"Circe" and Expressionist Drama

This essay on " Circe' and Expressionist Drama," which was left incomplete at the time of the author's death, engages with the rarely explored question of the relation between Joyce and Expressionism, using examples from Georg Büchner and Oskar Kokoschka. Opening with a survey of the existing criticism linking the two and a definition of Expressionism itself, it argues that Joyce used Expressionist dramatic techniques in the episode, including linguistic Expressionism, Messianism, and the use of light. The argument is developed in detail using Büchner's Woyzeck (1879) and Kokoschka's Hiob (1917). Woyzeck is tormented and cuckolded like Bloom and is especially persecuted by doctors. The cuckoldry theme in Hiob occurs with a certain treatment of fantasy that bears striking parallels to that of "Circe." The essay traces a number of direct connections to Expressionism dating from Joyce's residence in Zurich and his interest in Kokoschka's early painting of August Forel recorded by Dario di Tuoni in his memoir of Joyce in Trieste.