Joyce: A Guide for the Perplexed / Edition 1

by Peter Mahon

Overview

James Joyces work has, not unjustly, been regarded as some of the most obscure, challenging and difficult writing ever committed to paper; it is also shamelessly funny and endlessly entertaining. Joyce: A Guide for the Perplexed celebrates the daring, humour and playfulness of Joyces complex work while engaging with and elucidating the most demanding aspects of his writing. The book explores in detail the motifs and radical innovations of style and technique that characterize his major works Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. By highlighting how Joyces texts have been read by recent innovations in literary and cultural theory, Joyce: A Guide for the Perplexed offers the reader a Joyce that is contemporary, fresh and relevant.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826487926
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/02/2009
Series:	Guides for the Perplexed
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Peter Mahon teaches in the Department of English at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of Imagining Joyce and Derrida: Between Finnegans Wake and Glas (University of Toronto Press, 2007).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

1 Introducing Joyce: Realism and Epiphany in Dubliners

2 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: The Sexual Politics of Art

3 Reading Ulysses I: From "Telemachus" to "The Wandering Rocks"

4 Reading Ulysses II: "Sirens" to "Penelope"

5 The Language(s) and Structure(s) of Finnegans Wake

6 Conclusion: "Where are we at all?"

Suggested Further Reading

Index

Editorial Reviews

"As anyone who's read Finnegan's Wake can attest, James Joyce can be a challenging writer. In this book, Mahon guides readers through Joyce's stylistic and thematic complexity, showing readers how he remains contemporary, fresh, and relevant. Without losing sight of Joyce's humor and playfulness, the author explores the motifs and radical innovations of style and technique that characterize his major works Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake and highlights the ways that Joyce's texts have been read by recent innovations in literary and cultural theory." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.

'The brilliance of the book lies in Mahon's ability to eschew the ponderous critical framework that might alienate a reader new to Joyce ... Highly recommended' Choice, August 2010

"An extraordinary achievement! Peter Mahon has done great service to all readers of modernism in general and Joyce in particular, in producing a lively, erudite, and, most of all, welcoming introduction to James Joyce, which will become an indispensable portal into the world of all things Joycean."
- Julian Wolfreys, Professor of Modern Literature and Culture, Loughborough University, UK

"When Peter Mahon guides us through the main works of James Joyce, he doesn't provide the roadmap for an ancient Irish maze but offers a brand new GPS, a Global Positioning System or a Guide for Perplexed Students. In clear and simple prose, Mahon explains how to connect this little black box to the Joycean engine. Just pull some gears, it falls into place and works. Sit back, read some more, youll be able at last to enjoy the Joyce ride." - Jean-Michel Rabate, Vartan Gregorian Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, USA

From the Publisher