JAMES JOYCE
LIFE
James J. was born in Dublin in 1882.
He was educated by the Jesuits and graduated
in modern languages.
In these years they were trying in politics to free Ireland from English rule.
According to him, to better interpret the situation in Ireland
was better to study it from a European point of view.
And he moved several times, after graduating in Paris
but then he went back to Dublin due to his mother's illness.
he finds work in a language school in Trieste and you meet Italo Svevo.
He marries Nora and has two children.
He had problems with publishers because his poetry was obscene.
In 1905 he wrote Dubliners, a collection of short stories about Dublin.
He had several financial difficulties and vision problems.
He wrote several novels.
He died in Zurich in 1941.
A MODERNIST WRITER
He is one of the greatest representatives of modernism.
he wants to make life objective.
the facts are represented through different points of view and
not with an omniscient narrator.
his novels open in medias res.
the character portrait is based on introspection and not on description.
time is in fact subjective.
Joyce's style and language develop from the realism of the Dubliners.
he uses free direct speech the interior monologue.
He prefers the story of the story to the grammar.
DUBLINERS
STRUCTURE
It is made up of 15 short stories about the lives of people living in Dublin.
And stories are arranged into four groups.
The last one is the longest: The Dead, and it is Joyce's masterpiece.
It is the summary and the end of the entire collection.
STYLE
each story is told from a character's perspective.
Free indirect speech is used but also free direct speech.
The linguistic register is varied.
The language fits the character.
The use of realism and mixed with symbolism,
in fact detail have a deeper meaning.
PARALYSIS
paralysis is a recurring theme, both physical and moral.
The main theme is the inability to find a way out of the paralysis.
The opposite of paralysis is "flight" and its consequent failure.
The desire to escape arises from the sense of confinement of the characters.
THE EPIPHANY
Joyce uses the Epiphany technique: a sudden spiritual
manifestation caused by any external object gesture,
which leads the characters to a sudden revelation.
It is this revelation that drives the stories, not the plot.
