Contingency, Irony … Textuality: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Textual Criticism. Issue 1 (February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Creasy, Matthew
• Is Part Of: Modernist cultures. Volume 15:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 48
• Page End: 68
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Subjects: James Joyce -- contingency -- modern manuscripts -- theories of the text; Arts, Modern -- Periodicals; Civilization, Modern -- Periodicals; Modernism (Aesthetics) -- Periodicals; 700.904
• DOI: 10.3366/mod.2020.0279
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-1022

Abstract

Abstract : This essay explores the representation of contingency within A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in relation to the textual history of James Joyce's novel. There is a fundamental split in this word between haphazard, chance forms of contingency and contingency as determining circumstances. First, I map these conflicting meanings on to Joyce's presentation of Stephen Dedalus and his drive towards artistic autonomy; then I use this tension to explore the textual condition of Joyce's novel, which seems, paradoxically, to demand a hyper-correct text in order to convey the vulnerability of printed works to unforeseen interventions.