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384 pages
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Size: 1324k
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El Signo Indiscreto de Finnegans Wake
Institution: | University of Seville, Spain |
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Advisor(s): | Francisco Garcia Tortosa |
Degree: | Ph.D., English Literature |
Year: | 1997 |
Volume: | 384 pages |
ISBN-10: | 1581120168 |
ISBN-13: | 9781581120165 |
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The difference between "mass" and "mess," for example, says a lot about the distinctive capacity of phonemes
and the alphabet, but very little about the many similarities in these
two words. It follows that there is something not exactly alphabetical
in language that is prompted by similarities like these. Even quotidian
reading exhibits non-alphabetic ingredients, for instance when we skip
spelling mistakes or typographical errors; i.e.: when we impose analogies
over differences, hermeneutics over semiology, semasiography over the alphabet.
Joyce, who once commented that "a few letters will do if you can't read
a whole word," just incorporates another system of writing to his "cyclical
history," very much in keeping with Vico's idea that each cycle has its
own writing system.
The incorporation of this
non-alphabetic, semasiographic way of reading also explains the presence
of allusions and opens up the apparent conflict between allusion and intentionality.
How far can analogies go? or rather, can allusions and intentionality be
reconciled? They both reveal the existence of coincidences (facilitated
by the narrow range of the alphabet); some of them Joyce surely saw, many
others produced by mere chance. Chance, then, is the realm that, far from
making them opposite, reunite intentionality and allusion, for both depend
on the previous existence of coincidences.
In Finnegans Wake the search
for coincidences marks the beginning of awakening. Using Joyce's additions
to his drafts as orientation, particularly those that refer to the Egyptian
Book of the Dead, it is possible to trace the resurrection process that
Shaun undergoes. Shaun finds the keys to conventional language and to his
awakening, like in the fairy tale, in an intentional act of love, in a
kiss.
384 pages
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Size: 1324k
Download a sample of the first 25 pages