James Joyce and alcoholism

Abstract

This paper will zoom-in upon one of the greatest modernist writers and influential figures of the twentieth century, James Joyce. In this way, following his life’s developments, from his troubled childhood to his frantic life abroad with Nora Barnacle, his literary work and his inspirational sources, we will try to establish whether alcohol consumption hindered or aided his creative process. In order to do so, this article will present events that might have triggered the drinking, the rituals and ‘customs’ of the process, as they seem to be in some kind of interrelation. These facts will be rendered while using close textual analyses of his literary works in the context of addiction.