In James Joyce and the Internal World of the Replacement Child, Mary Adams embarks on a complex psychoanalytic exploration of Joyce’s inner world, offering a nuanced perspective on how his identity as a “replacement child” shaped both his emotional and creative life. The term “replacement child,” rooted in psychoanalytic theory, refers to a child born to fill the emotional void left by the death of a previous sibling. Adams argues that this identity profoundly influenced Joyce’s sense of self and his artistic vision. In Joyce’s case, he was born less than a year after his older brother’s death in 1881 from unknown causes, a tragic but not uncommon occurrence in the late nineteenth century when infant mortality rates were high. The brother had lived only a few days, a loss that cast a shadow over the family and created an emotional atmosphere of mourning and unresolved grief, shaping Joyce’s...

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