Description
This book is both a study of how James Joyce created two of the most iconic characters in literature-Leopold Bloom and Marion Tweedy Bloom-as well as a history of the genesis of Ulysses. From a genetic critical perspective, it explores the conception and evolution of the Blooms as fictional characters in the work's wide range of surviving notes and manuscripts. At the same time, it also chronicles the production of Ulysses from 1917 to its first edition in 1922 and beyond. Based on decades of research, it is an original engagement with the textual archive of Ulysses, including the exciting, recently-discovered manuscripts now in the National Library of Ireland. Luca Crispi excavates the raw material and examines the creative processes Joyce deployed in the construction of the Blooms and so the writing of Ulysses. Framed by a contextual introduction and four bibliographical appendices, the seven main chapters are a critical investigation of the fictional events and memories that constitute the 'lives' of the Blooms. Thereby, it is also a commentary on Joyce's conception of Ulysses more generally. Crispi analyzes how the stories in the published book achieved their final form and discloses previously unexamined versions of them for everyone who enjoys reading Ulysses. This book demonstrates the various ways in which specialist textual work on the genesis of Ulysses directly intersects with other critical and interpretive readings. This volume is a behind-the-scenes guide to the creation of one of the most important books ever written.
About the Author
Dr Luca Crispi teaches on the Anglo-Irish as well as the Modern and Contemporary Literature MA programmes at University College Dublin. He is founding co-editor of the Dublin James Joyce Journal and Associate Director of the Dublin James Joyce Summer School. He was contributing co-editor of How Joyce Wrote 'Finnegans Wake': A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide. Previously, Crispi was James Joyce and W.B. Yeats Research Scholar at the National Library of Ireland and co-curator of the exhibitions 'James Joyce and Ulysses at the National Library of Ireland' and 'Yeats: The Life and Works of W.B. Yeats', and was the James Joyce Scholar in Residence, the Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
Reviews
sets an important mark as paradigm to be emulated in the present phase of Joyce studies in which concern with the genetics of Joyce's works and their texts is distinctly gaining ground. It is Luca Crispi's pioneering achievement to have lucidly and soundly mapped the field in terms both of material substance available to work on and essentially, too, of method. Under the methodological aspect, indeed, his book is to be recommended widely beyond the confines of James Joyce studies as exemplary of how to conduct genetic criticism, and how, and on what manner of material grounds, to teach it. * Hans Walter Gabler, Variants *
Becoming the Blooms is an unmissable book. Critics of Ulysses will want to have a copy on their desk for ready consultation. Nowhere else will you find such a staggering elucidation of the characters, their lives and relations, and of Joyces manuscripts. * Wim Van Mierlo, James Joyce Broadsheet Number 108 *
...I expect to return frequently to Joyce's Creative Process and the Construction of Characters in "Ulysses," not for its chronological arrangement of the Bloom's lives or for its often-repeated conclusions, but for the model of genetic criticism that it offers and especially Lunita Laredo showing up a week before publication, the evolving explanations of Bloom's courtship hesitancies, Joyce plundering Gogarty's memory of lying on Howth Hill, and all the other tantalizing details that Crispi offers of Joyce at work. * Michael Groden, James Joyce Quarterly *
Becoming the Blooms cautiously humanises the often bewilderingly complex study of the Joycean textual process. * Elliott Morsia, Literature & History *
Luca Crispi has given us a new format and focus for Joyce studies, providing a fine model to authors who are engaged in archival research, genetic studies, and character development ... if you are inclined to follow, he will take you down into the underworld of genetic Joyce studies. * Christy L. Burns, James Joyce Literary Supplement *
Luca Crispis new book is both an argument for genetic criticism and an excellent display of its fruits. * Tim Conley, Irish University Review *
A significant addition to Joyce studies. The books extensive research and distinctive methodology allow Crispi to demonstrate rich and valuable insights about the compositional process of Ulysses, representing its position as a vital book for all Joyceans as well as any scholar working in genetic studies. * Helen Saunders, rish Studies Review *
a thorough and thoroughly original analysis of Ulysses ... Crispi's book serves as an object lesson in how scholarship can improve our understanding and enjoyment of literature. * Sam Slote, Irish Times *
Luca Crispi's meticulously researched and superbly presented study is important both for the light it throws on Joyce's creative methods and, more generally, for its challenge to many of our assumptions about the way fictional characters are brought into being. Crispi asks what the surviving manuscripts of Ulysses can tell us about the evolution of Leopold and Molly Bloom as the novel developed, and discovers a surprisingly fluid process of revision, accretion and transferral of characteristics. The result is a penetrating account of one of the most astonishing feats of literary creativity of the twentieth century. * Derek Attridge *
original, important, innovative, well-researched, and impeccably produced ... the book soars. * John McCourt, Review of English Studies *
Joyce's Creative Process marks a turning point in the James Joyce studies because it modifies the pedagogy concerning Ulysses, a novel regularly taught in undergraduate classes. Tackling a term as central and apparently easy to grasp as "character," Crispi demonstrates that no reading of Ulysses can avoid grappling with the genesis of the text or tapping its evolutionary archive, here synthesized with rare clarity. One cannot deny the centrality of characterization --the fictional representation of human beings when they become beings of paper--in the study of narratives. By making us revise our assumptions about the main characters of Ulysses, this book revolutionizes the study of James Joyce as a whole. * Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania *
This is the book in which genetic criticism of modernist writing properly comes of age, demonstrating that it can not only extend our knowledge of the mutations a text undergoes and our sense of its open-endedness, but also genuinely and subtly illuminate the myriad intricate movements of the creative process, and indeed transform interpretations. Crispi's learning is formidable, his archival research dedicated, authoritative and immensely assiduous, and his responsiveness to textual detail impeccable. The result is a magisterial contribution, both to Joyce scholarship, and to the study of modernist literature in general. * Andrew Gibson, Research Professor in Modern Literature and Theory, Royal Holloway, University of London *
The scholarship ... is extraordinary in its detail, resulting in a nuanced illumination of the complexity of the characters [in Ulysses]. * Margot Norris *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198834175
Author Luca Crispi
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 526g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 20mm
About the Author
Dr Luca Crispi teaches on the Anglo-Irish as well as the Modern and Contemporary Literature MA programmes at University College Dublin. He is founding co-editor of the Dublin James Joyce Journal and Associate Director of the Dublin James Joyce Summer School. He was contributing co-editor of How Joyce Wrote 'Finnegans Wake': A Chapter-by-Chapter Genetic Guide. Previously, Crispi was James Joyce and W.B. Yeats Research Scholar at the National Library of Ireland and co-curator of the exhibitions 'James Joyce and Ulysses at the National Library of Ireland' and 'Yeats: The Life and Works of W.B. Yeats', and was the James Joyce Scholar in Residence, the Poetry Collection, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
Reviews
sets an important mark as paradigm to be emulated in the present phase of Joyce studies in which concern with the genetics of Joyce's works and their texts is distinctly gaining ground. It is Luca Crispi's pioneering achievement to have lucidly and soundly mapped the field in terms both of material substance available to work on and essentially, too, of method. Under the methodological aspect, indeed, his book is to be recommended widely beyond the confines of James Joyce studies as exemplary of how to conduct genetic criticism, and how, and on what manner of material grounds, to teach it. * Hans Walter Gabler, Variants *
Becoming the Blooms is an unmissable book. Critics of Ulysses will want to have a copy on their desk for ready consultation. Nowhere else will you find such a staggering elucidation of the characters, their lives and relations, and of Joyces manuscripts. * Wim Van Mierlo, James Joyce Broadsheet Number 108 *
...I expect to return frequently to Joyce's Creative Process and the Construction of Characters in "Ulysses," not for its chronological arrangement of the Bloom's lives or for its often-repeated conclusions, but for the model of genetic criticism that it offers and especially Lunita Laredo showing up a week before publication, the evolving explanations of Bloom's courtship hesitancies, Joyce plundering Gogarty's memory of lying on Howth Hill, and all the other tantalizing details that Crispi offers of Joyce at work. * Michael Groden, James Joyce Quarterly *
Becoming the Blooms cautiously humanises the often bewilderingly complex study of the Joycean textual process. * Elliott Morsia, Literature & History *
Luca Crispi has given us a new format and focus for Joyce studies, providing a fine model to authors who are engaged in archival research, genetic studies, and character development ... if you are inclined to follow, he will take you down into the underworld of genetic Joyce studies. * Christy L. Burns, James Joyce Literary Supplement *
Luca Crispis new book is both an argument for genetic criticism and an excellent display of its fruits. * Tim Conley, Irish University Review *
A significant addition to Joyce studies. The books extensive research and distinctive methodology allow Crispi to demonstrate rich and valuable insights about the compositional process of Ulysses, representing its position as a vital book for all Joyceans as well as any scholar working in genetic studies. * Helen Saunders, rish Studies Review *
a thorough and thoroughly original analysis of Ulysses ... Crispi's book serves as an object lesson in how scholarship can improve our understanding and enjoyment of literature. * Sam Slote, Irish Times *
Luca Crispi's meticulously researched and superbly presented study is important both for the light it throws on Joyce's creative methods and, more generally, for its challenge to many of our assumptions about the way fictional characters are brought into being. Crispi asks what the surviving manuscripts of Ulysses can tell us about the evolution of Leopold and Molly Bloom as the novel developed, and discovers a surprisingly fluid process of revision, accretion and transferral of characteristics. The result is a penetrating account of one of the most astonishing feats of literary creativity of the twentieth century. * Derek Attridge *
original, important, innovative, well-researched, and impeccably produced ... the book soars. * John McCourt, Review of English Studies *
Joyce's Creative Process marks a turning point in the James Joyce studies because it modifies the pedagogy concerning Ulysses, a novel regularly taught in undergraduate classes. Tackling a term as central and apparently easy to grasp as "character," Crispi demonstrates that no reading of Ulysses can avoid grappling with the genesis of the text or tapping its evolutionary archive, here synthesized with rare clarity. One cannot deny the centrality of characterization --the fictional representation of human beings when they become beings of paper--in the study of narratives. By making us revise our assumptions about the main characters of Ulysses, this book revolutionizes the study of James Joyce as a whole. * Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania *
This is the book in which genetic criticism of modernist writing properly comes of age, demonstrating that it can not only extend our knowledge of the mutations a text undergoes and our sense of its open-endedness, but also genuinely and subtly illuminate the myriad intricate movements of the creative process, and indeed transform interpretations. Crispi's learning is formidable, his archival research dedicated, authoritative and immensely assiduous, and his responsiveness to textual detail impeccable. The result is a magisterial contribution, both to Joyce scholarship, and to the study of modernist literature in general. * Andrew Gibson, Research Professor in Modern Literature and Theory, Royal Holloway, University of London *
The scholarship ... is extraordinary in its detail, resulting in a nuanced illumination of the complexity of the characters [in Ulysses]. * Margot Norris *
Book Information
ISBN 9780198834175
Author Luca Crispi
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 526g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 20mm
