LITERATURE IN THE 20 th CENTURY AND THE CRISIS OF VALUES The stream of consciousness and the «new subjectvity»

REASON FOR CHOOSING THE PATH To better understand the role of narrative strategies in literature To better understand literature in the 20th century To understand why studies of linguistics became more intense and important in the 20th century To improve my linguistic and logical skills making comparisons between writers, texts, and narrative techniques

PROBLEM POSED OR OBJECTIVE OF THE PATH What were the narrative strategies used in literature? What does these strategies imply? Why are these strategies used?

TEXTS CHOICE James Joyce, Ulysses (1922), Molly’s monologue Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)

NARRATIVE STRATEGIES - The stream of conscoiusness, rendered through: The free indirect style The shift of the point of view An eclipsed third person narrator The interior monologue External reality have to be replaced by the private room of consciousness.

James Joyce The Full stream of consciousness: abolishment of every linguistic connector; Plot is reduced to the minimal; Use of free indirect speech; The interior monologue. Narrative strategies in order to express the “chaos of the individual” and the utmost moments of existence to bring the reader to epiphany

EPIPHANY Epiphany brings the individual to a moment of revelation Epiphany designates the moment in a narrative when events, images, ideas, or any combination of these have reached critical mass and produce for the reader an explosive recognition of meaning: It is the short moment in which a character becomes aware of himself and of his life

Molly Bloom’s monologue what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office the alarmclock next door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can dose off what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp […] […] and O that awful deep down torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees 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 as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down Jo me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. James Joyce, Ulysses

Virginia Woolf Stream of consciousness rendered through: The use of interior monologue; The free indirect style; the shift of the point of view; an eclipsed third person narrator; Narrative strategies in order to make her readers able to feel close to the characters’ mind: the “stream of consciousness” expresses the moment when the individual lives with full consciousness: a moment of being.

MOMENT OF BEING Every moment can be considered as a moment of being The moment of being can be considered as the moment that makes the individual aware of the pattern of the woolly curtain of existence. The psychological level becomes as important as the description of the setting

Mrs. Dalloway […] “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. He had turned on his bed one morning in the middle of the War. He had said, “I have had enough.” Gloves and shoes; she had a passion for gloves; but her own daughter, her Elizabeth, cared not a straw for either of them. Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

James Joyce Vs. Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf’s moment of being is different from James Joyce’s “epiphany” because it brings the individual to a moment of revelation, while for Virginia Woolf it brings an opportunity of “true life” A “moment of being” it’ s always a moment of “exact feeling”, and this is why Virginia Woolf didn’t abolish language connectors  While James Joyce adopted a “full stream of consciousness” in which he abolished every linguistic connector, V. Woolf adopted a precise and evocative language.

WHAT DOES THESE NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IMPLY? A simultaneous concept of time which allows distinguishing the subjectivity time from the external one. The psychological level becomes as important as the description of the setting External reality is replaced by the private room of consciousness A new role for the reader: he is asked to make sense of what he/she is reading, but he/she is never guided, there is no punctuation to guide the beginning or the end of the sentence.

WHY ARE THESE NARRATIVE STRATEGIES USED? Joyce wanted to make the reader reflect about him/herself, in order to give his/her own epiphany to allow subjectivity to come into surface. Virginia Woolf express her characters’ psychological realism to make her readers able to “feel” characters’ mind

A CRISIS OF VALUES These narrative strategies represent a reaction to the crisis of values in Europe: The human being had no more confidence to progress because of Darwinism, the catholic religion and the economic depression Art proposes a solution: The Aesthetic movement, in literature and in paintings

THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT Anti – Victorian reaction against the self- satisfying morality and rigid orthodox rules  Art for art’s sake: time flows incessantly like a river towards death. In the face of the tragic brevity of existence and the uncertainty of time, art is the only way of stopping time through the ecstatic moment: - Impressionism in paintings, the epiphany and the moment of being in literature

WORK BY Riccardo Zanutta