Chapter 7 The Genesis of “Penelope” in Manuscript
In: James Joyce and Genetic Criticism
Author:
Luca Crispi
Luca Crispi
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Abstract
This article examines how Joyce constantly added to the text and altered the presentation of “Penelope.” While a newly discovered draft indicates that Joyce may have settled on some of the episode’s most familiar stylistic features as early as 1916, later manuscripts document that the episode’s other formal aspects—its precise eightfold structure and the almost complete absence of standard punctuation—were some of the last stylistic innovations he conceived for the novel. Furthermore, we see how he only implemented these late aesthetic strategies slowly and haphazardly on various stages of the episode’s proofs just before Ulysses was published.