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Identities in The Writer Complexus Joyce, Europe and Irish Identities
Identities in The Writer Complexus Joyce, Europe and Irish Identities
Lynch,
Joachim Fischer and Brian Coates. Rudolpi Press, Amsterdam, Volume 2, pages 2!"
2#2
identities in the writer complexus: Joyce, Europe and Irish Identities
Eugene OBrien
University of Limeric
$he point at issue o% the concluding sections o% A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
is the con%lict bet&een di%%erent notions o% 'rish identity. 'n lines that ha(e become a
credo o% Joyce)s o&n e*ile %rom 'reland, he puts into the mouth o% +tephen ,edalus this
astute summary o% the e%%ect o% essentialist notions o% 'rishness on an indi(idual
consciousness. -ere, spea.ing o% the soul, +tephen ma.es the point that/
$he soul is born, he said (aguely, %irst in those moments ' told you o%.
't has a slo& and dar. birth, more mysterious than the birth o% the body.
0hen the soul o% a man is born in this country there are nets %lung at it
to hold it bac. %rom %light. 1ou tal. to me o% nationality, language,
religion. ' shall try to %ly by those nets.
$his can be seen as a programmatic statement o% &hat ' &ill term a negati(e sense o%
identity. 't is (ery di%%erent in theme and in style %rom the preceding stories o%
Du!iners, &here the style &as co(ert and implicit, as narrati(e (oice tended to blend
&ith that o% di%%erent characters in %ree indirect discourse, &ith little personal input %rom
any central narrati(e presence. -ere, the narrati(e (oice e*pressed in the personal
pronoun %irst person singular, is acti(ely embracing the out&ard heteroglossic mo(ement
to&ards 2urope &hich &ill be seen as creati(e o% a ne& %orm o% cosmopolitan and
comple* 'rish identities.
' &ill e*amine these %orms o% 3identities in the &riter comple*us4
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in terms o% t&o
intersecting (erbal a*es/ Joyce)s o&n term, gno"on and Jac5ues ,errida)s term
haunto!ogy. $he &ord gno"on appears in the opening story o% Du!iners, entitled #he
$isters.
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$he term deri(es %rom 2uclid)s %!e"ents, Boo. '', in &hich a gno"on is
de%ined as &hat is le%t o% a parallelogram &hen a similar parallelogram containing one o%
its corners is remo(ed. -o&e(er, it can also re%er to a pointer on a sundial &hich, by its
shado&, indicates the time o% day.
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' &ould suggest that both meanings o% the &ord, that o% a geometrical %igure and
that o% a pointer on a sundial, pro(ide symbols o% the Joycean concepts o% negati(e
identity. $he %igure o% a parallelogram, &ith a smaller parallelogram remo(ed, suggests
a desire %or closure and completion that can ne(er be achie(ed, %or, i% the parallelogram
in the corner is %illed in, then the shape &ill cease to be a gno"on and instead &ill re(ert
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, edited by R. B. 7ershner, Boston, 88#, !! .
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James Joyce, &innegans Wake, %irst published 8#8, London, 8!9, 6, ##.
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James Joyce, Du!iners. 'ntroduction by Anthony Burgess. London, 886, .
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,on :i%%ord, 'oyce Annotated: (otes for ;Du!iners) and ;A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man),
Ber.eley, 8<2, 28.
to being a parallelogram. $o this e*tent, the gno"on de%ines a process &hich tends
to&ards closure, but ne(er 5uite achie(es it, al&ays seeming to ha(e a phantom dotted
line haunting its ontology, and al&ays tending to be &hat it is not. 't is a diagrammatic
and conceptual signi%ier &hich stresses that identities and de%initions are al&ays
processes o% becoming, as opposed to positions o% %i*ity. 't is also an indication that
identity as a sel%"present essentialism is not &hat Joyce has in mind= %or the gno"onic
(ie& o% identity, &hat ' term 3identities in the &riter comple*us4, sel% is al&ays de%ined
in terms o% the other. 'n ethical and political terms, such a position is the (ery antithesis
o% the %undamentalism that has been seen, &orld"&ide, in the ,rumcree stando%% in
recent years in >orthern 'reland, &here sel% and other &ere in (iolent opposition. ' thin.
this e*ample is an elo5uent synecdoche o% the dangers that %i*ed and simplistic
de%initions o% identity can bring into being. 'ndeed, ' &ould argue that it is such
%undamentalist identi%icatory attitudes and ideologies that ha(e been the terminus a 5uo
%rom &hich much o% the (iolence in >orthern 'reland o(er the past thirty years has
originated.
'n $)ecters of Mar*, Jac5ues ,errida discusses &hat he terms haunto!ogy. 'n this
boo., he e*plores the spectrality o% many areas o% meaning, seeing ghostly hauntings as
traces o% other possible meanings. ,errida)s spectrality in(ol(es ac.no&ledging the
other that haunts the sel%= it in(ol(es ac.no&ledging the possibility that the 3h4 in
haunto!ogy is a ho(ering presence o(er the certainties o% ontology ?in French phonology
both &ords sound remar.ably similar &hen spo.en@.
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'n practical terms, this means that
Joyce)s 'rishness is al&ays inhabited by spectral presences o% other languages, other
cultures and other mindsets.
$o be a gno"on is to ha(e a haunto!ogica! relationship &ith a parallelogram, and
yet ne(er to become that parallelogram= it is to ha(e an independent ontology o% se!f
&hich is, at the same time, imbricated in terms o% the other. 't is to be de%ined,
negati(ely, by an other &hich, &hile not a part o% the sel%, is ne(ertheless
haunto!ogica!!y present in relation to that sel%. 't suggests a metaphor o% identity &hich
is open to other identities, other ideologies and to notions o% plurality A hence the plural
%orm o% the noun 3identity4 in this discussion. 'n Joyce)s case, 'reland is de%ined
gno"onica!!y and haunto!ogica!!y by 2urope, and 2uropean language and culture. $his
de%inition complicates and deepens any simplistic desire %or an echt 'rishness &hich is
simply :aelic, Catholic and nationalist.
$he desire o% Joyce, and o% +tephen, to see. out such ne& dimensions and ne&
modes o% identity should not, ho&e(er, be seen as a %light %rom his o&n country or his
o&n sense o% 'rishness. Rather is it an attempt to create a ne& sense o% 'rishness &hich
ac.no&ledges alterity. $his contradictory position, o% being part o% a culture &hile at the
same time attempting to o%%er a criti5ue o% the ideology o% that culture, is discussed by
$heodore Adorno, in his essay 3Cultural Criticism and +ociety+. $he t&o subBect
positions %rom &hich criticism may be o%%ered are seen by Adorno as being either those
o% immanence or transcendence, and both positions are %raught &ith di%%iculty. $he
immanent critic participates in the culture/ he or she is shot"through &ith the ideologies
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Jac5ues ,errida, $)ecters of Mar*/ #he $tate of the Det,, the Work of Mourning , the (e-
Internationa!, translated %rom the French by Peggy 7amu%, introduction by Bernd Cagnus and +tephen
Cullenberg, London, 886, D.
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and attitudes o% that culture and hence has little chance o% ma.ing any real obBecti(e
statements about this position o% 3total immanence4
E
and there%ore is doomed to repeat
the errors o% the culture. $he transcendent critic, on the other hand, 3aims at a totality4
and assumes an 3Archimedean position abo(e culture and the blindness o% society4.
-o&e(er, such a position 3outside the s&ay o% e*isting society4, is 3%ictitious4,
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and
ultimately as monological as that o% the immanent position &ithin ideology. Adorno)s
ans&er to this dilemma is the notion o% 3negati(e dialectical criticism4, &hich ta.es up a
position in culture and yet not in culture at the same time. 'n this sense, the position o%
transcendence is achie(ed dialectically by loo.ing at a microcosmic part o% a totality,
and by then relating that to the cultural macrocosm. $he .no&ledge achie(ed is negati(e
and it is in search o% such a negati(e sense o% 'rishness that Joyce, and %ictionally
+tephen, lea(e 'reland. 't is in the cause o% some rede%inition o% 'rishness that he %eels he
must achie(e a 5uasi"transcendent position, and mo(e to 2urope= here he &ill attempt to
rede%ine a sense o% 'rishness &ithin a 2uropean conte*t.
0hat Joyce, through +tephen, is attempting to do is to create a negati(e portrait o%
'rish identity. $o create this, he must ha(e some regulati(e point %rom &here he can
begin to dialectically Bu*tapose the immanent and the transcendent so as to create these
more comple* %orms o% identity. $&o tropes allo& him to achie(e this, +tephen)s
unusual name and the trope o% emigration, as both combine to o%%er a transcendental
perspecti(e on 'reland, and both imbricate 'rishness gno"onica!!y &ith 2urope.
+tephen)s name is a signi%ier o% otherness %rom the (ery beginning o% the boo..
>asty Roche, on %irst hearing it as.s/ 3F&Ghat .ind o% a name is thatH4,
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&hile later in the
opening chapter, Athy says/ 3you ha(e a 5ueer name, ,edalus4.
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$his strangeness o%
name, allied to +tephen)s early preoccupation &ith &ords, names, and stories mar.s him
out as di%%erent %rom the other boys. 't places him &ithin a :ree. %rame o% re%erence,
alluding to another artist and arti%icer &ho combined immanence and transcendence
?through %light@ on his o&n culture, namely ,aedalus.
From the earliest stage, +tephen situates himsel% in terms o% a society and a
.eens-e!t that reaches out beyond 'reland, and nomenclature is a seminal trope o% this
situation. -is %riend, Fleming inscribed the %ollo&ing doggerel on his geography boo./
$te)hen Deda!us is "y na"e/
Ire!and is "y nation0
1!ongo-es is "y d-e!!ing)!ace
And hea2en "y e*)ectation0 Fita!ics origina!G
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'n Fleming)s placement, +tephen has been slotted into an e*pected range o% de%initional
identi%icatory parameters/ he is 'rish and Catholic, and his %uture path is predetermined.
-ere, there is an anticipation o% ,a(in, &ho tells him that his country must come %irst.
$he identi%icatory epistemology is %oundationalist in that there is no room in this narro&
prescripti(e paradigm %or alterity o% any sort= again one is put in mind o% the essentialism
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$heodore Adorno, Pris"s, translated by +amuel and +hierry 0eber, Cambridge, Cass., 8<, 2E.
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Pris"s, #.
<
Portrait of the Artist, 2.
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Portrait of the Artist, #6.
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Portrait of the Artist, 2!
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o% ,rumcree and the :ar(aghy Road, &here sel% is de%ined in contradistinction to the
other.
-o&e(er, on the %lylea% o% his geography boo., +tephen inscribes his o&n name,
but in a manner &hich rede%ines himsel% &ithin a %ar &ider set o% parameters than the
abo(e, and &hich anticipates his later %light to 2urope in the closing chapter/
$te)hen Deda!us
1!ass of %!e"ents
1!ongo-es Wood 1o!!ege
$a!!ins
1ounty 3i!dare
Ire!and
%uro)e
#he Wor!d
#he 4ni2erse.
-ere, +tephen is locating himsel% &ithin a %ar broader spatial span that that allotted him
by Fleming. -ere, the sel% is de%ined (ery much in terms o% an otherness that is part o%
the de%ining constituents o% that sel%. For Joyce, the haunto!ogica! gno"onic de%inition
o% an identity 3comple*us4 &ill al&ays see the present 'reland de%ined dialectically
against the ho(ering alterity o% 2urope, and the &orld.
$he proper name, as synecdoche o% identity itsel%, is central to any epistemology o%
identity= one)s name is that &hich locates one as part o% a language and a culture. Just as
the signi%ier 3,edalus4 conBures up mythic images o% a spectral %ather &ho &ill pro(ide
his %oster"son &ith a means to %ly abo(e the maIe, and also the nets o% nationality, so the
name o% :od, itsel% a potent signi%ier o% Catholic essentialism, is in(o.ed in the opening
chapter o% A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but the e(ocation is through the
ironic eye o% Joyce, telling us %rom a transcendental perspecti(e, about the young
+tephen)s immanent participation in essentialist modes o% thin.ing/
:od &as :od)s name Bust as his name &as +tephen. ,ieu &as the
French %or :od and that &as :od)s name too= and &hen anyone prayed
to :od and said ,ieu then :od .ne& at once that it &as a French
person that &as praying. But, though there &ere di%%erent names %or
:od in all the di%%erent languages in the &orld and :od understood
&hat all the people &ho prayed said in their di%%erent languages, still
:od remained al&ays the same :od and :od)s real name &as :od.
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$hrough Joyce)s ironic eye, an eye &hich &ill, in &innegans Wake, spea. o% a
3thousand%irst4 name,
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the essentialism o% seeing the name %or :od in one language as
someho& 3better4, as someho& more authentic, than others is e*pressed through the
simplistic thought processes o% a small child. 'ndeed, such dogmatism is ironically
amusing, until &e e*trapolate %rom such essentialist ideas o% religion, the mindset that