Modernism, nationalism, and the novel

About this book

James Joyce's Stephen Dedalus, in A Portrait of the Artist as as a Young Man, ends his diary entry for April 26 with a declaration that could stand as a motto for many of the novelists of his day: "Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."