Genetic Joyce

An introduction to the fascinating world of Joyces manuscripts This book shows how the creative process of modernist writer James Joyce can be reconstructed from his manuscripts. Daniel Ferrer offers a practical demonstration of the theory of genetic criticism, the study of the manuscript and textual development of a literary text. Using a concrete approach focused on the materiality of Joyces writing process, Ferrer demonstrates how to recover the process of invention and its internal dynamics. Using specific, detailed examples, Ferrer analyzes the part played by chance in Joyces creative process, the spatial dimension of writing, the genesis of the Sirens episode, and the transition from Ulysses to Finnegans Wake. The book includes a study of Joyces mysterious Finnegans Wake notebooks, examining their strange form of intertextuality in light of Joyces earlier forms of note-taking. Moving beyond the single author perspective, Ferrer contrasts Joyces notes alluding to Virginia Woolfs criticism of Ulysses with Woolfs own notes on the novels first episodes. Throughout this book, Ferrer describes the logic of the creative process as seen in the record left by Joyce in notebooks, drafts, typescripts, proofs, correspondence, early printed versions, and other available documents. Each change detected reveals a movement from one state to another, a new direction, challenging readers to understand the reasons for each movement and to appreciate the wealth of information to be found in Joyces manuscripts. A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sam Slote