Backward Glance at James Joyce: Finnegans Wake’s Postmodernist Devices

Javad Zangouei

Abstract


James Joyce, more known as a well-known modern fictionist who rightly possesses a unique position in the world canon, seems to be an early postmodernist fictionist too. Taking a diachronic approach to literary history, this article views Finnegans Wake in the context of literary postmodernism, and presents an attempt to both delineate postmodernist fiction techniques as well as trace them in Joyce’s last novel. Joyce introduces a whole series of new themes and techniques in his last novel later drawn upon by post-1940s postmodernist fictionists. Finnegans Wake can be considered a postmodernist novel proper.

Keywords


Finnegans Wake; Literary history; Postmodernist fiction; Parody; Pastiche; Kitsch; Black humor; Metafiction; James Joyce

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

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