The modern age - james joyce

THE MODERN AGE

The age of anxiety

The twenty century was marked by great transformations. It was two world wars that modified the world and man and it developed science, communication and psychology. Men believe that all human misery would be swept away because they gave more importance to progress. In this period scientists and philosophers destroyed the Victorian age values and new views of man and universe emerged. At first this new ideas were introduced by Sigmund Freud in his work "the interpretation of Dreams" which explain the unconscious that created disturbing for the fact that man's action are motivated by irrational forces. An other concept is infantile sexuality and the concept of "free association". All this influenced the writers of modern age, in fact it need new values that gave their the literature that was influenced also by science with the theory of relativity of Einstein; the Quantum Mechanics and theories of language of Wittgestein; the idea of time of Bergson and William James. The key-words of this new age were alienation, isolation and anxiety.

MODERNISM

M. is a movement that it developed at the beginning of twenty century when there was social and intellectual change. It refuses the values of previous age that it says Naturalism and Decadentism to make space to introspection. In fact one of the most important features is give importance to unconscious; an other one is no limit between space and time; the perception of reality as something of subjective etc.

The modern novel

Modernists are influenced by the new philosophies and new theories of unconscious. Their novels aren't well planned or with a logical sense of stories but it were confused. In fact they say that isn't necessary the passing of time to reveal a character but it need even one day to know it if we analyse the unconscious. They created new methods as Joyce's epiphany, stream of consciousness and the interior monologue and refuse the omniscient narrator. The most important novelist are Joseph Conrad, Henry James; David Lawrence; Edward Forster. James Joyce and Virginia Woolf utilise a subjective narrative techniques.

The interior monologue

It was created in twenty century to reproduce the complexity of human mind. It express the unspoken activity of mind before it is ordered in speech, so the confused thoughts. It needs to distinguish it to the stream of consciousness that it is the psychic phenomenon itself not the verbal expression of it.

JAMES JOYCE

Dublin

At the age of twenty-two he went into exile. He set mostly of his work in the city of Dublin, he want to give a realistic portrait of the Dubliners life. He represents the whole of man's mental, emotional and biological reality too, fusing with modern civilisation and natural world.

The rebellion against the church

J. challenged Catholicism and become hostile towards the Church. This hostility represented a revolt of the artist-heretic against the doctrine and the struggle between the aesthete-heretic and provincial Church. In reality it means the conflict between a son and his parents.

Poor eye-sight

In J.'s novel are represented physical problem compensated with his sense of hearing. Do his works should be read aloud.

The modernist features of his work

He was modernist: the facts become confused, in fact, are represented most points of view simultaneously. He gave more geographical detail, so realism. At last he collect and analyses the impressions and thoughts of characters.

Subjective perception of time

The characters don't perceive time objective but they have changes psycho logics, so time is subjective. The accumulate description too don't derived from eternal reality but from the characters' mind floating.

Impersonality of the artist

J. believed in the impersonality of the artist. His task was to render life objectively so give true images. In this way he caused the isolation of the artist from society. Last thing is that he used different points of view and narrative techniques appropriate to characters.

Style

His style is an exploration of the characters' impressions and points of view. In fact reality that he describes becomes the place of our psychological projections. He uses the free direct speech and epiphany and interior monologue.

Ulysses

.Plot.

The protagonist is Leopold Bloom that represented Joyce's common man. One morning he leaves his home to buy breakfast and returns the following morning. In this time he walks in the street thinking at his wife, his son dead and many others. During his wandering he meets Stephen Dedalus that becomes momentarily his adopted son. This story is a parody of wandering of Odysseus.

The representation of human nature

In this novel J. represented two aspect of human nature in his three characters. S. Dedalus is pure intellect that seeks maturity as every young man; Mrs Bloom represented the sensual nature and fecundity; Mrs Bloom is the whole of mankind. The moral is that to live it means to suffer and struggling to rise and seek the good.

Narrative technique

In Ulysses he presents a combination of techniques: the stream of consciousness; the cinematic technique with his flashback, tracking shots, jump cuts; dramatic dialogue; question and answers and the juxtaposition of even. He perfections the interior monologue.

Language

In the language we have images, paradoxes, interruptions and many symbols. The vocabulary is amazing.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

Contribution to the modernist novel

She gives voice to world of feeling and memory. She was influenced by Freud's psychoanalysis, Bergson perception of time and even by artists and painters that experimented new way to perceive reality. In fact for her is most important the moment when human given the vision of the myriad impressions.

The rejection of tradition

As the modernist she refuses the traditional form: a plot well planned, a definite setting, a development in time. She created many points of view because the omniscient narrator disappears and the point of view shift inside the characters' mind.

Narrative technique

Even if she presents the characters' thoughts maintains logical and grammatical organisation. Her technique is based on the fusion of stream of thought into a third-person, past tense narrative. She created "moments of being" that there are moments of insight during her characters' daily lives when they can see reality behind appearance.

A poetic use of language

Her language is poetic, his words are allusive and emotional. She uses rhyme, refrain and metaphor.

PLOT

The protagonist is Clarissa that one day goes to Bond Street to buy some flowers for a party. While she is in a flower shop, outside a car drives noisily where Septimus and Lucrezia Smith are walking. When she returned at home received a visit from Peter Walsh, her ex boyfriend. When he leaves Clarissa's house goes to Regent's Park where meets Warren Smith. All the characters are presented at Clarissa's party.