James Joyce's Painful Case

"In this fascinating and brilliant study, C il n Owens uses much of what Joyce read and many of Joyce's works to help illuminate 'A Painful Case,' and just as valuably he sheds light on Joyce's other work through his analysis."--Morris Beja, professor emeritus, Ohio State University In order to demonstrate that one story from the Dublinersis not only a turning point in that book but also a microcosm of a wide range of important Joycean influences and preoccupations, C il n Owens examines the dense intertextuality of "A Painful Case." Assuming the position of the ideal contemporary Irish reader that Joyce might have anticipated, Owens argues that the main character, James Duffy, is a "spoiled priest," emotionally arrested by his guilt at having rejected the call to the priesthood. Duffy's intellectual life thereafter progresses through German idealism to eventual nihilism. The contrast of nihilist thought and Christian belief is Owens's main focus, and he demonstrates how this dichotomy is evident at various points in the life of James Duffy. From this springboard, Owens constructs a larger discussion of Joyce's cultural influences, including Schopenhauer, Wagner, Tolstoy, and others. He considers many other complex interrelationships that inform Joyce's text--theology, philosophy, music, opera, literary history, Irish cultural history, and Joyce's own poetry--and offers detailed elucidations informed by historical, geographical, linguistic, and biographical information.Owens, Coilin is the author of 'James Joyce's Painful Case', published 2008 under ISBN 9780813031934 and ISBN 0813031931.