1.

THE VICTORIAN AGE

1.1 Economy and society The Victorian age began with Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901). It was a period of rapid expansion both economically and territorially. Old agricultural economy was replaced by manufacturing industry and international and free trade. Britain's wealth was the result of material exploitation of its colonies. There were lowly paid workers who worked in the factories and urban poor people were perceived as a potential danger. However thanks to a series of reforms and progressive policies working class was incorporated into society. 1.2 The pressure of reform Both Conservative and Liberals were initially extremely scared about extending the power to vote to the masses. The First Reform Bill of 1832 excluded the working classes completely and limited representation to the mercantilist middle classes. Causes: industrial regions were not so well represented as those controlled by landed nobles and gentry votes had to be declared publicly intimidation

CHARTIST MOVEMENT The chartists' demand contain six points: votes for all males annually elected parliaments payment of members of parliament so that also working-class could become Mps secret voting abolition of the property qualification for candidates seeking election establishment of electoral districts equal in population

The People's Charter was draw up in 1838 but was rejected three times. After petitions and a general strike, leaders were arrested. The movement disbanded, but its ideas continued to circulate. All the demands became law btw 1860-1914 except n2. The vote was extended to working-classes men in 1918, women able to vote in 1928. 1.3 Technological innovation Invention of steam-powered machinery, development of railways revolusionesed both industry and transport, that become faster and more efficient. The Great Exhibition (1851) displaying objects from all over the world, become a symbol for Britains dominant position as an industril and imperial trading power. Communications also improved thanks to a more efficient mail service and the invention of the telephone. Printing became cheaper. The age was characterised by a general optimism. 1.4 The cost of living and poverty At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Britains economy revolved around agriculture and the textile industry. Mechanisation meant increased competition: cut production cost cut wages. Instead the cost of living was kept high by the Corn Laws (the price of corn high level by taxing exporting corn). Certain legislations in Victoria period were the Poor Laws. Because the price of corn was high (Corn Laws),

paupers risked starvation and could not feed their children. In order to solve this problem, the children were declared destitute and, forced to separate from their families, were sent to work in parish-run workhouses, in return for which they received barely enough food to survive. The risk of epidemics, which also affected the urban middle classes. 1.5 Managing the Empire The Victorian period saw the massive expansion of Britains Empire all over the world, from Asia to Africa to Central America to Oceania. In 1876 Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India to consolidate popular support for the Empire. Trade with India included tea, spices, silk and cotton and it was vital to the British economy that routes across land and sea be secured. 1.6 The Victorian compromise Compromise: make an agreement (according), give something to poor people by rich ones) Victorians progressive in theory, but opposite in practice. Urban workers live in poverty and systematically exploited. The government promoted a campaign to clean up town devasted by epidemics, and built modern hospitals. In 1829 Robert Peel established the metropolitan police, that control urban poor, considerate dirty, dangerous and immoral species. Victorian ideal represented church, family, the home and the sanctity of childhood. Women had a domestic role and were called angel in the home. Womens right were extremely restricted. Another category of women was the one of fallen women (lost their honor), which included the adulteress, the unmarried mothers and the prostitutes. Literature masked the fact that children of the poor were forced into labour at an extremely early age and often separated from their families. 1.7 The late Victorian period Two important political figures: William Gladstone: Tory leader, free trade, self-government for Ireland, removal of religious testing for university entry, liberalization of recruitment to the military and civil service, extending vote to the working class, system of national education Benjamin Disraeli: popular Tory statesman and novelist, reformer, establish a nationalist patriotic alliance between the British working people and a spiritually reborn aristocracy

Both policy of gradual incorporation of working classes: best way to avoid the mass revolutionary insurrection of the type that occurred in continental Europe. Reforms: Elementary Education Act 1870: all children right to basic education Trade Union Act 1871: unions legal Independent Labour Party 1893: modern welfare state 1891 elementary education free 1899 school-leaving age twelve

A times of new ideas: Modern democracy Feminism Socialism Marxism Stuart Mill tried and failed to obtain vote for women 1867

National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies 1897 later supersed by the more radical Womens Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhusrt Fabian Society: society of socialist intellectual closely bound to the Labour Party (G.B.Shaw) pro women Darwins theory of evolution: vital part in free market, accorded with Victorian ideas of social progress and improvement, yet at the same time seemed to justify social and economic disparity between rich and poor question of the survival of the fittest

2. The Victorian Novel Victorian period golden age of the novel In 19th-century novelist frequently published their work in instalments in literary magazines and periodicals to create expectation in readers. There was the idea of linearity of the story: beginning, middle and end. One of the most popular genres was the Bildungsroman which traced the life of the protagonist from infancy to adulthood, and the concern was the relation of the individual to society. Typically the plots of Victorian novels revolved around question of money: the making and losing of fortunes. The narrator is omniscient, a moral guide and as an instrument for analyzing the psychology of the characters characters interior world Charles Dickens was probably the most representative literary figure. Most of his novels are set in London, and in them he captures the vitality of life in the city, as well as the squalor and deprivation that many of its inhabitants were forced to endure whole panorama of social classes Dickens is also fiercely critical of certain aspects of the Victorian compromise such as the greed and hypocrisy of the rich, absurd burocracy, and indifference to the problem of the poor. critical of the shallowness of the Victorian world, which is based on money and appearances The Bront sisters (charlotte, Emily particularly) rebelled against world of order and restraint (woman = angel in the home). Their novels were romantic in spirit and explore extremes of passion and violence.

2.1 Edgar Allan Poe 2.2 Charles Dickens 2.3 Peter Carey ????

3. Victorian Drama The theatre was dominated by actor-managers whose companies performed Shakespeare although with many of the texts cut or even changed to suite Victorian tastes and morals. Also popular were melodramas: schematic plays with superficial and stereotypical characters and absurd plots in which good always triumphed over evil morality plays of the medieval period. A subversive strain or theatre flourished among working class audiences in the form of music hall. One innovation of Victorian theatre was the Victorian playhouse (still nowadays): extended back from the auditorium into a proscenium arch which was lit by gaslight, this permitted the construction of elaborate sets which gave the illusion of real places more realistic theatre, use of action, movement and setting.

3.1 Oscar Wilde Oscar Wildes plays criticized Victorian values in a comic way. His social comedies were a success, thanks to their witty dialogue and absurd characters. Wildes views about art were different from Shaws. He denied the moral or political significance of art, saying that works of art were autonomous and could be judged only in terms of their beauty. Shaw wrote controversial plays which are criticised by establishment, in his own life was the model of decency and was a highly respected public figure. Wildes comedies on the other hand did nothing to offend anybody and were popular with the people whose lives they satirized. It was Wildes private life and in particular his homosexuality which offend the Victorians. Born in Dublin, he was strong religious and to him life and art are very closely linked eccentric dandy and art for arts sake 1891 Picture of Dorian Gray, but1895 his popularity declined when he was arrested and sentenced to two years hard labour. Wilde had been married for several years to Constance Lloyd with whom had two children, when the Marquis of Queensberry accused him of having a homosexual relationship with his (marquis) son. scandal After two years in prison he emigrated to France in Paris, where he was buried in the same cemetery as the poet Charles Baudelaire 3.2 The picture of Dorian Gray

3.3 George Bernard Shaw He was born in Dublin, devoted to music and dramatic criticism, he was admiring of Ibsen. In 1884 he joined the Fabian Society. He was a journalist and public speaker. Each of Shaws plays was preceded by a preface which he explained the plays themes and the writers aim make the audience think about the society Theatre was an instrument for social and political change. Criticism of Victorian values, patriotic and romantic illusion to recruit the working-class into the army. The controversial themes explored attempts to represent the lower classes in a more realistic and sympathetic way. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He died in 1950. 3.4 Pygmalion Name of a charcter from ancient Greek legend in Metamorphosis 4. THE AGE OF MODERNISM 4.1 A Time of War After the death of Vitoria in 1901, Edward VII took the throne. The role of royal personages had been reduced to the largely symbolic capacity of figurehead and cornerstone of nationalism. 20th century was a period characterized by political, social and cultural ferment. In 1903 Pankhurst founded the womens social nd political union. The women fighting for the right to vote were called suffragettes. They obtain the vote in 1918 over 30, and in 1928 over 21. The liberal government of Herbert Henry Asquith continued on the path towards social reform: Old age pension act 1908: pensions to people over 70 National insurance act 1911: medical treatment available to insured workers

Liberals were split between a reformist element, who wished to integrate the demands of working-class and

welfare state; and a more conservative element. During this period labour party grew representing workingclass interest: 1906-1913 Trades Disputes Act through which trade unions won full legal recognition. Another important political issue was the Irish question. The majority of the Irish population was Catholic and wanted an independent parliament in Dublin, but the Protestant population (Ulster) wanted to stay under British rule. They refused to accept the 1912 Home Rule Bill designed to devolve the power to the Irish and Unionist and Republicans were close to civil war. The rebellion (Easter Monday 1916) became a symbol for Irish resistance for British rule. 4.2 WWI After the first world war of 1914-18, as many writers observed, the world, and the human psychology, would irrevocably change. The official started with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 by Serbian nationalist. World war I had an international character. Essentially was between the German and Austro-Hungarian Empire on one side, and Britain and France on the other. The other country took place in the war to protect their territorial and economic interests. The second new feature of the war was to be a conflict without limits involving the mobilisation of masses. Military technology had advanced and the number of casualties was to be enormous. The imperial expansion of Western powers had to led to the complete fusion of politics with economics. In war as in business the aim became that of destroying the competition and gaining total dominance. At the same time imperial Russia also involved in the fight against the German-Austro-Hungarian alliance, and saw the eruption of the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 led by Lenin. The Tsar Nicholas IIs regime was forced to abdicate. After the death of Lenin, Stalin established a reign of terror. The Soviet Union played a vital part in defeating Hitlers armies during World War II. In the 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was drawn up by the Allied powers, with the aim of preventing Germany from building up its military machine again. World War I had a tremendous cost in terms of humans lives. At the beginning was characterised by an aggressive patriotism, then most people in Britain wanted the war to end as soon as possible: anti-war feeling, already among socialist, spread to other section of population. After the war Ireland took important steps towards independence. In 1918 the Sinn Fein party set up an Irish parliament in Dublin and proclaimed an Irish Republic. In 1919 the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was created and in 1920 a civil war began. The war ended the year after with the establishment of the Irish Free State excluding Ulster, which remained part of the United Kingdom. In India Mahatma Gandhi initiated a protest movement based on the principles of non-violence. 4.3 The inter-war years The inter-war years were a dark and ominous time. The General Strike of 1926, though short-lived, marked a renewal of class conflict. In terms of the tensions that divided Europe, World War I had resolved nothing. It was only in the 1930s, when Hitlers true aims became apparent, that they began to realise fascism had to be defeated. Creation of the League of Nations in 1919. The economic boom which wealthy Americans enjoyed during the 1920s led to excessive speculation and finally to the great US stock-market crash of 1929 known as the Wall Street Crash. Taking advantage of Germanys economic crisis, Hitler rose swiftly to power and began to rebuild army, navy, and air force. With the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939 it became obvious that Hitler had no intention of stopping. On 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany. 4.4 WWII This was a necessary war that had to be fought to safeguard civilization from fascist tyranny. It began

between Germany and France and Britain, by December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, World War II become a global war on two main fronts: Europe and Asia. German conquest of Europe met almost no opposition. Having signed a pact with Stalin dividing up Eastern Europe, and being supported by Mussolini in Italy Hitler was free to march his armies west. Not until 1940 and the Battle of Britain, Germany suffer her first defeat. In 1941 Hitler dissolved his pact with Russia and began attacking. Allied invasion of Italy was in 1943, but only got as far as Ravenna. Italian partisans captured and executed Mussolini in April 1945. The Allied offensive (1944 June D-Day landings) with the soviet one, soon had the Germans closed in. the war in Europe ended in May 1945. Three months later in August, Japan fell with the dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima e Nagasaki. WWII saw enormous number of casualties among the civil population due to aerial bombardment. Hitler plan was the extermination of the Jews, the so-called Final Solution. Over six million Jews are believed to have died in the death camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, etc. After the war, many Nazi war criminals were tried in Nuremberg. The memory of the Holocaust persists in our culture as a kind of black hole. Atomic bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945 to force a quick Japanese surrender. However, it is probable that the US wanted also to demonstrate their nuclear power to the Russians. Cold War between the West and communist Russia was to dominate world politics for the next 45 years. 4.5 Cultural transformation The end of the 19th century saw an explosion of technological innovation: automobile and electricity would dramatically change peoples lives. Other innovation: public transport, electric trams and underground railways revolution of transport. Cinema and radio contributed to a powerful mass information and propaganda. Peoples working lives became organised according to a timetable as the organization of industrial societies became more complex. The Modernism started after 1910 (20-30 Europe) and the modernisation involved many part of the culture, like literature, music, art and cinema. Modernism in general was a clean break with traditions through experimentation with form and style. The narration represent the workings of the mind and of the unconscious. Subjective perception of reality. 4.6 Modernism and the Novel Great War of 1914-18 marks a fundamental break between the old world and the new. The modernist interested in recovering the unique experience of the individual. Omniscient narrator direct or indirect presentation of characters thoughts, feelings and memories, linear plot or a chronological sequence of events. Gave way to the idea of duration of freezing and examining what Virginia Woolf called moment of being. Modernist was influenced by Freud: the unconscious could not be accessed except through dreams. Irrational unconscious drives early in life: mans childhood influence on his behaviour as an adult. His perception of reality was fundamentally subjective. Freuds notion of the Oedipus complex. 4.7 James Joyce 4.8 Virginia Woolf 4.9 Michael Cunningham 4.10 Aldous Huxley 4.11 George Orwell 5. The Post-War World

At the end of World War II there was an agreement between the US and USSR. The countries of Eastern Europe occupied by the Soviet Red Army remained under Soviet communist influence, while Western Europe fell under the economic and political influence of the US, who provided extensive financial aid for the rebuilding and modernization of their economies Marshall Plan Tension rose in 1949 when Russia acquired the nuclear bomb and China fell to communist revolution the world fell under the menacing shadow of the Cold War (Korea, Vietnam): the two superpowers continued to maintain civil but uneasy relations until the coming to power in Russia of Mikhail Gorbachev and the advent of glasnost and perestroika signaling more open, friendly relations and further reduction of nuclear arms. Soviet Union was closed to collapse. After World War II there was a rapid decolonization and the disintegration of the British Empire, beginning with India, which was partitioned in two independent nations, India and Pakistan, in 1947, where there were continued conflict caused by religious antagonism (1971 Bangladesh independent). The process was accelerate by the Suez Crisis in 1956, when Britain and France tried to re-establish imperial control over Egypt. During the 1960s a large number of colonies won their independence including Nigeria 1960, Jamaica 1962, though Rhodesia held out until 1980, when it became the Republic of Zimbabwe. Whether as a result of political instability or economic hardship, successive waves of immigrants came to Britain in search of better prospect multicultural society The development of a welfare state that would sustain the unemployed and socially disadvantaged by providing public housing and efficient public services such as a health, education and transport was established, that even successive Conservative governments did not wish to dismantle. The consumer boom which began in the 1950s until 70s was also possible thanks to advances in production technology and materials which made goods cheaper and more easily available than ever before. However, these same technological innovations had the disadvantage of reducing the need for labour apart from highly skilled technicians strikes. In a global economy which tended increasingly towards free market liberalism, the dream of the welfare state was proving too costly maintain. 5.1 Margaret Thatcher In 1979 Margaret Thatcher, the leader of Conservative party, was elected prime minister of Britain. Cause her determination in pursuing her political programs earned the nickname Iron Lady. Her policies were based on the philosophy of individualism, the free market and the privatization of Britains nationalized enterprises in order to make industry more competitive and to lower prices.