Joyce’s Dubliners:Interpretation From The Perspective Of The Rites Of Passage

Dubliners, written during1904and1907, is Joyce’s life-long exploration of Dublin life, and he himself depicted Dubliners as "a spiritual history for Ireland". Dubliners as "a spiritual history for Ireland" has been subject to exhaustive and intense scrutiny by scholars of all types. The present thesis focuses on exploring Dubliners from the perspective of rites—more specifically the rites of passage. It is intended to provide a fresh, anthropologically-based interpretation of this short story collection.This short story collection is arranged basically according to the age of the protagonists. According to the theory of the rites of passage, every person in different age stages experiences different rites of passage. Generally speaking, in the childhood, people should experience the rite of passage to adulthood; in the youth stage, the rite of passage to marriage; in adulthood, the rite of passage to eldership and to ancestorship. Therefore, the rites of passage should play a key role in deciding the narrative structure of this short story collection. However, there are suspension, distortion, and absence of the rites of passage in Joyce’s description of childhood, youth, and adulthood in the short story collection. The present thesis aims at a detailed analysis of this phenomenon.The thesis falls into seven parts. The first chapter is a brief introduction to James Joyce and Dubliners and a general survey of previous criticism on Dubliners. It also presents the analytical framework employed in the thesis. The second, third, and fourth chapters respectively analyse the suspension of the rites of passage in the short stories about childhood, the distortion of the rites of passage in the short stories about adolescence, and the absence of the rites of passage in the short stories about adulthood. The fifth chapter analyses the causes for the suspension, distortion and absence of the rites of passage that are dealt with in the previous three chapters. The sixth chapter discusses "The Dead", the only story in the collection in which the rites of passage is accomplished. This chapter shows that, by the consummation of rites of passage, Joyce expresses his hope for the regeneration of the spiritually paralyzed Irish society. The seventh chapter summarizes the thesis and puts forward the conclusion that, interpretation of the short story collection with the rites of passage better illuminates the theme. Meanwhile, these short stories from the perspective of the rites of passage can be viewed not only as an exhibition of the daily personal experience of the Irish people but also as the developing experience of the whole Irish society.