Joyce

In Finnegan’s wake, the unusual way Joyce handles language allows for a number of different meanings to come into play. The alternative interpretations of this language also brings in polysemy, a trope that can be found in classic nonsense literature such as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. However, the way Joyce uses polysemy adds something completely different to the work than Carroll or Lear. This can be seen on page four of book one when he writes,

“one yeastyday he sternely

struxk his tete in a tub for to watsch the future of his fates but ere

he swiftly stook it out again, by the might of moses, the very wat-

er was eviparated and all the guenneses had met their exodus so

that ought to show you what a pentschanjeuchy chap he was!”

A number of examples present themselves, most obviously "yeastyday", “watsch”, and “exodus”. "Yeastyday" is clearly a play on the word yesterday, but it also implies heat as one would experience when baking bread. Thus, "Yeastyday" can be read as "a hot yesterday". "Watsch" appears to be an amalgamation of the words “watch” and “wash”, and, when read aloud as can be suggested when reading Finnegan’s Wake, it can be interpreted to be either one, giving the phrase “watsch the future of his fates” two completely different meanings. Exodus refers to a great migration, and, in reference to the aforementioned “guennesses”, probably a play on Guinness, it refers to being drunk. However, as with a number of other references on this page and throughout the book, this also refers to the book in the Bible in which the Israelite flee Egyptian rule.

What separates Joyce’s polysemy from that of others is what it brings to the piece. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, another work rich in polysemy, the use of this sort of language adds to the overall absurdity and dream-like quality of the piece. Alice is a child, and this limits her ability to detect the nuances in language; she takes everything at face-value, and, thus, so does her dreamscape. So the mouse’s tale literally takes the shape of a tail, the mock-turtle is a creature with a bizarre mix of features, and the Cheshire cat is an actual cat rather than an expression.

However, in Finnegan’s Wake, polysemy adds an entirely new layer to the text. Examples such as "yeastyday" and "watsch" add meaning that might otherwise be omitted from the text such as atmospheric (both literal and figurative) conditions to the story as well as alternate meanings to phrases. The numerous Biblical references not only adds an element of symbolism to the text, but it also highlights the fact that Ireland, where Joyce is from and where many of his stories take place, is very strongly rooted in Catholicism.