The first part of this essay will concern itself with the literary style of three of James Joyce’s books – the collection of short stories called Dubliners, the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and his masterpiece Ulysses. The following section will show the stages of development Joyce’s language underwent from the fairly realistic Dubliners to the “stream-of-consciousness fantasy” of Ulysses. Dubliners was published in 1914, but Joyce had worked on the short stories since 1904. This book is generally considered to be his most accessible piece of work, certainly due to the rather conventional naturalistic style in which it is written. The content of each short story in Dubliners is in essence a variation of a basic
message “[…] Dublin […] the centre of paralysis […]”. Joyce referred to Dubliners as being written in a language of “scrupulous meanness”, meaning that the sparse and flat style was in fact carefully crafted to capture the sense of ordinariness and apathy in the lives of the various
central characters. In this sense, the depleted language mirrors the condition of the people inhabiting Dublin without commenting directly on it. Patterns of repetition, like in the story “Eveline” stress the monotony and limitations of the characters’ lives and their inability to break out of it.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- James Joyce
- Dubliners
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- Ulysses
- Samuel Beckett
- Waiting for Godot
- Endgame
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This essay aims to compare and contrast the representation of language in the works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. It explores how both authors challenged traditional literary techniques and their attitudes towards language as a means of communication and representation.
- The evolution of language in Modernist and Post-Modernist literature
- The relationship between language and reality
- The subjective nature of perception and representation
- The use of literary techniques such as stream of consciousness and interior monologue
- The role of language in creating meaning and understanding
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The first part of the essay focuses on the literary style of James Joyce, analyzing his three major works: Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses. The essay traces the development of Joyce's language from the relatively realistic style of Dubliners to the highly modernist techniques employed in Ulysses.
Dubliners is presented as Joyce's most accessible work, with a conventional naturalistic style that captures the sense of ordinariness and apathy in the lives of its characters. The essay discusses the use of repetition and symbolism in the short stories, and the shift towards a more intimate free indirect style that blurs the boundary between narrator and character.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is presented as a step towards the Modernism of Ulysses. The essay highlights the novel's focus on the subjective mind of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, and the use of stream of consciousness to represent the shifting quality of his memory.
The essay concludes its discussion of Joyce by examining Ulysses, which is considered his most renowned work. The essay discusses the novel's use of interior monologue, shorthand style, and the unconventional chapter "Penelope," which features an almost entirely ungrammatical interior monologue.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The essay focuses on the key concepts of Modernism, Post-Modernism, language, representation, communication, reality, subjectivity, stream of consciousness, interior monologue, literary techniques, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and epiphany.
- Citation du texte
- Gregor Rumpf (Auteur), 2006, Comparison between the Language of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/71171
