A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published in 1916. It was written “in several phases between 1903 and 1914” (Gabler 83). Eventually, in 1907,...Show moreA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published in 1916. It was written “in several phases between 1903 and 1914” (Gabler 83). Eventually, in 1907, Joyce began to write A Portrait, in its final form. “This reached the state of intermediary manuscript during 1907 to 1911. In 1913-14, the novel was completed” (Gabler 83). The five chapters of the novel deal with different stages of Stephen’s life, in particular, the periods of infancy, boyhood, and adolescence. The subject matter of the novel is Stephen’s mental and spiritual development to the point where he becomes the artist he aspires to be. The novel is very concise and depicts the major milestones in his life, people and events, that marked him and formed him as a person, and as an artist. The novel is considered as one of the most representative samples of modernist literature, because of its narrative technique. In A Portrait, Joyce abandons the style of narration which he had used in Stephen Hero, and instead he employs the so called ‘stream of consciousness’ and ‘free indirect discourse’. ‘Stream of consciousness’ is a narrative technique that attempts “to convey all the contents of a character’s mind—memory , sense perceptions, feelings, intuitions, thoughts—in relation to the stream of experience as it passes by, often at random” (Gray 274).Show less
