Scarica Appunti sulla vita e le opere di James Joyce e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! INTRODUCTION --1882--JAMES JOYCE-- 1941-- James Joyce may be considered the most important experimentalist novelist of the XX century due to the stream-of-consciousness novel, that is, a new kind of novel which wanted to describe what happens in human mind with its flow of thoughts and impressions. LIFE He was born in Dublin of a middle-class Irish-Cathelic Family. He went to the Jesuit School, then to university where he took a degree in modern languages. After his mother's death, he followed a period of stagnation, when he took perhaps the most important decision of his life: disappointed with his society, he rejected family, country, religion and went to live on the Continent as in exile, devoting his life as a writer. REASONS FOR HIS EXILE The reasons for this disappointment and this decision are various: ▩ He gradually become addicted to alcohol + the father had financial issues. ▩ Joyce had also got disappointed with his country on occasion of Parnell’s tragedy. Parnell was an important Irish leader in the struggle for the Irish Home Rule. But his political career was destroyed by the revelation of his adulterous relationship with a married woman. The scandal divised Ireland into Parnell's supporters and Parnell's enemies. This episode strongly disappointed Joyce's father and, as consequence, Joyce himself, who lost his faith in the political problems of the country. ▩ The Catholic Church against Parnell, and Joyce's experience at the Jesuit School, also induced him to reject the Catholic Church. ▩ He adored the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who had decided to live in exile far from his country. Moreover, for Joyce art should be impersonal and the artist should consider the problems from a detached point of view. In fact, the artist, like God of creation, remains indifferent, paring his fingernails. In 1904 Joyce left Ireland together with Nora Barnacle, who became his wife much later. The couple settled in: Pola, Trieste, Rome, Zurich, Paris. In Trieste he met Italo Svevo, who became his friend. Then in Paris he met Samuel Becket, who worked as a secretary when Joyce's eyesight began to fail. At the outbreak of the WW2, Joyce returned to Zurich where he died in 1941. During these trips Joyce lived in economic difficulties and tried to earn money as a languages teacher. LIFE IN EUROPE 15 stories, 4 parts: 1. childhood; 2. adolescence; 3. maturity; 4. public life+ ep1logue (The Dead). Theme: stories of human failure, the paralysis of the Irish people. Techniques: Dubliners was a combination of Naturalism (the accurate description of the city and the life of Dublin) and Symbolism (spiritual paralysis, the name of some characters). - There isn't a real stream-of-consciousness technique; it’s used a third-person monologues. Epiphany technique: “epiphany” is a sudden revelation which takes place at a certain moment of our lives, generally in a moment of crisis, in which, man can also perceive the true meaning of life and take important decisions. The novel it’s about an alienated intellectual, Stephen Dedalus. Disappointed with contemporary society, Stephen rejects family, country and religion and goes to like a martyr- artist. As we can see the novel is largely autobiographical. Techniques - The stream-of-consciousness technique, it consist in the train of thoughts, the impressions flowing through the mind of Stephen. - Use of the myth: Dedalus, the Greek artificer who received the commission of building a labyrinth to keep the Minotaur. The ancient myth is used to represent the desire to escape from the Labyrinth of the society. - Epiphany technique. The novel it’s about the common experiences of 3 main characters during a the 16/06/1904, in Dublin (the day when Joyce met Nora Barnacle). The main characters are: Stephen Dedalus the hero of the Portrait of the Artist a young man; Leopold Bloom Jewish salesman; Molly, who is Mr. Bloom's wife. The structure of the novel is similar to Odyssey: 1) Telemachia, which corresponds to Telemachus search of Ulysses; 2) Odyssey, which corresponds to Ulysses' adventures through the seas; 3) Nostos, which corresponds to Ulysses coming back to Itaca.
