Joyce Gender Plays a Prominent Essay

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As Brivic points out, the labeling of females as hysterical is another means by which a patriarchal society genders certain behaviors. Behaviors related to emotionality are notably gendered, as males and females are socialized to react and communicate according to gender norms. Occasionally in Joycean narratives, discourse related to gender is overt, rather than covert. For instance, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen does not take offense at his father's calling him a "bitch" and instead mocks him: "He has a curious idea of genders if he thinks a bitch is masculine," (Chapter 5). Awareness of the futility of gender norms and gendered identities fuel Stephen Dedalus's character in both Ulysses and in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Feminist discourse is deliberately subversive in both James Joyce's Ulysses and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Male characters are central in both novels, and in some cases the female voice is suppressed or else it is expressed only via the dominant male. This narrative structure exposes patriarchy and satirizes the power structures embedded in a patriarchal society.

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Female characters occasionally play roles that, while supportive, are essential for transformation of character. Sexuality is a major theme in both Ulysses and in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In particular, sexuality is presented in the framework of patriarchy. In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the Church and related social institutions impose gendered identities and puritanical sexual behaviors that repress both male and female spiritual, psychological, and social development. Joyce frames male and female sexuality within a discourse of oppression and liberation: which corresponds seamlessly with feminist discourse. Discussions of sexuality and politics comingle with themes related to personal development. Therefore, a careful reading of James Joyce reveals carefully crafted feminist themes.

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