Scarica Modernism and James Joyce e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! MODERNISM Modernism is a general term that encompasses other movements such as Naturalism, Symbolism, Futurism, Surrealism, Cubism etc. The second decade of the 20th century saw a new generation of writers known as the modernists: they step, moved away from the classical idea of the literary form, and with the diffusion of Freud’s idea of psychoanalysis, the human mind and the inner self, they created a more complex vision of men and the human world. So reality and life were no longer seen as something external and objective, but as something internal. THE MODERNIST NOVEL Modernist writers were not interested in representing life as it was, so in a realistic or natural way, they saw their task in representing the inner life as an uninterrupted flow of thoughts that they call stream of consciousness. The major emphasis of these novel is given by the characters’ thoughts and not by their actions, also the narrator that previously represented an essential part for the understanding of a novel, in this case its role changes: he became neutral, indifferent and sometimes even invisible. JAMES JOYCE Born in Dublin in 1882 into a large catholic Roman family, he had an excellent education at two of the most prestigious Jesuit colleges and later at University, where he graduated in languages studying Italian, French and Norwegian. On completing his studies in 1902 he moved to Paris but return right after to Dublin to assist his dying mother. In 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, who remained his long-life companion, they went to Paris, Zurich and eventually to Pula and Trieste where he earned his living by teaching english at the Berlitz school. When he was in Italy, he became friend with the famous Italian writer Italo Svevo, who was greatly influenced by him. By now Joyce had been writing for some time and in 1905 he completed the short story collection of the Dubliners, published in 1914. At the outbreak of the first World War, he moved with his family to Zurich and he began to write Ulysses, published in France in 1922. In 1923 he started his second major work: Finnegans Wake, published in 1939 and although suffering from an eye disease which left him almost blind, he continued writing. With the outbreak of the second World War and the fall of France, he moved to Zurich anther time and died in 1941. DUBLINERS Published in 1914 in London, Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories in which Joyce portraits the lives of different people in Dublin. He uses an external narrator, but the stories are told from the point of view of the main character. All events take place in Dublin, which is not just a setting: the city acts like a link between all the characters and the unity of experiences is underlined by the fact that a character from a story may happen to mention a character from another story. The stories follow the four phases of human life: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life and the protagonists are from all social classes. Joyce focus on one specific moment of their lives that is important for the character because it correspond to an important moment of self awareness. THEMES IN DUBLINERS The stories focuses on two main themes: paralysis and epiphany. Paralysis can be described as a circumstance or consequence of an unfulfilling life or job, of the lack of marriage, love or friendship, a life that many don’t like but just few can change. In most of the stories the characters have some desire that they would like to fulfill but they can’t because of their circumstances. The other theme is epiphany, that describes a sudden revelation in the everyday life of the characters, an emblematic truth or reality. It “helps” them to understand better their own self, their life and the situations they are in, but after the discovery some continue to passively live their lives as before. THE DEAD The dead is considered one of the finest short stories of the 20th century, Joyce displays acute psychological insight and ability to render human emotion and relationships. THE PLOT
