ for violent interaction patterns. Research has shown that both victims and witnesses of violent acts against family members may identify with the aggressor. They observe that aggressors in a ‘love’ relationship achieve their goals by using violence which may result in the observers’ modelling the aggressive behaviour themselves. These patterns are then passed from generation to generation. EFFECTS ON ADULTS: • death (of either perpetrator or victim) by homicide • death by suicide • disabling injuries • depression: (a) victim may become immobilized due to constant fear; (b) aggressor may lose sense of selfworth and/or experience guilt over violent acts; (c) either may experience a range of psychiatric symptoms which add to their dysfunction and may require hospitalisation • difficulty in obtaining, maintaining, and adjusting to employment • emotional abuse and deprivation • break up of the family unit • court fights regarding separation, divorce, and custody of children • perpetuation of social isolation for fear of violence being disclosed • continuing violence which will escalate if alternative behaviours are not learned • recurrence of violent behaviour with new partner • expansion of violence into the community. EFFECTS ON CHILDREN: • death by homicide • death by suicide • emotional injuries, such as low self esteem • depression • aggressive behaviour toward others/delinquency • poor school adjustment (educational and peer adjustment) • modelling behaviour; learned victim/aggressor roles • runaway episodes • alcohol/drug experimentation • early marriage • continuation of violent behaviour in their adult relationships • expansion of violence into the community.

TESTS

2 SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words. In this excerpt, Frank’s relationship with his father is described in detail. He begins by admitting that he knows that his father uses the unemployment money for drink forcing his mother to beg for charity and ask for credit, but Frank goes on to describe the father that makes him breakfast in the morning and tells him about the world while the others are sleeping. Frank’s ‘real father’ is the one who explains about the European war and politics, talks about the past in Ireland when life was hard for Catholics and encourages him to go to America, the land of opportunity. Frank’s father helps his children with their schoolwork, tells them fantastic stories and says their prayers with them but is also the man who comes home at night smelling of whiskey. Frank recognises that his father is a complex mixture but loves him in spite of his faults. (150 words)

Specification 16 Test 4 ESAME DI STATO Seconda prova READ the following article from The Observer written by Moira Young, an author for young adults, and do the activities that follow. 1 ANSWER the following questions. 1 What kind of fiction is popular with young people according to the writer? The writer says there is a lot of fiction about vampires as well as dystopian worlds popular with young people. 2 Why do most people think young people are attracted to post-apocalyptic or dystopian worlds? The majority believes that young people are attracted to this genre because it is a regimented world similar to the world of school and home that they live in. 3 What alternative explanation does the writer of this article give for young people’s interest in this genre of literature? The writer believes young people are interested in this genre because the stories are exciting and good. 4 Which are the main sources of dystopian fiction according to the writer? She thinks the stories are taken from myths and fairy-tales rather than science fiction. 5 How does the writer summarise the typical dystopian story? She compares it to a hero’s journey where the hero, a man or a woman, is drawn into another world where he or she has to overcome huge difficulties before he or she triumphs. 6 What is meant by the phrase, ‘the stakes are high’? This phrase means that the outcome is extremely important not just for the hero but for the wider community or the world. 7 What are the two different journeys commonly described in a dystopian novel according to the writer? One journey is the physical ‘outer’ journey and the other is an emotional and psychological ‘inner’ journey. 8 What are the most important problems teenagers have to face, according to the article? The most important problems are friendship, family, betrayal, loss, love, death and sexual awakening. 9 What are the adult authors who write these stories concerned about, in the writer’s view? She believes the authors are concerned about the future of the planet, the degradation of civil society and the inheritance being left for the next generation. 10 Explain the sentence: ‘We always leave a candle burning in the darkness’. This sentence means that the writer and all the others who write for young people, even in the darkest novels, always finish with some positive note or some hope. 2 SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: This article claims that stories set in post-apocalyptic or dystopian worlds are becoming increasingly popular with young people. It is not a new genre and many people explain its popularity by claiming that it mirrors the teenagers’ world of school and home. The writer, however, gives a simpler explanation saying the stories are popular because they are good and exciting. She compares them to stories of heroes overcoming great difficulties for the good of humanity. The typical young protagonist journeys physically and emotionally towards a successful ending, tackling obvious teenage concerns like friendship and betrayal. The fiction is created by adults anxious about the future but always ends on a positive note of hope from the darkness of dystopia. (119 words) 3 COMPOSITION Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of dystopia and utopia.Can you imagine what the world will be like in 100 years’ time? Give your vision of the future describing it as either a utopia or a dystopia. Student’s activity.

TESTS

Soluzioni

Specification 17 Test 5 ESAME DI STATO Seconda prova READ the following poem by Derek Walcott from The Gulf and Other Poems (1969) and do the activities that follow.

462

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1 ANSWER the following questions. 1 Who are the characters involved in the scene? A young black boy and five or six boys belonging to different ethnic groups. 2 When and where does the action take place? The scene takes place in a New York Street (lines 6-7) near Central Park at night during a summer festival (lines 3, 8-9). 3 How is the speaker stopped and what happens to him? The boys whistle him over (line 4) and then proceed to beat him up. The speaker is then left bleeding on the pavement (lines 26-30). 4 How does the atmosphere change in line 15? At first the atmosphere is light and happy describing the hot summer evening and the summer festival but the atmosphere changes when he realises that the boys who have called him over are not being friendly but want a fight. 5 What does he mean by the words ‘I figured we were all one’ (in lines 12-13)? He believes they are all equal and is shocked to find that he is wrong. 6 What is he worried about? He is worried about his new olive-branch coat lines 20-21; 27-28) and that it might be cut and spoilt if one of them has a knife. 7 How does the speaker try to justify what is happening? By saying they are just doing it for fun ‘a few kicks’. 8 In which ways is the speaker injured and what is saved? The speaker’s face is badly hurt and bleeding but he has managed to save his olive-green jacket from being cut and spoilt. 9 What does the experience ‘teach’ the speaker? He learns that there cannot be love among people at the margin of American society (lines 40-42). 10 What aspect of racism is emphasised in the poem? The poem describes the racial tensions within a multicultural society. In particular violence has become an essential part of the life of the emarginated ethnic groups who even fight among themselves. 2 SUMMARISE the contents of the poem in 120 words. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: In the poem Blues the speaker, a young black man, is walking in a New York street one hot summer’s evening during a summer festival. A group of young racially-mixed boys watching from a veranda nearby, call him over in a friendly manner but when he goes to them, they beat him up and leave him bleeding on the pavement. The speaker is shocked and disillusioned as he thought all racial minorities would feel they were the same and would be supportive of one-another. He removes his symbolically olive-green jacket in time to save it from harm but comes to the conclusion that tolerance between the different racial minorities is not possible. (112 words) 3 COMPOSITION Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of racism. Discuss the aspects of racism present in your community. What is the difference between racism and intolerance? Which means can be used in your opinion to promote good racial relations within a community? Student’s activity.

Specification 18 Test 6

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013

463

Soluzioni

READ the following text from an article in The Guardian newspaper in December 2012. 1 ANSWER the following questions. 1 What do you understand by the phrase ‘life expectancy’? This refers to the age people can expect to reach in good health before they die. 2 Why was South Africa considered a global disgrace under its former president, Thabo Mbeki? Because under Mbeki there were huge numbers dying of AIDS in South Africa. 3 What recent problems have had to be faced by President Jacob Zuma? He and his government have had to deal with violent industrial unrest, scandals over corruption and frustration over failing schools and a lack of jobs. 4 What is the ‘major societal shift’ referred to by Professor Salim Abdool Karim (line 19)? He is referring to the rise in life expectancy.

TESTS

ESAME DI STATO Seconda prova

5 What single action has dramatically reduced deaths in South Africa among young people in their 30s? The industrial scale distribution of the antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) through the public health service. 6 What treatment for AIDS was advocated by the former health minister? He suggested using vegetables, like beets and garlic. 7 By what percentage did AIDS-related deaths change between 2005 and 2010? They decreased by about 40% (from 257.000 to 194.000). 8 Is the money spent on AIDS by South Africa considered to be adequate by the author? Yes because he says it’s the highest amount spent in the world by a country of low and middle income. 9 How does the author view the change in health policy and leadership compared to the former government in South Africa? He sees it as ‘striking’ meaning impressive in a positive way. 10 What do the terms ‘doom and gloom’ and ‘refreshing’ mean? ‘Doom and gloom’ means pessimistic predicting that things will get worse, whereas ‘refreshing’ means invigorating and encouraging like a breath of fresh air. 2 SUMMARISE the content of the passage in 120 words. Student’s activity. Suggested answer: In the five years between 2005 and 2010, South Africa has seen huge and positive changes in its health policies regarding AIDS. Under the former president, who advocated vegetable treatment rather than medicine, the number of AIDS-related deaths was a dramatic 330.000 in a few years. The present government through the widespread distribution of ARV drug treatment has increased life expectancy by 6 years and seen a considerable fall in AIDS-related deaths and the transmission of HIV to babies. In spite of domestic difficulties like industrial unrest, corruption scandals and unemployment, President Jacob Zuma and his government have increased expenditure on AIDS treatment to the highest level of low-to-medium income countries and launched a national HIV counselling and testing campaign. (121 words) 3 COMPOSITION: Write an essay of at least 250 words on the topic of national health. Is the nation’s health a matter of government concern and legislation or should each individual be responsible for their own well-being? Discuss. Student’s activity.

TESTS

Soluzioni

464

Idee per insegnare la letteratura inglese con Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Culture & Literature 3 © Zanichelli 2013