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The Beatles: The Icons of British Culture

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The Beatles were one of the most successful and influential rock bands of the 20th century. The group was formed by the "Fab Four": John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals), and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals). From Liverpool to Global Domination Formed in Liverpool in 1960, they dominated the British and international charts from 1962 to 1970. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity sparked a global phenomenon known as "Beatlemania." As their music grew in sophistication—led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney—the band evolved from pop idols into the embodiment of the 1960s counterculture. They experimented with psychedelia, Indian classical music, and studio techniques that changed the face of the recording industry forever. A Prolific Legacy The Beatles wrote over 200 songs (including 186 original compositions released during their active years). Their catalog includes timeless mast...
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Anthony Burgess's novel 1985: a continuum of 1984

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Anthony Burgess is considered one of the most important writers of 20th century, whose most famous dystopian novels are A Clockwork Orange, The Wanting Seed and Nineteen Eighty-Five.
1985 is divided into two sections, a narrative and a nonfiction, which, recalling Orwell's novel 1984, deals with a dystopian universe now in ruins and governed by trade unions.
The protagonist Bev Jones does not share the ideology and discipline imposed by the Unions.
He witnesses the death of his wife, who is burned alive in a hospital during a firefighters strike; his wife's last words are: "Don’t let them go unpunished".
Bev, thus, begins a lonely and desperate struggle, in the name of freedom of choice between good and evil, right and wrong, will and convenience.
He is not a wishful character, but a citizen against violent crowd, language made not to say and demeaning life.
Persecuted by trade unionism, which fights for false freedom, and by disorder as an instrument of ruthless order, Bev will pay for the worst crime against the new welfare state: non-conformism.
The character Bev Jones of 1985 and Winston of 1984 are individuals who do not accept the system and ideology of that society governed by people who hold full powers.
Unfortunately, they will not succeed in their own endeavour: they will be treated in a way that will cause them to lose their personality and individuality and become victims of conformism.
Bitter parable about the political and cultural myths of our time, 1985 communicates to the reader the same message as Orwell’s novel 1984: do not allow yourself to be influenced by conformism because it is the worst crime that can be committed against the new welfare state.
Burgess's novel is a continuum of Orwell's dystopian novel, which is described as the most famous image of a future world not as one would like it to be.
However, Burgess says: "The scenario described in 1984 is still not the worst of the possible imaginary worlds. The picture, thirty years after the book was published, is getting worse rather than better."
Thus, in this novel Burgess makes an analysis and a representation of our world, with a chilling likelihood whose roots are already in today.
The dystopian literary genre, so, becomes for Burgess a warning to an opposing reality of man.
Chosen down religion, the individuality of man and his freedom, the new world will be in danger, with its spiritual or technological surrogates, wishful ideologies and senseless wars; in this way, man is reduced to a gear.
And when the gear fails, you either repair it or throw it away.
In a clockwork world the most important thing is that the machine continues to work.
The rest, after all, counts for nothing.
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Analisi del testo. Tre cose solamente mi so 'n grado di Cecco Angiolieri

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Testo Tre cose solamente mi so 'n grado, le quali posso non ben men fornire: ciò è la donna, la taverna e 'l dado; queste mi fanno 'l cuor lieto sentire. Ma sì me le conven usar di rado, ché la mie borsa mi mett'al mentire; e quando mi sovvien, tutto mi sbrado, ch'i' perdo per moneta 'l mie disire. E dico: – Dato li sia d'una lancia! – Ciò a mi' padre, che mi tien sì magro, che tornare' senza logro di Francia. Trarl'un denai' di man serìa più agro, la man di pasqua che si dà la mancia, che far pigliar la gru ad un bozzagro. Parafrasi Solamente tre cose mi piacciono delle quali, però, non posso disporre: cioè la donna, l'osteria e il gioco d'azzardo; queste cose rendono allegro il mio cuore. Purtroppo, posso permettermele di rado perché la mia borsa non mi consente di realizzare tutti i miei desideri; quando mi rendo conto di ciò, mi metto a sbraitare poiché per mancanza di denaro perdo il mio desiderio. Perciò, dico a me stesso ch...
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Wars and social revolt in 14th century

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Agincourt battle In 1337, war between England and France broke out when Edward III claimed the vacant throne of France. One of the most famous victories in English history was achieved by Henry V at Agincourt. The conflict was interrupted by other tragic events such as the Bubonic plague or Black Death. Under Henry VI's reign, the French obtained spectacular victories thanks to Joan of Arc. In the end, the English kings had lost all their continental possessions. Opposition to the Church developed in the second half of the 14th century under the leadership of John Wycliffe, a member of Oxford University who attacked the supremacy of the Pope. From 1454 to 1485 there was a civil war between the two noble houses of York and Lancaster. It was called the War of the Roses because symbols of Lancaster and York families were respectively red rose and white rose. The war was won by Henry Tudor of the Lancastrian dynasty, and he became Henry VII of England.
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Comparison between Joyce's "Ulysses" and Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway"

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James Joyce (1882-1941) and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) belonged to the first generation of Modernists and it’s possible to make a comparison between their literary production analyzing their masterpieces: Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway . Ulysses Ulysses is one of the greatest examples of reworking of myth in Modernist literature. Joyce uses the epic model to stress the lack of heroism, ideals, love and trust in the modern world. The plot utterly takes place in Dublin in a single day which involves the life of three characters: Leopold Bloom, an advertising agent, Sthephen Dedalus, a sensitive young man with literary ambitions, and Molly Bloom, Leopold’s wife. Leopold Bloom, compared to Homer’s Ulysses, makes common actions: he wanders throughout the day in the streets of Dublin making errands, stopping at the advertising office and joining a funeral. He is distressed with two deep emotional burdens: the unsolved grief over his baby son’s death and the crumbling relationship with his unfa...
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The Ballad of Lord Randal

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Text "O where ha you been, Lord Randal, my son? And where ha you been, my handsome young man?” I ha been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “An wha met ye there, Lord Randal, my son? An wha met you there, my handsome young man?” “O I met wi my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son? And what did she give you, my handsome young man?” “Eels fried in a pan; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “An wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal my son? And wha gat your leavins, my handsome young man?” “ My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “And what becam of them, Lord Randal my son? And what becam of them, my handsome young man?” “ They stretched their legs out and died; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie ...
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Giovanni Pascoli: Lavandare

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Testo Nel campo mezzo grigio e mezzo nero resta un aratro senza buoi che pare dimenticato, tra il vapor leggero. E cadenzato dalla gora viene lo sciabordare delle lavandare con tonfi spessi e lunghe cantilene: Il vento soffia e nevica la frasca, e tu non torni ancora al tuo paese, quando partisti, come son rimasta, come l’aratro in mezzo alla maggese. Analisi e commento Lavandare è un madrigale, ossia un componimento metrico breve a sfondo pastorale, scritto da Giovanni Pascoli ed appartenente alla raccolta Myricae . In questa raccolta l'autore parla della natura che ci circonda, la campagna e gli oggetti quotidiani, osservandoli con lo stupore e la meraviglia di un bambino. Essa incorpora componimenti brevi e lineari che illustrano quadretti di vita campestre che, circondandosi di un alone di mistero, evocano l'idea della morte. Questa caratteristica è presente in Lavandare , nella quale emergono i temi ricorrenti nelle poesie di Pascoli: l'abbandono e la solitudine. Il...
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Analisi del testo. La vita fugge, et non s'arresta una hora di Francesco Petrarca

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Testo La vita fugge, et non s'arresta una hora, et la morte vien dietro a gran giornate, et le cose presenti et le passate mi dànno guerra, et le future anchora; e 'l rimembrare et l'aspettar m'accora, or quinci or quindi, sí che 'n veritate, se non ch'i' ò di me stesso pietate, i' sarei già di questi penser' fòra. Tornami avanti, s'alcun dolce mai ebbe 'l cor tristo; et poi da l'altra parte veggio al mio navigar turbati i vènti; veggio fortuna in porto, et stanco omai il mio nocchier, et rotte arbore et sarte, e i lumi bei che mirar soglio, spenti. Parafrasi La vita fugge e non si ferma nemmeno un'ora, e la morte arriva a marce forzate, e, pertanto, tormenta sia il presente che il passato ed anche il futuro; la mia anima è angosciata sia nel ricordo del passato che nell'attesa del futuro, per cui se ad impedirmelo non fosse la pietà che avverto per la mia anima, avrei posto fine alla mia esistenza. A consolarmi è il ricordo di qu...
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I contributi a livello di poesia di Francesco Petrarca e Dante Alighieri a confronto

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  Francesco Petrarca: confronto con Dante Alighieri e i suoi importanti contributi alla nascita della poesia ed allo sviluppo ed alla diffusione della letteratura italiana in Europa   Francesco Petrarca e Dante Alighieri sono considerati insieme a Giovanni Boccaccio i padri fondatori della letteratura italiana ed è proprio in base alle tematiche ed ai canoni stilistici adottati dai tre poeti che si è sviluppata la stessa poesia. Le opere celebri dei due poeti sono degli esempi: la “Commedia” ( o “Divina Commedia” come l’ha rinomata Boccaccio in una delle sue “Letture della Commedia” ) rimane nella letteratura italiana un’opera inimitabile mentre il Canzoniere  è considerata l’opera più imitata tanto che dal Trecento fino ai primi anni del Novecento molti poeti si avvalgono di parecchi “petrarchismi”. La prima differenza che si può notare tra i due intellettuali è l’attenzione rivolta al mondo classico: Dante, uomo del Medioevo, non avverte alcun distacco tra il mo...
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