'Austrasia Or Anywhere': Place, Space and the Antipodes in James Joyce's
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‘Austrasia or Anywhere’: Place, Space and the Antipodes in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake Miriam Jassy A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia School of Humanities and Languages Faculty of Arts and Sciences March 2015 Thesis Dissertation Sheet Abstract James Joyce included imagery of t he Antipodes in Finnegans Wake to contribute to the book's contrary themes and innovative depictions of space and place. TI1rough close readings of the book's references to the region known historically as the Antipodes (including but not limited to Australia and New Zealand), Joyce's technique of doubling Ireland with other places as part of the book's style shows his universal idea of t he desirable yet complex m erging of opposites. The trope of the Antipodes is of great value in studying the figuration of place and space in Finnegans Wake, as the region was considered to be opposed to Europe in more than geographical terms. The Antipodes are merged with Ireland in Finnegans Woke by collapsing distance through amalgamations of language and formations of place. The Antipodes are considered in their historical, geographic and literary context as cont rary to Eu ropean life. The Antipodes' spatial figuration in Finnegan.s Wake is discussed in the context of literary crit icism on Joyce's writing of space and place in his earlier prose. It is argued that critical research on the stylization of place and space in Finnegans Wake is at a nascent stage. Theoretical approaches to the authoring of space are found in recent writings that draw on Geocriticism, and Finnegan.s Wake is considered a prototypical geocritical work as it uses multiple and conflicting textual perspectives to create a sense of place. Ireland is presented as the primary narrative site in Finnegans Wake with a focus on how Joyce expanded Irish space on a global scale. Ireland is shown to be superimposed over the Antipodes through the metaphor of verticality and t he motif of felix culpa, the fortuitous Fall. The spatial role of the character HCE is discussed through his north-south alignments with the land, w hile the character Shem is the focus for a discussion of t he Antipodes and perversity. It is argued that t he textual references to t he Antipodes represent a portal for Irish exile and travel, reflecting Joyce's innovation in destabilizing spatial referents. The thesis concludes that Finnegans Wake is a global text in its distortion of geographical boundaries Declaration relaOOg to disposition of project thesisldissenation I herebygant to the Univers...1y at New South W:S>es or its agents the right to .31Chive and to make available my thesis or dissa1ation fl whole or in part in the University libr3ries in all forms of media. now or here after known, subject to the provisions at the Copyright Act 1968. I retan all property rights. such as paten! rights. 1also re-tain the t9K to use in future W<:ds (suOO ~articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise Uni\!ers...1y Microfi.hls to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissenation Abstracts International (this is appic.lble to doctoral theses only). u Originality Statement ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. 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I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date ……………………………………………........................... Contents Originality Statement .............................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations and Referencing .............................................................................................. v Chapter 1: Introduction—Place and the Antipodes in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Locating the Antipodes in Finnegans Wake .................................................................... 1 1.2 Place in Joyce criticism .................................................................................................. 10 1.3 ‘Someplace on the sly, where Furphy he isn’t by’ (65.22): The ‘Plurable’ (264.02) Nature of Place in Finnegans Wake ............................................................................... 19 1.4 ‘Southfolk’s place’ (215.25): Verticality, Perversity and the Antipodes in Finnegans Wake ............................................................................................................. 25 1.5 Chapters in This thesis ................................................... 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Chapter 2: Falling Through Irish Space in Finnegans Wake ............................................ 35 2.1 ‘And shall Nohomia be our place like?’ (32.01): Defining Place in Finnegans Wake .. 35 2.2 ‘We of the clovery kingdom’ (110.04): Identifying Ireland .......................................... 41 2.3 ‘On all matters that fall’ (19.36): The Falls of Finnegans Wake ................................... 50 Chapter 3: ‘As Usual, Antipodal’ (60.28): The Contrary Geography of Finnegans Wake ........................................................................................................................................ 72 3.1 ‘Empire, you’re outermost’ (278.23): The Artefact and Fiction of the Antipodes ........ 72 3.2 ‘Unbox your compasses’ (287.11): Finding Finnimore in Perlieus Past ....................... 79 3.3 ‘Along With the Devil and Danes’ (47.27): HCE Caught Between Land and Language ........................................................................................................................ 84 3.4 ‘On the hoof from down under’ (321.32): HCE, ALP (Harbouring Celtic Exiles, Antipodean Larrikins Preferred) .................................................................................... 95 Chapter 4: ‘Either Hell or Australia’: The Antipodes and Perversity in Finnegans Wake ...................................................................................................................................... 106 4.1 ‘Always bottom sawyer’ (173.28): Shem’s Perverse Assignation in the Antipodes ... 106 4.2 ‘O! the lowness of him was beneath all up to that sunk to!’: On Shem’s Sinking and Stinking .................................................................................................................. 117 4.3 ‘Djowl, uphere!’ (222.31): Devilish Shem is Summoned from Antipodean Depths ... 123 4.4 ‘He took a round stroll and he took a stroll round and he took a round strollagain’ (416.278): Or, Why the Gracehoper Goes South ......................................................... 132 4.5 ‘As if he fell out of space’ (462.31): Shem’s Degradation .......................................... 135 Chapter 5: ‘The merge of unnotions’ (614.17): Resolving the Contrary Appearances of the Antipodes in Finnegans Wake .................................................................................. 144 5.1 Awoken by the ‘Friarbird’ (595.33): Bridging the distance to the Antipodes ............. 144 5.2 ‘Dinkum belle’ (384.22): Long-Distance Travel to the Antipodes in Finnegans Wake ............................................................................................................................. 159 5.3 Roaring Bulls and ‘the laughing jackass’ (368.07): The Rebounding Sounds