Renascent Joyce

Revival, reinvention, and regeneration: the concept of renascence pervades Joyces work through the inescapable presence of his literary forebears. By persistently re-examining tradition, reinterpreting his literary heritage in light of the present, and translating and re-translating from one system of signs to another, Joyce exhibits the spirit of the greatest of Renaissance writers and artists. In fact, his writing derives some of its most important characteristics from Renaissance authors, as this collection of essays shows. Though critical work has often focused on Joyces relationship to medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and Dante, Renascent Joyce examines Joyces connection to the Renaissance in such figures as Shakespeare, Rabelais, and Bruno. Joyces own writing can itself be viewed through the rubric of renascence with the tools of genetic criticism and the many insights afforded by the translation process. Several essays in this volume examine this broader idea, investigating the rebirth and reinterpretation of Joyces texts. Topics include literary historiography, Joyces early twentieth-century French cultural contexts, and the French translation of Ulysses. Attentive to the current state of Joyce studies, the writers of these extensively researched essays investigate the Renaissance spirit in Joyce to offer a volume at once historically informed and innovative.