Reading Joyce politically / Trevor L. Williams. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Trevor L.

Series:

The Florida James Joyce series

The Florida James Joyce series Reading Joyce politically

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Joyce, James, 1882-1941--Political and social views.

Joyce, James.

Political fiction, English--Irish authors--History and criticism.

Political fiction, English.

Politics and literature--Ireland--History--20th century.

Politics and literature.

Political fiction, English--History and criticism.

Politics in literature.

Political fiction, English--History and criticism--20th century--Ireland.

Politics and literature--History.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 229 p. )

Place of Publication:

Gainesville : University Press of Florida, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"In the first book-length study of a "Marxist" Joyce, Trevor Williams takes as his starting point Joyce's assertion that Dublin was a "paralysed city." He identifies those power structures within its civil society and private relationships - so clearly drawn by Joyce in Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses - that lie at the heart of that paralysis. More importantly, however, Williams shows how in Joyce the paralysis is always provisional, and explores the ways in which Joyce's characters do indeed demonstrate means of resistance to the British state, to class distinctions, to clerical hegemony, and to power imbalances in familial and sexual relationships."--BOOK JACKET. "In the process, Williams reviews the early criticism leveled against Joyce by the left, in particular by the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934.

He also engages contemporary Joyce critics, including Fredric Jameson, Franco Moretti, and Terry Eagleton, many of whom have attempted to redress the leftist attacks on Joyce and to demonstrate his relevance to a postcolonial critical approach."--BOOK JACKET. "Throughout, Williams asserts the constant need to make literature relevant. In part, this book was inspired by his students, who in 1991, at the outset of the Gulf War, demanded to know how they could justify reading Joyce when, simultaneously, people were being killed. Williams's answer, formulated in the first chapter, is to argue that reading Joyce, who was keenly aware of the impact of unequal power relations, is not only justifiable but relevant, legitimate, and necessary."--BOOK JACKET.

"Unusually free of the dogmatism and economism so frequently associated with Marxist literary criticism, Williams's reading of Joyce draws from the "humanist" tradition of Marxism and from contemporary feminist thinking in what is ultimately a blend of provocative theory and close textual reading. It will be of interest to Joyceans, literary theorists, and anyone who still believes that to read Joyce is not only justifiable but relevant, legitimate, and necessary."--Jacket.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-223) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-8130-2349-1