Jonathan Goldman (editor) - Joyce and the Law (Florida James Joyce)

Joyce and the Law

The Florida James Joyce Series

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers

Florida International University, Miami

Florida State University, Tallahassee

New College of Florida, Sarasota

University of Central Florida, Orlando

University of Florida, Gainesville

University of North Florida, Jacksonville

University of South Florida, Tampa

University of West Florida, Pensacola

EDITED BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Gainesville / Tallahassee / Tampa / Boca Raton

Pensacola / Orlando / Miami / Jacksonville / Ft. Myers / Sarasota

Copyright 2017 by Jonathan Goldman
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America

This book may be available in an electronic edition.

First cloth printing, 2017
First paperback printing, 2020

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Goldman, Jonathan (Jonathan E.), editor.

Title: Joyce and the law / edited by Jonathan Goldman.

Other titles: Florida James Joyce series.

Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2017. | Series: The Florida

James Joyce series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017018508 | ISBN 9780813054742 (cloth)

ISBN 9780813064475 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Joyce, James, 18821941Criticism and interpretation. | Authors,

IrishCriticism and interpretation. | Law and literatureHistory. | Joyce, James,

18821941Characters. | LawIrelandHistory.

Classification: LCC PR6019.O9 Z64734 2017 | DDC 823/.912dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018508

The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.

University Press of Florida
2046 NE Waldo Road
Suite 2100
Gainesville, FL 32609
http://upress.ufl.edu

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Jonathan Goldman

Janine Utell

Carey Mickalites

Steven Morrison

Tekla Mecsnber

Rich Cole

Celia Marshik

Andrew Gibson

Robert Brazeau

Anne Marie DArcy

Terence Killeen

Jonathan Goldman

Joseph M. Hassett

Kevin Birmingham

Robert Spoo

Amanda Golden

Call it CSI Joyce: admirable forensic skill has been displayed in Goldmans star chamber inquiry. Uncovering the importance of an actual murder case from October 1922 from its presence in the Finnegans Wake notebooks, Terence Killeen uses the perfect analogy of the bloodhound: they do leave the particular scent of their legal origins on the text, and it is possible for a skilled reader to, as it were, sniff them out. Joyce is our fox, and all after. Stephens fox, red reek of rapine in his fur (2.148), has left his scent, and it is up to us to track the quarry down. To be at fault is neither a legal nor a moral term: it is a term originally taken from foxhunting meaning to overrun the line of scent. Stephen is at fault because he has let the fox of his riddle escape; Bloom is at fault (15.633) in Circe because he has lost his way. The characters lose the scent: this is what it means to be literally at fault. So we are all at fault, according to Joyce: all of us have lost the scent. The bloodhounds in Joyce and the Law have picked up the trail, and now we can follow their way.

The 1898 Local Government Act, the Licensing Act of 1902, the state of Irish Land Law in 1903, the Aliens Act of 1905: all these old statutes come alive in this book and are given meaning for Joyce and for today. By taking the bloody big books (12.254) that Denis Breen has tucked under his armpit and actually reading them, these writers have done us all a tremendous service. Celia Marshik shows how a municipal statute opens the door to a new reading of Ivy Day in the Committee Room, Robert Brazeau gives us the unintended consequences of legal attempts to limit alcohol consumption in Dublin, and Andrew Gibson turns the thickets of property law into a compelling meditation on the nature of ownership. Steven Morrison shows that the rhetoric leading up to the Aliens Act was equally toxic on both sides of the Irish Channel: So far as Ireland is concerned, she sees the Jews swarming in while her children are going out (United Irishman); There is hardly an Englishman in this room who does not live under the constant danger of being driven from his home... by the off-scum of Europe (British Brothers League). This is hard but necessary reading in 2016, as waves of migrants land on European shores. The legal concerns in this volume are still topical in the twenty-first century: Janine Utells study of divorce law takes us to gay marriage, Carey Mickalitess reading of Limited Liability looks ahead to the Celtic Tigers real estate bubble, and Morrison makes clear that Bloom is by birth an anchor baby. These are issues that simply wont go away.

Joseph M. Hassett is revelatory on Quinns incompetence as a legal advocate for Anderson and Heap; Quinn defended Ulysses on the grounds that the book was too difficult to understand, and thus could not appeal to the baser instincts. A more compelling argument, as Hassett points out, is that Joyces work has a terrible veracity, a defense first suggested by John Yeats and followed by Judges Woolsey and Augustus Hand, who were willing to allow that the sexual urges felt by the characters in Ulysses were expressions of a natural idea. Again, we are all at fault in Joyces universe: Judge Learned Hand went further to argue that the free expression of truth and beauty could not be restricted, for to do so would be a mutilation that would actually encourage perversion. Learned Hand, besides having the all-time best name in legal history, turns out to have been a model reader of literary criticism: corruptible people, he says, are precisely those who will read only excerpts. Truer words were never spoken...

Sebastian D. G. Knowles
Series Editor

This collection is the result of collaboration not just between authors and editors but also among institutions and colleagues. At the University Press of Florida, series editor Sebastian Knowles offered support and suggestions, a sharp eye and a sharp wit, from the proposal stage to his intense reader report. Every chapter here is better for his incisive yet entertaining commentary. Editors Michele Fiyak-Burkley, Sian Hunter, and Shannon McCarthy have been enthusiastic and communicative as they helped usher the book toward publication. Ann Marlowes copyedits were vigilant and keen. I understand how the series maintains its standards and continues its success against the odds of the current publishing climate.