Joyce and his Apostles: The Exchange of Capital between Joyce and transition

Abstract

In the interwar Parisian literary field, transition was among the most influential expatriate magazines, promoting forms of new, avant-garde literature. Its main feature was the serialisation of James Joyce’s Work in Progress, which was to be published as Finnegans Wake in 1939. Joyce and transition had become closely connected to each other through their literary exchange and the representation of Joyce by transition was beneficial to both the author’s and the literary magazine’s success. Simultaneously, Sylvia Beach, the owner of the bookshop Shakespeare and Company, represented a key factor to both of their careers. This paper interprets these exchanges through the Bourdieusian framework of symbolic capital, arguing that their involvement with each other could be regarded as not just an exchange of literary merit, but also of power, as through their positions in the literary field Joyce and transition, with the help of Beach, were able to substantially influence each other’s literary careers and prestige.