Performance Set-Pieces in Joyce and Beckett's Writings

Abstract

Storytelling, Self, Society ,8:52-57, 2012 Copyright©Taylor &Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1550-5340 print /1932-0280 online DOI: 10.1080/15505340.2012.635088 Routledge Taylor &Francis Croup BOOK REVIEWS Performance Set-Pieces in Joyce and Beckett's Writings Carol SimpsonStern Friedman, AlanW.Party Pieces: OralStorytelling andSocialPerformance inJoyce andBeckett. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007.$45. AlanW.Friedman's absorbing, entertaining, andultimately bothuplifting andheart wrenching Party Pieces: OralStorytelling andSocial Performance inJoyce andBeckett examines "party pieces."He defines them as an impromptu kindofperformance thatis frequent, familiar, and offered bynonprofessional performers ineveryday lifesocialsituations. Friedman's interest is inthewaythat Joyce andBeckett usetheseperformative actsintheir writings. Anafter-dinner speech,a toastat mealtime, or a disquisition in a library arebutjusta fewoftheexamples he examines; he also looksat terser forms, theshort oralanecdotes thatappearso frequently in JamesJoyce'sUlyssesand theircounterparts, evermoreabbreviated, in thewritings of Beckett. Friedman's bookopenswithan introduction totherichinherited oraltradition from which Irishparty piecesderive. Homeric epicsandancient Irishsagasaboundwith examples ofthem. He continues andbroadens thediscussion toinclude literary manifestations ofthegenre andtheir Irishpractitioners, including OscarWilde,W.B. Yeats,andLadyGregory, amongothers. His project istoidentify andreflect onthese performances orwhat hecalls"presentational enactments thatreconfigure performative genreswithin an oraltradition ofIrishself-representation ..." (xxvii-xxviii) andhowthey function inthefiction anddramaas wellas inthelivesofJames Joyce andSamuelBeckett. He writes extensively aboutscenesfamiliar to thereadersofJoyce andBeckett, focusing predominantly onJoyce's three mostwidely known books,Dubliners ,A Portrait oftheArtist as a Young Man, andUlysses , andBeckett's dramas, withspecialemphasis on Waiting forGodot , Endgame ,andHappyDaysas wellas hismoreexperimental later works. Friedman's prosestyleis disarmingly freeofcritical cant;he is unpretentious anda careful ,thoughtful, interpreter oftheseworksthathavehad suchan abundance ofcriticism piled Address correspondence toCarol Simpson Stern, Department ofPerformance Studies, Northwestern University, Annie May Swift Hall, 1920 Campus Drive, Room 210, Evanston, IL60208. E-mail: cs@northwestern.edu BOOK REVIEW 53 atopofthem. His study is intriguing, andheadvances hisfresh readings andreassessment with humility andgreat insight. Whatmakeshisbookso right forthereaders ofourjournalis that itstopicis at theheart ofourinterest. His critical lensis on theperformers in thetexts, the expectations andfearsthat drivethem, thepossibility they confer ofaltering orreshaping the performers' socialstatus andthebondorrupture they experience with thecommunal observers, participants, ornaysayers. He notesthat theperformative impulse canalso be a well-rehearsed one:itcantaketheform ofa nursery rhyme, a story, a poem,bothspoken andwritten, andits impact onitsaudience can,inturn, reshape itsmaker. Theperformative actalsodepends onits audience, anditsrole,too,is examined inthisbook.Friedman marvels atthesheernumber of occasionsinwhichsongsarealludedtoin Ulysses , some400 times;inFinnegans Wake , they exceed1,000.He discusses atlength performance andnon-performance experiences ofboth his subjects. Storytelling, skits, musicalperformance, anddanceareall examples Friedman citesofthe self-dramatizing party piecesat work.Fromthetimetheywerefirst introduced in Irelandto thepresent, party piecescelebrated hospitality, verbalandmusicalvirtuosity, andcommunal interaction, either inspiring community orhostility. Theywerealwaysa double-edged sword, holding thepossibility ofvictory orconquest andbetrayal. Friedman drawson thewritings of familiar anthropological andperformance scholars suchas Walter Ong,RoyRappaport, Victor Turner, Richard Schechner, andErvingGoffman andothers toprovide a context forhisdiscussionoforality , ritual, andperformance ineveryday life.He viewsHomer'sOdyssey tobe oneofthegreatest party piecesinWestern literature. Reflecting onhowtheseparty piecesare embedded in theculture and textsof thewriters underexamination, he drawson numerous examples. FromJoyce'scanon,he includes actsofstorytelling: Hynes'seulogyforthefallen political hero, CharlesStewart Parnell, in"IvyDay intheCommittee Room"from Dubliners ; thespeeches attheDedalusesChristmas dinner table, including Dante'sangry screams ofdenunciationofParnell inPortrait, andlaterinthesamebook,thehell-fire-and-damnation sermon heardbyStephen to be followed in thefinal chapter byStephen's erudite lecture on aesthetics givento hisfriends. Whereascustomarily we expectan atmosphere ofconviviality when welcoming andafter-dinner speeches aredelivered, inJoyce's case,Friedman explains, theoccasionsareoften fractious andtherulesrequired tofulfill socialexpectations aredisappointed or broken. Friedman draws on Ulysses , analyzing theparty pieceStephen performs whenheholdsforth onhistheory ofHamlet inthe National Library. Thisshowy, well-rehearsed display goesseriously wrong inspots.Friedman points tothenumerous theatrical features ofthescene:Stephen has carefully chosenthetime andplace,asksthat thecurtain be "lifted," tries tohumor hisaudience along, andoffers hisowninternal assessment ofhisskills inrendering a party piece.Nonetheless, hefailshisowntest andalsofailstoadvancehisartistic agenda.Inshort, heis all talkbutthere is little artistic output ofanysort. Friedman offers numerous other examples from Ulysses , all involving a speechas anactofsocialinteraction requiring a speaker andanaudience andconforming totacit rulesgoverning suchexchanges. Inhisanalysis ofUlysses andtheearlier novel, heviewsStephen as largely a failedperformer notreadytoassumetheroleofartist towhich he aspires.Throughout, Friedman is interested in exploring howtheseparty piecesfunction; howthey are"foregrounded andoften parodied" inJoyce's writings (xv) andhowthey areless obvious, more hostile incharacter, andoften subverted byBeckett, leaving onlytheir traces and vanishings andreflecting a much darker vision. 54 STERN Beckett, incontrast toJoyce, first employs party piecesas assertions uttered bycharacters in reduced ifnothopelessorabsurd environments whereself-declaration is almostfutile. Thisis inmarked contrast toJoyce whoseperformers moreoften miscarry...