Modernity In James Joyce's Play

James Joyce (1882-1941) was considered the most important writer in the 20th century. His novels Ulysses and A portrait of the Artist as a young man (short for A Portrait below) gained great attention among readers and critics. As Joyce's only published drama, Exiles didn't get the recognition that it should get through years, especially in China. However, Exiles is an important work of Joyce. Understanding the artistic features of the play correctly will help a lot in understanding the modernity of Joyce's play.This thesis is going to take Exiles as the research target and analyze its artistic features in six parts: Introduction, Chapter One (The Playwright James Joyce and His Exiles), Chapter Two (Reflections of James Joyce's Private Life in Exiles), Chapter Three (Symbolism in Exiles), Chapter Four (Other Artistic Features in Exiles) and Conclusion.Modernity is a word with complex meanings. In modern literary works, the research object becomes the inner world of people, instead of the material world outside. The thesis believes that modernity is the part which can reveal the inner world of modern people. The Introduction will show that this thesis is going to explain the modernity of Exiles through analyzing its artistic features and this part will also survey the reception and criticism of Joyce's works in China and abroad. Then it will point out that the study on Joyce's novels is very hot now while the study on Joyce's play Exiles in China is still in a very low level. This part will also tell the methodology and the significance of the thesis.Chapter One is about the birth of Exiles. The thesis will put emphasis on why Joyce wrote such a drama after finishing A portrait and before starting Ulysses, and its significance to Joyce. Since the plot of Exiles is not so familiar with readers, and the introduction will help a lot in understanding the autobiographic element of the play, I will introduce the plot of Exiles. The protagonist Richard in Exiles is an Irish writer who exiled to Italy, just as what James Joyce did. In the year 1912, he took his lover Bertha,...