The Life Of James Joyce Essay Research

The Life Of James Joyce Essay, Research Paper In selecting James Joyce’s Ulysses as the best novel of the twentieth century, Time magazine affirmed Joyce’s lasting legacy in the realm of English literature. James Joyce (1882-1941), the twentieth century Irish novelist, short story writer and poet is a major literary figure of the twentieth-century. Regarded as “the most international of writers in English K[with] a global reputation (Attridge, pix), Joyce’s stature in literature stems from his experimentation with English prose. Influenced by European writers and an encyclopedic knowledge of European literatures, Joyce’s distinctive writing style includes epiphanies, the stream-of-consciousness technique and conciseness. Born in Rathgar, near Dubtin, in 1882, he

lived his adult life in Europe and died in Zurich, Switzerland in 1941. The eldest of then children, Joyce attended a Jesuit boarding school Clongowes Wood from 18888-1891 and Belvedere College, another Jesuit school from 1893-1898. In 1902, Joyce graduated from University College and went to live in exile in Europe unable to tolerate the narrow-mindedness of his native country. Ironically, Ireland and Irish people become the subject of his short stories and novels. The two central preoccupations of his work are a sense of betrayal. Ireland, dominated both political and economically by Britain and religiously by the Catholic Church caused Joyce to regard them as “the two imperialisms” (Attridge P. 34). Roman Catholicism is an integral aspect of the novel A Portrait of the

Artist as a Young Man. In 1917, the English novelist H.G. Wells in a review of the novel in the New Republic wrote, “by far the most living and convincing picture that exists of an Irish Catholic upbringing.” Joyce’s focus on betrayal was a consequence of the downfall in 1889of the Irish leader Charles Stuart Parnell when he was attacked by the Irish Catholic Church when named a correspondent in a divorce case. This treachery left an indelible mark on Joyce’s mind. Joyce literary talent emerged at Belvedere as he began to read the work of European writers and in particular the Norwegian dramatist, Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906). At the age of eighteen, Joyce wrote an essay entitled “Ibsen’s New Drama” which was published in the Fortnightly Review. When Ibsen sent him a

note of thanks, “the awestruck Joyce resolved to learn Norwegion and other languages and transform himself into an Irish European.” (Cahalan, p.132) Another European that Joyce identified with was the German writer, Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1900). Hauptmann’s comprehensive version of the portrait of an artist helped Joyce develop his own interpretation. A further clarification was provided by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900). Joyce adapted Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman in developing his portrait of an artist. Although Joyce rejected the Catholic Church all his life, Reynords, in Joyce and Dante: The Shaping Imagination clams that the Italian poet and the greatest of Catholic poets Dante Alighier (1265-1321) “whose influence pervades all

Joyce’s writing is never cowed by authority” (Attridge p. 56-57). Perhaps that is why Joyce was attracted to Dante’s writing. Of all his literary countryman, the only Irish literary who’s left a profound impression on Joyce was that Irish nationalist poet, James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849). In the short story “Araby,” Joyce pays tribute to the poet by naming the narrator’s classmate, Mangan. Joyce identified with Mangen because of his linguistic skill and knowledge of the literature of Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Furthermore, Mangan was disdained by his Irish contemporaries–a gesture Joyce considered an act of treachery. Joyce’s use of the stream-of consciousness technique first appeared record these epiphanies with extreme care, “seeing that they