Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

the poet-priest, the modernist-secular artist whose aesthetic goal isto enable humanity to
transcend cultural boundaries through his work. Similarly, Joyce fled Ireland, exiling
himself on the European continent, and Ulysses can be read as his attempt to forge the
"uncreated conscience" of the Irish people. During the epic journey of Ulysses, Irish
nationalistic politics and the Dublin machismo pub-culture are both scrutinized with a
"scrupulous meanness"; however, Joyce's strictest critique, his most incisive and
aggressive satire, is directed at what he perceived as the repressive power of the Church,
both politically and spiritually.
During Joyce's early life, his family, friends, and education were closely
intertwined with the domineering presence of Catholicism. Later, drawing on the
memories of his youthful religious fervor, Joyce found ample material to exploit in his
fictional works, transposing autobiographical anecdotes to literary scenes, family and
friends into fictional characters, and Catholic liturgical doctrine intoprobing thematic
threads. Moreover, despite the depth of his religious education and his evident youthful
religious devotion, Joyce found both humor and satire in these strict beliefs, even at a
young age. As a child, Joyce once led his siblings in a dramatic reenactment of the
Biblical account of the Garden of Eden, with Joyce relishing the role of the serpent and
tempting his siblings with feigned evil as he would later taunt his readers with his
apparently blasphemous views on Catholicism (Ellmann, James 26). Recalling this
incident, his brother Stanislaus relates: "the most important part dramatically, which he
reserved for himself, was that of the Tempter" (Joyce, My Brother's 3). While Joyce
was deeply influenced by the devout nature of his mother during this period, the vocal
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