A-1: Tindall, William York. James Joyce: His Way of Interpreting the Modern World. New York: Charles Schribner's Sons, 1950. 134 pp. Hardbound. Index.
Dated study of Joyce without much focus. Contains an interesting, although sexist characterization of Molly Bloom (who he refers to as "Mrs. Bloom" throughout) (35-38). This is hardly a feminist perspective, but it also hardly a recent work. Highlights a few interesting parallels between Woolf's To the Lighthouse and U and D: "Mrs. Woolf's lighthouse owes much to Mr. Bloom" (26). Mentions Bloom's masochism and "fatalism." Of "Penelope" he writes: "Meanwhile, Mrs. Bloom lies in bed where she belongs. Beyond good and evil, she thinks of life and love. He thinks that "Mrs. Bloom" complains about "woman's lot" while she enjoys it (36). Characterizes Molly as a cat and as "everywoman." Also deals with the alleged influence of Freud over Joyce (47-49), asserting that many of the basic symbols in U carry a Freudian meaning. The main importance for feminist readers is Tindall's connection of Joyce to Freud.
A-2: Adams, Robert M. James Joyce: Common Sense and Beyond. New York: Random House, 1966. Hardbound. Bibliography.
Takes a decided stand against Molly, calling her the "principle of fleshly existence, foul, frank, and conspicuously obscene... she is a slut, a sloven , and a voracious sexual animal" (152). Sees Joyce, "one of those medieval minds to whom the female can never be anything but a saccum stercoris," creating Molly in a way that is "frightening" and "deliberately obscene" (152). Sees Joyce as creating Molly out of "bitterness" toward women and that she was "designed to shock" (166). See Herring (C-1) for an argument against this view.
A-3: Henke, Suzette A. Joyce's Moraculous Sindbook: A Study of 'Ulysses.' Columbia: Ohio State UP, 1978. Hardbound.
Henke's "Introduction" links the idea of Logos, that idea that "defines being, engenders sympathy, and identifies the symbol-system of the race" with Joyce's works, particularly U. Bloom, using the "word of life to structure his own experience," applies a "parallactic perspective" to every situation he encounters (6-7). Bloom suspends moral judgments and "becomes the 'new womanly man' [sic] who unites scientific curiosity with feminine compassion" (7). Briefly discusses Bloom in the role of "androgynous artist" who has "forfeited spousal possession and paternal ownership for a life of creative sympathy" (7-8). Posits that Molly Bloom may be the "most prolific artist in Ulysses," through which Joyce "celebrates the powers of the Logos residual in every hum an being" (9).Henke writes that Molly represents the "anima," the "side of the mind that refurbishes the past and illumines the future" (9). Henke uses the critical techniques and philosophies of phenomelogy, citing Husserl, J. Hillis Miller, and Georges Poulet. Credits Joyce with being "far ahead of his contemporaries" in his understanding of social interaction and psychological development (12).
Chapter 8 discusses "Nausicaa" and "Oxen of the Sun." Her discussion of the "Nausicaa" episode focuses on Gerty MacDowell and her "dreams of feminine power and masculine docility" and how these thoughts were "controverted everywhere" in 1904 Dublin, which existed within the "golden rule" of "male permissiveness" that forced women to be "feminine" (165). Focuses on the young male medical students which Stephen and Bloom encounter in "Oxen of the Sun," and how Bloom is out of place within their "barren braggadacio," highlighting Bloom's "androgynous sensibility" (173). These medical students are "young bulls who spiritually castrate themselves by refusing personal commitment" (174). Also points out that Joyce scatters examples of "perverted fatherhood" throughout "Oxen of the Sun," of "paternal power frustrated or abused" (176).
Chapter 11, "'Penelope': The Flesh Made Word," calls Molly Joyce's "woman writ large, imbued with all the mythic qualities of Goethe's eternal feminine." Asserts that Molly is a "female projection of the male psyche" made to "fit" Joyce's psychological model--"preconceived and brought forth under the aegis of Nora Joyce" (234). Joins with other critics in faulting Joyce for never giving Molly the "scope or breadth" which he gives to his male characters. Yet, Molly's characterization is that of the Logos a rising from "sensuous experience" and affirming existence in a "yea-saying moment of transcendent ekstasis" (250). Sees Molly as the "precursor" for ALP in FW (236).
A-4: MacCabe, Colin. James Joyce and the Revolution of the Word. London: Harper & Row; Barnes & Noble, 1979. Hardbound. 186 pp. Bibliography. Index.
Sees U as liberating the "speech of female desire." Discusses feminism only briefly in a chapter entitled "Joyce's Politics." Writes that Joyce had "no doubts concerning the importance of feminism." Gives a quote from Joyce in which he talks about Ibsen's Doll's House as being of the purpose of "the emancipation of women" (166-7). Discusses Joyce's "hatred" of the "institution of marriage" (160). Interesting look into Joyce's political beliefs.
A-5: Brivic, Sheldon. Joyce between Freud and Jung. Port Washington, NY: National University Publications, Kennikat Press, 1980. Hardbound. Index.
Solid investigation of Joyce's work from the psychoanalytic point of view. In Chapter 10, entitled "Love as Creation in Ulysses" (pp. 168-182), Brivic speaks of "psychological castration" as the state of the most creative people because "the making of new realities must be carried out by those who are unable to find satisfaction in existing ones..." (168). Asserts Bloom's passivity as that of a father's which "separates itself from the life it perceives by giving up an active role." Compares to Jung, as the "psychologist of transcendence," saying that Joyce used "archetypal" thinking in order to portray his characters in "contexts of patterns shared by different civilizations and eras" (169-70). Sees the meeting of Stephen and Bloom as one of the "two major actions" of U, along with the cuckolding of Bloom by Molly with Blazes Boylan. Describes Stephen as "denying creation," and thus, denying the "motivation and possibility of life" (174). Touches upon Bloom's feelings of rejuvenation via his tryst with Gerty MacDowell.
Asserts that the "crux" of U's plot is that Bloom's meeting with Stephen is "because he performs an act of love with Molly on June 16" and that this act gives him the "psychic power to spiritually father" Stephen (175). Brivic emphasizes Bloom's sensitivity and unselfishness, writing that Bloom's taking Stephen under his wing is something he gives "without real hope of reward" (177).
In conclusion, Brivic writes that he thinks that Joyce did believe in the "ideals of relationship" and that he believed in the "transcendent function" of love (182). A major flaw of this chapter is its heavy reliance upon the relationship of Bloom and Stephen, barely bringing the female characters, and even the central (and penultimate) character of Molly, into the discussion, except through connection to Bloom. I do not think that Brivic's reliance on Jung precludes a bringing of Molly into the foreground rather than the background in this chapter.
A-6: Henke, Suzette, & Unkeless, Elaine. Women in Joyce. Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois P, 1982. 216 pp. Hardbound. Bibliography.
In their Introduction, Henke and Unkeless state their purpose as a decidedly feminist undertaking, collecting essays to offer a "contemporary perspective" on the women Joyce created, and to present arguments and analyses that do not "restruct the female personality to preconceived literary or social categories" (xi). Good introductory comments addressing the history of Joyce criticism in relation to his women characters and the "tendency to interpret women characters symbolically," as archetypal and universal images of women, which has dominated critical responses to U and all of Joyce's work (xii). Points out that feminist readers often find Joyce's archetypal representations "unconvincing" (xiii). Includes an essay by Elaine Unkeless, "The Conventional Molly Bloom" (150-168) (B-5), and Carolyn Heilbrun's short but often cited "Afterword" (215-216) (B-4). Good collection dealing with Joyce's women and feminist perspectives.
A-7: Card, James Van Dyck. An Anatomy of 'Penelope'. Rutherford: Farleigh Dickinson UP, 1984. 167 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Sees "Penelope as a chapter which is generally supposed to flow "as thoughts pass...through Molly's mind," while in actuality, the chapter is "heaped up to greatness in layer and layer in long days of work." Sees "Penelope" as being assembled by a "careful arrangement" with a double sense of "fragment as opposed to flow" and structure as opposed to Molly's "supposedly intuitive incoherence" (11). Interesting comments on the virgin/whore controversy and Molly as housewife. Calls "contradicting" the "word for Molly Bloom," that she is the "deliberate embodiment of contraries" (38). Analyzes the critical controversy over Molly's domestic abilities and "shortcomings." Takes a somewhat puritanical approach to Joyce's use of Virgin Mary, saying that the links to that image and to whores are the "most troubling" ones in "Penelope" (44). Card's ideas about Molly's "flowing" language have been challenged by more recent interpretations (see Attridge, C-5).
A-8: Scott, Bonnie Kime. Joyce and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984. 242 pp. Hardbound. Index.
Solid attempt to provide a feminist background for contemporary Joyce studies. In her introduction, "Feminist Frameworks for Joyce" (1-8), Scott positions herself as writing not only about Joyce from a feminist perspective, but also as offering a "current, working definition of feminist criticism, demonstrating the application of its multiple aspects to Joyce" (1). Details some of the difficulties inherent in analyzing a male author in feminist terms.
Chapter 5, "New Free Women in the Company of Joyce," describes some of the women who knew and were supportive of Joyce, including Harriet Shaw Weaver, Djuana Barnes, Adrienne Monnier, and Dora Marsden. In Chapter 6, "Feminist Critics of Joyce" (116-132), Scott provides a framework for Joycean feminist criticism, including Mary Colum, Rebecca West, Virginia Woolf, and Florence Howe, as well as later critics--Mary Ellmann, Marilyn French, and Margot Norris. States that Colin MacCabe also has a "feminist awareness" in his writing (129).
Chapter 8, "Molly" (156-183) tackles the critical problem of whether to "exalt or denigrate" Molly and whether to assign her to a symbolic or realistic category (157). Finally, Chapter 10, "A Joycean Feminist Re-Vision" (201-207), sets forth "re-vision" as Joyce's "ultimate vocation" and that this is the "ultimate challenge to his critics" (201). Asserts that feminist criticism should not be the "preserve" of women critics alone (205).
This book is a solid, coherent, and ambitious attempt to bring together ideas about feminism as related to Joyce. It is updated by Scott's 1987 James Joyce (A-11), but is a worthwhile study in its own right.
A-9: Brown, Richard. James Joyce and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. 216 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Brown argues for a renewed emphasis on subject-matter in Joyce's fiction, including Joyce's attitude toward marriage, along with the non-reproductive "priorities" of sex which some characterize as "modern" (10).
In Chapter 1, "Love and Marriage," Brown highlights both Molly's and Leopold Bloom's "pseudo-adulterousness" as a significant element of U. Places Joyce's views on marriage in the perspective of Flaubert, Tolstoy, Balzac, the Bible, along with Charles Albert's L'Amour Libre, and its call for "free love" and the "abandonment of marital institutions" (28).
Chapter 3, "Women," analyzes Joyce's relationship to modern feminism, and to the feminism of his day, asserting that Joyce's writing played "little part" in the "upsurge" of interest in feminism since the 1960s, yet his writing has influenced feminism. Brown touches upon the feelings of antagonism or dismissal of some feminists toward Joyce's work, listing some of the incidents and comments attributed to Joyce which may have acerbated this attitude and may have "obscured the relationship between contemporary feminism and his success" (91). Includes an interesting discussion of "sexual dimorphism" (96-97). For Bloom, the world is "full of analogies to sexual difference" (97). Brown sees Joyce as depending heavily upon a "strong sense" of difference between the sexes, using "Penelope" as an example of Joyce creating the "separate female character" (98). Does not see Joyce's portrayal of Molly or other female characters through the eyes of men as misogynistic, since many of the male characters "suffer the same fate" when seen through women's eyes, such as Bloom and Boylan. Asserts that Joyce constructed Molly out of his "own version of feminist literary tradition and its obtrusive sexual dimorphism is conceived as a vindication of, rather than attack on, femininity" (101).
A section entitled "The Third Sex" highlights Joyce's experimentation in U and elsewhere with androgyny. Touches upon Bloom's apparent ability to be "sympathetic" toward women (104). Sees Bloom's elements of "womanliness" as essential, at the "core" of his significance as the "credible everyman of modern fiction" (107).
A-10: Herr, Cheryl. Joyce's Anatomy of Culture. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1986. 314 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Uses Marxist and semiotic views of Irish popular culture scholarship as a framework for analysis of Joyce's works, including U. Studies sociohistorical cultural forces behind Joyce's works, along with his political views. Addresses the "impress of social history" on Joyce's fiction, viewing these works as "cultural acts that expose the shaping operations and ideological practices characteristic of urban Ireland at the turn of the century" (ix). Also examines Joyce's use of the popular media in his writing--including the newspaper, the music-hall "turn," the sermon, and most interestingly, the Irish popular theatre--pantomime.
In Chapter 4, "Transvestitism and Transformation" (136-188), Herr deals with possible sources for the "Circe" chapter in Irish pantomime of the late 19th century, with its practice of cross-dressing and implications of "androgyny." Argues against some of Sandra Gilbert's interpretation of "Circe." Does not agree with Gilbert in that Bloom actually "becomes" a woman in the chapter. Sees "Circe" as a "script," a dramatic portrayal of events, based on U, which places Bloom as a "character" assigned a "transvestite role in the drama." Questions the assumption that Bloom is even the one who "plays" the "dramatic character named Bloom" in "Circe" (150). Includes interesting comments on the function of clothing in U and its possible sexual, social, and class status implications.
A-11: Scott, Bonnie Kime. James Joyce. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities P, 1987. 158 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Seen by some as an extension of Joyce and Feminism (1984) (A-8), this book studies female characters in Joyce, including Gerty MacDowell from U. Analyzes the relationship between Stephen and Simon Dedalus from a feminist perspective. Provides a good discussion of gender differences and the patriarchal underpinnings of discourse.
A-12: Keane, Patrick J. Yeats, Joyce, Ireland, and the Myth of the Devouring Female. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1988. 146 pp. Hardbound.
Growing out of project headed by Susan Bordo which examined contemporary ramifications of the myth of the "Devouring Female," Keane views Ireland itself as one of those devourers in Joyce and Yeats. Gives sufficient evidence that Joyce used this idea in P and U, including Stephen referring bitterly to Ireland as the "old sow that eats her farrow" (ix). Draws parallels between Yeats and Joyce in how they treat the myth. Although Keane highlights U in mostly a negative light, he admits that despite his thematic emphasis, there is "much to be said about the positive treatment of the female in Yeats and Joyce" (xv). Cites Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs as a main source for the Bella/Bello episode which Frances Restuccia details much more thoroughly. Deals most heavily with the "Circe," "Cyclops," and "Telemachus" chapters. Coverage of "Nausicaa" and "Penelope" is disappointing. This is not specifically a feminist treatment, dealing more with classical mythological parallels. It is worth a look for someone interested in correlations between Joyce and Ireland and his views on women.
A-13: Maddox, Brenda. Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. Hardbound. 462 pp. Index. Bibliography. Illustrated.
In this ambitious work, Maddox gives more details about Nora Barnacle Joyce's life than have ever been compiled, or attempted. Maddox begins by calling Nora a "reporter's dream: an unexplored corner of the Joyce story" (xviii), and Maddox explores this corner very well. This book is both informative and enjoyable to read (including 16 pp of photographs). Her sources include a large collection of unpublished letters in the Joyce collection at Cornell University, the Paris memoirs of the 1920s and 30s, along with the notes from which they were prepared.
This book shows Nora's importance to Joyce's work, through the telling of her story. Maddox started out the project "liking" Nora and ended up "in awe of her" because of how her life was "shaken" by the "major political and social forces of the first half of the twentieth century," yet she "survived thirty-seven years with James Joyce and taught him what life was about" (xix).
Divided into four sections: (1) Lily; (2) Bertha; (3) Molly; and (4) Anna Livia, corresponding with both periods in Nora's life and with Joyce's fictional characters. Dispels myths about Nora, such as that she was uneducated. Maddox asserts that Joyce "scarcely took a step without Nora." Writes that Nora's "voice" is the "voice of female desire" embodied in Molly and that it does not take much effort to see "Nora's calm stoicism in Anna Livia's acceptance of death, or the unashamed tolerance of sexuality in all its forms" in Molly (379).
A-14: McGee, Patrick. Paperspace: Style as Ideology in Joyce's 'Ulysses.' Lincoln & London: U of Nebraska P, 1988. 243 pp. Hardbound. Index.
Attempt to place Joyce criticism within a postmodern context. McGee positions his reading of U as a "dialogue with the positions of Lacanian psychoanalysis, deconstruction, feminism, and contemporary Marxism" (1). Mentions Lacan, Derrida, Kristeva, Eco, Cixous, Riquelme and others, along with their approaches to U.
Chapter 3, "Arch: The Genealogy of Styles" uses remarks of S. L. Goldberg and Michel Foucault as starting points through which to view U and other of Joyce's works. Exalts U's multitude of positions and "sliding subjectivity" (71). An especially lucid section is "Nausea and 'Nausicaa'" (85-114) in which he positions the "Nausicaa" episode as an exploration of sexual difference as a "problem of representation," posing the question as to whether the style of Gerty or Bloom "makes a claim to representational truth" (85). Asserts that Gerty MacDowell is too often treated as a "character" rather that as an "effect" of a style, saying that she also needs to be understood in the historical context from which the style emerges: "the nineteenth century patriarchal society in which women are encouraged not to expect more from the future than marriage and childbearing under the rule of the male" (87).
Chapter 4, "Circe Weaves: The Unconscious Text," places "Circe" as Joyce's version of Dante's Inferno. The discussion of Bella/Bello is interesting, highlighting the character as both "phallic and maternal," showing the "patriarch" in a state of "breakdown" (131). Chapter 5, " A Curtain Falls: The Unnamable," contains a detailed discussion of "Penelope," including references to Bonnie Kime Scott and other feminist Joyceans. Discusses the traditional view of "Penelope" as being a return to nature, tracing this reading from Stuart Gilbert to Marilyn French (170).
Overall, does not take a feminist nor anti-feminist stance, but is extremely receptive to feminist interpretation, and inclusive. Cites many feminist scholars throughout the book. The main focus seems to be looking at U in new ways, and not relying on "traditional" frames.
A-15: Scott, Bonnie Kime. Ed. New Alliances in Joyce Studies. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1988. 257 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
In her Introduction, Scott discusses the James Joyce Conference, held in Philadelphia in June 1985, from which these essays were compiled. Divides the book into three sections. The first section is more "language-oriented" and influenced by recent criticism of Derrida, Lacan, Heidegger, and others. Sections 2 and 3 take paradigms from art, archaeology, and aspects of fiction. Sections 4 and 5 deal with feminist approaches. Asserts that "new alliances of various sorts" are evident within and between these essays. Overall, the concept of the "other" seems to be the "key word" throughout the essays, calling into mind Simone de Beauvoir's concept of woman as "an alien 'other' defined by men" (18). Sensitivity to various feminist critical options has become a "given for most scholars" both in and out of the feminist realms (16).
Sees a persistence in the "original tendency" of American feminists to focus on Joyce's women characters; yet, essays by Kimberly Devin, Margot Norris, and Adrienne Munich evaluate male characters "as readers of women" (17).
Essays in this volume dealing with feminist ideas include: Kimberly Devlin's "The Female Eye: Joyce's Voyeuristic Narcissists" (135-143) (B-8); Christine Froula's "Gender and the Law of Genre: Joyce, Woolf, and the Autobiographical Artist-Novel" (155-164)(B-9); and Jane Lilienfeld's "Flesh and Blood and Love of Worlds: Lily Briscoe, Stephen Dedalus, and the Aesthetics of Emotional Quest" (164-175)(B-10). This is a good introduction to a solid collection of essays on various aspects of Joyce's work.
A-16: Beja, Morris, and Shari Benstock. Coping with Joyce. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1989. 280 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Beja and Benstock's "Introduction" places the Tenth International James Joyce Symposium in perspective, from which these essays originated. They speak to the issue of "exploiting" James Joyce. They mention that Joyce "politically" presents himself "as a victim of a colonial policy toward his native land that colors his socialist ideals and causes him to espouse Irish nationalism while rejecting the theocratic state it has engendered." Sees Joyce as being viewed as a "central figure of a male modernism" with which he was "uncomfortable," preferring to "move outside the masculine vortex" (xiv). Describes the articles in this book as "coping" with Joyce and raising new questions about the "terms of that coping." This compilation is "symptomatic" of Joycean concerns, including "reading the effects of Joyce's presence and participation in a modernism that is itself being reread and revised through various lenses--socialist, feminist, deconstructionist, psychoanalytic..." (xiv). Beja and Benstock think it is evident that the Joyce "industry" is "caught in a moment of self-evaluation," questioning the contexts in which "we have for so long situated Joyce's texts..." (xv).
Coping with Joyce includes five "major" addresses, including Margot Norris's treatment of "Joyce's Heliotrope" (3-24) (B-15). The critical studies include Bonnie Kime Scott's "Jellyfish and Treacle: Lewis, Joyce, Gender, and Modernism" (168-179) (B-16) and Ellen Carol Jones', "The Letter Selfpenned to One's Other: Joyce's Writing, Deconstruction, Feminism" (180-194) (B-14).
A-17: Restuccia, Frances. Joyce and the Law of the Father. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1989. 196 pp. Hardbound. Index.
In this original, scholarly, and interesting study, Restuccia asserts that "the ghostly presence of father/Father figures hovers over Joyce's every authorial move" (31). Uses Gilles Deleuze's 1971 Masochism: An Interpretation of Coldness and Cruelty, which is an analysis of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Restuccia attempts to show Sacher-Masoch's influence over Joyce. Says that "Masoch's writing enabled me to observe a masochistic strategy within Joyce's writing that enabled Joyce to work toward liberation from patriarchy, in particular, Church patriarchy" (xii). Cites Christine von Boheemen, Colin MacCabe, and other Joycean critics.
Chapter 1, "From Whip to Reed," begins by saying that "whipping" seems to have "mad a deep impression on Joyce's psyche" (1). From there on, the reader knows that this is not your traditional Joyce study. Chapter 1 explores the effects on Joyce of the sadistic culture of the father in which Joyce grew up and lived, along with how this is exemplified in his writing, including U. Explores Joyce's feelings about women, his need: "From the beginning of Joyce's life, the only prospective savior within the sadistic atmosphere of his Irish childhood was female..." (3). Asserts that despite many other critics' urgings that Joyce and Stephen craved for a "union with a spiritual father," Joyce had a "surplus" of fathers, and that what he really was trying to do was "subvert the law of the father/Father to achieve the pleasure of Nora, Molly, Mary, and Penelope" (3). Portrays Dublin for Joyce as a "redoubtable punishing environment, as one father-figure after another seems to delight in the potentially castrating activity of whipping" (3).
Chapter 2, "From Typology to Typography," begins with saying that one of Joyce's literary goals was to "join the rank of Christian figural realists" (20). Asserts that Joyce modeled U on the "principles of typology" and that U aligns itself with Christian figural realism "by virtue of its referential language" and through its specific architectural imitation of the Bible, in that characters and events in the first half of U "horizontally prefigure and are fulfilled by characters in evens in...the second half," similar to the Bible's Old and New Testament configuration (23-4). Says that Joyce's "own quirky secular typological structures intensify our awareness of his godlike control" (29). Joyce appropriates this typology, eventually achieving the "status of parody" and "wordplay" (33). Proposes that Joyce "preserves patriarchy" in his representational writing in U, yet there is a "shift" in U to a "freer play of the signifier" which subverts the father/Father patriarchy (60).
Other chapter titles include Chapter 3, "Rose Upon the Rood of Time"; Chapter 4, "The Parturition of the Word: From Logos to logos"; and Chapter 5, "Petticoat Government." Chapter 5 outlines Joyce working through Catholicism to "flee it" and that this emphasis on Catholicism shows his "paradoxical investment in what he wished to escape" (125). The chapter goes on to explore some of Joyce's fetishes and fixations, using passages from U and letters to Nora. Shows a strong connection between Joyce's desires and that in Masoch's Venus in Furs.
Asserts throughout that in U what "appears at first glance to be a tribute to Fathers evolves into a means of casting them off" (73). Overall, this is a book rich in interpretation, combining several schools of criticism, including psychoanalytic and feminist.
A-18: Showalter, Elaine. Ed. Speaking of Gender. New York & London: Routledge, 1989. 335 pp. Hardbound. Bibliography.
In "Introduction: The Rise of Gender," Showalter gives historical perspective for the rise in "gender' as a category of analysis in the humanities. She traces gender theory as a trend in feminist thought, becoming popular in the 1980s in the fields of history, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and natural science, "marking a shift from the women-centered investigations of the 1970s" (2). Discusses the state of flux of gender theory. Analyzes the term "sexual difference" and its reliance and implications upon Freudian and post-Freudian accounts of the construction of gender, relying heavily on the work of Jacques Lacan, which includes the idea that gender is primarily constructed through language acquisition, rather than through "social ascription or cultural practice" (3). Briefly describes the Marxist-feminist point of view on gender and sexual difference. Emphasizes that the essays in this collection offer a cross-section of some of the "most interesting new work in gender and literary criticism being produced in the United States" (8). This points to a limitation of the book--it does not present a global perspective; most notably, the French feminists are not represented. Includes Susan Stanford Friedman's article, "Creativity and the Childbirth Metaphor: Gender Differences in Literary Discourse" (73-100) (B-12) which includes a discussion of U.
A-19: Henke, Suzette. James Joyce and Politics of Desire. New York and London: Routledge, 1990. 288 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Asks the question, "Can Joyce be reclaimed for feminism?" Offers the "first feminist psychoanalytical reassessment of the Joycean canon in the wake of Freud, Lacan, and Kristeva" (i). Henke argues that Joyce invokes gender stereotypes in order to "mock and subvert traditional notions" of gender, focusing on constructions of the "gendered subject" and touching on ideas of androgyny, bisexual fantasy, and motherhood. Discusses Molly's monologue as "steeped" in the languages of Edwardian pornography and "Victorian sentimental fiction" (i).
Chapter 4, "Uncoupling 'Ulysses': Joyce's New Womanly Man" (106-125) and Chapter 5, "Molly Bloom: The Woman's Story" (126-163) are especially pertinent to U and feminism. Chapter 5 includes discussions of the maternal relationship between Molly and Milly, the "conjugal estrangement" between Leopold and Molly, and the possibility of the Bloom's reconciliation. Deals well with the subject of patriarchal authority and family relationships. Cites feminist critics heavily, as well as Freud and Lacan. Not for the casual reader of Joyce; some sections may be difficult for readers unfamiliar with Lacan's theories, as she relies heavily on Lacanian ideas.
A-20: Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety. New York and London: Routledge, 1992. 443 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
In this impressive detailing of the history and cultural reception of cross-dressing, Garber writes about Leopold Bloom in terms of the "feminization of the Jewish male" and the relationship of this to anti-Semitic thought. Points out that Gilbert and Gubar do not mention Bloom's "Jewishness" when they write about Bloom in Nighttown, while seeing this as key to the section. Bella/Bello is discussed in that Bella's transformation into Bello is not so much the "portrait of a man ... as it is the caricature of a mannish lesbian" (231). Sees Bloom's transformation into a "woman" as a sign of the "interimplication of the Jew, the homosexual, and the 'woman' in late nineteenth and early twentieth century culture" (232).
A-21: Norris, Margot. Joyce's Web: The Social Unraveling of Modernism. Austin: U of Texas P, 1992. Hardbound. 243 pp. Index. Bibliography.
Norris describes her book as being about the "social production of modern art, specifically Joyce' art" (ix). She sees a "sharp polarization" in the feminist response to Joyce--"Anglo-American feminism's indictment of Joyce for misogyny" and the French feminist's "political recuperation of his experimentalism" as working to disrupt the "ecriture feminine" (9). Mentions Gilbert and Gubar as setting themselves up against "much that is textually disruptive and avant-garde" in modern writing, including Joyce, because of their investment in a liberal politics intent on "reforming oppressive conditions" (10). Cites Bonnie Kime Scott, Maud Ellmann, and just about everyone in Joyce scholarship, within or outside of the feminist realm. Says that it is not difficult to "muster evidence that Joyce received his insights from male rather than female thinkers" (13), but that she disagrees with Carolyn Heilbrun's views of Joyce. Well written and respected study which takes into account historical, modernist, and feminist perspectives.
A-22: French, Marilyn. The Book as World: James Joyce's 'Ulysses.' New York: Paragon House, 1993. 295 pp. Softbound. Index.
This book is known as an important work in Joycean studies, although not strictly from a feminist perspective. Dealing mostly with the structure of U, French sees it in terms of concentric circles, similar to Dante's Divine Comedy. Asserts that although many "have not thought so," Joyce's vision is "profoundly moral" (xi). He questions the moral ideas of his period, which deemed sexuality as the "greatest sin" (xiii). Gives a sound argument for U as challenging "profoundly Western sexual mores" (47). Writes about Molly mainly as an archetype: "The character of Molly seems to invite, even demand hyperbole, as only archetypes do" (244). Describes Molly as follows:
Molly represents the opposite of the void. The void exists in the 'built' world, the world of reason and unreason; or morality and immorality ... Molly is the 'female' principle that exemplifies the state of humanity in Eden, at one with nature and natural processes (245).
Portrays Molly as selfish, yet states that her self-centeredness is not necessarily a negative quality, that it is aligned with "emotional self-sufficiency," a characteristic often ascribed to the Eternal Feminine. Gives a fair amount of discussion to gender and sexuality, including androgyny. Bloom as the "new womanly man," and the Virgin Mary as image for idealization of sex are other topics. Especially worthwhile for feminists and others interested in Molly as the "archetypal" female.
A-23: Lewiecki-Wilson, Cynthia. Writing Against the Family: Gender in Lawrence and Joyce. Carbondale & Edwardsville: Southern Illinois UP, 1994. 301 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Compares family relations in the major works of D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce. Lewiecki-Wilson is interested in how Lawrence and Joyce portray the "psychological and cultural formation of the individual, and in particular, how each writer conceptualizes gender" (1). In the process of critiquing the portrayal of gender and the family, she discusses how theories of psychoanalysis "inscribe" family and gender, analyzing the extent to which both Lawrence and Joyce subscribed to psychoanalytic theory. Sees both Lawrence and Joyce as writing "against" the background of family, using "family plots and family settings" (1). "...All feminists agree that the term family is not neutral, but historically variable and ideologically charged by religion, culture, politics, economics" (1). Lewiecki-Wilson sees the concept of family as the coming together of "social-historical, feminist, literary, and psychoanalytic concerns" (1).
In Chapter 3, "James Joyce: Overdetermination Replaces Cause and Effect," she analyzes U, among other works. Calls U a "male Family Romance," mentioning Christine von Boheemen's Novel as Family Romance. Lewiecki-Wilson writes: "In Ulysses, Joyce increases his frenetic pace of deconstructing systems, leading ultimately to the deconstruction of stable narrative itself" (3). Joyce deconstructs the "cultural construction of gender" in U, portraying the "gendered individual formed by an overdetermined web of relations" (3). The plot of U develops around the inner conflicts of the family.
Mentions Cixous, Kristeva, and MacCabe as scholars who believe that Joyce "writes" the "desire of the mother," the female desire (142). Compares U to Lawrence's Women in Love and Sons and Lovers in the sense that they share "feminine" traits and reject patriarchal values (143). Sees a deep influence of Freud in Joyce's works, and that Joyce's knowledge of Freud ran "deeper than scholars used to acknowledge" (119). Brings up some interesting points about Milly, in that her future appears to be more mundane than Molly's, without evidence that she will "seek education, career, or an autonomous identity" apart from marriage (147). Sees both Molly and Leopold as shattering and yet embodying "sex role stereotypes" in literature: "they are excessively sexual; they are androgynous" (158). An important addition to Joycean studies, with fresh insight into family relationships and gender in Joyce's works.
A-24: Pearce, Richard. Ed. Molly Blooms: A Polylogue on "Penelope" and Cultural Studies. Madison, WS: University of Wisconsin P, 1994. 291 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Richard Pearce, in his "Introduction: Molly Blooms--A Polylogue on Penelope," writes that Molly's episode functions as an "epilogue" giving her a position of "great power" in the book. Her epilogue provides insight into many aspects of U. This book is the "first full-length study of Molly Bloom that attempts to restore Molly and her perspective on the world of Ulysses." (3). This is accomplished by looking at "Penelope" through the "lenses of cultural studies" including feminism, new historicism, popular culture, postcolonialism, and postmodernism (3). Evolving from panels at the 1987 James Joyce Symposium and the 1989 MLA, Pearce says that the compilation is designed to "maintain the dynamic of interacting voices" and to "evoke a burgeoning multiplicity of interrelated views" (4).
Notable articles featured in this compilation include the following: Kathleen McCormick's "Molly and the Male Gaze" (17-39); Richard Pearce's "How Does Molly Bloom Look Through the Male Gaze?" (40-62); Kimberly Devlin's "Pretending in 'Penelope': Masquerade, Mimicry, and Molly Bloom" (80-104); Garry Leonard's "Molly Bloom's 'Lifestyle': The Performance as Narrative"(196-236); and Ewa Ziarek's "The Female Body, Technology, and Memory in 'Penelope'"(264-284).
A-25: Mahaffey, Vicki. Reauthorizing Joyce. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1995. 222 pp. Hardbound. Index. Bibliography.
Excellent analysis of the "multiple possibilities" inherent in reading Joyce. Bernard Benstock writes of Mahaffey's effort, in the "Foreword":
Joyce's quarrel with all aspects of authority and his position now as a potent authority figure himself--intentionally asserted in the authoring of such domineering texts--provide the complex and contradictory terrain that Mahaffey so skillfully navigates, as aware of the multiple possibilities as Joyce himself had been (xi).
Mahaffey posits that U is the "point of contact between critics with...opposite orientations," using D and FW as two books on ends of a spectrum of Joyce readings, between "mainstream" and "post-structuralist" criticism. Examines Joyce's attempt to instigate a "dialogue between 'traditional' or logocentric methods of interpretation and those that have been excluded....between the world defined as 'male' and its 'female' component...." (3-4). Warns against classifying Joyce's purpose as either wholly deconstructionist or feminist, asserting that it would be "equally dangerous to deny the intersection of the different approaches" (4).
Discusses three types of "authority" that structure U: (1) patriarchal (associated with Stephen); (2) "binary and paradoxical" (Bloom); and (3) "collective," "immanent," and "largely unconscious" (Molly) (7-8). Touches upon ideas of Irigaray, Derrida, Barthes, and Foucault in a discussion of authorship and its meaning (23-26). Asserts that Joyce "saw that the desire for control" inherent in patriarchy "masks" a feeling of "powerlessness" (48). Provides significant insight into the many dualities in Joyce, particular the concept of "double authority." Includes an interesting assessment of the interrelationship of Stephen Dedalus and Molly Bloom in that, when considered "apart from Bloom," both Stephen and Molly "slide almost imperceptibly into caricature" becoming "one-sided embodiments of male and female tendencies" (140).
Especially interesting is the discussion of "Age, Gender, and the Matrix of Relationship" and "Text Styles, Textiles, and the Textures of Ulysses." In the latter chapter, Mahaffey deals with symbolism, meaning, and metaphorical correlation between "words" and "clothes": "Clothes and the body, like fiction and fact, context and text, are alluringly different terms for a reality that is both unified and multiple, systematic and chaotic, but necessarily double". Comments on the Bloom's "fetishistic attitude toward clothing" and how Joyce portrays it as "natural" (158).
Overall, Mahaffey's work is enjoyable, interesting, and informative. She brings fresh insight into gender issues, feminism, deconstructionism, and the concept of authorship in the work and thinking of James Joyce.
B-1: Hayman, David. "The Empirical Molly." Approaches to 'Ulysses': Ten Essays. Ed. Thomas F. Staley & Bernard Benstock. Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh P, 1970. 103-136.
Introduces Molly Bloom as a "woman much discussed but little understood" through Joyce criticism, for which he blames Joyce who has "underscored her symbolic character," eliminating "her voice." Molly functions more as a "projection" of Bloom's (and Joyce's) fears and wishes, than of her own (103). Hayman attempts to provide a "balanced assessment" not only of Molly "as she appears to us" in "Penelope," but also of Joyce's presentation of her (104). Asks the question, "Who is Molly Bloom?" Attempts to "reassess" Molly. Describes her through Bloom's eyes as being the "enthraller," the "bewitching sloth," the "scold," the "sensual," the "animal," the "exhibitionist," and the "flirt" (110). Leaning toward reader response criticism, he asserts that Molly is "far more than the character Joyce presents. She is the vitality generated by the attitudes we accumulate toward her" (111). Each of the women in U--Josie Breen, Gerty MacDowell, Nurse Callan, and so on-- "ultimately refers to Molly" who "subsumes and outshines them all," not because of what she does but because of her "unrealized potential" (112).
Calls Molly a "passive woman to whom life must come," without really backing up that claim. Reiterates Molly's lack of "resources" when compared to Bloom. Admits that Molly has "a good deal to complain about" (117) and that critics who describe her as lazy are not being fair. Speaks to the overall critical exaggeration of her "sexual vitality, her seductive charms, and her lewdness" (118). The conclusion is weaker than the rest of the essay. Hayman seems to throw in an argument for "naturalistic" view of Molly and Joyce's works which is not properly foreshadowed or supported.
B-2: Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970. Hardbound. Index.
Does not say much about Joyce, but what she says is telling, yet not scathing. Not a specific chapter dealing with Joyce. Asserts that Faulkner and Joyce, unlike Lawrence, were fond of "presenting woman as 'nature,' 'unspoiled primeval understanding' and the 'eternal feminine'" (285). Also mentions that Joyce never approaches the "sexual hostility" one finds in Henry Miller, to whom she devotes much more attention.
B-3: O'Brien, Darcy. "Some Determinants of Molly Bloom." Approaches to 'Ulysses': Ten Essays. Ed. Thomas F. Staley and Bernard Benstock. Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh P, 1970. 137-155.
O'Brien looks at the Irish influence on Joyce in his creation and fleshing out of Molly Bloom. Writes of the "fear and contempt for woman as a sexual creature" as the typical "Irish attitude," being influenced by the puritanical nature of Irish Catholicism. Asserts that Joyce's characterization of Molly "extends this tradition and almost, but not quite, transcends it" (139-140). Writes that Joyce began by "creating Molly Bloom out of his own Irish rib" (140). Points out that before Molly's soliloquy in "Penelope" that the reader sees very little of her, but that she is built up as a sexual animal up until that point. Most of Molly's monologue "only adds support to the one-dimensional view we have of her as a symbol of the immutable animality of womankind" (143). Focuses on Joyce's personal life, his own "psychosexual affliction" which affected his sexlife with his wife, Nora, and how that apparently colored his creation of Molly: "The complicated pattern of desire, guilt, and masochism shows up again in what we know of Joyce's interest in women other than Nora" (145). Mentions Joyce's notebook labeled Giacomo Joyce and his fantasies about a woman named Amalia Popper. In the conclusion, O'Brien ties the Irish and personal influence on Joyce, reiterating that the "male Irish mind fears the sexual power of woman," labeling sexual women as whores, reserving love for the Virginal ideal (147). Highlights Joyce's apparent obsession with cuckoldry, pointing out its appearing in not only U, but in E and FW. Describes Joyce as being "infantile...in the strict psychological sense" in both his real-life sexuality and in its portrayal in his works (153).
B-4: Heilbrun, Carolyn G. "Afterword." Women in Joyce. Ed. Suzette Henke & Elaine Unkeless. Urbana: U. of Illinois P, 1982. 215-16.
Heilbrun asserts that Joyce's great achievements are "balanced by the exclusion from his work of what his consciousness refused him: knowledge of women" (215). In this pan of sorts of Joyce's work and attitude, she asserts that Joyce did not "imagine" a woman whom "convention did not offer him" (215). Heilbrun does not portray Joyce as a "male chauvinist" in the conventional sense. Instead, Heilbrun, in this brief conclusion to Henke and Unkeless's compilation admits that Joyce did see the "harsh realities of women's limited lives in Dublin"; however, he never questioned these realities (215). Heilbrun compares his attitude to that of Sigmund Freud in that they both "share with American culture...a view of heroism as beyond the range of women." She concludes, saying that Joyce never imagined "woman as a paradigm of humanity" because, for Joyce, "in his own life, woman had never thus presented herself to him" (216).
B-5: Unkeless, Elaine. "The Conventional Molly Bloom" Women in Joyce. Ed. Suzette Henke and Elaine Unkeless. Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois P, 1982. 150-168.
Makes a solid argument for the "conventional" nature of Molly Bloom, which is usually ignored. Asserts that the traits with which Joyce "endows" Molly stem from "conventional notions of the way a woman acts and thinks" (150). Molly's "supposedly masculine" traits--domineering tone, controlling and "aggressive sexuality"--are all actually aspects of her "femininity" (165). Sees Joyce as emphasizing Molly's laziness: "To Joyce, Molly's lethargy is typically female" (150) and argues that Molly is not as lazy as some have asserted, noting that few readers see that Molly does most of the household tasks--shopping, preparing dinner, and "maintaining order" (151). Argues that Joyce makes Bloom appear more industrious by more extensively describing Bloom's more "palatable" tasks, while Molly is still fulfilling the "conventionally feminine role" (151). Usurps the myth of Molly as dominant: "While Bloom at times appears to be ruled by Molly, he is, in reality, only henpecked by her" (161). In all, a strong essay, suitable for both the new Joyce enthusiast and the accomplished scholar.
B-6: Cixous, Helene. "Joyce: The (R)use of Writing." Post-Structuralist Joyce: Essays from the French. Ed. Derek Attridge & Daniel Ferrer. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.
Asserts, through the examples of D, P, and U, that Joyce's work has "contributed to the discrediting of the subject" (15). She sees U as "playfully" undermining and deconstructing "gestation" (16). "(R)used writing" is writing "governed by ruse...luxury writing..." modifying the "traditional" mode of the narrative which "claims to offer a coherent while" (19). This article deals mostly with "The Sisters," D, and P; only passing references to U. Contrary to other scholars who see a large influence of Freud in Joyce's writing, Cixous points out that Joyce "loathed" Freud's thinking (18). Deals some with writing as a "mode of production" which is determined by both the biographical and the "socio-cultural" systems (18). Cixous's writing flows, yet it is difficult to glean her meaning at times; this is not for the beginner in Joyce studies. Cixous's writing is respected and respectable, but this is not a must-read regarding U.
B-7: Lawrence, Karen. "Paternity: The Legal Fiction." Ulysses: The Larger Perspective. Ed. Robert D. Newman & Weldon Thornton. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1987. Hardbound. 310 pp.
Lawrence takes the title from Stephen Dedalus's quote in U: "Paternity may be a legal fiction..." (U, 9.837-45). Asserts that Stephen's ideas of fatherhood serve as a backdrop for discussion of other issues in U, and that his speeches on paternity can help to "extrapolate Joyce's more comprehensive treatment of fatherhood in Ulysses" (89). Good analysis of "Oxen of the Sun," including the assertion that the chapter portrays Western literature as a "series of great books written by a succession of great literary forefathers" and what Joyce does to subvert this idea (93). Emphasizes throughout that Joyce calls into question the "authority" and "singularity" of the father. Also uses examples from "Eumaeus" and "Nestor" episodes.
B-8: Devlin, Kimberly J. "The Female Eye: Joyce's Voyeuristic Narcissists." New Alliances in Joyce Studies. Ed. Bonnie Kime Scott. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1988. 135-143.
Deals with how the young women in the "Nausicaa" episode appear to be "keeping an eye" on the three children, while they are also keeping an eye on everything and everyone else, "surveying each other, surveying themselves, and surveying the mysterious gentleman who in turn surveys them" (135). Asserts that more attention has been given to the men in U as voyeurs. Deals with the "female eye" as both an object of desire for male characters, and also as the mechanism for the women to view men, and men looking at them. Sees the "paradox of narcissism" as the fact that in order to "present oneself as a voyeuristic object," one must first be "aware of a voyeur...to be a voyeur oneself" (140).
B-9: Froula, Christine. "Gender and the Law of Genre: Joyce, Woolf, and the Autobiographical Artist-Novel." New Alliances in Joyce Studies. Ed. Bonnie Kime Scott. Newark: U. of Delaware P, 1988. 155-169.
Compares and contrasts Joyce and Woolf using Woolf's The Voyage Out and Joyce's Portrait. Although U is not the focus, the ideas about "family resemblance" and the comments about how Joyce deals with fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters are worthwhile. Discusses Alastair Fowler's theory of genre (155). Cites Gilbert and Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) and Cathy Davidson and E. M. Broner's The Lost Traditions: Mothers and Daughters in Literature (1980).
B-10: Lilienfeld, Jane. "Flesh and Blood and Love and Words: Lily Briscoe, Stephen Dedalus, and the Aesthetics of Emotional Quest." New Alliances in Joyce Studies. Ed. Bonnie Kime Scott. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1988. 164-175.
In order to "define female modernism," this essay compares and contrasts a scene from Woolf's To the Lighthouse with Joyce's P. Highly scholarly and well-written essay, which cites some of the big names in feminist Joyce studies, and feminist scholarship, including Helene Cixous and Julia Kristeva. Although it does not deal with U specifically, it is worth reading for its comments on Stephen Dedalus and the Irish patriarchal male attitudes conveyed, asserting that Stephen was "acculturated to believe certain myths about women" (171).
B-11: Boheemen, Christine von. "'The Language of Flow': Joyce's Dispossession of the Feminine in Ulysses." Joyce, Modernity, and Its Mediation [European Joyce Studies. No. 1]. Ed. Christine van Boheemen. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989.
Cleverly uses a comparison of a pictoral advertisement for an automobile displaying a naked woman to Molly Bloom's role as a way to get at the "image of woman" in U. Cleverly uses a comparison of a pictoral advertisement for an automobile displaying a naked woman to Molly Bloom's role as a way to get at the "image of woman" in U. Sees the function of Molly Bloom as similar to the naked woman in the advertisment:
Joyce's own flowing style, Molly Bloom functions as warrant and proof of the authority of her author and his prestigious place in the tradition of the English novel as the writer who ended the realist tradition by carrying it to its limits (64).Sees an appropriation at work in both the advertisement and in U of the "figure of...woman" (68). Asserts that it is "fairly obvious" that Joyce thought that the ideas of feminine flow and receptiveness were "natural truths" and that he thought these truths were concealed until he "first revealed and staged" them (70). Molly, then, was intended to be the "realization of a hypostatic femininity...not spiritual but fleshly...not logical but flowing" (70). Interesting linguistic analysis of possible meanings for Molly as "flower," including as "flow-er" (contrast to Attridge, C-5).
B-12: Friedman, Susan Stanford. "Creativity and the Childbirth Metaphor: Gender Difference in Literary Discourse." Speaking of Gender. Ed. Elaine Showalter. New York and London: Routledge, 1989. 73-100.
Asserts that both men and women have used the childbirth metaphor in writing, taking female anatomy as a model for human creativity in contrast to the "phallic" analogy, using male anatomy for its "paradigm" (73). Examines ways in which women and men have "encoded" different concepts of "creativity and procreativity" into the "metaphor itself" (74). Highlights the "cultural resonance" of the childbirth metaphor. Discusses Gilbert and Gubar's association of the pen and paintbrush with the phallus in creativity metaphors which reflects an "anxiety of authorship" for aspiring women writers. Uses Erica Jong, Denise Levertov, and H.D. as examples.
Joyce, according to Friedman, used the birth metaphor as analogous but different to the artistic/creative process of writing. Uses an example of a letter Joyce wrote to Nora comparing the "child" of his book which he had "carried for years... in the womb of imagination" (79). Uses "Oxen of the Sun" to exemplify Joyce carrying this childbirth metaphor to elaborate lengths in the Mrs. Purefoy scene. Asserts that Joyce partly "envies the fecundity of female flesh and despairs the sterility of male minds" (79). In conclusion, Friedman sets up the dichotomy of Joyce's women producing infants through the "channel of flesh" while his men produce "a brainchild, through the agency of language... Babies are never books" (80). Very lucid and interesting interpretations.
B-13: Johnson, Jeri. "'Beyond the Veil': Ulysses, Feminism, and the Figure of Woman." Joyce, Modernity, and its Mediation [European Joyce Studies. No. 1]. Ed. Christine von Boheemen. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989. 201-228.
Details some differences between French and American schools of feminist theory/criticism, noting that "French" criticism is not a geographical category, that it is also currently practiced in England and America. Sees French feminist criticism as being "charged with ignoring the specificity of woman's position within ...[the] psycholinguistic order" (202). For nonJoycean feminists, asserts that Joyce "frequently stands in as the misogynist author" against whom women's writers feminism can be compared. Cites Toril Moi and Sandra Gilbert. Overviews Julia Kristeva's theories and how her brand of feminism seems to want to "turn the old misogynist into a radical feminist" (204). Writes that there has been a switch in feminism and that feminism once "divided" Joyceans, now "Joyce divides feminists" (204). Asserts that Gilbert limits her reading of Joyce to an "examination of his representations of the female" viewing Molly as "real": "no longer the sign of physicality, Joyce's woman is physicality" (204-5). Argues that Gilbert, and other feminists who take this approach are not approaching Joyce with a full appreciation for the deconstruction and "disturbance" he creates of writing and language, that the fail to see his "flaunting and exposing of the disturbances of mimesis by the rhetoricity of language" (205). Finally, contrasts Gilbert, who sees Joyce's Woman as "too, too solid flesh" to Kristeva, who sees Woman as without "essence" or "substance," as a "signifier" of femininity: "'She' is the very sign of the inaccessible" and a trope (206).
This essay is useful for comparing and contrasting two very different views in feminism and in Joycean feminist theory today.
B-14: Jones, Ellen Carol. "The Letter Selfpenned to One's Other: Joyce's Writing, Deconstruction, Feminism." Coping with Joyce. Ed. Morris Beja and Shari Benstock. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1989. 180-194.
In an essay which uses both deconstruction and feminist criticism as frames, Jones calls what Joyce did in U and other works a "revolution of the word," placing it in perspective of the "revolutionary decentering of epistemology by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century thinkers." Says that Joyce "calls into question the referentialibility of language" and exposes its "arbitrariness" and "materiality" (180). Cites Derrida, Cixous, Kristeva, Irigaray, and Montrelay. Asserts that Joyce emphasized the politics of language as "a material and social structure," thus, affecting a "social revolution through his poetic revolution" (181). This essay is more about asking questions than it is an attempt to find answers; in this case, not finding the answers is not a problem, because Jones asks thought-provoking and necessary questions, such as: "Does Joyce inscribe the female body in his text? Can such an inscription escape the phallic economy?" (185).
B-15: Norris, Margot. "Joyce's Heliotrope." Coping with Joyce. Ed. Morris Beja and Shari Benstock. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1989. 3-24.
Very thorough but somewhat hard-to-follow treatment of the concept of the "heliotrope" in Joyce's writing, from "The Dead" through FW. Not for the casual reader of Joyce or the beginning scholar, as she assumes a knowledge of the idea of a "heliotrope" and a basic understanding of its implications. Deals with "Nausicaa" as a "hidden childish love story...of a little boy who feels teased and excited by a bevy of girls..." (11). Discusses characters of Tommy Caffrey, Cissy Caffrey, and Gerty MacDowell.
B-16: Scott, Bonnie Kime. "Jellyfish and Treacle: Lewis, Joyce, Gender, and Modernism." Coping with Joyce. Ed. Morris Beja and Shari Benstock. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1989. 168-179.
Considers whether Joyce "belongs" in the category of "male modernism," where he is often placed. Questions the theory that modernism can be divided based upon gender lines into "male modernism" and "female modernism" (168). Cites Gilbert and Gubar, questioning their emphasis on what they call Joyce's "patrilinguistic ethic." Sees the "current wave" of Joycean feminist criticism as showing Joyce as capable of both "feminine" and "masculine" writing (169). Uses Wyndham Lewis' definition of modernism and the "men of 1914" as a starting point for analyzing how Joyce coincided with some of Lewis' definitions "early" in his career, but that he and Lewis "parted company" in the 1920s, partially over "this issue of the feminine" (169). Asserts that Joyce, as one of the "men of 1914," actually "failed" Lewis as a male modernist (178).
B-17: Ellmann, Maud. "The Ghosts of 'Ulysses'". James Joyce: The Artist and the Labyrinth. Ed. Augustine Martin. London: Ryan, 1990. 193-228.
In an essay that Ellmann admits is partly "haunted" by the presence of her deceased father, Richard Ellmann, she deals with Joyce's use of fathers ghosts, and death, particularly in relation to Stephen Dedalus. Discusses Freudian influences and feminist viewpoints, including the assertion that behind "Circe" is the legend that "hysteria originates in a wandering womb" (214). Deals with androgyny and gender roles. Ellman's essay is well-written and is personalized by the comments about her father. It does include feminist perspectives, particularly dealing with "Circe."
B-18: Boone, Joseph A. "Staging Sexuality: Repression, Representation, and 'Interior' States in Ulysses." Joyce: The Return of the Repressed. Ed. Susan Stanford Friedman. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1993. 219-224.
Attempts to evaluate how issues of sexuality and narrative "inevitably impinge on each other in Joyce's attempt to represent states of consciousness" in U. Boone sees a relationship between the "representation of gendered subjectivity" and the attempts of modernists to "shift novelistic representations of 'reality'" from the "objective or external" to that of the "individual's inner life" (190). Boone's focus and interest seems to be in how Joyce's use of the "metaphoric opening up of narrative form" made room for "psychosexual" forces. (192). Highlights "Circe" and "Penelope" episodes, calling them the two episodes that "most thoroughly reject traditional methods of realistic narration" (192). "Penelope" gives Molly's psyche "uncensored" expression in her interior monologue and also points toward the question of how "gender-marked" Joyce's writing in U may be (206). Explores the implications of how Joyce may have encoded differences in male and female "consciousness and repression" through use of "autonomous interior monologue" and "surreal expressionism" (206).
Boone examines how "repression" has been taken by recent feminist psychoanalytical criticism to make up the "male identity in modern Western culture" (206). In "Penelope" the "repressed" that Joyce expresses is frequently that of culture--that is, "all that has previously been repressed or censored in cultural and literary representations of female sexuality" (207). "Circe" gives expression to the repressed "in Bloom" while "Penelope" gives expression to "Molly as the repressed in culture" (207). Posits "Penelope" as thematizing and foregrounding gender as a performance. Poses the question of whether feminists "have to apologize for liking Molly" (209). Makes the valid point that the discourse of male heterosexuals is the "only sanctioned language" which Molly knows or has for "expressing her material presence" (210). Boone discusses Bonnie Kime Scott's, Cheryl Herr's, and Kimberly Devlin's views of Molly. In conclusion, Boone writes that Molly's performance, particularly in "Penelope," holds "resonance" within recent "constructionist" theories of gender (214).
B-19: Doyle, Laura. "Races and Chains: The Sexuo-Racial Matrix in Ulysses." Joyce: The Return of the Repressed. Ed. Susan Stanford Friedman. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1993. 149-189.
Deals with racial, sexual, and "sacred motherhood" myths in U, and how these "coorginate" and depend on each other. Highlights U's "exposure of the dangerous, fool-producing power of Western sexuo-racial myths, especially in their hierarchical division of bodies by gender and race" (149). Proposes that the "Penelope" episode is attached by a "single strong thread" to the "racialized mother" figure (150). Gives a good historical overview, describing some "scientific" theories which claimed the existence of "actual, physical analogies" between races and sexes (151). Uses the "Nighttown" episode with Cissy Caffrey as an example, along with discussing Stephen's critique of paternity. In a section entitled, "The Return Home of the Racial Mother," Doyle asserts that Molly, within herself:
... mingles sexual and racial differences. Molly is a mother, a married woman, who lives safely indoors; yet she is sexual, both with other men and, in fantasy, toward women. She is polyracial--Irish, Jewish, and possibly Spanish. Molly is 'impure,' then, both sexually and racially (182).Molly's "impurity" makes her a "titillating touchstone" for Bloom's fantasies and desires (184). Points out that while some critics have highlighted Molly's lack of education and intelligence, Molly actually "consciously" adopts an "anti-intellectual, anti-metaphysical position" which puts her in a position of resistance to "misogyny and racialism"(184). Touches on the question of "why" Joyce created Molly. Overall, Doyle deals with the sexual myths very well, but the racial aspect of her "matrix" is sketchy.
B-20: Jones, Ellen Carol. "Textual Mater: Writing the Mother in Joyce." Joyce: The Return of the Repressed. Ed. Susan Stanford Friedman. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1993. 257-282.
Jones discusses the "Oxen of the Sun" chapter and how gestation, childbirth, and the mother are "submerged" within the style of the text. Analyzes the significance of the "turning toward the sun god Helios" and citing an "incantation" to Helios as "one who brings life" (272-3). Notes that symbols of fertility are "castrated" in Joyce. Sees Joyce as revealing how the "specularity of the literary canon itself reflects the specularity of philosophy and a politics of power and domination," reflected in the "heliotropic gesture" within "Oxen of the Sun" (274). This gesture is a beginning of a "parade" of styles of the English literary tradition, a tradition of "male authors and a co-optation of Irish-born writers into the dominant English canon", reflecting the "heliopolitics of imperialism" (275). Points out that Joyce highlights that "patriarchal history" dispossesses woman "of her return upon herself" (275). Cites Luce Irigaray's Speculum of the Other Woman (1985) and Julia Kristeva's "Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art" (1980) within her argument. Analyzes maternal and paternal functions and roles, along with the symbolism and metaphor of sexuality. Touches upon the "repression" of motherhood which Joyce highlights. Asserts that for men the woman's body functions as a "fetish," just as "Molly Bloom's body functions for men in Ulysses" (280).
B-21: Scott, Bonnie Kime. "A Joyce of One's Own: Following the Lead of Woolf, West, and Barnes." Rereading Modernism: New Directions in Feminist Criticism. Ed. Lisa Rado. New York & London: Garland, 1994. 209-230.
Begins by calling Joyce, "arguably...the most securely canonized modernist writer today" (209). Mentions Florence Howe and Carolyn Heilbrun as "matriarchs of the second wave of feminism" who found only "masculine vision" in Joyce's writing (209). Accuses Gilbert and Gubar of "sexual binarism" when it comes to Joyce (210). Cites Shari Benstock, Christine von Boheemen, Margot Norris, Suzette Henke, Helene Cixous, and Julia Kristeva as women who have written about Joyce from a feminist standpoint without delegating him to misogyny. Draws from Herr's Joyce's Anatomy of Culture and Norris' Joyce's Web. Attempts to see how the "terms of modernism and the place therein are altered by thickening critical history and feminist practice," particularly examining how Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, and Djuana Barnes each read and received Joyce's writing. Gives more attention to West. Scott writes in her conclusion:
As readers and critics of Joyce, Woolf, West, and Barnes could strive to take possession of him, sensing that they would have to resist the formulas of controlling men such as Eliot, Lewis, and Williams, and sorting out which of Joyce's experiments achieved psychological depth... They adjusted Joyce to their own purposes-the blasting of Edwardian confines, the understanding of destructive familial tendencies... (225-226).Asserts that feminist readers should also familiarize themselves with the work of Richard Brown, Vicki Mahaffey, Patrick McGee, Frances Restuccia, Karen Lawrence, Garry Leonard, Richard Pearce, and Beryl Schlossman. Overall, provides useful background on feminist attitudes, including Woolf, Barnes, and West, without getting bogged down in detail.
C-1: Herring, Phillip F. "The Bedsteadfastness of Molly Bloom." MFS 15, 1969. 59-61.
Providing a good summary of previous criticism and writings about Molly Bloom, Herring deals with the subject of how to deal with Molly's "infidelity" along with analyzing Joyce's reasons for creating her as he did. Parallels to Nora Joyce and Molly Bloom are made, coming down somewhat harshly on Nora, writing that Joyce "desperately needed the sympathy and understanding which Nora was unable, or unwilling to give" (50). Cites J. Mitchell Morse and E. R. Steinberg as two of Molly's "severist" critics (57). Comparisons between Molly and Homer's Penelope are explored. Regarding Robert Adams' view of Molly, Herring calls it "eloquently misleading" and says that Adams sees Molly as a "product of bitterness" on Joyce's part, a point to which Herring cannot agree (58). Uses some examples of the "disgusting habits" of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus against the argument that Molly's "earthiness" is evidence of Joyce's bitterness.
Overall, the detailing of the historical lashing that the character of Molly Bloom has undergone is interesting. The argument against Adams and other critics regarding Joyce's intent behind Molly is not supported well enough with textual example.
C-2: Henke, Suzette. "Joyce's Bloom: Beyond Sexual Possessiveness." American Imago 32.4, Winter 1975. 329-334.
Deals with Leopold Bloom's "androgyny" and "sensitivity" before they were quite the catchphrases that they are today. Sees Bloom as unusual, because in Western culture, the empathetic powers that Joyce gives him are usually confines to "artists and women" (329). Mentions Bloom's attraction to "forceful" women, complementing his own vulnerability. Asserts that Joyce felt a close connection to Bloom: "Leopold-Ulysses is both the man that Joyce was and the husband that he feared to be" (330). The familiar theme of Molly as earth-mother/Gea-Tellus is discussed. Some Freudian theories are mentioned, including a statement that critics have neglected to explore the "ultimate implications of Bloom's oedipal attachment." Sees U as the first portrayal in literature of an "open marriage that works" (332-333). On the whole, a worthwhile essay which could benefit from more focus. Although she tries to cover too much ground, Henke's scholarship is exemplary and her comments are thought-provoking.
C-3: Burgan, Mary. "Androgynous Fatherhood in 'Ulysses' and 'Women in Love'." MLQ 44.2, June 1983. 178-197.
Deals with the "ideal" of "androgynous fatherhood" in Joyce and Lawrence, using U and Women in Love for analysis: "For James Joyce and for D. H. Lawrence the portrait of the artist as a young man is the narrative of a hero trying to get away from his mother" (178). Asserts that Stephen Dedalus in U and Paul Morel in Sons and Lovers are two of the most "powerful twentieth century advocates of sexual liberation," yet they were threatened by "women's power" as "mother of the artist and mother of the race" (178). Despite the "threat," both Joyce and Lawrence, in their later heroes, including Leopold Bloom, display an urge to "assimilate the maternal attributes of gestation, birth, giving, generativity, and watchful care" (179). Burgan's discussion of Stephen's feelings about his mother is very worthwhile, writing of the "fleshly timebound claims of motherhood" that bore down upon Stephen (185). Touches upon Molly Bloom as "Earth-Mother" in a positive note, yet says that Molly gains only "partial and grudging entry for the 'female' creative potential" (188). Despite scholarship to the contrary, Burgan writes that Joyce did not "wish to subsume one sex to the other" in an androgynous union (191).
C-4: Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. "Sexual Linguistics: Gender, Language, Sexuality." NLH 16.3, Spring 1985. 515-544.
Deals effectively with past and current thinking and trends in the area of gendered language. Dale Spender, Sally McConnell-Ginet and others are cited as "uncovering the male monopoly of language that reinforces a more general male cultural primacy" (519). Deals with theories of Lacan, Derrida, and Levi-Straus. Many feminist theorists are cited: Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva. Comments on Joyce and U include calling Joyce the twentieth century's "greatest master of linguistic transformation" and U a transformation of a "comment on Homer's epic into a charm that inaugurated a new patrilinguistic epoch" (534). Taking examples from "Oxen of the Sun," Gilbert and Gubar say that Joyce wrestles "patriarchal power from the mother tongue" (535). Most of the commentary on U is in a negative vein, grouping him with those that use a "masculinist syntax of subordination" (539). Feminist Joyceans often clash with Gilbert and Gubar's rejection of Joyce and their more extreme views, which they assert very eloquently.
C-5: Attridge, Derek. "Molly's Flow: The Writing of 'Penelope' and the Question of Woman's Language." MFS 35, 1989. 543-565.
Places into perspective and argues against the way critics have used the metaphor of "flow" to denote the style of Molly Bloom's interior monologue. Lists several critics, female and male, who use this metaphor and related ones (rivers, streams, liquids)--Blamires, Burgess, French, Hayman, Unkeless, Card, Boheemen, and others. Characterizing Molly's language as "flowing" occurs in "almost every attempt to characterize the style" of "Penelope" (544). Shows differences in linguistic and symbolic conventions Joyce uses to represent Leopold's, Stephen's, and Molly's thoughts. "Flow" and its related metaphors only seems to be applied to describe Molly's language. Questions why this particular metaphor is almost universally selected and challenges the critical tendency to associate this flow, this "emblematically signaled continuity" with the "female mind" (549). Makes excellent points about how readers and critics bring gender assumptions into the reading of "Penelope" and all literature. This essay took a new approach and asked fresh questions. Highly recommended.
C-6: Booker, M. Keith. "The Baby in the Bathwater: Joyce, Gilbert, and Feminist Criticism." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 32.3, Fall 1990. 446-447.
Uses Sandra Gilbert's article "Costumes of the Mind: Transvestism as Metaphor in Modern Literature" (1982), a discussion of Joyce's treatment of the "motif of transvestism" in the "Circe" episode, as a way to tackle issues of how Joyce "genders" language and whether he is appropriated by the patriarchal system. Also gives some background into ways that Joyce and feminists "clearly seem to be natural allies" (446). Sees Joyce's treatment of "gender roles" in U as more of a "by-product" of his treatment of "more generalized" concern for dealing with the traditional "Western models of the unified subject." Asserts that Joyce himself has been "largely appropriated" by such patriarchal and traditional systems of authority, and has been "converted into one of their major symbols" (447). Posits the problem of modern feminism is that it must position itself in a way to initiate a "subversive dialogue with the patriarchal tradition" without being "absorbed" and "assimilated" by the powerful tradition (447).
Admits that there is a "certain air of misogyny and male anxiety floating around" the text of U (448), yet thinks that Gilbert's "hostility" to "poststructural readings" influences her view of Joyce's works. Asserts that Gilbert cannot seem to get past authorial intent. What Gilbert and Gubar "seem to be saying" is that Joyce makes his language "intentionally complex and opaque" so that it is "too difficult for women to read" (459). One of his arguments against this is that a large number of Joycean scholars have been women, and feminists, including Cixous, Lawrence, Henke, and French.
Makes some valid points in his argument against Gilbert's perspective, but does not go to the text of U enough to back up his authority.
C-7: Callow, Heather Cook. "'Marion of the Bountiful Bosoms': Molly Bloom and the Nightmare of History." Twentieth Century Literature 36, Winter 1990. 464-476.
Attempts to "reclaim" through a linear reading the "realistic" Molly revealed in the "unfolding subjet of the text, the chronological story as Joyce chose to disclose it" (464). Mentions Elaine Unkeless's focus on the "conventional" Molly and asserts that criticism has not paid enough attention to Molly as conventional because Joyce does not make it easy to do so: "Joyce structured the narrative in such a way that the voices of male Dublin...weigh heavily in our initial assessment of Molly, and their testimony comes down forcefully" (465). Posits that because the reader gets to "know" Molly through the viewpoints of the men in the novel, that this colors their perception when they get to "Penelope." Asserts that women's voices are "marginal" in U, and that the male voices "distort" our image of Molly (467). Goes off topic a bit with an inquiry into actually "how fat" Molly really is, concluding that Molly is neither an "unfairly framed, unpalatable slut" nor is she the "seductive Mrs. Marion." Realistically, she is a "comely woman whose figure is beginning to exceed the limits of voluptuousness" (468). Surveys part of Molly's critical history and the attacks against her for "wanton sexuality" and assertions of her deficiencies in "housewifely, wife ly, and motherly qualities," showing how these are exaggerations at best (468). Discusses Molly's relationship with Milly and that the mother does not want the daughter to make the "same mistakes," that she wants a better life for her daughter: "Molly's sensitivity to the shortcomings of her own life reveals that she has greater understanding than she is often given credit for" (469).
This article was welcome in that it tried to plow through some of the Molly myths and the extreme views on both sides of the controversy, trying to view Molly as a "real" woman rather than an archetype or as a horrible, slovenly, adulteress.
C-8: Scott, Bonnie Kime. "Riding the 'Vicociclometer': Women and the Cycles of History in Joyce." JJQ 28.4, Summer 1991, 827-839.
Positions current Joycean criticism as having "traversed new criticism and structuralism," with "one wheel still in psychoanalytic and linguistic poststructuralism, we cycle or rather re-cycle into materialist, historical territory" (827). Traces the way that Joyce uses the "cycle" of women, including menstruation, in Joyce's work in so far as scholars have analyzed it. Adds to the discourse a look at how "bicycles" are mentioned in U, and the relationship of Joyce's female and male characters to them. Mentions Derek Attridge usurping the "critical fixation on a flowing, feminine language in Molly's monologue" (830). Cites Rebecca West and Julia Kristeva as two critics who have struggled with the feminine cycle in Joyce. Writes of Kristeva's attempts to "write women into history via her version of the feminine cycle" (827). Gives some analysis of the difference between "generations" of feminists, including Joyceans. Uses in her title the "vicociclometer" from FW that "allows Joyce to enjoy and undo the many senses of the word cycle" (831).
An interesting essay, although its movement from the female cycle of menstruation to bicycles may seem like a stretch.
C-9: Wicke, Jennifer. "'Who's She When She's at Home?' Molly Bloom and the Work of Consumption." JJQ 28.4, Summer 1991. 749-764.
Appears in an issue of JJQ focusing on "history" and Joyce, a compilation of papers from the Joyce and History Conference at Yale, October 1990. Applying what seems to be a combination of economic, socialist, Marxist, and feminist theory, this essay deals with how Molly is a "consumer" and how being a consumer is also a form of labor. Describes Ireland of Joyce's day as being a consumer in that its only product for internal consumption and exporting was Guinness Stout. It was extremely dependent on (and used by) England as the "source of agricultural raw materials...and perhaps as a captive market for the injection of its own industrial goods..." (750).
Readers and critics have come to equate Molly with "Home": "Molly as the plump period, which marks the domestic spot." Sees a "blindness" in scholarship ignoring the "richness of her culture of consumption" (750). Decides to avoid the debates over whether Molly is a "real," "good," or a "bad" woman, in favor of "tracing the metempsychotic consequences" of her "consumption" which is "assuredly gendered" and that has "stakes beyond...sexual politics of Ulysses" (751). Consumption can be labor, and Wicke asserts that "Molly as consumer subject is doing cognitive, analytic work" (751). Cites Georg Simmel as the modernist who is "most persuasive" in interrogating the "psychosocial aspects of consumption" (753). Includes an interesting analysis of how Molly is "attuned" to fashion, and that her interpretation of fashion should be seen as exerting mental energy and as a "productive use of what she consumes" (757). Wicke's main point seems to be that Molly "at home" has been traditionally seen as not actively working or producing, but that her consumption is not idle or without value.
C-10: Klein, Scott W. "Speech Lent by Males: Gender, Identity, and the Example of Stephen's Shakespeare." JJQ 30.3, 1993, 439-449.
Sees themes of "gender, inauthenticity, and theatrical artifice" contained in Ulysses' "aesthetic argument," using Stephen Dedalus's Shakespeare speech as example (439). Says that Stephen's Shakespeare speech is often read as a 'defense" of patriarchal model of creativity, and that it
provides a theoretical model that casts light not only upon the male authorship...but, in an episode devoid of women's voices, also indirectly illuminates the problematic question of Joyce's masculine presentation of female speech (439).Asks the question, "To what degree...is this vision of the male artist open to feminist articulation?" (449) Asserts that the male artists in U are as "divided" as the female subject, and that Stephen's lecture suggests a "context, if not an apologia, for female speech in Joyce: that the male creator...is not free from the divisions of artifice that are inseparable from his creation, or his 'lending' of a gendered voice" (448). Makes some good points, but argument is hard to follow at times.
C-11: Garvey, Johanna X. K. "City Limits: Reading Gender and Urban Spaces in 'Ulysses'." Twentieth Century Literature 41.1, Spring 1995. 108-123.
Applying spatial analysis to U, Garvey calling it the "modern city novel par excellence" and a "multifaceted exploration of space." Gives a historical overview of feminist critiques of space in literature, including the ideas of Claudine Herrmann and Julia Kristeva. Asserts that U's Dublin can be seen as initially feminine-gendered, "only to be filled in and thus conquered, to become a space of male power" (108). Sees the process of this conquering of space as excluding the women from "active participation in urban life" (108). Suggests that Joyce used metaphors of mastery over the feminine in order to show that this attempt to conquer will "deaden and falsify all human experience." Asks the question--Does U observe "traditional categories of masculine and feminine" and "implicitly critique and subvert these gender constructions?" (109). Although Garvey does not "answer" these questions, the implicit conclusion is that she supports the idea of Joyce as deconstructing gender. Overall, Garvey's ideas are strong, and the questions she addresses are timely and important.
D-1: Monahan, Joan. "The Position of Molly Bloom in 'Ulysses'." Diss. Kent State U, August, 1971. 174 pp. Hardbound.
Monahan spends too much time setting up Molly as the "center" of the novel and as the archetypal female, which was not a new, novel, or enlightened approach, even at the time of publication. She begins with a statement about Molly receiving "relatively little critical attention" until "recently," which seems to be a naive comment. Good points made include the need to read Molly "in context" and the assertion that we should get away from viewing her solely as Gea-Tellus or as the "woman on the bed" (2). Shows possible sources for Molly's character, including Nora. Emphasizes Nora's "lack of education" (22). Cites Wayne Booth, William Y. Tindall, and others, none of whom have feminist leanings. Mostly reiterates what others had already written.
D-2: Chapman, Gerald W., Jr. "Anxious Appropriations: Feminism and Male Identity in the Writings of Blake, Joyce, and Pynchon." Diss. Cornell U, August 1992. Hardbound.
Analyzes the ways in which William Blake, James Joyce, and Thomas Pynchon "responded" to feminism of their times. Chapter Two, "Joyce's Politics of the (Male) Self" (pp. 93-136) traces the political undertones of Joyce's "new womanly man" his reworking of the Romantic figure of the "artist-hero." Joyce's rivalry with Irish feminist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington is also detailed. Chapman thinks that Joyce partially "reworked" Sheehy-Skeffington's political philosophy. Sheehy-Skeffington is thinly veiled as McCann in SH. Chapman's stated goal is to "examine carefully what patterns of response men are liable to fall into as they approach feminism" (ii). States that Joyce was "at least as much concerned" with sexual "control" of women as he was with their "sexual emancipation" (94). Asserts that Joyce's "appreciation of feminist principles and goals" was "considerable," although he rarely acknowledged this. Much of this dissertation deals with Joyce's quest for a "Romantic self" and the fact that it is hardly a "gender-neutral" endeavor, because the artist-hero is male, by convention. One of the main artist-heroes in Joyce's writing is Stephen Dedalus. Discusses U primarily on pp. 117-130, also speaking to Carolyn Heilbrun's criticism of Joyce's "egoism." Chapman tries to give Joyce's egoism a "history"--to show "how intertwined his egoism was with his art, his politics, and his society" (131). He uses Joyce to show that "men's actions as feminists are never free of their motivations as men" (135).
This dissertation tries to do too many things. At the beginning and conclusion, Chapman attempts to tie Joyce into the problem of male feminist critics, and it does not work very well. He mentions Showalter's criticisms of the male feminists who indulge in "critical cross-dressing," but he does not answer her accusations except to say that he is "unwilling to believe" that all men who take up feminism "necessarily do so as a sexual charge, or as a power play, or as radical chic" (135). While this may be a valid defense, he fails in his attempt to use James Joyce as his touchstone.
D-3: Sheffield, Elisabeth. "The Murmorous Flood Within: The Function of the Feminine in the Works of James Joyce." Diss. SUNY at Buffalo, 1994. Hardbound. Bibliography.
Argues for a metaphorical connection between "the feminine" and "poetic language" which "increasingly exhibits an 'excess' of the signifier" in Joyce's later work. Asserts that Joyce "tropes" this language of "excess" as feminine because of an ambivalence toward the feminine (i). Chapter One introduces a poststructuralist and feminist context for Sheffield's reading. Chapters Two and Three focus on Chamber Music and P and how Joyce "uses distilled traits of the feminine to characterize the disturbing power of language" (i). Chapter Four, "As Easy Stop the Sea," focuses on "Penelope," using much of Maurice Blanchot's theories as a starting point. Asserts that Molly Bloom serves as a "trope" for "artistic creation and the space of writing" (110). Places herself as "counter" to Suzette Henke, Bonnie Kime Scott, Gabriele Schwab, Elaine Unkeless, and others, who Sheffield says treat Molly as a "realistic" character, ignoring the "deliberate artifice with which Molly is constructed" (111). Tries to show how "Penelope" "problematizes attempts to read Molly as a realistic character or to reify her as an earth goddess or some ancient archetype for woman..." (114). Chapter Four has some fine analysis, although it is distracting that she posits Roseanne Barr as "TV's reigning earth goddess and Molly Bloom's postmodern heir," totally out of context and without explanation. Chapter Five deals with ALP and FW, arguing against Margot Norris' interpretation of the character. As a whole, this dissertation provides solid analysis and a knowledge of other feminist critiques of Joyce, and of "Penelope" in particular.
chenault@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu