JAMES JOYCE (1882-1941)

Life

He was born in Dublin into a catholic family and studied languages at University
College(UCD).

Moved to Paris

In 1904 met Nora Barnacle his future wife

He moved to Trieste to work as a language teacher and became friends with intellectuals
such as Italo Svevo.(greatly influenced by Joyce)

In 1941, when the war broke out he moved to Zurich and met the poet Ezra Pound.

In 1920 he moved to Paris and died in Zurich in 1941.

MAIN WORKS

 Dubliners (1914)
 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
 Ulysses (1922)
 Finnegans Wake (1939)

STYLE

Joyce is considered one of the most radical innovators of the modern novel

1. 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. (symbolic and realistic style)

2. The second part of his production is more experimental. He uses the stream of
consciousness technique to represent the uncontrolled flux of thoughts of the
human mind. (revolutionary style)

THEMES IN HIS WORKS

1. Ireland, with whom Joyce has a double relationship. He abandons it, but he sets
all of his main works there. Ireland is represented as a country dominated by
stagnation and stasis.
2. Paralysis of the modern world
3. Lack of heroism in the modern world. Use of ancient myths to draw parallels
between the contemporary world and the ancient past.
MAIN WORKS

Dubliners (1914)

It is a collection of 15 short stories about the people of Dublin. He uses an external

narrator but the stories are told from the point of view of the main character. Dublin
acts as a link between all the characters and the unity of experiences(a character from
one story may mention a character from another story, so creating an interconnecting web in
the narrative.

Themes in Dubliners:

The stories can be divided into three groups:

a) Stories about childhood- Sense of disillusionment and failure

b) Stories about adulthood/maturity –Impossibility to escape, frustration, lack of

freedom

c) Stories about public life, the relationship between the Irish people and their
institutions (political, artistic and religious)---Paralysis and lack of life

 The city of Dublin is a static and provincial town that gives its inhabitants no
chance to grow and develop their own potential.
 Paralysis. It is both physical and spiritual.

a) Physical impossibility to escape

b) Spiritual stagnation of the self

Paralysis -a condition of the modern man, a consequence of a frenetic and personal life
caused by the frustrating and stifling consequences of an unfulfilling joy, te unhappiness
or loneliness caused bu an unsuccessful marriage or lack of friendship. Dubliners’
protagonists have some desire they would like to fulfil, but they are forced to give up due to
some circumstances(family, culture, religion)

Dubliners’ characters come from all walks of life( maids, teachers, students). Joyce
represents important moments of his characters’ self-awareness. Epiphany another
important theme in Dubliners, describes a sudden revelation in the everyday life of the
characters(emblematic truth or reality). Characters start to have a more profound
understanding of themselves. However, they passively continue with their lives as before

STYLE IN DUBLINERS

The narrative technique is apparently traditional :

 Use of internal perspective

 Rejection of the Victorian omniscient third-person narrator
 Mix of realism and subjective perspective
 Use of free direct thought and free speech
The Dead (last story of the collection Dubliners).One of the finest short stories of the
20th-century literature where Joyce displays acute psychological insight and ability to
render human emotions and relationships objectively. It was this line of thought which led
him to write the far more experimental novel, Ulysses.

The plot

Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta are guests a the Epiphany party organised by their old
spinster aunts. In the first pages of the story, Joyce describes the society of the time(class
divisions, religious convictions) characterized by a suffocating atmosphere that dominates
every story.

After the party, they go to their hotel but Greta seems distracted and suddenly starts crying.
She is sad because of a song she heard at the party which triggered a moment of epiphany
for her. The song reminded her of her former lover (a boy she knew many years ago),
Michael Furey who died for her.

At the end of the story, Gabriel too has an epiphany when he realises how his love for
Gretta has been shallow compared to Michael’s Furey’s.

Themes and Symbols in The Dead

The title The Dead can refer to:

1. the people present of the party who symbolise Irish people in general,
incapable of reacting atmosphere of the world in which they live: they are
spiritually dead
2. Michael Furey, Gretta’s tragic love and to how those who are dead can still
have a great influence and effect on the living.

In this story, just as in other stories in Dubliners, the reader can identify a specific moment
of epiphany (something life-changing is revealed to the main character). Gabriel after
Gretta’s revelation about Michael Furey reconsiders their love and his own life in a different
way.

Symbol: The final image of the falling snow can be seen as both a symbol of death and also
a kind of universal cleansing which brings consciousness and renewed life to Ireland.
ULYSSES (1922)

This work established Joyce as the most original and innovative writer of the 20 th century.
Ulysses: a milestone in modern literature.

No conventional plot. 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.

Constant references to Homer’s Odyssey. This gives universality to the events narrated.

Title: refers to Homer’s Odyssey; many parallels between the two works.

The 18 episodes in Ulysses correspond to the adventures that make up the Odyssey.

In Joyce’s Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus represents Telemachus, Leopold Bloom Ulysses and
Molly Bloom Penelope.

Ulysses like Dubliners take place in Dublin and the events related take place in various
places( newspaper office, a pub, a funeral).

Novelty in Ulysses: interior monologue technique or the stream of consciousness to

extremes by recording every single thought of the characters as they occur (realistic thought
pattern linked by free association).

Prose style characterized by:

 absence of any conventional use of dialogue and description

 complete absence of punctuation, of pronoun and of introduction to the persons
and events

This technique enables the reader to directly witness the characters’inner lives: their
thoughts, emotions and memories.

The novel has no real plot(characters who eat, speak and go about their busienss).No
distinction between important and unimportant moments in the character’s day. Every
action becomes relevant.

Published first in instalments in 1918 and later as a complete work in Paris in 1922.
Censured for obscenity in America and England (not published until mid -1930s)

STYLE

- It is an epic novel that uses multiple styles-Experimentation with words, styles,

techniques
- Use of the stream of consciousness technique. It reflects the workings of the
minds of the characters
1. Thoughts are represented freely, without filters.
2. No logical or rational organisation of thoughts, no traditional punctuation.
Stream of Consciousness and interior monologue

At the beginning of the 20th century, writers began to explore and adopt (in their works) an
original and narrative technique. It was a way of entering the minds of characters and
witnessing their most intimate thought processes(just as they occurred). As a result, the
reader has a more complete understanding of the character.

The expression “stream of consciousness “ was first used by William James in his work,
The principles of Psychology (1890) to describe the continuous flow of thoughts feelings
and perceptions that fill the mind of a person during his/her waking moments. These
thoughts are the results of spontaneous free association( no linear or logical way). The mind
jumps from one argument to another, from a memory to a future event, form a positive to a
negative thought.

All thoughts and sensations are extremely personal and connected to the character’s
personal life.

Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are similar but they have a fundamental
difference.

Interior monologue: the author makes a choice and focuses on some aspects of the
characters’ inner lives and thoughts. The author does not present every single thought but
only those linked with the plot. The reader is guided.

When the writer uses the steam of consciousness nothing is filtered. Every thought is
presented to the reader (relevant or not) spontaneously, in no logical order. (The reader must
decide what is relevant and what isn’t.) Since this technique was very difficult for any
reader to understand only James Joyce and William Faulkner have tried to develop this
technique fully.

Molly’s Soliloquy

It is one of the most famous passages in the final part of the book(18th episode), in which
we follow the stream of consciousness of Molly Bloom as she lies in bed. The chapter is
written in eight huge unpunctuated paragraphs.

As in Homer’s Odyssey, the novel focuses on Leopold/Ulysses who, after his journey
through Dublin, returns home to his wife.

Differently from the Odyssey, Ulysses ends with Molly’s soliloquy, the voice of a woman
and not a man.

In Ulysses: dominant female figure probably an attempt to highlight the role of women in
society.

While Penelope in the Odyssey has a totally submissive role, Joyce’s Molly expresses
thoughts, needs and desires, typical of the new, more liberated female figure.

Joyce and Nora were living in Paris; they would have come into contact with feminist
ideologies.