James Joyce's Painful Case

by Owens, Coilin

• ISBN13: 9780813031934
• ISBN10: 0813031931
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-13
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

In order to demonstrate that one story from theDublinersis not only a turning point in that book but also a microcosm of a wide range of important Joycean influences and preoccupations, Coacute;iliacute;n Owens examines the dense intertextuality of "A Painful Case." Assuming the position of the ideal contemporary Irish reader that Joyce might have anticipated, Owens argues that the main character, James Duffy, is a "spoiled priest," emotionally arrested by his guilt at having rejected the call to the priesthood. Duffy's intellectual life thereafter progresses through German idealism to eventual nihilism. The contrast of nihilist thought and Christian belief is Owens's main focus, and he demonstrates how this dichotomy is evident at various points in the life of James Duffy. From this springboard, Owens constructs a larger discussion of Joyce's cultural influences, including Schopenhauer, Wagner, Tolstoy, and others. He considers many other complex interrelationships that inform Joyce's text--theology, philosophy, music, opera, literary history, Irish cultural history, and Joyce's own poetry--and offers detailed elucidations informed by historical, geographical, linguistic, and biographical information.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xv
List of Abbreviations	p. xix
Introduction: "obvious remarks"	p. 1
The Dublin-Trieste Cradle: Delivery	p. 16
Love, Marriage, and Moral Adjudication: "That high unconsortable one"	p. 61
A Spoiled Priest: Wordsworth's Presence	p. 108
Richard Wagner and Arthur Schopenhauer	p. 144
Schopenhauer's Continental Progeny	p. 172
Conclusion: An Occasion of Grace	p. 209
Notes	p. 217
Bibliography	p. 229
Index	p. 237
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