Current textual studies of Finnegans Wake have identified sigla chiefly as notebook shorthand, but this thesis argues that this interpretation has enforced limitations on future research, owing to the lack of significance mere abbreviation has within literary analysis. The thesis aims to free sigla research from this restrictive critical viewpoint and overturn its present state of neglect in Joyce studies. The research studies the James Joyce Archive and uses a genetic approach. However, instead of its analytical focus being on the notebooks (where the majority of sigla are located), it contains case studies of diagrams from the chapter drafts which are designed using sigla shapes. I have shown the functions of three types of sigla: the first are 'static' (which are shown isolated and not in a relationship to any other characters, which would imply movement); the 'kinetic' status of sigla is a different actualisation of static sigla wherein they are presented in relationships with other sigla or in diagrams which imply their movement within a certain space; and finally the 'three dimensional' sigla are sigla which are brought to the status of a diagram on the basis of parallels between the siglum and meanings of the same shape in the tradition of knowledge. To analyse the narrating quality of a siglum, the minimal condition is that at least one character is in the final version of Finnegans Wake and in a draft drawing. This is the starting point wherein comparisons can be made or symmetries can be established. This process of analysis reveals plotlines and shows how sigla can move within the drawing's space. In conclusion, sigla function as elementary plot units, which develop the plot of Finnegans Wake.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:646852 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | McCreedy, Jonathan |
| Publisher | Ulster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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