The relationship between James Joyce and Samuel Beckett has long been of interest to literary critics and readers alike and Re: Joyce 'n Beckett explores that relationship more fully that any other single work of the current scholarship. This volume provides the reader with an overview of the main trends and dilemmas that have dominated discussions on the complex Joyce/Beckett relationship, and pulls together previously scattered materials into a cohesive whole. It also contains an extensive bibliography of particular interest to scholars who will find this composite of sources priceless. The main section offers eleven engaging new essays written from many points of view on a variety of topics including, the impact of biographies written on both Joyce and Beckett, the handling of Irish materials in the short story form, the use of allusion as well as larger narrative structures, the portrayal of the concept of the artist, and the way in which each author deals with the problem of "authority" in their writings. An original one-act play by Denis Regan is also included; the play premiered in April 1990 at the Milwaukee Irishfest. This work does much to challenge previous misconceptions about the Joyce/Beckett relationship. Re: Joyce 'n Beckett is a rich, lively work that brings the relationship of these two, crucially important literary figures of the twentieth century together in one definitive volume.

This ground-breaking collection of essays combines the efforts of twelve contributors to explore previously uncharted paths in the literary relationship between James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, two of the foremost writers of the twentieth century. Eleven essays, written by scholars from Canada, England, the United States, and New Zealand, throw new light on the biographies, texts, techniques, and artistic consciousness of Joyce and Beckett as well as on fundamental questions of literary authority and influence. In addition, the volume contains the first working bibliography devoted exclusively to the Joyce-Beckett relationship. The collection culminates with an original one-act play that celebrates both writers in, with, and through the language that they each explored so profoundly. The eleven essays provide a number of avenues for discussing the literary relationship between Joyce and Beckett: Melvin Friedman assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the Joyce and Beckett biographies by Richard Ellmann and Deirdre Bair. John Fletcher and John P. Harrington provide complementary studies of two of Beckett's early short stories in relation to their possible "counterparts" in Dubliners. James Acheson and David Cohen both draw on Ulysses and various works by Beckett to focus attention on links and divergencies between the two writers in their uses of allusions. Analyzing fictional techniques, Michael Patrick Gillespie foregrounds the impulse for gaming that Joyce and Beckett both employ as a narrative strategy. Alan Loxterman explores the techniques both writers use to raise metaphysical questions. Susan Brienza and Phyllis Carey provide complementary readings of artistic consciousness, Brienza drawing attention to bodily fluids and elimination as images of creation, and Carey focusing on the divergent debts of both writers to Dante. Finally, Steven Connor and Ed Jewinski attack the problems of "authority" and "influence," respectively in the process illuminating differences in modernist and postmodernist understandings of these concepts. A bibliography of well over one hundred entries, compiled by John P. Harrington, lists the most substantive discussions of the Joyce-Beckett relationship. Denis Regan's one-act play Becket et Joyce et Beckettesque, creates a medley of Beckett and Joyce echoes through imaginative dialogues in the afterlife mind of Samuel Beckett. Although the volume was in progress when Samuel Beckett died in December 1989, it now serves as a memorial and a tribute to both Samuel Beckett and James Joyce.

This collection presents articles that examine Joyce and Beckett’s mutual interest in and use of the negative for artistic purposes. The essays range from philological to psychoanalytic approaches to the literature, and they examine writing from all stages of the authors’ careers. The essays do not seek a direct comparison of author to author; rather they lay out the intellectual and philosophical foundations of their work, and are of interest to the beginning student as well as to the specialist.

Re: Joyce offers readers of James Joyce a significant collection of new essays from an international array of prominent and emerging Joyce scholars from around the world. Combining a wide range of theoretical approaches, this collection intervenes with current debates about Joyce's work and the place of Joyce in the academy, while addressing all principal areas of Joycean scholarship. In addition to this, the volume raises issues relevant to the study of Joyce in the context of modernism. Grouped thematically, the essays which comprise Re: Joyce offer all students of Joyce an exciting range of in-depth encounters with the pre-eminent writer of the twentieth century.

Paying close attention to the extensive network of allusions Beckett derived from Joyce's writing, P.J. Murphy reveals how Beckett consistently echoed and engaged in dialogue with Joyce's works.

22 essays and notes on Joyce & Beckett, cycling & walking, Wicklow & Connemara, Molly & Bloom, horses & cattle, trivia & totality, translation & migration, ashplants & annotations, long ways & short cuts, connections & distractions.

All of Derrida’s texts on Joyce together under one cover in fresh, new translations, along with key essays covering the range of Derrida’s engagement with Joyce’s works. Bringing together all of Jacques Derrida’s writings on James Joyce, this volume includes the first complete translation of his book Ulysses Gramophone: Two Words for Joyce as well as the first translation of the essay “The Night Watch.” In Ulysses Gramophone, Derrida provides some of his most thorough reflections on affirmation and the “yes,” the signature, and the role of technological mediation in all of these areas. In “The Night Watch,” Derrida pursues his ruminations on writing in an explicitly feminist direction, offering profound observations on the connection between writing and matricide. Accompanying these texts are nine essays by leading scholars from across the humanities addressing Derrida’s treatments of Joyce throughout his work, and two remembrances of lectures devoted to Joyce that Derrida gave in 1982 and 1984. The volume concludes with photographs of Derrida from these two events.

Surreal Beckett situates Beckett‘s writings within the context of James Joyce and Surrealism, distinguishing ways in which Beckett forged his own unique path, sometimes in accord with, sometimes at odds with, these two powerful predecessors. Beckett was so deeply enmeshed in Joyce’s circle during his early Paris days (1928 - late 1930s) that James Knowlson dubbed them his "Joyce years." But Surrealism and Surrealists rivaled Joyce for Beckett’s early and continuing attention, if not affection, so that Raymond Federman called 1929-45 Beckett’s "surrealist period." Considering both claims, this volume delves deeper into each argument by obscuring the boundaries between theses differentiating studies. These received wisdoms largely maintain that Beckett’s Joycean connection and influence developed a negative impact in his early works, and that Beckett only found his voice when he broke the connection after Joyce’s death. Beckett came to accept his own inner darkness as his subject matter, writing in French and using a first-person narrative voice in his fiction and competing personal voices in his plays. Critics have mainly viewed Beckett’s Surrealist connections as roughly co-terminus with Joycean ones, and ultimately of little enduring consequence. Surreal Beckett argues that both early influences went much deeper for Beckett as he made his own unique way forward, transforming them, particularly Surrealist ones, into resources that he drew upon his entire career. Ultimately, Beckett endowed his characters with resources sufficient to transcend limitations their surreal circumstances imposed upon them.

“Abbs has found a gripping and little-known story at the heart of one of the 20th century’s most astonishing creative moments, researched it deeply, and brought the extraordinary Joyce family and their circle in 1920s Paris to richly-imagined life.”—Emma Darwin, bestselling author of A Secret Alchemy and The Mathematics of Love For readers who adored novels like The Paris Wife, Z, and Loving Frank, comes Annabel Abbs highly praised debut novel, where she spins the story of James Joyce’s fascinating, and tragic, daughter, Lucia. “When she reaches her full capacity for rhythmic dancing, James Joyce may yet be known as his daughter’s father . . .” The review in the Paris Times in November 1928 is rapturous in its praise of Lucia Joyce’s skill and artistry as a dancer. The family has made theirhome in Paris—where the latest ideas in art, music, and literature converge. Acolytes regularly visit the Joyce apartment to pay homage to Ireland’s exiled literary genius. Among them is a tall, thin young man named Samuel Beckett—a fellow Irish expat who idolizes Joyce and with whom Lucia becomes romantically involved. Lucia is both gifted and motivated, training tirelessly with some of the finest teachers in the world. Though her father delights in his daughter’s talent, she clashes with her mother, Nora. And as her relationship with Beckett sours, Lucia’s dreams unravel, as does her hope of a life beyond her father’s shadow. With Lucia’s behavior growing increasingly erratic, James Joyce sends her to pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Here, at last, she will tell her own story—a fascinating, heartbreaking account of thwarted ambition, passionate creativity, and the power of love to both inspire and destroy. The Joyce Girl creates a compelling and moving account of the real-life Joyce Girl, of unrealized dreams and rejection, and of the destructive love of a father.