Mythical Reconstruction Of The Modern Irish In A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man(hereinafter referred to as A Portrait),published in 1916,is the first novel of the prominent Irish writer in the 20th century,James Joyce.The novel delineates the experiences of the protagonist Stephen Dedalus from childhood to adulthood in company with his growth in mentality and consciousness as a young artist,and is commonly considered as a semi-autobiographical work.In A Portrait,mythical elements are extensively transformed and utilized by Joyce,and hence the novel itself becomes a literary work filled with metaphorical images and intrinsic mythical property.Since its publication,A Portrait has been the focus of critics in Joycean study,and mythical elements in the novel gain attention to a certain extent.However,compared with Joyce’s two later works,Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake,which have inspired extensive mythological study from scholars,A Portrait is seldom viewed and surveyed as a "mythicized work" and mythological study of the novel is generally limited to archetypal characters in the text.Therefore,this thesis focuses on the mythical core of A Portrait from the perspectives of archetypal criticism and pattern study,trying to unfold Joyce’s effort in reconstructing a modern Irish myth through the rewriting of mythical archetypes,motifs and patterns in order to reveal psychological dilemma and spiritual crisis of Irish people in historical context and their arduous combat for self-awareness,national introspection,cultural identification and self-reconstruction in the modern time.The thesis consists of an Introduction,three chapters and a Conclusion.The Introductionsummarizes Joyce’s life and artistic achievements as well as the creation of A Portrait,analyzing Joyce’s experiences in connection with mythical elements.It also briefly reviews previous mythological studies on A Portrait by Chinese and foreign researchers,and expounds the structure of the thesis.Chapter One analyzes mythical motifs and archetypes in the novel encircling the protagonist Stephen Dedalus from three perspectives:sufferings and martyrdom,rebellion and liberation,maternity and seduction.The first and the second analyses focus on Stephen’s mental alienation and self-awareness affiliated with biblical and Greek mythical archetypes,while the third analysis focuses on female characters in Stephen’s view,revealing the opposition and the unity of sacredness and deadliness in femininity.The study from the three perspectives unveils the mental state and the spiritual predicament of Irish people in historical context.Chapter Two focuses on the mythical patterns and modes of A Portrait,analyzing the heroic mode of "sufferings-resurrection" in the novel and the art of irony in the wake of mock-heroic narrative,which demonstrate the severe conflict between sublime heroic stories and the unendurable social reality.Chapter Three studies the mythical disenchantment of traditional imagination and the reconstruction of modern Irish myth displayed by the novel,showing the spiritual plight and the realistic crisis of the individual and the Irish nation in the shadow of post-colonial discourses.It unfolds the requirement and necessity of Irish people to fight against repressive post-colonial discourses and to build a modern myth of Ireland,in which Irish cultural identity,Irishness and the Irish nation are reconstructed.The Conclusion summarizes the studies of mythical archetypes,motifs,modes and patterns in the thesis,and concludes Joyce’s careful thoughts as a wandering Irish writer in creating a modern myth for his compatriots.