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Reviews |
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“Rickard approaches his subject from a primarily historicist rather than a psychoanalytic perspective. In so doing he highlights a compelling and overlooked set of tensions in the text that opens up new readings of many frequently discussed sextions of Ulysses. . . . One of the strengths of Rickard’s book (and perhaps a testament to his own memory!) is the impressive mastery of the details of Ulysses that he brings to his argument. . . . Joyce’s Book of Memory is certainly an exhaustive and provocative reading of the role of memory in Ulysses, and it helps confirm the value of the work done over the last decade or so by Joyce scholars to open up his work to new historical investigations.”
Mark Morrisson, Modernism/modernity -------------- |
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“This is a study that will reward the careful attention not only of Joyce scholars, but of those interested in the relationship between memory and modernism more generally. By expanding the field of Joyce’s influences to include previously unexamined figures and ideas, particularly those that have been dismissed as dated, naïve, or unfashionable, Rickard has opened up Ulysses itself to new avenues for contextual research. Even more significantly, his characterization of memory as a dynamic and proleptic textual force allows his study to bypass the well-rehearsed problem of memory’s adequacy and accuracy as an instrument of historical retrieval. Rickard’s analysis instead heightens one’s sense of memory’s mysterious role in the fashioning of human subjectivity. At the same time, he invites a deeper and fuller awareness of Joyce’s strange and wonderful capacity to capture and explore that dynamic in Ulysses, his ‘book of memory.’”
Nicholas A. Miller, James Joyce Literary Supplement -------------- |
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“[E]xplores the operation of memory in Ulysses with a lucid, carefully elaborated, and frequently illuminating theory.”
Sheldon Brivic, Journal of Modern Literature -------------- |
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“[F]resh and insightful. . . . Rickard articulates a clear and convincing theory that sheds considerable light on several Joycean cruxes.”
P. D. O’Connor, Choice -------------- |
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“[T]he most comprehensive and convincing treatment of its subject to date. . . . Joyce’s Book of Memory is one of those studies that actually changes the way one thinks about its subject; indeed, it is one of the best new books on Ulysses in recent memory.”
Brian W. Shaffer, English Literature in Transition 1880–1920 -------------- |
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“[T]hough he guides us down a well-traveled road, [Rickard] manages to captivate our attention continuously and often offers us new views of Ulysses: this is an elegantly written book, carefully structured, closely argued, and everywhere illuminating.
Fakrul Alam, The South Carolina Review -------------- |
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