James Joyce and his Revolutionary Forms in Modern Narrative
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

James Joyce spent in the Continent of Europe his whole creative career and the greater part of his life. But Joyce remained an irishman abroad, and in his works he reflects a thorough grounding in Irish life, the streets, the pubs, the smells,etc, of his native city.

Joyce's development as an artists proceed from the insular reality.

Joyce exploited his personal experiences for purposes of literary documentation. There are details of his biography in the pages of his novels,as for example in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" where the author makes a literal transcription of his first twenty years of life.

His works have an authobiographic unity.

Joyce was not inside any literary movement, he was a school by himself. Later he would create his own language and would made his own innovations in his novels like were the stream of conciousness and the interior monologue.

Joyce cultivate in his works two obsessive themes "the city and the artist". The city finds its obvious vehicle of expression in naturalism. And the artist in isolation will seek to cultivate the techniques and traditions of his craft, to recreate life artificially throught the medium of words.

Joyce proclaimed the isolation of the artist.

Joyce characterized the poet as a mediator between the world of reality and the world of dreams.

Joyce's own contributions to English prose is to provide a more fluid medium for refrasing sensations and impressions through the author's mind, to facilitate the transition from photographic realism to esthetic impressionism.

Joyce's career is characterized by three moments of originality, each one by one of his decissive novels:"Dubliners", "Ulyses" and "Finnegans Wake". "A Portrait" was a necessary introduction that will help to understand the later complications of "Ulyses".

It is not easy to identify Joyce with any movement. His personal objectives cut him off completely from the irish revolution. Little reviews record the clearest response to his writing, and an imagist anthology includes one of his early poems. But he cannot be included in any school; he was a school by himself.

In spite of his skill at languages he would learn small Gaelic and less Greek, but ultimately he would create his own language.

Joyce is the most self-centred of universal minds. He exploited his personal experience for purposes of literary documentation. His youth in Dublin, subject to limitations of poor eyesight, the perceptions of acute hearing, the exaggerations of immaturity, the natural bonds of emotion and unnatural tensions of resistance, furnished his only subject matter.

The earliest objection to his writing was that he had mentioned actual streets and well-known taverns of Dublin, and reported innuendoes about King Edward VII. His books are crowded with public charaacters who appear under their own names, or private characters who turn out to be friends of the author in disguise. Enemies of the author, from time to time, are introduced by name into incongruous situations.

Since Joyce's life is so inextricably woven into his work, we shall be confonted with the details of his biography as soon as we turn to the pages of his books.

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" carries the story of his life up to 1902, when he

took his degree and departed for France. In Paris he soon abandoned a notion of studying medicine and with much deliberation began to prepare himself for a literary career.

The whole of his creative career, and the greater part of his life, were spent in the Continent of Europe. His work is conceived less in the spirit of Irish renascence than of European decadence. "In Partibus Infidelium", however, joyce remained a wildgoose, an irishman abroad. Expatriation was a gesture of rebellion but of typically irish rebellion, against the British garrison and the Roman church. He sought out compatriots; he subscribed to Dublin sporting papers; he translated Yeats into italian, though his roots had gone so deep that he continued to draw upon reserves of vitality from the soil of Ireland. What he also takes for granted in his works is a thorough grounding in Irish life, in the streets and landmarks, the sounds and smells, the pubs and stews of his native city.

Joyce's development as an artist proceed from insular reality to cosmopolitan richness.

There is a transition in Joyce's career. From the comparative slightness of the "Portrait of the Artist", in contradistinction to the monumental scale and elaborated texture of "Ulyses" and "Finnegans Wake".

More expectacularly than any of his contemporaries, Joyce embraces the extremes of richness and reality -not so much the perfect fusion of these elements as their bitter opposition. As we gain perspective, we can see that compromise is not easy and choice is not free. The derivations of naturalism, as a disciplined revision of nineteenth century realism, are perfectly clear. The prospects of symbolism as a testing-ground for the literary experiments of our own day, are purely speculative.

Joyce characterized the poet as "a mediator between the world of reality and the world of dreams".

In a"A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man" Joyce fits squarely into the naturalistic tradition, and "Finnegans Wake" can only be classified as a symbolic experiment. There are germ of symbolism in the early book, of course, and a residue of naturalism in the recent one. It is paradoxical that the "Portrait", so direct in treatment, should be devoted to the problems of art; while "Finnegans Wake", where the figure of the artist has disappeared into the complexities of his technique, should be concentrated in the city life. We shall not be confused by this paradox if we recognize from the outset that Joyce's most protean variations are played upon two obsessive themes -the city and the artist.

The city finds its obvious vehicle of expression in naturalism. The artist, left to his own devices, turns in the other direction. Joyce proclaims the isolation of the artist.

The artist is an exile from the city. He has renounced his ties with friends and family, church and country. In isolation, he seeks to cultivate the traditions and techniques of his craft, to recreate life artificially through the medium of words. But words -mean of communication as well as expression- have an independent life which derives its velocity from the lips of men. With each successive work they come home to roost in Dublin. It may be that the artist is inspired by a very human feeling of nostalgia. Again, he may be motivated by a superhuman impulse to play God. Having left his religion behind his community, he may strive to call forth an order of his own, to impose a private pattern upon the chaos of his experience. with the modern intellectual, art has taken the place of religion. He feels the need to create a city of art, a Byzantium.

Joyce's prose is the register of this intelectual and emotional cleavage. Joyce's own contribution to English prose is to provide a more fluid medium for refracing sensations and impressions through the author's mind -to facilitate the transition from photographic realism to esthetic impressionism.

The most vital element in Joyce's writing, in the "Portrait" as in "Dublinners", is the use of conversation. As a reporter of Irish life, for all his reservations, Joyce is a faithful and appreciative listener.

Joyce's works have an authobiographic unity that imposes to follow it in a chronologic order, but it does not exclude a great variety of styles and forms, and inclusively a contrasted tension that will take long time in resolve. At the beginning there is a Joyce exalting his own personality, although before he had written anything; this Joyce is in contrast to the contemplative and expressive writer that use himself as the theme for a self-portrait but now without get excited with his own person.

In conclusion, Joyce with his innovations and revolutionary forms in literature has become a great writer of the modern narrative; He has become a school by himself, creating his own language, without belonging to any literary movement.

Joyce's career has been defined by three movements of originality, and each movement belongs to each one of his decissive novels: "Dublinners", "Ulyses" and "Finnegans Wake".

Joyce development as an artist proceeds from insular reality.

In him is important how he proclaims the isolation of the artist; the city and the artist were two of his obssesive themes; and also how his works have an authobiographic unity, where he exploited his personal experiences for literary documentation purposes.

And in him also have importance his characterization of the poet as a mediator between the world of reality and the world of dreams.

First Paper
 
 
 
 
May 25^th 1999

Mª ISABEL CAMPOS SAEZ