THE CULTURAL SHIFT FROM XIX CENTURY TO XX CENTURY

From objectivity to subjectivity

Reason for choosing the path

• Interest in the sharp cultural break that developed from the last decades of XIX century forwards

• Practice with the construction of a personal learning path

Objectives of the path

• Analyze the causes that led to the cultural shift from XIX century to XX one

• Better comprehend the innovations in the art and literature of XX century

Selected texts for the path

• Literary texts: - Giovanni Verga, Lettera a Salvatore Farina(1880)

- Alessandro Manzoni, chapter 2 from I Promessi Sposi( 1842)

- James Joyce, Penelope from Ulysses( 1922)

- Virginia Woolf, chapter 1 of Mrs Dalloway(1925)

• Pictorial texts: - Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans( 1849-1850)

- Edvard Munch, The Scream(1893)

Literature in XIX century• … Io te lo ripeterò così come l’ho raccolto pei viottoli dei campi, press’a

poco colle medesime parole semplici e pittoresche della narrazione popolare, e tu veramente preferirai di trovarti faccia a faccia col fatto nudo e schietto, senza stare a cercarlo fra le linee del libro, attraverso la lente dello scrittore … la sincerità della sua realtà così evidente, il suo modo e la sua ragione di essere così necessari, che la mano dell’artista rimarrà assolutamente invisibile, allora avrà l’impronta dell’avvenimento reale, l’opera sembrerà essersi fatta da sé, aver maturato ed esser sorta spontanea come un fatto naturale …

G. Verga, an extract from Lettera a Salvatore Farina

What’s interesting in the extract• Verga’s writing style is explained• The scrupulous attention to objective

reality, in particular to the humble one( Io te lo ripeterò così come l’ho raccolto pei viottoli dei campi)

fatto nudo e schietto

• The will to portray reality “as it is” (la mano dell’artista rimarrà assolutamente invisibile, allora avrà l’impronta dell’avvenimento reale, l’opera sembrerà essersi fatta da sé) technique of impersonality Giovanni Verga(1840-1922)

• Lorenzo o, come dicevan tutti, Renzo non si fece molto aspettare... Era, fin dall'adolescenza, rimasto privo de' parenti, ed esercitava la professione di filatore di seta, ereditaria, per dir così, nella sua famiglia; professione, negli anni indietro, assai lucrosa; allora già in decadenza, ma non però a segno che un abile operaio non potesse cavarne di che vivere onestamente … Oltre di questo, possedeva Renzo un poderetto che faceva lavorare e lavorava egli stesso, quando il filatoio stava fermo; di modo che, per la sua condizione, poteva dirsi agiato.

A. Manzoni, an extract from chapter II of I Promessi Sposi

What’s interesting in the extract• The male protagonist of the novel,

Renzo Tramaglino, is introduced to readers

• Attention to the external reality of the character, reported without any writer’s modification: esercitava la professione di filatore di seta; possedeva Renzo un poderetto che faceva lavorare e lavorava egli stesso

• Characters introduced according to his family and economic situation, his job, his ownerships writing based on cause-effect relationships

Alessandro Manzoni(1785-1873)

Art in XIX century

Gustave Courbet( 1819-1877), the most representative painter of Realism and his A Burial at Ornans(1849-1850)

Description of the painting

• Objective representation of a funeral in the town of Ornans, but the identity of the dead is unknown

• Anonymous people taking part in the scene do not seem to feel any sad or participation feeling for the event

• Reality is represented in the way it shows itself: the painter does not “adds” inner feelings, but he simply “takes a photo” of the religious event

• Use of heavy and pasty brushstrokes portray people as similar as possible to what they really look like

Revolutionary discoveries

• Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution(1859, On the Origin of Species)man is only a rationally – evolved animal

• Sigmund Freud’s discovery of the unconscious(1900, Interpretation of dreams) people’s behaviour and actions cannot be catalogued because of their inner hidden part

• Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity( 1906) time and space do not exist as absolute phaenomena but change according to the individual

• Causes to the shift from XIX century objectivism to XX century subjectivism

The new way of making literature in XX century

• … what an unearthly hour I suppose they’re just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus they’ve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office … the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and 0 that awful deep down torrent 0 and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the fig trees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar …

J. Joyce, an extract from Penelope of Ulysses

What is new in XX century literature

• Molly Bloom’s inner monologue no punctuation and stream of consciousness technique to report how human mind really works

• Attention to subjectivity Molly’s inner thoughts and feelings come to the surface

• New concept of time past, present and future are unified in Bergson’s “subjective time”

• New concept of space no more physical voyage, but psychological one

James Joyce(1882-1941)

• … "That is all," she said, looking at the fishmonger's. "That is all," she repeated, pausing for a moment at the window of a glove shop where, before the War, you could buy almost perfect gloves. And her old Uncle William used to say a lady is known by her shoes and her gloves … Gloves and shoes; she had a passion for gloves; but her own daughter, her Elizabeth, cared not a straw for either of them … It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! … never to be content quite, or quite secure, for at any moment the brute would be stirring, this hatred, which, especially since her illness, had power to make her feel scraped …

• V. Woolf, an extract from Mrs Dalloway

What is new in XX century literature

• Interest in character’s inner reality Mrs Dalloway’s consciousness comes to the surface

• Character’s working of the mind free associations of ideas that seem not to be logically linked

• Use of moments of being to discover the very reality standing beyond apparent reality

• Modernist interest in anthropology Mrs Dalloway’s hidden anxiety: It rasped her … this brutal monster! Virginia Woolf(1882-1941)

How art changed in XX century

Edvard Munch(1863-1944), one of the most representative precursor of Expressionism, and his The Scream(1893)

Description of the painting

• Evocation of the artist’s agonizing attitude towards life the artist himself is the protagonist of the painting

• The scream is a dull cry not perceived by others the scream as a way to show the artist’s subjectivity full of anxiety

Munch’s evidence: painting helped me to look inside myself, to convey feelings and emotions

• New pictorial techniques: deformation of the human figure, contrasts between colours and strong and harsh curved lines accentuate the anguish of the scene

Work By Nicola Buccolo