|
|
|
|
|
Maureen excellent summary chandra, and i really like your interpretations onceagain. :-) i kinda felt like the boy had been freed from two things; arelationship with the priest (not necessarily involving anythingphysical at all) but still a possibly dysfunctional relationship -- it's like, he knows something is wrong with this relationship but he isn't sure what -- you know how kids are sometimes so perceptive on sort of subliminal levels?; anyway the second freedom is from his path towards the priesthood...i say this because of what specifically he was being trained in by the priest -- unlike in some cultures, boys are not usually tutored by themselves by a priest unless they are being trained for the seminary -- catholic children learn about the faith in religion classes in school, so there is something unusual in any case about his being tutored so closely and regularly and individually by this priest. on the questions about joyce's ouevre (sailendra i think you asked?) 1)the stories of dubliners were written first and published in a magazine the name of which escapes me now; the text i have presents them in the order they were written, not in the order in which they were published. they were later compiled into one text entitled 'dubliners'. 2)the next fiction joyce worked on was called _stephen hero_ this text was not published until many years later however. that is because joyce re-wrote stephen hero substantially and later published it under the title of _portrait of the artist as a young man_. 3)this text was followed by _ulysses_ 4)which was followed by _finnegans wake_. in between these prose fictions, joyce was also writing and publishing poetry, drama and literary criticism. his letters have also been collected and published. at some point it would be great if we could also talk about his poetry, particularly 'chamber music'... i also believe gayatri mentioned a drama called the exiles? which i am not familiar with...but it may be another good one to look at in time. i have noticed a systematic/cyclic pattern with joyce in his works -- this pattern is detectable even in the dubliners collection -- notice that he starts dubs with the sisters (which we have discussed) and ends dubs with a story entitled _the *dead*_ (thought by some to be the literary crowning achievement of the collection). also note that his first published fiction begins with stephen as a mere babe (portrait) and his last published fiction was _finnegans *wake*_. i believe that he had a strategic 'vision' for his authorship throughout his career and it is part of the reason why i pedantically push the point :-) that the construction and composition of his prose was intentional, well thought out, and always bearing specific issues or realities or 'diseases' he wants to disclose, or, that he asks readers to consider... it is as tho from the start he knew where he was going (thematically) -- i don't think he knew exactly how he'd get there (because we see his prose style metamorphose as we go thru the works) but i think he knew where he was going all along... ay, and the lad was a true genius, so he was...;-) |
|
|
|
|
|