| Summary: | <p>My thesis analyzes James Joyces engagement with Catholic-nationalist Irelands (mis)understanding of women in <i>Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man</i>, and <i>Ulysses</i>. I argue that, while Joyce shows both men and women struggling against the constraints of Catholic-nationalist gender roles, he implies that neither can be free from those constraints until Irish artists seek to more thoroughly understand women. After explaining how Catholic-nationalist rhetoric influenced the Irish understanding of women, I argue that Joyce not only recognizes and engages with Irish gender oppression but also believes that Irish art both constructs and is constructed by this oppression. With analyses of some of Joyces female characters, Stephen Dedalus, and Molly Bloom, I demonstrate how Joyce critiques Irish cultures concept of women and Irish arts representation of them, and then establishes a new paradigm of artistic representation. </p>
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