Exploring Life & Paralysis: James Joyce & Virginia Woolf, Modernist Writers, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Exploring Life & Paralysis: James Joyce & Virginia Woolf, Modernist Writers e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Jame Joyc Life Was born in Dublin in a lower middle-class in a Catholic family. Joyce's father sided with Charles Parnell, leader of the movement for Home rule. After his death Joyce's father turned into a representative of movement and for him was a failure of the country. On 16th June 1904 he met for the first time Nora Barnacle, from there he decided to set in his “Ulysses”. So he escaped from Ireland because of Church oppression and because he wanted to write about Ireland in an objective way. Modernist writer Joyce recognized art’s importance and its function of making people aware of their condition and represented that condition in his works with an objective image of life, in fact the artist should be invisible in their works because the work had to be impersonal creation. This meant the artist’s total independence from the patriotic pressures. He considered the nationalist movements that had developed after Parnell’s death as backward-looking and the excessive power of the Catholic Church of Ireland as paralysing people’s pursuit of happiness and personal freedom. His predominant focus on the inner world of his protagonist led him to explore thorny issues too, and to adapt a variety of narrative voices, viewpoints and styles so as to give an authentic and life-like portrayal of their states of mind.His writing style evolved from the linear plot and logical syntax of the stories collected in Dubliners to the extreme experimentation of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Symbols and allegories abound in all his works. City of Dublin: constant setting of his works and symbol of the paralysis of man. He often used classical myths. Dubliners He wanted to give a realistic portrait of ordinary life. It’s fifteen short stories of episodes in the lives of people in Dublin. The Dubliners can’t escape by paralysis because they are slaves of their life. There are moments of self-realisation arising from experiences, called “epiphanies”. They show his hope that the Irish people can awaken from paralysis. The stories are divided into four groups: 1. 3 stories about childhood, in which the characters aren’t aware of paralysis. 2. 4 stories about adolescence, in which a problem is noticed but not fully comprehend. 3. 4 stories about mature life, in which characters choose to look the other way. 4. 4 stories about public life, which point to what he saw as the cause of Ireland’s problems. Prose is clear, concise and detached. The events are told from a character’s views through interior monologues and free indirect speech. He moved from 1 person to the third one, adapting the language to the character’s social backgrounds. Eveline One morning Evelyn is sitting at a window remembering her youth, her death brother Ernest, and her job as a department store clerk. Evelyn has two choices: staying or leaving Dublin with her boyfriend Frank. Evelyn was torn because of the promise made to her dead mother: taking care of the house; the memory of the mother’s sad life makes her conscious of her choice. At that time she was paralyzed and wasn’t able to leave Ireland. The story shows Evelyn’s lack of courage to abandon her family, she is paralyzed and can’t make a decision. The climax is the ‘epiphany’ which is shown by the noise. She realizes that Frank was just a shallow relationship and realizes that she can’t leave her family and not keep her promise to her mother. The author shows Evelyn through free direct thoughts.