Archiving Joyce & Joyce's Archive: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake

224 Pages·2015·1.12 MB·English

by  Jessica Michelle Lucero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
12-1-2012
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Jessica Michelle Lucero
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Lucero, Jessica Michelle, "Archiving Joyce & Joyce's Archive: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and Copyright"
(2012). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 1751.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/4332732
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ARCHIVING JOYCE AND JOYCE’S ARCHIVE: ULYSSES, FINNEGANS WAKE,
AND COPYRIGHT

By

Jessica Michelle Lucero
Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in English
Mississippi State University
2001

Master of Arts in English
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
2005

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Doctor of Philosophy in English

Department of English
College of Liberal Arts
The Graduate College

University of Nevada, Las Vegas
December 2012
THE GRADUATE COLLEGE

We recommend the dissertation prepared under our supervision by

Jessica Michelle Lucero

entitled

Archiving Joyce and Joyce’s Archive: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and Copyright

be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in English
Department of English

Beth Rosenberg, Ph.D., Committee Chair

Megan Becker-Leckrone, Ph.D., Committee Member

Anne Stevens, Ph.D., Committee Member

Kate Korgan, Ph.D., Graduate College Representative

Tom Piechota, Ph.D., Interim Vice President for Research &
Dean of the Graduate College

December 2012
ii
ABSTRACT
“Archiving Joyce and Joyce’s Archive: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and Copyright”
investigates the ways in which James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake incorporate
archival institutions and archival modes such as gossip into its composition. For
example, this work explores how both works, at times, present institutions such as the
National Library of Ireland, and, at other times, enact archiving in its collection and
preservation of historical personages relevant to Irish literature and history. Additionally,
Joyce was involved in the construction of his own archive, and thereby becomes the
curator of his own history as well as that of Ireland.
Importantly, this work also considers how copyright law is inextricably linked to
any discussion of archives. Copyright is a multi-faceted, ever-changing set of laws that
differs from nation to nation and therefore complicates what both scholars and archivists
can do with Joyce’s—or other modernist authors’—materials. Recent debates between
Joyce scholars and his Estate make Joyce an excellent case-study for this discussion, and
also ensure that this work is both relevant and important to anyone interested in
copyright, archives, and modernist authors.
.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’d like to offer my sincere gratitude to my dissertation committee, composed of
Drs. Anne Stevens, Megan Becker-Leckrone, and Kate Hausbeck Korgan, I am eternally
grateful to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Beth Rosenberg, who went above and beyond the
call of duty to meet with me anytime I needed her—during weekends and over holidays;
without her, this project would not be possible.
I am beholden to my wonderful bosses at Black Mountain Institute: Dr. Carol C.
Harter and Prof. Richard Wiley; their unwavering insistence on my completing this
dissertation helped me make my deadlines. Thanks also to Maritza White, my confidant
and fellow sushi-lover. The support of Suzanne Becker, Rebecca Boulton, Candace
Griffith, Mark Salvaggio, and Jennifer Whitmer, aka the “Dissertation Support Group,”
has likewise gotten me through all the ups-and-downs of the dissertation process.
I would also like to acknowledge the following archives, whose materials and
exhibitions have informed my research: The Poetry Center at the State University of New
York at Buffalo, the National Library of Ireland, and the Dublin James Joyce Centre.
Additionally, participating in the International James Joyce Symposium, North American
James Joyce Conference, the Modernist Studies Association Conference, and the 2010
Dublin James Joyce Summer School helped to make this project what it is today. I am
also thankful to Drs. Anne Fogarty, Luca Crispi, and Vincent Cheng, whose scholarship
and advice at these conferences have inspired me. My thanks also to the Graduate &
Professional Student Association, the English Department at UNLV as well as the Study
Abroad Scholarship also at UNLV for supporting my travel to these conferences
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throughout the years. Additionally, I am thankful for the Marjorie Barrick Fellowship,
which provided financial support during my research.
Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family. Many heartfelt thanks to Bliss
Esposito Fattore, who first made me write my thesis statement in only one paragraph, and
Ashley Embry Clark, who will always be my “Room” and whose poetry I love. I am
eternally grateful to have found the love of my life, Dr. William Paul Miller, who has
been my cheerleader and my light; his encouragement has kept me focused on the end-
goal. Finally, I am beholden to my parents, Jay and Gabriele Lucero. I have read every
chapter of this dissertation to them aloud, multiple times, and their feedback has been
instrumental not only to the dissertation but throughout my entire academic career. I am
truly the luckiest woman alive.

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PREFACE
As Jacques Derrida has written, we are possessed by “archive fever.” That is,
there is an anxiety surrounding the collection and dissemination of archival materials.
The term itself extends back to the ancient Greek term arkheion, which Derrida defines
as “a house, a domicile, an address, the residence of the superior magistrates, the
archons, those who commanded” (2). In other words, Derrida links the archive with both
the public and private sphere; the magistrates or archons of Classical Greece made,
interpreted, and kept public laws in their private homes, thereby blurring the boundary
between the function and representation of the archive. The term “archive” today is
recognized as an archival institution, which collects and preserves various materials
deemed important to the testimony of the past. Thomas Richards’ Imperial Archives
traces this history back to the age of exploration, when exploration made it necessary for
large repositories to store all the artifacts collected from abroad; the industrial revolution
exploded the possibilities for the collection and dissemination of this information. With
the rise of nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, these institutions
changed again to present the past as a means of creating and sustaining a national
identity. Furthermore, the rise in popularity of authors and other celebrity figures of the
time instigated the donations of personal papers and manuscripts to both public and
private repositories.
Both private and public archives were threatened during the onslaught of World
War I and, later, World War II. It was during this period that the modernist authors
residing in Europe had to make difficult decisions about what to do with their personal
papers and libraries in order to keep them safe. James Joyce was one such author;
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however, due to his financial circumstances and the constant moving he and his family
did (even before the wars), Joyce was not in the position to have access to all of his most
treasured materials; nor did he have the money necessary to ship his materials to other
archival institutions. Joyce, however, was highly instrumental in influencing how his
papers, notebooks, manuscripts, and books would be stored. With the help of his friends
and family, many of Joyce’s works were locked in trunks and kept in their homes; public
libraries and institutions around the world have these benefactors to thank for the
donation or sale of Joyce materials.
Given the importance of these collections to scholars and the heated debates over
Joyce copyright and the purchase and sale of his collections, this history is important and
relevant. Currently, the National Library of Ireland and the University at Buffalo are
digitizing Joyce’s collections; the choice between limited or open access is also hotly
contested. Additionally, Joyce’s works—like other works from authors of the modernist
period—are currently falling out of copyright in most countries (Australia and the United
Kingdom excluded). This re-emergence within the public domain comes at a unique time
in history, where the current copyright laws in Europe, for instance, are still deciphering
the latest addition to European copyright law. For all of these reasons, Joyce is an
excellent case study for analyzing the construction and development of a larger modernist
archive.
The modern legal definitions of copyright laws and contracts issued between
institutions purchasing the rights to private collections, and those who sell them, effects
scholars who wish to work with these materials. Why, one might ask, would anyone sell
materials to institutions that would keep them from the public? One reason is because the
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materials are deemed private—as with some of the Joyce papers, especially of letters sent
by Joyce to his wife, Nora. In fact, Joyce’s archival collections—disbursed as they are
throughout the world—have brought about quite a bit of controversy between a public’s
right to know and the Estate’s call for privacy. And yet the Estate’s wish for privacy is
only part of the problem. The Estate’s primary trustee is Stephen James Joyce, the
grandson of James Joyce, and he has taken it upon himself to conflate issues of privacy
with that of copyright. Furthermore, he considers himself to be the arbiter of taste and
has—so long as he retained copyright—objected to the use of his grandfather’s materials
for a variety of things including criticism, biographies, reprints of the works, new
editions, theatrical adaptations, and the list goes on. The archival institutions themselves
seem to have been caught in the crossfire. How the National Library of Ireland, for
instance, handled the complaints of the Estate in 2002 has real implications for scholars
whose research of Joyce manuscripts, letters, and photographs, for instance, hinge upon
the seeming disjunction between the missions of the institution and the rights of the
literary estate.
“Archiving Joyce and Joyce’s Archive: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and Copyright”
therefore functions as a kind of record of what is happening at this pivotal time in Joyce
scholarship. Also, as copyright law can be so confusing, this work also offers a history of
these laws as they pertain to Joyce specifically. While the “Frequently Asked Questions”
section published online and in the James Joyce Quarterly explains copyright as it
pertains to Joyce, it does little to invoke the specific scholars who have been impacted or
who are currently challenging copyright in a post-copyright era.
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One purpose of this dissertation is to document and analyze current debates
surrounding the collection, dissemination, and use of Joyce’s archival materials; another
is to investigate how Joyce himself viewed and represented the institution of the archive
within his works—most notably in his more experimental works, Ulysses and Finnegans
Wake. These works reveal that Joyce was immersed in the debates over his archives and
used his work to explore the concept of the archive and its impact on the future of his
own legacy. They also show us how Joyce anticipates many of the issues we confront in
the twenty-first century. In fact, Joyce’s later texts present and embody the archive and
the archival experience as well as re-imagine the counter-narratives often missing from
the traditional archive.
In the texts themselves, there are connections between the archive as metaphor (as
Derrida uses the term) and Joyce’s invocation of libraries. Other questions pursued
throughout this work include the level of involvement Joyce had in the construction of his
materials into an archival repository and how Joyce incorporates issues of these
institutions, such as access and preservation, into his own works. Additionally, Ulysses
and Finnegans Wake portray historical personages, Irish movements, and institutions.
Like any exhibition of archival material, Joyce seeks to influence the understanding of
the personages and events. It is through this counter-narrative nature of Joyce’s works
that the texts themselves become part not only of the author-centered archive but of the
historical archive of Dublin and thereby positions Joyce as both an author and curator of
Irish literature. The work is archivable—people can reference them for historical
personages, places and events (and even of fictionalized personages, places, and
events)—and the work archives various archival institutions.
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