"James Joyce's work has, not unjustly, been regarded as some of the most obscure, challenging and difficult writing ever committed to paper; it is also shamelessly funny and endlessly entertaining. Joyce: A Guide for the Perplexed celebrates the daring, humour and playfulness of Joyce's complex work while engaging with and elucidating the most demanding aspects of his writing. The book explores in detail the motifs and radical innovations of style and technique that characterize his major works-Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. By highlighting how Joyce's texts have been read by recent innovations in literary and cultural theory, Joyce: A Guide for the Perplexed offers the reader a Joyce that is contemporary, fresh and relevant." --Publisher description.

Introducing Joyce: realism and epiphany in Dubliners -- A portrait of the artist as a young man: the sexual politics of art -- Reading Ulysses I: from 'Telemachus' to 'The wandering rocks' -- Reading Ulysses II: 'Sirens' to 'Penelope' -- The language(s) and structure(s) of Finnegans wake -- Conclusion: 'Where are we at all?'.