This innovative analysis shows how James Joyce uses the language of prayer to grapple with profoundly human ideas in Finnegans Wake-the dreamlike masterpiece that critics have called his "book of the night." Colleen Jaurretche moves beyond what scholars know about how Joyce composed this work to suggest why he wrote and arranged it as he did.Jaurretche provides a sequential reading of the four chapters and corresponding themes of the Wake from the perspective of prayer. She examines image, manifested by the letters of the alphabet and the Book of Kells; magic, which Joyce equates with the workings of language; dreams, which he relates to poetry; and speech, glorified in the Wake for its potential to express emotions and ecstasy. Jaurretche also delves into writings about prayer by important thinkers from antiquity to the present, including Origen of Alexandria, Giambattista Vico, and Giordano Bruno. She demonstrates how these philosophers influenced Joyce's view that prayer can imbue language with power.This book is an illuminating and much-needed interpretation of a work that abounds with echoes and cadences of sacred language. Jaurretche's insights will guide readers' understanding of the style and structure of Finnegans Wake. A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian D. G. Knowles.

About the Author
Colleen Jaurretche is continuing lecturer in the Department of English and Writing Programs at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of The Sensual Philosophy: James Joyce and the Aesthetics of Mysticism.


Book Information
ISBN 9780813066370
Author Colleen Jaurretche
Format Hardback
Page Count 198
Imprint University Press of Florida
Publisher University Press of Florida