This paper is to examine James Joyce`s metaphor of Ireland`s independence in "Araby" by using the postcolonial theory. It has confronted critics with the hidden or unstated implications of colonial and imperialist relations between lands and people for the interpretation of literary works. Joyce identifies the British Empire and the colonial Irish as the Irish man`s spiritual authority in Dubliners. The unnamed boy in "Araby" suffers from psychological anxiety caused by the outsiders his including uncle`s family, and bazar`s staff, who speak English with accents standing for colonial Ireland. The young boy is forced to suppress his adolescence and Mangan`s sister provokes an epidemic of social purity. He has no choice, but to obey the colonial Irish policy of inescapable dominance and finally becomes a psychologically paralyzed victim. It shows the traditional geopolitical strategy of Irish resistance to Anglo-Irish ascendancy. Joyce consciously adopts a "French" mode with a highly pictorial style, rather than following the dominant British culture and its conventions in the writing process. Joyce, in his self-imposed exile, rejects the colonial Irish identity as well as the English and Anglo-Irish literary hegemony in colonial Ireland. Accordingly, we can understand the Platonic love in "Araby" is not a romantic love, but a metaphor of Ireland`s independence from British colonialism. |