Joyce: A Quintessential Artist of 20th Century High Modernism – Richard Ellmann and Denis Donoghue – A Review

Abstract

James Joyce, in 1940, when asked to explain what Ulysses was about, he proudly commented - “I have put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it (sic) will keep professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of ensuring one’s immortality.” Critics and criticisms on Joyce are immense from the beginning to till date. The works of Joyce, like Shakespeare’s, provided great amount of material for the critics to study, investigate, interpret and evaluate their essence. These perceptions of critics, at times, appeared to have outnumbered the actual works by Joyce. These criticisms meticulously assessed the writer both in positive and negative aspects. In this light, for review and analysis, here I have taken two critical works that consider Joyce as a quintessential artist of the 20^th century high modernism.

Keywords: James Joyce, Criticism on Joyce, Richard Ellmann, Artist, Modernism,