DOCSLIB.ORG

Analysis of Emotional Paralysis in Dubliners in Terms of Personality Structure

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Analysis of Emotional Paralysis in Dubliners in Terms of Personality Structure International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 3, No. 4, December 2017 Analysis of Emotional Paralysis in Dubliners in terms of Personality Structure Xinwei Yang and Yu Sun people [1]. Abstract—Dubliners is one of James Joyce’s early works Under this circumstance, Irish people could not see the which portrays the miserable life condition of the middle and hope of the complete independence, nor could they find lower class people in Dublin in the early 20th century. Joyce comfort from the church, Ireland was filled with the has presented to the world in this collection a “dear dirty atmosphere of despair and paralysis. With the distress Dublin” which is suffused with morbid and lifeless atmosphere. “Paralysis” is the most apparent character of towards the social situation and the attempt to “present Dubliners. In this hopeless city, people are shackled by the Dublin to the world” [2], James Joyce decided to write doctrines and life burdens and have lost ability and passion to Dubliners. According to the letters which Joyce wrote to pursue true love. Instead, they have gradually fallen into the Grant Richards, the expression “Dubliner” is a special title to abyss of emotional paralysis. The present thesis will select two him, which is completely different from the term “Londoner” short stories “Eveline” and “Clay”, which depict the life of and “Parisian”. It’s a capital city for thousands of years, and young and middle-aged Dubliners, as examples to discuss the theme of emotional paralysis in Dubliners. The Freudian yet emits an “odor of corruption” [3]. But due to the strong theory of Personality Structure will be applied to analyze the criticism towards England and detailed depiction of the behavior and thoughts of the two protagonists to see how the people’s paralytic state in the stories, it takes Dubliners 9 ego, id, and super-ego operate to affect their mental and years to be finally published, during which it had been physical activities, and how their emotions finally become rejected by 22 publishers [4]. Though facing the severe paralyzed. problem of living, James Joyce never accept the publisher’s demand of revising. He said in the letter to Grant Richards Index Terms—James Joyce, emotional paralysis, personality structure that his purpose of writing Dubliners was to create a chapter of the moral history of Ireland, and he chose Dublin because it’s “the center of paralysis” [5]. Paralysis is the central I. INTRODUCTION theme of Dubliners, and emotional paralysis is an important section of it. A. James Joyce and the Paralysis in Dubliners Dubliners contains 15 short stories, each depicts the James Joyce, the Irish novelist and poet, is generally events which happens to certain Dubliners. The collection is considered as one of the most prominent literary figures in arranged in the order of childhood, adolescence, maturity, the 20th century. Born in a wealthy family on the decline, he and public life. The two stories “Eveline” and “Clay” which had lived abroad as expatriate for most of his life. Though are involved in the present thesis belong to the category rarely staying in his country after his young adulthood, he “Adolescence” and “Maturity” respectively. cared much about the social environment in Ireland and the living conditions of the Irish people. Most of his B. The structure of the Thesis masterpieces, including the collection of short stories The present thesis aims to discuss the theme of emotional Dubliners, his novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young paralysis in Dubliners in the light of Personality Structure, Man and Ulysses, are set in Ireland, and all of them are including the concepts of “id”, “ego”, and “super-ego”. concerned with the political, religious and emotional state In this paper, the id, ego, and super-ego of Eveline and of the country and the people living in it. Maria will be analyzed to see how the id, ego, and super-ego Dubliners is a collection of short stories published in affect their behavior and mental activities. Then, there will 1914 by Grant Richards Ltd. It depicts the life and be a comparative study of the two heroines to see the paralyzed state of the middle and lower class people who similarities and difference in their life attitude and emotional lived in the early 20th century Dublin. In that period, needs. Ireland was facing the triple pressures of British colonization, Catholic church, and Irish nationalism. As it was under the colonial rule of England, the Irish could not II. LITERATURE REVIEW attend the House of Lords and had very limited power in So far, journal articles and dissertations about Dubliners in politics. Throughout centuries there had been Irish nationalists such as Charles Stewart Parnell launching Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) mainly campaigns and independence movements against England, focus on three topics: the theme of the work; the writing but all ended in failure. In addition, the corrupt Catholic techniques; and the thought embodied in the work. In this church had also added to the misery of Ireland and Irish chapter, journal articles and theses which are closely related to the present thesis are reviewed as follows. Manuscript received May 12, 2017; revised July 12, 2017. A. Studies on the Emotional Paralysis in Dubliners Xinwei Yang and Yu Sun are with Northwestern Polytechnical Among all the journal articles and theses about Dubliners University, China (e-mail: [email protected], in CNKI, altogether 186 of them deal with the theme of [email protected]). doi: 10.18178/ijlll.2017.3.4.135 213 International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 3, No. 4, December 2017 paralysis in Dubliners, among which most writers tend to structure, which divides personality into three parts: ego, id, select those more famous short stories like “The Dead” and and super-ego. The id follows the so-called “pleasure “Araby”. Two theses focus on the topic of emotional principle”. It represents and manifests the idea deep in mind, paralysis, they are “Emotional paralysis--Analysis of Jame and strives for the satisfaction of all desires and wants. These Joyce’s Dubliners” and “Manifestation of emotional desire will never disappear no matter satisfied or not, instead, paralysis--in ‘Araby’ and ‘Eveline’. The former analyzed it remains in the mind as the unconscious. Ego is the part of the theme in light of the social background, but didn’t write personality that follows the reality principle which operates much about the mental activities of the characters; the to reconcile the conflicts between id and super-ego, and to second one, on the other hand, focused on the essential satisfy the needs and wants of id in a socially acceptable way elements of writing, that is, the background, plot, and or an appropriate occasion. Super-ego follows the “morality character building, and tried to find out how the theme of principle”. It’s the part of our personality which reflects the emotional paralysis is expressed through these elements. moral standards, ethics, and social common sense rooted in Both two theses are related to the present thesis in topic, the mind which are acquired through education. It’s the inner but different in research method and content. voice that judge right and wrong. According to Freud, both id and super-ego are unrealistic. B. Studies on Dubliners based on the Theory of They follow their own principles and these principles Personality Structure sometimes do not meet the social ethnics. Under this Among the 186 journal articles and theses about circumstance, ego has to weigh and satisfy both sides as Dubliners in CNKI, only 13 of them are written from the much as possible. However, the ego is obviously partial to view of Personality Structure. “Sound of Silence--A the id. It always seeks opportunity to make the desire of id Lacanian Psychoanalysis Applied to Dubliners” written by fulfilled while pretending to care about the reality. But since Liu Sha looks at the character’s mental activities from the its behavior is monitored by the super-ego, it won’t be view of Lacan’s theory of mirror stage. “The solitude of immune from the punishment of fear and guilt. In order to Dubliners--A Neo Psychoanalytic reading of Joyce’s ease the uncomfortable feelings, the ego will set up the Dubliners” written by Cai Xiujuan analyzes the loneliness so-called defense mechanisms, which can prevent the of Dubliners by using Fromm’s psychoanalytic theory. individual from feeling bad by manipulate, deny, or distort Though there are some common problems in these articles the reality from the unconscious level [7]. and theses, such as simple analysis and short length, at least they have introduced a new psychoanalytic approach to the B. Specific Research Questions research of Dubliners. Question 1: How do id, ego, and super-ego affect the behavior and mental activities of Eveline and Maria, and C. Significance of the Present Thesis how is the theme of emotional paralysis manifested through Firstly, among the 186 thesis about the paralysis in the two heroines? Dubliners presented in CNKI, only 4 of them have done a Question 2: In what ways are Eveline and Maria similar detailed analysis on emotional paralysis, others have just with and different from each other? analyzed the theme “paralysis” in general. In view of the research space in this aspect, the present thesis focuses on paralysis in emotional aspect only. IV. THE THEME OF EMOTIONAL PARALYSIS IN DUBLINERS Another innovation of the present thesis is that it applies James Joyce has presented in these fifteen short stories a a Freudian theory of personality structure to analyze the paralytic Dublin which is featured by the inefficient behavior, words, and mental activities of the characters in government, corrupt church, emotionless people, and order to study the theme of emotional paralysis.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Shahrzad and the Persian Culture in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake
    International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 19; November 2013 Shahrzad and the Persian Culture in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake: A Chaotic “nightmaze” Dr. Leila Baradaran Jamili Department of English Literature Islamic Azad University Boroujerd Branch, Iran Abstract Novelists illustrate that linear assumptions persistently impinge upon their understandings of the cosmos. Whereas the nonlinear, disordered and dynamic system of chaos, or chaosmos and complexity theories can provide different perceptions, experiences, and interpretations that match the diversity of reading, as James Joyce believes, they cannot touch the Cartesian spring. Chaos, as a scientific, post-Einsteinian, theory unites science, literature, and culture by using modern and postmodern methods of interpretation. This paper discovers some proper links between cosmos and chaos in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939), argues the existing systems of order versus disorder and the unpredictability of reality. Joyce visualizes a very chaotic system or “nightmaze” by constructing his major characters and mapping them in the world of literature through random acts of storytelling in various languages. He creates a world in which the invisible borders of reality and fantasy merge in an odd unpredictable relationship. In the chaosmos outlined by Joyce, he reveals that Shahrzad, the central character of The Thousand and One Nights, is trapped in an unsystematized chaotic “nightmaze” that instead paves the way to remap her identity and keep her alive not simply in the Persian literature but rather in the modern and postmodern world literature. Key Words: Chaos, Chaosmos, Nonlinearity, Shahrzad, Nightmaze, Persian Culture 1. Introduction The novelists consider linear assumptions persistently impinging upon their perceptions of the cosmos.
    [Show full text]
  • Ulysses in Paradise: Joyce's Dialogues with Milton by RENATA D. MEINTS ADAIL a Thesis Submitted to the University of Birmingh
    Ulysses in Paradise: Joyce’s Dialogues with Milton by RENATA D. MEINTS ADAIL A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY English Studies School of English, Drama, American & Canadian Studies College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham October 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis considers the imbrications created by James Joyce in his writing with the work of John Milton, through allusions, references and verbal echoes. These imbrications are analysed in light of the concept of ‘presence’, based on theories of intertextuality variously proposed by John Shawcross, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, and Eelco Runia. My analysis also deploys Gumbrecht’s concept of stimmung in order to explain how Joyce incorporates a Miltonic ‘atmosphere’ that pervades and enriches his characters and plot. By using a chronological approach, I show the subtlety of Milton’s presence in Joyce’s writing and Joyce’s strategy of weaving it into the ‘fabric’ of his works, from slight verbal echoes in Joyce’s early collection of poems, Chamber Music, to a culminating mass of Miltonic references and allusions in the multilingual Finnegans Wake.
    [Show full text]
  • JOYCE and the JEWS Also by Ira B
    JOYCE AND THE JEWS Also by Ira B. Nadel BIOGRAPHY: Fiction, Fact and Form GERTRUDE STEIN AND THE MAKING OF LITERATURE (editor with Shirley Neuman) GEORGE ORWELL: A Reassessment (editor with Peter Buitenhuis) Joyce and the Je-ws Culture and Texts Ira B. Nadel Professor of English University of British Columbia M MACMILLAN PRESS © Ira B. Nadel 1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989 978-0-333-38352-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright licenSing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Nadel, Ira Bruce Joyce and the Jews: Culture and texts. 1. Joyce, James, 1882-1941--Criticism and interpretation I. Title 823'.912 PR6019.09Z1 ISBN 978-1-349-07654-3 ISBN 978-1-349-07652-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07652-9 In memory of my father Isaac David Nadel and for Ryan and Dara 'We Jews are not painters.
    [Show full text]
  • Top Quark Physics in the Large Hadron Collider Era
    Top Quark Physics in the Large Hadron Collider era Michael Russell Particle Physics Theory Group, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow September 2017 arXiv:1709.10508v2 [hep-ph] 31 Jan 2018 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract We explore various aspects of top quark phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider and proposed future machines. After summarising the role of the top quark in the Standard Model (and some of its well-known extensions), we discuss the formulation of the Standard Model as a low energy effective theory. We isolate the sector of this effective theory that pertains to the top quark and that can be probed with top observables at hadron colliders, and present a global fit of this sector to currently available data from the LHC and Tevatron. Various directions for future improvement are sketched, including analysing the potential of boosted observables and future colliders, and we highlight the importance of using complementary information from different colliders. Interpretational issues related to the validity of the effective field theory formulation are elucidated throughout. Finally, we present an application of artificial neural network algorithms to identifying highly- boosted top quark events at the LHC, and comment on further refinements of our analysis that can be made. 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost I must thank my supervisors, Chris White and Christoph Englert, for their endless support, inspiration and encouragement throughout my PhD. They always gave me enough freedom to mature as a researcher, whilst providing the occasional neces- sary nudge to keep me on the right track.
    [Show full text]
  • The Realism of James Joyce: Autobiography, Intertextuality, and Genius
    Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Honors Program Senior Projects WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 2004 The Realism of James Joyce: Autobiography, Intertextuality, and Genius Andrew Shanafelt Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Shanafelt, Andrew, "The Realism of James Joyce: Autobiography, Intertextuality, and Genius" (2004). WWU Honors Program Senior Projects. 281. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/281 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Honors Program Senior Projects by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Realism of James Joyce Autobiography, Intertextuality, and Genius Andrew Shanafelt Honors Senior Project June 2004 Advisor: Dr. Margaritis WESTERN _______B WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY_________________________________ An equal opportunity university Honors Program HONORS THESIS In presenting this Honors paper in partial requirements for a bachelor’s degree at Western Washington University, I agree that the Library shall make its copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that extensive copying of this thesis is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood that any publication of this thesis fog comififerotel purposes or for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written pe/mis^pn. Signature Date_ (^/3/zoo^ Stately, plump Oliver Gogarty sits down in 1921 to read the mammoth novel that his erstwhile friend and roommate has at last completed, and against all odds published. He is understandably disturbed and surprised by what he finds.
    [Show full text]
  • Spiritual Paralysis and Epiphany: James Joyce's “Eveline”
    Gaziantep Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (http://sbe.gantep.edu.tr) 2012 11(2):587 -600 ISSN: 1303-0094 Spiritual Paralysis and Epiphany: James Joyce’s “Eveline” and “The Boarding House” “James Joyce’un ‘Eveline’ ve ‘The Boarding House’ adlı Hikayelerindeki Ruhsal Çöküntü ve Epifani” Zennure Köseman Inönü University Abstract This article intends to highlight James Joyce’s ironical outlook for the existence of epiphanies in women’s lives to be released from their spiritual paralysis and stagnation as indicated in “Eveline” (1904) and “The Boarding House” (1906) in Dubliners. In “Eveline” and “The Boarding House,” Joyce portrays women who are in a struggle for setting aside the inequalities and miseries of their social environment through their representative wish for emancipation in their lonely and alienated state of minds. Trapped in a web of social expectations and constraints, women intend to escape from the strict patriarchal society of Dublin in these short stories. Structured and controlled by the issue of femininity, James Joyce writes about the effects of the Irish society on female adolescents. “Eveline” and “The Boarding House” offer two portrayals of women who are enclosed by the dominance of the rigid patriarchal society which ends up the need for emancipation from social rigid rules. In these stories, however, the women characters portray a continuation of the choice of their domestic female roles, i.e., their struggle for emancipation turns out to be useless. "Eveline" is the story of a young teenager who faces a dilemma where she has to choose either she has to live with her father or escape with his boyfriend.
    [Show full text]
  • The Transformative Energy of Children's Literature
    Notes 1 Breaking Bounds: The Transformative Energy of Children’s Literature 1. I do not recognise Karin Lesnik-Oberstein’s insistence that the majority of academics who write about children’s literature are primarily concerned with finding the right book for the right child (Children’s Literature: New Approaches, 2004: 1–24). 2. Although publishing for children includes many innovative and important non- fictional works, my concern is specifically with narrative fictions for children. 3. See Rumer Godden’s entertaining ‘An Imaginary Correspondence’ featuring invented letters between Mr V. Andal, an American publisher working for the De Base Publishing Company, and Beatrix Potter for an entertaining insight into this process. The piece appeared in Horn Book Magazine 38 (August 1963), 197–206. 4. Peter Hunt raises questions about the regard accorded to Hughes’s writing for children suggesting that it derives more from the insecurity of children’s literature critics than the quality of the work: ‘It is almost as if, with no faith in their own judgements, such critics are glad to accept the acceptance of an accepted poet’ (2001: 79–81). 5. See Reynolds and Tucker, 1998; Trites, 2000 and Lunden, 2004. 6. Although writing in advance of Higonnet, Rose would have been familiar with many of the examples on which Pictures of Innocence is based. 7. By the time she reaches her conclusion, Rose has modified her position to empha- sise that ‘children’s literature is just one of the areas in which this fantasy is played out’ (138), undermining her claims that the child-audience is key to the work of children’s literature in culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Modernism, Joyce, and Portuguese Literature
    CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 8 (2006) Issue 1 Article 5 Modernism, Joyce, and Portuguese Literature Carlos Ceia New University of Lisboa Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <[email protected]> Recommended Citation Ceia, Carlos. "Modernism, Joyce, and Portuguese Literature." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 8.1 (2006): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1293> This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field. The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 5051 times as of 11/ 07/19.
    [Show full text]
  • Myles Na Gcopaleen and the Emergency
    International Journal of IJES English Studies UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA http://revistas.um.es/ijes ‘One does not take sides in these neutral latitudes’: Myles na gCopaleen and The Emergency GERMÁN ASENSIO PERAL* Universidad de Almería (Spain) Received: 06/02/2017. Accepted: 06/10/2017. ABSTRACT The years of the Second World War (1939-1945), a period known as The Emergency in Ireland, were pivotal for the development of the nation. Immediately after the outburst of the war in the continent, the Fianna Fáil cabinet led by Éamon de Valera declared the state of emergency and adopted a neutrality policy. Brian O’Nolan (1911- 1966), better known as Flann O’Brien or Myles na gCopaleen, wrote a comic and satirical column in The Irish Times entitled Cruiskeen Lawn (1940-1966). In his column, O’Brien commented on varied problems affecting Dublin and Ireland as a whole. One of the many topics he began discussing was precisely Ireland’s neutral position in the war. Therefore, this paper aims at examining Ireland’s neutral position in the war as seen through a selection of columns from Cruiskeen Lawn, devoting special attention to the oppression of censorship and the distracting measures developed by de Valera’s government. KEYWORDS: Brian O’Nolan, Flann O’Brien, Myles na gCopaleen, Cruiskeen Lawn, Second World War, Ireland, censorship, propaganda. 1. INTRODUCTION The years of the Second World War (1939-1945), a period officially known as The Emergency in Ireland, were of crucial importance both for the country itself and for one of its most prominent emerging writers, Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966)—better known as Flann O’Brien, and Myles na gCopaleen, among many other pseudonyms.1 On the one hand, for Ireland, it meant a real turning point in its history, or a watershed, as Brown (1981) puts it.
    [Show full text]
  • THE THEME of CLASS in JAMES JOYCE's DUBLINERS by David
    THE THEME OF CLASS IN JAMES JOYCE'S DUBLINERS by David Glyndwr Clee B.A., University of British Columbia, 1963 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of ENGLISH We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May, 1965 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that per• mission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publi• cation of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of FJlglish The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date June k, 1965 ABSTRACT 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 c ommon. The stories in Dubliners are grouped to form a progression from childhood through adolescence to maturity and public life.
    [Show full text]
  • View: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 4.1
    The Bildung Subject & Modernist Autobiography in An Béal Bocht (Beyond An tOileánach) Brian Ó Conchubhair University of Notre Dame The Irish Bildungsroman, because it employs the defamiliarising techniques of parody and mimicry, thus functions like the radical modern art that Theodor Adorno describes, which is hated ‘because it reminds us of missed chances, but also because by its sheer existence it reveals the dubiousness of the heteronomous structural ideal.’1 An Béal Bocht can be, and usually is, read as a parody of 20th-century Irish language texts. But it is, in equal measure, an homage to them and an appropriation of their stylistic conventions, motifs, and attitudes. The novel’s building blocks were assuredly those cannibalised texts, and from them O’Nolan creates a dissonant, hyperreal, but easily recognisable world. No less fundamental, however, is an outdated, hyper- masculine sense of Irishness and a fabricated sense of the cultural nationalist-inspired depiction of lived Gaeltacht experience. This mocking, ironic book is driven by vitriolic enmity to any external prescriptive account of Gaeltacht life and any attempt to stereotype or generalise Irish speakers’ experience. As Joseph Brooker observes, its ‘greatest significance is not as a rewriting of a particular book, but rather a reinscription of a genre.’2 As a synthesis of literary conceits, cultural motifs, and nationalist tropes, it marks a cultural moment in Irish literary and cultural history. It remains undimmed by the passage of time, but for all its allusions, parodies, and references, it continues to amuse, entertain, and instruct global readers with little or no Irish, as well as those with even less awareness of the texts from which An Béal Bocht is drawn.
    [Show full text]
  • James Joyce (Irish)
    ANALYSIS “Clay” (1914) James Joyce (Irish) (1882-1941) “Clay” from Dubliners is typical of Joyce the Modernist, whose perspective in the story is suggested by the physiognomy of that elusive corkscrew. Everything depends upon the reader being more perceptive than Joe Donnelly, for almost every detail of the story implies opposites or contradictions, the essence of irony. Reading on all levels simultaneously is somewhat like playing three-dimensional chess. Maria the central figure is a soul of clay, one of many old maids in Dubliners, isolated between the Flynn sisters and the Morkan sisters. Her spinsterhood invokes the most obvious and for her the most painful ironies: “Lizzie Fleming said Maria was sure to get the ring.” Maria pretends “she didn’t want any ring or any man either,” and laughs with “disappointed shyness.” The stylish bakery clerk “asked her was it a wedding cake she wanted to buy,” and Maria pretends amusement, blushing. In the saucer game Joyce emphasizes symbolic appropriateness rather than irony by having Maria miss the ring and get the clay (death). But her response is the most crucial irony in the story, at least as far as she personally is concerned: “Maria understood that it was wrong that time.” All present are relieved to see her get the prayer-book the next time; for them the appropriate choice is the abhorrent choice. “Soon they were all quite merry again and Mrs. Donnelly said Maria would enter a convent before the year was out because she had got the prayer-book.” Joe asks the old lady to sing “some little song before she went.” In her embarrassment Maria seems to sense some of the irony of her romantic song from The Bohemian Girl and it may be this partial consciousness which causes her to omit a stanza about a lover.
    [Show full text]