Joyce's Revenge: History, Politics, and Aesthetics in Ulysses

319 Pages·2002·2.8 MB·English

by  Andrew Gibson

JOYCE’S REVENGE:
History, Politics, and
Aesthetics in Ulysses
ANDREW GIBSON
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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JOYCE’S REVENGE
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JOYCE’S REVENGE
History, Politics, and
Aesthetics in Ulysses
ANDREW GIBSON
3
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3
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To LEN, SALLY,
LUCY, and CHARLIE
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Acknowledgements
I OWEAparticular debt to those who read the final draft ofthis book,
Vince Cheng, Ian Littlewood, Bernard McGinley, Steven Morrison,
Len Platt, Fritz Senn, and that generous stalwart of the Utah Joyce
list, John Smurthwaite. They read judiciously, with care and meticu-
lous attention, and saved me from many occasions for embarrass-
ment. Some of them are mentioned again below, for different
reasons.
The book has taken me fifteen years to write, and, not being
blessed with Joyce’s prodigious memory, I shan’t be able to name
everyone who has contributed to its making. Nor shall I list all those
articles, essays, reviews, lectures, and conference papers of my own
on which I drew. Some ofthem will be found in my bibliography. I am
most grateful to all those who have invited me to write or speak about
Ulyssesover the years, responded to what I produced, and granted me
permission to reprint. They include Anne Fogarty, Josh Cohen,
Angus Easson, Philip Martin, Timothy Martin, Roger Richardson,
Christine van Boheemen, and Henry Woudhuysen. Many Joyce
scholars gave me help or contributed, sometimes in conversation and
more than they may have known. They include Derek Attridge, Brian
Caraher, Greg Downing, Luke Gibbons, Michael Groden, Clive
Hart, Suzette Henke, Declan Kiberd, Christine O’Neill, Patrick
Parrinder, Ferenc Takács, George Watson, and Wolfgang Wicht. I am
particularly grateful to Vince Cheng, who has for years been not only
a support but an inspiration. Friends and colleagues listened, talked,
offered advice and assistance in many different ways: thanks to Steve
Connor, Thomas Docherty, Martin Dzelzainis, Diane Elam, Thomas
Kabdebo, Jeremy Maule, Adam Roberts, Michael Slater, David
Trotter,andSueWiseman.IamgratefultotheYeatsscholarsWarwick
Gould and (in particular) Deirdre Toomey, who was extraordinarily
generous with her knowledge and her time. I learnt a great deal from
various research students who have worked on Joyce with me, partic-
ularly Francis Duggan, Steven Morrison, Debbie Peers, Chen Shu-I,
and Mark Sutton, and owe a very large debt ofgratitude to my Head
of Department, Kiernan Ryan, for his invigorating and unfailing
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acknowledgements vii
belief in my work. My thanks also go to three departmental secre-
taries, Daphne Pollen, Jane Cowell, and especially Jean Rayner,
whose patience and good humour were very valuable to me in the
closing stages.
When I started the London University Seminar for Research into
Joyce’s Ulysses in 1986, I had no idea that it might still be flourishing
in 2002. Many scholars and enthusiasts have joined (and left) us over
the years, from London, elsewhere in the UK, and abroad. Most if
not all ofthem have contributed to this book in one way or another. I
am grateful to them for their ideas and perceptions and their sup-
port and encouragement; in particular, to Phil Baker, Joe Brooker,
Finn Fordham, Clare Hutton, Caroline Hyland, Blanche Levenkind,
Bernard McGinley, Katy Mullins, Joan Peake, Mike Peake, Derval
Tubridy, and John Wyse Jackson. Above all, I owe heartfelt thanks to
Robert Hampson and Katie Wales, who helped me set the seminar up
and were for many years its most faithful members. The London
Joyce group has long enjoyed a friendly and productive relationship
with the Joyce group at the University ofLeeds, and I am particularly
grateful to three of its members, Alistair Stead, Pieter Bekker, and,
above all, Richard Brown.
The biggest debts are the hardest to express. This book owes a very
great deal to the helpfulness and seemingly untiring patience of li-
brarians: in the University of London Library, the National Library
of Ireland, the Newspaper Library at Colindale in London, and,
above all, the Rare Books room ofthe British Library. Special thanks
to Luca Crispi at the Poetry/Rare Books Collection, University of
Buffalo. The London Joyce scholar Charles Peake was a model ofex-
actitude. His conviction that, in principle, one ought to have one’s
own explanation for everything in Ulysseswas important to me. Fritz
Senn’s learning, dedication, and acute sensitivity to Joyce’s texts have
always been exemplary. For many Joyce scholars, that goes without
saying. I also want to thank him and his colleagues at the James Joyce
Foundation in Zurich for their personal support over many years. My
father has been much in my mind whilst writing this: I learnt most of
what I know about ‘an inherited tenacity of heterodox resistance’
from him. But my biggest debt is to Len Platt. From the late eighties,
when there was little to work with apart from scattered writings by
Seamus Deane, we argued about Joyce and cultural politics, Joyce
and England, Joyce and Anglo-Ireland, Joyce and Irish Ireland, and
Joyce and nationalism in various South London pubs, but chiefly in
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viii acknowledgements
the Commercial on Railton Road. I learnt an immense amount from
Len. The traces ofour arguments are everywhere in this book. I hope
the arguments continue and are sustained and deepened by others
over the coming decades.
Finally, my thanks to Jason Freeman, who first commissioned this
book; to Sophie Goldsworthy and Matthew Hollis, who have faith-
fully seen it through to publication with Oxford University Press; and
to Rowena Anketell, who copy-edited my text to the highest stan-
dards, and for whose many pains Iwas extremely grateful.
A.G.
London,2002
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Contents
Note on Text of Ulysses xi
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. Patiens Ingemiscit: Stephen Dedalus, Ireland,
and History 21
2. Only a Foreigner Would Do: Leopold Bloom,
Ireland, and Jews 42
3. Gentle Will is being Roughly Handled: ‘Scylla
and Charybdis’ 60
4. A Look Around: ‘Wandering Rocks’ 81
5. History, All That: ‘Sirens’, ‘Cyclops’ 103
6. Waking Up in Ireland: ‘Nausicaa’ 127
7. An Irish Bull in an English Chinashop: ‘Oxen
ofthe Sun’ 150
8. Strangers in My House, Bad Manners to Them!:
‘Circe’ 183
9. Mingle Mangle or Gallimaufry: ‘Eumaeus’ 207
10. An Aberration ofthe Light ofReason: ‘Ithaca’ 227
11. The End ofAll Resistance: ‘Penelope’ 252
Bibiography 273
Index 299