TRADITIONAL TO MODERN NOVELS

Traditional novels: external omniscient narrator; events are described in a

logical and chronological order; if there is any psychological analysis, it is not
immediate, but through the omniscient narrators point of view; thoughts and
speeches are introduced in the form of a reported speech (discorso indiretto).
(20th century) modern novels: psychological analysis; irrational inner drives
are described through the use of interior monologue and the stream of
consciousness technique (the activities inside a characters mind, the thought
processes at a PRE-SPEECH level, before thoughts, ideas, feelings are translated
into words to be shared with others); the reader is in immediate contact with the
characters mind; no external omniscient narrator; no absolute truths, only
interpretations, simply stories told by subjective and relative points of view.
Traditional novels cannot show the activities inside the mind. With the
stream of consciousness technique, the writer can describe a characters
continuous stream of thoughts as they occur, regardless of whether they make
sense or whether they occur in a logical succession.
S. Freud investigated the uncontrollable irrational forces, the inner drives that
influence mans behaviour. Infantile sexuality, Oedipus complex and the possible
distortions in the parent-child behaviour that lead to the BREAKING of the
EMOTIONAL BALANCE.
Freud introduced the idea of SUPER EGO, social and moral accepted values are
internalised, and constitute a parallel personality, which is a false self.
Instead of using the narrative method, we now use the MYTHICAL
METHOD
It is a way of controlling, of giving a shape and a significance to the
immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary
history.
(T.S. Eliot, Ulysses, order and myth)
Traditional literature proves now unfit to deal with the present time, which is
disordered, chaotic, alienated and alienating, sterile, meaningless, purposeless,
absurd.
The present time is a Waste Land, characterised by the eclipse of God, of reason, of
faith, of meaning. If God exists, he is far, indifferent, unable to communicate with
men. Modern novels are based on the mythical method and on the stream of
consciousness technique: there is a constant opposition between a mythical past
and a sterile present: the mythical past is meaningful, ordered with regard to
society, culture and history, characterised by strong absolute values, and by
Europes ancient splendour. The sterile present is meaningless, purposeless,
fragmented, alienated and alienating, characterised by disillusion, anxiety,
rebellion against the past and traditional values and truths and, of course, by the
decline of Europe.