My Graduation Thesis – Video Presentation

Here is the official video presentation of my graduation thesis.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eRvJvl3Eb8&feature=youtu.be

Why I chose “A Clockwork Orange”

Many of you may be thinking “Why should a girl feel so much interest for a novel of this kind?” or “Why should you choose to analyze a text like this?”. The reason is quite simple: I will deal with a text like A Clockwork Orange not because of its general plot or its psychological meaning: the stronger element of the novel, in my opinion, and as I already stressed in my blog, is its language. After having read both the original version and the Italian translation, I made two very important considerations: first, without a translation into Italian or into any other language, very few people could have the possibility to approach any kind of text, and in particular a very peculiar one, such as A Clockwork Orange.

Second, psychologists, intellectuals, critics and simple curious people have analyzed, studied and examined this book, and the common denominator often seemed to be the word “incomprehensible”.

In the light of this, I will consider, through a comparison, both the original version and the Italian translation, and how the translator, Floriana Bossi, approached the text and, as a consequence, the language, without judging the subject.

What I think is important, it’s not the meaning of the book, or better, I view it as a really hard issue to deal with, and I really appreciate the way Burgess did it, but after having read the translation, I couldn’t just believe that the Italian translator changed so much the nadsat words “by chance”. There were too many differences between the original text and the translation, so I wanted to single them out, to understand what Floriana Bossi wanted to convey through her linguistic choices.

A Clockwork Orange: My Video Presentation

This is the video-presentation I elaborated to deal with the “little big world” of A Clockwork Orange.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldaIjCk-ogQ

 

The Nadsat

Nadsat is the term Burgess used to define the new slang he invented specifically for this novel.

Most of the terms in the book are from Russian, another part is from the cockney suburbs and another from Burgess’s fantasy itself.

The influence of Russian is particularly strong due to two main reasons: first, it depended on Burgess’ background knowledge; in fact, he fighted the Western War at a young age, and suffered the cold areas of Russia. Second, he himself told that the Russian language was far easier to “mix” to English, maybe because of its structure, or the sound of its words.

The name itself (nadtsat) comes from the Russian suffix equivalent of –teen. And it is not by chance that it is spoken by a group of teenagers. They speak nadsat when they’re together, or when they talk to their enemies. Alex uses it also with his parents, but when in a formal context, he can speak standard English too. However, he uses his jargon not to be understood when he doesn’t want to.

The nadsat characterizes A Clockwork Orange more than any other elements in the book, including, in my opinion, the choice of the issue.

Differences between book and movie

A Clockwork Orange shook the public opinion all over the world, and opened lively debates. Several internet pages and blogs are dedicated to the theme of the book.

In 1971, Stanley Kubrick, a very famous American film director, fascinated by the complexity of this novel, and “challenged” by the conflicting opinions stemming from both audience and critics, decides to launch its movie version. As occurred for the book, also the film will be criticized by the public because of its “obscene culture” and the violent pictures it offers. 

Kubrick adheres to the original plot, but also adds some personalization: he introduces elements which are not part of the original novel and changes the age of some characters, including Alex’s. This decision was influenced by the actor himself: in fact anybody could play the role of Alex better than Malcolm McDowell, who was 28 at that time; so Kubrick had to adapt the main character’s age to his cinematographic needs. Furthermore, in the movie version, Alex has got an unusual pet: a boa constrictor. Probably in this way Kubrick wanted to characterize even more Alex and his surreal and abnormal world.

As for the Italian dubbing, often the nadsat words used by Alex and his friends, are not the same as those used in the single Italian translation available for this novel.

The title: why “A Clockwork Orange”?

Burgess explained: “The title has a very different meaning but only to a particular generation of London Cockneys. It’s a phrase which I heard many years ago and so fell in love with, I wanted to use it as the title of the book. But the phrase itself I did not make up. The phrase as queer as a clockwork orange is good old East London slang and it didn’t seem to me necessary to explain it. Now, obviously, I have to give it an extra meaning. I’ve implied an extra dimension. I’ve implied the junction of the organic, the lively, the sweet – in other words, life, the orange – and the mechanical, the cold, the disciplined. I’ve brought them together in this kind of oxymoron, this sour-sweet word.”

The Plot

Alex is a fifteen-year old boy, who lives in England with his family, goes to school and has a passion for classical music, in particular for Beethoven and Mozart. Apparently a common teenager, he has by contrast a very strong personality and an evil nature: “I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong”, he admits. In fact, he and his three friends, or droogs, enjoy carrying out crimes of any kind (armed robberies, aggressions, rapes) whose victims are young girls and women, elderly people, vagabonds. Although P.R. Deltoid’s warnings, a juvenile justice inspector, Alex continues on his way and one night he breaks in an old lady’s house, beating and killing her. His droogs cheat him and leave him in the hand of the police. He serves two years of imprisonments and afterwards he is subjected to an innovative and Ministry-approved cure, the so-called “Ludovico technique” an experimental punishment to rid Alex of his evil ways in two weeks. “Healed” and released, he comes back to the real world but doesn’t find the support of his parents. He then runs into two policemen (one was his “old friend” Dim) who beat him fiercely. A cruel destiny wants him to be hosted in one of his victims’ house. The man soon suspects of Alex and both to revenge and to exploit his case for political purposes (using him the result of a bad Government), he instigates him to commit suicide. Admitted to hospital, Alex’s visited by the Minister of Internal Affairs, who, to re-gain the country trust, makes him his new “protected”. Once dismissed, he does no longer enjoy his “old life”, and finds out that the only way to give his life a sense, is to grow up and start a family.

The author: Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess, pseudonym for John Anthony Burgess Wilson, was born in Manchester on February 25, 1917 and died in London on November 22, 1993. Well-known as writer, linguist, translator, poet, musician, in 1959 he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and decided to become a full-time writer: from that moment on, he wrote at least a book a year, and dedicated himself to hundreds of book reviews until his death. Among all his works, he could never tell why his name is almost exclusively associated with A Clockwork Orange.

INTRODUCING ME!

Hi everyone!

My name is Beatrice, I live in Rome and I’m 22 years old. I’m attending the third year at SSML Gregorio VII in Piazza del Popolo, and in a few weeks I’m graduating.

I created this blog to have a little space to talk about my graduation thesis, which will focus on a particular issue: the book “A Clockwork Orange”.

In particular, I will take into account its language, the Nadsat, a bizarre and curious jargon used by the young protagonists of the novel.

Have a good reading!