There is evidence throughout the stories, and in Joyce's letters, to show that Dubliners should be considered as a single entity rather than as a series of unconnected short stories. This thesis examines Joyce's presentation of Dublin's middle class as a unifying principle underlying the whole work. Joyce believed that his city was in the grip of a life-denying "paralysis", and this thesis studies his attempt in Dubliners to relate that paralysis to those attitudes towards experience which his Dubliners hold in common. The stories in Dubliners are grouped to form a progression from childhood through adolescence to maturity and public life. This progression reveals the nature of Dublin's middle class and its effect on its individual member throughout his life. Childhood is a time of comparative freedom, and adolescence shows the individual's increasing conformity to the standards and values of his class. By the time he reaches maturity he is totally trapped in that paralysis reflected in the corruption of the public institutions. The nature of the middle class is revealed by four sub-themes which I designate: "religion," "adventure", "love", and "culture". For the purposes of this analysis the stories are grouped according to these thematic divisions, but Joyce's own order is always taken into consideration. Chapters 1 to IV each examines one of these sub-themes. In Chapter V, "The Dead", which embraces all of these aspects of experience, is treated separately. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

"May 2006." / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of English. / "May 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 36-39)

Traditional interpretations of James Joyce's Dubliners have often focused on the pervasive "paralysis" of the city, covered in the stories' range of "childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life." However, these approaches have limited their focus on the women in the stories, often spotlighting the male characters--and the author--through a Freudian lens; consequently, the interpretations have overlooked important considerations in light of developing feminist criticism. Through a selection of the stories, this thesis attempts to show how the text of Dubliners offers a cultural critique of the ways in which women were oppressed and constrained by the Irish Catholic ideology which established their roles within society. By the close of the collection, however, Joyce's creation of an inchoate image of the multi-dimensional, sexualized women of his mature works, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, is embodied in the character of Gretta Conroy in "The Dead." Using Judith Butler's theory of performative acts of gender construction and Julia Kristeva's cultural dynamic of "the maternal" in the Stabat Mater, this criticism of the text lifts the female characters from the backgrounds of Dubliners and reveals the diseased culture of Dublin from another perspective. The female characters in the text act out expected cultural roles, often modeled after the Irish Catholic ideal of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through the speech, silence, and physical acts of the female characters in Dubliners, "the female" in Irish-Catholic-Victorian culture is constructed--and reinforced--for Joyce's audience. This reading then furthers our understanding of the institutions, values, and practices which defined "womanhood" in nineteenth-century Dublin. / Graduation date: 1999

One rarely sees the names James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway together in the same sentence. Their obvious differences in writing styles, nationalities, and lifestyles prevent any automatic comparison from being made. But when one compares their early short story collections, Dubliners and In Our Time, many surprisingly similarities appear. Both are collections of short stories unified in some way, written by expatriates who knew each other in Paris. A mood of despair and hopelessness pervades the stories as the characters are trapped in the human condition. By examining the commonalities found in their methods of organization, handling of point of view, attitudes toward their subjects, stylistic techniques, and modes of writing, one is continually brought back to the differences between Joyce and Hemingway in each of these areas. For it is their differences that make these artists important; how each author chose to develop his craft gives him a significant place in literature.

James Joyce é um dos escritores mais famosos do século 20, sendo sua obra muito comentada por leitores e acadêmicos, especialmente devido ao alto nível de complexidade de Ulisses e Finnegans Wake, os romances da fase madura. O foco da presente dissertação, todavia, são os primeiros livros de Joyce que, apesar de serem mais acessíveis ao público em geral, também contêm toda a elaboração linguística e simbólica que caracteriza o autor. Trato especificamente do volume de contos Dublinenses e do romance Um Retrato do Artista Quando Jovem, utilizando para análise deste o suporte oferecido pelo outro romance anterior, não publicado em vida, Stephen Hero. O objetivo da pesquisa é investigar aspectos presentes na prosa de Joyce que revelem a formulação e a aplicação de sua teoria estética. Como a cidade de Dublin surge como uma metáfora sobre as circunstâncias de ser irlandês, interessa ao leitor adquirir alguma familiaridade com a cultura e a história daquele país e com as relações existentes entre os irlandeses e sua terra natal, especialmente no que tange às questões sobre religiosidade e sobre a dominação inglesa. A dissertação vem estruturada em quatro capítulos. O primeiro apresenta James Joyce tanto como pessoa quanto como escritor em formação, nascendo e crescendo em Dublin na virada dos séculos XIX e XX. São analisadas as influências exercidas pelo contexto católico de sua criação e pela crise social e econômica enfrentadas tanto pelo país quanto pela família do autor. O segundo capítulo lida com Dublinenses, o conjunto de contos que apresenta a visão de Joyce sobre a cidade de Dublin. Esses contos podem ser lidos individualmente, mas a obra assume um significado maior quando considerada de forma unificada em termos de linguagem, simbologia, estratégias narrativas e objetivos, em um plano de evolução que abrange fases da infância, da adolescência, da maturidade e da vida pública. As personagens compartilham características comuns: paralisia, falta de perspectivas e incapacidade de entender ou de reagir aos fatores históricos e sociais que os colocam naquela posição. Entre tais fatores predominam três, a cultura católica, a dominação inglesa e a inabilidade das pessoas para reagir de maneira criativa e produtiva aos problemas que se apresentam. O terceiro capítulo analisa a evolução do fazer artístico de Joyce a partir do binômio Stephen Hero e Um Retrato do Artista Quando Jovem, tendo como elemento comum a ideia do Künstlerroman. No quarto e último capítulo, apresento um comentário sobre as marcas de individuação de Joyce em relação a alguns de seus contemporâneos que também tratam sobre questões envolvendo arte, história e tradição. Ao término do trabalho, espero que a minha percepção sobre o conjunto de fatores que propiciaram o surgimento de um autor como Joyce possa ser de utilidade para pessoas que, como eu, acreditam tanto na importância estética quanto na relevância política e social desses três primeiros livros, os primeiros retratos de Dublin que James Joyce produziu. / James Joyce is one of the most famous writers in the 20th century, whose work is very commented both by readers and scholars, especially because of the high level of complexity of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, the two mature masterpieces. The focus of the present thesis, however, lies on the first books written by Joyce, because they are more manageable for reading, and yet bear all the linguistic and symbolic sophistication that marks Joyce’s production. The corpus of the research comprises the book of short stories Dubliners and the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, using as support to the analysis of the latter, the previous novel, never published in life, Stephen Hero. The aim of this thesis is to investigate aspects of Joyce’s prose that expose the stages of construction and application of his aesthetic theory. The city of Dublin comes as a metaphor about the condition of being Irish. As a consequence, some familiarity with Irish history and culture is relevant for a better understanding of the books, and of the complex relations involving the Irish and their land, especially in matters concerning Catholicism and English domination. The thesis is divided in four chapters. The first draws on James Joyce, considered both as a person and as a writer in progress, born and raised in Dublin in the turn of the 19th into the 20th centuries. The chapter centres on the relations involving the influence of the Catholic context of his formation and the economic and social crises experienced by Ireland and by the Joyce family at the time. Chapter two is about Dubliners, the collection of short stories that presents Joyce’s view about the city of Dublin. These stories can be read independently from one another, but they acquire a finer meaning if considered as a unit in terms of language, symbolism, narrative strategies and goals, besides following a plan of evolution from childhood to adolescence, and to maturity, and public life. The characters share common characteristics: paralysis, lack of perspective, incapacity to understand or to react to the historical and social factors that put them in that position. Among those factors we have the Catholic tradition, the English domination and the inability of the people to react to circumstantial problems in a creative and productive way. Chapter three analyses the evolution of Joyce’s craftsmanship through the duo Stephen Hero/A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, using the notion of Künstlerroman as a starting point. In the last chapter I deal with the peculiarities in Joyce’s style, contrasting them to the practice of some other contemporary authors who also state their views about art, history and tradition. As an aftermath to this thesis, I hope that my comments about the body of elements that propitiated the rise of Joyce as the author he is may prove useful to other people like me, who believe in the relevance of his contribution to the aesthetics of literature and to the discussion about political and social issues related to Ireland, in the first portraits of Dublin displayed in Joyce’s three first books.

James Joyce é um dos escritores mais famosos do século 20, sendo sua obra muito comentada por leitores e acadêmicos, especialmente devido ao alto nível de complexidade de Ulisses e Finnegans Wake, os romances da fase madura. O foco da presente dissertação, todavia, são os primeiros livros de Joyce que, apesar de serem mais acessíveis ao público em geral, também contêm toda a elaboração linguística e simbólica que caracteriza o autor. Trato especificamente do volume de contos Dublinenses e do romance Um Retrato do Artista Quando Jovem, utilizando para análise deste o suporte oferecido pelo outro romance anterior, não publicado em vida, Stephen Hero. O objetivo da pesquisa é investigar aspectos presentes na prosa de Joyce que revelem a formulação e a aplicação de sua teoria estética. Como a cidade de Dublin surge como uma metáfora sobre as circunstâncias de ser irlandês, interessa ao leitor adquirir alguma familiaridade com a cultura e a história daquele país e com as relações existentes entre os irlandeses e sua terra natal, especialmente no que tange às questões sobre religiosidade e sobre a dominação inglesa. A dissertação vem estruturada em quatro capítulos. O primeiro apresenta James Joyce tanto como pessoa quanto como escritor em formação, nascendo e crescendo em Dublin na virada dos séculos XIX e XX. São analisadas as influências exercidas pelo contexto católico de sua criação e pela crise social e econômica enfrentadas tanto pelo país quanto pela família do autor. O segundo capítulo lida com Dublinenses, o conjunto de contos que apresenta a visão de Joyce sobre a cidade de Dublin. Esses contos podem ser lidos individualmente, mas a obra assume um significado maior quando considerada de forma unificada em termos de linguagem, simbologia, estratégias narrativas e objetivos, em um plano de evolução que abrange fases da infância, da adolescência, da maturidade e da vida pública. As personagens compartilham características comuns: paralisia, falta de perspectivas e incapacidade de entender ou de reagir aos fatores históricos e sociais que os colocam naquela posição. Entre tais fatores predominam três, a cultura católica, a dominação inglesa e a inabilidade das pessoas para reagir de maneira criativa e produtiva aos problemas que se apresentam. O terceiro capítulo analisa a evolução do fazer artístico de Joyce a partir do binômio Stephen Hero e Um Retrato do Artista Quando Jovem, tendo como elemento comum a ideia do Künstlerroman. No quarto e último capítulo, apresento um comentário sobre as marcas de individuação de Joyce em relação a alguns de seus contemporâneos que também tratam sobre questões envolvendo arte, história e tradição. Ao término do trabalho, espero que a minha percepção sobre o conjunto de fatores que propiciaram o surgimento de um autor como Joyce possa ser de utilidade para pessoas que, como eu, acreditam tanto na importância estética quanto na relevância política e social desses três primeiros livros, os primeiros retratos de Dublin que James Joyce produziu. / James Joyce is one of the most famous writers in the 20th century, whose work is very commented both by readers and scholars, especially because of the high level of complexity of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, the two mature masterpieces. The focus of the present thesis, however, lies on the first books written by Joyce, because they are more manageable for reading, and yet bear all the linguistic and symbolic sophistication that marks Joyce’s production. The corpus of the research comprises the book of short stories Dubliners and the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, using as support to the analysis of the latter, the previous novel, never published in life, Stephen Hero. The aim of this thesis is to investigate aspects of Joyce’s prose that expose the stages of construction and application of his aesthetic theory. The city of Dublin comes as a metaphor about the condition of being Irish. As a consequence, some familiarity with Irish history and culture is relevant for a better understanding of the books, and of the complex relations involving the Irish and their land, especially in matters concerning Catholicism and English domination. The thesis is divided in four chapters. The first draws on James Joyce, considered both as a person and as a writer in progress, born and raised in Dublin in the turn of the 19th into the 20th centuries. The chapter centres on the relations involving the influence of the Catholic context of his formation and the economic and social crises experienced by Ireland and by the Joyce family at the time. Chapter two is about Dubliners, the collection of short stories that presents Joyce’s view about the city of Dublin. These stories can be read independently from one another, but they acquire a finer meaning if considered as a unit in terms of language, symbolism, narrative strategies and goals, besides following a plan of evolution from childhood to adolescence, and to maturity, and public life. The characters share common characteristics: paralysis, lack of perspective, incapacity to understand or to react to the historical and social factors that put them in that position. Among those factors we have the Catholic tradition, the English domination and the inability of the people to react to circumstantial problems in a creative and productive way. Chapter three analyses the evolution of Joyce’s craftsmanship through the duo Stephen Hero/A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, using the notion of Künstlerroman as a starting point. In the last chapter I deal with the peculiarities in Joyce’s style, contrasting them to the practice of some other contemporary authors who also state their views about art, history and tradition. As an aftermath to this thesis, I hope that my comments about the body of elements that propitiated the rise of Joyce as the author he is may prove useful to other people like me, who believe in the relevance of his contribution to the aesthetics of literature and to the discussion about political and social issues related to Ireland, in the first portraits of Dublin displayed in Joyce’s three first books.

James Joyce é um dos escritores mais famosos do século 20, sendo sua obra muito comentada por leitores e acadêmicos, especialmente devido ao alto nível de complexidade de Ulisses e Finnegans Wake, os romances da fase madura. O foco da presente dissertação, todavia, são os primeiros livros de Joyce que, apesar de serem mais acessíveis ao público em geral, também contêm toda a elaboração linguística e simbólica que caracteriza o autor. Trato especificamente do volume de contos Dublinenses e do romance Um Retrato do Artista Quando Jovem, utilizando para análise deste o suporte oferecido pelo outro romance anterior, não publicado em vida, Stephen Hero. O objetivo da pesquisa é investigar aspectos presentes na prosa de Joyce que revelem a formulação e a aplicação de sua teoria estética. Como a cidade de Dublin surge como uma metáfora sobre as circunstâncias de ser irlandês, interessa ao leitor adquirir alguma familiaridade com a cultura e a história daquele país e com as relações existentes entre os irlandeses e sua terra natal, especialmente no que tange às questões sobre religiosidade e sobre a dominação inglesa. A dissertação vem estruturada em quatro capítulos. O primeiro apresenta James Joyce tanto como pessoa quanto como escritor em formação, nascendo e crescendo em Dublin na virada dos séculos XIX e XX. São analisadas as influências exercidas pelo contexto católico de sua criação e pela crise social e econômica enfrentadas tanto pelo país quanto pela família do autor. O segundo capítulo lida com Dublinenses, o conjunto de contos que apresenta a visão de Joyce sobre a cidade de Dublin. Esses contos podem ser lidos individualmente, mas a obra assume um significado maior quando considerada de forma unificada em termos de linguagem, simbologia, estratégias narrativas e objetivos, em um plano de evolução que abrange fases da infância, da adolescência, da maturidade e da vida pública. As personagens compartilham características comuns: paralisia, falta de perspectivas e incapacidade de entender ou de reagir aos fatores históricos e sociais que os colocam naquela posição. Entre tais fatores predominam três, a cultura católica, a dominação inglesa e a inabilidade das pessoas para reagir de maneira criativa e produtiva aos problemas que se apresentam. O terceiro capítulo analisa a evolução do fazer artístico de Joyce a partir do binômio Stephen Hero e Um Retrato do Artista Quando Jovem, tendo como elemento comum a ideia do Künstlerroman. No quarto e último capítulo, apresento um comentário sobre as marcas de individuação de Joyce em relação a alguns de seus contemporâneos que também tratam sobre questões envolvendo arte, história e tradição. Ao término do trabalho, espero que a minha percepção sobre o conjunto de fatores que propiciaram o surgimento de um autor como Joyce possa ser de utilidade para pessoas que, como eu, acreditam tanto na importância estética quanto na relevância política e social desses três primeiros livros, os primeiros retratos de Dublin que James Joyce produziu. / James Joyce is one of the most famous writers in the 20th century, whose work is very commented both by readers and scholars, especially because of the high level of complexity of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, the two mature masterpieces. The focus of the present thesis, however, lies on the first books written by Joyce, because they are more manageable for reading, and yet bear all the linguistic and symbolic sophistication that marks Joyce’s production. The corpus of the research comprises the book of short stories Dubliners and the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, using as support to the analysis of the latter, the previous novel, never published in life, Stephen Hero. The aim of this thesis is to investigate aspects of Joyce’s prose that expose the stages of construction and application of his aesthetic theory. The city of Dublin comes as a metaphor about the condition of being Irish. As a consequence, some familiarity with Irish history and culture is relevant for a better understanding of the books, and of the complex relations involving the Irish and their land, especially in matters concerning Catholicism and English domination. The thesis is divided in four chapters. The first draws on James Joyce, considered both as a person and as a writer in progress, born and raised in Dublin in the turn of the 19th into the 20th centuries. The chapter centres on the relations involving the influence of the Catholic context of his formation and the economic and social crises experienced by Ireland and by the Joyce family at the time. Chapter two is about Dubliners, the collection of short stories that presents Joyce’s view about the city of Dublin. These stories can be read independently from one another, but they acquire a finer meaning if considered as a unit in terms of language, symbolism, narrative strategies and goals, besides following a plan of evolution from childhood to adolescence, and to maturity, and public life. The characters share common characteristics: paralysis, lack of perspective, incapacity to understand or to react to the historical and social factors that put them in that position. Among those factors we have the Catholic tradition, the English domination and the inability of the people to react to circumstantial problems in a creative and productive way. Chapter three analyses the evolution of Joyce’s craftsmanship through the duo Stephen Hero/A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, using the notion of Künstlerroman as a starting point. In the last chapter I deal with the peculiarities in Joyce’s style, contrasting them to the practice of some other contemporary authors who also state their views about art, history and tradition. As an aftermath to this thesis, I hope that my comments about the body of elements that propitiated the rise of Joyce as the author he is may prove useful to other people like me, who believe in the relevance of his contribution to the aesthetics of literature and to the discussion about political and social issues related to Ireland, in the first portraits of Dublin displayed in Joyce’s three first books.