A structuralist analysis of Exiles

Abstract

Exiles is a recalcitrant text, "one of the more difficult of Joyce's works", as Tindall puts it. One of its basic themes is the problem of freedom and creativity. Farrell and Macleod, though differing on many issues, deal with at least one subject common to both Joyce and Ibsen: "the dilemma of freedom and responsibility, and the problem of the status of the artist." Of course, Joyce was also fictionalizing a series of incidents in his own life, as Ellman has shown. And one of the aspects which Joyce, Richard, and Stephen Dedalus share is the belief that "isolation is the first principle of artistic economy." Referring to When We Dead Awaken, Joyce suggested "the idea of creativity and freedom as being central" to Ibsen's work, as Farrell notes. Joyce's phrase would still hold true if applied to his own drama.