The
pcrftttly
poised static moment which made rev.
Hart-Clive-1962-Structure-and-Motif-in-Finnegans-Wake
Eliol'.
Tkt W02SI, fATUI,;" nolleil.
.
.
.
ti" in Ihe ""lUt: in which I am "'ing the Ie"n, ,iorA: il don nOllead Ibe reader from part 10 part, but-with however ricb an irony-function.
inde""ndently at e~h Ual<:- men\.
Similarly, Iar~-Kale rep:lilion of material from tlte main body of a work dotS nol conslilllle IrilmDtiv.
The r<:peated burden of a ballad, for example, which maket a verbal rondo out of narrative, has nothing to do with WtMtU; beca.
.
.
", even iflhe burden i.
varied, il leach nowbere bul mainlain> a 'tali~ relationsbip 1<> Ibe narrati"" Ihemts.
Leitmotiv, 10 be eff<xlive, mml in facl grow funclionally from the evolving material, yel nol recur regularly in a wholly predictable way; it mml aro"", exp:ctations ofilS ",app"arance and yet give new insighl!
when il doe.
recur; it mun be a .
baping influence, nOllhe fulfilment of predelermined funnal ""Il.
llremenlS; il musl bave an active,
rath. . than a paosive, function. "[be n"",,""ary qualit;e, are much Ihe . arne a. Ih"'" . pecifioo hy Mr. Forster f<>r 'rhylhm":
'not 10 be tbere all Ihe time like a pattern, but by il1lovely wax_ ing and waning to fill u. wilh ,urprise and frtshn. . . and hope. '
, E. K. 110"(1"". ~ "' IN X. . . t. Toron'o, '950, Chapt. . ~.
? f. M. Font<<, A,,,,,,, . fIN N. . . . I, Loodoo, '949, pp. ,65
' ~3-{-
? UitmlJliv
R. . th~rLikeOOI~ofPavlov'l dogI. the",aderisgentlyoonditioned to apec:t a motifw! . = he iI . . . bjor;led 10 certain 'Jtimuli'. Th_
rtimuli m;iY ~
symbols, thematic; aI1ll1ions, or \1\(. preseDeC of other moti&. ? ~ proesdifl'cn &nmphyucalcoDdltioning. howen. , in thill
I
of narrative aituations, configuntiona of
both lIimulul and raporut: ruWI ~ constantly valied 10 that what began as . . rimpk one-to-one relationship may expand into something ridlly and often myatc:riously . ugg""tive. It i, jlUt this dynamic flexibility and ever-increaoing power of the k;r_iD \0 e\"Ok and to widen ill bound, thaI sav. . the tech- nique from dcgenenting into a dry. pro6tlea and mechanical memory1lame. Af~mustemphaticallyDOlcomplywilh <he ckfinition offered by Mr. Robert Humphrey':
'il may be: ddlned as a recurring image, symbol, word, or phrase which carrie. . . Italic association with a cmain idta or theme. '
The most highly developed motifl in Fi"""I'1U Wd. allolin the maximum possible flexibility of cuntent. Joyce c",,,tCl, or boliOWl from popular lor<:. formal bnill wilh an easily recog. nUable . hape or rhythm; into lhe! . < empty . helli he is able to pour almOlt any kind of c. ontcnt, jult ill a poetic otI. . . . a. form
m. ay be filled ,,'lth vinually any ,,-oro. . Iu I hn. . , pointed out, popubr sayings, cliches, provcrbt and the lik an; wonderfully . uiledtoJoyce'. purposesin1"~tmU lYoA:. ;anheMeddois evoI<e a well? known rhythm ;1\ Ihe reader'l oomcioUlnQII, aner which he isfree to . . . . , his. . . . ro-play to luperposeon that rhythm alma. 1 Iny dcoircd nuan"" ofaeRIe. The rise and fall, Ihe p. ain and joy of the cha. ractcn, can ~ widely and lubtly rdl<< ted in Ihe changing 1urD. "" and tone of luch moti&. Their flexibililY will have become appal'alt in the exampla which I have al?
ready had occasion to quote. TechnicallytheI~;'ahighlyoelf. . :. ontcio. . . <kvi<<. It
fun<;1ionl primarily at the outfa~ level, . . -ithin \h( verbal texture. a. arly it dna OOt commend itJclf to novdisu. who adopt a limple and . df? drac;ng . tylo, but it coma quite
I R. H~mpI<r<y, S"""" 'l/C_ _ II", 1M M. . tm. Now! , llefkdey . . . . . . r. . . ""lIdo, '958, pp. 9>-',
,66
? Ltitnwlio
naturally from the pen ofajoy<<. Thomas Mann, tb. moot . df- eon. dow of all expononta of the ltitm. ! ;" and the real architeet of the fully de. . . ,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'.
rath. . than a paosive, function. "[be n"",,""ary qualit;e, are much Ihe . arne a. Ih"'" . pecifioo hy Mr. Forster f<>r 'rhylhm":
'not 10 be tbere all Ihe time like a pattern, but by il1lovely wax_ ing and waning to fill u. wilh ,urprise and frtshn. . . and hope. '
, E. K. 110"(1"". ~ "' IN X. . . t. Toron'o, '950, Chapt. . ~.
? f. M. Font<<, A,,,,,,, . fIN N. . . . I, Loodoo, '949, pp. ,65
' ~3-{-
? UitmlJliv
R. . th~rLikeOOI~ofPavlov'l dogI. the",aderisgentlyoonditioned to apec:t a motifw! . = he iI . . . bjor;led 10 certain 'Jtimuli'. Th_
rtimuli m;iY ~
symbols, thematic; aI1ll1ions, or \1\(. preseDeC of other moti&. ? ~ proesdifl'cn &nmphyucalcoDdltioning. howen. , in thill
I
of narrative aituations, configuntiona of
both lIimulul and raporut: ruWI ~ constantly valied 10 that what began as . . rimpk one-to-one relationship may expand into something ridlly and often myatc:riously . ugg""tive. It i, jlUt this dynamic flexibility and ever-increaoing power of the k;r_iD \0 e\"Ok and to widen ill bound, thaI sav. . the tech- nique from dcgenenting into a dry. pro6tlea and mechanical memory1lame. Af~mustemphaticallyDOlcomplywilh <he ckfinition offered by Mr. Robert Humphrey':
'il may be: ddlned as a recurring image, symbol, word, or phrase which carrie. . . Italic association with a cmain idta or theme. '
The most highly developed motifl in Fi"""I'1U Wd. allolin the maximum possible flexibility of cuntent. Joyce c",,,tCl, or boliOWl from popular lor<:. formal bnill wilh an easily recog. nUable . hape or rhythm; into lhe! . < empty . helli he is able to pour almOlt any kind of c. ontcnt, jult ill a poetic otI. . . . a. form
m. ay be filled ,,'lth vinually any ,,-oro. . Iu I hn. . , pointed out, popubr sayings, cliches, provcrbt and the lik an; wonderfully . uiledtoJoyce'. purposesin1"~tmU lYoA:. ;anheMeddois evoI<e a well? known rhythm ;1\ Ihe reader'l oomcioUlnQII, aner which he isfree to . . . . , his. . . . ro-play to luperposeon that rhythm alma. 1 Iny dcoircd nuan"" ofaeRIe. The rise and fall, Ihe p. ain and joy of the cha. ractcn, can ~ widely and lubtly rdl<< ted in Ihe changing 1urD. "" and tone of luch moti&. Their flexibililY will have become appal'alt in the exampla which I have al?
ready had occasion to quote. TechnicallytheI~;'ahighlyoelf. . :. ontcio. . . <kvi<<. It
fun<;1ionl primarily at the outfa~ level, . . -ithin \h( verbal texture. a. arly it dna OOt commend itJclf to novdisu. who adopt a limple and . df? drac;ng . tylo, but it coma quite
I R. H~mpI<r<y, S"""" 'l/C_ _ II", 1M M. . tm. Now! , llefkdey . . . . . . r. . . ""lIdo, '958, pp. 9>-',
,66
? Ltitnwlio
naturally from the pen ofajoy<<. Thomas Mann, tb. moot . df- eon. dow of all expononta of the ltitm. ! ;" and the real architeet of the fully de. . . ,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'.
