Stephen Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus is a fictional character of the Irish writer James Joyce.

Dedalus emerges a portrait of the artist as a young man ( first edition 1916) as well as in Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses (1922 ), both in the novel.

A portrait of the artist as a young man tells about the childhood and youth of Dedalus. The novel and the figure of Stephen even wear strong autobiographical elements.

In Ulysses Stephen Dedalus embodies a modern Telemachus, who is in search of a spiritual father, even though the young man is to describe himself as an intellectual. He lacks much more of a father -like older friend, the " school of life " brings him closer - this role takes in the course of Ulysses increasingly the actual main character of the novel, Leopold Bloom, a. The first part of Ulysses is dedicated to Stephen Dedalus. The first three chapters introduce the reader into the highly spiritualized world of thought and the social environment of the figure. In this first part of the work, the autobiographical trains at Dedalus are particularly prominent.