Week 10 Portrait
James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Issues: Emergence of subjectivity Entering the symbolic order Becoming an artist Quest of Mother Portrayal of women in Portrait
Structural Pattern Ch.1: social approach to life (appeal to Father Conmee) Ch.2: sensuous approach (visit to the prostitute) Ch.3: religious approach (confession to the priest) Ch.4: aesthetic approach (vision of the wading girl) Ch.5: unresolved Thornton, Weldon. The Antimodernism of Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Syracusse UP.
Women in Portrait Ch.1: Mother and Child Ch.2: Virgin and Whore Ch.3: The Catholic Virgin Ch.4: The Bird-Girl: Aesthetic Muse Ch.5: Flight from the Mother (biological, ecclesiastical, and political) Henke, Suzette. “Stephen Dedalus and Women: A Feminist Reading of Portrait.” Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1993.
Discussion (1) pp.168-170: “Stephanos Dedalos!”— “imperishable” pp. 171-73: “A girl”--- “deeper than other” pp. 217-24: “Toward dawn” --- (end of poem)
Discussion (2) pp. 204-5: “Aristotle”– “desire and loathing” pp. 206- 9: “Beauty expressed by the artist” . . . “all esthetic apprehension” pp. 212-15: “wholeness, harmony and radiance” – “so to speak”
The End