The Making of the Modern Artist: Stephen Dedalus and Will Brangwen

The Making of the Modern Artist: Stephen Dedalus and Will Brangwen examines two fictional artists by James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow respectively. It brings together Joyce and Lawrence in their common concern with the modern artist and modern art. Taking the two major artist characters of the two works, this study establishes that Joyce and Lawrence, irrespective of major background, educational, artistic and philosophical differences, converge on the person, character, artistic vision and working methods of the modern artist. This study makes little effort at looking at these fictional artists as alter egos of Joyce and Lawrence; it treats them as modern artists in their own right. It attempts to give them somewhat a critical right of existence of their own.