James Joyce, Dubliners and Ulysses, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica James Joyce, Dubliners and Ulysses e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! James Joyce Born in Dublin into a large Roman Catholic family, James Joyce received an excellent education at colleges in Dublin and later at university, where he graduated in modern languages, studying French, Italian and Norwegian. He moved to paris but soon had to return to Dublin to assist his dying mother. In 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, who remained his life-long companion. They went to Paris, Zurich and eventually to Pula and Trieste where he earned his living teaching Engish at the Berlitz School. While in Italy he became friendly with the Italian writer Italo Svevo, who was greatly influenced by Joyce. In 1905 he completed his short story collection. At the outbreak of the First World Wiar, Joyce went with his family to Zurich where he began to write Ulysses. In 1922 having met with censorship problems. In 1923 he started his second major work, Finnegans Wake (published in 1939) and though suffering from a serious eye disease which left him almost blind he continued writing. With the outset of the Second World War and the fall of France, Joyce returned to Zurich where he died in 1941. James Joyce is probably one of the most radical innovators of the modern novel. He moved from the symbolic and realistic style of his first prose work. The collection of short stories Dubliners, to the revolutionary style (labelled modernist) of his later novels, Ulysses and Fimzegans Wake. Dubliners Published in 1914 in London, it is a collection of fifteen stories in which he portrays the lives of different people living in Dublin. All the events take place in Dublin. The spirit of the city acts as a link between all the characters and the unity of experiences is underlined by the fact that a character from one story may happen to mention a character from another story, so creating an inter-connecting web in the narrative. The fifteen stories which make up Dubliners follow the four phases of human life from childhood through to adolescence, maturity and public life. The protagonists come from all walks of life: maids, music teachers, clerks,students... Joyce focuses on specific moments in their lives that, at first, seem to belong to the mundane, everyday activities, but they become special to the characters as they correspond to important moments of self awareness. The last story in the collection,'The Dead', deserves a special mention. It is the longest story and usually considered one of the finest short stories of the 20th century, where Joyce displays acute psychological insight and ability to render human emotions and relationships. Themes in Dubliners The stories focus on two recurrent themes: paralysis and epiphany. Paralysis can be described as a condition which is characteristic to modern man the consequence of a frenetic and impersonal city life which effect many of us and may have different sources ; the frustrating and stifling circumstances, the unhappiness and loneliness caused by an unsuccessful marriage or lack off friendship: a life which many do not like but which few are able to change. In most of the stories the protagonists have some desire they would like to fulfil, they attempt to do so but are forced to give up because of their circumstances- family, culture, religion. The second theme, epiphany, describes a sudden revelation in the everyday life of the characters, of an emblematic truth or reality. It results in the characters having a more profound understanding of themselves and the situation in which they live, even if, in the end, they do not act upon this realisation but passively continue with their lives as before. “The Dead” This is the last story in Joyce’s short story collection, Dubliners, and is considered one of the finest short stories in 20th century literature. The plot Gabriel Conroy, the protagonist of this story, and his wife Gretta are guests at a party organized by his two old, spinster aunts for the feast of the Epiphany. In the first pages of the story Joyce portrays the society of the time with its class