A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce, full name James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882–1941) - a famous Irish novelist. He is noted for his experimental use of language and exploration of new literary methods in such large works of fiction as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is Joyce’s first novel. Written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, who comes to realize that before he can become an artist, he must rid himself of the overarching effects of the religion, politics and essential bigotry of his background. He questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions.