A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944) by mythologist Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson is a work of literary criticism. One of the first major texts to provide an in-depth analysis of Finnegans Wake (James Joyce's final novel), A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake is considered by many scholars to be a seminal work on the text.[1] The term monomyth, which Campbell used to describe his journey of the hero in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came from Finnegans Wake.
Campbell and Robinson originally began their unlocking of Joyce's masterwork for two reasons: because Finnegans Wake, while widely recognized as a masterpiece, was also widely dismissed as unintelligible--"the greatest book that nobody's ever read"; and because they had recognized in The Skin of Our Teeth, the popular play by Thornton Wilder, an appropriation from Joyce's novel not only of themes but of plot and language.[2]
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake was originally published by Harcourt Brace in 1944. A second edition was published by Viking Press in 1968. An unauthorized edition was published by Buccaneer Books in 1993, but was withdrawn when the Joseph Campbell Foundation complained of copyright infringement. A third edition was published in 2005 by New World Library as part of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series; this edition, edited by Joyce scholar Edmund Epstein, featured a new introduction, corrections, and editorial additions to keep this seminal critical work current and useful to Joyce scholars and readers.
Chapters
- SYNOPSIS AND DEMONSTRATION
- BOOK I:THE BOOK OF THE PARENTS
- Chapter 1: Finnegan's Fall
- Chapter 2: HCE-His Agnomen and Reputation
- Chapter 3: HCE-His Trial and Incarceration
- Chapter 4: HCE-His Demise and Resurrection
- Chapter 5: The Manifesto of ALP
- Chapter 6: Riddles-The Personages of the Manifesto
- Chapter 7: Shem the Penman
- Chapter 8: The Washers at the Ford
- BOOK II: THE BOOK OF THE SONS
- Chapter 1: The Children's Hour
- Chapter 2: The Study Period-Triv and Quad
- Chapter 3: Taverny in Feast
- Chapter 4: Bride-Ship and Gulls
- BOOK III: THE BOOK OF THE PEOPLE
- Chapter 1: Shaun before the People
- Chapter 2: Jaun before St. Bride's
- Chapter 3: Yawn under Inquest
- Chapter 4: HCE and ALP-Their Bed of Trial
- BOOK IV: RECORSO
- CONCLUSION
References
- ^ The Modern Word
- ^ They published a pair of reviews-cum-denunciations, both entitled "The Skin of Whose Teeth?" in The Saturday Review; these created a huge uproar at the time. For the texts of these articles, see Joseph Campbell, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words, New World Library, 2004, pp. 257–266. For Campbell's story of the Skin of Our Teeth Affair and how it led to the publication of A Skeleton Key, see Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss, New World Library, 2005, pp. 121–123.
External links
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| Books |
Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial (1943). with Jeff King and Maud Oakes • A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944). with Henry Morton Robinson • The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). •
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Volume 1, Primitive Mythology (1959) • Volume 2, Oriental Mythology (1962) • Volume 3, Occidental Mythology (1964) • Volume 4, Creative Mythology (1968)) •
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Volume I: The Way of the Animal Powers (1983) (reprint in two parts: Part 1: Mythologies of the Primitive Hunters and Gatherers (1988);
Part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt (1988)) • Volume II: The Way of the Seeded Earth (Part 1: The Sacrifice (1988); Part 2: Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: The North Americas (1989);
Part 3: Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: The Middle and Southern Americas (1989)) •
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Transformations of Myth Through Time (1990) • A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (1991). editor Diane K. Osbon • Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce (1993). editor Edmund L. Epstein • The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays (1959–1987) (1993). editor Anthony Van Couvering • Baksheesh & Brahman: Indian Journals (1954–1955) (1995). editors Robin/Stephen Larsen & Anthony Van Couvering • Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (2001). editor Eugene Kennedy • Sake & Satori: Asian Journals - Japan (2002). editor David Kudler • Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (2003). editor David Kudler • Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (2004). editor David Kudler
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Books based
upon interviews |
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| Audio tapes |
The Power of Myth (With Bill Moyers) (1987) • Transformation of Myth through Time Volume 1-3 (1989) • The Hero with a Thousand Faces: The Cosmogonic Cycle (Read by Ralph Blum) (1990) • The Way of Art (1990—unlicensed) • The Lost Teachings of Joseph Campbell Volume 1-9 (With Michael Toms) (1993) • On the Wings of Art: Joseph Campbell; Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce (1995) • The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell (With Michael Toms) (1997) •
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The Collected Lectures
of Joseph Campbell
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Volume 1: Mythology and the Individual (1997) • Volume 2: The Inward Journey (1997) • Volume 3: The Eastern Way (1997) • Volume 4: Man and Myth (1997) • Volume 5: The Myths and Masks of God (1997) • Volume 6: The Western Quest (1997)
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Myth and Metaphor in Society (With Jamake Highwater) (abridged)(2002)
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| Video/DVDs |
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| Books edited |
Gupta, Mahendranath. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942) (translation from Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda; Joseph Campbell and Margaret Woodrow Wilson, translation assistants -
see preface; foreword by Aldous Huxley) • Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. Heinrich Zimmer (1946) • The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil. Heinrich Zimmer (1948) • Philosophies of India. Heinrich Zimmer (1951) • The Portable Arabian Nights (1951) • The Art of Indian Asia. Heinrich Zimmer (1955) • Man and Time: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969) • Man and Transformation: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969) • The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969) • The Mystic Vision: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969) • Spirit and Nature: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969) • Spiritual Disciplines: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969) • Myths, Dreams, Religion. Various authors (1970) • The Portable Jung. Carl Jung (1971)
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