Title Reading Joyce politically / Trevor L. Williams

Published Gainesville : University Press of Florida, ©1997

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Description 1 online resource (xv, 229 pages) Series The Florida James Joyce series Florida James Joyce series. 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-223) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Joyce, James, 1882-1941 -- Political and social views SUBJECT Joyce, James, 1882-1941 fast Subject Political fiction, English -- Irish authors -- History and criticism Politics and literature -- Ireland -- History -- 20th century LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Political and social views Political fiction, English -- Irish authors Politics and literature English Literature. English. Languages & Literatures. Ireland Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book LC no. 97007555 ISBN 0813023491 9780813023496

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