Abstract

Abstract:

Critics have increasingly argued that Joyce used formal tactics to promote political ends. None, however, have provided an in depth analysis of Joyce's thinking about lyric form's social function—thinking which was profoundly influenced by the argument of Shelley's "Defence of Poetry." Joyce was both attracted to and skeptical of that argument. He adapted and revised it throughout his career, first in his 1902 essay on James Clarence Mangan, and then through his depictions of Stephen and other poets in subsequent works. But he also always subjected it to a critique inspired by late-Victorian condemnations of Shelley. When read through the lens of his skeptical engagement with Shelley, the lyrical "fine moments" that conclude his major works revise our understanding of the relationship between his aesthetic practices and politics. Those moments suggest that his art required a sense of its own political potency.

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