48
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!"
It's a nonce word and is used only in Finnegans Wake. I have no clue why Joyce made it so long (perhaps he wanted to catch readers' attention and persuade them to read Finnegans Wake). It's defined by ...
- 436
46
votes
Accepted
Why doesn't James Joyce ever use quotation marks?
James Joyce preferred dashes to quotation marks for aesthetic reasons. He even went so far as to call quotation marks "perverted commas".
He remarks on his dislike of quotation marks at various ...
- 1,124
22
votes
Why is Gravity’s Rainbow considered postmodern, yet Finnegans Wake is not?
The answer to this is very simply one of time frames. Modernism is the name given to a series of linked movements across the arts that spans from the late 19th century to roughly the Second World War. ...
- 23.2k
20
votes
Accepted
Why is Gravity’s Rainbow considered postmodern, yet Finnegans Wake is not?
The premise of your question is unjustified. It is a very widespread view that Finnegans Wake is precisely a postmodernist work. Take a look, for instance, at this answer on here, which states:
...
- 864
15
votes
Why doesn't James Joyce ever use quotation marks?
It's called "quotation dashes," or "theater style," or "the continental manner." The latter term is because it's used (among several other styles, like < > ) by many languages common in continental ...
- 5,032
14
votes
Accepted
Has there ever been a stage production of Chapter 15 of Ulysses?
From A Critical Companion to James Joyce by Fargnoli and Gillespie I learnt the fascinating tidbit that the Circe episode not only was adapted to a play entitled Ulysses in Night-town (directed by ...
- 15.2k
14
votes
Accepted
What "Irish Oath" sounds like "Thoth"?
An explanation of this point is given by Don Gifford in his work Joyce Annotated, who in turn refers back to P.W. Joyce's reference work English as we speak it in Ireland, in particular to chapter VI &...
- 15.2k
12
votes
Meaning of "bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!"
Ahh yes, the impeccable word: bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur- nuk! only opposed by Shakespeare's honorificabilitudinitatibus and the ...
- 810
11
votes
Accepted
Where and how did James Joyce condemn Hamlet as a failure?
TL;DR: Joyce criticized dramatic flaws in Hamlet, but never condemned the play as a “failure”.
Summary
Richard Ellman’s biography of Joyce makes it clear that Joyce thought Henrik Ibsen a better ...
- 60.7k
10
votes
Accepted
In Ulysses, why does Stephen finally decide not to stay with Bloom?
This question has been well discussed. See for example Kenner Chapter 13. Here is my take. All the quotes are from the penultimate chapter.
That is the ending Bloom desires. Bloom gets the son he lost....
- 2,018
10
votes
Accepted
Who is “our greatest living phonetic expert” in “Ulysses”?
The passage quoted in the question continues as follows:
Our greatest living phonetic expert (wild horses shall not drag it from us!) has left no stone unturned in his efforts to delucidate and ...
- 60.7k
9
votes
In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, how can the reader intuit the meaning of "champagne" in the first chapter?
I don't see anything else in the text to support an interpretation of 'champagne' alluding to explosives.
Dedalus' father and his friend seem to be harking back to a story from some years previously, ...
- 19.1k
8
votes
Accepted
Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, link the sound form "hoe" to "whore"?
Most of these aren't saying "whore". The one that does is "Hohore", which according to this page is actually "ho whore"; "ho" here is the exclamation. Also, note the r in "hore".
The Oxford English ...
- 1,974
8
votes
Accepted
Why is there so much stream of consciousness in Ulysses?
You are correct to point out that Joyce's use of the stream of consciousness technique developed over his career. While there are only inklings of it in his early work, there is quite a bit of it in ...
- 1,124
8
votes
What languages should one know to appreciate Finnegans Wake?
I found some quotes from Wikipedia about how to read it. They seem to suggest that you should appreciate the rhythm more than anything.
Eugene Jolas said:
Those who have heard Mr. Joyce read ...
- 6,848
7
votes
What is the purpose of all the lists in chapter 12 of Joyce's Ulysses?
To add to andejons' answer regarding the Gilbert schema's technique of "gigantism", I'd suggest Joyce may also have been referencing, parodying or even honouring the 16th century Gargantua and ...
- 1,448
6
votes
What is the purpose of all the lists in chapter 12 of Joyce's Ulysses?
According to the Gilbert schema for understanding Ulysses, created by Joyce for his friend Stuart Gilbert, the technique that is used in the "Cyclops chapter" (a designation that also comes from the ...
- 3,565
6
votes
Accepted
Did Joyce "estimate" how many readers would understand Finnegans Wake?
I found a quote that may be what you're remembering, or slightly misremembering. It's not from Joyce himself, but I think it's close enough to be worth posting as an answer. It concerns Work in ...
- 74.4k
6
votes
What does "perverse madonna" mean?
It may have a double meaning.
Perverse can iteslf mean
showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable
and
contrary to the accepted or expected ...
- 19.1k
6
votes
What "Irish Oath" sounds like "Thoth"?
"Tá a fhios ag fia" in modern Irish. "Fiadh" is an old spelling. Check the fourth entry for "fia" here: https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/fia.
The "th" in "...
- 161
5
votes
Why was/is James Joyce's writing revolutionary for its time?
Joyce's work was revolutionary in a number of ways. In most of them it was not that he innovated new techniques, but in the degree to which he pushed them.
To start with, it is worth considering what ...
- 23.2k
5
votes
Accepted
What does Stephen Dedalus mean: "History is the nightmare from which I’m trying to awake”?
To understand this, once needs to know a little Irish history. Essentially Ireland has been an island riven by violence almost continually for over a thousand years. First it was the Vikings, raiding, ...
- 23.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Why do we see so little mention of Leopold Bloom's social isolation in his internal monologue?
Because the statement "A key theme of the novel is Bloom's relative social isolation" is false.
Answering this in the negative, when no evidence to the positive has been presented whatsoever, is ...
- 2,018
5
votes
Accepted
How did Ibsen's writing in A Doll's House influence the James Joyce character Molly Bloom?
While Ibsen was indeed a great influence on Joyce in many ways,
there is no evidence that Ibsen's writing in A Doll's House influenced Joyce's character Molly Bloom from Ulysses.
While the onus really ...
- 2,018
5
votes
What is Leopold doing in the chapter Aeolus in Ulysses?
Bloom is an ad salesman. He is trying to broker a business deal, in which the Telegraph will run an ad for his client, “Alexander Keyes, tea, wine and spirit merchant.” Bloom brings a clipping of an ...
- 2,130
5
votes
Where is the yellow in "pasqualines" from Finnegans Wake?
One possibility: daffodils are called paasbloemen (Easter flowers) or paaslelies (Easter lilies) in Dutch.
This is a fairly roundabout connection, but it's possible that this is Joyce's connection of ...
- 13.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Where is the yellow in "pasqualines" from Finnegans Wake?
I think you are correct when you identify the Pasqualina. On this site we read (in Google assisted translation,
that perhaps the only element that truly defines this Genoese savory cake is the whole ...
- 19.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Is there any deeper reason as to why Joyce chose the Latin name for Odysseus when he titled Ulysses?
Why Ulysses not Odysseus?
I see two additional possible reasons.
One simple reason is that the name Ulysses was far more familiar to English readers of the time, making the links to Homer more ...
- 2,018
4
votes
Accepted
What does Nuvoletta's disappearance signify in Finnegans Wake?
As I understand it, Nuvoletta ... disappeared in the end of the excerpt.
In Finnegans Wake, no one ever disappears, at least not for very long, because they always have to begin again!
While the song ...
- 2,018
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible