Useless Joyce: Textual Functions, Cultural Appropriations

Conley, Tim

ISBN 10: 1487519958 / ISBN 13: 9781487519957

Published by University of Toronto Press, 2020

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Synopsis:

Tim Conley’s Useless Joyce provocatively analyses Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake and takes the reader on a journey exploring the perennial question of the usefulness of literature and art. Conley argues that the works of James Joyce, often thought difficult and far from practical, are in fact polymorphous meditations on this question. Examinations of traditional textual functions such as quoting, editing, translating, and annotating texts are set against the ways in which texts may be assigned unexpected but thoroughly practical purposes. Conley’s accessible and witty engagement with the material views the rise of explication and commentary on Joyce’s work as an industry not unlike the rise of self-help publishing. We can therefore read Ulysses and Finnegans Wake as various kinds of guides and uncover new or forgotten “uses” for them. Useless Joyce invites new discussions about the assumptions at work behind our definitions of literature, interpretation, and use.

About the Author: Tim Conley is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Brock University. His prior work includes Joyces Mistakes, also published by University of Toronto Press.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Useless Joyce: Textual Functions, Cultural ...
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Publication Date: 2020
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New