Description
Book SynopsisThis study links James Joyce's work to historical criticism, Irish historiography and antiquarianism, and Catholic providential history, Thomas C. Hofheinz shows how Joyce illuminates deep and prevalent problems central to modern Irish identity.
Trade Review"...a valuable contribution to the growing list of works on Joyce and history....Hofheinz is not satisfied with merely providing a closely argued assessment of a major author's use of historical sources. Rather, he demonstrates how Finnegans Wake models the deceptions inherent in all history-making thereby cautioning readers to examine their own assumptions regarding the causes, effects and particulars of historical events." Mary Lowe-Evans, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920
"In an essay that achieves an admirable balance between theoretical, historical and interpretive material, Hofheinz argues for a reading of Joyce's novel as 'a cipher for the modern Irish historical predicament'....The result is a reading of Finnegans Wake that is both dazzling and informative...a reading of Finnegans Wake that is both dazzling and informative, and among the finest expositions of Vico's importance to Joyce...I know. " Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction: the subject of Ireland in Finnegans Wake; 2. Conditions for historical study of Finnegans Wake; 3. Naming and claiming: Irish topological history and Finnegans Wake; 4. The annals of themselves: Irish historical writing and Joyce's primal patriarchy; 5. Vico, natural law philosophy, and Joyce's Ireland; 6. Unfolding the map; Bibliography; Index.
