James Joyce was an Irish novelist born in 1882 who is known for revolutionizing modernist literature. Some key points about his work include: - His fiction disrupted conventional expectations about narrative certainty, heroism, and religious faith by offering a look at human consciousness in a world where grand beliefs were breaking down. - Influences on his work included World War I, Ezra Pound's call to "make it new," and thinkers like Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin, and Freud who questioned traditional beliefs. - His collection Dubliners, written between 1903-1907, contained 15 short stories meant to capture different aspects of Dublin life and portray "a chapter of the moral history of my country."

1. James Joyce1882-1941

2. BiographyBorn into new Catholic middle classFamily’s fortunes on the declineEducated in Dublin by the Jesuits 1902-3 travels to Paris1903 Mother dies1904, June: Meets future wife, Nora Barnacle1904, October: leaves Ireland for the continentTrieste, Rome, Zurich, Paris

3. Bio - continuedA war refugee: fled Paris before German occupation, arrived in Switzerland Died on 13 January, 1941, 3 weeks after reaching Switzerland

4. Joyce and ModernismJoyce’s name is synonymous with modernist literature. His fiction disrupted conventional expectations:about narrative certainty, heroism, and religious faithdeclining since the late nineteenth century, offering instead a look at human consciousness in a world where grand cultural myths and systems of belief were breaking down.Joyce substitutes “epiphany” in place of spiritual conviction and certitude,a momentary flash of awareness, a heightened personal experience, that revealed the ordinary in an extraordinary light. Adapted from Christian doctrine, the secular equivalent of a spiritual experience.Gabriel Conroy’s realization of his own insignificance, illustrate the fleeting intensity of such a moment.

5. Modernist InfluencesWorld War I (1914-1918)Ezra Pound’s challenge: “Make it new”The “Great Questioners”: Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin, FreudAn era of RevolutionTsarist Russia becomes the Soviet UnionIrish “Easter Rising”FragmentationFinding Order: myth, art

6. The Dubliners“In many ways Joyce invented Dublin, and those of us living there now have to live in itaccording to his myopic lens.” - Edward BarringtonIrish Ambassador to UKopening remarks at James JoyceSymposium, London, June 24, 2000

7. The Dubliners“I seriously believe that you will retard the course of civilization in Ireland by preventing the Irish people from having one good look at themselves in my nicely polished looking-glass.”“I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness.”

8. DublinersA collection of 15 stories, written between 1903 and 1907“My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the center of paralysis.” “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.”“I have tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order.” “I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness.” “What’s the matter with you is that you’re afraid to live. You and people like you. This city is suffering from hemiplegia [paralysis] of the will.”

9. Narrationnarrative point of viewfirst-person, third personomniscient, limitedstream of consciousness, interior monologueTransparent Minds:psycho-narrationnarrated monologue (indirect interior mon.)quoted monologue (direct interior mon.)

10. “The Dead”GabrielInsecurity/AwkwardnessDefensivenessand overcompensationParalysis/“blindness”Doesn’t immediately recognize his wife when he sees her on the stairs listening to the song.Fear of Insignificance vs. feelings of superiorityEpiphany:The pain of self-awareness

11. Idealization of the PastIn his toastPossible foreshadowing of his wife’s story?Wife’s nostalgia at hearing the old songHe confronts her about it, is rebuffed and again he gets defensive