| Summary: | <p>The aims of the thesis are to show how "grammar,' etymological sense of "art or technique of the letter, to the composition and narrative-thematic structuring of Finnegans Wake as well as to illustrate its treatment in several languages used in Finnegans Wake.</p>
<p>The first section will define the critical perspectives, starting with a survey of the elaboration of the Wakean poetics of is crucial language(s). We shall then summarise the manuscript approach in Wakean scholarship before attempting to redefine the notion of "theme" and "thematic criticism" from this genetic angle. This will include a brief discussion of the reflexive, metafictional dimension of Joyce’s work.</p>
<p>The second section will consider some significant aspects of how language(s) and meaning operate in the text. We shall assess the structural and formal implications of "metaphor" for the language, narrative, themes and composition of the Wake, and then focus on various fictional treatments of the theme of origin(s} in language: Vichian and Joussean theories, Dante, the myths of Babel, Pentecost, and "translation" as another figure of "metaphor."</p>
<p>The third part will examine some derivations to which "grammar" lends itself narratively and linguistically, opening with the relevance of Poe’s "The Purloined Letter." It will then concentrate on its narrative and structural function as a cohesive link between chapters and finally deal with the theme of female identity and sexual grammar.</p>
<p>The fourth part will analyse more specifically some thematic associations between grammar and languages: Italian, Dante, music, and italics; "grammatical," sexual perversions of Irish and its relation to English and Anglo-Irish; Joyce’s use of Uralic languages.</p>
<p>A brief conclusion will bring together some "thematic families" of languages / characters seen on the way before coming to a full stop on the Wake’s thematicisation of punctuation.</p>
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