JOYCE AND THE JEWS Also by Ira B. Nadel BIOGRAPHY: Fiction, Fact and Form GERTRUDE STEIN AND THE MAKING OF LITERATURE (editor with Shirley Neuman) GEORGE ORWELL: A Reassessment (editor with Peter Buitenhuis) Joyce and the Je-ws
Culture and Texts
Ira B. Nadel Professor of English University of British Columbia
M MACMILLAN PRESS © Ira B. Nadel 1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989 978-0-333-38352-0
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First published 1989
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Nadel, Ira Bruce Joyce and the Jews: Culture and texts. 1. Joyce, James, 1882-1941--Criticism and interpretation I. Title 823'.912 PR6019.09Z1 ISBN 978-1-349-07654-3 ISBN 978-1-349-07652-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07652-9 In memory of my father Isaac David Nadel and for Ryan and Dara 'We Jews are not painters. We cannot depict things statically. We see them always in transition, in movement, as change. We are story-tellers.'-Kafka
'There is no sabbath for nomads.'-Joyce
1udaism [is] the birth and passion of writing. The passion of writing, the love and endurance of the letter itself whose subject is not decidably the Jew or the Letter itself.'-Derrida
'Like the writer, the Jew expects his identity from the book.'• Jabes Contents
Acknowledgements viii Abbreviations xi
Introduction: 'Aleph, Alpha' 1
1 The Joycean Exodus 13
2 Joyce, Jews and History 35 Jewish History and Joyce's Art 36 Race 47 Anti-Semitism 57 Zionism 69
3 Joyce and Jewish Typology 85 Moses and Messianism 85 The Talmud and Textual Typology 107 Joyce's Rabbinic Texts 121 Joyce and Hebrew 127
4 Joyce and the Idea of the Jew 139 Identity 139 Joyce and the Mystique of the Jewish Woman 154
5 Joyce's Jewish Cities 181 Dublin 186 Trieste 198 Rome 208 Zurich 215 Paris 223
Conclusion: 'The Greatest Jew of All' 238
Notes 243 Index 271
vii Acknowledgements
To undertake a study of this scope requires the assistance and support of numerous individuals from a variety of countries. I have been fortunate in obtaining such help from scholars and students of Joyce in locations as disparate as those where Joyce lived. From Texas to Tel Aviv, from Trieste to Los Angeles individuals have generously shared with me their knowledge of, and information about, Joyce. Of particular help have been the following: Bernard Benstock, for locating a difficult source and his bon vivant encouragement; Michael P. Gillespie, for comments on Joyce's reading; Ken Gray of the Irish Times for material on A. J. Leventhal; Philip Herring, for providing useful information on Molly Bloom; David Hayman, for sharing his knowledge of Joyce's Paris; Aaron Kamis, for details on the Jews of Zurich during Joyce's stay; Morton P. Levitt, for comments, encouragement, and support; Richard Menkis, for sharing with me his knowledge of Jewish history and texts; Klaus Reichart, for continually useful conversations on Judaism and Joyce; Marilyn Reizbaum, for her work on Weininger; Erick Stocker for details on Joyce's Trieste library; Dr Willy Guggenheim for access to papers in Zurich; Yael Renan for details on translating Ulysses into Hebrew. Dr Gisele Freund, Stephen Joyce, and Letizia Svevo Fonda Savio, as well as the late Maria Jolas, and Richard Ellmann, have also patiently answered queries. R. E. Brauchbar, Hilary Clark, Timothy Martin, Carla de Petris, George Sandulescu, Bonnie Scott, and Adele Wertheimer, as well as Raphael V. Siev, and Rabbis Wilfred Solomon and Howard Segal have my appreciation for their assist• ance. Additional thanks go to W. E. Fredeman and Lorraine Weir, colleagues at UBC. Three 'Joyceans' deserve special acknowledgement for their willingness to share their insightful knowledge of Joyce: Elliott Gose, who as a colleague has always enthusiastically listened, corrected and suggested new directions for this study which has benefited from his reading of certain portions; Brenda Maddox, who in her research on Nora Joyce became a willing sleuth in tracking down various details relating to my topic and whose thoroughness is matched only by her resourcefulness and friend-
viii Acknowledgements ix
ship; Fritz Senn, who welcomed a newcomer to Zurich and to Joyce studies with grace and knowledge, and who continues to educate all those interested in Joyce. My research assistants, Mark Kusnier and David Ranson have also provided help when it was most needed, while Gabriele Scardellato saved me from various errors. Frances Arnold of Macmillan has proved to be not only an encouraging, but understanding editor. My wife, Josephine,has been supportive despite the time and distance away from home needed to pursue this subject, while our children Ryan and Dara have taught me new ways of seeing and listening. Materials in Zurich, Dublin, London and Texas at, respectively, the Schweizerischer Israelitscher Gemeindebund, the National Library of Ireland, James Joyce Centre, University College, London, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, were kindly put at my disposal, and I thank those insti• tutions. Inter-Library Loan at the University of British Columbia was also essential in completing the project, and always helpful in securing often difficult-to-fmd resources. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Committee of the University of British Colum• bia was instrumental in allowing me to carry out my research and I wish to acknowledge their generous support. Finally, I want to thank the following for permission to quote from various sources: The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of James Joyce for permission to quote from the work of James Joyce; Viking Penguin and Random House for permission to quote from the work of James Joyce; the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, for permission to quote from a letter by Wallace Stevens; Modern Judaism for permis• sion to reproduce, in altered form, a portion of my article which appeared in Volume 6 (1986): 301-10. Citations to Ulysses refer to the episode and line numbers of the 1984 text edited by Hans Walter Gabler et al.; passages from Finnegans Wake refer to page and line numbers. The author and publisher wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: From The Critical Writings of James Joyce, ed. by Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellmann. Copyright © 1959 by Harriet Weaver and F. Lionel Monro, Administrators of the Estate of James Joyce. Copyright renewed © 1987 by F. Lionel Monro. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. x Acknowledgements
From Dubliners by James Joyce. Copyright 1916 by B. W. Huebsch. Definitive text Copyright © 1967 by the Estate of James Joyce. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. From Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Copyright 1939 by James Joyce. Copyright renewed © 1967 by George Joyce and Lucia Joyce. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. From Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. Copyright 1916 by B. W. Huebsch. Copyright renewed 1944 by Nora Joyce. Definitive text Copyright © 1964 by the Estate of James Joyce. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. From Giacomo Joyce by James Joyce. Copyright © 1959, 1967, 1968 by F. Lionel Monro, Administrator of the Estate of James Joyce. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. From Letters of James Joyce, ed. Stuart Gilbert. Copyright © 1957, 1966 by The Viking Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. From Letters of James Joyce, Vols. II & III, ed. Richard Ellmann. Copyright © 1966 by F. Lionel Monro, Administrator of the Estate of James Joyce. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. Selected Letters of James Joyce, ed. Richard Ellmann. Copyright © 1957, 1966 by The Viking Press, Inc. Copyright © 1966, 1975 by F. Lionel Monro, Administrator of the Estate of James Joyce. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. From Ulysses by James Joyce. Copyright © 1986 by Random House, Inc. Reading text copyright © 1984 by the Trustees of the Estate of James Joyce. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc. and The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of James Joyce.
Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.
IRA B. NADEL Abbreviations
AWN A Wake Newslitter CJ Richard Ellmann, The Consciousness of Joyce (London: Faber & Faber, 1977). CU C. P. Curran, James Joyce Remembered (London: OUP, 1968). cw James Joyce, The Critical Writings, ed. Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellmann (New York: Viking, 1965). D James Joyce, Dubliners (New York: Viking, 1967). E James Joyce, Exiles (New York: Viking, 1951). FW James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (New York: Viking, 1966). GI James Joyce, Giacomo Joyce, ed. Richard EHmann (London: Faber & Faber, 1983). GL Adaline Glasheen, Third Census of Finnegans Wake, (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1977). G&S Don Gifford and Robert J. Seidman. Notes for Joyce, An Annotation of James Joyce's Ulysses (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974). JI Louis Hyman, The Jews of Ireland (Shannon: Irish Univ. Press, 1972). JJ Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, New & Rev. edn (New York: OUP, 1982). JJA The James Joyce Archive, 64 vols, ed. Michael Groden et al. (New York: Garland, 1978-9). JJQ James Joyce Quarterly Lett. James Joyce, Letters of James Joyce, 3 vols ed. Stuart Gilbert (I); Richard EHmann (II and III) (New York: Viking, 1966). M Louis O. Mink, A Finnegans Wake Gazetteer (Bloom• ington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1978). P James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (New York: Viking, 1964). PAE Portraits of the Artist in Exile, Recollections of James Joyce by Europeans, ed. Willard Potts (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1979).
xi xii Abbreviations
SC James Joyce, James Joyce's Scribbledehobble, The Ur-Workbook for Finnegans Wake, ed. Thomas E. Connolly (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1961). Sel. Lett. James Joyce, Selected Letters of James Joyce, ed. Richard Ellmann (New York: Viking, 1975). SH James Joyce, Stephen Hero, ed. Theodore Spencer. A New Edition by John J. Slocum and Herbert Cahoon (1944; New York: New Directions, 1955). U James Joyce, Ulysses, The Corrected Text, ed. Hans Walter Gabler et al. (New York: Random House, 1986). UI United Irishman. UN James Joyce, Joyce's Ulysses Notesheets in the British Museum, ed. Philip F. Herring (Charlottesville, Va.: Univ. of Virginia Press, 1972).