The Modernist Novel 1

One of the keys characteristics of Joyce and Woolf work is their concerned with the representation of
time. Modernist novels typically express the passage of time as an experience within the minds of characters
and it takes hundreds of pages to cover the period of only one day as in Joyce's Ulysses or as in Woolf’s
Orlando.
The idea that time is experienced by the mind as an all-encompassing flux rather than linear sequence of
events has become one of the defining principles of the modernist novels that are epitomized in Woolf’s
essay “Modern Novels” (modern fiction). This essay is famous as a central document of modernism, she’s
developing here a theory of realism, a theory which establishes the relationship in the new condition of
1920s between arts and new world.
The central paragraph attempts to describe the appropriate method whereby to register life; so: “Life is a
luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.”
The mind must be open to experience never faxed or structured.
Woolf has been reading Joyce's Ulysses referring directly to Bloom's interior monologue, she speaks of it
as a narrative which comes “close to the weak of the mind”. This narrative method has ensured that life is
register accurately. She sees in Joyce's novel a try of the technique which gives priority to faithful
registration of consciousness.
Now we will explore the link between time – modernism – novel. In literary Modernism it is the novel
which is typically linked to time and innovation in the representation of temporality; so, we will analyse
innovations in temporality as a response to aspect of modernity, external to the novel itself, that is in other
arts, in philosophy, in scientific theories, in technology.
Modernist time thinking manifests an increasingly dualism between public and private, objective, and
subjective time. Henry Bergson in “Perception of time” explains experiences of duration, that is a flow of
interior moments. There is a contrast with the time measured by clocks, in which the units are discreet. For
Bergson the real time is not divisible into discreet moments.
Most modernist have been called “bergsonian” at one time. Virginia Woolf’s conception of time is
frequently called bergsonian, although she claimed to have never read Bergson. The dualism between a mind
interiority and external world is built into the novel structure. Privacy is considered as interiority rather than
domestic life; history is reduced to time irreversibility and has become an impersonal force.
Very famous is the middle section of Woolf’s “To the lighthouse”. It's this section that marks the break in
time into a before and after. 18 pages bridge two-day long episodes of human intercourse. In this brief
section, which describes the interior decay of the Ramsey's summer house, Woolf’s effectively launched a
new temporal regime: non-human time.
Generally, the narrative sentences contain all terms such as: now, today, yesterday. The crowed of spaces
became the correlative of the multiplication of points of space time in constant motion. A single day reduces
to a waking day (the conscious part of the day in a single city) offers a way to collect a proliferation of
moments. Ulysses provided the model, Woolf’s in Mrs Dalloway followed it.
Ulysses is datable on 16 June 1904 while Mrs Dalloway is set in middle June in the post war period. We
can find similarities between Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway where the enormous, fragmented subparts are
motivated by their adaption of multiple points of view.
The little breaks in the text of Mrs Dalloway indicated shifts from one subjectivity and another, but also
from one point of in one space time to another. Into the To the Lighthouse when Mrs Ramsey leaves the
dining room and enters another present moment, the effect is cinematic. Events must be ordered with the
respect in terms of before and after and correlated with the public time by means of clocks to establish an
objective timeline. In Ulysses the bells of George's church marks quarter two. In Mrs Dalloway the striking
of two clocks, Big Bang, and St. Margaret, divide and subdivide.
The public clocks in Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway, are important in the city scape; the striking of clocks
catch characters who are in different point on the map and connect private moments.
The novel slow down experience time by revealing random trivial events. Nabokov observes, in Ulysses, the
synchronisation of trivial events.
Woolf’s gives descriptions of appearances through changes of life throughout a day. This can be seen by
jumping from a point of view to another.
Bloom's experience in Ulysses consists of describe an absolute moment.

The title of Woolf's novel records this conception of time as the discreet units in sequence. The
Modernist novel outlines the confrontation between history and private life, between the tragic, irreversibility
of time and the brief instant of individual freedom; it discovers through an analysis of the past the exact
moment when the course of history could have been otherwise. James Joyce wrote Ulysses in the period
when time and history carried political importance especially in Ireland.

By following Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom we can witness the temporal and historical struggles
taking place with the individual characters in Joyce's 1904 Dublin. Time and history create obstacles on
characters, Stephen and Bloom use their active memories as creative forces to have regained their autonomy
and identity.

The Modernist novel 2

James Joyce's Ulysses celebrate the strength of spirits while exploring the patterns of human thoughts. In
terms of plot, the novel depicts the life in the European city Dublin and shows the consciousness of two man
(the 22 years old Stephan Dedalus and the 38 years old Leopold Bloom) in only 19 hours.

The plot develops in one single day: June 16, 1904, and preserves the unit of time, place and action that
mark the classical drama. However, in this novel Joyce presents a new theme: the world of colonialism.
Now let's introduce the 3 main figures:

-Stephan Dedalus. It's a normal day, he wakes up, goes for a walk, has a conversation about Shakespeare
with other intellectuals, gets drunk (normal actions) and reflect about the recent death of his mother but he
refuses to be helped (because his rejection of religion).

- Leopold Bloom. He is the average man, he prepares breakfast for him and his wife Molly, goes out of
the house, attends a funeral, has lunch, gets in an argument with an Irish nationalist, watches fireworks at the
beaches at sunset and, meanwhile, he thinks about his wife Molly and suspects that she was betraying him.

-Molly Bloom. He is Leopold’s wife; she has sex in the afternoon with a man (she had an affair with
him).

The plot of Ulysses corresponds in some way to the Odyssey, BUT Joyce makes fun of it (he always uses
a sort of irony, his distinguish trait), like if it is a sort of parody. In fact, Ulysses episodes’ titles have some
correspondence with some Odyssey’s titles.

The plot of Ulysses also follows the events of Odyssey, such as the characters. In effect, Stephen is like
Telemachus, Molly is like Penelope and Leopold Bloom is like Odysseus. But, as it is already said, Joyce
makes fun of this correspondences. Every figure in this novel has an inner conflict.

For example, for Stephan, he feels guilty because of his mother death and their previous relationship; this
is also because of the oppression of the church. But the most important topic is colonialism; in fact, Stephan
was an Irish artist who, now, works for the British.

The most painful conflict in Leopold Bloom is his suspect that Molly has a love affair with another man.
This event is significant for the plot because introduces the theme of adultery (it was already present, let's
think about Madame Bovary, or Anna Karenina) and show a peculiar family dynamic; the episodes of
Calypso, Circe, and Ithaca show that but, despite of all their couple problems, he never has no confrontation
with her; she, indifferently, asks him about his day.

Also, Molly's conflict incentrate about colonialism and political affair; she grows up in Gibilterra with an
Irish father who raised her alone, because marriage with her Jewish mother was culturally impossible. This
gives her complex. Gibilterra was also the scene of Molly's first romance.
The novel "concludes" is an interior monologue made by Molly. She reflects about some aspect of her
existence. Unlike the Odyssey, the Ulysses remained open- ended and was suspended at the end.

The Modernist Novel 3

Joyce uses innovative narrative technique to bound with the minds of Stephen and Mr Bloom as they go
about their day, reacting to people in places they encounter, recalling memories of past joys and pains and
wrestling with anxieties over uncertain future. One of these techniques is inner monologue which directly
presents character thoughts. We have an example with Mr Bloom.

“On the doorstep he felt in his hip pocket for the latchkey. Not there. In the trousers I left off. Must get
it. Potato I have. Creaky wardrobe. No use disturbing her.”

In the passage that we have analysed the direct immediate access to inner monologue compares the reader
growing intimacy with characters and forces us to make inferences as we follow his mental jumps.
Why is Mr. Bloom anxious over disturbing his nosy wife? What does it say about the marriage? Why
the potato?

Another element of Joyce's style that bring us closer to the characters involves the narrator adopting the
sort of a language most natural to the individual protagonist in focus. Stephen Daedalus is addictive, lyrical
and paranoid while Mr bloom is described through bodily characteristics and sensory details that reveal a
more humoured attitude. This combination of techniques ensures that the reader experiences the plot in
characters' own language. This initial style dominates the novel's first six episodes, but our proximity to the
mind of the two protagonists gradually tightens.

As the first sequence “the Telemachus episode” uses inner monologue to present Stephen, narration is
foregrounded in order to represent the drama between Stephen and his roommates; our access to Stephen’s
thoughts gains prominence in Nestor (the second episode), while he teaches his class and meet the
headmaster.

In Proteus episode we first meet Mr bloom through his morning routine but our access to his inner
monologue happens in Calypso episode. The narrator insert himself to depict/represent the social dynamic of
Mr bloom attending a funeral with other Dubliners who treat him with disregard. By the end of these two
introductory sequences, we have become intimately familiar with Stephen, Mr Bloom, and their
communities.

Just as we get comfortable with the novel initial time, Joyce starts to mess with us. In the seventh episode
Aeolus the narrator interrupts the prose of the page that signed a plot development.
While Bloom is working for the newspaper, Stephen is delivering his letters and meeting friends. They
both leave at the end of the episode; Bloom being rebuffed and Stephen to go drinking and, in this moment,
they pass close to each other.

Stephen realises however that “I have much to learn” and Bloom thinks about surprising Molly at home:
this is a way to create suspense. The next chapter finds Bloom again wandering the streets looking for a
suitable place to eat while he constantly thinks about Molly. Among the novel most innovative features, we
have: 1.

The panoramic effects of “wandering rock” episode, 2. To the musical prose of “Sirens”, 3. From the
parodies of “Oxen of the sun”, 4. To the Catechism of “Ithaca”

 Section 1: the first three episode focusing on Stephen Daedalus is known as the Telemachiad
 Section 2: the 12 middle episodes of the odyssey, displayed in time and space to district of
Dublin at the beginning of the century 16 June 1904.
 Section 3: The last three episodes focus on Nostos, or return.

Stephen is a young man troubled by the fact that he is a son, and he has a father, Bloom is haunted by
memories of the son who he never really was, he also notices a funeral procession for a child, which reminds
him of his son Rudy, who died as an infant. During the funeral, Bloom contemplates the nature of death.
Joyce's short stories” Dubliners” represent everyday sorts of people and their problem and he describes
reality even in its unpleasant aspect.

The "epiphany" is a sudden revelation in which any subject of common life becomes "revealing" the true
meaning of life to those who perceive their symbolic value. It is a special moment, in which a character
suddenly experiences a spiritual awakening, this interest in watching about common people presented
obstacle to the publication of his work in the Victorian age.

Joyce's next major work was “A portrait of the artist as a young man” of 1960 is an autobiography
novel which rates the life of Stephen Daedalus from infancy to young adulthood. In this novel Joyce presents
the progression of Stephen’s mind by using on a narrative technique called free indirect discourse which
allows the narrator who presents characters' thoughts and feelings while maintaining standard third person
past tense. By the end of the portrait Stephen's rejection of religion, nation, and family, leads him to pursue a
life of freedom, artistic creation, and self-imposed exile.
The sensibility and innovations of portrait made Joyce a principal figure of the modernist movement by
1920 when he settled in Paris and joined a community of writers including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound,
and Scott Fitzgerald.