Scarica James Joyce's Life and Works: Dubliners, Ulysses, and Impact on Irish Literature e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! JAMES JOYCE Joyce was born in 1882 in Dublin into a middle-class family. His father stood up for the Home Rule for Ireland, but after his retirement from political life, for Joyce he became representative of the failures in his country. In 1902 he committed to a life of self-exile since he found Ireland an obstacle for his artistic development. In 1904 he went to Trieste, where he finished “Dubliners” in 1914, a collection of short stories. At the outbreak of WW1 he went to Zurich and started “Ulysses”, which was published in Paris in 1920. He died in Zurich in 1941. The relationship with his country is complex: even though he seemed to have rejected everything that concerns Ireland, he still centered all of his stories in Dublin, reproducing it in every detail. His physical but also intellectual and emotional detachment allowed him not only to pursue his artistic needs but also to write about Ireland in a more objective way. The effect of this movement in his life is reflected by the shift from particular to universal in his novels (from the short stories in “Dubliners” to the universal picture of life in Dublin in “Ulysses”). Dubliners It’s a collection of 15 short stories dealing with the failure of self-realization of the inhabitants of Dublin, examined in a biographical and psychological way. “The dead”, the last story, was written some years after the other 14. Joyce chose Dublin because that city resembled the centre of paralysis, a paralysis of will and courage that leads common people accept limitations and injustice in their social context. The paralysis is present in every short story and is examined in childhood, youth, maturity, public life. The style of Dubliners is both realistic, due to the objective recreation of places, situations etc, and symbolic since common objects seem to have a deeper meaning which, the moment it manifests itself, it leads to a new and more conscious view of reality. The moment of revelation, when the object or situation explodes with meaning, is called epiphany, and suddenly a person realizes his miserabile condition. Dubliners: Eveline Eveline is a short story dealing with youth, seen as stagnant rather than vital and enthusiastic. Eveline is watching the day dying on the window and feels tired, a tiredness with the life she is leading in Dublin. Eveline has agreed to run away from her abusive father with her lover Frank to Buenos Aires. However, when it’s the moment for Eveline to run away and have a bright future, she feels paralyzed and ends up watching Frank sail to Buenos Aires without her, unable to move. Dubliners: The Dead It’s the last short story written by Joyce. The main character is Gabriel Conroy and represents all the failed Dubliners: he is a great journalist with an unfulfilled personality, he would like to travel all over Europe and take sides on the Ireland’s problems but he is too afraid to expose himself. Somehow Gabriel represents what Joyce felt he would become if he stayed in Ireland. The story begins with the annual party of the elderly Morkan sisters during epiphany, who invited friends and relatives. Joyce used the occasion to have different personalities debate on crucial topics like irish politics. When the party is over Gabriel and his wife Gretta return to their hotel. Gabriel is drunk and physically desires his wife but, while he is undecided about how to approach her, suddenly she kisses him and starts to cry. Here begins the revelation, the epiphany, for Gabriel: Gretta gradually tells him about an important person that used to be in her life: Michael Furey, a boy she knew when she was young who died for the love of her. The song at the party recalled him to Gretta, he used to be very sick and, when Gretta told him she was going to a convent, he died. Gabriel at first feels jealous and frustrated, but then abandons these emotions and shows empathy to her wife.
