James Joyce: Life and Works, Focusing on Ulysses, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica James Joyce: Life and Works, Focusing on Ulysses e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! JAMES JOYCE (1882-1941) James Joyce was born in 1882 in Dublin and he was the eldest surviving child of ten children. His family, which belonged to the catholic middle class, suffered financial difficulties: as a matter of fact his father lost his job as a tax collectors. He attended the University College in Dublin where he studied modern languages, such as Italian and French, and wrote literary reviews and articles. In 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, his future wife, and together they had to children Giorgio and Lucia. The entire family together settled in Trieste where Joyce started to teach. Always in Italy, Joyce met the Italian writer Italo Svevo, who greatly influenced his style and themes. In 1914 he published a collection of 15 short stories set in Dublin, entitled Dubliners. One year later, when the First World War broke out, Joyce and his family moved to Zurich where he met Ezra Pound and published a semi-autobiographical novel entitled A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The main character of this work is Stephen Dedalus, a young man who rebels against traditions and leaves Ireland in a self-imposed exile. In Zurich he started working on his masterpiece Ulysses which was published in 1922 in Paris, and drew both praise and sharp criticism. When the Second World War broke out, the Joyces moved back to Zurich, where James died in 1941, at the age of 59. ULYSSES Ulysses is a long and complex novel set in and near Dublin on one single day, 16 June 1904 (time is extremely dilated). It is divided into 18 episodes narrated by three main characters. Ulysses is an epic novel which offers different visions of daily life, personal attitudes, political and cultural discussion and reflection on the human condition, and it can also be considered a modern Odyssey. The novel can also be divided into three sections: * SECTIONONE: it revolves around Stephen Dedalus and his wandering in search of a father and of a house, like the modern Telemachus. Who was the protagonist of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (episodes 1-3) * SECTIONTWO: the main character is Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged Jewish salesman who wanders around Dublin as Ulysses wandered around the Mediterranean. He “adopts” Dedalus and gives him a shelter in his house (episodes 4-15) * SECTION TRHEE: the main character here is Molly, Leopold's loving but unfaithful wife who mirrors the modern Penelope. She keeps on thinking of her husband and lovers (episodes 16-18) Leopold and Ulysses are opposite and complementary characters: as a matter of fact we can say that Ulysses is the prototype of the hero as he's a strong, tough and invincible man, while Leopold can be considered as his modern counterpart as he's weak and a bit awkward man. Leopold is a kind of anti- hero. Joyce uses ancient mythology to emphacise the lack of heroism and certainties of the modern world. The sequence of events is not that important in the novel as the focus is on the character’s thoughts and feelings which are explored through the stream of consciousness technique. The language is complex and varied, full of new words, sound patterns and unusual structures.