Performing abjection: staging Joyce’s inscription of bodies

This paper raises the t/horny question of performing (as opposed to reading) Joyce’s representation of the body. It emerges out of twenty years of performance of Joyce’s texts, and the challenges they represent, specifically in the matter of enacting abjection, on the stage. When the abject is theorized, it is frequently in the contexts of power, or melancholia or horror. What is fascinating about Joyce’s treatment of bodies is that the context is usually that of comedy, and the rigorous and critical analysis of codes and conventions surrounding the right and proper body. While it is tempting to play for laughs and shock effects that elicit laughter, and directors frequently do, the paper asks if there are limits to staging Joyce’s most abject moments, and whether to do so is to dishonor or cheapen Joyce’s insanely meticulous methods of building character.