A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Stephen Dedalus subscribes to an aesthetic ideal that includes being cut off from about everything that could possibly limit an artist, including social and local boundaries the paradox being, of course, that the artist nonetheless needs these contexts as ‘material’ for his art. Therefore, in my paper I would like to explore how social class dynamics are represented and depicted by James Joyce in Portrait more specifically I want to see if Joyce’s idea of the artist as a global classless being is actually possible within the boundaries of a class-based society. Although a number of studies (Brenann, Ledden, Canny) examine the local contexts of Portrait, the extant research has overlooked the complex social class dynamics of the novel, an interesting yet understudied phenomenon in literature studies. As the title already gives away – perhaps in a subtle hint to Oscar Wilde-, this Kunstlerroman recounts how Stephen casts off all his familial, social and religious constraints in order to become an artist, a writer. The interplay of these two voices in this reading of the 1916 text represents a unique contemporary interpretation of Joyce’s coming-of-age novel, whose themes remain as raw and as relevant today as they did upon their original publication.Set in the Dublin area in the late nineteenth century, James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tells the story of Stephen Dedalus’ growing up. This was achieved through the dialogue of Barry McGovern’s mature voice and the youthful voice of Sam McGovern, who played Stephen Dedalus in the 2015 Dublin stage adaptation of the novel and is a former UCD Ad Astra scholar. “We wanted to have a young voice for Stephen himself – after all this is Joyce’s own coming of age novel with a strong trace of his own life and experience in it”. Rather than featuring a single voice, this reading of the novel creates a dialogue between Joyce’s mature voice and that of his younger, remembered self. In 2016, Sam McGovern joined this team to create a full-length audio version of Joyce’s first novel. UCD’s Professor Gerardine Meaney and Athena Media previously collaborated with Barry McGovern, the well-known Irish actor, on the podcast series and an iPhone app based on Joyce’s short story The Dead. The creators of the audiobook for this edition of 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' have considerable expertise in bringing Joyce’s voice to life. The audiobook was produced as part of a digital multimedia edition of James Joyce’s first novel, created by a team from University College Dublin as part of the Decade of Centenaries (2012-2022), which celebrates Irish history and cultural heritage. Playlist of all 5 chapters of the audiobook of 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' by James Joyce.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce