JJ

Childhood and education

he was born in Dublin from a Catholic family

he attended a Jesuit school

he went to University College where he got a degree in foreign languages

Life

Adulthood

when he came back on his mother's death, he fell in love with Nora

he moved to Paris

he lived in Paris, Trieste and Zurich where he earned his living teaching English

he left Dublin in voluntary exile with Nora (without marrying her) and he never came back to Ireland

Life

after about 26 years they had lived together, he finally married Nora

he had serious problems of eyesight

in Italy he had two children

Career

Personality

he had many problems with censorship

he met many important authors, including Italo Svevo

he never earned much money from his books

he rebelled against the constraints of religion and society

he rejected Catholicism

he was one of the greatest modernists, but he was one of the so-called great unread

his literary production was a gradual but constant progression towards higher and higher levels of experimentalism

he felt cosmopolitan rather than independentist

he always had a love-hate relationship with Dublin, which is the setting for all his main works

Dubliners

A collection of short stories about the people of Dublin

stories about childhood

stories about adolescence

the stories can be divided into four groups

stories about adulthood

stories related to the social and political situation in Ireland

major themes

impossibility to escape, frustration, lack of freedom

Dublin is seen as a static and provincial town which gives no chance of emotional growth or mental development

Dubliners

sense if disillusionment and failure, impossibility of fulfilling desires

paralysis which is both physical and spiritual

narrative technique

it is the moment when the protagonists have a sudden revelation of a reality they had not been aware of before

rejection of the Victorian third person omniscient narrator

use of indirect interior monologue

the stories are told following the mind of the protagonists and the chronology of events is not linear.

each story contains one or more "epiphanies", which are the climax of the plot

use of symbolic elements, generally trivial events or objects, which acquire a particular symbolic meaning in the plot

mix of realism and subjective perspective

this epiphany generally arises from the senses (sight or hearing for instance)

the author never appears

there are no moral comments, nor any didactic aim in the stories

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

autobiographical novel

the protagonist is Stephen Dedalus

Stephen attends the same Jesuit school and the same university Joyce attended

he is a rebel struggling against tradition and authority

he rejects Catholicism

he leaves Dublin and he goes to Paris

he becomes a writer

narrative technique

chronological order is not respected. The order is given by Stephen's memory

great use of symbols taken from the Classics and Christianity

epiphanies

time is not linear and objective but it is percieved as subjective

the style becomes more complicated because dialogues, description and narration are interwoven as they mingle in the mind of the protagonist

in spite of the wide use of symbols, the narration is realistic

the language is adapted to the age of the protagonist at the moment of the events which are described

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

reference to myths is used to give universality to the life of a single person

Joyce started using the "mythical method" implicitely connecting Stephen Dedalus's life to the myth of Daedalus

main themes

Dublin is seen as a net imprisoning people

the Catholic church is seen as repressive and mentally and emotionally inhibiting

most symbols concern the struggle to free oneself from constraints

there are many images referred to flight to symbolyse every attempt to reach freedom

Irish nationalism too imprisons the minds of the Irish people

Stephen is meant to symbolise all the individuals fighting for freedom of the mind and of the emotions

mazes are often mentioned and they symbolise imprisonment

freedom is finally reached in spite of some failed attempts

the name Stephen refers to the first Christian martyr who was stoned to death, but the protagonist is also seen as a martyr to art

Dedalus clearly refers to the myth of Daedalus

Style

Joyce uses a variety of styles

it is a modernist novel since it experiments new styles and techniques

obsessive realistic precision in the descriptions

no rational organization of thoughts, no traditional punctuation

the use of the stream of consciousness technique enables the reader to understand the inner thoughts, emotions and memories of the characters

thoughts are transcribed freely, without filters

It was censored for obscenity

Ulysses

Technique

it is meant to be an epic novel

constant references to Homer's Odissey

the novel is set in Dublin in one single day (16th June 1904)

every action, though small or insignificant, becomes relevant and representative to make the reader know and understand the protagonist's mind

reference to myths gives universality to the events narrated

He constantly uses the "mythical method", though in the whole book the word "Ulysses" never appears

no conventional plot. The characters perform trivial actions like eating, wandering, visiting someone, going somewhere, quarelling

Ulysses

Myth is used to give universality but also to stress the corruption of the modern age: epic ideals become trivial, banal, down to earth facts. High values give way to a lack of ideals

Dublin is a small city but it becomes a universe and the characters represent the universality of mankind

The Characters

Molly contrasts with the two male characters of the novel: they both represent the intellectual, who tends to reject emotional experiences, while she underlines the importance of physical experiences in human life.

Molly is a dominant female figure, very different from Penelope, and in fact the book ends with her thoughts, unlike the Odissey.

Bloom acts as a father for Stephen even if there is no personal relationship between them

Leopold Bloom: the protagonist. He represents Ulysses.

.Molly Bloom, his wife: she represents Penelope.

Stephen Dedalus: a young artist. He is the same protagonist of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and he represents Telemachus

Molly considers leaving Leopold but in the end she decides to give him one more chance

Molly's soliloquy covers the last forty pages of the book and it does not contain punctuation at all

Joyce wanted to highlight the role of women in society, which was becoming more and more important. Molly represents the ideology of the first feminists.

Joyce pushes experimentation even further

the protagonist is a pub owner in Dublin. He has a wife and three children.

the protagonist lies sleeping through the whole book and what happens in the book is the representation of the inner world of his dreams up to the end, when he is in the borderland between sleep and wakefulness. When he awakes, the book ends.

Joyce said that the book was about everybody, everywhere and everything. His aim was to generalise human life and experiences

Joyce invented a strange language with completely new coined words, or words which remind other languages, modern or ancient

his aim was also to suggest the loss of the power to communicate

he wanted to try to represent the state of consciousness when rationality is almost absent

Finnigan's

Wake

This is the beginning of Finnegan’s Wake:

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend1 of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen- core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface. The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner- ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur- nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev- lisfirst loved livvy.

And this is the end:

sad and weary I go back to you, my cold father, my cold mad father, my cold mad feary father, till the near sight of the mere size of him, the moyles and moyles of it, moananoaning, makes me seasilt saltsick and I rush, my only, into your arms. I see them rising! Save me from those therrble prongs! Two more. Onetwo moremens more. So. Avelaval. My leaves have drifted from me All. But one clings still. I'll bear it on me. To remind me of. Lff? So soft this morning, ours. Yes. Carry me along, taddy, like you done through the toy fair! If I seen him bearing down on me now under whitespread wings like he'd come from Arkangels, I sink I'd die down over his feet, humbly dumbly, only to washup. Yes, tid. There's where. First. We pass through grass behush the bush to. Whish! A gull. Gulls. Far calls. Coming, far! End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thous- endsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the