Up to Maughty London
Joyce's Cultural Capital in the Imperial Metropolis
Eleni Loukopoulou
Foreword by Sebastian D. G. Knowles, Series Editor- Series: The Florida James Joyce Series
"Shows that combining publishing history and modernist studies can bring new light to canonical authors such as Joyce. Through meticulous attention to the promotional campaigns orchestrated by London publishers, Loukopoulou demonstrates the centrality of the publishing industry in Joyce’s success. We need to know more about the strategies that Faber and Faber and other publishers used to create new audiences for modernist writers, beyond tiny coteries. Loukopoulou’s book is a welcome step in that direction and will be of interest to anyone who wants to know how Joyce became a 'London author.'"—James Joyce Quarterly
"The new record Loukopoulou establishes of London in the literary production, marketing and consumption of Joyce’s work will certainly be both a basis and an exemplum for new contextual studies. Up to Maughty London adds a new and exciting conceptual hub in what had been seen as a primarily Dublin-Paris axis."—Irish Studies Review
“Seeks to elevate London to its rightful place as a Joycean city, fit to stand alongside Paris, Trieste and Zurich, if not quite Dublin. . . . Further studies of the many different Londons at work in Joyce’s writings will no doubt follow and all will be indebted to the meticulous groundwork laid down by this finely-researched work.”—James Joyce Broadsheet
"An important reconceptualization of Joyce’s emergence in the literary marketplace of his time and beyond, and a must read for anyone interested in the creation, publication, and promotion of his works."—James Joyce Literary Supplement
“One learns a tremendous lot about Joyce’s relationships with key literary or scientific figures of his day, his determination to make himself a name in Britain and the particularities of the dissemination of his works there.”—Études Britanniques Contemporaines
"Fundamentally alters the received wisdom that tends to award Paris a far more central place in the making of Joyce the modernist."—John McCourt, author of The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste 1904-1920
"In readings equally attentive to text, avant-text, and context, this book shows us how many roads in Joyce's life and work led to London. Yet the first city of the British Empire is also decentered here, enmeshed by Joyce with Dublin through the place names, cartographies, and imperial history the two cities shared. Loukopoulou has written the atlas of their entanglement, a Londub A to Z."—Paul K. Saint-Amour, author of Tense Future: Modernism, Total War, Encyclopedic Form
The effect of Dublin--and other cities such as Trieste, Zurich, and Paris--on James Joyce and his works has been studied extensively, but few Joyceans have explored the impact of London on the trajectory of his literary career. In Up to Maughty London, Eleni Loukopoulou offers the first sustained account of Joyce's engagement with the imperial metropolis. She considers both London's status as a matrix for political and cultural formations and how the city is reimagined in Joyce’s work.
Loukopoulou examines newly discovered or largely neglected material, including newspaper and magazine articles, anthology contributions, radio broadcasts, sound recordings, and other writings published and unpublished. She also assesses the promotion of Joyce's work in London’s literary marketplace. London emerges not just as a setting for his writings but as a key cultural and publishing vector for the composition and dissemination of his work.
Eleni Loukopoulou is an independent scholar living in London.
A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian D. G. Knowles
- Sample Chapter(s):
- Table of Contents
- Excerpt
The new record Loukopoulou establishes of London in the literary production, marketing and consumption of Joyce’s work will certainly be both a basis and an exemplum for new contextual studies. Up to Maughty London adds a new and exciting conceptual hub in what had been seen as a primarily Dublin-Paris axis.
--Irish Studies Review
Seeks to elevate London to its rightful place as a Joycean city, fit to stand alongside Paris, Trieste and Zurich, if not quite Dublin. . . . Further studies of the many different Londons at work in Joyce’s writings will no doubt follow and all will be indebted to the meticulous groundwork laid down by this finely-researched work.
--James Joyce Broadsheet
Makes a significant addition to both Joyce Studies and modernist studies by linking the production of published works to the publishing capital of the Anglophone world. . . . Up to Maughty London adds a new and exciting conceptual hub in what had been seen as a primarily Dublin-Paris axis.
--Irish Studies Review