Modernity and Modernism in Literature

Modernity and modernness in Literature1.2. Modernity and ModernismThe first seeds to modernist literary productions were implanted with the emergence of modernity. Modernity is a post traditional or post-medieval diachronic period that characterized a radical shift a bearing from traditions. It is the era marking the rise of the age of reason which began with the Enlightenment (About 1687 to 1789).Scientists such(prenominal) as Im gayuel Kant, Ren Desc fraudes and most weightyly Isaac Newton believed that done with(predicate) science the world could be saved and that through reason they can establish a assembleation of universal truth. Modernity was also brought to light by political leaders such as Niccol Machiavelli who believed that peace could be established with reason resulting major movements such as Capitalism, Industrialism and Urbanization.Post Modernity as a hypothesis evolved roughly criticizing modernity and what modernity stands for, it criticizes industri al enterprise and the effects that last one had on the peasants in the fields and the workers in factories, and the power capitalists had e actuallywhere the people.(Barret 17-18). In separate words, postmodern refers to a condemnation of interfused styles, mixed cultural layers, oddly merging traditions and multi-cultural pluralism. (Bradbury WII)Modernism as described by B finesseh is a term that describes the modernist movement it was a revolt against the conservative values of veridicalism. Modernism is often understood through the work of authors who were productive after the turn of the twentieth cytosine. Writers such as T.S Eliot, Ezra Pounds and crowd together Joyce allowed it to be historically and politically understood in their literary works. (Childs 5)1.2.1 Modernist belles- permittresModern literature is a literature that flourished in the new capitalist art market during a period of time where writers were no demeanorlong pointed when it comes to what they write neither by the church nor by monarchies. They also no longer had to answer to the archaic musical arrangement of artistic patronage to the contrary, they signified their allegiance to all what is new. (Hutchens-Suggs 20).The First existence War showed artists how ridiculous life could be, Life was not fair to Europeans and proceed to be with the Second world War pickings the lives of over 50 million person and damaging the understructure of Europe unsling it from what was mostly referred to as the Belle poque . Later on and when the flames of war in the end came to end, this period was seen as a period of appease before the storm. (Ara Mergian CNN.com- November 9, 2014The modernist artistic movement is an intellectual movement that broke aesthetic and social boundaries. It appe bed in the earlyish 20th century and aimed to uncover invisible systems and unconscious codes or rules by explaining various phenomena using lovable and coherent style in writing, painting, sc ulpture and all artistic and creative performances (Barret 22).Modernists referred to themselves as avant-garde, they were rebellious against restrictions, had a futuristic vision and no limitation when challenging social values. 1.2.2 Modernist Aesthetics and CriticismTo some, Modernist art is doddery and until now finished, but that isnt totally true since it was once very progressive, bringing a new art for a new age under of the cape of a social and economical revolution that move over the, new back then, urban and industrial Europe(Barret P 20).One of the most important specifications of modernity was that it abolished the idea of beauty as the ideal of art (Atkins 56). Malcom Brudbury said One of the defining features of modernism has been the happy chance down of traditional frontier of matters of literary and cultural concern ( p114). Artists dropped subject matters as essentials and writers changed their incloseed works as rapidly as the intellectual life was changin g. Poets likewise sought to account for the rapid changes. Due to its difficulties, modernist rhyme is hard to enjoy having a wider and less comprehensive sense (Marry Warner 1 2)Artists eliminated the select to mother an fine art be different from ordinary objects they made an unofficial positment that beauty has no established master to be acknowledged. Douglas Crimp (1990) argued that the demise was brought about by the invention of photography which allowed the reproduction of images mechanically including art images stripping away from the artwork its uniqueness. Other critics see that aestitic revolutions of modernism ar formed by the enlargement of the comprehensive system of globalized world open to outer cultures and regions (Child 31).1.3 JAMES JOYCE (1882 1941) jam Joyce was, and still is, a major figure of modernism. The famous writer was born on the 2nd of February 1882 at 41 Brington Square westbound in Rathgar and was look upd crowd together high-mindedi n Joyce after his great grand sky pilot and grand amaze (Noris 59). mob was born to a Catholic family but he had always been a rebellion, he rebelled against his father who encouraged him into becoming a non-Christian priest and choose, or might have been destined to, become a literatures crooked genius (Philips 191). He afterwards studied languages and philosophy at Clongowes Wood and Belvedere Colleges.Coming from a middle-class family, James was promising Hildegard Tristman considered him to be A writer who lost his brain to forgetting (Tristman 230). Needless were notebooks, his memory was so good that he could retrieve any information he heard or take up at any moment.The name Joyce is derived from the French word joyeux and James was supposed to hold the holly spirit of joy. He mostly referred to himself as James Joyceless,a Joy of Evil and as Joyce in the wilderness (Ellmann 12).Growing-up, James was a well-behaved, slim little son with a set of blue eyes and a pale face . Doing his Jesuit masters, James didnt feel at ease with their teaching techniques but later on in his life when he was asked by August Suter about what he retained from his geezerhood in Jetsuit he replied I have learned to tack together things in such a way that they become easy to survey and to judge (Ellmann 27).He got from Jesuits his hairy Platonic idealism and the grounded Aristotelian realism as the question of his Catholic faith was raised by father Daly who indicated that his religious and spiritual manifestations were mysterious(Philip P4)Joyce was head of his class at Clongowes, his memory was absolute, and he was a good athletic supporter too, playing Rugby and Cricket. The fascinating boy came back home with salwaysal cups (P 30). James was keen of medication and all sorts of art that he took Piano lessons as well.The family had serious financial problems and that did impel James to move closer to Dublin. John Joyce, James father, sold galore(postnominal) properti es of his in order to provide a break life for his children. The caring father with a pension of 132 a year struggled to provide comestible, pay indoctrinate tuitions for the children and to keep a roof over their heads after moving to The Lionville house at Carysford Avenue, Blackrock. The stress caused by the economical difficulties affected Jamesstarting from his teen-years that some indicated a flair of drama in his temper and thats when he attained a reputation for being spiritual and conscious of everything happening around him. At Belever, Joyce acquired Italian as a third language to go with Latin and French pursuing to read European literature at the expense of his own grades.In 1897 and by love for art and need to help his family, James participated in the Intermediate Examinations and received an exhibition of 30 a year and 3 prize for best side composition in his grade in Ireland (P 51).In the fall of 1898 James attended University College, Dublin from wich he graduat ed in 1902. During this time, Dublin was a town with umpteen important pillars of literature such as William Butler Yeat, Lady Augusta Gregory, James Clarence and George Moore walking its street. James was influenced by all these writers especially Yeats whom he met privately in early October 1902 on the streets of Dublin and had a obscureened talk with. That strongly showed on his statement of method and intention and the way in which he strongly defended all what is temporary and modern.On April 1900 Ibsens New Drama by James A Joyce was published on the fortnightly Review and after that, James was no longer an Irishman, he was European.Graduating from U.C Dublin, James main focus was to rifle his targeted city was Paris were he didnt reside easily. At that time, his fame and readership were notparticularly widespread (Goldman 84). To stay in that respect was a pointless move so, so he went home for Christmas and then refractory to stay when he knew of his mothers health iss ues. His mother died on August 13th, 1903. After this tragedy, Joyce focused more on making reviews for the Irish Homestead magazine and during this time he met Nora Barnacle and the two moved to Pola in late 1094 where he occupied a teaching position at Berlitz school. The next few years were difficult for James who suffered from financial problems and a major drinking problem too. After that he became disconnected from the people around him. Eventually Joyce, Nora and their child settled into a new life in Paris where he finally was able publish Ulysses but continued to have problems, this time health problems especially with his sightedness (Ellman 225-229). Difficulties continued to cross Johns path as his notificationship with publishing houses delayed Dubliners from emerging for a decade. Better geezerhood were yet to come as he gained an award from the Royal Literary Found in 1915 followed with the outlet of A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man in 1916. His work as a whol e, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake predominately served to change the face of overbolds they represented a playful mixture of English and other languages and novels completely free from the limitations of normal mind.James was a relentlessly autobiographical writer, a man who never doubted himself and in August 1929 his self-esteem extended even more as he was praised by George Moore who wrote to John Elton, He (Joyce) was distinguished,courteous, respectful, and I was the same. During their short encounter in London Moore said, I have been only a revolutionary, darn you have been a heroic revolutionary, for you had no money (Ellman 617).On January 1935, James moved along with his cortege back to Paris. He didnt feel as blind as Homer, nor as exiled as Dante having as many friends as he did. They moved again to southern France but eventually settled again in Zurich. On January 9th 1941 James was hospitalized, the doctor assured him that he didnt have cancer and that he ask an nimble surgical process which George, his father offered to pay for saying well manage Somehow or other (Welcker 53). The surgery was successful as he recovered consciousness but at one Oclock in the cockcrow he relapsed into coma. At 215 on January 13,1941, one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century died leaving behind a considerable amount of scholarly interesting works(Cope, Cope 2).1.4 DUBLINERSJames Joyces Dubliners is a collection of stories that aims to portray middle class life in Dublin, Ireland in the early twentieth century. It is a set of 15 short stories published in 1914 where Joyce made to appear the literary portrait of an blameless society glimpsing into the lives of different social classes and exploring what it means to be Irish (Joyce VI).Moments of sudden insights arise frequently throughout Dubliners, it have been described and analyzed by critics as a series of 15 epiphanies coupled with spoil and enlighten characters with significant and illum inating experiences that are trapped in a city where nothing ever changes. Dubliners stories spotted the paralysis in the Irish society and how helpless in their daily life those individuals are thanks to Joyce artistic vision which simplified the image of Dublin. (Carter Mc Raf 165)Nothing would explain Joyces purpose in writing Dubliners more than his own wordsMy intention was to write a chapter of the moral hi novel of my bucolic and I chose Dublin for the scene because the city seemed to me the centre of the paralysis. I have tried to present it to the extraneous public under four of its aspects childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order. I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness and with the conviction that he is a very bold man who dares to alter in the presentment, still more to deform, whatever he has seen and heard. (Gillie 94) 1.4.1 Epiphany in Jamess DublinersAn epiphany is1_an illuminating reali zation or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation, awe, or wonder its a state of Nirvana, a complete cessation of suffering, and a blissfull state attained through realization of sunyata, simply an enlightened and heightened experience.2_ a Christian feast celebrated on the 7th of January (Oxford 127)Epiphany in James dictionary is a religious term that refers to the revelation of the infant Jesus to the Magi in the succession of time of the Christian church year he considered it to be a structural device. (Cope-Cope 4)The stories of Dubliners are classifiable to the reader by the sudden insight about the plot and characters who are kept from seeing who they in reality are. At the first look, the reader might think that the characters, those Dubliners, are taking their journey in a rhythmic way, he might think, hope them to achieve the expectable, but suddenly, a dramatic alternation occurs. Father Flin and Eveline are probably the best examples to this. Father Flin ended up as a spiritually crippled man Unable to cope with his life choices Eveline was too afraid to escape her miserable life that she missed the opportunity to start over in a new country with the man she loved.James takes us into deep Dublin, showing us versions of citizens who happened to have a bleared vision of their city, families, and of themselves. The last baloney of the fifteen stories collection The unawares represents both the synthesis and climax of Dubliners. The story took place on January sixth, which is the Christian feast of epiphany, at Kate and Julia Morkans house. This story focuses on Gabriel Conroy from beginning to end throughout his encounter with the party gests who, one by one, ended up uncover his weakness even his short encounter with the made Lilly turned in to a revealing scene of his lack of sympathy.1.4.2 The groundlessThe Dead is one of the finest short stories in English literature. Written by James Joyce, it is known as the most famou s and emotionally affecting story of his collection of fifteen stories Dubliners. The story was a late addition long enough to be a novella.The Dead includes some(prenominal) believable dialogue and had a more positive tone and is often referred to as an exception to the generality made about Dubliners. The Dead also anticipates Joyces move away From the short story and toward the novel, Joyce wrote no other short story after it He had it substantially completed by the 6th of September 1916.This story serves as a final chorus of the book presenting holiday life, the celebrating of Christmas. The Dead is in a way a story of the dead people ghosts who return in envy of the living. (Kelleher 414)The Dead is a appointment conclusion to the stories collected in Dubliners it could be seen as another capacity within the Joycean work, James let Symbolism flow freely throughout his short story and utilizes his main characters and objects to impress upon his readers and show them the real crippled condition of the Dublin he saw and the Dublin that negated him.Critical Reception of The DeadThe nineteenth-century novel explored the external world, whereas the modern novel has dedicated itself to the inner world of the human consciousness (Fletcher 246)The modern epoch has found in critical reception both a mirror with which it could examine the many vices and perversions that decide it and an obscure tapestry of almost fundamentalist punishments that are entirely alien to it. The twentieth century novelist James Joyce is a vivid example of modern writers who managed to not only engage with the world but to elucidate it as well.The tradition bound culture has a dangerous capacity for stifling rather than nourish the life instinct. Like most of his contemporary writers, Joyces story in The Dead anticipates the traumatic moment of self-discovery by a series of images that convey the protagonists unacknowledged estrangement from nature (Sullivan P4)Writers make images vivid in any number of ways, James imagination was trained to be a compiler of aspects. The Deads scenes take place at night, when things arent usually so clear (Phillips 198) Ghosts are present in the character of Michael Furey who was in love with Gretta and died in Galway, Gabriel knew that, and all over the sudden perceived the tormenting truth he has always had a competitor who had been surefooted of greater love than he could ever be.2.1 Psychoanalytic Theory in The DeadPsychoanalysis is to be understood in its wider meaning to include all psycho-dynamic theories and therapies, regardless as to whether they emanate from Freud or Jung or elsewhere. Although the Freudian professional organizations regard the term psychoanalysis as one which refers solely to their own theory and practices, and although the Jungians and Adlerians call themselves analytical and individual psychologists respectively in the hope of differentiating themselves from the Freudians, these distinctions ha ve never caught on even among the well-informed laity, which has always been more impressed by the similarities of the schools than by their differences (Rycroft 08)Freudian. Psychoanalytic theory is basically historical it treats learning as cumulative, so that early experiences influence later experiences.2.2 The Irish caseThe general record of a nation may fitly preface the personal memoranda of a solitary clothed ( John Mitchel, Jail Journal. Dublin 1918).The Irish Question is a phrase used to describe Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence. It encompasses issues such as religion, the Irish-British politics and land ownership (Amato Demi Petrone P3). The 20th century marked the end of the British colonial project in Ireland leaving the country with an outdated agricultural system and a weak industrial economy. The English informalcolonization created a nation that is neither homegrown Irish nor wholly British. (Duke 18)The Irish are descended from the Celti c people who originally inhabited the Island and who are old Catholics, while the English descended minorities were protestant. A sense of belonging and national solidarity arises among the natives and this resulted into a typical of national consciousness about the imperial ascendency the British Empire had on Ireland.In 1536, Henry VIII decided to conquer Ireland and he was proclaimed King of Ireland in 1541. The Irish Catholics rebelled against the British crown and ruled over Ireland (1642-1649) until Oliver Cromwel, the English military and political leader, the man known as the protector of England, re-conquered Ireland in1653 and ruled over it with the Kings blessing. (Amado Demi Petrone P5 6). Therefore, in the course of the century there were several movements reclaiming Britain to return the Irish lands its real possessors and France offered military help. The English top Minister Pitt was frightened by the idea of having the Irish lands uses as a structural military initiation against the English soil and persuaded the Irish Parliament to agree to its own abolition. In the course of centuries Ireland witnessed ups and downs in its relation with the British crown starting from The Union with Britain (1801-1912) to the Home Rule Bill of 1912 which was suspended for the war.In 1920 English Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act establishing separate domestic legislatures for the north and south and in1949 Ireland finallybroke the think with Britain Commonwealth and became an independent republic (Ibid 17). Modern Ireland and from the early 1970 faced many challenges that were mainly related to religion. The Catholics did not feel safe in Ireland forming The Civil Rights Association they were attacked by Protestants in 1968 and 1969. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) got refer right after the RUC failed to stop the anarchy. The IRA troops split into two wings The officials whose first responsibleness was to establish peace and The Provisi onal who declared war on Britain that last one responded by taking over Northern Ireland in 1972. IRA replied by bombing Westminster Hall and London assassinating Lord Mountbatten and MP Airey Neave in 1979 and attempting to blow the Grand Hotel while Mr. Thatcher is a denizen of it.In 1985 the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, both sides agree to collaborate and work together fighting terrorism establishing a new, and hopefully, a lasting peaceful state of coexistence.1.2.1 transportation, Exile and contemporary IrelandThere is the personal element in exile, an element that muffles and beclouds the works effects, the insistent self-dramatizations as another factor, a major one. (Peter 627)The Irish society like any other society had many great problems that dwelt deeply in everyday life. Unemployment and poverty reached their peak in the late interwar period.The failure of the white potato crop in the mid 1840 effected several areas leaving behind according to Sir William Wild the f ather of the well-known emigrant Oscar a poor, weak, old, lame, sick, blind, dumb, imbecile and insane race (Fitzpatrick I).The Irish emigration from the Irish lands had everything to do with the potato famine economy and the exploitation of labor in the fields. By the 1900s Northern Ireland was suffering from stagnation, its population was overwhelmed by famine, immigration, hopelessness, paralysis in all forms. Alcohol was another massive problem according to Larry Harrison who verbalise that North Irish study group contained a significantly higher proportion of heavy drinkers and thats wherefore the Irish man was and still widely known and stereotyped as a heavy consumer of deluge drinks.(P 59)The disoriented Anglo-Irishry of after 1922 aimed to reconstruct the consciousness of nineteenth-century Irish people who felt as if all their dreams and life goals are thrown in the deep St George channel. For the majority f the Irish middle class, being afield was a common thing, the y traveled to all parts of Europe but Britain was often their first destination. Emigration as a concept must include the middle-class or petit bourgeois (Foster P 283) who found in places such as London the solid soil and deep settled state they needed to form a literary career. Britain was, and everyone agreed, a Modernist wonderland.1.2.2 Who is Gabriel Conroy?It has often been pointed that James self-consciousness was found and showed over years of writing various and confusing fictional phenomenon we call the novel today. The Edwardian Irishman promoted the movement of Imagism as a new rhythmic practice which employ the language of common speech and have complete liberty in subject matter. Joyce took his style to a new and highly experimental level by inventing, daydream and creating new characters so that he would ultimately get modern and unique plots. Gabriel Conroy is one of his most polemic Characters ever a man that represents a variety well known and present in the Ir ish society. (Gillie 90)Gabriel Conroy is the main character in Joyces short story The Dead. The man has the portray of an educated intellectual Irish gentleman but when looking beyond and analyzing the events of the night we notice that he is nothing more than a privileged brat with very low self-esteem and tremulous self-respect. The man had a fatuous self-righteousness that was present as a result to the imaginatively records of Joyces literary and dramatic revision of themes and context. ( Shelly Jr 134)2.2.4 Paralysis in The DeadFor it is well known that one of the oldest and most persistent clichs of Joycean criticism has been to associate the Dublin of Joyces oeuvre with the one inhabited by his Dubliners.Garry Leonard voiced reservations as to the implications made by James and asked a very accurate Question If Dublin is the center of paralysis, what is the periphery? (Leonard P320)