Abstract
The subject of Lucia Joyce’s alleged schizophrenia and her role in her father’s writing have gained popular attention since the publication of Carol Shloss’s controversial biography Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake (2003). However, Shloss’s text has inspired a series of interpretations that do not verify her biographical claims: there is as of yet little academic scholarship on how Lucia can be understood as a direct influence on Joyce’s work. In this article, I seek to overcome the discrepancy through the use of genetic criticism, arguing that Lucia’s first breakdown in February 1932 and her increasing mental instability during the mid-1930s impacted the composition of portions of Finnegans Wake. I cross-reference available biographical material with draft changes in the James Joyce Archive, the pre-book publications of Finnegans Wake, issues of the modernist journal transition and artwork Lucia created for Joyce’s texts. In doing so I provide original and tangible scholarship on how Lucia Joyce contributed to the compositional development of Finnegans Wake.
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