Annotated Bibliography
Joyce: Sex and Style: How Joyce Handles Sexuality with Prose Style
Michael Porter
Brown, Richard. James Joyce and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. (134-43). Brown discusses various literary mediums Joyce chooses to exploit, and how style in each contributes to Joyce’s sexual canon. Writing ‘ “Nay, more, were I not all I was, Weak, Wanton, waster out and out” ’ Joyce contributes this ‘epilogue’ (Brown 140) to Ibsen’s Ghost, showing examples of Joyce’s handling of romantic alliteration. Brown characterizes Joyce’s ideals about sexuality not only is fictional illustrations, but of stylistic sound, simple sentences and balanced parallelism. Brown compares such phonic use of Joyce’s to Shakespeare in scope and subtlety.
Brown, Richard. James Joyce and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985: (117-25). Brown alerts readers to Joyce’s affinity towards allusion. Brown contends that Joyce not only understands his own rhythm in prose, but that historically effective verse can contribute not only to the context of that piece (here, ‘Portrait of the Artist’, Joyce’s piece on Wilde’s famous work) but also to style and sound: ‘The harlot’s cry from street to street -- Shall weave old England’s winding sheet.’ This chapter connects several short stories including “Circe” and “Nausicaa’, with prostitution and the evasive, but paradoxically biting, language. As Brown notes, ‘Stephen (of Stephen Hero) calls the girls marsupials’, since all women are obliged to sell their bodies in one way or another’.
Jacobs, Joshua . “Joyce’s Epiphanic Mode: Material Language and the Representation of Sexuality in 'Stephen Hero,' and 'Portrait' ” Twentieth Century Literature Vol. 46.1 (2000): 20-34. Jacobs’ article guides the reader into the binary complications of character and language awareness. As evidenced by the statement ‘Stephen appears to swoon into female genitalia, and perhaps participate in an infinitely self-diffusive female orgasm,’ Jacobs speaks strongly about the strong language of Joyce. Jacobs refers to areas of Joyce’s work where repetition resonates to describe the intensity given to those epiphanies the title character in Stephen Hero receives, where an experience is not deep but “deeply deep”. It is Jacobs’ assumption that when Joyce enters into the ‘epiphanic mode’ the language surrounding his characters bloom as their intellect flowers; thus, when they enter their sexual (bodily) nature they receive an intellectual, and thus literary, backlash.
Kessler, Joyce and Lousi, Milic T. “ Words of one's own: Some evidence against men's use of language as a tool of domination.” Style 29.1 (1995): 76-94. Joyce and Milic take an alternative path towards dissecting James Joyce’s prose, through statistical measurement of words and phrases, paying heavy attention to which words value which gender, Joyce and Milic ‘trace the way the element of gender informs the dichotomy of the sexes in language’ and in so doing borrow from Adrienne Rich, who has long mused upon the effect language can have in understanding patriarchal domination. James Joyce’s writing comes during a period of development whereby our current construction of a women’s identity can further be enlightened by this numerical study of words and usage. The authors urge that it is not man’s innate dominance or relish for dominance over women (and children) that felicitates this analysis, but how those words and usage describe a social network; for example, consulting Joyce’s fictional texts, 21 noted instances of the word ‘child’ seventeen were given by a woman, four by men. These statistical results support with evidence many researchers of literature fail to mention when contacting the text, facts—and not opinion.
Mosher Jr., Harold F. "The Narrated and its Negatives: the Nonarrated
and the Disrrated in Joyce's Dubliners" Literature Review 27.3 (1993): 407-428. Mosher's article concerns the positive and negative of Joyce's narrative choices. Considering style, Mosher contends that Joyce elides meaningful words, and that ‘text's incomplete narration guides the reader to a sexual reconstruction of the action in order to justify the condemnation of Doran’ (borrowing from Claude Bremond’s "La logique des possibles narratifs."). Mosher continually refers to what he terms the ‘nonnarrated’, elision that produces the psychological valleys and summits through which characters trek. Mosher even goes so far as to say sexuality inherent in the reading audience provides the thorough profundity and impact of Gabriel’s epiphany: we fill in the negative space Joyce provides for us, this phenomenon itself being a sort of literary procreativity.
Mosher Jr., Harold F. “Clichés and repetition in Dubliners:
The example of `A Little Cloud'.” Style 25.3 (1991): 378-392. Mosher’s treatise of James Joyce’s clichéd language, particular where it appears in dialogue, is also an appraisal of Joyce’s ability to disguise the beauty of “The Dead” in its final, haunting epiphany. Before Mosher completes this conclusion, he notes the many examples of clichéd and repetitious language, calling upon not only the subjects of daily conversation in Joyce’s work, but the language of those incapable of communicating that mundanity. Mosher sites from “A Little Cloud” "crawled. . . like mice," "vermin-like" as representative language. Incased in Mosher’s analysis, which references sexuality within style little, are the findings of any Joyce study, which is: Joyce’s intentions underline every level of meaning, including foremost, language.
Presley, John Woodrow. “Finnegans Wake, Lady Pokingham, and Victorian Erotic Fantasy.” Journal of Popular Culture 30.3 (1995): 67- 81. Presley, looking into the nature of Joyce’s sexual themes, deviance (pornography) and non-deviance (the novel), upturns much about Joyce’s style. Starting with such declarations about the language of sexuality in its deviant existence ‘Language for pornography is a prison from which it is continually trying to escape…’ Presley decides Joyce does engage in pornography, or retrograde literature, as a language technique not inherent to ‘bad’ writing but in replication of a ‘higher style’, but also settling upon the opinion that ‘it is the language and tone of pornography that Joyce uses and mocks so effectively.’ Using concept from Anthony Burgess, Presley defines Joyce as a writer able to mimic the style, and so Joyce “lifts language, detail, motif (the repeated reference to "shared closets" in the field notes) and even the condescending, superior tone, and he continues to drop a playful allusion to Rowntree here and there throughout the Wake--apparently, for no reason other than virtuosity, or for fun’.
Smith, C.S. “Joyce’s Ulyssess. 13.633.” Explicator 50.1 (1991): 37-39.
From Ulysses, Smith investigates the sultry language of “Nausicaa”. Guided by Stanley Sultan’s appraisal of the story, a parody of contemporary novel authored by a woman, Joyce utilized nomenclature and the ‘use of innocent sounding expressions that communicate an otherwise vulgar meaning.’ A short entry, Smith’s sleuthing through Joyce’s vulgar stylistic choices gives one a mobile argument in assessing Joyce’s themes: Joyce is interested in sex, particularly that which lies in the nature of women. And despite claims that Joyce is inaccessible, Smith illuminates the names of the contemporary author Maria Cummins (a pun of notable gratuity as Smith would have it). Also, Smith points to one of Cummins characters, Mrs. Bloom, (a pun of flowery language), who, as the story climaxes, is delivered the sexual gratification she desires, given to her, in a sense, by the author, who is credited with the title of her book, The Lamplighter, the stoker of feminine passions.