Essay on Discourse in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

Authoritative preaching in A personation of an Artist as a tender Man In James Joyces A Portrait of An Artist As A Young Man, the main character, Stephen Dedalus, struggles between his inherent instincts, or what Bakhtin calls the internally coaxing deal that is not backed up by an authority at all, and his learned response, reinforced by the authoritative discourse of religion. To Stephens internally persuasive discourse, his natural sex drive is not wrong. It is alone after he yields to the authoritative discourse of religion that he learns that such(prenominal) a natural human drive is bad. Thus, he learns that it is wrong to succumb to sex he does not think that it is bad on his own. In this case, the authoritative discourse that considers sexual drive to be bad becomes Stephens internally persuasive discourse. He learns that his natural urges are wrong and, as a result, he learns to deny them and pretend them to be nonexistent. This is how the authoritative discourse b ecomes Stephens internally persuasive discourse. The evidence that Stephen relies on his senses is best shown by the interpretation of how much he has to deny his senses in order to reach the discourse of religion. Each of his senses was brought under a religious discipline. In order to curb the sense of sight he made it his rule to walk in the street with downcast eyes, glancing neither to right nor left and never tooshie him. His eyes shunned every encounter with the eyes of women (162-3). However, there is a natural impulse from which he cannot escape and that is his sense of touch. He may provide to deny it in all possible ways but he cannot wholly escape it. This sense of touch is what causes ... ...567-75. Epstein, Edmund L. The Ordeal of Stephen Dedalus. Carbondale and Edwardsville Southern Illinois U P, 1971. Givens, Seon, ed. James Joyce Two Decades of Criticism. New York 1948. 2nd ed. 1963. Goldman, Arnold. The Joyce Paradox Form and emancipation in his Fictio n. Evanston, IL Northwestern U P, 1966. Halper, Nathan. The Early James Joyce. capital of South Carolina Essays on Modern Writers. Ed. George Stade. New York Columbia U P, 1973. Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The Portable James Joyce. Ed. kick up Levin. New York Penguin, 1976. Levin, Harry. The Artist. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Text, Criticism, and Notes. Ed. Chester G. Anderson. New York Penguin, 1968. 399-415. Wright, David G. Characters of Joyce. Dublin Gill and Macmillan, 1983.