5+B+2011-2012

**May 2012**

**The Dystopian Novel**  **dystopia=an imaginary place or condition in which everything is bad** 

This definition from the Oxford English Dictionary would seem fitting in relation to the situations and societies often depicted in dystopian literature. When we think about the dystopian novel, what first comes to mind is often [|George Orwell]'s **//Nineteen-Eighty-Four//**. First published in 1949, it was Orwell's final work. In it he prophesied the advent of a flawless totalitarian society, in which the individual is of literally no significance. However, as it happened, the year 1984 came and went and we did not find ourselves slaves to the Party, although publishers made a killing with endless commemorative reprints. Nevertheless, Nineteen-Eighty-Four remains one of Orwell's most popular works, and we are all familiar with others such as __Aldous Huxley's__ **//Brave New World//** and __Anthony Burgess'__ **//A Clockwork Orange ("Arancia Meccanica")//**   **George Orwell** **1984** In George Orwell's novel **//Nineteen Eighty-Four//**, the Two Minutes' Hate is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting the Party's enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them. The scene below is from the film "1984", directed by Michael Radford in ... 1984!

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Room 101 is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which a prisoner is subjected to his or her own worst nightmare. For each individual, Room 101 held his greatest fearor phobia. When confronted with that, courage and cowardice lose their meaning, one will do whatever one has to do to avoid the horror in Room 101 as naturally and automatically as one will grab at a rope to keep from falling. In Winston’s case, his greatest fear, his worst nightmare was rats and it was rats there were there in the cages in front of him. O’Brien informs him that he is going to open the cages and set the rats onto him. The rats are starving, they will sense Winston’s helplessness and devour him inch by inch. Winston cries out in terror asking O’Brien to only tell him what he has to do to avoid this. O’Brien vouchsafes no answer and lays his hand on the lever which would open the cages. In a total frenzy Winston sees the rats behind the bar and with a sudden flash of intuition realizes what he has to do to save himself. He has to take the final step of degradation, he has to betray Julia. It is no longer a matter of choice, before this threat, he is helpless. He cries out “Do it to Julia! Not me!” Repeating that cry he is aware that the lever has clicked back into place, the cage is closed. His degradation is finally completed in Room 101. Watch the scene from the film in which Winston (Scottish actor John Hurt) is taken to Room 101:

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here's the link I promised :-))

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**Another short story for you. It was written by Virginia Woolf.** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**I'm sure you will find it very familiar :-)** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**Read it for next Tuesday. Activities for discussion will come very soon...**

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<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**April 2012**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**James Joyce**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**EVELINE (from "DUBLINERS", London 1914)** <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**20th Century Poetry** <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**War Poets** media type="custom" key="14792150" <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**March 2012** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**20th Century Poetry**

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**Dylan Thomas**

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**THIS BREAD I BREAK**

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**text analysis**



<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 140%;"> <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Nobel Prize in Literature 1948 <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Here below a timeline of the poet's biography (I have used [|//Timetoast//]an online timeline generator)

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<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**//The Waste Land// (1922)** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">but also one of the most challenging... <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The title alludes to the wounding of the [|Fisher King] and the subsequent <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">sterility of his lands. The poem is dedicated to Ezra Pound, "il miglior fabbro" <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Now open this link <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">[] <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">and __read part 1__ ("The burial of the Dead" line 1-76 ). Please, DON'T WORRY <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">if you find sentences or words written in other languages (German and <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">French): as you have seen, on the right you have all the notes/explanations <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The website has proved an invaluable resource for students, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">PRINT the text (Part 1 only, of course) <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">and bring it with you NEXT TUESDAY (13th March)

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">As far as pronunciation is concerned, open the video below. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">It's T.S. Eliot reading "The Waste Land." Nothing much visually, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">but interesting to hear the poet reading.

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 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 18px;">March/April 2012 **


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 18px;">//Wandering in Wonderland//... **
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Click here to know more about the project. Have fun! **
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 18px;">February 2012 **

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**George Bernard Shaw**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**24th January**
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">January 2012 **

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<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: let's begin with the //Preface//**

The Preface is a collection of free-standing statements, mostly aphorisms, that form a manifesto about the purpose of art, the role of the artist, and the value of beauty. Signed by O.Wilde, the preface serves as a primer for how Wilde intends the novel to be read. He defines the artist as "the creator of beautiful things," and the critic as "he who can translate into another manner or new material his impression of beautiful things." He condemns anyone who finds ugliness where there is beauty as "corrupt." He states that a book can be neither moral or immoral, and that morality itself serves only as "part of the subject matter" of art. Since art exists solely to communicate beauty, Wilde warns against reading too much into any work of art: "Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril." The preface ends with the whimsical statement that "All art is quite useless"; earlier, however, we are told that the "only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely." Food for thought...

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**click [|here to read the Preface]**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**13th January: feature film based on O. Wilde's most famous play**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST**



<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Before watching the film, I strongly adivise you to read the plot (attached file below)

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<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**9th January 2012. Back to school...**

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">There's nothing better than poetry to get started, right?

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Let's begin with **Robert BROWNING** (EARLY VICTORIAN POETRY) <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">whose name is strictly related to the "dramatic monologue", a poetic <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">form where


 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">The reader takes the part of the silent listener
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">The speaker uses a case-making, argumentative tone.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">"**Dramatic**" means that it could be acted out, and is a form of drama, <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">while the "**monologue**" defines it as a speech that one person makes, <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">either to themself or to another.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**Download the full version on //Porphyria's Lover// and read it.** <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">**A tranlsation has been provided for you :-)**

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 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">NEW!! December 2011/ January 2012 **

__**<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">Mock Test **__ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">When you are in the "right" mood, download the document below (LINGUA INGLESE 2° prova scritta- testo letterario), take your dictionary and give yourself 6 hours to see what you can do. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">BREAK A LEG!

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<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">How to survive a ... text analysis

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">Open / download the file below. You will find plenty of words and phrases you might need to use for literary appreciation.

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<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Some technical problems prevented me from editing your "old" page, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">so I have created a new one. I can't find any other solution. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Don't worry because nothing has been lost! If you want to download <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">the previous documents or watch the videos again, just click here !
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">December 2011 **

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">The documents I showed you last Friday can be downloaded here below

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