Download James Joyce`s “Araby”

James Joyce’s “Araby”
AP English Literature
James Joyce (1882-1941)
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One of Ireland’s most
influential writers, born in
Dublin
One of the most celebrated
Modern writers (think Woolf
and Salinger)
Born into a Catholic family,
Joyce attended a Jesuit
school, then briefly enrolled
in medical school before
turning his attention to
philosophy and languages,
and eventually, writing.
Dubliners (written in 1905; published in 1914)
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15 short stories or vignettes, comprising the first major work
Joyce published
The collection reveals Dublin life at the end of the 19th
century, and can be read as stories about four stages of life:
childhood, adolescence, (“Araby” fits between these two),
adulthood, and public life.
Joyce’s intention in writing Dubliners was, in his own words,
to “write a chapter of the moral history” of his country. “For
myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to
the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of
the world. In the particular is contained the universal.”
Two of Dublin’s major social issues: 1. Poverty and the rise
of Irish Nationalism 2. The decline in Irish Catholicism
(Watch for underlying messages about material poverty and
spiritual poverty)
The title: “Araby” and Othering
Othering: to view or treat a person or group of people as intrinsically different from and alien
to oneself.
“Today, in artistic circles, there are few conventions more deplored than Orientalism, the
depiction of the East, especially the Middle East, as a realm of luxury, sensuality, and
violence. In the 19th century, though, there was nothing that seemed more chic—indeed,
more true and beautiful.” (The New Yorker, Feb 2014)
• In ambiguous depictions of the East (at times reinforcing cultural stereotypes of the East
and at other times exposing them), Joyce reveals the tantalizing allure of the imagined East
for the Irish.
• By consuming European fantasies of the exoticized Orient, Joyce's Dubliners distract
themselves from English oppression and rigid control of the Catholic Church.
The Araby Bazaar:
One of the largest public spectacles held in Dublin in the late 19th century. Attended
by 92,052 visitors, it filled the large indoor and outdoor spaces of the Royal Dublin
Showgrounds for over a week, with elaborate stage-set backdrops, a wide range of
goods for sale, restaurants, bars, firework displays, tight-rope demonstrations, and
'Princess Nala Damajante, Serpent Charmer, with her Boa Constrictors and
Pythons'. It was staffed by over 1,400 female volunteers, who received detailed daily
coverage in The Irish Times, and was served by special trains, as Joyce describes in
his story.
Kahn el-Khalili
bazaar in Old Cairo
Notice:
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Is the story about orienting ourselves? (Rather
an obvious pun, but a less obvious and
potentially rich path to explore--in what ways
does the narrator orient himself?
Joyce’s modernist narrative does not try to
represent continuous time; he moves from point
to point without indicating the passage of time.
At one point, the narrator says, "But my body was
like a harp and her words and gestures were like
fingers running upon the wires."
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Why wires and not strings?
Irish harp: traditionally strung with wire
Celtic harper
Patrick Ball
Sources
http://jamesjoyce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_4299.jpg
The James Joyce Centre http://jamesjoyce.ie/james-joyce/life/
http://www.worldatlas.com/img/areamap/afa3fcb57db4807d8120ee3b2c074ce9.gif
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/467147
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25473908?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/sheiks-araby
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-182047188/turbaned-faces-going-by-james-joyce-and-irish-orientalism
http://images.memphistours.com/large/186533663_cairo-market.jpg
http://www.mountainglenharps.com/Rivendale-Harp-fullview.jpg