The representation of women and the irish nation in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Q4 Arts and Humanities
Daniela Ćurko
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

In Joyce’s novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the representation of the Irish nation is closely interwoven with that of Irish women. Two groups can be distinguished among the women and girl characters: the women who are a symbol of authority and those who embody desire. Stephen’s mother and Dante Riordan, a family relative and re ligious fanatic who closely surveyed and inf luenced his early childhood, symbolize those Irish who firmly supported the dogma that the Irish nation’s identity was not to be sepa rated from the nation’s necessity in being a Roman Catholic one, subdued to the domina tion of both Rome and London. Stephen, after having accepted this view as a child, refuses this standpoint as rigid and narrowminded; in one word, as a dangerous stereotype with disastrous consequences for the future of Ireland as he becomes an adolescent. As for the other group, the girl named (Stephen’s) desire, the one central and recur rent image which appears in its description is that of the “batlike soul”. The metaphor is deeply significant for the theme of this essay, as the girl characters are portrayed as unaware of themselves and only coming to consciousness, just as the Ireland of the epoch was seen and portrayed by young Stephen. The women, object of desire, are also seen as adulterous: but t o betray , Stephen soon gets to understand, is the only way to be faithful – to himself and to his vision of what Ireland is yet to become. Thus the representation of the Irish nation is not only in connection with that of Irish women, but also in relation with a process of creation of Stephen’s own identity, as he slowly liberates himself from the public opinion and becomes a free minded and inde pendent adult, aware of the impact and importance his future artist vocation will have for him, as well as for his whole country.
乔伊斯《青年艺术家肖像》中女性与爱尔兰民族的表现
在乔伊斯的小说《青年艺术家肖像》中,爱尔兰民族的形象与爱尔兰妇女的形象紧密地交织在一起。在女性和女孩角色中可以区分出两类人:象征权威的女性和体现欲望的女性。斯蒂芬的母亲和他的亲戚、宗教狂热分子丹特·赖尔丹(Dante Riordan)密切关注并影响了他的童年,他们象征着那些坚定地支持这样一种信条的爱尔兰人,即爱尔兰民族的身份不能与国家成为罗马天主教国家的必要性分开,屈从于罗马和伦敦的统治。司提反从小就接受了这种观点,他认为这种观点是僵化和狭隘的;简而言之,这是一种危险的刻板印象,当他成为青少年时,会给爱尔兰的未来带来灾难性的后果。至于另一组,被称为(斯蒂芬的)欲望的女孩,在其描述中出现的一个中心和反复出现的形象是“蝙蝠般的灵魂”。这一隐喻对本文的主题有着深远的意义,因为女孩角色被描绘成没有意识到自己,只有意识到自己,就像那个时代的爱尔兰被年轻的斯蒂芬所看到和描绘的那样。女人,欲望的对象,也被视为通奸:但背叛,斯蒂芬很快就明白了,是忠诚的唯一途径——对他自己和他对爱尔兰未来的愿景。因此,爱尔兰民族的代表不仅与爱尔兰女性的代表有关,而且与斯蒂芬自己身份的创造过程有关,因为他慢慢地将自己从公众舆论中解放出来,成为一个思想自由和独立的成年人,意识到他未来的艺术家职业对他以及他的整个国家的影响和重要性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Vestnik za Tuje Jezike
Vestnik za Tuje Jezike Social Sciences-Linguistics and Language
CiteScore
0.30
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0.00%
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审稿时长
16 weeks
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