Abstract
ABSTRACT In one of her least pejorative references to Joyce, Christine Brooke-Rose cites him as an example of a writer who shares with philologists a ‘dotty’ passion for the history of language. Coming in the middle of her students’ guide to Ezra Pound, this claim assigns linguistic sentiments to Joyce that Brooke-Rose would go on to express herself. In an interview nearly five years later, she describes a ‘passionate concern with language’ that borders on ‘the feeling of the sacred’: ‘I’ve always had it. I studied philology’. This essay unearths a vein of Joycean philological imaginings in Brooke-Rose's work that seeks to intertwine the textual and the biological, evoking a ‘sensuous' script from a mythical prehistory. Focusing on Between (1968), I trace an intricate ambivalence over the relationship between sign and matter that ultimately feeds into Brooke-Rose's attitudes towards poststructuralism, gender, and language as a whole. Hovering between the sacred and the profane, the dotty and the down-to-earth, these imaginings also serve to draw out the latent continuities between the ancient hunt for a motivated script and the contemporary search for semiosis in nature; between Babel and biosemiotics.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callSimilar Papers
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
