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Journalism of Courage
ULYSSES
By James Joyce8217;s
WHILE James Joyce8217;s Ulysses has evoked a far greater amount of critical discussion, there is no doubt that A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is his most widely read work.
The novel is largely autobiographical, tracing the author8217;s youth from his birth to his departure from Ireland. The central character is Stephen Dedalus who also appears in Ulysses and he narrates his own life in words and styles appropriate to each phase. The earliest stages are expressed in a simplistic, fragmentary manner, while his university life is given complex and articulate form. This is the Portrait8217;s chief innovation; it is also as noted for its wonderful evocation of a child blessed and cursed with intellect and a middle-class upbringing.
We follow Joyce/Dedalus through his crisis of faith inspired by Father Arnall8217;s 8216;8216;hellfire8217;8217; sermon and various childhood difficulties, including being bullying, and into sexual and emotional development. In the background to this and central to the narrators concerns are the narrow-mindedness of both the Irish Catholic Church and nationalism, which was at its peak at the end of the nineteenth century, when this novel is set.
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