‘Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against

artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality.’

James Joyce (1882-1941)

 James Joyce

1. Life
at couldn't
study
Trinity
• 1882 Born in Dublin in a Catholic middle-class family

• 1898 He started studying Italian, French and English at

studied
University College in Dublin languages

In 1904 he moved to Trieste with his future wifeby

earnedmoney teaching
• english

• He had two children, Giorgio and Lucia, with his

theyweremarriedlater
long-time partner, Nora Barnacle, whom he eventually
hisnove
married. They first met on 16 Junene
set
uns
seson
this
day
• He left Dublin at the age of twenty-two and he settled in

other cities: Paris (at the time it was the cultural capital

of the Western World), Rome and Trieste (where he

there
were c ultures a ustrohungarianenglish
italian
lived 10 happy years and which was a many
linguistic paradise), Nora Barnacle and their two
theyinfluencedeachother a
mixture ianguares children,
where he made friends with Italo Svevo, and finally in Giorgio and Lucia.

Zurich, wherewar
switzerlandavoided
he died and where his grave is.
 James Joyce

1. Life
• One of the most important novelists of all times

and of the greatest innovators of 20th century prose writing.

p
reagite edevelopmentofrealism
• He saw himself as a Realist European Naturalist
eathomasHardy Paris, 1924. The Joyce Family:
• Contrast with Yeats and the other literary contemporaries who tried to rediscover
James, Lucia, Giorgio, Nora.

the Irish Celtic identity=> “A rebel among rebels”. He didn’t support the Irish

Literary Revival as he wanted to depict Dublin and Dubliners realistically; he

disapproved of the narrow-minded focus on Celtic traditions; considered himself
to
nedoesn'twant be
a European. to
confined ireland
neaetachesnimseig

totareawider
wants
europeanperspective

• He was inspired by:

- Giordano Bruno for his multiple perspectives (....universe is composed of
va inthe
fornisinterest
different worlds); detaileddescription the
of
condition
ofthepoor
- Ibsen who attacked the corruption and hypocrisy of middle class members;
 James Joyce

2. DUBLIN roleinhiswriting
playsakey

• The setting of most of his works Ireland, especially Dublin.

used
and to
them write
He sent and received letters to have details about Dublin even when he was living
in other cosmopolitan cities. When asked if he would go back to Dublin he said ‘I
never left it’.
• He noticed that no other Irish writers had ever written on Dear Dirty Dublin, so he

made Dublin the centre of his world (a city he both loved and hated => “the

centre of paralysis”).
towards
panties
natives run
mouse
• He rebelled against the Catholic Church, the bonds of family and those of
are
who unable
people

politics: they were the origin of the paralysis of tomovecnanaeandmgi.es

Dubliners.

• All the facts in his narratives explored

from different points of view simultaneously.
 James Joyce

2. The most important features

of Joyce’s works
Greater importance given to the inner world of the characters
(thoughts, hopes, past memories and future expectations are
mixed).
up
mixed
presented
Time perceived as subjective. There are many
flashbacks and flashforwards, absence of
chronological order

His task to render life objectively.

asawriter

takeadistantperspective

Isolation and detachment of the artist

from society.
 James Joyce

4. Dublin in Joyce’s works

• The Dublin represented by Joyce in his works is not only fixed and
not
dinamica static
static (Dubliners), it is also ‘the revolutionary montage of “Dublins”
through a range of historical juxtapositions and varied styles’ (A
Portrait and Ulysses).

• The 15 stories of the Dubliners, though set in

the same city, are not united by their
geography: each story is told by a different
person and has a singular location. All its
inhabitants have something in common: they
are represented as being imprisoned in a city
that does not give them the chance to grow.
Dublin.
 James Joyce

4. Dublin in Joyce’s works

• The evocation of his town in A Portrait is deeply influenced
by Joyce’s prolonged temporal and spatial distance; Dublin is
filtered through Stephen’s mind.

• In Ulysses, Dublin overwhelms the reader.

 James Joyce

5. Dubliners
• Eventually published in 1914 in the newspaper The Irish Homestead
by Joyce with the pseudonym Stephen Dedalus.

• Dubliners are described as afflicted and repressed people. They are

spiritually weak and scared, suffocated by their religion, their
education, their morality, their family.

• All the stories are set in Dublin ‘The city seemed to me the centre of
paralysis,’ Joyce stated.
• The paralysis is not just a physical condition, it is
a spiritual stagnation of the self, a universal lack of
Growth. It means spiritual and physical death.
• Dublin is described as a prison.
Nassau Street, Dublin, early 20th century.
 6. Dubliners: structure and style. James Joyce

15 stories in 4 groups with 4 perspectives

After the Race A Little Cloud Ivy Day in the
The Sisters Committee Room
The Boarding Clay
An Encounter House A Mother
Counterparts
Araby Eveline Grace
A Painful Case
Two Gallants The Dead: it is the
last story and it
Childhood Adolescence Mature life ends with the same
word. It symbolizes
that Dubliners are
mentally and
spiritually dead.

Public life
DUBLIN
Paralysis / Escape
 13. ULYSSES -FACTFILE

It is a classic that everybody venerates,

but nobody reads (Mark Twain)

• Published: Paris, 2nd February 1922 -Joyce’s 40th birthday

Joyce thought that this day could bring him good luck: he was a superstitious man, for
whom dates, numbers and colours had a symbolic sense
• N°of pages: 700withno no s chapters interruption

• N° of characters: more than 200 buta protagonists

niswisea
• Protagonists: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold and Molly Bloom
• Setting: Dublin, 16th June 1904 (now called Bloom’s day )
• Structure: complex=> 18 episodes, it can be seen as a
labyrinth, Leopold’s journey back to his wife
useislikealabyrinth

It immediately received an unwelcome notoriety for the complexity of its

structure bannedinamericabecauseasexual
references

Ted-ed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7FobPxu27M&feature=emb_rel_pause
 ULYSSES (1922) - STRUCTURE
PLOT: The story develops on a single day, 16 June 1904, the date when James Joyce and Nora
Barnacle first stepped out together. Leopold Bloom leaves his house after breakfast and goes
to different places in Dublin, coming back home after midnight, to his wife Molly, who is
waiting for him.

There are parallels between the novel and Homer’s poem Odyssey, with structural
correspondences between the characters
Leopold Bloom Odysseus
Molly Bloom Penelope
Stephen Dedalus Telemachus

Divided into three parts subdivided into eighteen episodes:

• Part I The Telemachiad («The son») 3 episodes Stephen Dedalus
• Part II The Odyssey («the travels») 12 episodes Leopold Bloom
• Part III Nostos («the homecoming») 3 episodes Molly Bloom

Every episode of Ulysses has a different theme, style technique, and correspondence between its
characters and those of the Odyssey. (for each episode: title + time+ place +part of the body+ an
art + a colour, a symbol, a narrative technique.
However, there are no chapters or titles to guide the reader (labyrinth)
 ULYSSES (1922) - STRUCTURE

Parallels with the Odyssey- examples

Chapter 1 Telemachus

• On Ithaca, Telemachus is forced to share the house with his mother’s suitors.
He is discontented and seeks for his father.

• In Dublin, Stephen is forced to share the house with some companions who
mock him. He is evicted and wanders in search of a «Father».
Chapter 6 Hades

• Leopold attends a friend’s funeral and meditates on death.

• Ulysses visits the Underworld and speaks with the souls of the dead
ULYSSES (1922)

munsacaiwitnuniversaltrutnsanapatterns

The Mythical Method

modernman
represents

• Leopold Bloom is a modern Ulysses, an archetypal man who can

stand for humanity
• The circumstances have changed but the human quest continues
unchanged. numanityisawaysenaarcainaquestasearannumanamest

coma
• The narration develops around a parallel between a mythical,
legendary and heroic age and an unexcitingly human, mediocre,
modern age => ANTI-HERO

MEANING IF THE USE OF MYTH:

• a) from the particular to the universal
• B) provides a pattern of meaning
• C) highlights the squalid modern reality, which lacks heroism and
is dominated by sterility (cfr TS Eliot)
 13. ULYSSES: STYLE =REVOLUTIONARY PROSE

Collage technique: in every chapter there is a different

style, as if it were written by several writers (STYLE
reflects CONTENT), e.g.=>
• stream of consciousness : the continuous flow of thoughts and

sensations that characterise the human mind) expressed through INTERIOR

MONOLOGUE to represent the unspoken activity of the mind, sometimes with
two levels of narration one external to the character’s mind, the other internal
• cinematic technique
• question and answer
• dramatic dialogue
• juxtaposition of events
ULYSSES (1922) - CHARACTERS
I . Stephen Dedalus

• Joycean alter ego (main character in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a

Young Man, 1916).

• His Christian name is that of the first Christian martyr. He is a young man
with intellectual ambitions and considers himself a martyr to art. His
surname is that of the legendary builder of the first maze.

• Stephen wants to convert the Irish to the cult of beauty inherited from the
Greeks. An aspiring poet in his early twenties. Stephen is intelligent and
extremely well-read, and he likes music. He seems to exist more for
himself, in a cerebral way, than as a member of a community or even the
group of medical students that he associates with. Stephen was extremely
religious as a child, but now he struggles with issues of faith and doubt
in the wake of his mother’s death, which occurred less than a year ago.

• He meets Leopold and sees him as a father-like figure

ULYSSES (1922) - CHARACTERS

II. Leopold Bloom

•The Ulysses of the title, he is a middle-aged man who
wanders around Dublin as Ulysses wandered around the
Mediterranean, encountering adventures which roughly
parallel those of the Homeric hero.

•A thirty-eight-year-old advertising canvasser in Dublin.

Bloom was raised in Dublin by his Hungarian Jewish
father, Rudolph, and his Irish Catholic mother, Ellen. He
enjoys reading and thinking about science and inventions
and explaining his knowledge to others. Bloom is
compassionate and curious and loves music. He is
preoccupied by his estrangement from his wife, Molly.
ULYSSES (1922) - CHARACTERS

II. Leopold Bloom

• Bloom is a non-practising Jew

=> Joyce’s form of protest against the Celtic spirit, which he considered too
narrow-mindded and racist
⇒ His inspiration is European, drawing from Greek mythlogy

• He is compared to Ulysses because of his wandering and coming back home to his
wife

• However, he is a «miniature Ulysses because the myth is «superimposed», to create

a CONTRAST and make Leopold an ANTI-HERO (standing for the average
European citizen)

Like Leopold and Ulysses, THE READER too embarks in a journey in a

labyrinth (the novel), for which there is no map, and often the reader does not
get to the end….
ULYSSES (1922) - CHARACTERS

III. Molly
• Leopold’s wife, she stays at home waiting for the wanderers
(Leopold and Stephen) like Penelope on Ithaca, though not
so faithful. Actually she has an affair while her husband is
out.

• Molly Bloom is thirty-three years old, plump with dark

coloring, good-looking, and flirtatious. She is not
well-educated, but she is nevertheless clever and
opinionated. She is a professional singer, raised by her Irish
father, Major Brian Tweedy, in Gibraltar.

• Molly is impatient with Bloom, especially about his refusal

to be intimate with her since the death of their son, Rudy,
eleven years ago.
ULYSSES (1922) Molly’s monologue
pages AM 2 240,241

• This chapter (XVIII) begins and ends with the affirmative Yes.

• The yesses represent Molly's ongoing optimism to life in general,

punctuating the choices she has made and the memories she has
revisited during the entire soliloquy. The “yesses” also represent
Joyce's belief that women are a positive life force, The key here is to be
found in Molly's ultimate decision to serve Bloom breakfast in bed the
following day.
• It is possible to see the ironic comparison between Molly Bloom and
Penelope, who uses her knowledge of the construction of Ulysses’s bed to
confirm the identity of her long-absent husband.

• Molly's monologue
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_aZ6djNkM