Modernism and James Joyce Baldo Sara V A A.S

Reason for choosing the path  To examine in depth Modernism, what it was, its transformation and its characteristics in literature and not only.  To consider particularly James Joyce’s literature.

Problem posed or objective of the path  To glean the most important changes in literature, making in the Modern period.  To have a clear concept of Modernism.  To understand James Joyce’s style of writing and his way of thinking.

Modernism  What is it? Modernism is an aesthetic movement recording a radical break with and from the past, representing a reaction to traditional standards.  When develops it? The Modern Age consists of the years between 1890s and 1930s.  What includes it? Philosophy, science, literature, art and culture.

Modernism  The modernist philosophic paradigm can be expressed as search for the truth.  Modernists believe that the artist is the creator of culture.  The art of the modernist is experimental, innovative and complex.

Modernism  Time as a psychological and symbolic time.  Juxtaposition of events, referring to different times.  Art attempts to imitate or re-present reality.  Study of how reality can be re-presented aesthetical research.

Characteristics of Modernism in Literature  The use of images (“word pictures”) and symbols as typical and frequent literary techniques.  It uses a colloquial language rather a formal language.  Language is used in a very self-conscious way, seeing language as a way to show the real condition of human beings.

Characteristics of Modernism in Literature  Meaning is taken from the viewpoint of the individual interior monologue.  Narrators is found within the action of the fiction.  The narrator shows events from a personal and particular perspective.

Characteristics of Modernism in Literature  The use of many voices, having different perspectives multiple perspective.  The omniscient narrator is eclipsed, especially as the speaking voice for the author.  The use of free indirect or direct style. The intention of writers in the Modern period is to change the way readers see the world and understanding of what language is and does.

James Joyce  1882: He was born in Dublin to a middle class family.  : He lived in Dublin.  : He went to Trieste and Zurich.  : He went to Paris and Zurich.

Major works:  Dubliners (1914)  Exiles (1914)  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)  Ulysses (1922)  Finnegan's Wake (1939)

Paralysis  a living death, or a succession of deaths, emotional psychological, or spiritual  scenes of darkness, cold night, winter and blinding

Epiphany  the unattended moment  a sudden “light”, reflection and comprehension of reality  a spiritual and intellectual illumination of the nature of a thing  a sudden revelation of spiritual or moral meaning, usually as to the essential being of a person or thing

Experimentation of James Joyce: a new style of writing (used in Penelope, an extract from Ulysses)  The free direct style: lack of punctuation, lack of paragraphing, lack of conjunction, presence of leitmotivs and free associations.  The language of sense impression is built by words, recalling the senses. It appeals to sight, smell and taste, touch and hearing.

 The mythical method: a way to oppose itself to narrative method; it is an opportunity to give order and coherence in a literary text.  Juxtaposition: overlapping of events, thoughts, a fusion of different times (past, present and future). Experimentation of James Joyce: a new style of writing (used in Penelope, an extract from Ulysses)