Italian American Literature and Film
 

Artistic movements reflect DEEP CHANGES in society.

End of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s  (XIX to XX century)

18th century - 1700s: industrial revolution
ENERGY: coal, steam engine,

19th century - mass industrialization (assembly chain)

Literature begins to pay attention to the downtrodden, the 'left behind',
the urban poor, the masses

HUGO Les Miserables -- 1862

REALISM - Naturalism - Verism

Emile Zola - Germinal 1885
Conditions of MINERS - a social denunciation that shook the word.
("Germinal" was the name given to the month of March by the French Revolution of 1789)
 

In England: Charles Dickens

 

Avant-garde lit and arts. Experimentation. Textuality.

IN EVERY FORM OF ARTISTIC EC

FREUD, unconscious

Dreams as parallel universe - prophetic
The interpretation of dreams

Late 1800: Impressionism in art- painting, realism in literature

1900: psychologism, surrealism

Literary device, stream of consciousness, reflecting the work of brain....

Joyce, Faulkner, Dos Passos, Proust, Kafka

capturing different perspectives

capturing emotional states

Stanislavski = method acting

FROM GIORGIONE TO KANDINSKY
 

anthropology and psychology: "primitive art"
MOMA 1984
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1907?installation_image_index=0

anthropology and psychology: "primitive art"

 


GIORGIONE  The Tempest

MONET   Haystacks  London Fog  Water lilies

VAN GOGH Starry Nnight (MoMA)

GAUGUIN  Provence

GAUGUIN THAITI

GAUGUIN ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO

picasso   demoiselles d'avignon

kandinsky

kandinsky 2 How to be an artist

kandinsky 3 (guggenheim collection)

kandinsky: unconscious mapping, the brain and mental representations as metaphors. balance in chaos, equilibrium, self containment.

below electrons: energy. the vital force of the universe.

MUSIC

iron foundry (mossolov)  ENERGY OF THE MODERN WORLD
 

1960's

John Cage 4.33
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN2zcLBr_VM&f

Di Donato, investment of energy to be accepted.

John Steinbeck = Grapes comes out the same year as Christ (1939)


doom gloom desolation bad fortune accidents and incidents: energy. not spiritual determination, not abstract thinking, not the challenge.

His bricklayers are conscious of the energy they express, the strength they exude, their vitality, courage.

THIS IS HOW THEY SEE THEMSELVES: strong, positive forces that are building America, whose dream is to have the next generation of great Americans.

BUT THEY ARE REJECTED: by the church, by society, by the system, by god.

Contrast with EYETALIANS ARE LIKE CHILDREN.

Religiosity vs religion

Christ as sacrificial symbol, suffering.

Ecce homo (Antonello da Messina)

man of sorrows

GEREMIO Jeremiah

JOB

Faith: very Italian, very Catholic. SAINTS, JJM: intercession.

God is too far away, too remote. You have to go through the hierarchy. Church hierarchy reflects divine hierarchy.

Cult of saints. Intermediaries between humans and god.
god is approachable only through hierarchy.

Role of Madonna.

Louis, the Jewish friend. Atheism as acquired philosophy.
Atheism as anger, retaliation against God.
 
Anger as positive response (as opposed to resignation)?

The Cripple. (life after death)

TARANTELLA

 

DISCUSSION and REFLECTION

Would you recommend YES / NO  Christ?
Give ONE ARGUMENT to support your position.

15 minutes total
My overall favorite work was .........

(Good writing: technique, skill, intelligence. Sometimes spontaneity and inspiration.
EVALUATING PARTICIPATION