"Finnegans Wake". George Cinclair Gibson Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 2001 Wake Rites: the Ancient Irish Rituals of "Finnegans Wake". George Cinclair Gibson Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Gibson, George Cinclair, "Wake Rites: the Ancient Irish Rituals of "Finnegans Wake"." (2001). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 285. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/285 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. WAKE RITES: THE ANCIENT IRISH RITUALS OF FINNEGANS WAKE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by George Cindair Gibson B.A., University of New Orleans, 1986 May 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3016548 Copyright 2001 by Gibson, George Cinclair All rights reserved. UMI* UMI Microform 3016548 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©Copyright 2001 George Cinclair Gibson All rights reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Foreword: "The Shortest Way to Tara" There is a well-known passage inA Portrait o f the Artist where Stephen Dedalus, referring to his friend Davin and his preoccupation with the mythology of ancient Ireland, describes his companion as one of the "tame geese" fascinated with "the broken lights of Irish myth" (1). For many scholars and readers of James Joyce, the oft-cited image of "the broken lights of Irish myth" is emblematic of James Joyce's own relationship with his native Irish tradition. This prevalent assessment suggests that when Joyce left Ireland, he also left its insular mythology and ancient traditions and embraced a wider world as reflected in his internationalism, his modernism, and his well-documented adaptation of Greco-Roman myth—theKoinG of international modernist mythology—as the central structural device of his most famous work,Ulysses. Consequently, Joyce's knowledge of Irish mythology is assumed to be relatively slight; and when, asFinnegans in Wake, allusions to the "broken lights" occur frequently enough to elicit commentary, their relevance to the overall structure of the work is perceived more as embellishment than as essential. Recently, however, the work of a few Celtic scholars, most notably Maria Tymoczko, presents strong evidence that Joyce's connection with the Irish mythic tradition is much deeper and far more complex than these earlier assessments suggest. InThe Irish 'U lysses/ a study of Joyce's usage iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of Irish mythology inU lysses and his earlier works, Maria Tymoczko demonstrates that Joyce's knowledge and adaptation of Irish myth is well beyond the level of numerous surface allusions to "the broken lights." In the case of U lysses, Maria Tymoczko has identified many of the most important and complex structural patterns used in ancient Irish mythology, adapted by Joyce as techniques of characterization, narrative, and plot development. (Among these mythic patterns are the Sovereign, the archetypal goddess of Ireland; theBanais Righi, the marriage rites of the god king and his consort; and theGeis, the traditional magical proscription imposed upon great leaders.) Further, she locates many of the sources Joyce used to obtain this information, which include the works of P.W. Joyce, Whitley Stokes, and Edward Gwynn. These structural patterns are unique to Irish mythology; and, as Tymoczko emphasizes, the resemblance between these traditional mythic structures and the corresponding patterns used by JoyceU lysses in and D ubliners is absolutely beyond coincidental similarity: the parallels are "so deep and pervasive that they cannot be the result of fortuitous likeness or polygenesis" (2). InU lysses, these intrinsically Irish components act as a supporting element to the dominant structure—the Homeric myth- providing a kind of counterpoint and subtext, adding richness to the narrative; but, as Tymoczko notes, they are mostly misread as Joyce's "personal invention" rather than his knowledgeable appropriation of the iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ancient tradition (3). The identity of these Irish elementsU in lysses, however, for Tymoczko and other Celtidsts, is evidence for a continued reassessment of Joyce's relationship with, and knowledge of, his native tradition. This present work intends to further this reassessment through a focus onFinnegans Wake, Joyce's labor of seventeen years, and the work Joyce himself considered hisMagnum Opus. There is evidence in Finnegans Wake of recondite rituals and complex mythic structures taken directly from ancient Irish paganism, and used, not as disparate supporting structures as inU lysses, but rather, as a contiguous and unified series. Further, there is evidence that this series of rites, rituals, dramatic reenactments of mythic paradigms from Irish paganism, is itself patterned on the greatest and most significant religious and mythological event conducted in pagan Ireland, the rites collectively known Feis,as the performed at the mythic center of Ireland, its ancient capital, Tara. James Joyce, instead of rejecting Irish tradition as many believe, may actually have embraced it to such a depth and degree that it has yet to be recognized as such. In A Portrait o f the Artist, there is a lesser known passage where Stephen Dedalus, sick of Catholics and Protestants, exhausted by his dysfunctional family, tired of the internecine warfare, disillusioned by the Byzantine back-stabbing of Irish nationalists, angered at the bowdlerization v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of Irish mythology by Celtic Revivalists, has decided to leave the island. His friend Davin asks why and Dedalus tells him: "the shortest way to Tara was via Holyhead" (4). Dedalus leaves Ireland to find its mythic center, Tara; he rejects the present chaos of Ireland in order to embrace and express its ancientom phalos. There is reason to believe thatFinnegans Wake, though never perceived as such, may be the goal--the mythic Tara-- that was the ultimate reason for the departure from Ireland of James Joyce himself. End Notes 1. Joyce, A Portrait, page 181. 2. Tymoczko, Irish Ulysses, page 118. 3. Tymoczko, Irish Ulysses, pages 1-20. 4. Joyce, A Portrait, page 250. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Foreword: 'The Shortest Way to Tara"...................................................... iii End Notes............................................................................................. vi Abstract......................................................................................................... ix Introduction: The Day of theWake. ............................................................. 1 End Notes.........................................................................................