Teague Arseneau (The Little Review)
The Little Review
The first appearance of Ulysses was a serialised version first published in the 1918 March edition of “The Little Review” but only ran halfway into the “Oxen of The Sun” chapter in 1920. The publication circulated in America before publishing its final issue in 1929. Apart from literature, the publication featured art and political essays from authors as controversial as Emma Goldman to the eventual Pulitzer Prize winning Amy Powell. The item, found in the Special Collections Department of the University of Victoria brightly stands out featuring a magenta coloured exterior that proudly celebrates the triumphant inclusion of Joyce’s new work, Ulysses, prominently displayed on a cover that has separated from the body with time. On the reverse of the separated cover, an advertisement for “The Egoist”, England’s version of “The Little Review” also sponsored by Ezra Pound. The ad doubles as a slightly pretentious statement of the publication's intent and describes the intended audience as the few who understand the significance of the works included as forming the contemporary canon that will be understood as emblematic of the century to come’s literature, philosophy, and poetry.
This piece, due to its collection alongside many other authors, artists, and thinkers of a similar vein, becomes a culmination of modernist self conception. The fact it is the first publication of the novel intrigues me also as the readerly experience of Joyce’s work in a monthly publication must have been extremely disjointed and strange considering the holistic experience Ulysses demands, but likely afforded readers the time and focus to reread sections. The publications legal issues and contrarian nature also are of interest to study persecution of obscenity and how modernist.
Using the publications of “The Little Review '' in special collections, I would like to understand how Joyce and other modernists used the outrage at the obscenity in their works to their advantage, and how a feeling of isolated intellectualism translated into their works. What authors and artists included alongside Ulysses in The Little Review echoed similar features and concepts shared with Ulysses across genre and medium; how do they contribute to the twentieth century canon these publications were imagining. I plan to examine Ulysses in relation to commerce, and art that opposes censorship movements that create bigoted morality institutions like the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice compared with organizations today like the ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom). There is plenty of secondary scholarship to examine both the subject of advertisement in Ulysses and on modernist networks and their interactions.
Modernist Advertising, Obscenity, and Anti-Semitism in Ulysses
Leopold Bloom exists in the world of Ulysses as an outsider, though is not immediately identifiable as such. Throughout the novel, Bloom’s identity and the alienation he relates to essential pieces of himself appear in his consciousness frequently. Bloom’s position as an Irish, Hungarian, Jew, who has been baptized both as a Protestant and Catholic lend him to few particularly stout feelings of nationalistic of religious belonging, and beyond his cultural identity he harbours deep shame for his inward deviancy. Bloom works as an ad canvasser, and seeing his treatment in “Aeolus”, it is clear this is yet another feature of his character that earns him the disdain of his peers. His character’s persecution is comparable to the state of Modernist Literature of the time: niche, strange, erotic, and unique. Advertising Modernist Literature relied on its counter-cultural position in the literary market and the creation of an exclusive in-group. In marketing the book itself, Joyce was placed in the same position as his protagonist, employing his own “gentle art of advertising” to see to it Ulysses could capitalise on the outrage (7.608).
Bloom’s identity as a Jew serves as a representation of the literary canon and the discrepancy between any previous convention of what constituted an epic and Joyce’s disregard of the general protocol. As early as Deasy’s assertion that “England is in the hands of the Jews”, Joyce associates characters with nationalistic ideations with this common notion of Jewish control (2.346-47). The Citizen is the most outright violently anti-semitic and nationalistic that it gets within the novel. He spits at Bloom when he identifies himself as Irish, his Jewishness exempting him from that definition in his eyes, instead to the Citizen, Bloom is “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” (12.1432-33, 1666). The Citizen’s apparent fear of Bloom’s potential for evil as a Jew is similar to legislation that obscene literature was potentially harmful to the morality of the public. The legal basis for Ulysses’ obscenity persecution was present since in 1968 “Lord Chief Justice Cockburn… in the decision of Regina v. Hicklin… laid down a famous obscenity ruling ‘whether … the matter charged as obscenity… is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall’” (Potter 114). The actual appearance and reality of the Jews within Ulysses is far from this notion: Bloom, the wandering cuckold, Dlugacz the butcher, and the old hunched man “Of the tribe of Reuben”, at whom Mr. Dedalus shouts a violent remark (6.251). Joyce, in this likening of the persecution of art and jewishness, utilises anti-semitism within the novel The duality presented between reality and the inflation of Jewish conspiracy is not dissimilar to the priggish notion of what an epic should look like to an early twentieth century reader compared to Ulysses’ meandering plot. The Jewish plight of persecution and detest in Ulysses is relatable to Joyce, given the negative reception of conventionalists towards Modernism’s focus on realism and reimagining of typical modes of writing.
Zionist sentiments are present in Bloom’s thoughts as well; Bloom picks up one of the cut news paper Dlugacz’ uses to wrap his meats. On it is a description of a proposal to purchase Turkish farmland to be distributed to Jewish Immigrants. Bloom muses: “Nothing doing. Still an idea behind it” (4.200). Bloom acknowledges the legitimacy of the concept of establishing a Jewish nation. Just as a nation is seen as a path to legitimacy and fulfilment for the Jewish characters, Modernism as a literary format was struggling against prudishness and disdain to exist as a movement and style. The Little Review and modernist publications like it, shared the goal of distributing modernist writings to a group of like minded subscribers. Contained solely within the two sides of the cover, The Little Review’s slogan, “making no compromise for public taste”, and the advertisement for The Egoist (found in the inner cover slot of many Little Review issues, first in August of 1915, seventeen months after its first volume), place modernist writing in clear opposition of traditionalist values. The advertisement for The Egoist reads: “To secure a fit audience, and…to present… contemporary literary works which ultimately will constitute 20th century literature” (Little Review interior cover page). Simultaneously, these two features of the magazine place the American reader of the little review within this ‘fit audience’ while also situating them in a global community of similarly artistically inclined individuals with the inclusion of an advert for a similar publication out of London. Leopold Bloom’s subtle connection with Dlugacz emulates the feeling of acknowledgement. The newspaper clipping’s use recalls the circulation of these magazines as a symbol of belonging to an in group. The global discussion of how to approach a Jewish nation emulates how a reader of The Little Review might feel upon seeing someone else reading the brightly coloured magazine, a feeling of belonging and mutual secrecy. Joyce appealed to the sense of intellectual fortitude that modernists associated with their works by avoiding at all costs shilling the book himself. Joyce’s appeal to the Modernist sect was one of secrecy himself, as having cultivated an in group of readers, how then was he to advertise to them. By managing who would be reviewing the Paris edition of Ulysses, he could also be implicit in how the novel was represented, sending certain phrases and slogans to T.S. Eliot, who mostly ignored his suggestions, and Ford Maddox who was very willing to include Joyce’s contributions (Dettmar 799). The ultimate boon for Ulysses’s advertisement was its inclusion in University curriculums within his lifetime, in April 1932, Ulysses was being studied at Columbia and Cambridge (Dettmar 806). Maintaining the intellectual community was essential for Ulysses’ integrity, and Joyce’s lengths to be seen as ambivalent to the success of his work, allowing the work to exist and be appreciated in the world as it would was a necessary facade.
Literature Review
Kevin Dettmar’s article “Selling Ulysses” is from the peer reviewed journal “James Joyce Quarterly” which prides itself on being the foremost publication of modern engagement with Joyce. The article explores the disdain modernists, including Joyce had for the marketing and commerce of their works. With the death of a patron based understanding of publishing, modernist authors trying to get published had far more hoops to jump through appealing to publishers than their predecessors. Marketability was at the core of their success and the tendency to create a feeling of exclusivity in their marketing. The article also describes the “critical ventriloquism” Joyce was able to employ to market Ulysses by sloganeering key phrases into reviews and capitalising on the New York obscenity trial of Ulysses. The article describes the subtlety and intelligence Joyce possessed in international literary markets and the authorial secrecy necessary to maintain his integrity.
2.) In the third chapter of the book “Modernist Literature” by Rachel Potter, “Sex, Obscenity, [and] Censorship” are explored within the world of modernist boundary pushers including Joyce. The text places Ulysses in relation with other notably controversial works with similar publication difficulties. It also provides legal statements and case analyses of trials that illuminate the societal canon that deemed Ulysses obscene.
3.) From the Journal “European Joyce Studies” published by Brill, the entry titled “Archival Errors: “Ulysses” In The Little Review” provides a comprehensive look at the type errors made in the serialised publication. The article argues a reading of the initial print that justifies these mistakes and encourages a reading based on Joyce’s interest in the altered meaning that arrives from the accidents. This article provides insight to a readerly response to the initial run of Ulysses in “The Little Review” and Joyce’s frustration regarding his authorial intent stripped away by the omission of several of the potentially problematic passages.
4.) Also from “James Joyce Quarterly” comes study on Joyce’s reaction and textual integration of the 1919-1921 Little Review case. In “What Did He Know, and When Did He Know It: The "Little Review," Joyce, and ‘Ulysses’”, David Weir argues that not only did the court case affect Joyce’s writing process, absolving him from the deadlines, but actually affected the content of the later full publication. The article establishes a timeline of the proceedings that Joyce would have access to regarding the legality of Ulysses’ obscenity, and the chapters he was working on for “The Little Review” at the time; The Article correlates the courtroom aesthetics and “legal jargon” in “Circe” as influenced by the obscenity trial.
5.) Published in “The Journal of Modern Literature”, in the article “Legal Prudery: The Case of ‘Ulysses’” Medina Casado provides a timeline of legal measures against Ulysses by institutions that intended to maintain a level of discretion in literature circulating in their respective nations.
Bibliography
Casado, Carmelo Medina. “Legal Prudery: The Case of ‘Ulysses.’” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 26, no. 1, 2002, pp. 90–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3831652. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.
Dettmar, Kevin J. H. “Selling ‘Ulysses.’” James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 30/31, 1993, pp. 795–812. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25515769. Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.
Potter, Rachel. “Sex, Obscenity, Censorship.” Modernist Literature, Edinburgh University Press, 2012, pp. 113–45. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g09w05.9. Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.
Sigler, Amanda. “ARCHIVAL ERRORS: ‘ULYSSES’ IN THE ‘LITTLE REVIEW.’” European Joyce Studies, vol. 20, 2011, pp. 73–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871321. Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.
Weir, David. “What Did He Know, and When Did He Know It: The ‘Little Review,’ Joyce, and ‘Ulysses.’” James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 3/4, 2000, pp. 389–412. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25477749. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.