1. SUBJECT: MODERN FICTION
ASSIGNMENT: A POTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A
YOUNG MAN AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL
DATE: 30 OCT, 2012
Auto biographical novel is a significant genre of literature. It is a kind of novel
in which the author or narrator records or narrates his own experiences of life
by adding fictional elements. In this novel character, themes and incidents are
taking from author’s real life; but they are presented in exaggerated manner.
Thus presentation of real life experiences in a modified or exaggerated form is
called an auto biographical novel.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel about
the education of a young Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, whose background has
much in common with Joyce’s. As far as its autobiographical elements are
concerned it can be seen as a ‘Bildungsroman’ which describes the youthful
development of the central character and as ‘aesthetic autobiography’ or
‘kunstlerroman’(German, meaning a novel about an artist) .
Joyce and Stephen almost merge but quite often a distance is kept though it is
never too great. This kind of management of distance allows Joyce to bring
irony also in play at places but even that is never allowed to become too hard-
hitting. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man continues to be regarded as a
central text of early twentieth century modernism.
A Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man is based on a literal transcript of the
first twenty years of Joyce’s life. If anything, it is more candid than other
autobiographies. It is distinguished from them by its emphasis on the
emotional and intellectual adventures of its protagonist. Joyce’s own life had a
direct bearing on A Portrait. Literally A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
covers the childhood and adolescence of Stephen Dedalus.
We may deal with the title of this novel. As the phrase ‘Portrait of the Artist’
hints at the self-portraiture of Joyce, the other phrase ‘as a young man’ hints
at it universal aspects or generalization. Stephen is young Joyce, “purified in
and projected from the human imagination’ of the developed artist who must,

2. in the words of Stephen, “try slowly and humbly and constantly to express, to
press out again, from the gross earth or what it brings forth, from sound and
shape and colour which are the prison gates of our soul, an image of the
beauty we have come to understand”. Thus Joyce uses his personal life as a
framework for his novel but is free to revise his biography for artistic purposes
or remodeled it, which can assert the growth of ‘artist’.
Novel has some clear and obvious autobiographical elements. James Joyce
(1882-1941), like the novel's central figure Stephen Dedalus, was born in a
Dublin-based Irish Catholic family which in his early years was well off. Like
Stephen in the novel, Joyce attended the elite Jesuit Clongowes Wood
school, and later Belvedere, and like Stephen he studied Arts subjects at
University College Dublin.
At the center of the story is Stephen’s rejection of his Roman Catholic
upbringing and his growing confidence as a writer. Joyce’s upbringing and
education had much in common with that of the fictional Stephen Dedalus in A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
The religious training he received in the Jesuit schools also shaped Joyce,
giving him first a faith to believe in and then a weight to rebel against. Like
Stephen, he was for a time devoutly religious- then found that other attractions
prevailed.
The conflict between politics and religion very much influenced Joyce. On one
side, there was Dante with her strong faith in the Catholic Church. On the
other side was his father's staunch nationalism. Fictional character Stephen
also experiences the same situation. The conflict between religion and politics
in Joyce's house appears at the Christmas dinner where Mr. Casey retorts
Dante by asking, in reference to Parnell, "Are we not to follow the man that
was born to lead us? _ a traitor to his country! replied Dante. A traitor, an
adulterer! The priests were right to abandon him.” Since Joyce's father used to
work for Parnell, Joyce was constantly exposed to his name, just as Stephen
keeps hearing about Parnell in section one. Joyce was extremely receptive to
the image of Parnell.
In a novel, we are essentially given a window into Stephen’s consciousness,

3. and the whole world is unveiled to us through that single aperture. The
narrative prose follows and reflects the stages of Stephen’s intellectual
development, whether imitating the childlike simplicity of his earliest memories
or the thrilling awareness of his artistic awakening. It swoops when Stephen is
high; it crashes when he is brought low. It congeals in the murky muddle of a
Jesuit lecture, and it skips and stutters and swirls when chasing the thoughts
of an awakening poet. Like Stephen, it can be beautiful and bombastic, witty
and self-pitying.
James Joyce, like Stephen, considered and rejected a career as a Jesuit
priest. But Stephen Dedalus is an artistic creation, and it would be naive to
believe that everything he thinks, feels, and does reflects similar elements in
Joyce's own life.
Further there are other aspects of Joyce’s life that find more or less a direct
echo in the novel. Alike Joyce Stephen too shares a large family. The family’s
poverty and its frequent changes of house both happen in Joyce and Stephen.
Like Stephen, Joyce had early experiences with prostitutes during his teenage
years and struggled with questions of faith. Like Stephen, Joyce was the son
of a religious mother and a financially inept father. Like Stephen, Joyce was
the eldest of ten children and received his education at Jesuit schools. Like
Stephen, Joyce left Ireland to pursue the life of a poet and writer. Joyce began
working on the stories that formed the foundation of the novel as early as
1903, after the death of his mother. Previous to the publication of Portrait,
Joyce had published several stories under the pseudonym "Stephen
Dedalus."
Stephen's thoughts, associations, feelings, and language (both cerebral and
verbal) serve as the primary vehicles by which the reader shares with Stephen
the pain and pleasures of adolescence, as well as the exhilarating
experiences of intellectual, sexual, and spiritual discoveries which portrays
James feelings at his times.
All the features of Modernism influenced James greatly. Living in a society of
such problems and issues; his novel also throws light on these circumstances
and all these play a significant part in making this novel autobiographical.
Joyce's novel reflects the various literary influences to which he was exposed,

4. while forming a fictionalized autobiography of the author. When considering
Joyce's life in connection to Portrait, the parallels between Stephen and Joyce
become transparent. This connection allows a closer observation of the novel
to discover the factors that influenced the writer.
In conclusion, Stephen is a fictional representation of Joyce's art. Stephen
exists, as does the novel, as an example of the author's "handiwork," behind
which Joyce is "invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent . . ." and,
probably if he had his way in the matter, is still standing concealed
somewhere, "paring his nails."