ENGL 495 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Stephen Dedalus, Bildungsroman, Bildung
4 Jun 2018
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Department
Course
Professor
24 January, 2018
Joyce
- Collected epiphanies, a religious term in Catholicism to denote the arrival of the three
wise men, their sudden realisation of divinity; Joyce converts a religious practice into an
artistic one
- Etymologically, means to show or manifest; according to Joyce, this need not be positiv
- Error of speech or pronunciation
- Not necessary to immediately understand the meaning
- Usually sudden or surprising
- More epiphanies when one is young
- Mysterious and irresolute
- Joyce makes epiphanies into literary structuring devices; it’s regarded as a prose
phenomenon, although many register as lyrical
- Ex: the girl at the sea (hither and thither is indicative of epiphany in Joyce)
- Religious language used for a secular event (denoting a spiritual revelation)
- Gendered politics, women as an excuse for men to learn things
- Personal and individual phenomenon, not necessarily communicable
- Fragments of conversation can lead to epiphany, from an adjacent position;
eavesdropper is not intended to be there, but learns something nonetheless
- Epiphany requires disclosure even if that thing remains unknown
- Portrait of the Artist is structured through epiphanic moments, made up of impressions
one after another, not typical narrative structure
- Goat scene
- Rictus = grin of shock and despair
- Sentences move in circles, like the eternal circles of hell
- Stylistically, repetition of words and alliteration, leaves the reader slogging
through drawn out sentences
- Negative epiphany = disclosure of negative context
- Soft language = unspecific, uncommunicable
- Joyce understood this as an epiphany, transcribed it into the novel
- Epiphanies on different scales
- Example of a smaller epiphany = les jupes → Stephen hears someone
pronounce a word differently, which prompts a realisation that he and the rector
are different
- Soul also indicates an epiphany
- The book is a Bildungsroman -- how do epiphanies contribute to bildung?
- Showing off
- Stephen Dedalus is a show-off; it’s necessary to read Joyce with reference books
because both Joyce and Stephen are insufferable pedants
- Stephen always portrays himself as the star -- why does he perform so much and
for whom does he perform?
Document Summary
Collected epiphanies, a religious term in catholicism to denote the arrival of the three wise men, their sudden realisation of divinity; joyce converts a religious practice into an artistic one. Etymologically, means to show or manifest; according to joyce, this need not be positiv. Not necessary to immediately understand the meaning. Joyce makes epiphanies into literary structuring devices; it"s regarded as a prose phenomenon, although many register as lyrical. Ex: the girl at the sea (hither and thither is indicative of epiphany in joyce) Religious language used for a secular event (denoting a spiritual revelation) Gendered politics, women as an excuse for men to learn things. Personal and individual phenomenon, not necessarily communicable. Fragments of conversation can lead to epiphany, from an adjacent position; eavesdropper is not intended to be there, but learns something nonetheless. Epiphany requires disclosure even if that thing remains unknown.
