The voice of Dublin

James Joyce

Biographical Sketch• He was born at Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin, on Feb. 2, 1882.

• He was educated in a Jesuit school and later entered University College, Dublin where he graduated in 1902.

• In 1904 Joyce departed for the Continent, a second time, this time taking with him a girl called Nora Barnacle, whom he married in 1931.

• Their home from 1905 to 1915 was Trieste, where Joyce taught English at the Berlitz school

• In 1909 and 1912 he made his final trips to Ireland, attempting to arrange the publication of his first book Dubliners, which finally appeared in England in 1914.

• About this time he starts a life of self-imposed exile, living in several places in Europe.

• He dedicated all his life to his literary works.

• He died in Zurich on Jan 13, 1941

Work• Joyce was a writer of such talent and of such dedication, that the

majority of his literary output is today considered as masterful. Without a doubt, his most famous narrative works can all be appreciated under that light:

• Dubliners• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man• Ulysses• Finnegan’s Wake• Joyce's technical innovations in the art of the novel include an

extensive use of interior monologue (usually through stream of consciousness).

• He used a complex network of symbolic parallels drawn from the mythology, history, and literature, and created a unique language of invented words, puns, and allusions. (The Literature Network, Jalic LLC at http://www. online-literature.com)

Ulysses• Published in 1922.• The plot of the story is disarmingly simple: we follow

3 characters who have a series of encounters during one single day (Thursday, June 16, 1904) in Dublin.

• The 3 characters are:• Leopold Bloom; a middle-aged publicist and non-

practicing Jew; a writer, Stephen Dedalus; and Bloom’s wife Molly, a voluptuous singer who is planning an afternoon of adultery.

• The narrative is loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey , hence the title name.

Ulysses• In Ulysses, Joyce builds a complex world, full of subtleties,

where each character moves and interacts in different ways.

• Each of the 18 chapters of the novel can be loosely connected to a character in Homer’s Odyssey.

• Likewise, each of the chapters is told using a different literary technique, varying from dramatic dialogue (chapter 15) to hard-core stream of consciousness (chapter 18).

• In Ulysses, Joyce uses a host of references .While the Homeric parallels and literary techniques are the most important, each chapter is additionally organized around a different hour, colour, bodily organ, sense, symbol,art, and science.