Party pieces : oral storytelling and social performance in Joyce and Beckett / Alan W. Friedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Friedman, Alan Warren.

Series:

Irish studies (Syracuse, N.Y.)

Irish studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Joyce, James, 1882-1941--Criticism and interpretation.

Joyce, James.

Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989--Criticism and interpretation.

Beckett, Samuel.

Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989.

Joyce, James, 1882-1941.

Storytelling in literature.

Self-presentation in literature.

Social interaction in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xxix, 258 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2007.

Summary:

"Irishness" has often meant self-dramatization because Ireland is commonly represented as a nation of storytellers, musicians, and virtuoso performers. Like many of their characters, Joyce and Beckett were superb musicians, creators of performance, and they sought both to evoke and exhaust the resources and rhythms of language and performance. In this groundbreaking work, Alan W. Friedman explores the rich historical and literary backgrounds of this distinctly Irish phenomenon. He explains its cultural significance and discusses the major works of both authors, illustrating and analyzing the diverse ways in which each of them enacts Ireland. Party Pieces places two great modern Irish writers within social and metaphorical conventions that are specifically moored in their Irishness. In so doing, the author shows how social performances not only impacted the works of Joyce and Beckett but also were central to their creative processes and products.

Contents:

1 "Party Pieces": Oral Storytelling and Social Performance in Ireland 1

2 Dubliners: "Scrupulous Meanness" Versus Expansive Performance 24

3 Stephen Dedalus's Non Serviam Patriarchal and Performative Failure in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 53

4 Vying for Artistry in Ulysses 75

5 Vying for Center Stage in Beckett's Early Plays 107

6 Performers and Antiperformers in Beckett's Dramaticules 143

Coda: Stage(d) Endings 180.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-233) and index.

ISBN:

9780815631231

0815631235

9780815631484

0815631480

OCLC:

123968774