A Neo-Marxist Reading of James Joyce's The Dead

This study analyzes James Joyce's The Dead as a critique of colonial and bourgeois ideological structures. The study argues that the paralysis which defines Dublin life is not merely spiritual but is materially produced by the economic stagnation of colonial Ireland and the ideological grip of a compromised middle class. Most interpretations of the story have seen Gabriel Conroy's personal epiphany, the conflict between tradition and modernity, or the haunting memory of Michael Furey. Such readings do not provide an understanding of the material and ideological conditions that create the moral and psychological dilemmas faced by the Irish bourgeoisie. Three questions have been raised in this study: How does The Dead depict the way colonial economic structures shape and distort the consciousness of the Irish middle class? In what ways does Gabriel's identity crisis reflect the ideological contradictions produced by colonial and class hegemony? Why does the story depict paralysis as a systemic rather than individual condition? Therefore, the Neo-Marxist approach is used as an analytical tool. Some of the most important theorists included in this study are Antonio Gramsci.