Englishlab Literature

La Rivoluzione Inglese

2012-11-04T13:43:00.003-08:00

La Rivoluzione Inglese da ScuolaInterattiva

Aldous Huxley and Brave New World (from Englishlab Marconi)

2012-08-10T15:27:00.003-07:00

Aldous Huxley and Brave New World

Joseph Conrad (coming soon...)

2012-08-10T15:26:00.004-07:00

Joseph Conrad (coming soon...)

Wilfred Owen & Dulce et decorum est

2011-11-20T12:52:00.001-08:00

Dulce et decorum est

(under construction)

Jane Eyre: The madwoman in the attic

2011-11-12T07:45:00.001-08:00

Jane Eyre: the madwoman in the attic (excerpt from Chapter XXVI)

Summary of Chapter 26 from Sparknotes

Jane Eyre: The Madwoman in the attic (short essay)

Jane Eyre E-text

Hard Times by Charles Dickens - Excerpt from Chapter 2: "Little Pitchers"

2011-11-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hard Times by Charles Dickens - Excerpt from Chapter 2: "Little Pitchers"

In italiano, con commento

The Eighteenth Century English Novel - The Nineteenth Century English Novel

2011-11-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Eighteenth Century English Novel

The Nineteenth Century English Novel

English Literature: its history and significance - by Project Gutenberg

2011-10-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

English Literature: its history and significance - by Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg

More English Literature resources

2011-10-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

Luminarium: an anthology of English Literature

English Literature Links

English Literature @BBC

English Literature Websites @Spartacus Educational

English Literature online quiz

2011-10-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

English Literature online quiz

The Norton Anthology of English Literature site

English Literature directory

2011-10-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

Su questo sito (che non vi consiglio di aprire perché è in giapponese) si trovano una serie di directory, un po' disordinate ma ricchissime, sulla letteratura inglese. La navigazione non è agevole, ma con un po' di sforzo si trovano:

una directory di link sulla letteratura inglese

uno strumento per effettuare ricerche testuali direttamente sulle opere dei vari autori

un mini-sito sulla letteratura vittoriana

Sono certo che questo sito riserverà altre sorprese...

American Literature

2011-10-05T10:37:00.001-07:00

The Norton Anthology of American Literature

American Literature

American Writers

Enotes - American Literature

http://www.amlit.com/

Literary resources - American

Outline of American Literature (FREE PDF!!!)

Augustan Age summaries - riassunti sull'età augustea

2011-09-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

The dynasty of Hanover: a golden age

When Queen Anne died, George I of Hanover became King, thus a new dynasty succeeded the Stuarts. This dynasty would last (lasted) about two hundred years. Thus the so-called Augustan Age started.

The new King could not speak English and preferred Germany to England, which made him very unpopular.

This was a period of political stability and flourishing of the Arts. It was a materialist society in which trades were (considered) very important. Its
political institutions were hierarchical and hereditary: politicians based their power on bribing (corruption) rather than on an electoral basis.

Merchants, craftsmen and individual entrepreneurs were favoured by the government, which (on the other hand) did not interfere with the private life of citizens.

The age of Enlightenment

It was a period in which thinkers and philosophers gave a lot of importance to reason. Man was placed at the centre of the Universe, so the pessimistic Puritan values were rejected (refused).

Liberal thought (il pensiero liberale) influenced the view of the world, affirming that free will could lead to continuous progress and, in the end, to salvation for all humankind. It was also an age of sexual permissiveness, though for men only. This faith (fede) in progress led people to experiment, explore and invent as never before.

The features of Augustan literature and the view of Nature

Literature was interested in real life and social behavior, and politeness and the art of conversation became more and more important.

The Arts had to imitate Nature, which was seen as a masterpiece of balance and symmetry. This symmetry extended not only to the Earth but to the whole Creation (all the Creation), as the Universe was considered the manifestation of Divine principles.

In Augustan society virtue was considered very important as a benevolence towards oneself and to others. Also, a new stress on (importance of) personal sensibility appeared in literature which foreshadows (prefigura) one of the main trends of Romanticism.

The Whigs and the Tories

The Whigs and the Tories were the first political parties in Britain. The Tories supported the divine right of monarchy and opposed religious toleration; the Clergy and the landowners sided with them. The term ‘Tory’ became a synonym to ‘conservative’. The Whigs pressed for commercial development, a vigorous foreign policy and religious toleration. They were supported by the wealthy and commercial classes. They were in power continuously for more than fifty years.

During the first Whig governments, ministers started meeting without the King. At first, all ministers were equal, but, as time went by, the figure of the Prime Minister emerged.

The first Prime Minister

The first Prime Minister was Robert Walpole, who governed during the reigns of George I and George II. He promoted liberal values by keeping England out of wars, so that trade could flourish and taxes could be kept down. Cloth trading and mining were major industries in this period, laying the basis for the Agrarian and Industrial Revolutions.

Wiliam Pitt

William Pitt, also a Whig, succeeded Walpole in 1735. He started a mercantilistic policy to make England economically competitive. This contributed to the creation of a new set of middle-class values based on power, wealth and prestige.

English society in the 18^th Century

The wealthy merchants, who supported Walpole and Pitt in their policies, acquired more and more power and often bought large estates to gain prestige and enable their children to marry into aristocracy. Craftsman and artisans filled the gap between the upper class and the poor, working for long hours for a low wage. The majority of the population (, though,) remained extremely poor and lived in terrible conditions. Diseases like smallpox and typhus affected these people and it has been estimated that more than half of the children died before the age of five. The only institutions that took care of the poor were the parishes, that hired many children as apprentices. Many of them became chimney-sweepers. Parishes also built workhouses for adults, but alcoholism and organized crime were frequent problems at the time.

In the countryside, the enclosure system caused the misery of many, who were forced to look for jobs in urban areas, thus becoming the urban proletariat, but also favouring the development of modern farming methods.

The coffee-houses

One of the most important features of Augustan society were the coffee-houses, in which people met to share the news and gossip (a function similar to that of theatres in the Elizabethan Age). Fashionable people and artists attended the houses to exchange opinions. It was mainly through the coffee-houses that the public opinion and journalism began to evolve.

Shakespeare's sonnets - Short commentaries

2011-09-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

In questo post troverete alcuni brevi commenti su sonetti di Shakespeare. Naturalmente provenienti dal polveroso archivio.

___________

My Mistress’ Eyes

Shakespeare describes his lady using courtly imagery but she doesn’t reach that level of perfection.

Her eyes are compared to the Sun, but they are not as bright; her lips are not as red as coral; her breasts are not as white as snow; and so on.

The aim of this is to show that Love is not necessarily related to beauty, and that true Love is more important than exaggerated but false praises.

The structure of the poem is based upon Shakespeare’s typical scheme: three quatrains rhyming abab cdcd efef and a final rhyming couplet. This gives a strong emphasis to the couplet, where the poet’s opinion is summarised.

___________

Shall I compare thee

The poem opens with a conventional comparison in courtly poetry: that between the Lady and a summer’s day. The outcome is that she doesn’t present any of the excesses or the faults that a summer’s day has if it is described realistically.

But nothing is eternal, except one thing: the power of Poetry, which will make the Lady’s Beauty immortal, as long as the poet’s lines survive.

The sonnet follows the Shakesperian scheme, but it also presents a shift in tone and subject between lines 8 and 9, which was a feature of the Petrarchan sonnet.

___________

More commentaries coming soon...

Norman Age summaries - Riassunti sul periodo della dominazione normanna

2011-08-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

Caricherò su questo post alcuni brevi riassunti sul periodo della dominazione normanna.

Tudor Era summaries - Riassunti sull'età dei Tudor

2011-08-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

Caricherò su questo post alcuni brevi riassunti sul periodo Tudor. Stay tuned.

"Lilith" by George MacDonald

2011-08-22T08:58:00.001-07:00

"Lilith" by George MacDonald (under construction)

Lilith - Edizione completa online (English)
Lilith - Edizione completa scaricabile (English)
Lilith - Edizione completa scaricabile, .zip file (English)

Lilith - Study Guide (English)
Lilith - Study Guide (English)

Lilith - Wikipedia Italia
Lilith (novel) - Wikipedia English

MacDonald ispiratore di Tolkien? Uno studio (Italiano)

All Art is Propaganda

2011-08-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

All Art is Propaganda. Can Socialists be happy?

Charles Dickens

Propaganda and demotic speech

Wells, Hitler and the World State

All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays (overview)

Fifty Orwell essays

The Picts (updated)

2011-07-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

Click on the Pic(t) :)

Un breve documentario sottotitolato sui Pitti.

Under construction...

The truth about the Picts

Pictish Nation

The shadowy painted people?

Roman Britain

2011-07-31T12:04:00.000-07:00

Cliccate sull'immagine - Click on the pic

BBC History: an overview of Roman Britain

Under construction...

William Blake

2011-06-20T12:15:00.001-07:00

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.

Biografia (italiano)

Un interessante, breve saggio su Blake

A breve la traduzione del saggio.

William Wordsworth

2011-06-20T03:13:00.001-07:00

Coming soon...