This incisive and original study of James Joyce's work explores Joyce's vivid fictional treatment of Irish historical writing, especially in Finnegans Wake. Linking Joyce's work to current historical criticism, recent Irish historiography and antiquarianism, and the Catholic providential history of Vico's New Science, Hofheinz shows how Joyce used historical sources to illuminate deep and prevalent human problems in the modern era of Ireland. The book raises questions central to Irish identity in cultural, social, familial, and psychological terms.