The bold bad bleak boy of the storybooks : the artist figure in Finnegans wake

Abstract

Finnegans Wake is a strange and daunting book to many of its first-time readers, but it stands as the culmination of an oeuvre that is consistent in its experimentation, and in its themes. One of Joyce's most consistent themes is the exploration of aesthetic theory through his artist figure, found most famously in Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. He is also, to an extent, Leopold Bloom of Ulysses. In Finnegans Wake he is found in Shem, who is "the bold bad bleak boy of the storybooks" (219.24). Many of the major themes that permeate Joyce's oeuvre, such as the nature of artistry, the relationship between male and female, and Irishness, are embodied in Shem and, through him, many of these concerns are resolved in his final text. Exploring the artist figure in Finnegans Wake necessitates a wider exploration of all of the central characters in the text, an exploration that will reveal the extent to which Joyce's perception of artistic creation and sense of aesthetic has evolved, drawing together each of the major themes of his life's work. Though Shem is in many ways a continuation of Joyce's earlier artist characters, he is ultimately a dramatically different figure that is a revealing and evocative final portrait of the artist.