Joyce and the Subject of History

Abstract

What did James Joyce think about history? He boasted that Dublin could be rebuilt from the pages of his novels, yet Joyce stopped writing essays and reviews at an age when many authors are just beginning to express themselves on important extra-literary topics--and the Joyce that emerges in biographies and memoirs is notoriously unreliable about history and politics. In Joyce and the Subject of History, some of the brightest stars in Joyce criticism tease out the historical implications embedded in Joyce\u27s oeuvre without conceding too much to the comprehensive historical claims of the fictions themselves. At a time when much historical work remains surprisingly under-theorized and much theoretical work excludes the detail and rigor of serious historical research, this collection attempts to bridge the gap between history and theory, to reconceive the field of literary historical scholarship as a whole. As an added resource, the book concludes with Robert Spoo\u27s extensive Annotated Bibliography of historical work on Joyce.https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/books/1021/thumbnail.jp