Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

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These jaded words, of course, reflect Joyce's growing frustration at the perceived myopia of his countrymen. Joyce's perception of the collusion of Church and state in the subjugation of the Irish spirit is well-documented, both in his personal letters and his literary works. In a 1904 letter to his future wife, Nora Barnacle, he eloquently revealed his rejection of Irish culture, most significantly his enmity towards Catholic Church: My mind rejects the whole present social order and Christianity--home, the recognized virtues, classes of life, and religious doctrine . . . Six years ago I left the Catholic Church, hating it most fervently. I found it impossible for me to remain in it on account of the impulses of my nature. I made secret war upon it when I was a student and declined to accept the positions it offered me. By doing this I made myself a beggar but I retained my pride. Now I make open war on it by what I write and say and do. I cannot enter the social order a vagabond. (Letters 48) Although Joyce wrote these words to Nora fifteen years prior to his composition of Ulysses, his alienation from the Catholic Church had not changed by the time he finished his masterpiece. His exile was not solely an absence from his motherland, but also a rejection of the institutional religion which had permeated his youth, his family, and his country. Joyce's "open" literary war against Irish Catholicism was his effort to forge a new consciousness for the Irish people and an attempt to portray the repressive nature of religion within Irish culture--the predominant power which he felt led to Ireland's paralysis. Attempting to reflect the stymieing effect of the Church on the Irish spirit, Joyce presents three perspectives on Irish Catholicism in Ulysses: first, the young artist, Stephen Dedalus, struggling to escape from the restrictive religious shackles which have pinioned his artistic wings: second, the Jewish cultural-Outsider, Leopold Bloom, who provides a pragmatic and impartial view on Irish culture from the margin, highlighting its hypocrisies and inconsistencies; and third, those Dubliners, both secular and clerical, 13
who personify the paralysis of the spirit which Joyce interprets as the outcome of religious indoctrination. Simultaneously, through his two protagonists, Joyce explores numerous aspects of Catholic dogma, revealing his own spirituality and his continued interest in the metaphysical aspects of his youthful indoctrination. 14
Page 1 and 2: AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF John C
Page 3 and 4: ©Copyright by John C.M. Nelson May
Page 5 and 6: APPROVED: Master of Arts thesis of
Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1
Page 9 and 10: emerges through the representations
Page 11 and 12: eflect the number of practicing Cat
Page 13 and 14: Irish Catholic Church. Foucault cle
Page 15 and 16: the poet-priest, the modernist-secu
Page 17 and 18: him at his deathbed or to preside a
Page 19: which the desire for independence e
Page 23 and 24: Catholic Church and Irish nationali
Page 25 and 26: acknowledgment of his physical and
Page 27 and 28: where he had sinned and, though his
Page 29 and 30: Boyle, describes this "hysterical s
Page 31 and 32: incamational and eucharistic dogmas
Page 33 and 34: Mulligan perceptively reveals Steph
Page 35 and 36: mother because of his apostasy. The
Page 37 and 38: (3.64). Reflecting Stephen's self-p
Page 39 and 40: the goddess who has gladdened the d
Page 41 and 42: (15.77,84,98). "I saw a stream of w
Page 43 and 44: Carr, Private Compton, and the phan
Page 45 and 46: 3. "He walked unheeded. . .": Bloom
Page 47 and 48: to speak with vision and authority"
Page 49 and 50: observing the Holy Communion ritual
Page 51 and 52: "Rum idea: eating bits of corpse. W
Page 53 and 54: their sexuality. Foucault describes
Page 55 and 56: Bloom's religious marginality is ag
Page 57 and 58: of final atonement and the sacramen
Page 59 and 60: After composing Ulysses, Joyce reve
Page 61 and 62: his basis for racial exclusion: "Sa
Page 63 and 64: 4. Bridging the Walls of the Panopt
Page 65 and 66: "I beg to differ with you in toto t
Page 67 and 68: Joyce related to Budgen: "Stephen n
Page 69 and 70: 5. Conclusion While Bloom views the
Page 71 and 72:
econstructed out of my book" (Budge
Page 73 and 74:
1° Referring to Keats's poem, "La
Page 75 and 76:
Works Cited Adams, R.M. "Hades." In
Page 77:
Spoo, Robert. James Joyce and the L
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Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

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