Myth, Modernism and Mentorship: Examining François Fénelon’s Influence on James Joyce’s Ulysses by Robert Curran A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL May 2016 Copyright 2016 by Robert Curran ii Myth, Modernism and Mentorship: Examining Francois Fenelon’s Influence on James Joyce’s Ulysses by Robert Curran This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Julieann V. Ulin, Department of English, and has been approved by the members of his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: 1/ u~ Jujjeann V. Ulin, Ph D. Thesis Advisor Mary FarftciFar/ci, Ph D. John C. Leeds, Ph D. Eric L. Berlatsky, Ph D. Chair, Department of English Heather Coltman, D.M.A. Dean, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters crt is/a.ou,» Jpfborah L. Floyd, Ed.D. Date / Dean, Graduate College iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express sincere gratitude to his committee members for all of their guidance and support. I am deeply indebted to my committee chair, Professor Ulin, whose mentorship made this thesis a reality. Professor Leeds provided me with an important understanding of literary criticism. I am indebted to Professor Faraci for igniting my passion for literature. The author is grateful for the help and assistance he received from the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, as well as from Florida Atlantic University’s Marvin and Sybil Weiner Spirit of America Collection. A special thanks is given to Nicholas Manzino, who spent many hours discussing my topic with me and served as an excellent sounding board. iv ABSTRACT Author: Robert Curran Title: Myth, Modernism and Mentorship: Examining François Fénelon’s Influence on James Joyce’s Ulysses Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Julieann V. Ulin Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2016 The purpose of this thesis will be to examine closely James Joyce’s Ulysses with respect to François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus. Joyce considered The Adventures of Telemachus to be a source of inspiration for Ulysses, but little scholarship considers this. Joyce’s fixation on the role of teachers and mentor figures in Stephen’s growth and development, serving alternately as cautionary figures, models or adversaries, owes much to Fénelon’s framework for the growth of Telemachus. Close reading of both Joyce’s and Fénelon’s work will illuminate the significance of education and mentorship in Joyce’s construction of Stephen Dedalus. Leopold Bloom and Stephen’s relationship in Joyce’s Ulysses closely mirrors that of Mentor and Telemachus as seen in Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus. Through these numerous parallels, we will see that mentorship serves as a better model for Bloom and Stephen’s relationship in Ulysses than the more critically prevalent father-son model. v DEDICATION This manuscript is dedicated to my parents and sister. Without their constant understanding, support and most of all love, this work would have never been completed. Myth, Modernism and Mentorship: Examining François Fénelon’s Influence on James Joyce’s Ulysses List of Figures ............................................................................................................. viii I: Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 II: “To Learn His Own Wisdom Apart” ......................................................................... 18 III: Examining The Role of Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus to Show the Role of Mentorship in Joyce’s Ulysses ..................................................................... 27 IV: Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 61 vii FIGURES Figure 1. James Joyce’s Copy of The Adventures of Telemachus ..................................... 6 Figure 2. Side View of James Joyce’s Copy of The Adventures of Telemachus ................ 7 Figure 3. Image of Father Dolan .................................................................................... 22 Figure 4. Frontispiece Engraving of The Adventures of Telemachus ............................... 28 Figure 5. Engraving: The Furies and Death Let in by Sensual Pleasure .......................... 40 Figure 6. Engraving: Youth Hurried on Between Pride and Rage ................................... 51 viii I: INTRODUCTION James Joyce famously once said of his novel Ulysses, “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality” (Ellmann, James Joyce 521). Based on the constant output of writing on his famed work, Joyce was quite right. Even many decades after his death, Joyce is still very much alive in the minds and writings of those who focus on his writings. One would think that after nearly a century of people writing on Ulysses, the well would have run dry, but this simply is not the case. If anything, Joyce scholarship is continually finding new ground to break regarding Ulysses and Joyce himself. This paper will examine François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses and its influence on Joyce’s Ulysses. The Adventures of Telemachus offers an alternative framework to how the Stephen-Bloom relationship has been considered by critics who emphasize a paternal relationship. When The Adventures of Telemachus is placed alongside Ulysses, we see Stephen and Bloom’s relationship as mirroring that of Telemachus and Mentor rather than emulating that of Telemachus and Ulysses. Ulysses did not spring forth from Joyce’s head fully formed as Athena had from Zeus’s.1 Much study has been done on James Joyce’s sources of inspiration for writing 1 James Joyce first thought of Ulysses as a short story to be included in Dubliners. Gabler writes, “The short story was never written. Yet the idea implied in the title was not abandoned” (Joyce, Ulysses xv). 1 Ulysses, but seldom more than a passing mention is given to François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses. So much attention has been given to Homer’s Odyssey and other such major works which served as inspiration to Ulysses that lesser known sources have been seemingly ignored. We know that Joyce read The Adventures of Telemachus. William Bedell Stanford in his notes to chapter XV in The Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero writes, “Professor Stanislaus Joyce has kindly informed me that his brother had studied the following writers on Ulysses: Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Shakespeare, Racine, Fénelon” (Stanford 276). Hugh Kenner also notes that Stanislaus Joyce mentions this incident (Kenner, “Homer’s Sticks and Stones” 60). Also, Joyce’s biographer Richard Ellmann writes, “Joyce had Fénelon’s book in his library, and found in it an imitation by Telemachus of Ulysses’ adventures which could not fail to be useful” (“Joyce and Homer” 575). We see that Joyce not only read Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses but considered it a source of inspiration while writing Ulysses. Despite it being clear that Joyce used The Adventures of Telemachus as a source, little more than passing notice has been given to the work and its influence on Joyce’s Ulysses. Only by considering the seemingly forgotten The Adventures of Telemachus in depth, do we see that Stephen and Bloom’s father-son relationship becomes supplanted by a more fitting mentor-mentee relationship as seen in Fénelon’s work. François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus, Son of Ulysses is a work little known to the general public today, but after its appearance in 1699 it became an instant success. In fact, it was the most frequently published modern work in the 18th and 19th centuries (Kantzios). It is surprising that the source has had such a rapid decline in 2 readership. Its writer Fénelon was the Archbishop of Cambrai and directly responsible for tutoring Duc de Bourgogne, second in line to the French crown. Fénelon wrote The Adventures of Telemachus as a way to help guide his pupil, Duc de Bourgogne, in developing moral character. After publication it became a sensation not only in France, but also in England. It is interesting to note like Joyce’s first introduction to the Odyssey, a children’s version translated by Charles Lamb titled The Adventures of Ulysses that The Adventures of Telemachus was also written for a younger audience. Joyce personally owned a copy of Fénelon’s work in the original French and it was part of his Trieste library which he left in Italy after moving to Paris in 1920. The Harry Ransom Center located at the University of Texas at Austin was able to acquire James Joyce’s Trieste library in full and keeps its volumes on reserve in its special collections section. My interest in Joyce’s inspiration for Ulysses was first kindled when visiting Florida Atlantic University’s library’s special collection section. After viewing a copy of Homer’s Odyssey, a librarian kindly introduced me to The Adventures of Telemachus. It was while viewing their copy of The Adventures of Telemachus, I first noticed the parallels between Telemachus and Mentor’s relationship to that of Stephen and Blooms. The special collections of both Florida Atlantic University and the Harry Ransom Center have been the keystones of my research and provided me with many critical sources of information. I was able to visit the Harry Ransom Center and inspect Joyce’s copy of The Adventures of Telemachus firsthand. Joyce’s copy was a French 1910 edition of the work published by Ernest Flammarion. Joyce’s Telemachus is a softcover edition with its cover now detached. The binding is in quite poor condition. It is stamped with Joyce’s 3 initials, (done by Joyce himself) and includes a small card noting it was part of Joyce’s Trieste library.