Richard Beckman argues that readers ofFinnegans Wake must develop a new method of reading that flows from the text itself. Focusing on the mode of perception in the Wake--seeing the world obliquely because that is often the only way to get at the nature of things--Beckman maintains that Joyce s satire depends on looking at the public scene from behind, a view at the same time vaudevillian and philosophic. Indirect perception is at once the basis for Joyce s peculiar locutions, conveying incompatible double and triple meanings, and also an account of how the mind works....

Roy Gottfried takes a different and somewhat controversial approach to the study of James Joyce's relation to religion by examining the author's misbelief rather than the disbelief so many scholars claim he professed.Gottfried argues that Joyce in fact had a great deal of respect for the Catholic Church though he did not accept the orthodox dogma he learned as a youth. Instead, Joyce was most interested in actual schisms that challenged the authority and universality of Catholic dogma.This focus on schism is most readily evident in Gottfried's analysis of Joyce's use of key...

This text investigates several themes about music's relationship to the literary compositions of James Joyce: music as a condition to which Joyce aspired; music theory as a useful way of reading his works; and musical compositions inspired by or connected with him.