1. Modernism is a literary movement that shaped James Joyce’s writing extensively.

In
particular, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man reflects many of the ideals of modernist
writing. The aspects of modernism within the novel influenced the development of the
modernist movement and made Joyce a prominent modernist writer.

2. In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce creates an uninhibited free-flowing style,
reminiscent of Stephen’s unrestrained conscious thought. This technique is an essential
aspect of modernism in the novel because it creates a psychic reality, not a true reality.

Quote: What did that mean, to kiss? You put your face up like that to say goodnight and
then his mother put her face down. That was to kiss. His mother put her lips on his cheek;
her lips were soft and they wetted his cheek; and they made a tiny little noise: kiss. Why did
people do that with their two faces? (113).

3. Focus on individual: He focuses on universal themes like freedom, humanity,

individualism and exile from society. These themes reflect the modern focus on the
development of the individual apart from the general problems of society.

Quote: I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to
leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake and
perhaps as long as eternity too.

4. Modern Language Technique in A Portrait:

Joyce integrated his intellectualism to form a combination of mythology, history and

literature to create innovative symbols and narrative techniques. Joyce uses symbols to
reflect his themes. For example, Stephen is represented by a rose; the color reflects his
conscious awareness. Stephen discusses white and red roses, indicating the desire for a
green rose. These colors seem to indicate purity, passion, and his love of Ireland. Quote:

White roses and red roses: those were beautiful colours to think of. And the cards for the
first and second place and third place were beautiful colours too: pink and cream and
lavender. Lavender and cream and pink roses were beautiful to think of. Perhaps a wild rose
might be like those colours and he remembered the song about the wild rose blossoms on
the little green place. But you could not have a green rose. But perhaps somewhere in the
world you could. (80)
5. One more symbol in the novel is flight and birds. This symbol reflects the theme of
freedom, and the myth of Daedalus.

Quote: “His heart trembled in ecstasy of fear and his soul was in flight. His soul was soaring
in an air beyond the world and the body he knew”

6. The way Stephen thinks when he's composing the poem to Emma (the

tram girl) reflects a modernist theory of writing. Remove all but the most essential

details and only suggest, rather than spell-out, the conflicts that lay beneath the scene.

Ernest Hemingway called this "The Iceberg Theory," meaning a writer shows only the

alluring tip of what may really be a huge conflict.

7. Joyce is not afraid to write honestly about human needs, especially physical needs.

8. The "mimetic technique" that was more widely used by modernist writers

is clearly shown in the pages after Stephen decides he won't join the priesthood. As

Stephen's mood surges and soars, so does the writing. Mimetic writing mimics the

character's mood and mind.

9. Stephen's decision to take on art and the world alone shows a notion of

individuality that was relatively novel in this time period. In the modern era, the idea of

one person taking on the world (vs. a person acting as part of a community) became a

more popular way of thinking about the self.

10. Perspective: The title of Joyce's novel represents a key to his intention in writing A
Portrait. The novel is a portrait, one of

many that could have been painted. The use of the indefinite article "a" is a clear indication
that Joyce did not

want to give himself the credit of presenting the life of the artist in a comprehensive way.
He indirectly tells his

readers that the novel is no more than an attempt to depict the life of Dedalus from the
writer's own perspective.

Joyce indicated that it was only one portrait of many that could have been portrayed
depending on the perspective from which the reader looks at the artist.

11. Identity: Dedalus suffered from a case of loss of identity that was strong and forced
Dedalus to remind himself constantly of who he was and what was his name, The sense of
alienation is one of the modern features in literature. The character is usually presented as
alienated and isolated from the world he lives in.

Quote:

“Stephen Dedalus is my name,

Ireland is my nation. Clongowes is my dwelling place And heaven my expectation (Joyce 9)”

12. Dedalus also represented the modern character or the (anti hero) in the novel. He was
portrayed as a weak and a small character unable to practice what his colleagues in the
school were able to do. It is obvious through what has been mentioned that Dedalus was a
clear example of the modern character in literature. By his weakness and the sense of
isolation that lived with him, Dedalus experienced the theme of alienation, exile and
estrangement that colored the life of people in the twentieth century:
Quote 1: "All the boys seemed to him very strange. They had all fathers and mothers

and different clothes and voices. He longed to be at home and lay his head on his mother's
lap (Joyce 6)”

Quote 2:

"He kept on the fringe of his line, out of the reach of the rude feet, feigning to run now and
then. He felt his body small and weak

amid the throng of players and his eyes were weak and water (Joyce 2)”

13. Through naturalism, modern fiction usually presents the man as fundamentally no more
than a specialized

animal. This animal spends his life in a hopeless struggle with the forces of nature such as
heredity and

environment. He is also driven by his most primitive desires such as hunger and sexuality. In
the novel Dedalus suffered from his agitating lust that drove him to commit the sin of
adultery with a prostitute. He was forced by

his sexual hunger to act like an animal in his search to satisfy his appetite. Quote:

“Such moments passed and the wasting fires of lust sprang up again.

The verses passed from his lips and the inarticulate cries and the unspoken brutal words
rushed forth from his brain to force a

passage. His blood was in revolt. He wandered up and down the

dark slimy streets peering into the gloom of lanes and doorways,

listening eagerly for any sound. He moaned to himself like some

baffled prowling beast. He wanted to sin with another of his kind, to force another being to
sin with him and to exult with her in sin (Joyce 82)”

14. Stephen Dedalus was also presented in many parts of the novel as fighting aimlessly
with life. He was caged by

the forces of his society and wanted to free himself from these forces. To be an artist he
had to liberate himself

from the norms, traditions and the values that controlled his life. As a result Dedalus
isolated himself from his family, friends and society but that led to a burning feeling of
isolation and alienation.

15. Joyce also reflected through Dedalus the meaningless and absurdity of life. For him and
for many modern

writers life was always seen as a meaningless tragedy that crushed all the dreams and
aspirations of people.

Their lives were continuous struggles with the universe and their dreams were oppressed
and humiliated by the

cruel reality of their lives.

Quote:

“How foolish his aim had been! He had tried to build a breakwater of order and elegance
against the sordid tide of life without him

and to dam up, by rules of conduct and active interests and new filial relations, the powerful
recurrence of the tides within him.

Useless. From without and from within the water had flowed over barriers: their tides began
once more to jostle fiercely

above the crumbled mole (Joyce 81)

16. Ornamentation of the language with the phrases, memories, symbols, recurring
images, and epiphanies.

Quote:

“A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like
one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long
slender bare legs were delicate as a crane's and pure save where an emerald trail of
seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh. Her thighs, fuller and soft hued as
ivory, were bared almost to the hips where the white fringes of her drawers were like
feathering soft white.

17. Joyce used many repeated images to enhance the artistic level of his writing. Images of
birds, water and death

were repeatedly presented. He used the image of birds to suggest Stephen's flight from the
middle class with its

materialistic concerns. The image of water represented the unpleasant aspects of

Stephen's physical and spiritual

environment while the image of death portrayed his emotional transformation.

18. Main features of Modernism:

Individualism, Experimentation, Absurdity, Symbolism, Modernist poetry often includes

foreign languages, dense vocabulary and invented words, smaller parts instead of the
organic whole,

19. A shift in ideals and priorities led to a reflection of values that are seen in the themes of
modernist literature. These themes focus on cold machinery, the evils of capitalism, and the
effects these concepts have on people. These sociological shifts caused people to feel
alienated, which is also reflected in the introspective qualities of modernist literature.

20. Modern British literature is the literature of the 20th century. Many events contributed
to the concept of ‘modern’ which are given below.

A. Charles Darwin and his book ‘Origin of Species’ published in 1859. It brought out a new
world outlook, especially among religious communities.

B. The emergence of socialism and later communism by the advent of Karl Max by his book
Das Capital.

C. The appearance of Sigmund Freud and the psychoanalysis theory influenced the age a
lot.

D. Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity combined with Quantum theory.

E. World War I.

21. Thematic features

1. Intentional distortion of shapes

2. Focus on form rather than meaning

3. Breakdown of social norms and cultural values

4. Dislocation of meaning and sense from its normal context

5. Disillusionment

6. Rejection of history and the substitution of a mythical past

7. Need to reflect the complexity of modern urban life

8. Importance of the unconscious mind

9. Interest in the primitive and non-western cultures

10. Impossibility of an absolute interpretation of reality

11. Overwhelming technological changes.

22. Free verse

1. Use of poetic line

2. Flexibility of line length

3. Massive use of alliteration and assonance

4. No use of traditional metre

5. No regular rhyme scheme

6. Use of visual images in

distinct lines

23. Formal features of narrative

1. Experimental nature

2. Lack of traditional chronological narrative

(discontinuous narrative)

3. Moving from one level of narrative to another

4. Several different narrators (multiple narrative points of view)

5. Self-reflexive about the act of writing and the nature of literature (meta-narrative)

6. Use of interior monologue technique

7. Use of the stream of consciousness technique

8. Focus on a character’s consciousness and subconscious

24. Modernity simply refers to a modern time period (1500 to the present)

-- one that is post-agrarian and characterized by capitalism,

rationalism and the nation state. Modernity is the modern era of

humanity to the degree that such a rapidly evolving notion can be

categorized. Modernism, a more nuanced social and cultural

movement spanning approximately 1890 to 1939, operates within

modernity, but is a distinct entity. All told, there are several important
differences between the two that you must understand to draw a division between the
closely related concepts.