{"title":"\"The spirit moving him\": Allan Kardec's Spiritisme in, and around, Joyce's Ulysses","authors":"Onno Kosters","doi":"10.1353/jjq.2023.a927912","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As the \"codifier\" of <i>Le Spiritisme</i>, the French writer, translator, and educator Allan Kardec (1804-1868) was a prominent figure among the promotors of the occult. The five books he wrote on the spirit world became best-sellers, both in France and abroad. Joyce, whose largely skeptical interest in the occult has been widely researched, owned one of Kardec's works and flagged passages in it. This article considers the varied ways in which Joyce may have used Kardec's teachings and vocabulary (for instance, \"metempsychosis,\" \"reincarnation,\" and \"<i>noctambules</i>\") in <i>Ulysses</i>. The cabman's shelter of \"Eumaeus,\" in particular, functions as a spirit cabinet fit for a séance to be witnessed by Stephen and Bloom, \"our two noctambules\" (<i>U</i> 16.326).</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42413,"journal":{"name":"JAMES JOYCE QUARTERLY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JAMES JOYCE QUARTERLY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jjq.2023.a927912","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, BRITISH ISLES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
As the "codifier" of Le Spiritisme, the French writer, translator, and educator Allan Kardec (1804-1868) was a prominent figure among the promotors of the occult. The five books he wrote on the spirit world became best-sellers, both in France and abroad. Joyce, whose largely skeptical interest in the occult has been widely researched, owned one of Kardec's works and flagged passages in it. This article considers the varied ways in which Joyce may have used Kardec's teachings and vocabulary (for instance, "metempsychosis," "reincarnation," and "noctambules") in Ulysses. The cabman's shelter of "Eumaeus," in particular, functions as a spirit cabinet fit for a séance to be witnessed by Stephen and Bloom, "our two noctambules" (U 16.326).
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1963 at the University of Tulsa by Thomas F. Staley, the James Joyce Quarterly has been the flagship journal of international Joyce studies ever since. In each issue, the JJQ brings together a wide array of critical and theoretical work focusing on the life, writing, and reception of James Joyce. We encourage submissions of all types, welcoming archival, historical, biographical, and critical research. Each issue of the JJQ provides a selection of peer-reviewed essays representing the very best in contemporary Joyce scholarship. In addition, the journal publishes notes, reviews, letters, a comprehensive checklist of recent Joyce-related publications, and the editor"s "Raising the Wind" comments.