‘Choreopiscopally’: James Joyce's ‘Nausicaa’ and Vaslav Nijinsky's The Afternoon of a Faun

• Published in: Modernist cultures Vol. 17; no. 1; p. 27
• Main Author: Argyrides, Patty
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press 01.02.2022
• Subjects: Ballet; Case studies; Censorship; Dance; Embodiment; Innovations; Joyce, James (1882-1941); Masturbation; Modernism; Modernity; Nijinsky, Vaslav

One striking commonality between Vaslav Nijinsky's The Afternoon of a Faun (1912) and the ‘Nausicaa’ chapter in James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) is that both culminate with masturbation scenes and were met with similar reactions – outrage and censorship. Upon closer consideration, the similari...