James Joyce: The Critical Heritage - Research Paper Example

Number] James Joyce Background James Aloysius Joyce was an Irish poet and novelist regarded among the most influential and inspiring modern age writers of the 20th century. He gained attention and fames mainly through his work Ulysses written in 1922 based upon the Homer’s Odyssey. He also wrote three poetry collections, a play, novels and several letters that were published during his career as occasional journalist. His writings deflect his deep love and attachment to his family members, homeland and people living there and he always based the characters of his plays and novels on the people of his hometown (Tara, p81). Born in Dublin Joyce received his early education from the Jesuit school at Belvedere and Clongowes after which he went to the University College Dubai for higher education. He was the eldest brother of ten siblings. He was just over 20 when he started his journey towards Europe and settled in different countries like Paris, Zurich and Trieste. Despite the fact that he spent most of his youth abroad, Joyce never felt detached from the functional universe of Dublin and the environment of his homeland always have strong influence upon his writings and works (McCourt, p18). Most of the characters of his play and novels are created heavily inspired from his family members, friends, enemies and other common people whom he interacted during his life in Dublin. His famous work Ulysses is also set up in the streets of his city and after the publication of Ulysses he declared that he could never write apart from the environment of Dublin because he believe that writing in the context of Dublin means writing about all cities of the world to him (Harry, p43). Joyce began his writing journey in 1891 when he wrote poem Et Tu Healy to pay tribute to Charles Stewart Parnell who dead in same year. The father of Joyce was not happy with the Parnell’s treatment by the Catholic Church after which the Home Rule also became unsecured for Ireland. The poem was not only printed in the publication but was also sent to the Victorian library. Joyce joined Stubbs Gazette that was official bankruptcy journal from where he was suspended and dismissed with pension. He also got involved in drinking and other financial mismanagement activities due to which his family had to suffer intense financial crisis (Maurice, p43). He had to leave the Clongowes Wood College in 1892 because his father was not able to pay his fee. After this Joyce mainly studied and home until he got place in the Jesuits Dublin school in 1893 (Keith, p184). He was just 13 years of old when he was elected to join Sodality of Our Lady at Belvedere. He was elected by his peers on the basis of his leadership qualities and positive attitude. At the age of 16 he became away from the Catholic roots as he was strongly admired from the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. However, later he reconciled with his faith and his writings also reflect his Catholic affiliations like in Ulysses and Finnegan (Stephen, p215) In 1989, he became active student of University College Dublin where got prominence in the theatrical and literary circles. In 1900, He reviewed the New Drama penned by Henrik Ibsen. The review was published in Fortnightly Review and for this review he received the note of thanks from the novelist as well. After his he continued with writing reviews and articles and his several articles were published in the magazines at that time. He also wrote two plays during this time in which he made appear many of his friends and fellows of the University College Dublin. In 1901, he was listed as scholar by the National Census of Ireland. After graduation he left Dublin and moved to Paris where he studied medicine however he faced difficulty in understanding lectures in French. After few months he had to rush back home when he came to know that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. After death of his mother he started drinking and also started reviewing books along with singing and teaching to manage livelihood for the family. He won the Fies Ceoil bronze medal in 1904 for his writing capabilities (Keith, p184). In 1904, he wrote an essay-story A Portrait of the Artist that deals with aesthetics. The essay story was rejected by Dana that was a free thinking magazine. He decided to revise his work and rewrote the story to give it shape of a novel titled Stephen Hero. This fictional novel was an attempt to render the youth of Joyce however, he failed to manage the thoughts presented in the novel and the novel was also not published. Several years later, living in Trieste he rewrote the same novel with another name A Portrait of the Artist as a young man. The incomplete novel Stephen Hero was also published but after his death (Stephen, p215). He went to Zurich along with his friend Nora and got employed at the Berlitz Language School as English teacher. After having difficulties in settling here, he moved to Pola and stayed there to teach English to the Austro Hungarian naval officer that were stationed at Pola based. He moved back to Trieste after sometime and then spent almost ten years there teaching English. In late 1906, he was moved to Rome where he got job in a bank. However, he didn’t like Rome and decided to go back Trieste within just one year (Richard, p25). He returned Dublin for one more time in 1909 accompanied with his son. He met the family of Nora and his father and worked to start the publication of Dubliners. He also launched the first cinema of Ireland under the name Volta Cinematograph with the support of Italian Friends. He met with representatives of cinema in Dublin and worked on the plan of establishing a regular cinema in Dublin. He also grew differences with the publisher of Dubliners George Robert and also wrote a poem Gas from a Burnet to criticize the acts and attitude of George with him (Robert, p154). Joyce was also struggling to settle down his siblings at different places and took his brother and sisters with him to Trieste where some of them were successfully settled. He also created some money making schemes to get over the financial problems of his family. He tried to set his image as cinema magnate in Dublin and also made plans to start the business of importing weeds from Ireland to Trieste. He was then settled in Paris to finish the work on Ulysses. By this time he started name and fame as an Avant-grade author of his age. He for some grants as well after which it became possible for him to dedicate his time completely for writing work. He also developed connection with the prominent literary personalities of Paris and started getting introduction in the literary world (Eric, p99). In 1941 he was diagnosed with ulcer and went through the surgery for perforated ulcer. He was on the way to recover and improve when he relapsed and went into coma even after several transfusions. He was died on 13th of January, 1941 and was buried in the Fluntern Cemetery located in Zurich. His writing career is full with the contributions that provide insight to the life and people of Dublin because he also felt very close with his family and friends of his hometown while he started writing anything. He used his writing skills as tool to express his love, dedication, affiliation as well as criticism for different people (Robert, p154). Work Cited Beebe, Maurice. "Ulysses and the Age of Modernism". James Joyce Quarterly (University of Tulsa, 1972) 10 (1): 172–88. Print Bulson, Eric. The Cambridge Introduction to James Joyce. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print Deming, Robert. James Joyce: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge, 1997. Print Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. NY: Oxford University Press, 1959. Print Gillers, Stephen. "A Tendency to Deprave and Corrupt: The Transformation of American Obscenity Law from Hicklin to Ulysses". Washington University Law Review 85 (2): 215–96, 2007. Print Hopper, Keith, Flann OBrien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-Modernist, Ireland Cork University, 1995. Print McCourt, John, the Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904–1920, Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2001. Print Pepper, Tara. "Portrait of the Daughter: Two works seek to reclaim the legacy of Lucia Joyce." Newsweek International, 2003. Print Levin, Harry, James Joyce. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1960. Print Read More