Joyce's Style of 'scrupulous Meanness' in His Literary Work "Dubliners"

Joyce's Style of 'scrupulous Meanness' in His Literary Work

Author: Beate Wilhelm

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2007-11

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13: 3638782808

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Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2, University of Ulster (Faculty of Arts), course: Proseminar Irish Author Studies, 5 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: When in 1914 James Joyce wanted to have his literary work Dubliners published by the British publisher Grant Richards, it was not at all as easy as Joyce had imagined. Before Richards could accept the work changes had to be applied that were accompanied by an exchange of various letters between author and publisher. The reason for Richard's hesitation to publish the book in its first version was the very accuracy of its language. Literary conventions would have been shocked by Joyce's accurate and entirely realistic description of social situations and psychological states. In his letter to Grant Richards Joyce tries to justify his style, and it is thus that he speaks of 'scrupulous meanness' for the first time. The term 'meanness' connotes stinginess or the lack of generosity. Joyce uses it to describe the economy of language applying to his stories. However, the interpretation demands a more complicated understanding of the term. 'Scrupulousness' is a crucial element both in Joyce's use of language, and in the structure and form of the stories. 'Scrupulous meanness' refers to a most complex and heavily allusive style that determines the reading of Dubliners. From the minimum of words Joyce succeeds to extract the maximum effect so that the very economy of his style gives Dubliners such concentration and resonance that it "passes through realism into symbolism" (Dubliners,1991, p. xix). Joyce puts this style forward as a means to express his moral intent. This essay aims to examine James Joyce's method of 'scrupulous meanness' in two short stories chosen from the collection of Dubliners: 'The Sisters' and 'The Dead'. In addition, Joyce's attempt of conveying a temper of death and hopelessness shall find access into t


Dubliners

Dubliners

Author: James Joyce

Publisher: Standard Ebooks

Published: 2014-05-25T00:00:00Z

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13:

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Dubliners is a collection of picturesque short stories that paint a portrait of life in middle-class Dublin in the early 20th century. Joyce, a Dublin native, was careful to use actual locations and settings in the city, as well as language and slang in use at the time, to make the stories directly relatable to those who lived there. The collection had a rocky publication history, with the stories being initially rejected over eighteen times before being provisionally accepted by a publisher—then later rejected again, multiple times. It took Joyce nine years to finally see his stories in print, but not before seeing a printer burn all but one copy of the proofs. Today Dubliners survives as a rich example of not just literary excellence, but of what everyday life was like for average Dubliners in their day. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.


Dubliners 100

Dubliners 100

Author: Thomas Morris

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780992817015

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Dubliners 100 invites new and established Irish writers to create 'cover versions' of their favourite stories from James Joyce's Dubliners.


The Wallcreeper

The Wallcreeper

Author: Nell Zink

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2015-07-23

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0008130868

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‘Heady and rambunctious ... Wake up, this book says: in its plot lines, in its humour, in its philosophical underpinnings and political agenda. I'll pay it the highest compliment it knows – this book is a wild thing.’ New York Times Book Review


The Dead

The Dead

Author: James Joyce

Publisher: Coyote Canyon Press

Published: 2008-10

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13: 0979660793

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"The Dead is one of the twentieth century's most beautiful pieces of short literature. Taking his inspiration from a family gathering held every year on the Feast of the Epiphany, Joyce pens a story about a married couple attending a Christmas-season party at the house of the husband's two elderly aunts. A shocking confession made by the husband's wife toward the end of the story showcases the power of Joyce's greatest innovation: the epiphany, that moment when everything, for character and reader alike, is suddenly clear.


Critical Companion to James Joyce

Critical Companion to James Joyce

Author: A. Nicholas Fargnoli

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1438108486

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Examines the life and writings of James Joyce, including a biographical sketch, detailed synopses of his works, social and historical influences, and more.


Suspicious Readings of Joyce's "Dubliners"

Suspicious Readings of Joyce's

Author: Margot Norris

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2010-11-24

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0812202988

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Because the stories in James Joyce's Dubliners seem to function as models of fiction, they are able to stand in for fiction in general in their ability to make the operation of texts explicit and visible. Joyce's stories do this by provoking skepticism in the face of their storytelling. Their narrative unreliabilities—produced by strange gaps, omitted scenes, and misleading narrative prompts—arouse suspicion and oblige the reader to distrust how and why the story is told. As a result, one is prompted to look into what is concealed, omitted, or left unspoken, a quest that often produces interpretations in conflict with what the narrative surface suggests about characters and events. Margot Norris's strategy in her analysis of the stories in Dubliners is to refuse to take the narrative voice for granted and to assume that every authorial decision to include or exclude, or to represent in a particular way, may be read as motivated. Suspicious Readings of Joyce's Dubliners examines the text for counterindictions and draws on the social context of the writing in order to offer readings from diverse theoretical perspectives. Suspicious Readings of Joyce's Dubliners devotes a chapter to each of the fifteen stories in Dubliners and shows how each confronts the reader with an interpretive challenge and an intellectual adventure. Its readings of "An Encounter," "Two Gallants," "A Painful Case," "A Mother," "The Boarding House," and "Grace" reconceive the stories in wholly novel ways—ways that reveal Joyce's writing to be even more brilliant, more exciting, and more seriously attuned to moral and political issues than we had thought.