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Oscar Wilde and James Joyce, both voluntary exiles from their homeland, are two of the best-known writers to come out of Ireland; together, they paint a portrait of Ireland’s literary history that influenced generations of writers to 'have one good look at themselves' by questioning cultural norms– or what we now refer to as 'identity politics'. The conversations currently dominating not only academia, but legal, medical, and political discourses, from the politics of national identity to the ideologies attached to queerness, are remarkably similar to the concerns that emerge when Joyce and Wilde are placed in dialogue. Keeping these discourses in mind, the 'Caliban's Mirror' Special Collection aims to answer the following questions: 'What can a dialogue between Wilde and Joyce illuminate about the social, cultural, and political conditions that produce right-wing ideologies?' and 'How can literature offer resistance, or, at the very least, a counter-discourse and representation of "The Other", in the wake of a turn toward the Right?'. To this end, the collection will address the themes of Law, Politics, and Culture through the works of Joyce and Wilde by considering Otherness, scandal, the politics of identity, and the queering of heteronormativity in both an Irish and global context.


Special Collection Editors:

Casey Lawrence

Chris Wells


Banner image: photograph issued under CC0 license; portraits by Lawrence.


Caliban's Mirror: Reflections of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde

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Special Collections