"what a weeny wukeleen can do" eller: Vem var Buckley? eller: Var James Joyce generativist?

• In his novel Finnegans Wake (1939) James Joyce makes use of a very personal variant of English, in which words are distorted or expected words are exchanged for similar or quite different ones, resulting in absurd readings packed with potential associative value rather than obvious meaning. Traces of a large number of different languages, in authentic or slightly twisted form, can likewise be identified as apparently unannounced elements in the text. Joyce’s narrative technique further includes the interweaving of several disparate themes into the same “story”, thereby emphasizing the possibility of associating from the text in several diverging directions and distinguishing different layers of meaning. In a way, it can be argued that Joyce, before generative grammar was born, is constantly making use of such notions as underlying structure, deep and surface structure, embedding, cyclicity, transformations etc. The point is illustrated by an analysis of a well-known passage (usually taken to deal with an act of sexual intercourse), which builds on a story about one Buckley, an alleged Irish soldier participating in the Crimean war and supposed to have shot a Russian general. Attempts have earlier been made by researchers on Joyce to identify Buckley. This is another one.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Literary Studies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Finnegans Wake

Joyce

Buckley

generative grammar

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)