The English Seminar-AP    James Joyce
Vincent J. Cheng    Department of English, USC


	A Portrait of the Artist
	A Possible Teaching Outline


Class #1	Notes:

A.	Handouts -- explain need and usefulness in a difficult novel

B	Brief summary of novel's plot
	--comparison to brief summary of Joyce's life
	--suggest issue for consideration: aesthetic distance ?

C	Brief discussion of Joyce's style of "scrupulous meanness":
	--story controlled not by plot
	--but by "motifs"
	--example:	Daedalus-> Icarus-> birds-> 
flight->freedom->independence

D.	Reading of opening lines of book
	--compared to Great Expectations (both bildungsromans)
	--child's perceptions
	--discovery of words


Class #2:  Close reading of the Christmas dinner scene  (pp. 49-58)
	--effect of "drama"
	--Joycean themes: religious authority, betrayal by the feminine, 
power of words
	--attitudes toward father, Dante, women, Parnell
	--initiation into adult world of religion and politics


Class #3

A	Close reading and class discussion of pandybat scene  (pp. 49-58)
	--unjust punishment
	--conflict of values: religion, authority
	--why does Chapter I end this way?  (assertion of independence, 
another stage in growing up, symbolic significance of 
"flight")

B.	Class discussion: Stephen's attitude toward women.  Elements:
	--Eileen, BVM, tower of ivory, transfiguring religious images
	--versus Dante, Kitty O'Shea, whores
	--Mercedes and muscatel grapes: the proud gesture of refusal
	--adolescent sexual longings
	--"foetus": outer manifestation of inner desires


Class #4

A	Stephen and Simon in Cork:
	--class discussion on Stephen's relationship with his father
	--Daedalus teaching Icarus?
	--Oedipal struggle
	--intellectual aloofness

B	Close reading and discussion of end of Chapter II, p. 101
	--what is going on?      --how do you react?

C	The hell-fire sermons in Chapter III
	--read sample passage, p. 120
	--class discussion: effectiveness of the chapter?
	--discussion: what are the issues/conflicts in Stephen's mind at 
this point?


Class #5:  Close reading and discussion of Chapter IV
	--issue of "vocation"
	--non serviam
	--chapel and publichouse: the parameters of choice
	--Focus for discussion: the bird-girl on the beach and the 
discovery of artistic vocation, pp. 169-173


Class #6:  Chapter V:  Stephen at the University

A. 	Discussion:  changes in his character and lifestyle?
	--how do you like him in Chapter V?  Are you supposed to?
	--discuss controversy of "aesthetic distance" and authorial irony  
(See Viking Critical Edition, pp. 446 ff.)

B.	Lecture about
	--difficulty of chapter: static dialogue
	--role of Lynch: reader identification
	--humor and fun of chapter: cite examples
	--Stephen's argument on impersonality of artist, p. 215 (compare 
Keats' negative capability, Eliot's "Tradition and the 
Individual Talent")


Class #7:  Conclusion

A	Class discussion: Stephen's final attitude toward women?
	--Davin's story
	--old sow that eats her farrow; Dante
	--bats?
	--Emma; the "spiritual-heroic refrigeration apparatus"
	--what happened to the bird-girl?  ("Woman" becomes instrument 
for artistic inspiration)

B. 	Discussion: changes in flying-creature motif
	--From Daedalus to Icarus and Lucifer: non serviam
	--sin of pride
	--the three nets

C. 	Read the famous final diary entries

D	Class discussion: your own feelings about Stephen?
	--will he become an artist?
	--sympathy with the devil?


Selected  bibliography

You might take a look at the chapters on A Portrait in:

	Burgess, Anthony.  ReJoyce.  New York: Norton, 1965.

	Levin, Harry.  James Joyce: A Critical Introduction.  New York: 
New Directions, 1941

	A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Viking Critical Edition. 
 Edited by Chester G. Anderson.  New York: Viking/Penguin, the 
Viking Critical Library, 1968.
		--This edition includes thoughtful and seminal essays on 
important critical issues and themes in the book.


You might also consider screening the film version of the novel  (Joseph 
Strick, director, ca. 1978?)





Barbara Ercek
[Vincent J. Cheng, USC]

 



 

 

Portrait... Teaching Outline	page 2



