The Language and Subjectivity of a Portrait

• Thesis title in Czech: Jazyk a subjektivita v Portrétu
• Thesis title in English: The Language and Subjectivity of a Portrait
• Key words: peronae, language, Joyce, A Portrait, Stephen Dedalus, child, romantic, the Church, artist
• English key words: peronae, language, Joyce, A Portrait, Stephen Dedalus, child, romantic, the Church, artist
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2010/2011
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Louis Armand, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 21.09.2011
• Date of assignment: 21.09.2011
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 22.02.2012
• Date and time of defence: 07.02.2012 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 16.01.2012
• Date of proceeded defence: 07.02.2012
• Submitted/finalized: committed by worker on behalf on and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. David Vichnar, Ph.D.

Guidelines

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce shifts away from the traditional objective narration to a more subjective mode of writing. The reader can experience the story and the characters not only through what is actually written but also through how it is written. Joyce employs various language techniques to show different styles that create the feeling of different voices. Four major registers can be distinguished: a child’s language, 19th century lyricism, the language of the Catholic school and the more complicated style of the last chapter. The prevalent techniques suggesting a child-like usage are manifested through repetition, childish expressions, use of modality and questions. Lyricism then draws on Byronic and other 19th century parallels, for instance the overuse of adjectives, elevated metaphors and frequent occurrence of standard poetic tropes. The language of the Church is reflected in sermon-like repetition, archaic words, biblical expressions and heavy diction. The language of the last chapter tries to use precise technical terms in an imitation of Thomist and other scholastic texts and manages to incorporate many of the previous elements as well, although often in a self-mocking way. All these techniques and devices in part substitute the traditional objective narrative and help to create various subjectivities through which the characters, especially Stephen Dedalus, can be experienced in A Portrait.

References

By Joyce:
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed. Chester G. Anderson (New York:Viking Penguin Inc., 1977).
---, Stephen Hero (New York: New Directions Books, 1963).
---, “A Portrait of the Artist,” A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed. ChesterG. Anderson (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977).
---, Ulysses (London: Penguin Books, 2000).

Joyce-related:
Attridge, Derek, Peculiar Language (London: Routledge, 2004).
---, Joyce Effects – On Language, Theory, and History (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2000).
Blamires, Harry, York Notes on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Harlow: LongmanYork Press, 1988).
Burgess, Anthony, Joysprick – An Introduction to the Language of James Joyce (London:André Deutsch, 1973).
Chayes, Irene Hendry, “Joyce's Epiphanies,” A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed.Chester G. Anderson (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977).
Cixous, Hélène, “Joyce: The (r)use of writing,” Post-structuralist Joyce: Essays from theFrench, eds. Derek Attridge and Daniel Ferrer (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1984).
Deane, Seamus, “James Joyce the Irishman,” The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce, ed.Derek Attridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Ellmann, Richard, James Joyce (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).---, Eminent Domain (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970).
Goldberg, S.L., “Art and Life: The Aesthetic of the Portait,” Twentieth CenturyInterpretations of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1968).
Kenner, Hugh, Dublin’s Joyce (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987).
---, Joyce's Voices (Rochester: Dalkey Archive, 2007).
Lemon, Lee T., “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Motif as Motivation and Structure,”Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968).
Levin, Harry, James Joyce - A Critical Introduction (London: Faber and Faber, 1960).
McKnight, Jeanne, “Unlocking the Word-Hoard: Madness, Identity & Creativity in Joyce,”James Joyce Quarterly 14.4 (1977): 420-35.
O’Connor, Frank, “Joyce and Dissociated Metaphor,” A Portrait of the Artist as a YoungMan, ed. Chester G. Anderson (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977).
Prescott, Joseph, “James Joyce: A Study in Words,“ PMLA 54.1 (1939): 304-15. JSTOR.Web. 6 Dec. 2009.
Richards, I.A., “A Study of Misunderstanding and Its Remedies,” Richards on Rhetoric, ed.Ann E. Berthoff (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Riquelme, John Paul, “Stephen Hero and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:transforming the nightmare of history,” The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce,ed. Derek Attridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Seward, Barbara, “The Artist and the Rose,” Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Portraitof the Artist as a Young Man (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968).
Shutte, William M., “Introduction,” Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Portrait of theArtist as a Young Man (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968).
Spoo, Robert, James Joyce and the Language of History (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1994).
Wales, Katie, The Language of James Joyce (Hampshire: The Macmillan Pres ltd., 1992).
Wells, H.G., “James Joyce,” A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ed. Chester G.Anderson (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977).