James JOYCE (1882 - 1941)

James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of
the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known
for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of
contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness technique he
perfected. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His complete oeuvre also includes three books of
poetry, a play, occasional journalism, and his published letters. He was born in Dublin – the eldest of ten
surviving children. Joyce was born to a middle-class family in Dublin, where he excelled as a student at the
Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere, then at University College Dublin. In his early twenties he
emigrated permanently to continental Europe, living in Trieste, Paris and Zurich. All his literary
production was involving Dublin, a city he hated and loved. Though most of his adult life was spent abroad,
Joyce's fictional universe does not extend far beyond Dublin, and is populated largely by characters
who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is
set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses he
elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can
get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the
universal."
Joyce Joyce and Nora Barnacle met for the first time on Friday 10 June 1904 on Nassau Street, near Finn’s
Hotel where Nora worked. Children: 1905 – Giorgio and 1907 – Lucia

Contributions/ style/ themes:

- idea of grandeur of ordinary life
- determination to portray what actually goes on through our head moment by moment (=stream of
consciousness)
- determination to capture on the page what language really sounds like in our own mind
- realism and naturalism are combined with symbolistic traits

James Joyce’s literary production: highlights

• DUBLINERS (written since 1904; published 1914)
• GIACOMO JOYCE (written since 1914; published 1968)
• A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN (written since 1904; published 1916)
• ULYSSES (written since 1914; published 1922)
• FINNEGANS WAKE (written since 1922 ; published 1939)
The Dubliners
The Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle
class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Ordinary, daily life stories of
people from Dublin. All the stories share two aspects in common:
Paralysis: it is a moral paralysis, caused by politics and religion. Joyce felt Irish nationalism stagnated
cultural progression, placing Dublin at the heart of this regressive movement.
Epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. The
protagonist always comprehends his or her condition.
The stories follow a thematic sequence, and they can be divided in four section, corresponding to a phase
of life: childhood, adolescence, maturity and adulthood. At the end, the final story (The Dead) represents
the epilogue.
- type of narration: traditional and descriptive
- Gabriel’s epiphany: his epiphany is about his love for his wife, it is an intense moment when he realizes
that his love for Gretta is nothing compared to that of Michael Fury for her. It is revealed during the
moment of the song, so the music reveals the power of Michael’s love.
- Irish paralysis is represented by the snow, that is covering at the end of the story “all the living and the
dead”. So, it is not only a social, national paralysis but also a private paralysis remarking the fact that it is
difficult for us to change.

“Giacomo Joyce”
Not completely prose not completely poem: prose-poem
Highly experimental and autobiographical, 16 pages with large blank spaces between the paragraphs
(clearly separated paragraphs) it is a series of disjointed fragments.
It is about an unreal affair (= forbidden relationship) between Giacomo, an English teacher, and a younger
nameless student from Trieste. The protagonist is a sort of Italian double (=alter ego, doppelganger, avatar)
of JJ. Author and narrator never coincide but here there is a strong relation. The plot is set in Trieste, it is
the only work of JJ not set in Dublin.
The words sometimes recall the desire of Giacomo for the student but other times also the sense of guilt.
Probably in real life the student was Amalia Popper.

-language is fragmented, not only many sentences but also the entire text is disjointed. It is a collection of
different moments/thoughts.
-Language is dense, evocative, telling much more than the single words put together. It also starts to
reproduce faithfully our thoughts, to reproduce our mental paths: actions and thoughts come together and
we perceive perfectly the atmosphere of Trieste and the point of view of the main character.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

It took more than 10 years to be finished and published. The protagonist is Stephen (pronuncial: steven)
Dedalus, from his childhood up until his 20s. The book is highly autobiographical. He is a young irish artist
who gradually detaches himself from the religious and social institution that threatens his artistic inclination.
Stephen Dedalus is not JJ even if many of his experiences have autobiographical correlatives.
It belongs to the genre of Bildungsroman, where the protagonists find their place in society (novel of
formation) but also Künstlerroman, a novel of artistic development, where the protagonist rejects the
tradition and the education to become an artist.
The very first chapter is very simple since Stephen is still a very young child. The language evolves
throughout the book, becomes more complex following the protagonist’s growth. At the beginning it is
written in third person, but at the end of chapter V the narrator switch to the first person, Stephen finds
his own voice (it is when he decides to become an artist and to leave Ireland).
-The language evolves with Stephen, it follows perfectly the protagonist. The language starts to portray
very closely our psychological development.
-The events describe ordinary experiences, small gestures.

Ulysses
Ulysses is a groundbreaking novel in which Irish author James Joyce explores realism through stream-of-
consciousness technique and shifting narrative styles. It was published in serial form between 1918-1920
and first published in book form in 1922. The story follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin during the
course of one day: June 16, 1904. The events and characters of Ulysses parallel those of Homer's Odyssey,
with Bloom corresponding to Odysseus. Although the book was the subject of early obscenity
prosecutions, was banned in several countries, and has been considered unreadable by many, it is
nevertheless one of the most important English-language works of the 20th century and is undoubtedly a
masterpiece of Modernist literature. 
-JJ’s masterpiece: a very long text in which the stream of consciousness reaches its highest level. It is
mainly composed of associations of ideas and impressions. The punctuation is nearly absent because our
mind does not use it, our way of thinking is not linear.
-The language is honest and crude.
-The events are all set in one day and one place, we do not need long journeys and decades to be grand
and heroes. It is our daily life that is heroic.
-Leopold Bloom is an anti-hero. But it is our way to be incapable of being heroes that makes us heroic.
-It ends with the word YES, that is a weak, ordinary word.

Finnegan’s Wake (1939)

Finnegan’s Wake is an experimental novel by James Joyce. Extracts of the work appeared as “Work in
Progress” from 1928 to 1937, and it was published in its entirety as Finnegan’s Wake in 1939. Finnegans
Wake is a complex novel that blends the reality of life with a dream world. The motive idea of the novel,
inspired by the 18th-century Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, is that history is cyclical. The plot itself
is very difficult to follow, as the novel explores many fractured story lines. The main theme, however,
comes from the juxtaposition (contrast) of reality and dream, which is achieved through changing
characters and settings.
-It is a never-ending pun, a sort of riddle, very difficult to follow.
-When you read it, you are creating something, it is so difficult to read that you have to put your personal
touch to it.
-It ends with an even weaker word that is THE. There is no linear narrative, it is a sort of cycle,
without any conventional element used before.