A Study In Fictional Art Of Joyce’s Dubliners:Mariological Tradition And Its Modern Reconstruction

It’s a long-lasting history for Mariology in Christianity, especially for the Catholic Church after the Reformation. Mariology has been playing a great role in shaping Western minds and characters, meaning that it will not vanish. On the contrary, it has already permeated into their life-style and art. James Joyce, one of the most preeminent Irish authors of the twentieth century, displays aspects of people’s lives in Dubliners:whether they claim that they belong to the Church or however old they are, the Dubliners have always been living by the tradition of Mariology. On one hand, the Dubliners pursue life like Virgin Mary as honor, such as great compassions as maternity, consciousness of his or her citizenship, constancy and faithfulness. Yet with the development of modern industrial society, Mariology along with Christianity is faced up with great challenges and crises. As a result, on the other hand, the Dubliners perform contradictions between the out-side submission and their inside voices, causing repressions in their characterization. Long-time suppressions give rise to either enduring it or revolting against it, against decencies.As an artist, James Joyce believes that dogmas authorized by Catholics have been far away from the original truth of Jesus. The Heterogeneous constructions of Mary in Dubliners indicate his criticism and disbelief. The great differences between image of Mary in the Catholics and the symbols of Mary in Dubliners are so easy to recognize for the Dubliners that they would shock them emotionally. Mr. Joyce is trying to motivate his people’s introspection, being disillusioned men via art:the Dubliners will be deep in thought whether they can find a way out from the contradictions between tradition and modern society, and how they should live in soul rather than live in the flesh.To begin with, a brief review of studies on Mariology and Dubliners in Chinese is given. At present, few writers have explored Mariology. Compared to Mr. Joyce’s other works, like Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, researchers have not paid as much attention to Dubliners. Also no research has been devoted on the analysis of phenomenon related to Mariology in Dubliners. Admittedly, several studies on Mariology in history, to some extent, have provided background knowledge.Following the Introduction, the paper proceeds to four chapters. Chapter One reports the background of Mariology in Catholics. We will provide in this section basic terminologies, such as Virginity, Maternity and Instrument, which are necessary for the studies of subsequent texts, concentrating on the influence of characterization. The venerations of Mary have depended upon the developing history of Catholicism doctrines. The image of Mary established in the Church deviates far from that in the New Testament, which counts in the reflection of contradictions by Mariology. Chapter Two discusses how Mariology influences Dubliners’ character with specific examples in Dubliners. Influenced by Mariology, the Dubliners tend to perform both active and passive features related to symbols of Mary in Dubliners. Section1presents positive characteristics of roles with Marian tradition as its backgrounds. Section2illustrates the contradictions in Dubliners’ characteristics. And Section3further explores the total negative characteristics of roles with the same tradition.Chapter Three analyzes Mr. Joyce’s heterogeneous constructions of Mary in Dubliners. Mr. Joyce’s constructions are apart from the creed, related to Aesthetics and Oedipus complex. Chapter four describes art functions for symbols of Mary in Dubliners. By using symbols of Mary, Mr. Joyce tries to transmit the incentives to the Dubliners just like Jesus preaching God’s words, for it is the most visual and concrete way for introspections. Through these symbols of Mary, we could read synchronic representation of satire, compassion and meditation imparted to the Irish by Mr. Joyce.