James Joyce (post 8) might have titled his novel “Stephen Dedalus: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” Why didn’t he?

If James Joyce had simply put “Stephan Dedalus” at the head of his title, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, all of the silly problems noted in my previous post would have been avoided.

Joyce failed to do the obvious thing. Here is a possible explanation.

If Joyce had put “Stephen Dedalus” at the head of his title, it would have implied that “Stephan Dedalus” and “the Artist” referred to the same thing. But Joyce may have felt they did not refer to the same thing. How could that be?

Even when writers are not aware of the full extent of their multiplicity, they may, at least, have a sense of duality. They may feel that one part of them attends to everyday affairs, while another part does the writing. That is what Margaret Atwood said in her nonfiction book on writing, and what Henry James said with his short story “The Private Life” (both of which I have previously discussed; search them).

“Stephen Dedalus” may represent Joyce’s everyday, host personality, while “the Artist” may represent his alternate personality who did the writing.

Postscript Nov. 20, 2018: I tried to read the novel, but halfway through I lost interest.