Book Club: Dubliners.

[IWasBored]

Also, the lack of intimacy between the characters. The Dead is staying with me here. The way the husband had no idea about this incident that was so important in the life of his wife, and his reaction was one of jealousy, not sympathy. That indicates a lack of emotional intimacy between the two of them. She hadn't told him before, either, so she was feeling cut off from him as well.

it was also that he had placed the whole significance of the dinner on his speech, and he had this air of importance, like everything revolved around him. like he was too self-absorbed to really know what was going on with his wife.

 

[martha]

I think you're onto something. Let me think about it and get back to you.

 

[Kiki]

Hey everyone!

I've just gotten done with my third semester of studying Dubliners. And Irish literature is my concentration within my major, so I have a few things to say! lol I have so many ideas about these things... just stop me if I get too verbose

If you all don't mind... I'm just going to make some notes and suggestions for reading

btw, I've found that the best edition of this book is the Penguin Twentieth Century Classics edition with Intro and Notes by Terence Brown I would definitely recommend a version with notes of some sort... Joyce put so much information in these stories that's hard to find on your own (no matter how smart you are! lol) Plus, sometimes understanding even the most obscure detail helps (me at least) in an understanding of the whole collection. I've actually written two papers now based on the notes and some obscure detail I wanted to explore!

*******
The stories are arranged in sets:

Stories of Childhood:
"The Sisters"
"An Encounter"
"Araby"

Stories of Adoloscence:
"Eveline"
"After the Race"
"Two Gallants"
"The Boarding House"

Stories of Maturity:
"A Little Cloud"
"Counterparts"
"Clay"
"A Painful Case"

Stories of Irish Public Life:
"Ivy Day..." - deals with politics
"A Mother" - deals with art
"Grace" - deals with religion
"The Dead" - deals with literature and the Irish revival (among so much else)

*********
General things to look for:

- Take note that all the stories are interwoven. The main theme of Dubliners is relatedness... everything is related! So the same themes, characters, and situations recur from story to story, but always with a slight twist.

- Dubliners is also full of epiphanies. Joyce kept a notebook of them which he used in all of his work. In each chapter the characters usually come to some sort of epiphany (revelation, enlightenment).

- Joyce's three main themes of the book are introduced within the first page:

Theme 1:
PARALYSIS - Dublin, the city, is a symbol of paralysis for Joyce and for his characters. It is a city from which they can never escape. Joyce represents this in the circularity of his stories and images. For example, both the first and last stories feature "sisters." Not only are these characters usually confined in the city, they are victims of their own weaknesses which paralyze them.

Theme 2:
GNOMON - This is perhaps the most important to understand. A gnomon is a parallelogram with a smaller parallelgram removed from it. Like this: (the white part has been completely removed)

This is important because most of these characters are gnomon's themselves: people with parts missing. This contributes to their paralysis. Also, Joyce loves to use the ellpsis (this: "...") to cut out dialogue. If you notice, in Dubliners there is a lack of complete sentences. People will often trail off in the middle of sentences... leaving us to guess what they said. This is also a form of gnomon.

Theme 3:
SIMONY - selling salvation. I'm sure most of you know the history of this. It's importance for Dubliners is that it represents defective spirituality. This is another form of gnomon, essentially, and contributes to the paralysis of all Dubliners.

*********

There's so much more I could say in introduction to such a fantastic text... but I won't. lol Needless to say, I'm happy to help anyone with reading or explaining or just talking about this book. It's one of my all-time favorite books, and reveals something new to me everytime I read it.

I hope I didn't bore you with this... but I feel that I enjoyed Dubliners more when I had been given this information... so I hope it helps at least a little bit.

If you have anymore questions or just want to talk email or IM anytime!

hippy@u2email.com
AIM: PlaysTheTart

Enjoy!

I took a class last year at Trinity. Terrance Brown was one of the instructors. Um....interesting man that one he is. Ever met him?

 

[valentina]

This is the first time I post something and I chose this forum cause it was dealing with Joyce.

to hippy: Don't mention the fact you're boring us! You're not, definetely! You're writing about one of the most complex novel ever imagined by a human mind.

I studied Dubliners two years ago, when I was a student. It was my favourite novel: Joyce's style was the most incredible and great author I ever read.

Thanks for giving some "practical details" -- they're always useful.


Have you ever read some of the love poems from Joyce?