The Epiphanies of Joyce

Author(s): Robert Scholes and Florence L. Walzl

Source: PMLA , Mar., 1967, Vol. 82, No. 1 (Mar., 1967), pp. 152-154
Published by: Modern Language Association

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 NOTES, DOCUMENTS, AND CRITICAL COMMENT
THE EPIPHANIES OF JOYCE

I II

A COMMENT on Florence L. Walzl's essay, "The At the present time the term epiphany, in addition
Liturgy of the Epiphany Season and the Epiphanies of to its religious significations, has at least two distinct
Joyce," PMLA, LXXX (Sept. 1965), 436-450. The meanings in Joyce criticism. It may refer specifically
author of this essay has overlooked some pertinent to a certain type of brief prose work that Joyce com-
factual material on Joyce's Epiphanies. Rather than posed between 1900 and 1904. It may mean revelation
take up some of her specific points for correction or or illumination in certain literary and technical senses.
refutation, I should like to present here as much as I In this latter meaning it is widely used in reference to
have been able to discover about the Epiphanies in all of Joyce's works.
several years of investigation, and invite others to As to the first signification: Joyce himself applied
refute or correct me where my facts are inadequate or the religious term epiphany to the brief narratives and
my inferences illogical. For convenience I shall number vignettes, which he described in Stephen Hero as re-
each item and provide general documentation. cordings of "the most delicate and evanescent of
1. For Joyce the word "Epiphany" designated a moments"' and in Ulysses as "epiphanies on green oval
prose genre in which he worked. leaves."2 At the time of composition of my study (sent
2. From 1900 to 1904 he wrote over seventy to PMLA on 27 August 1964), twenty-two of these
Epiphanies and put them together in a fixed sequence epiphanies had been published.3 Subsequently Pro-
beginning with the famous "Pull out his eyes" fessors Robert Scholes and Richard M. Kain published
Epiphany which appears early in A Portrait. their book, The Workshop of Daedalus, which gives the
3. Of these seventy-some Epiphanies, forty have text of forty epiphanies.4 Regrettably I could not con-
survived: twenty-two of these are in the Lockwood sult their work. I have referred to these early epipha-
Collection at the University of Buffalo. Eighteen addi- nies of Joyce in the introduction of my article. My
tional Epiphanies are in the Cornell University Joyce main concern was not, however, with these short
Collection. All forty were published by the North- works, but with the influence of the sequence of
western University Press in the spring of 1965 in The liturgical epiphanies in the Epiphany season rites
Workshop of Daedalus, to which the reader is referred (January 1 to Candlemas) both upon Joyce's chang-
for elaboration and documentation of the present ing concept of epiphany at the time he was writing the
comments. Dubliners stories and on the narratives themselves. In
4. Joyce used his Epiphanies as a skeletal outline for my discussion of Dubliners I emphasized that Joyce
Stephen Hero, copying them in where appropriate, never called these stories epiphanies, but rather
with some changes to suit the context. epicleti, a word derived from another ecclesiastical
5. He later used some in A Portrait, and a few in term. I speculated as to the meaning of epicleti to
Ulysses. Joyce, its relationship to epiphany, and the reasons
6. No known Epiphany has been found in Dubliners. Joyce may have preferred it. I also suggested that
7. Joyce never used the word Epiphany in connec- Joyce's omission of the term epiphany in the esthetic
tion with Dubliners, or as a term for a structural device discussion of the Portrait probably indicated a chang-
in longer fiction. His own Epiphanies were all record- ing view and might relate to his experiences in compos-
ings of actual experiences or moods. None were in- ing the Dubliners stories. It is possible that Joyce
vented. In fact, by his own definition, they could not might have preferred that the term epiphany be re-
be invented but had to be recorded. stricted to the early prose paragraphs, but his own use
8. Thus the term "Epiphany" as all too commonly of the term does not seem so limited.
used in discussion of Dubliners and Joyce's otherfic- As to the more general signification of epiphany:
tion has nothing to do with the term "Epiphany" as Joyce himself set the pattern for the use of the term
Joyce himself used it. epiphany as a spiritual or intellectual apprehension
9. Since Joyce himself pre-empted the term to ap- which represented an enlightenment. In the esthetic
ply to one of the genres in which he worked, it would discussion of Stephen Hero, where the qualities of
seem appropriate for critics to follow his lead. To use beauty are defined as integritas (wholeness), consonan-
his word to refer to an aspect of his work other than tia (symmetry), and claritas (radiance), he defines
the one he intended by it is to gain a spurious author- epiphany as an apprehension that radiance is quiddity.
ity for many a tenuous aperCu, which might seem much
less impressive if not cloaked in the borrowed raiment I James Joyce, Stephen Hero (New York, 1944), p. 211.
of Joyce's phraseology. 2 James Joyce, Ulysses (New York, 1946), p. 41.
10. May I suggest that for critics as well as poets, 3 James Joyce, Epiphanies, ed. 0. A. Silverman (Buffalo,
"there's more enterprise in walking naked." N. Y., 1956).
4 The Workshop of Daedalus: James Joyce and the Raw
ROBERT SCHOLES Materials for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
University of Iowa (Evanston, In., 1965).

152

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 Robert Scholes and Florence L. Walzl 153

"Claritas is quidditas. . . This is the moment which I Guide to James Joyce describes it as "a great epiphany
call epiphany.... we recognize that it is that thing and the container of little epiphanies, an epiphany of
which it is. Its soul, its whatness, leaps to us from the epiphanies.""
vestment of its appearance."5 Later in the Portrait in It is evident that the term epiphany has several
the corresponding discussion of esthetics Joyce again meanings in current Joyce criticism. It may refer to an
defined claritas as being an apprehension of quidditas; early prose type, to a spiritual and intellectual illumi-
however, he then described it differently; it is "the nation of the nature of a thing, and also, by extension,
clear radiance of the esthetic image . . . apprehended to the artistic insights and means by which such a
luminously by the mind" of the artist.6 Joyce did not revelation is achieved.
call this realization epiphany, a fact many observers As to the religious signification of epiphany: the
overlook. Yet the similarity between the two discus- epiphany is universally defined as a visible manifesta-
sions has led to association of the term epiphany with tion of deity, and the liturgical epiphany is such a
the more technical type of revelation described in the manifestation in the life of Christ, the account of which
Portrait. Thus following Joyce's lead either directly or is incorporated in the liturgy of the Mass or Divine
indirectly, critics have used the term epiphany to refer Office. The purpose of my study was to examine the
to an illumination of the essential nature of a thing, influence of a group of these epiphanies upon the il-
and by extension also, to an apprehension of the nar- luminations of Dubliners, whether Joyce labelled them
rative or imagistic means which effect such a revela- "epiphanies" or not. The liturgical epiphanies, in gen-
tion. Epiphany in these senses has been applied fre- eral, employ a narrative method in which a sequence
quently to all of Joyce's works. For example, in one of of details in a simply told story effects a sudden revela-
the first important discussions of the epiphany, Irene tion of spiritual or moral meaning, usually as to the
Hendry [Chayes]'s "Joyce's Epiphanies," the epiphany essential being of a person or thing. There is inherent
is discussed as an "esthetic revelation" and Joyce's symbolism: as a result of a long tradition of Biblical
work described as "a tissue of epiphanies, great and exegesis the characters are regarded as figurae and the
small, from fleeting images to whole books, from the action interpreted at various levels of meaning. Such a
briefest revelation in his lyrics to the epiphany that narrative approach seems relevant to Dubliners, where
occupies one gigantic, enduring 'moment' in Finnegans each story leads to a moral manifestation and where
Wake."7 Others who have used the term epiphany in each character is a social type also. In addition, the
reference to Joyce's esthetic theories and fictional arrangement of epiphanies in the gospels of the
techniques include Maurice Beebe, who analyzes the Epiphany-season Mass liturgy seems to have influ-
epiphany as part of Joyce's esthetic and refers to the enced Joyce also. A series of chronological epiphanies
"epiphanies" which "appear in the Portrait and in Christ's life is followed by a series illustrating
Ulysses"; Haskell Block, who examines Joyce's typical aspects of His messiahship. This two-part
"theory of epiphanies" as part of a general "critical arrangement has certain likenesses to the order of
theory"; Hugh Kenner, who in a discussion on the stories in Dubliners where a chronological series of
relationship between "epiphany and the intuition of stories about individuals is followed by a set of stories
being" draws examples from Ulysses and Finnegans
Wake; Geddes MacGregor, who equates "epiphany" 6 Stephen Hero, p. 213.
with the "Crocean 'moment of expression' "and illus- 6 James Joyce, A Porfrait of the Artist as a Young Man,
trates with epiphanies from Ulysses; and William T. Compass Edition (New York, 1956), p. 213.
Noon, who traces the development from the "largely 7Irene Hendry [Chayes], "Joyce's Epiphanies," in James
parenthetical transcriptions" of the "earliest Epiph- Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism, ed. Seon Givens (New York,
1948), pp. 27-46.
anies" to the "highly compressed . . . verbal formu-
8 See Maurice Beebe, "Joyce and Aquinas: The Theory of
lations of the Wake" and illustrates "epiphanic
Aesthetics," PQ, xxxvi (January 1957), 30-34; Haskell
strategy" in Dubliners stories.8 In a recent study, S. L. Block, "The Critical Theory of James Joyce," JAAC, vm
Goldberg, discussing Joyce's esthetic, has "concen- (March 1950), 181-184; Hugh Kenner, Dublin's Joyce
trated" on Joyce's "conception of 'epiphany' or (Bloomington, Ind., 1956), pp. 144-154; Geddes Mac-
symbol," noted the differences in the concept of Gregor, "Artistic Theory in Joyce," Life and Letters, LIV
epiphany in Stephen Hero, the Portrait, and Ulysses, (July 1947), 21-22; and William T. Noon, Joyce and Aquinas
and cited typical epiphanies from Ulysses.9 Among (New Haven, 1957), pp. 60-85.
9 S. L. Goldberg, The Classical Temper: A Study of James
others who discuss the claritas-quidditas apprehension
Joyce's Ulysses (London, 1961), p. 312. See pp. 41-65, 78,
in terms of an esthetic theory generally applicable to
214-215, and 269-270.
Joyce's writing are A. D. Hope, Thomas E. Connolly, 10 A. D. Hope, "The Esthetic Theory of James Joyce,"
and William York Tindall."0 Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy, xxi
It should be pointed out that the term epiphany has (December 1943), 93-114; Thomas E. Connolly, "Joyce's
also been applied frequently to the Dubliners narra- Aesthetic Theory," UKCR, xxiII (October 1956), 47-50; and
tives. Three well-known examples will suffice: Theo- William York Tindall, James Joyce: His Way of Interpreting
thle Modern World (New York, 1950), pp. 120-121; and A
dore Spencer in the introduction to Stephen Hero calls
Reader's Guide to James Joyce (New York, 1959), pp. 10-12.
Dubliners a "series of epiphanies"; Harry Levin in 11 Theodore Spencer, "Introduction" to Stephen Hero, pp.
James Joyce interprets the book as a "collection" of 16-17; Harry Levin, James Joyce: A Critical Introduction
epiphanies; and William York Tindall in A Reader's (Norfolk, Conn., 1941), p. 29; and Tindall, Guide, p. 11.

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 154 The Epiphanies of Joyce

about public types and public morality. Therefore, in Dubliners, let's try to write like Harry Stone in his
appropriating the term epiphany from religious essay on "Araby" (Antioch Review, Fall 1965), where
liturgy, Joyce seems to have borrowed more than a the term Epiphany, if it appears at all, does not get in
name. The word implied a manifestation of being, a the way of a learned and sensitive reading of one of
view of characters as types, and moral and spiritual Joyce's stories.
levels of symbolism. My study suggests that the term ROBERT SCHOLES
epiphany in connection with Joyce's narratives should University of Iowa
include some of these religious significations.
IV
FLORENCE L. WALZL
Two points might be made. First, it was Joyce, not
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
his critics, who, in a passage in Stephen Hero where he
III specifically cites St. Thomas Aquinas, applied the
term epiphany to certain intellectual apprehensions.
All forty of the extant Epiphanies have been avail-
It seems to me a definition in such a context cannot be
able for some years. No scholar needed to wait for
divorced from its philosophical and religious over-
their publication. But that is not the issue here. The
tones.
issue is a confusion of terminology fostered, no doubt
Second, the term epiphany is a commonplace in the
accidentally, by many of the critics listed in Mrs.
liturgy, referring to manifestations of divinity in the
Walzl's reply, who take the term Epiphany to refer to
life of Christ. It was a familiar term to Joyce, and the
an artistic device which can be traced throughout
liturgists' view that in these epiphanies the narration
Joyce's work. Now lots of devices can be traced
of events leads to a revelation of their essential spiri-
throughout Joyce's work but we are not obliged to
tual significance seems reflected in Joyce's view of the
give them fancy Greek names with liturgical over-
epiphany as an illumination of the spiritual essence of
tones. Mrs. Walzl's list of quotations shows as well as
an object or experience. Since Joyce used scholastic
can be shown just how much of a cliche the term
and liturgical terms in various contexts, it is my view
Epiphany has become in Joyce criticism. Far from
that a study of their original meaning tends to illumi-
aiding us in our reading, it has become an obstacle to
nate, rather than obscure, his definitions and to clarify
understanding, an arid formula for cranking out un-
his own later practices in fiction.
necessary interpretations. I suggest that we put this
particular formula aside, for the sake of the work FLORENCE L. WALZL
which it tends to obscure, and, if we must write on Univtersity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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