Reauthorizing Joyce (Florida James Joyce) - Softcover

Mahaffey, Vicki

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813013445 ISBN 13: 9780813013442

Publisher: University Press of Florida, 1995

Synopsis

Vicki Mahaffey argues that for James Joyce, language is the most important link between the unconscious and the socio-historical.  It serves as a precise link beween the psychological and the political, between the individual and the communal, between the future and the past.  Quoting Finnegans Wake, Mahaffey describes language as a bag full of "presents."

 This first paperback edition of Reauthorizing Joyce suggests that the reader's role in relation to Joyce's novels is more active and significant than is usually the case.  "Reading Joyce goes beyond entertainment into 'hands on' instruction about how to perceive and process language more productively, enjoyably, and responsibly.  Joyce provides readers with novels that are workshops in interpretive responsibility and sensual perceptiveness."

 Language, according to Mahaffey, is the real hero of Joyce's work.  This study shows how language functions in Joyce as an index to unconscious desires and as a record of how people have responded to the sensual aspects of language through time.Vicki Mahaffey is associate professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.  She has written numerous book chapters and articles, many on James Joyce, for journals such as Critical Inquiry  and James Joyce Quarterly.

About this title

Book Description:

"A particularly rich deconstructive reading of Joyce's texts as well as, by implication, a telling critique of those who 'authorize' and represent Joyce within the 'academic institution'."--Bryan Cheyette, Times Literary Supplement

"Mahaffey's most impressive argument is linking language and clothing (the word 'text' derives from texere, meaning 'to weave').  She demonstrates how language functions like material woven of likenesses and differences by analyzing several patterns of weaving in Joyce's work. . . .  Language, the clothing of thought, and clothing, the language of flesh, represent two modes of authority, two processes of reading the world.Reauthorizing Joyce artfully demonstrates how Joyce educates the reader to recognize the interrelationship of these two authorities."--Robert D. Newman, South Atlantic Review

"A welcome study written by an engaging mind.  Most Joyceans, especially those who are responsive to post-structuralist and feminist ideas, will read it with great interest and return to it often."--Charles Rossman, James Joyce Quarterly

"Mahaffey makes her way from Dubliners to the Wake, showing not only Joyce-the-Mastermind but also Joyce the Weaver of textile and text-styles."--Carol Shloss, Modern Fiction Studies

Vicki Mahaffey argues that for James Joyce, language is the most important link between the unconscious and the socio-historical.  It serves as a precise link beween the psychological and the political, between the individual and the communal, between the future and the past.  Quoting Finnegans Wake, Mahaffey describes language as a bag full of "presents."

 This first paperback edition of Reauthorizing Joyce suggests that the reader's role in relation to Joyce's novels is more active and significant than is usually the case.  "Reading Joyce goes beyond entertainment into 'hands on' instruction about how to perceive and process language more productively, enjoyably, and responsibly.  Joyce provides readers with novels that are workshops in interpretive responsibility and sensual perceptiveness."

 Language, according to Mahaffey, is the real hero of Joyce's work.  This study shows how language functions in Joyce as an index to unconscious desires and as a record of how people have responded to the sensual aspects of language through time.

 

About the Author:

Vicki Mahaffey is associate professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.  She has written numerous book chapters and articles, many on James Joyce, for journals such as Critical Inquiry  and James Joyce Quarterly.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0813013445
• ISBN 13: 9780813013442
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 241