Il nuovo linguaggio del simbolismo, assieme allo studio dell’inconscio di Freud, ebbero una forte influenza sulle tecniche romanzesche del “flusso di coscienza”, con cui James Joyce cerca di rappresentare direttamente i movimenti dell’inconscio e i suoi accostamenti analogici. In questo senso č particolarmente rappresentativa un’opera di Joyce: “Dubliners”.
Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories. The characters are the Dubliners, but in particular the central character is Dubliner’s mind. They represent all the people of the old Europe that were tied to old values: the religion, the Catholicism, the belief in the father’s authority and in the value of the family and the love for the country.
Everyone of this values was completely refused by Joyce in his life. He was educated by the Jesuit but later he refused Catholic religion. After university college he left Dublin and for the rest of his life he lived Ireland and away from his family. He left Dublin because he considered the Irish mentality as an obstacle to his own artistic development. In fact in his works he considered Dublin the centre of paralysis. This paralysis is the paralysis of the ordinary people that accepted the limitations imposed by the old values and the social context. They wanted to change but they were not able. They lived in a state of uncertainty, a moment of crisis of values. They understood their crisis but they continued their usual life.