And tI",
mannormillor
dipperclappers.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
.
.
,1opcd literary motif, mixed it into.
lucid, tra~t, forward?
moving namui.
.
.
, uylc.
We are, as a mult, ronsl.
lntly impelled to Ihlft Our al(j:ntlon from the lubjcc:l?
matter seen through the words to the worw thcrn5elves, and while thit change of focul can often be Itimubting in theory, tome readm find it, in practice, extreml'ly distracting.
No IUch d~tion lia in the way of the .
.
.
:adeT ofPiMq_ Wdt, in which surface_tature haa become aU.
important.
Within it nothing i, artificial because all is frankly artifice, nothing ;.
lupcrficial because all il lunaee.
The more dearly j oyce can IOcw our auemion On the IUrface details of his style, the ktt.
.
we are able to appreciate his meaning.
There is ne""r any
quation ofreading through the "","", which has becn virtually engulfed hy the ltitrnl>li<> technique. It is prohably true to oay
that <;very paragnph in Pb"" glUU Wak. it both built up out of picct:s draWl:( from dJcwooe in the book and, ron",,~ly, capable of being broken down and related 10 all the divnse
t;Onte:x1S from which those piec. . ca"",.
Of course the motif. in Fi~". gallJ Work. are not all equally
functional or dynamic, and there are a considerahle number which appro:rimate to what Wahd colis tbe Visi~w, or what Mr. Fortier neatly design"t. . a 'banner''-although (""n in thc cue of jOY~'1 simplest adaptations of Homeric epithet and the catch_phrase of Dicke",ian caricature, he i. rarely seen to walr(; two hannen with ~ixly the . . . . me device. E:u. cl dupli<:ation is in fact to companti. . . ,ly rare in this boot. whooc main concern it with modality, Ibat the few "". mp'" wbich are to be found there nand OUt with particular cmph"';';
they may wdl have been used fnr just that reason.
Stephen Dedal",. nd the young joyce, at we know from the notCboo\:l,' oa great store by Itatic qualities in an. The pcrftttly poised static moment which made rev. :latlon possible Wat what
? uimwliv
SI"pllea called lh~ 'epiphany'. j O)'tt nev<:r ~ntirely abandoned this aesthetic th. . ,ry, bUI in F~,mu Wdt he . uoi",ilal(:d il into a mllure lechnique which soesfar bcyund the imalti""li~ range of the urly notcbookjollingt. Mrs. G]. ;uhecn'. an tllion Ihal Theodore S! ",r>Ccr _ talking non. . . . . . . , ,,? hen h~ II. J. ICd Ih. . . tJOYC~'15u"". ,. . i,""works are . . . U'illustration. , intcnai! icatioru . . . nd enlargement>' of the theory of epiphanie. ' i, not entirely j Ulti! ied for, mwl<liU "",I<I,. ,JU, the b6t of the motifs in Fin"'81U11
Wah se~ much the nme type offunction as do the epiphanies of the early book,. Those cpiphanifs, though frequently effee- tive enough in the,"",l". ,. , ICnded to halt all for. <<anl movement of the namlti~. . " as every ruder of StqJ4m IImJ ia aw! U-. :; the I,"_i",O{,. ~ W. u,an Ihog. :lher morelunmJined. nd IJUpple equi,-alcnl, ! U-. : O"Ue to Ihnr name and a1waY' lcad the reader on 10 funhe. variatioru and relationship . j w t as the individual Itatic frames of a motion. picture aTe given lire . . . nd
mOVement when resolv~don Ihe cinema-sc. . . ,. n, $0 each ""quen. e ofpenetrating motif. stat~ment> . . tnade to fUK into a dyoamic image of . . . ,ality. Evcn in isolation many of the longer motifl . . . . . . , triumphs of the epiphany technique. 'Vikingfalhcr Sleeps' il an exp"""'" of thc total paralysis 0{ h;"h civilisation that would hn. . , won th~ harsh Stephen" astoru. hed approval, while the d. . . . ? elopment of Ihe paaage through IWO major vari- anl. ! . ho>. . . . how much funherjora',llier mann~r ""abies him
to go in th~ analys;, of an inuanl of revelation,
'Liverpoor ? Sol a bit ofi! ! Hi. brayn('l coolt pamtch, his pelt na. . y, h;, heart'. adrone, hi, bluid. <! rcaJT\l acrawl, hil puff but a pifl", h;, '""trem~Iies ,""lremdy 10' renglcss, Pawmbroke, Cbilblaimend a nd Baldow! . IJ un oph iI in hil doge. WOl"ds weigh no no more to him than rnindrir- to R~lhf~rnhim. Which We allliu. Rain. When "'" o. lttp. Dro]ll. 8uI wail until our$leeping
Drain. Sdops. ' (14. 13)
'Ri,. . pooI? Hod a brieck on it! BUI iu piers eerie, il. 1 span . poolEy, iu toll but a till, it! parapcl. 1 all ! "',ipato:ting. D'Oh-. lo~g'. by his by. Which we . ll pa. . , TON. In our 1Il00.
j A. Gt. uhoen, 'J""'''jOJl'''', r. rtPHANIFS", TlwJ_J"" 111";-, ",I. I, nO. ],1'. 4~.
,68
? l. eifnwtiv
Zno",. While we hickerwar<h the thicker. Schein. Scho",: (266. 03)
'Caffi. . and cull. and <>nceagain overalls, th~ fittel! mrviva lives that blued, iom and storridge can make them. Whichu, all claims. Clean. Whenastderps. Close.
And tI", mannormillor dipperclappers. Noxt. Doze. ' (61'1-'0)
The ponenton, qUe$tion 'How a", you t. ,day, my dark sirr- the multilingual verbigeration' of a wrathful militant society demanding the abdication of the pacifist- and l'iggot. Ear. wicker', misspelling of 'hClittncy',' though more fleeting motif" are epiphanies of even wider significance.
WhereM Stephen would have built up art (tut of a sequence of ,uch independent momeuu. the matu", Joyc~ prtferred to
mnhilise a limited number of them into rulUling m,)! if. , whose power of "howing furth' would be vastly inc",ascd hy their complex interweavin~. This new technique is the pr. ,duct of
Joyce'. changing world_view. The companmentalised units which he saw in tw youth, the discrete imaga of londy indi_ v;dual! , each ofwhose imp"nelrable faces he carefully and prig- gishly ocrutini,ed in an attempt to 'pierce to the mntive centre of its uglineM' (SH oS), have become in F;muCIVlS Wake a con_ tinuum where the identifying epiphany i, no more than a momentary illusion, a play of light, ,till giving iruight, but much broader in ocop" and capabk of being shifted to a virtu_ ally inexh. . mtible variety of contexts without 10M of power. The kitmlltW, One of the most flexible of all t<:cl,nical devices, is
Joyce', mO$1 effe~tive weapon in hi. '! struggle to leave individua_ tion behind and create a truly generali",d comciousn". . . To do this he had 10 abandon static art and oome full circle back to kinesis; Stephen was ob. essed with the problem of how to capture a ',till' from the motion-picture ()f life, wh. . cas tbe l a t e r J o y c e w a n t e d 1 0 k e r p t b e C;lJn~ra o f h i . ' a ! 1 n i g h t .
nCM<:ry"':d' (4119. 35) turning with hal'dly a pause for medi? tation; he cven went to the length of joining both end. of the film.
? Latmotiv
In disculling Ulps. . , Mr. Robert Humphrey attemp'" to t"-ategwi$t the many motifs in ! hat book a. . 'image, . ymoo! , or w<lrd_phrase motil:. '. ' He . uggt:ots that Stephen'. constant \lcinn ofhis mother is an imagt:_motif, 1IIoom', potato a symbol- motif, and 'met him pike hnses' a ""rhal motif, but all thi> is true only at the 'implest rcfcrcntiallevd; ultimately, ofcon"", all MT. Humphrry'. motif! a u equally verbal, and Mr. Kenner did well to warn "" tho. ! in reading Joyce we cannot be 100 ;nUlten! onthen~toCQn<:<ontratemostofourimmediate attention nn th(, word. imtud of ruding through tbem. ' The point is nn doubt a rather trite nne, but interputation of Ulysses
h", long been, and often ,till is, dogged by too natural"'tic . . reading of the text, which unduly plays down the linguistic leveL TnUIyS1<$Joy<:t:has,itiJtrue,oftenintegratedhis""'hal motifs SO skillfully into a naturalistic oontext that, 10 we his CaTty tcnninology, lfu:y function dramatically; an illwion of independent exi3tenr. e B created fOT them. Such ; ' the ca,e with the 'Pen"""'" motif: when Bloom meets tho pak: young man and immedia\dy afterwards remembcn the nam<: 'Pelll'OM:' (U '70), tIu: /,ib"t>ti<Julu: rotlnexion with the earlier paso. age in which he had vainly tried to recan the name ;" ~tabl;"hed by a prOCeM SO psychologically real and compelling that the reader B, in the fi,. . t ddight at recognitinn, ,nade 10 fur~t how simple a contrivance i, involved. In Fin""gaAf W4h Joyce abandoned ,uch tromp. flZi! methods alto~ther. Here the motifs are ndther . uperimpo&cd on, nor embedded in, anything but a matrix of other motifs and mutif. fragments; no motif can "'em out ofcontext in ouch company, though some will provide greater opportunio. . fur organic dev<:lnpmenllhan othe,. . . The greatneM ofJoyce'. art in FirwgdfU Wah Ii. . in the brilliane<: with which he . . ,lee", and juxtAp",,," groups ofmOli(i; to devdop
h;" materials in the best of a grea. t many p<. >Wble waY'. While
feeling hi. way toward thi, optimum thematic devdopment Joyce ="" to havc made a practice of arbitrariJ. y ocattering a
,Il. . Hump/u<:y. S_tf("~in. . . . . M""'"NO<<! ,""'. hl""ond Loo ""'gd. ,. , '9~8, p. 9"
? II. Kem1er, D. M. . ? ? J"7", u. . don, '9~~, pj>. ,~. If. '1'
? uitmQtiv
few motif, he", and there in hi! text to serve as stimuli fur hi. imagination. Such a motif, originally included mn", or lea "'gardlc:ss of context, always become. a wurce of inspiration
to him. Like the grain in the oyster which grow. into a pearl- blister, it i. olowly ellcN. ted with symbol. <, ima~, and over_ tones which diffwe into and finally become all uscntial part of the context. ' The Erid. h Museum manuscrlpu indicate how very oftell this wasJoyce'. working method. It is worth noting, aiw, that, until Joyce had worked out the horizontal . tructure <>fhis cpiaod. ,. , the <nOtm appea. . . ,o only very thinly in the texl>, and often not at all for long ,\retch. ,. . LU soon as tM baMC fabric was clear in Joyce'. mind the motif. began to develop abund- antly, building up the hannonic . tructure and tying the sprawl- ing cycles together with taut bonds stretched from point to
point.
It is cl<:". that in FiMtlgans Wal. aoy . uch cl"";fication of
motifs as Mr. Humph",y'. is imJl<""Sible from tM . tart. T he distinction between image and. ymbol, ifitev~r had any validity with respect to Joyce'. earlier worb, certainly has none here. Rec=nt ide", appear now in on~ guise, oow in another. Anna Livia may be . ecn a. a woman, r~membt:r. . d. . . , a d",am- vision, heard in the ripple of the watery PfO$e, ouggeoted in the punctuation of a phra. e. The <>nly important distinctio"" now I<> be made have to do with filllction.
There are a gr<:at many ways in which kU"",iWs may function to develop a book. They define characler, give accents to the line of narrative development, control 1M rhythm of the struc- ture and impose order on what may without them I! CCm dis- orderly. A . . ,ri? ? of motifS, however slender, creal. . a skeletal grid-pall<:m which, provided it h. . . , some truly functional re-
lati<>nship to the book'. themes, help' the . . . ,adec to organile his respon&es in phase with those themes. Indeed, this ordering and unifying function of the Idlm. lio is probably il> greal<:lt . ~ngth. I shall attempt in the following pages and in my final
' Cf. ),{T. M. J. C. Hodgan'. h&ppy analogy of,,,,,, fit,,,,,,, dno. wn by a nug. ><1: M. J. C. I-lodgart ond M. P. Worthing10t1, s. . , . . tIot W. . k, of
:1_s:1'7", Now Yo<k, '959. p. '7? '7'
? uilllU)tilJ
chapter to dcmonstrate rome of Ihe waY' in whi(h motit;, ICtvc to organ"': and unify Fil/Jltgmtr W,w,.
By mean.
quation ofreading through the "","", which has becn virtually engulfed hy the ltitrnl>li<> technique. It is prohably true to oay
that <;very paragnph in Pb"" glUU Wak. it both built up out of picct:s draWl:( from dJcwooe in the book and, ron",,~ly, capable of being broken down and related 10 all the divnse
t;Onte:x1S from which those piec. . ca"",.
Of course the motif. in Fi~". gallJ Work. are not all equally
functional or dynamic, and there are a considerahle number which appro:rimate to what Wahd colis tbe Visi~w, or what Mr. Fortier neatly design"t. . a 'banner''-although (""n in thc cue of jOY~'1 simplest adaptations of Homeric epithet and the catch_phrase of Dicke",ian caricature, he i. rarely seen to walr(; two hannen with ~ixly the . . . . me device. E:u. cl dupli<:ation is in fact to companti. . . ,ly rare in this boot. whooc main concern it with modality, Ibat the few "". mp'" wbich are to be found there nand OUt with particular cmph"';';
they may wdl have been used fnr just that reason.
Stephen Dedal",. nd the young joyce, at we know from the notCboo\:l,' oa great store by Itatic qualities in an. The pcrftttly poised static moment which made rev. :latlon possible Wat what
? uimwliv
SI"pllea called lh~ 'epiphany'. j O)'tt nev<:r ~ntirely abandoned this aesthetic th. . ,ry, bUI in F~,mu Wdt he . uoi",ilal(:d il into a mllure lechnique which soesfar bcyund the imalti""li~ range of the urly notcbookjollingt. Mrs. G]. ;uhecn'. an tllion Ihal Theodore S! ",r>Ccr _ talking non. . . . . . . , ,,? hen h~ II. J. ICd Ih. . . tJOYC~'15u"". ,. . i,""works are . . . U'illustration. , intcnai! icatioru . . . nd enlargement>' of the theory of epiphanie. ' i, not entirely j Ulti! ied for, mwl<liU "",I<I,. ,JU, the b6t of the motifs in Fin"'81U11
Wah se~ much the nme type offunction as do the epiphanies of the early book,. Those cpiphanifs, though frequently effee- tive enough in the,"",l". ,. , ICnded to halt all for. <<anl movement of the namlti~. . " as every ruder of StqJ4m IImJ ia aw! U-. :; the I,"_i",O{,. ~ W. u,an Ihog. :lher morelunmJined. nd IJUpple equi,-alcnl, ! U-. : O"Ue to Ihnr name and a1waY' lcad the reader on 10 funhe. variatioru and relationship . j w t as the individual Itatic frames of a motion. picture aTe given lire . . . nd
mOVement when resolv~don Ihe cinema-sc. . . ,. n, $0 each ""quen. e ofpenetrating motif. stat~ment> . . tnade to fUK into a dyoamic image of . . . ,ality. Evcn in isolation many of the longer motifl . . . . . . , triumphs of the epiphany technique. 'Vikingfalhcr Sleeps' il an exp"""'" of thc total paralysis 0{ h;"h civilisation that would hn. . , won th~ harsh Stephen" astoru. hed approval, while the d. . . . ? elopment of Ihe paaage through IWO major vari- anl. ! . ho>. . . . how much funherjora',llier mann~r ""abies him
to go in th~ analys;, of an inuanl of revelation,
'Liverpoor ? Sol a bit ofi! ! Hi. brayn('l coolt pamtch, his pelt na. . y, h;, heart'. adrone, hi, bluid. <! rcaJT\l acrawl, hil puff but a pifl", h;, '""trem~Iies ,""lremdy 10' renglcss, Pawmbroke, Cbilblaimend a nd Baldow! . IJ un oph iI in hil doge. WOl"ds weigh no no more to him than rnindrir- to R~lhf~rnhim. Which We allliu. Rain. When "'" o. lttp. Dro]ll. 8uI wail until our$leeping
Drain. Sdops. ' (14. 13)
'Ri,. . pooI? Hod a brieck on it! BUI iu piers eerie, il. 1 span . poolEy, iu toll but a till, it! parapcl. 1 all ! "',ipato:ting. D'Oh-. lo~g'. by his by. Which we . ll pa. . , TON. In our 1Il00.
j A. Gt. uhoen, 'J""'''jOJl'''', r. rtPHANIFS", TlwJ_J"" 111";-, ",I. I, nO. ],1'. 4~.
,68
? l. eifnwtiv
Zno",. While we hickerwar<h the thicker. Schein. Scho",: (266. 03)
'Caffi. . and cull. and <>nceagain overalls, th~ fittel! mrviva lives that blued, iom and storridge can make them. Whichu, all claims. Clean. Whenastderps. Close.
And tI", mannormillor dipperclappers. Noxt. Doze. ' (61'1-'0)
The ponenton, qUe$tion 'How a", you t. ,day, my dark sirr- the multilingual verbigeration' of a wrathful militant society demanding the abdication of the pacifist- and l'iggot. Ear. wicker', misspelling of 'hClittncy',' though more fleeting motif" are epiphanies of even wider significance.
WhereM Stephen would have built up art (tut of a sequence of ,uch independent momeuu. the matu", Joyc~ prtferred to
mnhilise a limited number of them into rulUling m,)! if. , whose power of "howing furth' would be vastly inc",ascd hy their complex interweavin~. This new technique is the pr. ,duct of
Joyce'. changing world_view. The companmentalised units which he saw in tw youth, the discrete imaga of londy indi_ v;dual! , each ofwhose imp"nelrable faces he carefully and prig- gishly ocrutini,ed in an attempt to 'pierce to the mntive centre of its uglineM' (SH oS), have become in F;muCIVlS Wake a con_ tinuum where the identifying epiphany i, no more than a momentary illusion, a play of light, ,till giving iruight, but much broader in ocop" and capabk of being shifted to a virtu_ ally inexh. . mtible variety of contexts without 10M of power. The kitmlltW, One of the most flexible of all t<:cl,nical devices, is
Joyce', mO$1 effe~tive weapon in hi. '! struggle to leave individua_ tion behind and create a truly generali",d comciousn". . . To do this he had 10 abandon static art and oome full circle back to kinesis; Stephen was ob. essed with the problem of how to capture a ',till' from the motion-picture ()f life, wh. . cas tbe l a t e r J o y c e w a n t e d 1 0 k e r p t b e C;lJn~ra o f h i . ' a ! 1 n i g h t .
nCM<:ry"':d' (4119. 35) turning with hal'dly a pause for medi? tation; he cven went to the length of joining both end. of the film.
? Latmotiv
In disculling Ulps. . , Mr. Robert Humphrey attemp'" to t"-ategwi$t the many motifs in ! hat book a. . 'image, . ymoo! , or w<lrd_phrase motil:. '. ' He . uggt:ots that Stephen'. constant \lcinn ofhis mother is an imagt:_motif, 1IIoom', potato a symbol- motif, and 'met him pike hnses' a ""rhal motif, but all thi> is true only at the 'implest rcfcrcntiallevd; ultimately, ofcon"", all MT. Humphrry'. motif! a u equally verbal, and Mr. Kenner did well to warn "" tho. ! in reading Joyce we cannot be 100 ;nUlten! onthen~toCQn<:<ontratemostofourimmediate attention nn th(, word. imtud of ruding through tbem. ' The point is nn doubt a rather trite nne, but interputation of Ulysses
h", long been, and often ,till is, dogged by too natural"'tic . . reading of the text, which unduly plays down the linguistic leveL TnUIyS1<$Joy<:t:has,itiJtrue,oftenintegratedhis""'hal motifs SO skillfully into a naturalistic oontext that, 10 we his CaTty tcnninology, lfu:y function dramatically; an illwion of independent exi3tenr. e B created fOT them. Such ; ' the ca,e with the 'Pen"""'" motif: when Bloom meets tho pak: young man and immedia\dy afterwards remembcn the nam<: 'Pelll'OM:' (U '70), tIu: /,ib"t>ti<Julu: rotlnexion with the earlier paso. age in which he had vainly tried to recan the name ;" ~tabl;"hed by a prOCeM SO psychologically real and compelling that the reader B, in the fi,. . t ddight at recognitinn, ,nade 10 fur~t how simple a contrivance i, involved. In Fin""gaAf W4h Joyce abandoned ,uch tromp. flZi! methods alto~ther. Here the motifs are ndther . uperimpo&cd on, nor embedded in, anything but a matrix of other motifs and mutif. fragments; no motif can "'em out ofcontext in ouch company, though some will provide greater opportunio. . fur organic dev<:lnpmenllhan othe,. . . The greatneM ofJoyce'. art in FirwgdfU Wah Ii. . in the brilliane<: with which he . . ,lee", and juxtAp",,," groups ofmOli(i; to devdop
h;" materials in the best of a grea. t many p<. >Wble waY'. While
feeling hi. way toward thi, optimum thematic devdopment Joyce ="" to havc made a practice of arbitrariJ. y ocattering a
,Il. . Hump/u<:y. S_tf("~in. . . . . M""'"NO<<! ,""'. hl""ond Loo ""'gd. ,. , '9~8, p. 9"
? II. Kem1er, D. M. . ? ? J"7", u. . don, '9~~, pj>. ,~. If. '1'
? uitmQtiv
few motif, he", and there in hi! text to serve as stimuli fur hi. imagination. Such a motif, originally included mn", or lea "'gardlc:ss of context, always become. a wurce of inspiration
to him. Like the grain in the oyster which grow. into a pearl- blister, it i. olowly ellcN. ted with symbol. <, ima~, and over_ tones which diffwe into and finally become all uscntial part of the context. ' The Erid. h Museum manuscrlpu indicate how very oftell this wasJoyce'. working method. It is worth noting, aiw, that, until Joyce had worked out the horizontal . tructure <>fhis cpiaod. ,. , the <nOtm appea. . . ,o only very thinly in the texl>, and often not at all for long ,\retch. ,. . LU soon as tM baMC fabric was clear in Joyce'. mind the motif. began to develop abund- antly, building up the hannonic . tructure and tying the sprawl- ing cycles together with taut bonds stretched from point to
point.
It is cl<:". that in FiMtlgans Wal. aoy . uch cl"";fication of
motifs as Mr. Humph",y'. is imJl<""Sible from tM . tart. T he distinction between image and. ymbol, ifitev~r had any validity with respect to Joyce'. earlier worb, certainly has none here. Rec=nt ide", appear now in on~ guise, oow in another. Anna Livia may be . ecn a. a woman, r~membt:r. . d. . . , a d",am- vision, heard in the ripple of the watery PfO$e, ouggeoted in the punctuation of a phra. e. The <>nly important distinctio"" now I<> be made have to do with filllction.
There are a gr<:at many ways in which kU"",iWs may function to develop a book. They define characler, give accents to the line of narrative development, control 1M rhythm of the struc- ture and impose order on what may without them I! CCm dis- orderly. A . . ,ri? ? of motifS, however slender, creal. . a skeletal grid-pall<:m which, provided it h. . . , some truly functional re-
lati<>nship to the book'. themes, help' the . . . ,adec to organile his respon&es in phase with those themes. Indeed, this ordering and unifying function of the Idlm. lio is probably il> greal<:lt . ~ngth. I shall attempt in the following pages and in my final
' Cf. ),{T. M. J. C. Hodgan'. h&ppy analogy of,,,,,, fit,,,,,,, dno. wn by a nug. ><1: M. J. C. I-lodgart ond M. P. Worthing10t1, s. . , . . tIot W. . k, of
:1_s:1'7", Now Yo<k, '959. p. '7? '7'
? uilllU)tilJ
chapter to dcmonstrate rome of Ihe waY' in whi(h motit;, ICtvc to organ"': and unify Fil/Jltgmtr W,w,.
By mean.
