Stylistics 2013/2014

James Joyce (1882-1941)   (BORN FEB. 2, 1882, DUBLIN, IRE.DIED JAN. 13, 1941, ZRICH, SWITZ.) IRISH NOVELIST. EDUCATED AT A JESUIT SCHOOL (THOUGH HE SOON REJECTED CATHOLICISM) AND AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, HE DECIDED EARLY TO BECOME A WRITER. IN 1902 HE MOVED TO PARIS, WHICH WOULD BECOME HIS PRINCIPAL HOME AFTER YEARS SPENT IN TRIESTE AND ZRICH. HIS LIFE WAS DIFFICULT, MARKED BY FINANCIAL TROUBLES, CHRONIC EYE DISEASES THAT OCCASIONALLY LEFT HIM TOTALLY BLIND, CENSORSHIP PROBLEMS, AND HIS DAUGHTER LUCIA'S MENTAL ILLNESS. THE REMARKABLE STORY COLLECTION  THE DUBLINERS  (1914) AND THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL  PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN  (1916), HIS EARLY PROSE VOLUMES, WERE POWERFUL EXAMPLES OF HIS GIFT FOR STORYTELLING AND HIS GREAT INTELLIGENCE. WITH FINANCIAL HELP FROM FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS, INCLUDING  EZRA POUND , SYLVIA BEACH (18871962), AND HARRIET SHAW WEAVER (18761961), HE SPENT SEVEN YEARS WRITING  ULYSSES  (1922...

You can find the text of the story   here You can also listen to the story   here Topics for Discussion: Read the epigraph again and discuss the significance of the epigraph for the story. What does the leopard stand for, what the “Ngaje Ngai”, the house of Gods? The relationship Harry and Helen: How did it start? What brought them together? What drives them apart? What was/is his role in her life and vice versa? Why does he hate her in the end? - Or does he rather hate himself? Who or what destroyed Harry's talent? - Who does he blame? The flashback: a narrative technique from the genre film. What is its function in this text? Retreat into the past or escape? - Discuss. Hemingway has always been obsessed with “death” in his writing. So is “Harry” in “The Snows”. What does Harry say about death? Which symbols of death can you find in this story? Is “Snows” a story about “death”? Have a loo...