@article{pr 3373, author = {Samuel Flannagan}, title = {‘Embarrassing enlightenments’: Continuous Text Play in Flann O’Brien’s ‘John Duffy’s Brother’}, volume = {5}, year = {2021}, url = {https://parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/3373/}, issue = {2}, doi = {10.16995/pr.3373}, abstract = {The ubiquity of ‘John Duffy’s Brother’ in recent Flann O’Brien scholarship attests to the text’s openness. And yet, as the critic Sue Asbee points out, the short story simultaneously resists scholarly and critical approaches by ‘send[ing] up the sophisticated reader who is pedantic enough to work out the technical sleight of hand.’ This article develops Asbee’s insight to examine O’Brien’s story as a ‘play text’ that takes ludic delight in undermining applied readings. The argument draws on Wolfgang Iser’s formulation of ‘text play’ and Roland Barthes’s concept of the ‘pleasure of the text,’ and pursues new comparative readings with James Joyce’s ‘The Sisters’ and Samuel Beckett’s ‘Imagination Dead Imagine.’ Within these frameworks, close attention is given to the story's unconventional opening paragraph, the appearance of the spyglass, and the protagonist’s transformation. These seemingly disparate textual events cohere into a metatextual joke via the gradual revelation that the reader is as much a subject of the story as the protagonist.}, month = {12}, keywords = {Performativity,Mimesis,Metafiction,Wolfgang Iser,Roland Barthes,James Joyce,Samuel Beckett}, issn = {2634-145X}, publisher={Open Library of Humanities}, journal = {The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies} }