joyce + dubliners, ulysses, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica joyce + dubliners, ulysses e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! James Joyce (1882-1941) James Joyce is one of the most important novelists of all time and one of the greatest innovators of 20-century prose writing. He was born in Dublin in 1882 to John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary Jan Murray, who belonged to the Catholic middle class. When Joyce was a child, his parents lost their wealth and his father lost his job as a tax collector. In 1898 Joyce started studying italian, French and English at University College, Dublin, where he also started writing literary reviews and articles. He grew up as a rebel among rebels. In contrast with Yeats and the other literary contemporaries who tried to rediscover the Irish Celtic identity, his interest was for a broader European culture, and this led him to begin to think of himself as a European rather than an Irishman. In 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, who later became his wife. When the director of the Berlitz institute of Trieste offered him a teaching position, Joyce moved to the Adriatic seaport city, then still belonging to the Austria-Hungary, where he worked on two of his best-known literary works: Dubliners (1914), a collection of short stories written using a naturalistic style, and A Portrait of the Artist as a YoungMan (1916), a sort of a semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman. The protagonist of the book is StephenDedalus, a young artist who rebels against his country, his family and religion and leaves Ireland in a sort of self-imposed exile to find freedom In Trieste Joyce became friends with the Italian writer Italo Svevo, who greatly influenced Joyce's style and themes. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Joyce moved to Zurich, where he started working on what would become his masterpiece,Ulysses (1922), In Zurich he alsomade the acquaintance of the poet, Ezra Pound. In 1920 Joyce moved to Paris, where he started working on his last novel, Finnegans Wake (1939). In this novel, he invented the so-called Pourmantour words, that’s to say he put words belonging to different languages together, just because of the sound they had. After the Germans occupied France in 1940, Joyce and his family went back to Zurich, where he died in 1941. Joyce is to be considered one of the greatest representatives ofModernism. His literary production was influenced by Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, Giambattista Vico and Giordano Bruno. → Giambattista Vico propounded a cyclical view of history, in which civilization rose from chaos, passed through theocratic, aristocratic, and democratic phases, and then lapsed back into chaos. The most obvious example of the influence of Vico's cyclical theory of history is to be found in the opening and closing words of the book. Finnegans Wake ends with the beginning of a sentence and begins with the end of the same sentence, turning the book into one great cycle. Indeed, Joyce said that the ideal reader of the Wake would suffer from “ideal insomnia” and, on completing the book, would turn to page one and start again, and so on in an endless cycle of reading. In Dubliners, we find this in both The sisters and TheDead. → Giordano Bruno believed that the two poles of any dialectic are united by a coincidentia oppositorum (coincidence of opposites). Themost important features of Joyce’s works are: ○ greater importance given to the inner world of the characters; ○ time perceived as subjective; ○ hewants to render life objectively; ○ isolation and detachment of the artist from society; ○ impersonality of the artist: the artist should be invisible in his works. He must not express his own viewpoint; ○ total objectivity of the artist and his independence from all religious, moral, social and political ideals (Keats’ negative capability); 3 ○ free direct speech: it lacks a reporting clause to show the shift from narration to reporting;it is used in fiction to represent themental reactions of characters to what they see or experience. Evolution of Joyce’s style: ○ A portrait of the artist as a young men (1916) - third-person narration; - minimal dialogue; - language and prose used to portray the protagonist’s state of mind; - free direct speech; ○ Ulysses (1922) - Interior monologuewith two levels of narration; - extreme interior monologue; Joyce and Ireland: a complex relationship At Joyce’s times, the Irish question was a truly vivid question. Joyce's literary works reveal his complex relationship with Ireland, his mother country: even though he left Dublin in 1904, Joyce's works are all obsessively set in Ireland, which he both loved and hated. Joyce's self-imposed exile gave him the chance to represent Ireland and its capital with a certain objective distance. For Joyce Ireland was a country dominated by stagnation and stasis, but was also his main source of inspiration: in all of his works Joyce drew inspiration from Irish people and places, which he portrayed with vivid realism and attention. On top of that, he was against “the Irish revival”, but he didn’t forsake Ireland although he felt to be a European man. Dubliners The structure of the collection Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories written in 1900 and published only in 1914, because no one wanted to publish it. As the title suggests, the stories revolve around the lives of 15 typical inhabitants of the city of Dublin and represent an ideal portrait of the Irish capital at the beginning of the 20th century. The stories can be divided into threemain groups, each dealing with a particular theme. ○ The first three stories tackle the theme of childhood and are suffused with a strong sense of disillusionment and failure. ○ These are followed by another group dealing with adulthood, Eveline belongs to this subsection, which tackles issues such as man's impossibility to escape from suffering, the passivity of Irish people and the paralysis of their will. ○ The last group of stories portrays the sterile relationship between Irish individuals and collective institutions, such as politics, the musical world and the Church. These stories, too, develop the concept of paralysis and its ramifications in private and public life. The last story of the collection is meaningfully entitled The Dead. It is an implacable portrait of the Irish middle class, stuck in a condition of irresolvable mediocrity and stubbornness. The protagonist of the story, Gabriel Conroy, is the prototype of the mediocre Irish middle-class man, an individual who lives his life like a dead person. As far as style is concerned, Dubliners contain naturalistic, concise, detailed descriptions and are amixture of realism and symbolism, which reflect a deeper meaning of external details. On top of that, each story opens in media res and is mostly told from the perspective of a character. We also have the use of free-direct speech and free-direct thought direct presentation of the character’s thoughts. On the contrary, we have absence of a didactic andmoral aim because of the impersonality of the artist. 4 ○ past: dusty cretonne, yellow in the photographs of a priest, broken armonium (→ armony) ○ supposed to go to buenos aires (→ a new beginning) by boat with her lover Frank (sailor→ free spirit, not reliable, risks you have to consider whenmaking a decision) ○ she had promised hermum to keep her family together but she wanted a better life ○ father, violent, often drunk, wanted hermoney ○ shift also in place, no introductory verb ○ crowded place but she’s paralyzed→ brown, pale and cold, no emotions, unable to speak ○ black ship but illuminated portholes→window→ hope (small) ○ family and religion prevented her from starting a new life ○ 2 parts: flashback, future, she goes on board and she’s paralyzed ○ eveline, passive, influenced by her family’s mentality: her father, a violent and strict man, her fear ≠ hermother, conservative, her duty ○ ≠ Frank, Eveline’s fiancé, a very kind, open-hearted and brave boy, her unknown future ○ antithesis between Eveline’s house and her new one in Buenos Aires ○ third-person narrator but Eveline’s point of view + subjective perception of time ○ epiphany→ a street organwhich reminds Eveline of the promise shemade to her dyingmother ○ symbolic words: dust = decay, paralysis ≠ sea = action, escape ○ themes: struggle between one’s happiness and one’s responsibility, dream vs reality, action and inactivity, paralysis and the failure to find away out of it. Araby The narrator, an unnamed boy, describes the North Dublin street on which his house is located. He thinks about the priest who died in the house before his family moved in and the games that he and his friends played in the street. He recalls how they would run through the back lanes of the houses and hide in the shadows when they reached the street again, hoping to avoid people in the neighbourhood, particularly the boy’s uncle or the sister of his friend Mangan. The sister often comes to the front of their house to call the brother, a moment that the narrator savours. Every day begins for this narrator with such glimpses ofMangan’s sister. He places himself in the front room of his house so he can see her leave her house, and then he rushes out to walk behind her quietly until finally passing her. The narrator and Mangan’s sister talk little, but she is always in his thoughts. He thinks about her when he accompanies his aunt to do food shopping on Saturday evening in the busymarketplace and when he sits in the back room of his house alone. The narrator’s infatuation is so intense that he fears he will never gather the courage to speakwith the girl and express his feelings. One morning, Mangan’s sister asks the narrator if he plans to go to Araby, a Dublin bazaar. She notes that she cannot attend, as she has already committed to attend a retreat with her school. Having recovered from the shock of the conversation, the narrator offers to bring her something from the bazaar. This brief meeting launches the narrator into a period of eager, restless waiting and fidgety tension in anticipation of the bazaar. He cannot focus in school. He finds the lessons tedious, and they distract him from thinking aboutMangan’s sister. On the morning of the bazaar the narrator reminds his uncle that he plans to attend the event so that the uncle will return home early and provide train fare. Yet dinner passes and a guest visits, but the uncle does not return. The narrator impatiently endures the time passing, until at 9 p.m. the uncle finally returns, unbothered that he has forgotten about the narrator’s plans. Reciting the epigram “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” the uncle gives the narrator the money and asks him if he knows the poem “The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed.” The narrator leaves just as his uncle begins to recite the lines, and, thanks to eternally slow trains, arrives at the bazaar just before 10 p.m., when it is starting to close down. He approaches one stall that is still open, but buys nothing, feeling unwanted by the womanwatching over the goods.With no purchase forMangan’s sister, the narrator stands angrily in the deserted bazaar as the lights go out. 7 fear of rejection (→ being inadequate) but problem of regretting The dead At the annual dance and dinner party held by Kate and Julia Morkan and their young niece, Mary Jane Morkan, the housemaid Lily frantically greets guests. Set at or just before the feast of the Epiphany on January 6, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ’s divinity to the Magi, the party draws together a variety of relatives and friends. Kate and Julia particularly await the arrival of their favorite nephew, Gabriel Conroy, and his wife, Gretta. When they arrive, Gabriel attempts to chat with Lily as she takes his coat, but she snaps in reply to his question about her love life. Gabriel ends the uncomfortable exchange by giving Lily a generous tip, but the experience makes him anxious. He relaxes when he joins his aunts and Gretta, though Gretta’s good-natured teasing about his dedication to galoshes irritates him. They discuss their decision to stay at a hotel that evening rather than make the long trip home. The arrival of another guest, the always-drunk Freddy Malins, disrupts the conversation. Gabriel makes sure that Freddy is fit to join the party while the guests chat over drinks in between taking breaks from the dancing. An older gentleman, Mr. Browne, flirts with some young girls, who dodge his advances. Gabriel steers a drunken Freddy toward the drawing room to get help fromMr. Browne, who attempts to sober Freddy up. The party continues with a piano performance by Mary Jane. More dancing follows, which finds Gabriel paired up with Miss Ivors, a fellow university instructor. A fervent supporter of Irish culture, Miss Ivors embarrasses Gabriel by labeling him a “West Briton” for writing literary reviews for a conservative newspaper. Gabriel dismisses the accusation, butMiss Ivors pushes the point by inviting Gabriel to visit the Aran Isles, where Irish is spoken, during the summer. When Gabriel declines, explaining that he has arranged a cycling trip on the continent, Miss Ivors corners him about his lack of interest in his own country. Gabriel exclaims that he is sick of Ireland. After the dance, he flees to a corner and engages in a fewmore conversations, but he cannot forget the interlude withMiss Ivors. Just before dinner, Julia sings a song for the guests. Miss Ivors makes her exit to the surprise ofMary Jane and Gretta, and to the relief of Gabriel. Finally, dinner is ready, and Gabriel assumes his place at the head of the table to carve the goose. After much fussing, everyone eats, and finally Gabriel delivers his speech, in which he praises Kate, Julia, and Mary Jane for their hospitality. Framing this quality as an Irish strength, Gabriel laments the present age in which such hospitality is undervalued. Nevertheless, he insists, people must not linger on the past and the dead, but live and rejoice in the present with the living. The table breaks into loud applause for Gabriel’s speech, and the entire party toasts their three hostesses. Later, guests begin to leave, and Gabriel recounts a story about his grandfather and his horse, which forever walked in circles even when taken out of the mill where it worked. After finishing the anecdote, Gabriel realises that Gretta stands transfixed by the song that Mr. Bartell D’Arcy sings in the drawing room.When the music stops and the rest of the party guests assemble before the door to leave, Gretta remains detached and thoughtful. Gabriel is enamoured with and preoccupied by his wife’s mysterious mood and recalls their courtship as they walk from the house and catch a cab into Dublin. At the hotel, Gabriel grows irritated by Gretta’s behavior. She does not seem to share his romantic inclinations, and in fact, she bursts into tears. Gretta confesses that she has been thinking of the song from the party because a former lover had sung it to her in her youth in Galway. Gretta recounts the sad story of this boy, Michael Furey, who died after waiting outside of her window in the cold. Gretta later falls asleep, but Gabriel remains awake, disturbed by Gretta’s new information. He curls up on the bed, contemplating his own mortality. Seeing the snow at the window, he envisions it blanketing the graveyard whereMichael Furey rests, as well as all of Ireland. ○ description of the setting, precise choice of words, you perceive noises ○ snow→ idea of circularity ○ gabriel is in a relationship with 3women: his wife, Lily andMrs Ivors 8 ○ joke about a horse → free but continues going round→ paralysis, comfort zone out of which you can't go ○ moments of epiphany triggered by sensory elements ○ gabriel didn’t recognize his wife→ he doesn’t know her at all ○ light coming from the outside→ truth ○ he’s dead inside→ goes on holiday in the west→ sun sets ○ epiphany: the song The Lass of Aughrim, reminds Gretta of a young man, Michael Furey, who died for her when he was seventeen years old→Gabriel understands he is deader thanMichael Furey in Gretta’s mind. Ulysses Plot Ulysses is a long, complex novel set in and near Dublin on one single day, 16 June 1904. Its 18 episodes narrate the actions and interactions of three characters. First we meet the young StephenDedalus, whom Joyce had already presented in his previous novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He is the protagonist of the first three episodes, grouped as Part 1: The Telemachiad. The next and main section (episodes 4-15) is called The Odyssey and focuses on the urban wanderings of Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged Jewish advertising salesman. Finally, the third section, called Nostas, brings Leopold back home to his loving but unfaithful wife Molly (unlike Penelope, who is a symbol of loyalty, Molly is not afraid of her sensuality). The section ends with the spectacular adventure ofMolly's monologue, nearly 1600 lines of free-flowing stream of consciousness prose in eight unpunctuated sentences, concluding with a triumphant affirmation of love and acceptance of her husband, Leopold. Amodern Odyssey In a narrative that wanders through the city of Dublin, ironically reflecting the travels of wanderers like Odysseus, Leopold Bloom and the Jews, Joyce's Ulysses is an epic novel which offers different visions of daily life, personal attitudes, political and cultural discussion and reflection on the human condition. Ulysses reproduces the structure of Homer's Odyssey: the 18 chapters of the book draw inspiration from similar episodes contained in the Greek epic poem, thus giving the idea of a contemporary epic narration. The narration follows the actions of one single character, Leopold Bloom (the modern Ulysses), who wanders through the city of Dublin in one single day (16 June 1904). Through the use of the stream of consciousness technique Joyce enters Bloom's mind and allows the reader to follow his fragmented thoughts, sensations and perceptions. Despite its intrinsic difficulty, heightened by the obsessive use of the stream of consciousness, the rudeness of its language and the frankness of some of its themes, Ulysses remains an unrivalled milestone not only in the development of Modernist writing, but also in the realm of 20-century literature. Its styles are multiple and varied; its language and structure inventive and fanciful as Joyce delights in upsetting sentence structure, playing with and inventing words, delighting in sound patterns. He explained this complicated scheme in the “Linati scheme”, which he sent to his friend Linati. Each episode offers its own style and Joyce prepared his own outline for this immense creation, indicating for each episode: a title referring to a character or incident from Homer's TheOdyssey, a time and place, a part of the body (heart, liver, stomach...), an art (music, painting...), a colour, a symbol and a narrative technique. Joyce's constant references to Homer's The Odyssey and to the world of ancient mythology adds a layer of universality to the events narrated in the novel and at the same time ironically underlines the squalid reality of modernity, which lacks the heroism of the ancient world. In this sense the 'mythical method' adopted by Joyce in Ulysses is very similar to the one used by T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land: both writers use ancient myths to represent the modern world as a place where 9