Wakes in literature

[ben.!]

I'm planning to study the ritual of wake ceremonies (the ceremony that is performed in some cultures after someone has died) for my Study of Religion assignment.

I've got two main questions.

Is there any literature where wakes occur? Could someone name me some books?

And

Where in Finnegans' Wake does the wake occur? (if indeed there is one?)

[JBI]

The wake is alluded to numerous times, though I would need to scan my copy for a week or so to tell you exactly where.

[eric1172]

The wake in Finnegans Wake is mostly metaphorical. If you've read even the first page you'll see it's not a traditional novel. The whole book is a dream by the main character.

Joyce's short story The Dead (best short story ever IMO) has some "wake" characteristics although it's not about a wake.

Nothing comes to mind specifically but I would suggest focusing on Irish writers like Frank O'Conner.

[Charles Darnay]

Finnegan's Wake does involve a metaphorical wake but is also a play on words "wake" as in the ceremony and "wake" as in "to wake up"

[ex ponto]

The Stranger - Albert Camus

[Kafka's Crow]

Finnegan's Wake


(A traditional Irish song)

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street,
A gentle Irishman mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet,
An' to rise in the world he carried a hod
You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way
but for the love for the liquor poor Tim was born
To help him on his way each day,
he'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner
round the flure yer trotters shake
Bend an ear to the truth they tell ye,
we had lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim got rather full,
his head felt heavy which made him shake
Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and
they carried him home his corpse to wake
Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet,
and laid him out upon the bed
A bottle of whiskey at his feet
and a barrel of porter at his head

His friends assembled at the wake,
and Widow Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake,
then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry,
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
Tim, auvreem! O, why did you die?",
"Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee

Then Maggie O'Connor took up the cry,
"O Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob
and sent her sprawling on the floor
Then the war did soon engage,
t'was woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh law was all the rage
and a row and a ruction soon began

Mickey Maloney ducked his head
when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed,
the liquor scattered over Tim
Now the spirits new life gave the corpse, my joy!
Tim jumped like a Trojan from the bed
Cryin will ye walup each girl and boy,
t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"

Joyce's novel is the story of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker's wake as experienced by the the dead man himself, i-e in a state of sleep and dreaming. He does not see what others are doing around him, he dreams and everything, including people, places, even the language transforms and goes through a lucid series of metamorphoses. In one of his many, many transformations, HCE becomes Finn McCool, the legendary Irish giant. Hence the title which is, also, an allusion to the above folk song.

[mortalterror]

HCE becomes Finn McCool, the legendary Irish giant. Hence the title which is, also, an allusion to the above folk song.

Thanks for that, Kafka. My favorite pub's named Finn McCool's. I'm going to go look that legend up.

[Lioness_Heart]

There's a wake in the play Translations by Brian Friel. Or at least, it is mentioned that there is a wake, and everyone then comes back drunk from it. I don't know if that helps...

But it is very dramatically effective: a baby has died towards the end of the play, and this mirrors the celebration of its birth at the start of the play. It's one of the symbols he uses of the death of the Irish language and culture. I hope that's helpful.

[Michael Nader]

Please, everyone, try to remember that Joyce's title "Finnegans Wake" is plural and not possessive; there is no "apostrophe 's" after "Finnegans". Joyce is exhorting all of us Finnegans to waken. We are all like Big Tim Finnegan in the Irish-American song---we had a great fall just as Eve and Adam did, and we're all just waiting for the splash of something to revive us from the death that is in life so that we can all sing and dance.
Redan

[Pecksie]

There's an oniric, surreal play by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa called, I think, "O Marinheiro" ("The Sailor"), in which several unnamed women in a castle talk all night in what is supposed, or implied, to be a wake. Was a bit too dense for me, but Pessoa is a good writer, so you may want to check it out.

[Niamh]

Thanks for that, Kafka. My favorite pub's named Finn McCool's. I'm going to go look that legend up.

Look him up as Fionn Mac Cumhaill. you may get more. :) He was the father of Oisin and leader of the famous band of warriors know as the Fianna.

I think there is a wake in one of Synges plays...maybe The Shadow of the Glen.
And wakes i think are more of a cultural thing as opposed to a religious ceremony.

Why not look at Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney.