SOURCE: Benstock, Bernard. “Exiles: ‘Paradox Lust’ and ‘Lost Paladays.’” ELH 36, no. 4 (December 1969): 739–56.

In the following essay, Benstock analyzes the structure of Exiles.

Between the completion of his Portrait and the inception of Ulysses James Joyce undertook to create the only extant drama of his literary career, the enigmatic play entitled Exiles. No Greek maiden between two Norse gods, Exiles is more often thought to be a strange Norse maiden between Grecian gods, an Ibsenesque interlude between Joyce's Icarian-Dædalian and Odyssean transplantations; yet in innumerable ways it bears the indelible imprint of the Irish master and serves a vital function in any critical plotting of the Joycean graph. Oddly enough, the play's significance was most highly rated by Joyce's most important commentator, Joyce himself, who took pains to treat his “lesser” piece with particular care; like the parent of an unfortunate child he favored it with special attention...