Literature Review

Item

Since the Little Review claims to make no compromise with the public taste, the sources gathered here tousle with that statement, and the publication of Ulysses, in fragmentation as it was intended, without guarantee of a follow up to the story. Along the topic of united readers over a divided and “offensive” story, there’s many comments to be made on its censorship, disallowing readers a proper book.
In public opinion of one fellow, having asked the question of how the reader situates oneself with a fragmented publishing, a reader angrily admits “I’ve read his “Ulysses” and haven’t found out yet what it’s about, who is who or where. Each month he’s worse than the last. I consider myself fairly intelligent,” “Essays, Letters, and Comments” The Little Review "Ulysses" S.S.B Chicago. Through the public response garnered in the comments left in this section of the book, it is direct in answering what very vocal readers felt about the way Ulysses was published, and with the Little Review itself at the time. It offers framework of opinions at the time, although the writers from the Little Review fight to push against negative comments, and criticize the censorship in the US, somehow contradicting their slogan. 
Paul Vanderham offers some views on the censorship of Ulysses, specifically as Ezra Pound was an editor involved in the Little Review’s publication of Ulysses. He reveals passages that were deleted to appeal to the USA’s censorship in “Calypso”. Under the realm of public opinion, Vanderham claims Ezra had done this for reason of “clashing aesthetics” (Vanderham, 583), which in a way is self-inserting into the novel. By adding an editor/author into the mix, it complicates the relationship between Joyce and reader through the Review, and how with absence makes a difference to readers, especially critical readers in chapter “Essays, Letters, and Comments”.
As it was being written as it was published separately, the Little Review and Joyce’s legal troubles appeared in the book, so said in David Weir’s “What Did He Know, and When Did He Know It: The ‘Little Review,’ Joyce, and ‘Ulysses.’” Which contextualizes the novel for the reader, it’s relevance to the public as not only a story but a stream of conscious of Joyce at the time. In a way it’s direct correspondence to readers and critics of the Little Review and Joyce himself at the time. This is further contextualized in. “Reviews and Notices of James Joyce in the United States, 1916-1920.”  by George Mointero, which compiles letters and commentary leading up to the censorship trials in the USA, and how reader wrestled with the idea of his writing (one writier questioning his sanity based off a single paragraph out of Ulysses). For a reader to situate themselves while reading the Little Review it required some news of current events surrounding an effervescent Joyce to fully be involved in the experience, and not solely the expectation of it going on coherently, and without a full fledged-novel.

Title
Literature Review
Description
Review of discourse between editors, Joyce, and general public taste
Creator
Anna King