Modernism’s Forgotten Legacy: Studying James Joyce’s Two Self-Portraits

A Synopsis on

Modernism’s Forgotten Legacy:

Studying James Joyce’s Two Self-Portraits

Submitted to P. G. Department of English, Utkal University

Under the guidance of:

Dr. Himansu S. Mohapatra

&

Dr. Kalyani Samantray

Prepared by:

Abhishek Upadhyaya

Biswaranjan Sahoo

Dillip Kumar Sethi

Tyagraj Thakur

 This study intends to take issue with an evolutionary view of literary history as reflected in the privilege accorded to modernism over realism. It tries to reverse this hierarchical relationship, using James Joyce’s literary career as a case study. More specifically, the thesis looks at the relationship between Stephen Hero and A Portrait, showing this to be an open-ended relationship where realism is not superseded but lays claim to being an equal partner with modernism in creating the unique literary art of Joyce.

An evolutionary logic usually dominates literary history. According to this logic, what comes later is considered to be better than what came before. Say for instance Dickens’ Great Expectations leaves less space for the reader to return to his previous work David Copperfield. This logic can be seen to be at work in the relationship that is presumed to exist between realism and modernism. Modernism is supposed to have transcended realism (David Lodge’s distinction between ‘classic realist text’ and modernist text). In the literary history, modernism is believed to have more polished and refined approaches to art which supersedes its preceding realistic approach.  

This has the unfortunate effect of leading literary scholars to ignore works owing allegiance to realism. We see this in the way that James Joyce’s literary career is projected. It is a career which supposedly begins with the less impressive realistic phase and culminates in the hugely significant modernist and symbolic phase. Thus, Dubliners and Stephen Hero belong to the first phase whereas A Portrait, Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake belong to the more cherished later phase.  This kind of taxonomy blinds us to the traffic between realism and modernism in Joyce’s writings as well as in the entire body of literary writing.  

In Joyce, the realistic vein never really got exhausted and therefore never can it be said to be transcended. If Ulysses is on one hand a vast symbolic structure, it is on the other hand a good realist novel about Dublin. And if A Portrait is a kunstlerroman in a modernist mode, then its earlier version, Stephen Hero is a bildungsroman in a realistic mode. A Portrait gives an artistic representation of some specific aspects of Dublin life but the developmental arc is quite evident in Stephen Hero.  Of course modernism provides a lyrical view of Dublin life but at the same time loses the dramatic engagement of characters in as present in the realistic terms. What this might mean is that in the rewriting that Joyce did realism’s loss was modernism’s gain. In the present thesis an attempt will be made to investigate the forgotten legacy of Joycean modernism as exemplified in Stephen Hero.

Chapter one will introduce the case of rereading or an alternative way of looking at the literary history. Here the argument will base on the complementary nature of realism and modernism. Chapter two will unearth the literature review and show the gap in existing knowledge when we move from realism to modernism. It will reverse the realism-modernism trajectory. Chapter three will bring in the loss of a wider view in the passage from Daedalus to Dedalus while dealing with the aspects of kunstlerroman in A Portrait and aspects of bildungsroman in Stephen Hero. Similarly, chapter four while juxtaposing both the texts will look into the two versions of art: the lyrical inclination of an artist in isolation and a pragmatic’s dramatic engagement in the society. It will also examine the different endings in both the texts and show the losses in the later work. This will be followed by a conclusion with substantial revelations that are aimed at the beginning and will also leave a few further riddles unexamined that would meet the requirements of future research.

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