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Dubliners by J.Joyce (riferimento a 'Eveline' e 'The dead')

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“Dubliners” is a collection of fifteen short stories written by James Joyce in which the author analyses the failure of self-realisation of inhabitants of Dublin in biographical and in psychological ways. The novel was originally turned down by publishers because they considered it immoral for its portrait of the Irish city. Joyce treats in “Dubliners” the paralysis of will in four stages: childhood, youth, maturity and public life. The paralysis of will is the courage and self-knowledge that leads ordinary men and women to accept the limitations imposed by the social context they live in. In “Dubliners” the style is both realistic - to the degree of perfectly recreating characters and idioms of contemporary Dublin - and symbolic – giving the common object unforeseen depth and a new meaning in order to show a new view of reality. Joyce defines this effect “epiphany” which indicates that moment when a simple fact suddenly explodes with meaning and makes a person realise his / her condi
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Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854.
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, before winning a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford.
After graduating, Wilde moved to London and during the years 1878-81, he was considered a refined and provocative writer and, through his Oxford connections, was introduced to the upper class.

Because of his flamboyant personality he became the leader of the Aesthetic Movement, and was invited to the United States for a series of lectures in 1881.
Oscar Wilde lived fully during the Victorian Age, so-called for British Queen Victoria, a sovereign who gave Great Britain a long period of stability and prosperity, obviously not without negative aspects.
In this period, in fact, the Irish writer acquired the role of external observer of reality, which was characterized by Puritanism, opium trade by India, purity appearances and frequent adulterers.

In his comedies, he comments in a sarcastic way the superficial lifestyle of the upper class and the numerous contradictions of Victorian compromise.

He was influenced by the Dublin culture of the 19th century and the Aesthetic movement. For this reason, he had not a puritan component and his approach to life followed Aestheticism, which stated life is enjoyment and imitates Art.
So, Wilde enhanced the return to individual beauty and hellenic models, he wanted liberation from Christian religion, which prevents man from sensually enjoying life.
Then, the Irish writer is considered a dandy, a man for whom perfection in dress was as important as perfection in art.

He supported the motto “Art for Art”, which explains Art is an aesthetic research and not spiritual one.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) is the major work of fiction in the Aesthetic tradition.
This novel is based on the theme of the double, typical of the psychological horror stories.
The picture represents Dorian’s double side, the dark side that is the symbol of immortality typical of the Victorian middle class. On the other side, Dorian Gray’s innocent appearance represents the Victorian bourgeois hypocrisy.
The behaviour of the main character reflects the contradictions of the Victorian Age and his beauty represents the importance given to external appearance.
In this novel Oscar Wilde expresses his conception of Art that reminds us of Keats' art theory: art overcomes life.
In fact, when Dorian tries to destroy the painting, he is punished with his own death and, after his death, the picture returns to its original beauty.

Oscar Wilde continued his denunciation of the ambiguity of the Victorian middle class in An ideal husband and The importance of being earnest, which are built on irony, satirical dialogues and absurd characters.

However, Oscar Wilde did not understand that his denunciation would ruin his social and literary success.
He was facing a losing war against not only Victorian compromise, but Queen Victoria, who led England to a long period of economic stability, even if the gap between classes remained.
So, when he was accused of homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, the son of Marquess of Queensbury, whole of society exposed him to a law that establishes imprisonment and forced works to guilty of sodomy.

During his period in jail, he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis.
When he left prison, in 1897 went to Paris where he lived a miserable existence supported by money from his friends.
He died alone in 1900.

Oscar Wilde died at the end of the Victorian Age, but he opened a new and complex era: our brilliant modernity.
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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 mondo di valori
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