Voice, Boundary, and Identity in the Works of James Joyce
Manista, Frank C.

Description

This book is a study of the weaving and unweaving of particular subject positions within James Joyce’s major works (Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegan’s Wake) through representations of voice, which necessarily negotiates identity, authority, and subjectivity. In the narrowest sense, voice reveals itself as a portion of the narrative which in turn stands as part of the discourse of a particular work. A movement to a more broadly conceived view of voice has it supersede the narrative and function throughout the discourse. Permutations of these concepts locate voice at nearly all levels of Joyce’s fiction. This work explores the myriad of ways that Joyce portrays and negotiates identity through voice and the conceptualization of boundaries that exist “in between” different and distinct subjectivities. The author explores those negotiative identities and subjectivities from within the conceptualization and representation of voice. More often than not, however, a study of voice reveals the inevitability of specific identities to merge and flow into one another, despite futile attempts to retain individuality. The space existing between two seemingly distinct voices blurs in Joyce’s fiction in the din of conversation and in the fuzziness of representation.

Reviews

“ ... As Dr. Manista has meticulously demonstrated over the course of this study, Joyce’s writing has always been a process of discovery. The observations in this book present readers with a sure guide to engaging all of Joyce’s works. Most importantly, like Joyce’s canon, Dr. Manista’s study does not seek to impose meaning upon its readers but rather offers them the means to discern it themselves.” – (From the Foreword) Professor Michael Patrick Gillespie, Marquette University

“ ... The central strength of Dr. Manista’s literary criticism is that he is able to explore the complexity of Joyce’s fiction in such a way that he clarifies Joyce’s techniques without forwarding a reductive reading. He uses the theories of Derrida, Bakhtin, Hayman, and Kristeva to ground his argument; his prose is not subsumed by their ideas ... Dr. Manista’s reading is flexible and open-minded; he thoroughly investigates the complexity of his subject ... [he] has written a book that illuminates Joyce’s writing.” – Professor Catherine S. Kalish, University of Wisconsin

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations
Foreword by Michael Patrick Gillespie
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Dubliners: In Whose Words were the Beginnings
2. Dubliners-II: The First Earwitness to the Thunder of His Arafatas
3. The Circumconversioning of Mr. Stephen Da(e)dalus Within and Between Stephen Hero and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, or I Have Something Inside of Me Talking to Myself
4. Distinguishing between the Sense (prain) from the Sound (bray) of Stephen Dedalus’ Poor Traits of the Artless
5. The Speechform is a Mere Surrogate: Complimentary Character, Voices Apart in Joyce’s Blue Book of Eccles
6. Probable Words, Possibly Said: Occasionally Recausing Altereffects in Ulysses
7. Finnegan’s Wake: Changeably Meaning Vocable Scriptsigns
8. Finnegan’s Wake: Ineffable Tries at Speech Unasyllabled
9. Conclusion: Is It Someone Imparticular Who Will Somewherise for the Whole Anyhow?
Notes
Bibliography
Index

ISBN10:  0-7734-5522-1   ISBN13:  978-0-7734-5522-1    Pages:  240    Year:  2006   

Series: hors série Number: 0

Subject Area: Literature - Irish/Scottish/Welsh 

Imprint: Edwin Mellen Press

USA List Price: $129.95 UK List Price: £ 89.95  

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