CLCS Final- Joyce – Flashcards

The Dead

1882-1941 "James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and credited, together with Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf, as a key figure in the development of the modernist novel. " "After graduation in 1902 Joyce went to Paris, where he worked as a journalist, teacher and in other occupations in difficult financial conditions. In 1909 he opened a cinema in Dublin but this adventure failed. At the outset of the First World War, he moved to Zürich, where he met Lenin and the poet essayist Tristan Tzara. His novels are set in Dublin and inspired by his family life and characters from his school and college days. The most famous story in the collection 'Dubliners' - "The Dead"- was made into a film in 1987." He spent most of his life in continental Europe.

"From Dubliners to Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, Joyce developed ways of exploring the lives and dreams of characters, including his youthful self, from the parochial Dublin society he had fled. Each of the major works presents innovative literary approaches that were to have a substantial impact on later writers." (p. 175) "Because it suggests the seemingly arbitrary manner in which thoughts and feelings often arise and then dissipate, stream-of-conscious writing may sound illogical or confusing; nevertheless it can indeed be convincing, since it gives the reader apparent access to the workings of a character's mind. The author's aim in employing the technique is to achieve a deeper understanding of human experience by displaying subconscious associations along with conscious thoughts." (pp. 175-176)

By now we have read several texts and experienced several ways of narrating a story. Which narrative perspectives come to mind? First person narrator Only knows what is going on around him and his / her own thoughts Third person narrator Is "outside" of the main character, does not always participate in the action (is not the protagonist). Only knows what is going on at a given moment, usually also has some insight into the thoughts of the protagonist Omniscient narrator Is an outside entity, which is aware of everything, anywhere and tells the story

A Genre question When thinking about literary genres which genres come to mind? Poetry Literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm Novels A fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism. Will have a strong introduction of characters and setting Short stories A story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel. Usually abrupt beginning and abrupt ending. Novella Longer than a short story, longer than a novel. Usually less complicated and intricate than a novel; usually only one narrative development.

1914 How did you like it? And why? What is the text about? It is about an annual dinner party on the evening of Epiphany, held by the aunts of the main protagonist Gabriel. Various figures of the Dublin society are invited. What is the genre of this text? It is a novella - too short for a novel, too long for a short story The text includes many aspects of Joyce's own life and several characters resemble actual people, including Joyce himself: Gabriel : Joyce Gretta :Nora (Joyce's "wife") Mrs. Kate and Julia : real life piano teachers Mr. D'Arcy : resembles a contemporary tenor Thinking about this text, how would you describe the narrative style of the text? What is peculiar about the narrator? The "omniscient" narrator The narrator is an interesting mix of the third person narrator and the omniscient narrator. The narrative "I" seems to switch between people and knows their thoughts, but at the same time is confined to the space it is in: "Slip down Gabriel, like a good fellow and see if he's alright, and don't let him up if he's screwed. I'm sure he is screwed. I'm sure he is. / Gabriel went to the stairs [...] In fact right behind her Gabriel could be seen piloting Freddy Malins across the landing" (pp. 182 - 183)

"Joyce's method in 'The Dead' relies heavily on free indirect discourse, the presentation of a character's thoughts (without quotation marks) by the narrator." (p. 177) "Joyce drew this style partly from Flaubert—in Portrait, Stephen Dedalus quotes Flaubert's idea of the artist who 'like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.'" (pp. 177-178) "Joyce's later development of stream of consciousness would allow the character's thoughts to be presented directly to the reader, sometimes without the intervention of a narrator, but in "The Dead" the narrator unobtrusively filters Gabriel's thoughts for us, allowing us to sympathize with Gabriel in his insecurity but also inviting us to judge him in his complacency." (p. 178)

Stream of consciousness Memory Symbolism: snow

"Stream of Consciousness is a literary style in which the author follows visual, auditory, tactile, associative, and subliminal impressions and expresses them using 'interior monologue' of characters either as a writing technique or as a writing style that mingles thoughts and impressions in an illogical order, and violates grammar norms." "Main characteristics: Recording multifarious thoughts and feelings Exploring external and internal forces that influence individual's psychology Disregard of the narrative sequence Absence of the logical argument Disassociated leaps in syntax and punctuation Prose difficult to follow" Gabriel and Self-Doubt "Miss Ivors had praised the review. Was she sincere? Had she any ill-feeling between them until that night. It unnerved him to think that she would be at the supper-table, looking up at him while he spoke with her critical quizzing eyes. Perhaps she would not be sorry to see him fail in his speech. An idea cam into his mind an gave him courage. He would say, alluding to Aunt Kate and Aunt Julia: Ladies and Gentlemen, the generation which is now on the wave among us may have had its faults but for my part. I think it had certain qualities of hospitality, of humor, of humanity, which the new and very serious and hypereducated generation that is growing up around us seems to me to lack. Very good: that was one for Miss Ivors." (p.188)

"The sustaining impact of environment on memory is demonstrated in Joyce's shorter work 'The Dead', a well-known story of the collection Dubliners. This story presents the older persona Gabriel Conroy as a fitting parallel to what Joyce would have become had he remained in Ireland." (p. 89) "By a power of association which has been building all evening long in the Christmas party of the elderly aunts of Gabriel Conroy who belong to that past world which the present Ireland is rejecting and by the special power of music to trigger those memories of the past." (p. 90) "Whereas the first part of the story resurrects the memory of the dead collectively through the general atmosphere which elicits a common associative context, the second part deals with a very specific personal revival. A musical motif from a well-known Gaelic folk-song, 'The Lass of Aughrim', heard by Gabriel's wife in the course of the party becomes the retrieval cue for a memory event after the party when she is alone with her husband in a Dublin hotel room." (p. 90) "The physical place, the group of people, the conversations, had all prepared the ground and created the susceptibility for the revival of the past. At the end of the story, Gabriel painfully realizes that his own presence is less strong than the memory of the dead boy." (p. 90) "The shorter Joycean stories contain capsules of the memory process. As a rule, the evocation of memory, frequently through the sense of sound, produces a paralyzing effect on the characters." (p. 91) "—O, I am thinking about that song, The Lass of Aughrim. She broke loose from him and ran to the bed and, throwing her arms across the bed-rail, hid her face. [...] He halted a few paces from her and said: —What about the song? Why does that make you cry? She raised her head from her arms and dried her eyes with the back of her hand like a child. A kinder note than he had intended went into his voice. —Why, Gretta? he asked. —I am thinking about a person long ago who used to sing that song." (p. 204) "The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling." (pp. 206-207)

Throughout the novella, snow plays a major role. What do we associate with "snow"? Winter Cold Death Snow covers things up hides traces It is beautiful and creates new landscapes "A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves." (p. 207) "It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."(p. 207)

"By way of this strong recollection and through the motif of the snow falling all over Dublin, Gabriel, too, connects to that past, the memories of which are made a part of the present. The isolated memory event seems to bring with it an entire element of the past as his own 'soul had approached that region where dwell the very hosts of the dead'." (p. 91)

"Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried." Summary At the annual dance and dinner party held by Kate and Julia Morkan and their young niece, Mary Jane Morkan, the housemaid Lily frantically greets guests. Set at or just before the feast of the Epiphany on January 6, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ's divinity to the Magi, the party draws together a variety of relatives and friends. Kate and Julia particularly await the arrival of their favorite nephew, Gabriel Conroy, and his wife, Gretta. When they arrive, Gabriel attempts to chat with Lily as she takes his coat, but she snaps in reply to his question about her love life. Gabriel ends the uncomfortable exchange by giving Lily a generous tip, but the experience makes him anxious. He relaxes when he joins his aunts and Gretta, though Gretta's good-natured teasing about his dedication to galoshes irritates him. They discuss their decision to stay at a hotel that evening rather than make the long trip home. The arrival of another guest, the always-drunk Freddy Malins, disrupts the conversation. Gabriel makes sure that Freddy is fit to join the party while the guests chat over drinks in between taking breaks from the dancing. An older gentleman, Mr. Browne, flirts with some young girls, who dodge his advances. Gabriel steers a drunken Freddy toward the drawing room to get help from Mr. Browne, who attempts to sober Freddy up. The party continues with a piano performance by Mary Jane. More dancing follows, which finds Gabriel paired up with Miss Ivors, a fellow university instructor. A fervent supporter of Irish culture, Miss Ivors embarrasses Gabriel by labeling him a "West Briton" for writing literary reviews for a conservative newspaper. Gabriel dismisses the accusation, but Miss Ivors pushes the point by inviting Gabriel to visit the Aran Isles, where Irish is spoken, during the summer. When Gabriel declines, explaining that he has arranged a cycling trip on the continent, Miss Ivors corners him about his lack of interest in his own country. Gabriel exclaims that he is sick of Ireland. After the dance, he flees to a corner and engages in a few more conversations, but he cannot forget the interlude with Miss Ivors. Just before dinner, Julia sings a song for the guests. Miss Ivors makes her exit to the surprise of Mary Jane and Gretta, and to the relief of Gabriel. Finally, dinner is ready, and Gabriel assumes his place at the head of the table to carve the goose. After much fussing, everyone eats, and finally Gabriel delivers his speech, in which he praises Kate, Julia, and Mary Jane for their hospitality. Framing this quality as an Irish strength, Gabriel laments the present age in which such hospitality is undervalued. Nevertheless, he insists, people must not linger on the past and the dead, but live and rejoice in the present with the living. The table breaks into a loud applause for Gabriel's speech, and the entire party toasts their three hostesses. Later, guests begin to leave, and Gabriel recounts a story about his grandfather and his horse, which forever walked in circles even when taken out of the mill where it worked. After finishing the anecdote, Gabriel realizes that Gretta stands transfixed by the song that Mr. Bartell D'Arcy sings in the drawing room. When the music stops and the rest of the party guests assemble before the door to leave, Gretta remains detached and thoughtful. Gabriel is enamored with and preoccupied by his wife's mysterious mood and recalls their courtship as they walk from the house and catch a cab into Dublin. At the hotel, Gabriel grows irritated by Gretta's behavior. She does not seem to share his romantic inclinations, and in fact bursts into tears. Gretta confesses that she has been thinking of the song from the party because a former lover had sung it to her in her youth in Galway. Gretta recounts the sad story of this boy, Michael Furey, who died after waiting outside of her window in the cold. Gretta later falls asleep, but Gabriel remains awake, disturbed by Gretta's new information. He curls up on the bed, contemplating his own mortality. Seeing the snow at the window, he envisions it blanketing the graveyard where Michael Furey rests, as well as all of Ireland. Analysis In "The Dead," Gabriel Conroy's restrained behavior and his reputation with his aunts as the nephew who takes care of everything mark him as a man of authority and caution, but two encounters with women at the party challenge his confidence. First, Gabriel clumsily provokes a defensive statement from the overworked Lily when he asks her about her love life. Instead of apologizing or explaining what he meant, Gabriel quickly ends the conversation by giving Lily a holiday tip. He blames his prestigious education for his inability to relate to servants like Lily, but his willingness to let money speak for him suggests that he relies on the comforts of his class to maintain distance. The encounter with Lily shows that Gabriel, like his aunts, cannot tolerate a "back answer," but he is unable to avoid such challenges as the party continues. During his dance with Miss Ivors, he faces a barrage of questions about his nonexistent nationalist sympathies, which he doesn't know how to answer appropriately. Unable to compose a full response, Gabriel blurts out that he is sick of his own country, surprising Miss Ivors and himself with his unmeasured response and his loss of control. Gabriel's unease culminates in his tense night with Gretta, and his final encounter with her ultimately forces him to confront his stony view of the world. When he sees Gretta transfixed by the music at the end of the party, Gabriel yearns intensely to have control of her strange feelings. Though Gabriel remembers their romantic courtship and is overcome with attraction for Gretta, this attraction is rooted not in love but in his desire to control her. At the hotel, when Gretta confesses to Gabriel that she was thinking of her first love, he becomes furious at her and himself, realizing that he has no claim on her and will never be "master." After Gretta falls asleep, Gabriel softens. Now that he knows that another man preceded him in Gretta's life, he feels not jealousy, but sadness that Michael Furey once felt an aching love that he himself has never known. Reflecting on his own controlled, passionless life, he realizes that life is short, and those who leave the world like Michael Furey, with great passion, in fact live more fully than people like himself. The holiday setting of Epiphany emphasizes the profoundness of Gabriel's difficult awakening that concludes the story and the collection. Gabriel experiences an inward change that makes him examine his own life and human life in general. While many characters in Dubliners suddenly stop pursuing what they desire without explanation, this story offers more specific articulation for Gabriel's actions. Gabriel sees himself as a shadow of a person, flickering in a world in which the living and the dead meet. Though in his speech at the dinner he insisted on the division between the past of the dead and the present of the living, Gabriel now recognizes, after hearing that Michael Furey's memory lives on, that such division is false. As he looks out of his hotel window, he sees the falling snow, and he imagines it covering Michael Furey's grave just as it covers those people still living, as well as the entire country of Ireland. The story leaves open the possibility that Gabriel might change his attitude and embrace life, even though his somber dwelling on the darkness of Ireland closes Dubliners with morose acceptance. He will eventually join the dead and will not be remembered. The Morkans' party consists of the kind of deadening routines that make existence so lifeless in Dubliners. The events of the party repeat each year: Gabriel gives a speech, Freddy Malins arrives drunk, everyone dances the same memorized steps, everyone eats. Like the horse that circles around and around the mill in Gabriel's anecdote, these Dubliners settle into an expected routine at this party. Such tedium fixes the characters in a state of paralysis. They are unable to break from the activities that they know, so they live life without new experiences, numb to the world. Even the food on the table evokes death. The life-giving substance appears at "rival ends" of the table that is lined with parallel rows of various dishes, divided in the middle by "sentries" of fruit and watched from afar by "three squads of bottles." The military language transforms a table set for a communal feast into a battlefield, reeking with danger and death. "The Dead" encapsulates the themes developed in the entire collection and serves as a balance to the first story, "The Sisters." Both stories piercingly explore the intersection of life and death and cast a shadow over the other stories. More than any other story, however, "The Dead" squarely addresses the state of Ireland in this respect. In his speech, Gabriel claims to lament the present age in which hospitality like that of the Morkan family is undervalued, but at the same time he insists that people must not linger on the past, but embrace the present. Gabriel's words betray him, and he ultimately encourages a tribute to the past, the past of hospitality, that lives on in the present party. His later thoughts reveal this attachment to the past when he envisions snow as "general all over Ireland." In every corner of the country, snow touches both the dead and the living, uniting them in frozen paralysis. However, Gabriel's thoughts in the final lines of Dubliners suggest that the living might in fact be able to free themselves and live unfettered by deadening routines and the past. Even in January, snow is unusual in Ireland and cannot last forever.