“The Curve of an Emotion”
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“The Curve of an Emotion” “The Curve of an Emotion” A Study of Change in the Portrayal of Children and Childhood in the Literature of James Joyce Barry Ryan © BARRY RYAN, 2021 ISBN 978-91-8009-186-2 (print) ISBN 978-91-8009-187-9 (pdf) The dissertation is also available online: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/67117 Cover: Design by Sara Ryan. Layout by Sara Ryan and Annelie Grimm Cover photo: Getty Images Sweden AB, BET 515143364 Photo-license: 6014906 Photo title: James Joyce with his grandson Photographer: Bettmann Print: Stema Specialtryck AB, Borås, 2021 Abstract Title: “The Curve of an Emotion”: A Study of Change in the Portrayal of Children and Childhood in the Literature of James Joyce Author: Barry Ryan Language: English with a Swedish summary ISBN: 978-91-8009-186-2 (print) ISBN: 978-91-8009-187-9 (pdf) Keywords: Irish Catholic childhoods, alienation, distorted adult perceptions, sexual boundary, nostalgia, misopaedia, nexus, historicization, reciprocation Litteraturteoretiker och socialhistoriker anser att skönlitteratur är betydelsefull för att studera och förstå barn och barndom. James Joyces texter anses viktiga för förståelsen av irländska barndomar, och Joyces skildringar av barndom har oftast setts som oföränderliga vad gäller den övergripande tematiken fram till att distinktionen mellan vuxna och barn bryts ner i Finnegans Wake. Det har emellertid inte gjorts några omfattande studier av barn och barndom i Joyces verk. Det finns en etablerad uppfattning bland forskare att det fiktiva barnet i Joyces texter är en historisk artefakt inom den Joyciska estetiken, samtidigt har endast begränsade studier gjorts inom ämnet i verk daterade efter Ett porträtt av författaren som ung. Den föreliggande avhandlingen har för avsikt att överbrygga den här kunskapsluckan genom att undersöka hur barndom skildras i alla Joyces betydande verk fram till Finnegans Wake. Då avhandlingen är strukturerad kronologiskt i enlighet med Joyces verk inleds den med Dublinbor och avslutas med Odysseus. Metodiken bygger på en dialektisk analys av relationen mellan Joyces texter och den historiska kontexten. Utifrån det här tillvägagångssättet har de enskilda verken presenterat unika teoretiska problem i studiet av barn och barndom. Ett eklektiskt förhållningssätt har tillämpats och i analysen appliceras teoretiska modeller av barn och barndom som spänner mellan den klassiska antikens och nutida marxistiska perspektiv. Således demonstrerar de enskilda läsningarna i den här avhandlingen (som motsvarar de olika kapitlen) hur barn och barndom behandlas på ett unikt sätt i de enskilda fiktiva berättelserna av Joyce som föregår Finnegans Wake. Genom läsningarna eftersträvas ett nytt förhållningssätt till forskningen om barndom i Joyces texter framförallt genom att visa hur en kontinuerlig förändring genomsyrar Joyces huvudsakliga teman gällande barndom. Förändringarna sker inte som radikala brott utan snarare som en kurva där känsligheten omprövas, och denna kurva når sin höjdpunkt i Odysseus. I enlighet med detta hävdas att även med det breda spektrat av möjliga texttolkningar som diskuteras i avhandlingen underminerar barnet i Odysseus den vuxnes perspektiv, utan att radikalt bryta sig fria från det. Articles Ryan, Barry. “James Joyce’s ‘The Sisters’: Implied Pederasty and Interpreting the Inexpressible.” Boyhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 2020, pp. 92-109. Ryan, Barry. “Pregnancy and Abjection in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’.” Nordic Irish Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015, pp. 37-53. Ryan, Barry. “‘Arisen from the Grave of Boyhood’? Nostalgia and Misopaedia in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” Accepted for publication in Nordic Irish Studies. Ryan, Barry. “The Emerging Affective Child in James Joyce’s Exiles.” Accepted for publication in Papers on Joyce. Ryan, Barry. “Interpreting the Lives of Working Children in James Joyce’s Ulysses.” Accepted for publication in Engaging with Work in English Studies: An Issue-based Approach. Acknowledgements This work would have been impossible if not for the unwavering support, and influence, of others. In particular, I am grateful to my supervisor Ronald Paul for his continuous belief in my vision, even when I was forced to take unexpected paths. I am also grateful for Ron’s good humour and patience, especially when it was obvious that I was in danger of losing my way. Likewise, I thank my brother Kevin Ryan, who encouraged my early curiosity by placing advanced theory along my path. Needless to say, Kevin’s research on childhood and power made me aware of critical childhood perspectives from the outset, and without this awareness it is doubtful that I would have been sensitive to the topic when I encountered Joyce’s fiction. Also, if it were not for my two children Robin and Theo, it is doubtful that I would ever have reflected enough to complete this project, and I take great pleasure in their unfaltering sense of autonomy. Moreover, without the support and encouragement of the love of my life, Sara Ryan, it is extremely doubtful that I would have had the stamina, or willpower, to complete this work. More importantly though, because of Sara I am able to look forward to a life after this project. Ultimately, I am truly privileged to have the fingerprints of all of the above on every page of this thesis, and for this I am extremely grateful. I would like to express gratitude to Åke Persson who has followed my development since my first day at university. I would also like to thank Malin Petzell and Jacob Jonsson for their support during the finalisation of this thesis. Likewise, I am grateful to Irene Gilsenan Nordin who supplied crucial feedback on an earlier draft, and to all of the peer reviewers who provided feedback for the articles in this thesis. I would also like to thank the committee members Chloe Avril, Marius Hentea, and the moderator Zlatan Filipovic, for their support during my final seminar. Moreover, my time at the University of Gothenburg has been enriched by colleagues such as Wade Bell, Margrét Gunnarsdóttir Champion, Pia Köhlmyr, Hans Löfgren, the late Marcus Nordlund, Britta Olinder, Houman Sadri, Joseph Trotta, and Miguel Garcia Yeste, among others. Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank my late father and mother Thomas and Eileen, and my other siblings Frances, Sean, and Emma, who shared my own childhood. Also, my wife’s family Kent Larsson, Roswita Larsson, Simon Larsson, Zakarias Grönqvist, Susanna Larsson, Simon Weiss, Patrick Minogue, and Annafrida Minogue, for putting up with my obsession. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 Literary Children and Childhoods ............................................................... 1 Defining the Terms Child, Children, and Childhood in Joyce’s Fiction ...................................................................................... 4 Background: Irish Children in Context ....................................................... 6 General Outline: Methodology .................................................................... 9 Aim, Scope, and Relevance ......................................................................... 11 Delimitation .................................................................................................. 12 Thesis Structure ........................................................................................... 14 2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ........................................................................ 17 Children and Childhood in Joyce’s Fiction .............................................. 17 General Commentary .................................................................................. 17 Dubliners ......................................................................................................... 23 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ......................................................... 25 Exiles .............................................................................................................. 29 Ulysses ............................................................................................................. 31 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................... 35 3. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ................................................................... 37 Childhood in the Modern Period .............................................................. 37 The Child in Theory: The Early Modern Period ..................................... 40 The Child in Theory: The Late Modern Period ....................................... 45 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................... 50 4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................... 55 Children and Childhood in Theory ........................................................... 55 Childhood Studies ........................................................................................ 56 Critic of the Interpretative Child in Childhood Studies .......................... 60 Positioning the Child in Contemporary Scientific Disciplines ............... 61 Dancing with the Affective Child in the Twenty First Century ............. 65 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................... 67 5. ARTICLE SUMMARIES AND SYNTHESIS ...................................... 69 The Portrayal of Children and Childhoods