James Joyce and Samaritan Hospitality - by Richard Rankin Russell (Paperback)

About the Book

The first book-length treatment of Joyce and hospitality

Book Synopsis

James Joyce and Samaritan Hospitality reads Dubliners and Ulysses through studies of hospitality, particularly that articulated in the Lukan parable of the Good Samaritan. It traces the origins of the novel in part to the physical attacks on Joyce in 1904 Dublin and 1907 Rome, showing how these incidents and the parable were incorporated into his short story 'Grace' and throughout Ulysses, especially its last four episodes. Richard Rankin Russell discusses the rich theory of hospitality developed by Joyce and demonstrates that he sought to make us more charitable readers through his explorations and depictions of Samaritan hospitality.

From the Back Cover

The first book-length treatment of Joyce and hospitality James Joyce and Samaritan Hospitality reads Dubliners and Ulysses through studies of hospitality, particularly that articulated in the Lukan parable of the Good Samaritan. It traces the origins of the novel in part to the physical attacks on Joyce in 1904 Dublin and 1907 Rome, showing how these incidents and the parable were incorporated into his short story 'Grace' and throughout Ulysses, especially its last four episodes. Richard Rankin Russell discusses the rich theory of hospitality developed by Joyce and demonstrates that he sought to make us more charitable readers through his explorations and depictions of Samaritan hospitality. Richard Rankin Russell is Professor of English and Graduate Program Director in the English department at Baylor University. His books include Modernity, Community, and Place in Brian Friel's Drama (Second Edition, 2022), Seamus Heaney: An Introduction (Edinburgh University Press, 2016) and Seamus Heaney's Regions (2014).

Review Quotes

While Joyce scholars have long recognised that the theme of hospitality permeates his work, Richard Russell is the first to read both Dubliners and Ulysses through the lens of what he calls the "greatest of all parables." His argument is crisp, lucid and thoroughly readable.

--James A. W. Heffernan, Dartmouth College, author of Hospitality and Treachery in Western Literature

About the Author

Richard Rankin Russell is Professor of English and Graduate Program Director in the English department at Baylor University. His books include Seamus Heaney: An Introduction (Edinburgh, 2016); Seamus Heaney's Regions (Notre Dame, 2014, Robert Penn Warren/Cleanth Brooks Award for literary criticism, Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Finalist--History); Modernity, Community, and Place in Brian Friel's Drama (Syracuse, 2014); Bernard MacLaverty: New Critical Readings (Bloomsbury, 2013); Peter Fallon: Poet, Publisher, Editor, and Translator (Irish Academic Press, 2013); Poetry and Peace: Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and Northern Ireland (Notre Dame, 2010); Bernard MacLaverty (Bucknell, 2009) and Martin McDonagh: A Casebook (Routledge, 2007).