“Misery to Stay, Misery to Go”

What is it about?

This essay performs a close reading of the Ulysses-passage from Beckett’s Molloy (1951) from the double perspective of the Ulysses-story from canto 26 of Dante’s Inferno (1317) and Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). The argument is that Molloy’s reverse journey on the black boat of Ulysses bears a strong self-reflexive dimension in which is at stake Beckett’s artistic freedom in relation to Joyce.

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