Historical Awareness Enters A Portrait

A Portrait, as Bildungsroman novel, presents the process of Stephen's development from babyhood to adulthood. Ireland in which Stephen lived has been colonially ruled by the British sovereignty. The long-time political opression, economic deprivation, cultural assimilation and catholic dogmaticism as well thoroughly devastated Ireland. As a result, the whole Irish nation became paralyzed. When growing into the turn of the 20th century, Ireland seemed to stand at the turning point to quest for its nationhood. The nationalism movements broke out one after another. When being a little boy, Stephen was meek and obedient under the threatening authority. Encouraged by the rebelling nationalists, Stephen began to subvert the alien in the name of authority. Stephen's self-fashioning was achieved in the process of destroying the authorities. At the end of the novel, Stephen exiled himself to Europe, where he could freely create the art. As the tilte A Portrait suggests, A Portrait is the authentic portrait of a young artist, meanwhile, it is also the portrait of the Ireland at the turn of the 20th century.When composing A Portrait, James Joyce was obsessed by the "historical awareness." For one thing, he attempted to make A Portrait a "historical novel." For the other, he endeavored to make Ireland relive in A Portrait, by faithfully presenting the economic, political situation of Ireland, the Irishmen's existence and richly alluding to the crucial political events.Thanks to James Joyce's historical awareness, Irish history is embodied in A Portrait. Greenbaltt coined the term "circulation" to describe the intertextuality between history and literary works, believing that social discourse and aesthetic discourse circulate from one to another. By virtue of the "circultion", the readers can access to the past.This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one gives a brief account ofthe Irish historical background and the relationship between history and APortrait. Chapter two intends to conclude A Portrait is a historical novel by examining the objectivity in A Portrait. Chapter three and chapter four focus on the intertextuality between Irish history and A Portrait. Chapter three tries hard to demonstrate that A Portrait is a mirror to reflect the human existence, by means of analyzing Stephen Dedalus's process of "self-fashioning". Chapter four is devoted to justifying that A Portrait is a mirror to reflect Irish nation's condition at the turn of the 20th century.