Building the Bildungsroman: How Jonathan Swift’s Early Satire Helped James Joyce Find His Voice

Abstract

This study investigates the stylistic affinities between Jonathan Swift and James Joyce, in particular those resemblances which are present in their earlier works—A Tale of a Tub, The Battel of the Books, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It demonstrates that both Swift and Joyce use similar literary devices in their work to enliven it and make it exuberant. Some of those devices are personification, zoomorphism, synesthesia, auditory implication, juxtaposition, amplification, anthropomorphism, and an abundant incorporation of kinesthetic language. Moreover, Swift and Joyce abjure the temporal and structural approaches to most novelistic literature that render slow-moving plot and ordinary language. They instead create episodic movements and quick changes, at even the sentence level, to make their work vivified, vibrant, and exciting. Additionally, this thesis indicates when James Joyce became interested in Swift as a writer—because he was not always so—and pinpoints the timeframe where Swiftian influence may have driven him to make alterations to his own writing style. While other scholars have shown that Swift’s influence is readily apparent in Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, this thesis will show that that influence may well have come earlier. Finally, this thesis tracks the numerous personal similarities between these two great authors, including their significant hardships, arrogance, and brilliance, which may have some bearing on why Joyce felt a kinship with Swift and why he was a personal hero and inspiration to him.