Exiles, James Joyce - John MacNicholas (essay date 1973)

John MacNicholas (essay date 1973)

SOURCE: MacNicholas, John. “Joyce's Exiles: The Argument for Doubt.” James Joyce Quarterly 11, no. 1 (fall 1973): 33–40.

[In the following essay, MacNicholas examines Exiles on its merits as a play, rather than in relation to Joyce's other works.]

James Joyce wrote two prose plays: the first he dedicated to his own soul and then destroyed; the second receives attention perhaps only because of its association with its more magnificent siblings. Even though many people have recognized its brilliance, few have conceded that Exiles is a good play.1 Much of the criticism betrays the fact that it has been read primarily as a commentary upon Joyce's fiction—which is certainly a legitimate critical approach but does a disservice to Exiles unless the play is also evaluated on its own terms. The widely held assumption that Exiles is the aberration of a...

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