Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners and the Literary Revival [Paperback]

This original study suggests that James Joyce, like Yeats and his fellow Revivalists, was attracted to the west of Ireland as a place of authenticity and freedom. It shows how his acute historical sensibility is reflected inDubliners, posing new questions about one of the most enduring collections of short stories ever written.This book suggests that James Joyce, like Yeats and his fellow Revivalists, was attracted to the west of Ireland as a place of authenticity and freedom. It shows how his acute historical sensibility is reflected inDubliners, posing new questions about one of the most enduring collections of short stories ever written. The answers provided are a fusion of history and literary criticism, using close readings that balance techniques of realism and symbolism. The result is an original study that shines new light onDublinersand Joyce's later masterpieces.Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction: 'The journey westward'
1. 'Endless stories about the distillery': Joyce and Whiskey
2. 'Their friends, the French': Joyce, Jacobitism and the Revival
3. 'He would put in allusions': The Uses and Abuses of Revivalism
Conclusion: Protestant Power and Plates of Peas
Select Bibliography
Index Who would think that a new study of James Joyce's first book could break fresh ground? Frank Shovlin has done it. His riveting book on 'Dubliners' shows that Joyce began at his best. After the power and beauty of his short stories, Joyce had nowhere to go except into complexity and length. --Times Literary Supplement

This elegantly written and illuminating study of Joyce'sDublinersis a powerful argument for the view that the deepest understanding of Joyce's work is to be found in the dense network of its allusions to the cultural and historical contexts of Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century. --Irish Studies Review

This is a sparklingly written and unflaggingly enjoló.