Saint Patrick and Iconic Realism

Stained glass image of Saint Patrick 

from Cathedral of St. Patrick, Oakland, California

Saint Patrick was born in Britain in the late 4th or early 5th century and died March 17, 461.  Abducted by Irish pirates when he was in his teens, he escaped and returned to Britain. [1]

In his book entitled, Confessions, he wrote:

"The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same. I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain."

"I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: 'The Voice of the Irish.' As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea-and they cried out, as with one voice: 'We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.'"

The Irish Gaelige term for 'voice' is 'glor,' so his vision would have been a glorious one, for sure. 

How does Saint Patrick's life demonstrate iconic realism? 

1. A British lad ends up in Ireland during the Dark Ages. 

2. This placement was an unusual one for a British lad. 

3. Eventually, he was ordained a priest by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, with whom he had studied for years, and he was later ordained a bishop. He was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland as a means of transforming the pagan mindset to one of Christianity. He used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the people. 

Quoted material is from Saint Patrick's book, Confessions, and cited from the following website: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=89

[1] Dates of Saint Patrick's life and death are from the following website: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=89

James Joyce's Ulysses and Iconic Realism: Molly Bloom

Ha'Penny Bridge, Dublin, Ireland

Below is an excerpt from a chapter, which I contributed to the book entitled, 

Breaking the Mould: Literary Representation of Irish Catholicism in Literature. 

James Joyce illustrates iconic realism by means of Victorian feminine perceptions throughout Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in the final chapter of his epic tale, Ulysses. Using stream of consciousness in a manner unparalleled at this novel’s publication, Joyce leads his audience to the entrance of the sphere of Molly’s mind, taking the reader to every crevice of her feminine consciousness. Joyce defies the social stigma of women during this era as he interweaves Molly Bloom’s expression of a unique feminine point of view.

Through Molly’s voice, he seeks answers to his own challenge with a feminine defiance of human weakness. The Ireland in which James Joyce lives is in the midst of revolution. As Joyce leaves his ancestral home, he allows his own genius to flourish. He sees the result of the male world’s design for women and seeks to illuminate the world with its significance. His personal associations with women frame the female portrait of Molly Bloom, as he places Molly in the midst of the Victorian era, with its focus on proper placement of gender roles, customs and even nations, carries the burden of living with this regimented philosophical point of view.

Joyce designs the person of Molly to reveal traits that originate from conventional Victorian male ideas of how a woman should act or think. Joyce writes Molly as one whose actions with a particular tendency to focus upon her sexual desires. Molly, like Ireland, is a contradiction of human spirit. On one hand, she is independent, wild, yet she depends on the ruler of her heart for identity. Nevertheless, Joyce uses outspoken behavior by Molly to reveal his personal hopeful desire for Ireland, one that seeks to declare independence from the established English Common law.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

Sydney Owenson's "Lay of an Irish Harp," Politics, and Iconic Realism

Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) 

The cover photo of my book from New York Public Library

Excerpt from my paper, read at the Association for Franco-Irish Studies conference in Dublin, Ireland:

In her 1807 lyrical collection, Lay of an Irish Harp, Sydney Owenson uses the iconic imagery of a harp to scrutinize the resonating cry for enlightened human consciousness shortly after the Act of Union 1801 has been enforced. She illustrates the harmonics of human intellect surrounding the Irish message of perseverance in times of hardship and indignity suffered when human rights are ignored, using rhythmic structure within her poetics and iconic allusions through intricate semiotic fusion of philosophy and history. According to her memoirs, Owenson’s aspiration was as follows: 

...to make my native country better known, and to dissipate the political and religious prejudices that hindered its prosperity…Neither lovers, friends, nor flatterers, ever turned my attention from the steady, settled aim of my life-- and that was to advocate the interest of my country in my writings…        

When enlightenment merely reflects the ignorance of cultural bias, the abrasive consciousness of society suppresses creative exploration and moves into a mire of lost intentions and spiritual limitation. Owenson begins a personal quest to enlighten her contemporaries of a plausible if not impossible endeavour for the Irish and the British to maintain a semblance of harmony in Ireland. She uses the aural traditions of harp music and the power in lyrical structure to express innovative concepts through the traditional aural experiences of narratives and music.  Kate Bowan and Paul Pickering remark: 

Music is central to the formation of identities whether national, ethic, religious, or political as it can by virtue of being a social activity, include or exclude, and is open to countless reshaping and re-articulations in various contexts.

Thus, Owenson’s literary works demonstrate an iconic vision in the midst of dissonance, as she focuses her reading audience’s attention on discordant elements within nineteenth century Irish society that need transformation. 

Note: A 'lay' or 'lai' is a medieval lyrical poem. Some believe that the word 'lay' originates with the Old High German word, 'leich,' which means a play, melody, or song. 

Sydney Owenson's Application of the Semiotic Theory of Iconic Realism

My Book
 

The following is from the first chapter of my book: 

Woven from the threads of disenfranchisement and enchantment, Owenson's writing captures the semiotic essence of the philosophically and politically inspired Romantic era, in which the grand is intentionally written to be grander in terms of style, topics and themes, where literary characterizations align with political forces to challenge the core of that which comprises a civil society.

The field of semiotics defines the significance of meaning in terms of its relative interpretations by Owenson’s audiences. Based on its historical and philosophical frames of reference, an audience assigns a variety of interpretations to any piece of literature. As Mario J. Valdés asserts, “The meaning we construe to any statement or any text is tentative; indeterminacy is controlled by a system of signs we accept as determinate in order to establish a temporary identity to the text.” [1]

In alignment with this thought, Owenson’s readers interact with her as author and interpret the material independently of each other, yet in a way that is inclusive of the history and culture of all parties. These inclusive qualities of specific communities comprise the basis for the establishment of certain elements to be identified as iconic.

Iconic representation of literature within any community develops from that community’s awareness of the connection between the writer’s endeavour and human consciousness. When the community understands that each writer is contributing to the possible transformation of thought, fresh ideas offer the possibility for growth in the potential for change. 

Reform occurs when the community also understands the historicity of the artists’ renderings in correlation with the current status of the community’s mind-set. Eventually, the cultures within a community, inclusive of the writers and those who comprise the audience, form a semiotic alliance that incorporates the language, philosophy, and history of the culture. Once these elements align, a tolerance emerges that provides opportunity for innovation.... (pp.18-19)

[1] Mario Valdés,  Hermeneutics of Poetic Sense: Critical Studies of Literature, Cinema, and Cultural History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998) p.15.

James Joyce's Ulysses: Breathing in Natural and New Laws

Often, individuals perceive the world in terms of various human laws and semantic representations established by the community. These laws or rules of thought have been the subject of many philosophers throughout history. One such philosopher was Thomas Aquinas, who described differences between natural law and new law, represented by Christ. 

Dr. Taylor Marshall, who devoted his doctoral dissertation to Thomas Aquinas’ philosophical approach to such laws, states: 

"Natural law is not the same as ‘laws of nature’ such as gravity. Natural law is an inward inclination toward the good and the avoidance of evil. It is a natural operating system. Thomas [Aquinas] explicitly teaches it is not chiefly a set of moral commandments. Rather it is an inclination humans have toward the good." (43)

Dr. Marshall continues with his discussion of Natural Law versus Thomas Aquinas’ interpretation of New Law in which he states: 

The New Law of the Gospel fulfills what is lacking in the natural law. It is required that every Christian seek to prayerfully persuade every man and woman on Earth to enter into the New Law of Christ.” (44) 

In his novel, Ulysses, James Joyce illustrates the manner in which human beings manage these laws, both Natural and New, as he weaves in and out of Leopold Bloom’s odyssey as if he were a spirit, acknowledging the human frailties and the responsibilities that many leave deposited along the wayside of their life’s journeys. He utilizes Bloom’s adventure to reveal this spiritual arc to the reader through a combination of language, human interactions, and observations.

As a reader of Joyce’s Ulysses inhales and exhales this linguistic masterpiece, an opportunity exists to affect change in the reader’s consciousness and perhaps even in one’s own community. Through his configuration of various linguistic and literary styles to illustrate various societal constraints, Joyce presents his reading audience with views of his own cognitive dissonance, represented as the other through Leopold Bloom, as well as the distinction between the Irish consciousness and that of other countries in Europe during the first world war years. 

Joyce releases his own constraints and embraces the possibilities associated with challenging stereotypes, linguistic barriers, and cultural standards. He creates his own version of Nature and New Laws. His extensive references to elitist whims within this novel contribute to the iconic intricacies of dissonant cultures existing in the midst of a torn tapestry of Dublin and Europe as the people deal with the post and pre- world wars. Indeed, Joyce’s use of iconic realism throughout his novel, Ulysses, creates an awareness of the need for cultural change.

Marshall, Taylor, Ph.D., Thomas Aquinas in Fifty Pages, Electronic Copyright, Texas, U.S.A., 2013.