1. THE VICTORIAN AGE Period: From1837 till 1901 Economy:
Period of prosperity for the British people
Period of peace (Pax Britannica)
Economic, colonial, and industrial consolidation
Culture:
Gothic Revival architecture
emergence of photography
Social changes:
Industrial improvements
Demographic increasement
Improvement of communication links
Sanitation reforms
Rapid urbanization

2. THE VICTORIAN NOVEL Main features:
Idealized portraits of difficult lives
A central moral lesson
Problem generally centered on the relationship between an individual and a group of society as a whole
Juxtaposition of classes and the contrast between the rich and the poor
The most popular subject is a middle class family life
Exaggeration of the tones, characters and emotions
3rd person omniscient narrator

3. MODERNISM Period: First three decades of twentieth century Economy:
End of european domination
Basis of the modern wealfare state
Failure of Capitalism
Culture:
Einstein’s General theory of Relativity
Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams
Jung’s The Psychology of the unconscious
Social changes:
No more faith in Liberalism and Democracy
Rejection of old Victorian standards
Insecurity about the future

4. MODERNIST NOVEL Features and narrative techniques:
Subjectivity and reflexivity in writing
Focus on the aestheic form
Eclipse of the narrator
Shift of the point of view
Use of poetical language also in prose
Plot is reduced to the minimum
Use of the monologue (stream of consciousness method)
A simultaneous concept of time

5. VIRGINIA WOOLF Mrs Dalloway: Realistic fiction 3° person narrator
Shift of point of view
Simultaneous and chronological concept of time
Language of sense impression
Figurative language
Interior monologue
Direct and indirect thought

6. JAMES JOYCE Ulysses: Subjectivity 1° person narrator
Interior monologue
Stream of consciousness method
Absence of punctuation and connectors
Simultaneous concept of time
Associative process
Extreme realism