Philippine E-Journals

JAMES JOYCE'S DUBLINERS: A STUDY OF STAGNATION AND ENTRAPMENT

John Mcniff

Discipline: Literature

 

Abstract:

JAMES JOYCE once described himself as "a man of small virtue inclined to alcoholism." Yet, today that virtueless alcoholic is considered a literary genius. With such creations as Chamber Music, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Exiles, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake, Joyce ranks as one of the greatest authors, not only of the twentieth century but of all time. He was Irish by birth, yet made himself a voluntary exile of his homeland. Although he was never again to live in Ireland after 1904, Dublin is the center scene in every one of his works. In his collection of short stories, titled Dubliners, Joyce became the first writer to introduce Dublin to the world. He presented Dublin not only the way he saw Dublin to be, but as he believed it to be. James Joyce's Dubliners is a circular analysis of stagnation and entrapment leading to both individual and collective death in a dead city.