James Joyce: Ulysses

The new society is unable to have heroes with values: the new Ulysses is a normal man. Molly is the new Penelope but isn't like her: is unfaithful with her husband. The various part of the city (Dublin) are referred to the steps of the trip of Ulysses. Stephen Dedalus the protagonist of the autobiography made by Joyce represent in this novel Telemaco, the son of Ulysses.

Use of Stream of Consciousness as the main technique of Joyce: the last 40 pages are a unique stream of consciousness of Molly. The outside is narrated with the third person, the inside with stream of consciousness.

Parallelism between past and present: contemporary society is a decline in modern society (Joyce wrote this after the First World War). Joyce has used the Myth to give a view of the contemporary society: give order and sense. In Ulysses the creation of words, the rythm, the sounds are very important in the composition of the novel. It's written in prose fiction but in some parts there are poethical passages with rhyme schemes and specific sounds.

James Joyce: Dubliners

It isn't an experimental work; nothing really sensational is narrated; the stories are small normal events which talk about life and its problems in Dublin. The structure is different from classic short stories: beginning in mediastress and often with a open-ending conclusion. Joyce tries to record the emotions and feelings of the characters that are conditioned by the landscape of the city. Past, present and future are often mixed. Joyce is very careful with the means of words, use of symbols, figurative language: in some part his novel is more like a poem than prose fiction. Joyce type of writing is very difficult to read and sell.
After Dubliners he wrote "The portrait of the artist as a young man" an autobiographical enteriour monologue. With Ulysses Joyce reaches his peak; but he encountered many difficulties in publish his works. Ulysses was published in England only 15 years after the first publication in Paris. This happened because the novel content was considered scandalous.