V. 30 N. 2 (2022): Issue 2/2022
Articles

A Study of the Catholic Sources in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Francesca CARACENI
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Analisi Linguistica e Letteraria 2/2022

Pubblicato 07/25/2022

Parole chiave

  • John Henry Newman ,
  • James Joyce ,
  • Real Assent ,
  • Intertextuality,
  • Aesthetics,
  • Mysticism,
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,
  • Catholicism,
  • An essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
  • ...Più
    Meno

Come citare

CARACENI, F. (2022). A Study of the Catholic Sources in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Analisi Linguistica E Letteraria, 30(2). Recuperato da https://www.analisilinguisticaeletteraria.eu/index.php/ojs/article/view/472

Abstract

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) is one of the paramount testimonies to Joyce’s molding of religious and artistic discourses, which are threaded throughout the narrative by the establishment of precise intertextual ties with St. John Henry Newman, and with the Christian spiritual tradition. This contribution sets out to offer a detailed study of these intertextualities and their function in the novel’s discourse, so as to expand upon and, possibly, problematize further our understanding of Joyce’s ‘Catholic Literacy’. To this end, the analysis will move from an interpretation of Stephen’s overall Bildung as an act of real assent, modelled on Newman’s notion as exposed in An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), to an overview of Joyce’s employment of mystical discursive practices in the narrative.