The Joycean Vico: A New Key
The Joycean Vico: A New Key
This chapter describes Vico's and Bruno's appearance in the first sentence of Finnegans Wake as “a commodius vicus of recirculation.” Vicus is Vico's Latin name, signifying a road or lane, also meaning a village or vicinity. In the Dublin suburb of Dalkey there is a “Vico Road,” which appears in Ulysses and in Finnegans Wake. The first word of Finnegans Wake is “riverrun,” recalling the nearly one thousand identifications of rivers in Joyce's work, including the Jordan. Vico is connected to the Jordan River by his first name, Giambattista (Giovanni Battista), which in English is John the Baptist, the saint who preached and baptized along the Jordan. Vico, having been born on June the 23d, was named and baptized on June the 24th, the day of St. John the Baptist.
Keywords: commodius vicus, Vico, Bruno, Vico Road, Dublin, riverrun
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