The novel that was to become A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man started its life in 1904, as Stephen Hero: an autobiographical novel told in a realistic style that Joyce eventually abandoned. (The surviving parts of Stephen Hero would be published after Joyce’s death, in 1944.)             

A Ground-Breaking Künstlerroman

Like many of Joyce’s works, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man expresses Joyce’s critical views on Irish society, such as social conservatism, the Catholic church, and nationalism. The novel is semi-autobiographical and follows Stephen as he makes his way from Ireland to continental Europe, in pursuit of a life as an artist.

The novel is classified as a Künstlerroman (“artist’s novel”), a genre that is closely related to the Bildungsroman and whch deals with a young individual who is on a path to becoming a painter, musician, writer, poet etc. Joyce’s novel portrays the early years of Stephen Daedalus, who will later make a reappearance as one of the three main characters of Ulysses (1922).

The Novel’s Developing Style

A Portrait comprises five chapters and explores Stephen’s spiritual, religious, and eventually artistic awakening. Each of the five chapters is narrated in the third-person, but the language is reflective of the age and emotional state of the protagonist, Stephen. For example, the section focusing on Stephen’s childhood are written in simple, childlike language, while Stephen’s decision to move from Dublin to Paris to devote his life to his art is written in a more mature, adult style (including the final section of the novel, where the narration switches from the third-person to first-person accounts from Stephen’s diary).

^{Note: One of the key financial backers of The Egoist, the magazine that serialized A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, was Harriet Weaver Shaw. She would eventually become Joyce’s most important patron.}