A Disciplinary Unconscious of World Literature: A Joycean Case

Abstract

This article examines how the presence of certain intra-national and extra-national forces of affiliation and disaffiliation inherent in reconsidering James Joyce through the lens of world literature might challenge us to look anew at texts, the world, and our disciplinary practices of research and teaching to understand the interconnected complexities of the Joycean world. I diagnose the tug-of-war between openness and vigilance as both symptomatic and determining of a disciplinary unconscious of world literature, from which self-reflexivity, I argue, is required for both the core and periphery of world literature as a means of building a home for Joyce studies in and through world literature—a home lived as a relationship and tension, begetting its own negation and open to counter-meanings and other knowledges.