Ain
Shams University
Faculty
of Education
Department
of English
The
General diploma for Teacher preparation
**************************************
Name: Basma Muhammad Abdel-Samie
Ahmed
Academic year: 2014-2015
Teacher preparation General diploma
Department of English
Bahaa Abdel-Mageed’s Temble
Bar and James Joice’s Portrait of an artist as a comparative
study that discusses the biography of the both.
Acknowledgment
* In the introduction, I handled the
idea of what is literature and what is comparative literature and why we should
deal with the comparative literature. By the end of the introduction I
mentioned the paper thesis that is Bahaa Abdel-Magid’s Temple Bar
and James Joyce’s Portrait of an artist as a comparative study
of two different cultures that discusses the biography of the both.
* In Bahaa versus Joyce,
I tackled an introduction about them with their famous works.
* In
What influence Bahaa Abdelmegid’s and James Joyce’s writings, I handled the
factors that affect their
writings and lead to these great works.
* In, Temple Bar VS The Portrait of an Artist
as a Young Man, I get both
Temple bar and the portrait of an artist as a young man as an example of
autobiography of both writers. In addition I handled the setting “Dublin” that
affect both Moataz and Stephen. I also offer a quick summary of the main idea
of the novels through Moataz and Stephen.
*
Then a conclusion in which I mentioned my point of view.
* And
finally the references that guide you in your study and for further
studies.
**********************************
Contents
Titles pages
The paper title
2
Acknowledgement
3
Contents
4
Introduction 5
Bahaa
Abdel Magid VS James Joyce 6
Bahaa Abdel Magid 6
James Joyce 6
What influence both
writers 7
Comparison of two literary
works: 10
Temple Bar 10
The portrait of an artist
as a young man 12
Conclusion 18
References
19
Introduction
For some
critics like T.S. Eliot, literature is to be seen and examined only by
comparison with other literary works. He said in his well-known article
“Tradition and the Individual Talent”:
“No poet, no artist of any
art, has his complete meaning alone.
His significance, his appreciation is the
appreciation of his
relation to the dead poets
and artists. You cannot value him alone;
you must set him, for
contrast and comparison, among the dead.
I mean this as a principle of aesthetics, not
merely historical, criticism.”
This
shows that literature is not created in isolation. The proper way of studying
literature is to examine each literary text against another either in the same
culture or from other culture/s. (5)
The
knowledge of more than one national language and literature is what known by
comparative literature. It means the knowledge and application of other
disciplines in and for the study of literature. Historically, it is true that
Comparative Literature demonstrated a focus on European literatures and later
on European and American literature. At the same time, however, the discipline
paid more attention to "Other" literatures than any of the national
literatures. (1)
It is the branch of literary history
that deals with
literary relationships, similarities, and distinctions
among different countries.
Similarities between works of literature may
be based on similarities in the social and cultural development of the respective countries
of origin or on cultural and literary contacts
between the countries.
(2)
Comparative literature
systematically extends this latter tendency, aiming to enhance awareness of the
qualities of one work by using the products of another linguistic culture as an
illuminating context; or studying some broad topic or theme as it is realized
(‘transformed’) in the literatures of different languages. (3) It
helps in getting the combined study of similar literary works written in different
languages, which stresses the points of connection between literary products of
two or more cultures.(4)
From this perspective, I can take Bahaa
Abdel-Magid’s Temple Bar and James Joyce’s Portrait of an
artist as a comparative study of two different cultures that
discusses the biography of the both.
Bahaa Abdel Magid VS James Joyce
**************************************************************
Bahaa Abdel Magid holds a Ph.D. in
English literature from Ain Shams University, where he also teaches. He is the
author of many novels, as well as a collection of short stories. Bahaa
Abdelmegid is the author of collections of short stories and novels, including Saint Theresa (Sharkyat & Dar
press 2000), Sleeping with Strangers
(Meriet 2006 &AUC Press, 2010), The Black Piano (the new
culture press 1996), and The Mountain of Decoration (Meriet press
2005& Dar press 2007) . His new novel Temple Bar (Meriet press 2011)
translated by award-winning Jonathan Wright, has just been published by the AUC
Press. He also writes a lot of short stories like: The Paradise’s Leaves
(Meriet press 2012), Waiting, Amsterdam, The Tulip,
Hiroshima’s Girl, and Carrion Hotel. The novelist Egyptian
writer is currently working on a new novel, Red Velvet, set in
Egypt in the 1930s.
James
Augustine (incorrectly registered as "Augusta") Joyce was born on
February 2, 1882, in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar, Ireland. Son of a dutiful
mother and a charming but improvident father, Joyce was the oldest of ten
surviving children; five others died in infancy. Despite the family's
continuous financial instability, however, Joyce's father was aware of his
son's exceptional talents, and he arranged for Joyce to attend two of Ireland's
most prestigious educational institutions, thereby providing his son with a
solid, impressive education. His major works are Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Exiles and poetry, Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake.
(6)
What influence Bahaa
Abdelmegid’s and James Joyce’s writings
I can
say that Abdelmegid’s works are affected by many factors: one of them is his
reading to the Holy Quraan as he said :
“The more I grow up and have matured enough
thoughts, the more different I can reread the Holy Quraan and
all literary works. He can see different interpretations. He gives the example of Araaf Sourah in the Holy Quraan
as he mentioned that in addition to talking about prophet Mousa’s
story there is also the relation between Man and God and
the relation between the people and the governor”. (7)
«كلما كبرت في العمر ونضجت في التجربة، تجدني أقرأه بعين مختلفة،
وأرى تأويلات متعددة المستويات، ففي سورة الأعراف مثلا، ورغم أنها تستفيض في سرد
قصة سيدنا موسى عليه السلام، فإنها لا تقف عند هذا المستوى، وإنما تتحدث عن
الإنسان في علاقته بالإله، والفرعون الذي أوحى للناس بأنه إله، وعن علاقة الحاكم
بالمحكوم، وعن الطغاة من الحُكام».
His
rereading to religious and heritage books as “prophets’ stories,
and a thousand and a thousand nights also is another factor. For
English Literature, he mentioned that his rereading to Charles Dickens’s and
James Joyce’s works makes my a lot hungry for writing as they owned the deep
philosophy of human existence. They help the creative writer to fill the spaces
in his mind to make a similar, different or near literary work of their
visions.
«أعيد
قراءة أعمال تشارلز ديكينز، وجميس جويس اللذين أعتبرهما من أكثر الأدباء عمقا
وحكمة، فقراءتي لهما تثير شهيتي للكتابة، والتفكير، فلديهما الفلسفة العميقة
للوجود الإنساني، وكتاباتهما تترك لدى المبدع خيوطا وفراغات يمكن أن يتبعها ليصنع
حوارا أدبيا مخالفا أو متفقا أو متماسا مع رؤيتهما». (7)
Unlike Abdelmegid, The first thing to affect the nine-year-old boy “James Joyce” was the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Irish Nationalist Party. Parnell's downfall and his subsequent death were important in Joyce's life not only because they made him aware of the disparity between Church and State in Ireland, but also because they created within the mind of a boy who had admired Parnell's heroism a fear that Ireland would always destroy its own prophets. The effect of this revelation on nine-year-old Joyce is clearly evident in "Et Tu, Healy," a poem he wrote and distributed to friends, denouncing the man who was partly responsible for Parnell's undoing. For the most part, Joyce's school years seem idyllic, but two significant events occurred when he was fourteen which helped shape the boy's spiritual and creative future. First, Joyce was admitted to, and later became the prefect of, the school's Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and second, he had his first sexual experience — with a Dublin prostitute; this paradoxical turn of events occurred within just a few weeks of each other. (Joyce's attempts to reconcile the trinity of women, sex, and creativity are woven throughout his works.) Two years later, Joyce entered University College in Dublin. (8)
On
January 7, 1904, he sat down to write a piece for Dana, a new
intellectual journal. He composed a lengthy autobiographical, satirical piece
which, at his brother Stanislaus' suggestion, he entitled "A Portrait of
the Artist." A month later, the editors at Dana rejected the work
because of its sexual content, but Joyce seized on this opportunity to develop
the manuscript into a novel entitled Stephen Hero; the protagonist would
be a Catholic artist who was both a hero and a martyr. The novel was published
posthumously in 1944, and today, Stephen Hero is treasured because of
the rich lode of autobiographical material which Joyce used for his later
fictional masterpiece, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
In
September 1907, Joyce began to transform Stephen Hero into A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man, retaining "Stephen Daedalus" for
the protagonist's name. It was a name which Joyce himself had already used as a
pen name, and it was also a name which linked the first Christian martyr
(Stephen) and the mythic Greek maze-maker (Daedalus), a man known for his
cunning and skill. In addition, because Daedalus was the father of Icarus (who
attempted to fly with wings fashioned by his father), the surname provided
Joyce with multiple variations on the flight theme, a motif which would pervade
the novel. Later, Joyce changed the spelling of the hero's last name —
ostensibly, in order to deemphasize the autobiographical nature of the book.
In
1915, after the outbreak of World War I, Joyce moved his family to Zurich, and
there he finished A Portrait and received welcome assistance from such
literary notables as William Butler Yeats and an American exile, Ezra Pound,
both of whom were instrumental in A Portrait's being published in
serial form in The Egoist. The first installment appeared in 1914, on
Joyce's birthday, February 2. The publication of A Portrait as a single
volume met with difficulties, and it was only with the help of two literary
patronesses, Harriet Shaw Weaver and Edith Rockefeller McCormick, that it was
finally published by B. W. Huebsch in New York in 1916, and later in England by
Miss Weaver's newly formed Egoist Press, in 1917. Coincidentally, Dubliners was
also published in 1914, by Grant Richards.
The
final days of Joyce's life were filled with frustration — beginning with the
angry, critical reception of Finnegans Wake and continuing through the
beginning of World War II, an event which once again necessitated Joyce's
moving his family. In addition, Joyce's eyes and his general health had begun
to steadily decline, and he was continually worried about the mental
instability of his daughter, Lucia; she had suffered a severe mental breakdown
in 1932 and was diagnosed as an incurable schizophrenic. In spite of the
hopelessness of Lucia's condition, Joyce persisted in trying to find a cure for
her; he felt that in some way he was responsible — that he had failed her as a
father.
I think
that Abdelmegid has read a lot for Joyce that makes him to some how affected by
his writing. In another way, Joyce’s writings encourage Abdelmegid and push him
to write his biography. So, I see that both Abdelmegid and Joyce are similar in
their writings as both wrote autobiography novels as found in Temple Bar
and Sleeping with Strangers novels of Abdelmegid and the
portrait of an artist as a young man For Joyce.
Temple Bar VS The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Temple bar is a novel that discusses the author’s autobiography. Here, the author wrote about his own experience once he traveled to Dublin and what happened to him. The author succeeded in depicting himself through the character of Moataz. He himself stated this in his interview with
"Temple Bar portrays stages of my life. You
can call it a bildungsroman, like James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man, where it reflects my physical and spiritual growth and mental
dilemmas."
Temple bar rates the experience of an important Egyptian scholar preparing his PHD in Dublin, and is his most ambitious work to date-one that was 12 years in the making. The novel deals with themes of loneliness and unrequited love and also of culture shock, immigration and ultimately redemption.
The idea of the novel started as Abdelmegid said when he was in Dublin and wanted to write a diary; a story or his observation, but he found himself creating characterization, settings he was infatuated with the nature of Ireland , and the heat and fever of life there. He was overwhelmed by the gloomy weather sometimes especially during the rain, because came from Egypt which is very sunny and open. So, it made him depressed and lonely and miserable. For him, writing was an outlet and a way to express his mood and his isolation.
When Abdelmegid came back to Cairo, Dublin was pressing on him and full of experiences and people he met. He couldn’t live without recording Dublin. The ghosts were with him and writing Temple bar was a way to get that experience out of him.
Abdelmegid started writing Temple bar as a part of his own autobiography and get Moataz as his protagonist to depict himself in. Moataz, the hero of Temple Bar, is a romantic figure, very melancholic, kind, superstitious, and revolutionary but at the same time is very static. Sensitivity is an important aspect of any human being because it makes him or her respond quickly to any action in life, good or bad.
For being an autobiography, the author himself stated that he tried to mix between what is personal and what is imagined. For example he went to Dublin to study for his PhD at Trinity College and he studied Seamus Heaney. Some characters are fictitious but some of them were inspired by his experience there and their lives actually ended the way he described in the book. It portrays stages of his life. You can call it a bildungsroman, like James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, where it reflects his physical and spiritual growth and mental dilemmas.
The Dublin he described in the novel is real and true and the Irish people and Egyptian characters are true but colored by his own imagination. Dublin is alien territory for young and impoverished Egyptian academic Moataz, who is preparing a PhD on Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Moataz has enough problems with his family's high expectations and the unrequited, idealized love that he left behind in Cairo. Now he has to deal with cantankerous landlords, the inscrutable local women, the Irish judiciary, haunted seminaries, and cold winter nights selling flowers on the banks of the Liffey to make ends meet. His own personal demons travel with him, especially the clash between his sexual desires and his reluctance to become emotionally entangled with anyone other than his version of the ideal woman. In his year away from home Moataz learns how diverse the world is, but returning to Cairo is a shock that tests his physical and mental strength. Only when he passes that test he can make a promising new start. (10)Temple Bar is a tragedy that portrays the failure of Moataz and his will to survive regardless of all suffering and pain. The issue of racism towards Arabs and Moataz’s moral struggle with resisting Irish women are two recurring themes. So we could say that the novel is actually about tolerance and temptation. It is also about choices, either to choose to mix or resist and isolate yourself. Moataz does not have a clear idea about what he wants. He has desires but also religious and moral commitments to a woman he loves in Cairo. The greatness of Moataz is that he admits and confesses his desires and his urgent need to satisfy them. Meanwhile there is something vague and superstitious forbidding him from doing everything that tempts him. (12)
We do need tolerance in this world, including in Egypt and Ireland. The Irish suffered a lot in their history, especially when the English nobility annexed their land in the 19th century. Today the Irish face the challenges of having joined the European Union because it brings in many foreigners into Ireland. The Irish have a complex toward the English and it translates into fear and rejection of foreigners. This is Moataz’s experience. The only person who is really sympathetic to him is Simone, who believes in peace but gets killed in the Omagh 1998 bombing. She believes that music can heal racism and sectarian violence in the world.
The novel takes place in Ireland and Joyce is Moataz’s favorite writer. Moataz identifies himself with the myth of the lost Jew embodied in Leopold Bloom who searches for a home and acceptance. But also Bloom is in love with Molly who is not faithful to him, just like Moataz who is in love with Siham who married, ignoring his love, leaving him to suffer. Moataz also roams Dublin like Bloom, searching for experience and the meaning of life. The author tried to discuss the Jewish dilemma of seeking a home.(11)
Moataz is a human being who has principles but is confused. He is strong and full of pride of himself and where he comes from. He also likes to show off his knowledge. His experience in Dublin has taught him how to love his country even more. He feels that he needs to defend himself and his origins. He respects his religious background on one hand but at the same time struggles with his desires that he hesitates to fulfill. He also wants to prove that he is from the East, especially Egypt, with its great civilization. What Moataz is looking for is companionship and sympathy. Moataz was not spoiled by his mother. She treated him differently because she realizes he is not an ordinary child and man, and she wants him to be successful. She is not always kind to him and even gets aggressive with him during his depressions. But at the same time, she wants to protect him from other people who will accuse him of madness. (8)The experience in Dublin change Moataz on many levels physical, psychological, and spiritual. At the same time it brought out all his fears and madness. Temple Bar explores the marginalization, cultural misunderstandings, and racism he encounters during his year’s study abroad. Here we pick up the story on Moataz’s arrival in the Irish capital. (11)
Dublin, 1998
I was waiting for someone to help me carry
my bag, but no one volunteered. Aggrieved that I asked, one young man said my
bag was my business, while a woman suggested that there were bags with wheels
that didn’t take so much effort to drag. Then she laughed. I would find out
later that there was a scare about strangers and bags, which might contain
explosives since terrorist operations were common, especially in Belfast in
Northern Ireland.
Dublin didn’t seem surprising at all. It wasn’t as I had expected a European
city to be. The streets were narrow. There were the modest English-style
terraced houses, the old bridges across the little river, the simple shops, the
children begging, the old people, and the impetuous young people, some of them
Irish and some of them immigrants. (9)
The novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man begins with Stephen Dedalus' first memories, when he was about three years old. The fragmented lines are from a childhood story and a nursery song, and are linked with family associations, sensory perceptions, and pieces of conversation. In this opening scene, Joyce is presenting to us the genesis of a future artist's perception and interpretation of the world.
Moving
from Stephen's infancy to his early days at Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit
boarding school for boys, Joyce focuses on three key incidents which
significantly affect Stephen's personality. First, Stephen is pushed into an
open cesspool by a bullying classmate, and, subsequently, he develops a fever
which confines him to the school infirmary; here, he begins to discern that he
is "different," that he is an outsider.
Later,
when he is probably six years old, Stephen returns home to celebrate Christmas
dinner with his family and is invited, for the first time, to sit with the
adults at the dinner table. This extraordinarily happy occasion is marred by a
heated political argument between Stephen's old nurse, Dante Riordan, and a
dinner guest, Mr. Casey, leaving Stephen confused about the issues of religion
and politics in the adult world.
On
returning to school, Stephen accidentally breaks his glasses and is unable to
complete his classwork. He is unjustly humiliated and punished by the cruel
prefect of studies, but after receiving encouragement from a friend, Stephen
bravely (if fearfully) goes to the rector of the school and obtains justice.
The success of this meeting instills in him a healthy self-confidence and
ennobles him, for a moment, in the eyes of his classmates.
After a
brief summer vacation at his home in Blackrock, Stephen learns that his
father's financial reversals make it impossible to return to Clongowes Wood;
instead, he is enrolled in a less prestigious Jesuit day school, Belvedere
College. Here, he develops a distinguished reputation as an award-winning essay
writer and a fine actor in his school play. Despite these accomplishments,
however, Stephen feels increasingly alienated from his schoolmates because of his
growing religious skepticism and his deep interest in literature and writing.
This feeling of isolation is intensified during a trip with his father to Cork,
where he learns more about his father's weaknesses.
Stephen
becomes increasingly repelled by the dead-end realities of Dublin life.
Frustrated by his loss of faith in the Catholic Church, in his family
situation, and in his cultural bonds, Stephen seeks to "appease the fierce
longings of his heart." After wandering through the city's brothel
district, he finds momentary solace with a Dublin prostitute. He is fourteen
years old, and this is his first sexual experience.
After a
period of "sinful living," Stephen attends an intense three-day
spiritual retreat. During that time, he is overwhelmed by guilt and remorse; he
believes that Father Arnall is speaking directly to him. Panicking, he seeks
out a kindly old Capuchin priest, pledges moral reform, and rededicates himself
to a life of purity and devotion. He fills his days with fervent prayers and
takes part in as many religious services as he can.
Noticing
Stephen's exceedingly pious behavior, the director of the school arranges a
meeting to encourage Stephen to consider entering the priesthood. At first,
Stephen is flattered, fascinated by the possibilities of the clerical life, but
increasingly he is tormented by carnal desires. He finally realizes that his
"inherent sinful nature" makes it necessary for him to reject a
religious vocation.
Having
made this discovery about himself, Stephen decides to enroll in the university,
where he hopes to shape his destiny as an artist. This decision is immediately
followed by a climactic "epiphany": he sees a girl wading in the sea;
to Stephen, she embodies the attraction, the promise, and the abandon which he
wishes to experience in life. It is at this moment that Stephen understands
that he can only hope to gain this experience through a life of artistic
expression.
Shortly
thereafter, Stephen begins a new life as a young man in search of his own
values and his own credo. In comparison with the other college students,
Stephen often seems anti-social and more concerned with pursuing his own
interests than supporting the causes of others. Even Stephen himself realizes
that unlike most of his friends, he is unusually introspective. He is not the
typical devil-may-care university student; he rejects the typical blind
patriotic blather, and although he continues to respect the Catholic faith, he
no longer believes that its tenets should govern his life. Through
conversations with friends and a dean of studies, Stephen eventually develops
his own aesthetic theory of art, based on the philosophies of Aristotle and
Aquinas. Simultaneously, he concludes that if he is ever going to find his
artistic soul, he must sever all bonds of faith, family, and country. He must
leave Dublin and go abroad to "forge" his soul's "uncreated
conscience."
A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man details events which closely correspond with
those of Joyce's first twenty years. According to Joyce's celebrated
biographer, Richard Ellman, Joyce hoped that his Portrait would be an
autobiographical novel, "turning his life into fiction." While
scholars disagree on the extent to which Joyce's life affected his fictional
narrative in the novel, most of them concur that Stephen Dedalus is both the
protagonist of the novel, as well as the persona (Latin, meaning
"mask") behind which Joyce paints his fictional "portrait"
of the "artist" and of the "young man."
A close
examination of these obvious clues in the title reveals to readers that the
novel can be classified as both a Kunstlerroman (German, meaning a novel about
an artist) and a Bildungsroman (German, meaning a novel of development or
education). If we understand these terms, we can more clearly understand
Joyce's primary purpose for writing the novel.
We must
keep in mind, however, that many of the people and the situations of the novel
have been presented in the form of satire. We must also be aware that the
author selected this technique to emphasize how the life of an artist differs
from that of others who share his world.
In A
Portrait, the reader learns through the particular experiences of Stephen
Dedalus how an artist perceives his surroundings, as well as his views on
faith, family, and country, and how these perceptions often conflict with those
prescribed for him by society. As a result, the artist feels distanced from the
world. Unfortunately, this feeling of distance and detachment is misconstrued
by others to be the prideful attitude of an egoist. Thus the artist, already
feeling isolated, is increasingly aware of a certain growing, painful social
alienation.
In
addition, Stephen's natural, maturing sexual urges confuse him even further.
Stephen is a keenly intelligent, sensitive, and eloquent young man. He also
possesses the feelings of urgent sexuality, self-doubt, and insecurity — all
universal emotions which are experienced during the development of the average
adolescent male. Joyce reveals these tumultuous adolescent feelings through a
narrative technique called stream-of-consciousness. He takes the reader into
both the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, showing him the subjective and
the objective realities of a situation. Using Stephen Dedalus, he explores the
depths of the human heart.
This
novel is narrated, for the most part, in the limited omniscient point of view;
at the same time, it progresses in form from the lyrical and epical modes of
expression and moves finally into the dramatic mode of expression. (These
"modes of expression" are Stephen's own terms, defining the various
kinds of literature; when we encounter them in the novel, we should write down
Stephen's definitions and attempt to chart the course of this novel according
to its evolving lyrical, epical, and dramatic levels.)
Stephen's
thoughts, associations, feelings, and language (both cerebral and verbal) serve
as the primary vehicles by which the reader shares with Stephen the pain and
pleasures of adolescence, as well as the exhilarating experiences of
intellectual, sexual, and spiritual discoveries.
In
order to highlight the importance of Stephen's aesthetic experiences, Joyce
borrowed a word from the Catholic faith in order to create a literary term of
his own. When Stephen suddenly understands "the essential nature of a
thing" — whether it is the understanding of a person, an idea, a word, or
a situation — he has a moment of profound revelation. Joyce called these
moments epiphanies.
Some of
Stephen's earliest epiphanies come from his acute sensory awareness and are
recorded through Joyce's masterful use of imagery. In the novel, repeated
patterns of sounds and remembrances of tastes, touches, and smells are all
emphasized. Stephen's eyesight (like Joyce's) is weak; therefore, Joyce
emphasizes other senses, and in doing so, he employs the valuable motif method
of narration, wherein he records recurrent images of hot/cold, wet/dry, and
light/dark images, as well as recurring symbols. He also uses dramatic irony to
identify Stephen's basic conflicts and emphasize significant events in his
life.
Although
several themes such as alienation and betrayal exist in the novel, Ellman
states that Joyce originally recognized the work's main theme as "the
portrait of the renegade Catholic artist as hero." Certainly, evidence
from Joyce's life mirrors Stephen's need to escape the bonds of Irish
nationalism and Catholicism, both of which seemed to threaten his pursuit of a
literary career.
The
most obvious clue that the author's life is related to the novel's thematic
development exists in the hero's name — Stephen Dedalus, which combines
significant elements of both Greek and Christian myths. "Stephen" is
the name of the first Christian martyr who was persecuted for reasons of faith.
Joyce's hero identifies with his patron's martyrdom by recalling an early
reprimand against marrying a Protestant, the unjust pandying incident, and a
variety of instances wherein he was ostracized or made to feel guilty by his
peers and older people.
It is,
however, the author's choice of his character's family name — Dedalus — which
reveals to readers the source of the novel's greatest thematic parallel. The
myth of Daedalus and Icarus, the story of the cunning Greek inventor and his
ill-fated, impetuous son, is the framework responsible for the major imagery
and symbolism which pervade the novel.
Daedalus,
an architect commissioned by King Minos, designed an elaborate labyrinth in
which the king planned to confine the monstrous Minotaur. However, ill-fortune
soon caused Daedalus and Icarus to be imprisoned in the labyrinth, from which
they were forced to contrive a daring and ingenious escape.
Symbolically,
Stephen, like Daedalus, feels compelled to find a means of escape from the
labyrinth of Dublin, which threatens him with spiritual, cultural, and artistic
restraints. Similarly, Stephen can also be compared with Icarus, who flew too
close to the sun, melted his fabricated wings, and plunged to his death in the
sea. Like Icarus, Stephen ignores the warnings of family and clergy and is
symbolically drawn toward a philosophical illumination which ultimately casts him
into sin (spiritual death) and leads him to renounce his Catholic faith.
The
final and most dramatic parallel associates Stephen with his mythic namesake
Daedalus — the "great artificer." Like Daedalus, Stephen succeeds in
escaping the labyrinth of cultural restraints. At the end of the novel, Stephen
is imaginatively soaring — in flight away from Ireland toward a future of
unfettered artistic freedom.(8)
In
the novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce attempts to
weave much of the fabric of his real life into an artful tapestry of fiction.
Most of the following characters in the novel are based on people who actually
existed in Joyce's life; in almost every case, he portrayed them as fictional
representations of religious, social, and cultural elements of Ireland as they
influenced Stephen Dedalus, a maturing, sensitive young artist. Those persons
are like the list of the Main Characters” (The Dedalus Family; Stephen
Dedalus, Simon Dedalus, Mary Dedalus, Maurice Dedalus, Uncle Charles, Aunt
Dante (Mrs. Riordan), Katey, Maggy, and Boody Dedalus). Other Characters like; (Mr. (John)
Casey and Eileen Vance), (Clongowes Wood College (in Chapter I); Father Arnall,
and Father Dolan), (University College, Dublin (in Chapter V); Dean of Studies,
Cranly, Lynch, Davin, MacCann and
Temple) and many others.
Conclusion
I see
that temple bar is the autobiography of Bahaa Abdel- Magid. It talks about his
experience in traveling to Dublin to finish his PhD and how it affects him. I
see that he is greatly affected by Naguib Mahfouz , the Egyptian Writer, as you
can see his very good style as he succeeded in describing the feelings of
Moataz and the place Dublin that makes you feel you were in the place.
I also
see that, if you read “Sleeping with Strangers “ novel , you can see great
similarity between the two main characters Bassem in Sleeping with strangers
and Moataz in Temple Bar. They both left their country and traveled abroad for
study. They both fell in love with a girl and they both didn’t succeed in
completing their love story as with Bassem his lover is killed by the
terrorists’ explosions and for Moataz it was a one- side love and she is
married to another of the same social class. And also divorce.
I see
that Abdel Magid repeated his autobiography in the two novels Temple bar and
sleeping with strangers.
I see
also that the Abdelmegid tries to be free in his writing. He portrays Moataz as
the person who go to the bar for selling flowers and avoiding drinking wine. The
Title “Temple” and
“bar” they are both totally different places even people who went for both are
of different characters. Yet, choosing this title means that he is greatly
affected by the Arab culture and the religion that have some taboos. So, I
think he chose the title Temple as a way to stick to religion and send a
message that religion is always the salvation. You can see the story begins
with Moataz who is trying to commit suicide, and tried to come it true but the
action is delayed till the end of the novel. Instead he went to street to share
the revolution and succeeded in getting out and expressing all his negative
feelings.
I see,
for avoiding repetition, Abdel Magid should think of writing out of biographies
or autobiographies. He will succeed in offering greater works. Yet his works
are great and successful.
Finally,
reading biographies really amuses a lot of readers. So, I can consider both
Temple bar and the portrait of an artist as a young man as successful novels. I
waiting for more.
References
1- Steven Totosy de Zepetnek; Comparative Literature:
Theory, Method, Application.
Editions
Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA 1998.
3- Peter Childs and Roger Fowler; The Routledge Dictionary
of Literary Terms, Routledge
2006.
4- CHRIS BALDICK; The
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY press 2001.
5- Dr. Ayid Sharyan; Comparative Literature: Its
Implications for Yemeni Learners of English 6-Damascus University Journal, Vol.26
No.1+2, 2010.
7- http://en.wikipedia.org/
12- http://arabi.ahram.org.eg/NewsQ/381.aspx
