Feel free to draw from these questions or develop your own. Have a great Spring Break, everyone, and I look forward to reading your responses to Portrait after the break!
- For your blog this week, you might want to do some background research on James Joyce, himself, and explore how his biography and experiences might relate to aspects of the novel. Some key terms you could look up for this week are “modernism” and “epiphany” and explain how they could help us better understand particular parts of the text. You could also do some historical investigation by looking up the Parnell scandal or some other historical reference in the text. You could also look up the myth of Icarus and explain how it might pertain to this novel.
- In “Violence and the Constitution of the Novel,” David Lloyd discusses the particular linguistic circumstances that created the conditions for the complex nature of the Irish novel. He states, “The bilingual nature of Irish culture hampered the development of a stably transforming medium for literary production” and how “the predominance of an oral culture in Ireland…produced alternative expectations of plot or narrative” (129). How do we see evidence of both of these conditions manifesting themselves in Joyce’s text? What particular attention is paid to the construction of language, itself? How does Joyce play with narrative and plot in this novel?
- In what ways is the city of Dublin a “character” in this novel?
- What role do women play in this novel?
- How would you characterize Stephen’s sexual development? What role does sexuality play in this novel?
- What is the role of religion in this novel? What should we make of the “fire and brimstone” section, Part III, of this novel?
- On pages 178-187, Stephen experiences an epiphany of sorts. Define the nature of that epiphany. What is Stephen’s realization? How does it come about?
No comments:
Post a Comment