Waiting for Godot

Critic Martin Esslin coined the term "Theatre of the Absurd" in his 1960 essay and, later, book of the same name. He related these plays based on a broad theme of absurdity, similar to the way Albert Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus".[2] The Absurd in these plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning or man as a puppet controlled or menaced by an invisible outside force. Though the term is applied to a wide range of plays, some characteristics coincide in many of the plays: broad comedy, often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play".

Il termine è stato coniato dal critico Martin Esslin, che ne fece il titolo di una sua pubblicazione del 1961: "The Theatre of the Absurd". Per Esslin il lavoro di questi autori consiste in una articolazione artistica del concetto filosofico di assurdità dell'esistenza, elaborato dagli autori dell'Esistenzialismo (si vedano le tesi di Jean-Paul Sartre negli anni '30 e quelle successive di Albert Camus nei romanzi, nel teatro e nella saggistica). Le caratteristiche peculiari del teatro dell'assurdo sono il deliberato abbandono di un costrutto drammaturgico razionale e il rifiuto del linguaggio logico-consequenziale. La struttura tradizionale (trama di eventi, concatenazione, scioglimento) viene rigettata e sostituita da un'alogica successione di eventi, legati fra loro da una labile ed effimera traccia (uno stato d'animo o un'emozione), apparentemente senza alcun significato. Il teatro dell'assurdo si caratterizza per dialoghi senza senso, ripetitivi e serrati, capaci di suscitare a volte il sorriso nonostante il senso tragico del dramma che stanno vivendo i personaggi.

Prof Manno

The Hours - a movie based on Mrs Dalloway

The plot focuses on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Among them are Clarissa Vaughan (Streep), a New Yorker preparing an award party for her AIDS-stricken long-time friend and poet, Richard (Harris) in 2001; Laura Brown (Moore), a pregnant 1950s California housewife with a young boy and an unhappy marriage; and Virginia Woolf herself (Kidman) in 1920s England, who is struggling with depression and mental illness whilst trying to write her novel.
With the exception of the opening and final scenes, which depict the 1941 suicide by drowning of Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) in the River Ouse, the action takes place within the span of a single day in three different years, and alternates among them throughout the film. In 1923, renowned author Woolf has begun writing the book Mrs. Dalloway in her home in the town of Richmond in suburban London. In 1951, troubled Los Angeles housewife Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) tries to find escape from her dreary existence by reading Mrs. Dalloway. In 2001, New Yorker Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) is the embodiment of the title character of Mrs. Dalloway as she spends the day preparing for a party she is hosting in honor of her friend Richard (Ed Harris), a poet and author living with AIDS who is to receive an award for career achievement. Richard often refers to Clarissa as "Mrs. Dalloway".

Virginia, who has experienced several nervous breakdowns and suffers from recurring bouts of severe depression, feels trapped in her home. Intimidated by her servants, Nelly and Lottie, and constantly monitored by her husband Leonard (Stephen Dillane), who operates the Hogarth Press at home in order to be close to her at all times, Woolf both welcomes and dreads an afternoon visit from her sister Vanessa (Miranda Richardson) and her children. After their departure, Virginia flees to the railway station where she is awaiting a train to central London when Leonard arrives to bring her home. He expresses his distress at living in constant fear of her making a further attempt on her life; she replies that she also lives under the permanent threat of a return to mental illness, but argues that she has to live as she is and not seek a refuge from the reality of her identity.

Pregnant with her second child, Laura spends her days in her tract home with her quiet young son Richie. She married her husband, Dan (John C. Reilly), soon after World War II and on the surface they are living the American Dream; she is nevertheless, deeply unhappy. She and Richie prepare a birthday cake for Dan's birthday, but the end result is a disaster. Her neighbor Kitty (Toni Collette) unexpectedly drops in to ask her if she can feed her dog while she's in the hospital undergoing a medical procedure. Kitty is pretending to be upbeat. Laura senses her fear and boldly kisses her on the lips, a gesture Kitty accepts, although she ignores any hidden meaning it may have had. With renewed determination, Laura successfully bakes another cake, cleans the kitchen, and then takes Richie to stay with Mrs. Latch (Margo Martindale) while she supposedly runs some errands before dinner. Instead she checks into a luxury hotel, where she intends to commit suicide. Laura sits down on the bed and removes a bottle of pills and Woolf's novel from her purse. She begins to read Mrs. Dalloway and drifts off to sleep. Awakening from a dream in which the hotel room was flooded, she has a change of heart, picks up Richie, and returns home, where the family celebrates Dan's birthday.

Clarissa, stressed about the celebration dinner she is planning for Richard, particularly because of his increasingly debilitating illness, is a bundle of nerves as she tries to accomplish all she needs to do before Richard's award ceremony. The two were romantic during their college days, but he has spent the better part of his life engaging in gay relationships, including one with Louis Waters (Jeff Daniels), who left him years ago but is returning to Manhattan from his home in San Francisco for the festivities. Clarissa herself is a lesbian who has been living with Sally Lester (Allison Janney) for 10 years, and the mother of university student Julia (Claire Danes), both of whom are trying to help her prepare. Eventually Richard is revealed to be Laura Brown's son, Richie. When Clarissa arrives at his apartment to help him dress for the ceremony, she finds him in a manic state. Perched on the window ledge, he confesses he has struggled to stay alive for Clarissa's sake but, no longer willing to live with his illness, he throws himself out a window. Later that night Laura, having been notified of her son's suicide by Clarissa, arrives at her apartment. Laura reveals that her decision to abandon her family after the birth of her daughter was one she felt she needed to make in order to maintain her sanity.
Prof Manno

Joyce and Svevo

(The above postcard was sent by Joyce to Svevo with an ironic comment. Can you read it?... It was sent on 26 th July 1912 from "Stephen Dedalus" to "Hector Schmitz". Svevo - changing the title of his first novel-wrote: "A portrait of an artist as an old". Very good sense of humour, isn't it?!... do you agree?)

First of all Leopold Bloom is a Jew with Hungarian origins. Although in the book he’s not “technically” Jewish (his mother is Irish) his roots are important to define his personality and view of the world. He’s a Jewish fictional persona that becomes an embodiment of Jewish archetypes, neurosis, trends of thoughts and deepest ideas, influenced by the common cultural and religious tradition.
Behind the character of Leopold Bloom there might be actually a man called Ettore Schmitz, a Jewish man from Trieste who then became famous in Italy as a writer under the pseudonym of Italo Svevo; he was a writer that would turn Italian literature upside-down similarly to how Joyce did with the Anglo-American one.
Joyce found inspiration in him and reproduced in his work some of the Italian man's psychological traits and life events, also shaping "his Dublin" on the city of Trieste, located in the North-East of Italy.
In 1907, James Joyce became Italo Svevo's English teacher and mentor, a professional relationship that soon became a strong friendship. The two men shared a lot of “elective affinities”. Joyce realized his pupil was very curious about literature, new theories of psycho-analysis, philosophy and nontraditional writing styles. Svevo, son of Francesco Schmitz and Allegra Moravia, was actually a very educated man. In Germany he had attended the Brussel Institute where he had the chance to read Schiller, Goethe, Schopenhauer and his contemporary writers.
Trieste in those years was bursting with ideas, intellectuals, writers and it became a crossroad fro the literary and the publishing industry. Its economy was booming along with its culture: poets, artists and musicians created their groups, and gathered at events and parties hosted by very influential families.
Before Svevo met Joyce he had already tried to become a writer. He published, mostly at his expenses, Una Vita and Senilità but since his work did not receive much attention, he became a businessman. However, at the time he met Joyce, he was still involved with writing diaries, short stories and random thoughts that afterwards became the basis of a new revolutionary book: Zeno’s Conscience, a classic in modern literature that is now studied in every high-school and university.
Joyce’s Ulysses features an extensive and original use of the "stream of consciousness" technique, a style that allows the author to report his thoughts in written form without literary filters or rambling, often revealing hidden or strange implications.
Svevo, on the other side, is more rational in his style but in his book -a fictional diary published by a revengeful psychiatrist that wants to get back at his client- the border between conscious and subconscious thoughts is often not clear. If you analyze it carefully there are various contradictions between the actions and the thoughts of the characters, between his expectations, imagination and reality and his rational ethic and needs. Zeno is a modern character and, just like Bloom, he is a anti-hero.
There is much more to be said about the collaboration or the influence that these two writers had on each other. There is much more to be said about the reason why these characters are important for their own countries and for the Jewish world and image.
Prof Manno

International Workers Day

The first May day celebration in Italy took place in 1890. It started initially as an attempt to celebrate workers' achievements in their struggle for their rights and for better social and economic conditions. It was abolished under the Fascist Regime and immediately restored after the Second World War. (During the fascist period, a "Holiday of the Italian labour" (Festa del lavoro italiano) was celebrated on the 21st of April, the date of Natale di Roma, when ancient Rome was allegedly founded.
Do you recognize the above painting?
Prof Manno

Video lezione sul fascismo

Interessantissima lezione video sul fascismo.
Prof Guarneri

S.O.S cultura - lezioni di filosofia - Comte e il Positivismo

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everybody,
to your families, your teachers, your friends and whoever may need.
I really wish a peaceful Easter for those conutries which have been shaken by revolution and repression in Northern Africa.
Why don't we list the people we would like to wish Happy Easter? My first candidate is Vittorio Arrigoni (human right activist murdered in Gaza on 15th April 2011.) Who are your wishes for?
Prof Manno