Joyce's “Revolution of the Word”: Language and Its Dis/contents Kiheon Nam (Seoul National University of Technology) In Finnegans Wake, which has been regarded as unreadable, Joyce succeeds in the “revolution of the word,” in that he not only rejects the linear convention of narration, but also problematizes the stability of signification by multiplying possibilities of malsings. Joyce's idea of language must have been influenced by hcatcontemporary linguistics theories, but he incessantly embraces as wbll as rejects any one theorem, thus producing the ever-moving displacement of meanings. Joyce deploys the biblical myths of Incarnation and the Tower of Babel throughout Finnegans Wake, in order that he disrupts the mimetic nature of language. By displacing and transforming national identities, he seems to valorize the universality of signification, but actually he tries to debunk the primacy of English in his own work. For example, he demystifies the sacredness of Incarnation by apposing the earwig's biological invasion into the human ear. Joyce's another tactics is to debunk as well as to restore Irishness by comparison of Englishness. His focus on racial and language differences is a detour to the recovery of his own Irish identity, which will be once again interrogated in his self-mockery. Joyce's employment of etymological analysis functions as a critical thrust into the origin of language. In other words, Joyce's Wake is already postmodern in that it deconstructs the essence and origin of identity. In conclusion, Joyce's “revolution of the word” is not just a stylistic or philological one, but rather is political in that he never alienates himself from Irish history and political conditions, even though he was self-exiled. So Finnegans Wake is a product of Joyce's delve into his own particular history and identify.
목차
1. 2. 3. Works Cited Abstract
키워드
James JoyceFinnegans WakelanguageIrishnessetymology
저자
Kiheon Nam [ Seoul National University of Technology ]
국제언어인문학회 [INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANISTIC STUDIES IN LANGUAGE]
설립연도
2000
분야
인문학>언어학
소개
국제언어인문학회는 '언어를 통한 인문학 연구'의 필요성에 동감하는 여러 전공분야 학자들의 뜻을 담고 있습니다. 언어에 초점을 맞추는 것은, 다양한 전공분야의 참여에서 생겨날 수 있는 '이질적 집합'의 상황을 극복하기 위한 장치입니다. 현재로서는 작은 불씨를 지핀 것에 불과합니다. 그러나 이렇게 일구어진 불꽃이 새로운 학풍의 바람결에 커다란 섬광으로 빛나게 될 날이 올 것을 우리는 확신합니다. 우리의 학회와 학술지는 인문학 불변의 가치와 시대적 사명을 인식하는 국내외의 학자들을 향해 활짝 개방되어 있습니다. 특정 전공의 범위를 넘어서서 철학, 문학, 언어학, 종교, 역사, 문화, 예술 등의 시각에서 언어의 본질을 토론할 기회가 될 것입니다.