 Title page of the first edition in 1914 of Dubliners | |
| Author | James Joyce |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story collection |
| Publisher | Grant Richards Ltd., London |
Publication date | June 1914 |
| Pages | 152 |
| OCLC | 23211235 |
| 823/.912 20 | |
| LC Class | PR6019.O9 D8 1991 |
| Text | Dubliners at Wikisource |
Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914.[1] It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.
The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They apply Joyce's concept of epiphany (a moment where a character experiences self-understanding or illumination) and center on the theme of paralysis [2](Joyce felt Irish nationalism stagnated cultural progression, placing Dublin at the heart of a regressive movement). The first three stories in the collection are narrated by child protagonists, while the subsequent stories are written in the third person and deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people, in line with Joyce's division of the collection into "childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life."[3] Many of the characters in Dubliners later appeared in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses.[4]
Between 1905, when Joyce first sent a manuscript to a publisher, and 1914, when the book was finally published (on June 15), Joyce submitted the book 18 times to a total of 15 publishers. The London house of Grant Richards agreed to publish it in 1905. Its printer, however, refused to set one of the stories ("Two Gallants"), and Richards then began to press Joyce to remove a number of other passages that he claimed the printer also refused to set. Under protest, Joyce eventually agreed to some of the requested changes, but Richards ended up backing out of the deal anyway. Joyce thereupon resubmitted the manuscript to other publishers, and, about three years later (1909), he found a willing candidate in Maunsel & Roberts of Dublin. A similar controversy developed, and Maunsel too refused to publish the collection, even threatening to sue Joyce for printing costs already incurred. Joyce offered to pay the printing costs himself if the sheets were turned over to him and he was allowed to complete the job elsewhere and distribute the book, but, when he arrived at the printers, they refused to surrender the sheets and burned them the next day, though Joyce managed to save one copy, which he obtained "by ruse." He returned to submitting the manuscript to other publishers, and in 1914 Grant Richards once again agreed to publish the book, using the page proofs saved from Maunsel as copy.[5]
In a discussion of Joyce's Dubliners, there are two types of critics that are often at the forefront of the conversation: the "Realists" and the "Symbolists." The realists view Dubliners as the most simple of Joyce's works, which often causes them to disregard its revolutionary nature. The symbolists instead neglect the subversive meanings behind Joyce's symbols. While some choose only one side to argue, others believe that Dubliners completely defies any form of characterization. Without any clear evidence of thematic unity, logic of plot, or closure, Joyce prevents any conclusive critical analysis.[6] As Sonja Bašić argues, the book "should be seen not just as a realist/naturalist masterpiece, but as a significant stepping-stone integrated into the modernist structure of Joyce's mature work."[7]
It is argued that the narrators in Dubliners rarely mediate, which means that there are limited descriptions of their thoughts and emotions, a practice said to accompany narratorial invisibility where the narrator sees instead of tells.[8] While some point to Joyce's use of free indirect discourse as a way to understand his characters, he often obscures the reliability of his characters in a way that would make any kind of analysis very difficult.[6] As Richard Ellmann has argued, "Joyce claims importance by claiming nothing."[9] His characters' personalities can only be observed because they are not explicitly told.
The collection progresses chronologically, beginning with stories of youth and progressing in age to culminate in "The Dead."[10]
Emphasis is laid upon the specific geographic details of Dublin, including road names, buildings, and businesses. Joyce freely admitted that his characters and places were closely based on reality. Because of these details, at least one potential publisher (Maunsel and Company) rejected the book for fear of libel lawsuits.[11]
Joyce referred to the collection as "a series of epicleti," alluding to the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.[12]
Dubliners is the only work by Joyce to use quotation marks for dialogue. He did not use the quotation marks in his manuscript and specifically asked to exclude them, but Grant Richards overruled his request.[13]
