Modernists at Odds

"Challenges the unhelpful polarization of Lawrence and Joyce in much twentieth-century literary criticism and offers intriguing alternatives to what is surely a reductive approach to the achievements of both writers."—Fiona Becket, author of The Complete Critical Guide to D. H. Lawrence

"A groundbreaking collection. Sexuality, censorship, publishing, and rivalry are all treated with a fresh eye; cutting-edge archival research is brought to the fore; and new perspectives such as ecocriticism are among the many highlights."—Susan Mooney, author of The Artistic Censoring of Sexuality

Modernism’s most contentious rivals, James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence, were polar opposites—stylistically, personally, and professionally—yet their lives, works, and careers bear striking similarities. They shared the same literary agent, published in the same literary magazines, fought legal battles against censorship, and were both pirated by Samuel Roth. This is the first book to explore the resonances between the two writers, shattering the historical silence between Joyceans and Lawrentians.

The parallels run deep between these epic figures of the literary canon, and this volume explores the classic modernist paradoxes shared by the two writers. Both were at once syncretists and shatterers, bourgeois cosmopolitans, prudish libertines, displaced nostalgists, and rebels against their native lands. Considering mutual themes such as gender, class, horseracing, nature, religion, exile, and modernism’s fascination with Egyptology, these essays highlight the many intersections in the major novels and short fiction of Joyce and Lawrence. Modernists at Odds is a long overdue extended comparison of two of the most compelling writers of the twentieth century.

A volume in the Florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian D. G. KnowlesContributors Enda Duffy | Earl G. Ingersoll | Louise Kane | Matthew J. Kochis | Eleni Loukopoulou | Heather L. Lusty | Carl F. Miller | Jennifer Mitchell | Margot Norris