Collaborative Dubliners—Joyce in Dialogue

The title of this book refers to the collaborative approach that the book's international contributors take to James Joyce's Dubliners as they interact with one another to construct new meaning from Joyce's narratives. The purpose of the book is to produce a new way of doing literary criticism based on dialogue, interplay, and an explicit acknowledgement of a range of possible framing interpretations. For many essays, two Joyce specialists from different orientations are paired together; for example, a post-structuralist with a textual scholar, or a feminist biographer with a psychoanalytical feminist. Some subjects addressed are silence and fractals in "The Sisters," the politics of maternity and daughterhood in "A Mother," and spiritual discourse in "Grace." The book's introduction relates the stories in Dubliners to what Paulo Freire called "codifications." Mahaffey teaches English literature at the University of Illinois. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)