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The woman of the Ballyhoura Hills: James Joyce and the politics of creativity - character in Joyce's book 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'
Twentieth Century Literature, Winter, 1998 by Marian Eide
Initially, Stephen plays devil's advocate without taking a clear stand on the issues Madden introduces. When Madden asks Stephen more directly if they don't "as a race" have a right to be free, Stephen demurs, saying he can't use "these phrases of the platform." Madden presses him for political opinions and Stephen responds " - I am going to think them out, I am an artist, don't you see?" (Stephen Hero 56). Stephen's response indicates that an artist's political views must be complexly conceived, not comprised of the slogans that form casual conversation. His amorous motivation in taking the course suggests a possible difference with Madden's idealized Irish morality and initiates a connection between sexual desire and politics. Stephen's investment suggests that the liberation of the Irish nation must bring with it a liberation from the more oppressive and hypocritical strictures imposed by traditional Irish morality and exemplified by the Catholic church's positions on sexuality. Stephen negotiates an ambiguous balance that counters the traditional link between the church and its support of the independence movement(3) with a desire for a different kind of liberation that encompasses not only national but also personal and moral expression. In keeping with this ambiguous position, Stephen takes classes with the Gaelic League but refuses to wear their badge. In the language course itself, the teacher and sometime poet, Hughes, presents standard nationalist dogma by saying that English is the "language of commerce and . . . Irish the speech of the soul. . ." (Stephen Hero 58). Stephen's differences with this dogma are later made apparent by Hughes's vitriolic response to Stephen's esthetic theory.
Joyce is not, however, completely dismissing the claims of the Gaelic League by representing Stephen's difficult relations with their program. He is sympathetic, though not ultimately in agreement, with their rebellion against the imposition of the English language in Ireland. Stephen's esthetic objectives encompass a complex desire for liberation (both erotic and political) that must be based on a coherent and independent identity for the Irish nation. In Stephen's view it is the responsibility of the Irish artist to "forge" a "conscience" for the Irish nation. In other words, the Irish artist creates a way for the Irish to understand themselves as separate from the double colonizing forces of Roman Catholicism and British imperial rule.(4) The artist must also imagine an independent morality that is not constrained by the dominant paradigms created by these two institutions. In forging such a conscience, Stephen uses the English language as his medium. Yet he is aware that this language is itself a symptom of external controls. In creating an esthetic theory compatible with his national conscience, Stephen must consider the problem of language: how does an artist write in the language of the master without acceding to the colonial influence of the master's own esthetic?
