Revision Revisited

While Joyce has been repeatedly recognised as an exemplary case study for genetic criticism, he also presents an array of problems and cautions for such endeavours. Perhaps paramount among these is the way that Joyce's complex methods of composition evolve: in the Wake years, the recursive switching between what might only provisionally be called "sources" and "notes" and "drafts" troubles not only the distinctness of these terms but the difference between processes of "revision" and "writing" as such. This article argues that Joyce highlights how "revision" is a sort of editorial fiction, the use of which needs to be carefully monitored.