The Serial Style and Beyond
This chapter argues that the specific text of Ulysses as published in the Little Review is of critical interest. It looks at the style and nature of Ulysses as a serial and gives an initial account of the ways in which Joyce changed the serial text for the volume version of February 1922. Digital resources have transformed the possibility of studying textual variation, and an early section in the chapter looks at those transformations and focuses, in particular, on the significance of word counts as a key for understanding how Joyce’s text changed. Dushan Popovich, printer of the Little Review, and the first typographer to face the challenge of typesetting Joyce’s challenging text, is discussed in some detail. Pound disliked Joyce’s candour, and the various revisions which he imposed on the serial text are reviewed here. So too are the various ways in which Joyce subsequently revised his text for publication in volume form.