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James Joyce's “Araby” James Joyce’s “Araby” AP English Literature James Joyce (1882-1941) ● One of Ireland’s most influential writers, born in Dublin ● One of the most celebrated Modern writers (think Woolf and Salinger) ● Born into a Catholic family, Joyce attended a Jesuit school, then briefly enrolled in medical school before turning his attention to philosophy and languages, and eventually, writing. Dubliners (written in 1905; published in 1914) ● 15 short stories or vignettes, comprising the first major work Joyce published ● The collection reveals Dublin life at the end of the 19th century, and can be read as stories about four stages of life: childhood, adolescence, (“Araby” fits between these two), adulthood, and public life. ● Joyce’s intention in writing Dubliners was, in his own words, to “write a chapter of the moral history” of his country. “For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.” ● Two of Dublin’s major social issues: 1. Poverty and the rise of Irish Nationalism 2. The decline in Irish Catholicism (Watch for underlying messages about material poverty and spiritual poverty) The title: “Araby” and Othering Othering: to view or treat a person or group of people as intrinsically different from and alien to oneself. “Today, in artistic circles, there are few conventions more deplored than Orientalism, the depiction of the East, especially the Middle East, as a realm of luxury, sensuality, and violence. In the 19th century, though, there was nothing that seemed more chic—indeed, more true and beautiful.” (The New Yorker, Feb 2014) • In ambiguous depictions of the East (at times reinforcing cultural stereotypes of the East and at other times exposing them), Joyce reveals the tantalizing allure of the imagined East for the Irish. • By consuming European fantasies of the exoticized Orient, Joyce's Dubliners distract themselves from English oppression and rigid control of the Catholic Church. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/sheiks-araby The Araby Bazaar: One of the largest public spectacles held in Dublin in the late 19th century. Attended by 92,052 visitors, it filled the large indoor and outdoor spaces of the Royal Dublin Showgrounds for over a week, with elaborate stage-set backdrops, a wide range of goods for sale, restaurants, bars, firework displays, tight-rope demonstrations, and 'Princess Nala Damajante, Serpent Charmer, with her Boa Constrictors and Pythons'. It was staffed by over 1,400 female volunteers, who received detailed daily coverage in The Irish Times, and was served by special trains, as Joyce describes in his story. Kahn el-Khalili bazaar in Old Cairo Notice: ● Is the story about orienting ourselves? (Rather an obvious pun, but a less obvious and potentially rich path to explore--in what ways does the narrator orient himself? ● Joyce’s modernist narrative does not try to represent continuous time; he moves from point to point without indicating the passage of time. At one point, the narrator says, "But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires." ● Why wires and not strings? Irish harp: traditionally strung with wire Celtic harper Patrick Ball Sources http://jamesjoyce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_4299.jpg The James Joyce Centre http://jamesjoyce.ie/james-joyce/life/ http://www.worldatlas.com/img/areamap/afa3fcb57db4807d8120ee3b2c074ce9.gif https://muse.jhu.edu/article/467147 https://www.jstor.org/stable/25473908?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/sheiks-araby https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-182047188/turbaned-faces-going-by-james-joyce-and-irish-orientalism http://images.memphistours.com/large/186533663_cairo-market.jpg http://www.mountainglenharps.com/Rivendale-Harp-fullview.jpg.
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