Istituzione Scolastica Paritaria “G. Papi” – Pomigliano D’Arco
Programma di Lingua Inglese
Classe 5° A Liceo Scientifico – A.S. 2014/2015
Docente: Filomena Cannavacciuolo
THE ROMANTIC AGE
Historical background: Reaction to the French Revolution, From the Napoleonic wars to the
Regency
Social background: consequences of the Industrial Revolution, unrest and repression, position of
women.
Literary background: the subjective impulse, reality and vision, a new concept of nature,
imagination and childhood, the cult of the exotic. Poetry: form and content, task of the poet,
features and themes, imagination, nature.
 W. Wordsworth: life and works. Features: realism and poetry, the importance of the senses,
language, role of imagination, poetry as memory, task of the poet, childhood, nature.
“ Daffodils” from Lyrical Ballads, text analysis.
 S. T. Coleridge: life and works. Features: ballads’ structure, medieval setting, mystery and
the supernatural, nature, exoticism, Fancy and Imagination, Wordsworth and Coleridge.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: content, atmosphere and characters, interpretations.
“ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner “ (I part ): text analysis,
 Jane Austen: life and works. Features and themes: limitation of her novels, great qualities,
focus on everyday life, characterization, objectivity, profound psychological study, realism, lack of
sentimentalism, humour, satire, language. Pride and Prejudice: plot and themes, style; reading of a
passage.
 Walter Scott: life and works. Features of his novels, Scott’s influence, Scott and Manzoni.
Waverley: plot and themes.
THE VICTORIAN AGE
Historical background: Queen Victoria’s reign, the Great Exhibition, expansion and reform, the
British Empire.
Social background: optimism, social problems, the Victorian Compromise, Fabian Society,
respectability, the Victorian Family, the Victorian house, Pessimism.
Victorian literature: a new objectivity, moral and criticism, faith and progress, the industrial setting,
realistic description, omniscient narrator, didacticism, psychological insight.
 Charles Dickens: life and main works, the plots of his novels, characters, style and
Reputation, a didactic aim. Oliver Twist: plot and themes.
“Oliver wants some more”: reading and comprehension
 Aestheticism and Decadence. Oscar Wilde: life and main works, the rebel and the dandy,
Art for Art’s sake. The Picture of Dorian Gray: plot, narrative technique, allegorical meaning.
 The Brontë Sisters: life and main works. Wuthering Heights: plot, romantic elements,
Opposite principles, the theme of death, the structure of novel. Jane Eyre: plot, a woman’s
standpoint, gothic elements, mode of narration; a passage.
THE 20TH CENTURY
Historical context: from Edward VII to World War I, Britain at war, the Twenties and the Thirties,
The Second World War, economic boom and decline, Elizabeth II
Social context: English society in transition, between the wars, English society after the Second
World War.
Literary context: the age of anxiety, Modernism, a new realism, absurd and anger.
 James Joyce: life and works, Dublin, the rebellion against the Church, impersonality of the
artist. Dubliners: the origin of the collection, epiphany, paralysis, escape, characters, narrative
technique, the language. “Eveline”.
 Virginia Woolf: life and main works, the rejection of tradition, narrative technique. Mrs
Dalloway: plot, characters, setting in time and place, Clarissa and Septimus.
 George Orwell: life and main works, the man and the artist, the urge to inform, the writer’s
style, social themes. Animal Farm: plot, main themes, style; a passage
 Samuel Beckett: life and main works, Waiting for Godot: plot, absence of traditional
structure, characters, the lack of coherence, the comic and the tragic, the language,