История литературы / 36. James Joyce as a realist and a naturalist

At the turn of the 20^th century two more trends in lit. started to develop. They appeared as the reaction to naturalism and realism. These trends were: lit. of psychology and analysis; impressionism and the stream of consciousness. We are going to speak about the 2^nd one. J.J. is the main representative of the trend. James Joyce (1882-1941): Dubliners (1941), A portrait of the artist as a young man (1916), Ulysses (1922). Finnegans Wake (1939). Joyce was practically blind. He was a language teacher; consequently he possesses a very huge vocabulary stock. As to the stream of consciousness, it appeared as the reaction to realism. The writers who belonged to this trend also concentrated on internal mental processes. Exactly these internal processes developed in reaction to external incidents. To depict the internal life of the character these writers employed the techniques which are known as stream of consciousness, interior monologue and impressionism. These techniques became predominant immediately after the 1^st World War. Though the writers used them differently, they still shared basic premises: 1) the existence of an individual lies in his/her mental process; 2) the mental life of an ordinary person is mostly intuitive and associative rather than logical; 3) psychological association is one of the chief processes forming our emotional attitudes towards things; a psychological association means the mental linking of objects that have been encounted in juxtaposition. The techniques typical of lit. of psychology and analysis are interior monologue, stream of cons. and epiphany. Interior monologue is used to reveal the mind of the characters, to examine the inner workings of human thought, to investigate spontaneous emotions and feelings. Stream of cons. may be defined as the description of the flow of inner experience through a mind of character. It is seemingly chaotic but if carefully analyzed it is highly organized representation of everyday life. “Ulysses” by J.J. is the brightest example of stream of cons. The main linguistic peculiarity of this technique is the great amount of associations and loose syntax. Epiphany (крещение (19 января) или богоявление (6 января)) – a moment of heightened understanding in which the deeper meanings of reality are revealed. Usually when you meet epiphanies in lit. they coincide with spiritually climatic moments in the character’s life, manifesting revelation (откровение, открытие). – J.J.’s collection Dubliners (1914). It is the most realistic work of literature in Ireland of the beginning of the 20th century. The author decided to tell all the truth about his country, no matter how bitter it was. Publishers refused to publish these stories, as Joyce`s sharp criticism was directed against the politics, the culture and the religion of the time. But finally "Dubliners" was published in 1914. As Joyce couldn`t stomach the limitations Ireland imposed on him, he was a refugee, but still all the stories in the collection are about Dublin. Joyce was a master of language, for many years he was a professional language teacher, and that`s why language occupies a dominant place in his technique. He was almost blind and thus sensitive to the sound of words, touch, and smell. He tries to verbalize these senses in language. And he succeeds. His descriptions are very naturalistic. Joyce is a master of reproducing the speech. He has captured the spirit of everyday conversation. With Joyce everything seems to be verbalized but in fact much is implied. He does not make pauses. He changes the speaker and does not give us any warning. The change gives us an ideal pause and the place to make conclusions. On the one hand even ticking of the clock, the speech of waves is verbalized. On the other hand reader should imagine the actions & intentions of the character. “Dubliners” is a collection of 14 short stories, naturalistic descriptions of the Irish middle class life in four aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, social life. His first 3 stories are about childhood told in the 1st person by an unnamed boy-narrator. This boy is disillusioned in his hopes, love and faith. It was “The Sisters”, “Encounter”, and “Arabi”. In "The Sisters" the word paralysis is repeated several times, and it is not just a disease, but the spiritual state of the world into which the child is submerging. The reason for this spiritual paralysis Joyce sees in Irish Catholicism. Since childhood hopes of Irish children are destroyed, as soon as they get in touch with the reality. The feeling of meeting with the world is spoiled by a talk with a stranger in "Encounter". Dirt and vulgarity are intruded upon child`s just world. Cold and hostility reign not only in the big world, but even at home the child from the story "Arabi" doesn`t get warmth and understanding. His parents don`t remember about his request to buy some knick-knack for his friend. And charity bazaar with tempting name "Arabi" turns out to be just a poor parody on a real holiday. The 2nd group consists of 4 stories about choices & in many cases wrong choices of a mate, vocation. Very often people get trapped & cannot get out (“Eveline”, "After the Race", "Two Gallants", "The Boarding House"). The 3rd group is of 4 stories and it shows the results of entrancement (восторг, завороженность) in later life. It was empty and horrible. We see people from different layers of society, but they all didn`t succeed in their lives. It is not their fault; it was the fault of circumstances ( "A Little Cloud", "Counterparts", "Clay", "A Painful Case"). Details are very important and judging by details we can feel Joyce`s attitude towards the heroes of his stories. Sometimes he really feels sympathy with them (as with Mary in "The Earth"), and sometimes not (as with Chandler in "A Little Cloud"). But still Joyce doesn`t deprive his heroes of a hope for a different life. The 4th group gives us 3 stories of public life, hopes, ambitions, frustration and disillusionment ("Ivy Day in the Committee Room", "The Mother", "Grace"). These stories are bitter satire towards Irish politics, art and religion. In some of the stories the character is given an insight into the problem but it doesn`t help much. People ask each other questions and can`t answer them. The whole city suffers because of the paralysis of the will. At first Joyce wanted "Grace" to be the final story, and a reader can feel that the author somehow summarizes what was said before, we even meet here heroes from other stories, but then Joyce needed some moral illumination, and he wrote "The Dead", that became a kind of sentence for the Irish society. It is a long story and genre is of the long story or novella. It is the end of the novel, the finishing touch, it is some outlet that is given after 14 stories of progressive paralysis. The final part of the novel is like a blanket that covers humanity. [Gabriel Conroy is a successful teacher, journalist, a very self-assured man, a good speaker and a perfect husband. But suddenly we understand that it`s just a pose, in fact he is not what he pretends to be. His moral death is revealed when he comes to know that his wife Greta was beloved by a youth Michel Furrey, who died after spending an evening in the rain by her window. Bitter irony is that Michel Furrey is the only alive in this world of spiritual death and he evoked from spiritual death not only Greta, but also Gabriel.] In this story Joyce tried to reveal lack of understanding, people`s estrangement from each other, alienation, and people`s attempts to find themselves in this life.