"Noticeably Longsighted from Green Youth":: Ocular Proof of James Joyce's True Refractive Error

In defiance of the well-established notion of Joyce's myopia (nearsightedness), the recent discovery of his actual hyperopia (farsightedness) has given rise to the urgent need for a reassessment of his visually impaired fictional alter egos. This essay attempts to trace the persistent misconception of the myopic author to its source, including Joyce's own initial optometric confusion. By primarily focusing on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man's pandybat episode, which arguably presents a relatively faithful rendering of uncorrected hyperopia, the related hermeneutic difficulties that have arisen due to a seriously misinformed inverted autobiography can be resolved. A first attempt can hereby be made to revise the biographical fallacy of Joyce's "acutely myopic" fictional characters.