James Joyce's mythic motif in a portrait of the artist as a young man

الملخص EN

James Joyce (1882-1941) is considered the greatest literary craftsman of our time.

He published four important pieces of literature:- Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939).

It is through A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that James Joyce‟s true vocation is discovered.

The novel reflects his first twenty years and also his own break with the Catholic church.

James Joyce‟s emergence as an artist and his own progressive rejection of his environment is reflected through Stephen‟s character, his family background, the oppressive surroundings of the school, and the chattering triviality of the university.

Stephen Dedalus just like Joyce rejects them one by one.

The more aloof and proud he becomes, the closer he becomes to the objective vision of the artist, and the more he removes himself from his friends and his fellow-mates.

It is at the moment when Stephen successfully resists the temptations to enter the Jesuit order that Stephen the artist begins to be born.

“He suddenly realizes that he is born to dwell apart, to look objectively on the world of men and record their doings with the disinterested craftsmanship of the artist” (David Daiches, in O‟Connor, 63).

The importance of a scientific discovery was observed through James Joyce‟s use of mythic motif to give shape to the chaos of modern life; his influence was felt by many writers like T.S.

Eliot, William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Wolfe, and Samuel Beckett.

Throughout his life Joyce was interested in myths, ancient legends, and tales that in spite of their cultural origins but carry a universal theme like the role of a creative artist or the conflict between father and son.

“Joyce framed his novel in a superstructure of myth to relate his hero‟s personal experience to a universal story of creativity, daring, pride, and self-discovery” (Salami, 356).

Joyce was interested in the aesthetic relevance of myth, the universal truths or meanings which the myth embodied.

He was thoroughly acquainted with the body of western and eastern mythology.

He was so fascinated by the legend of Daedalus and his son.

He knew that he needed skill and courage just like Daedalus to fly away and escape.

For the myth of Daedalus and Icarus serves as a structing element in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, uniting the central themes of individual rebellion and discovery, producing a work of literature that illuminates the motivations of an artist, and the development of his individual philosophy