Title: “Through a Dark Forest”: On Three Visions in James Joyce’s “Araby”

Abstract: James Joyce’s reading and acceptance of Dante have always been a topic of great concern to Joyce scholars. This article argues that the influence of the Divine Comedy is extremely typical as to form, among other things, the structure, characters and images of Joyce’s short story “Araby.” Provided that in the Divine Comedy, Dante’s “poetics of conversion” is realized through the structure of the “three visions” (the corporeal, the spiritual, and the intellectual); then in Araby there is also an underlying structure of “three visions,” namely the secular life of North Richmond Street, Mangan’s sister and the Araby market. Through its revision of the Divine Comedy, “Araby” implies Joyce’s careful examination of passion, desire and human nature of Dubliners. “Araby” is an important point in Joyce’s imitation or rewriting of Dante, and constitutes an important chapter in Joyce’s “moral history” for Dubliners.

Keywords: James Joyce, Alighieri Dante, “Araby,” Divine Comedy, vision

Author: Meng Zhang, Ph.D. Candidate, Research Institute of Foreign Literature, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2024.01.002