The Africanist Dimension of Finnegans Wake

Abstract

In their introduction to Semicolonial Joyce, Derek Attridge and Margorie Howes say that because Joyce’s Ireland was both a colony and a modern European country (6–7), Joyce is semicolonial: “Philosophically he could be said to have been both separatist and a unionist, thinking constantly in terms of oppositions…” (2). They associate the rebellious side of Joyce and the side that is attached to the establishment with the twins of the Wake, Shem the artist and Shaun the materialist. I would say that Joyce was working against the unionist or Shaun side of his vision, though he could not separate himself from it. He reveals through the Shem side the symptoms of colonialism in the depth of their affliction.¹ To refer to Joyce as semicolonial is something like referring to Abraham Lincoln as semislavery Lincoln. Lincoln retained racist attitudes, but the valuable aspect of his career is how he fought against them. Likewise Joyce is scathingly critical of the unionist idea that the Irish need to be subordinated to England.