James Joyce's 'Work in Progress': Pre-Book Publications of Finnegans Wake Fragments (Studies in Publishing History: Manuscript, Print, Digital) - Softcover

Hulle, Dirk Van

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367346621 ISBN 13: 9780367346621

Publisher: Routledge, 2019

Synopsis

The text of Finnegans Wake is not as monolithic as it might seem. It grew out of a set of short vignettes, sections and fragments. Several of these sections, which James Joyce confidently claimed would "fuse of themselves", are still recognizable in the text of Finnegans Wake. And while they are undeniably integrated very skillfully, they also function separately. In this publication history, Dirk Van Hulle examines the interaction between the private composition process and the public life of Joyce's 'Work in Progress', from the creation of the separate sections through their publication in periodicals and as separately published sections. Van Hulle highlights the beautifully crafted editions published by fine arts presses and Joyce's encouragement of his daughter's creative talents, even as his own creative process was slowing down in the 1930s. All of these pre-book publications were "alive" in both bibliographic and textual terms, as Joyce continually changed the texts in order to prepare the book publication of Finnegans Wake. Van Hulle's book offers a fresh perspective on these texts, showing that they are not just preparatory versions of Finnegans Wake but a 'Work in Progress' in their own right.

About this title

About the Author

Dirk Van Hulle is Professor of Literature in English at the University of Antwerp. He is the author of Modern Manuscripts: The Extended Mind and Creative Undoing (2014) and co-director of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project. He recently edited the New Cambridge Companion to Samuel Beckett (2015).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367346621
• ISBN 13: 9780367346621
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312