"Meddlied Muddlingisms": The Uncertain Avant-Gardes of Finnegans Wake

Finnegans Wake continues to resist categories. However subjective or even irresolvable the question of whether or not Joyce (and the Wake in particular) can be categorized as "avant-garde" may be, this essay argues that the question is primarily interesting because it compels us to set aside conceptions of Joyce as either the end of an established tradition or as some sort of aesthetic anomaly. Peter Bürger's conception of the avant-garde as not a means to an end, but a means to further means of artistic production suggests that examination of how certain subsequent works by other authors partake of the methods (and madness) of the Wake lends us better insight into both a rich continuousness of category resistance and our own ongoing difficulties with what it means to be "avant-garde."