The 20th Century
Great Britain 
The United States of America
The Suffragettes
The first World War
The Irish Question
Britain had promised 'Home Rule' to ireland, but the question was postponed after the break of the War
Easter Monday 1916: a group of Irish staged the 'Easter Rising' in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic
The British quelled the rebellion and executed many of the rebels, but the Irish Free State was created in 1922
it was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history
the terrible experience of the war became the subject of many poetic works by the 'War poets'
The black population
The First World War
Industrial development and reform
The Wall Street Crash
Cultural Trends
Spread of new scientific and cultural theories
Late 19th century optimism was swept away by new concepts
The experience of the world wars had a tremendous effect on artists and intellectuals
New literary and artists trends broke with late 19th Century Traditions
Modernism was probably the most famous among these new trends
Freud's Theory of the Unconscious
Einstein's Theory of Relativity
Reformulation of the traditional concepts of time and space
Analysis of the inner self and the unconscious
It led to th development of psychoanalisis
fear
Instability
Anxiety
Uncertainty
In 1903 a group of women, the Suffragettes, started to ask for the right to vote
In 1918 voting rights were granted to all women property owners over 30
James Joyce
Style
Life
He was born in Dublin and studied at University College
In 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, who would become his wife
He moved to Trieste to work as a language teacher and became friend with intellectuals such as Italo Svevo
In 1920 he moved to Paris and died there in 1941
The second part of his production is more experimental
The first part of his production is marked by a realistic approach
His plots are rather linear, language is controlled and syntax is logical
He uses powerful symbols
He uses the stream of consciousness technique to represent the uncontrolled flux of thoughts of human mind
Dubliners
Themes
Style
It is a collection of short stories about the people of Dublin
The stories can be divided into three groups
Paralysis
Stories about adulthood
Stories about the relationship between the Irish people and their institutions
Stories about childhood
Sense of disillusionment and failure
impossibility to escape, frustation, lack of freedom
Paralysis and lack of life
It is both physical and spiritual
Spritual stagnation on the self
Physical impossibility to escape
The narrative technique is apparently traditional
Mix of realism and subjective perspective
Rejection of the Victorian omniscent third-person narrator
Use of free direct thought and free speach
Use of Internal perspective
Ulysses
No conventional plot
Style
The novel is set in Dublin on one single day(16 June 1904)
Joyce focuses on the actions of three main characters:Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and Molly, Bloom's wife
Use of the stream of conscoiusness technique
Constant references to Homer's Odyssey
It is an epic novel that uses multiple styles
Experimentation with words, styles,techniques
It reflects the working of the minds of the characters
This gives universality to the events narrated
No logical or rational organisation of thoughts, no traditional punctuation
Thoughts are represented freely, without filters
Francis Scott Fitzgerald
President Roosevelt, was a driving force of reform.
President Wilson led America through the First World War. In 1917 Wilson declare war on Germany.
Optimism and prosperity ended in 1929 marking the beginning of a worldwide Great Depression
in 1913 the 16th,17th and 19th Amendments to the Costitution
direct election of US Senators to Congress
the right to vote was granted to women
the first national income tax
African-American men had been given the right to vote in 1870
in 1965 President Lyndon Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act
American forces were sent to Europe in 1918
After the war, Wilson helped to negotiate a peace treaty included a plan for the creation of a League of Nations
The Great Gatsby
Life
1920-1930: these were the most successful years of his career
1930-1940: Zelda was hospitalised and Fitzgerald turned to writing short stories
1919: he became engaged to Zelda and they were married the following year
1940: he died in California at the age of forty-four
1896: francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota
He was educated at Princeton University
He also worked without much success as a scriptwriter in Hollywood
1924: Fitzgerald and Zelda moved to France. The couple spent the latter years of 1920s between France and the USA
American dream
A cinematic novel
Plot
The story is about a number of charachters living in a fictional town called West Egg Long Island in the summer of 1922.
Rapid,economic growth had produced a society in which this 'new' money was consumed in a round of parties,music, materialism.
The novel is written using a 'cinematic' style, in the sense that it resembles the style of a film
action is fragmented into brief scenes that are connected by the voice of narrator.
The story is narated by Nick Carraway, who is an'outsider'
Style
The novel is characterised by an elegant style and by the use of highly evocative,poetic language and a series of vividly described recurring symbols.
The narrator, Nick Carraway, is fascinated by the lifestyle of Jay Gatsby.
Gatsby met Daisy Buchanan who is married with Tom.
Gatsby and Daidy become romantically involved.
Tom has a mistress but cannot accept his wife's infidelty so confronts Gatsby and tells his wife that Gatsby's fortune is based on illegal "bootlegging".
Daisy is ready to break off her relationship with Gatsby.
The Great Gatsby can be considered the consummate statement of the elusive of American Dream of self-improvment, and realisation , reaching out towards and impossible happiness
Daisy and Gatsby return to Long Island by car and on the way accidentally kill Tom's mistress in a road accident.
Daisy was driving but Gatsby takes the responsability for the homicide.
The Roaring Twenties
The mistress's husband shoots Gatsby and takes his own life.
is an expression which refers to the periodof economic prosperity in the US and western Europe in the 1020s
this was a period of industrial growth
the wall street Crash of 1929 brought this golden age