Yes, Hollywood sure learned a lot from James Joyce (and other writers like him), whether it knew it or not. Speaking of great artistic accomplishments, letвЂ™s talk about the 1980s coming-of-age movie. The sense of immediacy and real-time action that Joyce worked hard to create may be something we take for granted in this age of digital over-gratification (one word: iPhone), but that doesnвЂ™t take away from his super-modern, forward-looking accomplishment. TodayвЂ™s belief in everyoneвЂ™s right to express their personal experiences, down to what they ate for breakfast or who they saw at so-and-soвЂ™s totally super awesome house party last night, seems like it could very well be a distant, probably disowned cousin thrice removed of JoyceвЂ™s belief that everyday existence could be the inspiration for great art. However, we can see some shreds of his influence. WeвЂ™re pretty sure that James Joyce didnвЂ™t ever imagine anything even closely resembling our current blog-scape, not even in his wildest dreams or nightmares (and we are willing to bet that Joyce had some pretty wild dreams). OK, nextвЂ¦ why yes, it does feel slightly sacrilegious to type the word 'blogging' next to ' Ulysses,' but we did it and nobody got struck by lightning, so letвЂ™s push onward.

Portrait was the precursor to Ulysses, in terms of both style and character, and thus gave birth to a massive, unspeakably important novel thatвЂ™s probably influenced every major writer to come after it. That oneвЂ™s pretty obvious (see 'In a Nutshell' for some more info on its relationship to Portrait). (Yes, we did just play the Harry Potter card, and no, weвЂ™re not going to take it back.)Д«ut letвЂ™s start at the beginning: Ulysses, quite possibly the most talked-about novel of the 20th century. Oh, and anything to do with Harry Potter. And a seemingly endless pantheon of mega-classic 80s teen movies. What is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man About and Why Should I Care?Д«rothers and sisters in Shmoop, let us take a moment to bow our heads in appreciation of some of the fine things that draw upon the glorious wellspring of innovation that is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In short вЂ“ great book then, great book now. Joyce treats youth with a directness and honesty thatвЂ™s pretty remarkable.

Its challenging attitude to family, homeland, and the Catholic Church all gave the novel (and Joyce himself) quite the reputation when it was published. Portrait of the Artist is JoyceвЂ™s reworking of the classic coming of age story (the fancy German term is bildungsroman), and it mirrors the authorвЂ™s life up to age 20, when he left Dublin for Paris. This book is definitely much loved and studied in its own right, however. The novel also introduces us to Stephen Dedalus, who would later be featured prominently in Ulysses. Notably, the novel starts to make use of techniques that would make Joyce famous вЂ“ and infamous вЂ“ with Ulysses, such as stream of consciousness narration, interiority (a revealing view of the characterвЂ™s inner workings), and a frank realism that shocked some readers of the time. Portrait of the Artist really unleashed the massive power of JoyceвЂ™s innovation and unconventionality upon the literary world. This novel, the first in JoyceвЂ™s whopping hat-trick of great novels, is both shorter and more approachable than either of JoyceвЂ™s later masterpieces (for which we humbly thank him). But before these two massively important and, letвЂ™s face it, incredibly difficult texts came into being, Joyce published his first major work, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in 1916. Joyce is lauded for his total re-envisioning of the novel вЂ“ and of the world in general. Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939) are two of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, and if you talk to some grad students, they might argue quite convincingly that Ulysses is more important to our modern world than the Bible. James Joyce certainly wrote some Very Important Books. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Introduction

Portrait innovations my account