University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2015 Two Instances of "Crow": A Cultural Study of Irish Mythology and Intertextuality in "The Dead" Joseph LaBine University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation LaBine, Joseph, "Two Instances of "Crow": A Cultural Study of Irish Mythology and Intertextuality in "The Dead"" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5278. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5278 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. TWO INSTANCES OF ―CROW‖: A CULTURAL STUDY OF IRISH MYTHOLOGY AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN ―THE DEAD‖ By Joseph LaBine A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2014 © 2014 Joseph LaBine Two Instances of ―Crow‖: A Cultural Study of Irish Mythology and Intertextuality in ―The Dead‖ by Joseph LaBine APPROVED BY: _____________________________________ G. Drake Department of Physics _____________________________________ J. Luft Department of English _____________________________________ T. Dilworth, Advisor Department of English 14 November 2014 AUTHOR‘S DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone‘s copyright nor violate any proprietary right and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis and have included copies of such copyright clearances to my appendix. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iii ABSTRACT Irish archetypes change the function of intertextuality in the ―The Dead,‖ by mythologizing and de-anglicizing British intertextual allusions in the story, and suggest a new understanding of Joyce‘s perception of cultural tensions in Ireland. Knowledge of these archetypes is a prerequisite to fully understanding this tension. Many critics fail to notice Joyce‘s allusions because they are not reading the story within its defining context—which is the Irish Literary Revival. Celtic folklore helps convey his political outlook and his parody of literary activities in Ireland at the time of his writing. The story is essentially a parody with multiple levels of meaning in which the realistic and mythological levels do not cohere, and yet, paradoxically, it achieves an ironic thematic unity. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this document, my master‘s thesis, to Johanna McCarthy, the woman who raised me. She read to me in Gaelic and showed me the old Irish stories; but she taught me as much about being Canadian and how to be part of a family as she did about Ireland. I am forever grateful. Is tú mo ghrá, is tú mo chuisle, agus tiocfaidh ár lá. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would have been impossible to complete this work without the infinite patience of several people. The first such person is Stefanie Laurella. She endured several research trips to Dublin and travelled with me around Ireland, while I either read or wrote in a hotel room most of the time. Ms. Laurella encouraged my reading and rewriting with kindness and compassion and without her, well . no Joycean ellipses could suffice. My parents also encouraged me and believed I would eventually complete this thesis. I would like acknowledge my readers Dr. Joanna Luft of the English department, Dr. Gordon Drake of Canterbury College and the Physics department, and, if just informally, Phil Hall who shared his passion for Joyce and etymology. I wish to recognize Jack Goodall, Chris Kerr, André Narbonne, Helena Mackenzie, Luke Frenette, Chris Genovesi, Faizal Deen, Brittni Carey, Andrew Kovacevic, Jasper Appler, and many of the other graduate students in the Windsor English department who were all good friends and suffered through numerous meandering conversations about Joyce. Having these conversations allowed me to test out my ideas and stay sane. My thanks go to the staff and helpful librarians at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, the National Library of Ireland, the Toronto Reference Library, and Windsor‘s Leddy library. Lastly, I wish to thank my advisor Tom Dilworth. I do not possess the words (or silences) to account for the level of respect and appreciation with which I regard the man who, yelling at me, asked ―do you even know what a comma is?‖ No, Tom. My idea of reading Joyce as a comic writer began in your classroom. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS AUTHOR‘S DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY iii ABSTRACT iv DEDICATION v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. STAGING A CÚ IN ―THE DEAD‖ 7 III. THE BROKEN LIGHTS OF IRISH MYTH 24 Critical Background 28 People, Places, Parody and Puns 33 Yeats 38 Hyde 39 A. E. 41 J. M. Synge 42 IV. LADY GREGORY IN DUBLINERS 48 V. ULYSSES AND JOYCE‘S UNFINISHED BUSINESS 55 VI. CONCLUSION 61 APPENDIX I: Etymological Allusions in ―Counterparts‖ 64 APPENDIX II: The Lass of Aughrim (Lord Gregory) 70 WORKS CITED 73 VITA AUCTORIS 82 vii Ch. 1 Introduction and Thesis Statement Introduction In 1906, James Joyce reconsidered some of his conceptions of Irish culture after Grant Richards declined to publish his manuscript of short stories. In a letter to his brother Stanislaus dated 25 September, Joyce reflects that in ―thinking of Ireland it seems to me that I have been unnecessarily harsh…In Dubliners at least…I have not reproduced its ingenuous insularity and its hospitality‖ (Ellmann 2: 166). In the same letter, he dismisses these reflections as ―useless‖ and despairs of being able to ―rewrite‖ his stories differently, despite Richards‘s insistence that he write ―in another sense.‖ He hastily terms the publisher‘s advice ―meaningless,‖ but his self-criticism reveals his deep concerns about portraying Ireland faithfully. He quickly began planning new stories to expand the manuscript. On 30 September, he wrote Stanislaus: ―I have a new story for Dubliners in my head‖ (Ellmann 2: 168). Richard Ellmann and Terence Killeen have pointed out that the story was to be titled ―Ulysses,‖ but Joyce never wrote it. By 6 February, 1907, he asserted ―Ulysses‖: never got any forrader than the title. I have other titles, e.g. The Last Supper, The Dead, The Street, Vengeance, At Bay: all of which I could write if the circumstances were favourable. (Ellmann 2: 209) Ellmann and Killeen associate the ―Ulysses‖ title of the story meant for Dubliners with Joyce‘s plans for his later novel. However, in 1906 and 1907, in the midst of writing, heavy drinking, and relationship squabbles, Joyce was likely too preoccupied with finding a publisher who would accept his collection of short stories to plan a new novel. It seems more plausible that the ―Ulysses‖ title signals his intentions to write a 1 mythological story for Dubliners and not a story he would expand into the novel he would begin almost ten years later. Though Joyce never completed the ―Ulysses‖ story, he did write a mythological story. Even though ―Ulysses‖ and ―The Dead‖ were different potential stories, out of the six titles he mentions in the 30 September letter, ―The Dead‖ is the only title of a story published in Dubliners. It is also significant in light of his intentions to represent Ireland differently than he had in his earlier writing. In the story, he portrays ingenuous hospitality and alludes to mythology that resonates with Irish primordial culture not Greek mythology. The Irish mythology may have satisfied his mythological desire. These allusions render ―The Dead‖ different than any other story in Dubliners. The final version of Dubliners was meant to satisfy the aspirations Joyce stated in 1906. The presence of Irish mythology deepens the meaning of the story. As Thomas Dilworth points out in ―Sex and Politics in ‗The Dead,‘‖ Joyce‘s interests in re-portraying Ireland are focussed on symbolic political representations of Irish hospitality and the etymology of Gabriel Conroy‘s name, which literally means ―hound‖ in Irish, and, though he neglects to make the suggestion, semantically evokes the hero CuChulain in the Ulster cycle of Celtic mythology. This allusion to mythology resonates with Irish cultural identity by deepening the meaning of sexual failure and symbolic political conflict in the story. Unlike Joyce‘s earlier writings, which failed to penetrate Ireland‘s literary movement led by W.