A groundbreaking reinterpretation of James Joyce’s final work that locates even his most difficult writing in the observed realities of the twentieth century
For many readers, Finnegans Wake represents the furthest reach of literary experimentation: a work of dizzying linguistic invention often treated as detached from ordinary reality. In Phenomenal Joyce, John Gordon challenges that assumption, arguing that Joyce remained, throughout his career, a profoundly mimetic writer whose fiction is rooted in the observed world as filtered through a protagonist’s mind.
Through historically informed close readings of Joyce’s major works, with particular emphasis on Finnegans Wake, Gordon demonstrates how sensory experience, perception, and historical change shaped Joyce’s writing. Focusing on the years in which Finnegans Wake was composed, Gordon traces the impact of major cultural and political developments, including the aftermath of World War I, the emergence of radio and new communications technologies, changing sexual politics, antisemitism, and the rise of Adolf Hitler. By showing how sensations and contemporary events are shown through the consciousness of Joyce’s characters, Phenomenal Joyce offers a compelling new account of the relationships among history, perception, and literary form for one of the twentieth century’s most influential authors.
