The industrial setting Performer - Culture & Literature Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © 2012

1. Life in the city In the late 1830s and in the 1840s : forms of organised life of the city were introduced by most Victorian authors. London became the heart of the new social system, its public and private buildings, the signs of progress, such as the railway, and despair, such as the slums, were described in the novels of these decades. Performer- Culture&Literature

2. Realistic descriptions The representation of the industrial setting characterised by: the author’s effort at realism to involve the reader in a direct experience of the place; insistence on dark colours, monotonous sounds; ugliness of the environment; lack of individuality in the people.   Per autrici: taglierei il titoletto Physical sensations --< OK Performer- Culture&Literature

2. Realistic descriptions The street ‘[...] and so they went along till they arrived in Berry Street. It was unpaved; and down the middle a gutter1 forced its way, every now and then forming pools in the holes with which the street abounded. Never was the old Edinburgh cry of ‘Gardez l’eau!’ more necessary than in this street. As they passed, women from their doors tossed household slops2 of every description into the gutter; they ran into the next pool, which overflowed and stagnated. Heaps of ashes3 were the stepping-stones4, on which the passer-by, who cared in the least for cleanliness, took care not to put his foot.’ (E. Gaskell, Mary Barton, 1848) gutter = sight tossed = touch 1.gutter. Grondaia. 2.household slops. Gettavano l’acqua del risciacquo. 3. Heaps of ashes. Mucchi di immondizia. 4. stepping-stones. Gradini. Performer- Culture&Literature

2. Realistic descriptions Physical sensations The area ‘Our friends were not dainty1, but even they picked their way, till they got to some steps leading down into a small area, where a person standing would have his head about one foot below the level of the street, and might at the same time, without the least motion of his body, touch the window of the cellar and the dump muddy2 wall right opposite.’ (E. Gaskell, Mary Barton, 1848) touch the window = touch 1. dainty. Raffinati. 2. dump muddy. Umida e fangosa. touch = touch Performer- Culture&Literature

2. Realistic descriptions The cellar ‘You went down one step even from the foul7 area into the cellar in which family of human beings lived. It was very dark inside. The window-panes were many of them broken and stuffed with rags8, which was reason enough for the dusky9 light that pervaded the place even at mid-day. After the account I have given of the state of the street, no one can be surprised that going into the cellar inhabited by Davenport, the smell was so fetid as almost to knock the two men down.’ (E. Gaskell, Mary Barton, 1848) foul = smell 7. foul. Fetida. 8. stuffed with rags. Piene di stracci. 9. dusky. Fosca, tetra. VEDI TESTO MODIFICATO SOPRA!!! RISPETTARE COLORI USATI Performer- Culture&Literature

2. Realistic descriptions The cellar ‘Quickly recovering themselves, as those inured1 to such things do, they began to penetrate the thick darkness of the place, and to see three or four little children rolling on the damp, nay2 wet, brick floor, through which the stagnant, filthy moisture of the street oozed up3; the fireplace was empty and black; the wife sat on her husband’s lair4, and cried in the dank loneliness5’ (E. Gaskell, Mary Barton, 1848) cried = hearing 1. inured. Avvezzi. 2. nay. Piuttosto. 3. filthy … up. Colava la maleodorante umidità della strada. 4. lair. Cuccia, giaciglio. 5. dank loneliness. Solitudine fetida. Performer- Culture&Literature

3. A new vocabulary Description unpaved, gutter, miserable dwellings ragged (people) filth, sewers, garbage, ditches Description ashes, dismantled (houses), wooden Performer- Culture&Literature

3. A new vocabulary Atmosphere dim, crazy, loathsome gloomy, dismal squalid, harsh Atmosphere sombre, wretched Performer- Culture&Literature