James Joyce
This case study explores Joyce’s Dublin, as described in his first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The novel was published in the revolutionary year of 1916 when both nationalism and modernism began to shape a new Ireland. A social network analysis demonstrates just how lonely and isolated a journey young Stephen Dedalus has to become an artist.
In this podcast, Maria Mulvany discusses some of the challenges associated with annotating James Joyce’s modernist novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916).
Readers familiar with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man would perhaps estimate the number of characters at 40, 60, maybe 100, as they will remember references to Stephen’s family, his brilliantly named classmates like Nasty Roche or Cecil Thunder. Because this project is interested in how novels present their characters in relation to a broader society, we include every one mentioned, not just the central characters.
Using social network analysis, we were able to identity and map the strengths and weaknesses of Stephen Dedalus’s connections with 452 unique characters in Joyce’s novel.
The first layer of this map plots the central locations described in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and endeavours to chart Stephen Dedalus’s journey of self-discovery around Dublin city and its environs.
The second layer maps the Joyce family homes and demonstrates their frequent changes of address.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is full of detailed descriptions of the Dublin of the author’s youth. Beautiful images of this richly realised landscape that were previously preserved in archives for scholars are now available digitally and shared her, courtesy of the UCD Digital Library, the National Library of Ireland and the British Library collections.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man demonstrates the social fragmentation of Dublin in the early years of the twentieth century. The novel is largely comprised of Stephen Dedalus’s close family members, his mentors and his school and college companions. Here, we have included the 20 characters that have the highest degree centrality – the number of other characters each individual in the novel is linked to. We have also included the complete list of aliases for each character, or names by which they are known or described in the novel. Additionally, a set of known attributes for each character is included.
| Definitive Name | Aliases | Attributes |
|---|---|---|
Stephen Dedalus | a little boy, dedalus, peter pickackafax, stephaneforos, stephen, stephen dedalus, stevie, this youngster of mine, you little puppy, young dedalus | brother, cousin, grandnephew, grandson, great-grandson, irish, male, nephew, prefect, pupil, schoolboy, son, student |
Simon Dedalus | a gentleman, his father, his own father, mr dedalus, mr. dedalus, my father, simon, simon dedalus, stephen's father, your father | actor, catholic, distillery worker, father, husband, investor, irish, landlord, male, marshal, navy, oarsman, politician, secretary, son, student, tax-collector, tenor |
Mary Dedalus | his mother, his red-eyed mother, his wife, mary dedalus, mrs dedalus, my mother, stephen's mother, your mother | catholic, female, irish, mother, wife |
Cranly | cranly, mr cranly | catholic, irish, male, son, student |
Conmee | conmee, the provincial, the rector | catholic, christian brother, clergy, irish, jesuit, male, priest, rector |
Emma | e-- c--, emma, that certain young lady, your beloved | female, irish |
Dante | dante, mrs riordan, mrs. riordan | catholic, clergy, female, irish, nun, nurse, wife |
Temple | temple | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy |
Fleming | fleming | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy |
Wells | wells | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy, son |
Father Arnall | father arnall, the preacher | catholic, christian brother, clergy, irish, jesuit, male, priest |
Simon Moonan | moonan, mr moonan, simon moonan | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy |
Vincent Heron | heron, vincent heron | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy |
Davin | davin, the young peasant | catholic, irish, male, student |
Mr Mcglade | his prefect, mcglade, mr mcglade, the prefect | catholic, irish, male, prefect, teacher |
Father Dolan | baldyhead, baldyhead dolan, dolan, father dolan, the prefect of studies, the prefect's fingers | catholic, christian brother, clergy, irish, jesuit, male, prefect, priest |
Cecil Thunder | cecil thunder, thunder | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy |
Uncle Charles | his grand-uncle, his granduncle, uncle charles | catholic, grand-uncle, granduncle, irish, male, uncle |
Athy | athy, fellow out of the third of grammar | catholic, irish, male, pupil, schoolboy, son |
Dixon | dixon, the medical student | catholic, irish, male, student |
