James Augustine Aloysius Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941), one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde literature of the early 20th century, was an Irish novelist and poet. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work noted for his skilful application of an array of contrasting literary styles, especially the stream of consciousness technique that he perfected. He is known for his literary innovations such as a strictly focused narrative and indirect style.

Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 to John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary Jane Murray in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. He was the eldest of ten surviving children. In 1887, his father wasappointed tax collector by Dublin Corporation. By 1893, Joyce’s father had lost his position. In 1898, Joyce began studying Italian, English and French at University College Dublin. Hisliterary reviews appeared in Fortnightly Review. Joyce matriculated from University College of Dublin in 1903. After moving to Paris, Joyce planned on studying medicine. When his mother was diagnosed with cancer, Joyce returned to Ireland.

Though most of his adult life was spent abroad, Joyce's fictional universe does not extend far beyond Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses he elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the

universal."

In 1904 Joyce eloped with Nora Barnacle. The young couple moved to Zurich, where he acquired a post to teach English at the Berlitz Language School. The director of the school later sent him on to Trieste. With the help of AlmidanoArtifoni, director of the Trieste Berlitz School, he finally secured a teaching position in Pola, then a part of Austria-Hungary. He stayed there, teaching English, from October 1904 until March 1905. In 1905 he moved back to Trieste. The same year Nora gave birth to their first child.

In 1914, Dubliners was published. However, the language and atmosphere that Joyce used in this collection presaged his later more innovated works. 1914 was also the year that Joyce began the writing process for Ulysses. By 1915 he was granted a visa and he relocated to Zurich. In Zurich, Joyce made the acquaintance with Ezra Pound. He also met Harriet Shaw Weaver, a publisher. Weaver became Joyce’s patron, allowing him to focus on his writing. The novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published in 1916. In 1920, Ezra Pound invited Joyce to Paris. Joyce stayed in the city for twenty years. During this period, Joyce wrote Finnegan’s Wake, a work that tried to capture the sleeping life of those who lived in Dublin. In 1940, Joyce fled to Zurich escaping the Nazi invasion and occupation of the city. He died there on 13th January 1941 after complications from a surgery on a perforated ulcer. The writings of James Joyce include Chamber Music, Dubliners, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Exiles, Finnegan’s Wake.