Philosophical Allusions in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake

Abstract

Abstract Philosophical Allusions in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake is the first study to offer complete and comprehensive explanations of the most significant philosophical references in Joyce’s avant-garde masterpiece. Philosophy is important in all of Joyce’s works, but it is his final novel which most fully engages with that field. Philosophical Allusions in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake shows the broad range of philosophers Joyce wove into his last work, from Aristotle to Confucius, Bergson to Kant. For each major philosophical allusion in the Wake, this book explains the original idea and reveals how Joyce first encountered it. Drawing upon extensive research into Joyce’s notebooks and drafts, the book then shows how Joyce developed and adapted that idea through repeated revisions. From here, the final form of the idea as it appears in the Wake is explored. In carefully and precisely explaining the Wake’s key philosophical allusions, this book clarifies essential themes within the novel including history, time, language, being, and perception. It also demonstrates how those allusions combine to create a network of ideas, thinkers, and texts which has a logic and an integrity. In doing so, Philosophical Allusions in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake shows that the more one knows of the Wake’s philosophical allusions, the more one can find meaning and reason in this famously perplexing book of the night.