Latin American Studies and Irish Studies: reflections on the representation of Latin America in the writing of James Joyce

Abstract

Why should those of us working in Irish Studies care about the research, conclusions, and insights emerging from the field of Latin American Studies? Through a reading of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake in dialogue with previous scholarship on Dubliners and Ulysses, this article argues that the analysis of representations of Indigenous Latin America in dialogue with Irish society can illuminate otherwise difficult to perceive cultural and political dynamics within Ireland. In the particular case of the work of James Joyce, he explores how colonial ideology regarding Indigenous Latin America was integrated into Irish society throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His work implies that any understanding of cultural debates in Ireland regarding the legitimacy of imperialism cannot be limited to considerations of the British Empire and must additionally consider other imperial contexts. Joyce argues that the particular phenomenon of the circulation in Ireland of colonialist representations of Indigenous Latin America has had an effect on Irish consciousness writ large, serving to legitimise all forms of European imperialism.