The global afterlives of Joycean classicism: case studies from Argentina and India

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

James Joyce’s Ulysses, which is famously structured in line with episodes from Homer’s Odyssey, stands as one of the most globally influential manifestations of Irish classicism to date. The central proposal of this chapter will be that by studying the migration, reception and influence of Joyce’s work (especially Ulysses) across the globe, we find a range of case studies that demonstrate the impact that Joyce’s classicism has had on ‘post-colonial’ literatures. This chapter will begin by defining the terms ‘global afterlife’ and ‘Joycean classicism’, and will then consider two different ‘sites’ of their interaction. Firstly, I will consider the reception of Ulysses in 1920s Argentina, which demonstrates the ways that Joycean classicism was co-opted into the complex culture war that underwrote the literary networks of modernist Buenos Aires, as typified by the rivalry between Jorge Luis Borges and Leopoldo Marechal. Secondly, I will look to the tradition of the Anglophone Indian novel, with Salman Rushdie as one of its major theorists and proponents, looking at how Rushdie values G. V. Desani’s All About H. Hatterr (1948) in his literary criticism and in The Satanic Verses (1988).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIrish migrations and classical antiquity
EditorsIsabelle Torrance
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherBloomsbury Academic
Chapter16
ISBN (Print)9781350430426
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Feb 2026

Publication series

NameClassical diaspora

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