James Augustine Aloysius Joyce

Japanese: ジョイス - じょいす（英語表記）James Augustine Aloysius Joyce

Irish novelist. Along with Proust, he was one of the most influential writers in the 20th century novel revolution.

[Hiroshi Debuchi]

Life

He was born on February 2nd to a publican in Dublin. From his father, a joker with a fine tenor voice, and his mother, a devout Catholic who played the piano well, he inherited his unique sense of language and musicality. He entered the prestigious Jesuit school, Clongorsewood College, but dropped out when his father lost his job and the family's fortunes declined. He later transferred to another prestigious school, Belvedere College, as a scholarship student. There he learned Latin, French, and Italian, but decided not to enter the priesthood. In 1898, he entered University College, Dublin. He was interested in Flaubert, Ibsen, and Hauptmann. In 1900, at the age of 18, he published an essay on Ibsen's When We the Dead Awake, entitled "Ibsen's New Plays," in the Fortnightly Review, and received a letter of thanks from Ibsen. This, and the fact that the following year he self-published a pamphlet called "Times of Troubles", which exploited the regional narrow-mindedness seen in the Irish Literary Theatre, show that even at a young age Joyce had a longing for a universal Europe.

After graduating from university in 1902, he went to medical school to make a living as a doctor, but soon dropped out and went to Paris. Penniless, he studied literature, and around this time he acquired Édouard Dujardin's (1861-1949) The Laurel Tree Has Been Cut, which would have a strong influence on his "interior monologue" technique. In 1904, he returned to Japan after hearing that his mother was critically ill. On her deathbed, he refused to pray for her because she had already renounced her faith, a decision that tormented him for the rest of his life. That same year, he met a girl named Nora Barnacle, who would become his wife. He eventually left Dublin and traveled to Pola in Italy (now Pula in Croatia), Trieste, Rome, and other places, continuing his creative endeavors. During his time in Trieste, Joyce gave private English lessons to a wealthy Italian Jewish merchant named Ettore Schmitz, who, encouraged by Joyce, began publishing his works under the pen name Italo Svevo. Joyce returned to Dublin twice after that, but never set foot in his native country again after a falling out with his Irish publisher in 1912 over the publication of Dubliners, a novel he had been working on for eight years. During World War I, he stayed in Zurich and suffered from poverty and eye disease, but he managed to survive thanks to the support of Yeats and Pound, and financial assistance from Harriet Shaw Weaver (1876-1961), editor-in-chief of The Egoist, and serialized A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses in The Egoist and The Little Review, respectively. He lived in Paris for 19 years from 1920, but moved to Zurich in 1940 due to World War II, where he died of a duodenal ulcer on January 13, 1941.

[Hiroshi Debuchi]

An experiment aiming for the ultimate novel format

His works include the lyrical and formally perfect poetry collection "Chamber Music" (1907), the short story collection "Dubliners" (1914), which uses the so-called "epiphany" technique learned from Flaubert, in which the essence of something is revealed through realism and detailed description, the full-length novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916), a unique cultural novel in which the discovery of artistic talent coincides with the growth of his literary style, and "A Day in the Life of a Middle-aged Advertising Man" set within the framework of Homer's "The Odyssey." In addition to the long novel Ulysses (1922), which depicts a mythological story by fitting the characters together, he also wrote the play The Exiles (1918) and the collection of poems Apples for a Penny (1927). Finnegans Wake (1939), which took 15 years to complete from 1923 and was published in various magazines, is a "work in progress" in which human history is contained in the dream of a drunken man named H.C. Iaricker, and systematized according to G. Biko's circular view of history. It is a magnificent attempt to create a new world by creating a new language at the same time, and can be said to have aimed at the ultimate in novel form. There is also Giacomo Joyce (1968), a collection of erotic sketches that was discovered after his death. Joyce's literary experiments influenced not only English-speaking writers such as Faulkner, but also French Nouveau Roman writers such as Claude Simon and Robbe-Grillet, critics of Tel Quel, and Latin American writers such as García Márquez and Cabrera Infante.

[Hiroshi Debuchi]

"Chamber Music" translated by Deguchi Yasuo (1972, Hakuohsha)" ▽ "World Literature Series 67: Joyce I" translated by Ebiike Toshiharu, Toda Motoi, Odashima Yushi, et al. (1976, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "World Literature Series 68: Joyce II: O'Brien" translated by Ebine Hiroshi, et al. (1998, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Guide to 20th Century English and American Literature 9: Joyce" edited by Ito Sei (1969, Kenkyusha Publishing)" ▽ "James Joyce" edited by Maruya Saiichi (1974, Hayakawa Publishing)" ▽ "Fireworks on June 16th by Maruya Saiichi (1986, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "A Long Wake for Joyce by Osawa Masayoshi (1988, Seidosha)" ▽ "The Life of James Joyce 1 and 2" by Richard Ellman, translated by Kyoko Miyata (1996, Misuzu Shobo)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

アイルランドの小説家。プルーストと並んで20世紀の小説革命にもっとも力のあった作家。

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生涯

2月2日、ダブリンの収税吏の子に生まれる。すばらしいテノールの持ち主で冗談好きの父と、カトリックの信仰厚いピアノの上手な母とから、独自の言語感覚と音楽性を受け継いだ。名門のイエズス会系の学校クロンゴーズウッド・カレッジに入学するが、父の失職に伴う家運の衰退によって退学。のち給費生として、もう一つの名門校ベルベディア・カレッジに転校。ここでラテン語、フランス語、イタリア語を修得するが、聖職にはつかない決意をした。1898年ダブリンの大学ユニバーシティ・カレッジに進学。フロベール、イプセン、ハウプトマンに傾倒。1900年18歳で、イプセンの『われら死者目ざめる時』についての論文「イプセンの新しい劇」を『フォートナイトリー・レビュー』誌に掲載、イプセンから礼状をもらう。このことと、翌年アイルランド文芸劇場にみられる地方的偏狭性をついたパンフレット『騒乱の時代』を自費出版した事実から、ジョイスが若くして、普遍的なヨーロッパへの憧憬(しょうけい)をもっていたことがわかる。

　1902年大学を卒業後、家計を考えて医師として身を立てようと医学校に進学するがすぐ中退、パリに出た。無一文の状態で文学を修業するが、このころ、彼の「内的独白」の手法に強い影響を与えることになるエドゥワール・デュジャルダンÉdouard Dujardin（1861―1949）の『月桂樹(げっけいじゅ)は切られた』を入手している。1904年、母危篤の知らせで帰国、祈ってほしいという死の床での母の願いを、すでに棄教しているという理由で拒み、このことでのちのちまで心をさいなまれた。この年、妻になるノラ・バーナクルという娘と知り合った。やがてダブリンを離れ、イタリア領ポーラ（現、クロアチア領プーラ）、トリエステ、ローマなどを放浪、創作活動を続ける。トリエステ時代に、英語の個人教授をした生徒のなかに富裕なユダヤ系イタリア商人エットレ・シュミッツがいたが、彼はジョイスに励まされイータロ・ズベーボの筆名で作品を発表することになる。その後ジョイスはダブリンには二度ばかり帰国するが、1912年、8年来書き続けていた『ダブリン市民』をめぐって、アイルランドの出版社との間がこじれてからは二度と故国の土を踏まなかった。第一次世界大戦中はチューリヒに滞在し、貧困と眼疾とに苦しむが、イェーツ、パウンドらの後援、『エゴイスト』誌の編集長ウィーバーHarriet Shaw Weaver（1876―1961）の資金的援助によって切り抜け、『若い芸術家の肖像』『ユリシーズ』をそれぞれ『エゴイスト』『リトル・レビュー』誌に連載した。1920年から19年間はパリ生活、第二次世界大戦のため1940年からチューリヒに移るが、翌1941年1月13日、十二指腸潰瘍(かいよう)のため死亡。

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小説形式の極北を目ざす実験

作品としては、叙情的で形式的に完璧(かんぺき)さをもつ詩集『室内楽』（1907）、フロベールに学んだ写実と細部描写からものの本質がひらめき出るいわゆる「エピファニー」の手法を用いた短編集『ダブリン市民』（1914）、芸術家としての天分の発見を文体自体の成長と合致させたユニークな教養小説である長編『若い芸術家の肖像』（1916）、中年の広告業者の1日を、ホメロスの『オデュッセイア』の枠組みに当てはめて描き出した神話的手法の長編『ユリシーズ』（1922）のほか、戯曲『追放者たち』（1918）、詩集『一つ一ペニーの林檎(りんご)』（1927）があるが、1923年から15年かかって完成し、さまざまな雑誌に分載した「進行中の作品」――『フィネガンズ・ウェーク』（1939）は、H・C・イアリッカーという泥酔男の一夜の夢のなかに人類史を封じ込め、G・ビコの円環状の歴史観によって体系づけたもの。新しい言語を創造することによって同時に新しい世界を創造しようという壮麗な試みであり、小説形式の極北を目ざしたものといえよう。また死後発見されたエロスに満ちたスケッチ集『ジャコモ・ジョイス』（1968）がある。ジョイスの文学上の実験はフォークナーらの英語圏作家にとどまらず、フランスのクロード・シモン、ロブ・グリエらヌーボー・ロマンの作家や『テル・ケル』の批評家、ガルシア・マルケス、カブレラ・インファンテら南米ラテン系諸国の作家たちに影響を与えた。

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『出口泰生訳『室内楽』（1972・白凰社）』▽『海老池俊治・戸田基・小田島雄志他訳『世界文学大系67　ジョイスⅠ』（1976・筑摩書房）』▽『海老根宏他訳『世界文学大系68　ジョイスⅡ　オブライエン』（1998・筑摩書房）』▽『伊藤整編『20世紀英米文学案内9　ジョイス』（1969・研究社出版）』▽『丸谷才一編『ジェイムズ・ジョイス』（1974・早川書房）』▽『丸谷才一著『6月16日の花火』（1986・岩波書店）』▽『大澤正佳著『ジョイスのための長い通夜』（1988・青土社）』▽『リチャード・エルマン著・宮田恭子訳『ジェイムズ・ジョイズ伝1・2』（1996・みすず書房）』