Joyce without Borders: Circulations, Sciences, Media, and Mortal Flesh

This book explores James Joyce's borderlessness and the ways his work crosses or unsettles boundaries of all kinds. It examines Joyce through the lens of the sciences, early animated film and comics, and abiding human concerns, offering new research on his creative use of "spicy books," a Lacanian consideration of "The Dead," and a meditation on his uncertainties about the boundary between life and death.

Format: Hardback
Length: 316 pages
Publication date: 11 October 2022
Publisher: University Press of Florida

This book delves into the concept of James Joyce's borderlessness and explores the ways in which his work transcends or challenges boundaries of various kinds. The essays in this collection position borderlessness as a central aspect to understanding Joyce's artistic process, offering fresh avenues for engagement with his work. Contributors commence by examining the circulation of Joyce's writing in Latin America through a transcontinental network of writers and translators, including José Lezama Lima, José Salas Subirat, Leopoldo Marechal, Eduardo Desnoës, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and Augusto Monterroso. The essays then explore Joyce's work through the lens of various scientific disciplines, presenting theoretical interventions on posthumanist parasitology in Ulysses; on Giordano Bruno's concept of coincidence of opposites in Finnegans Wake; and on algorithmic agency in the Wake. Cutting-edge cognitive narratology is applied to the "Penelope" episode.

The volume also features innovative essays on Joyce's relationship with early animated film and comics, engaging with animated film in the "Circe" episode, Joyce's connections with George Herriman's cartoon strip Krazy Kat, and structural affinities between open-world gaming and Finnegans Wake. The final essays focus on enduring human concerns, offering new research on Joyce's creative use of "spicy books"; a Lacanian analysis of "The Dead" alongside Katherine Mansfield's "The Stranger" and Haruki Murakami's "Kino"; and a meditation on Joyce's uncertainties about the boundary between life and death.

For Joyce, borders posed challenges, yet they served as a rich source of inspiration for his art. As evidenced by this volume, they inspire insightful reflections on Joyce's work, ranging from emerging scholars to esteemed experts in the field.

Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780813069395