| |
| author |
Elizabeth Mary McKenna
| | title |
Shadow Fathers and Surrogate Sons: Patrilineal Relationships in Virgil's Aeneid and James Joyce's Ulysses
| | abstract |
While scholars traditionally look at the ways Joyce's classical allusions and source material can help readers make sense of his work, reading the works of
Joyce in conversation with Virgil's Aeneid leads to a more nuanced reading of the work of Virgil as well. Looking at the Aeneid, Ulysses,
and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, this dissertation argues that fathers in both texts (and in their predecessor, Homer's Odyssey) fail to
introduce their sons to adulthood, and discusses the fallout of paternal and filial failures for both the fathers and the sons. These failings call into
question the definition of masculinity in both the context of the writers' worlds and our own. This dissertation examines, through a close reading of the Latin
and English texts of the Aeneid, an examination of the changing characters of both Stephen and Simon Dedalus, and a consideration of the authors'
contexts, the ways young men come to create their own identities in the absence of paternal guidance. Further, by examining both shadows (male figures who
provided temporary guidance) and surrogates, this dissertation looks at the ways independent adult masculine identities are established and re-established in
both works.
| | school |
The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University
| | degree |
D.Litt. (2019)
|
| advisor |
Laura Winters
Liana Piehler
|
| full text | EMcKenna.pdf |
| |
