MemMod investigated how memoirs, diaries, and biographies shape the way we understand literary modernism, using James Joyce and key mediators of his life and legacy as a central case study. In Joyce studies, accounts such as Sylvia Beach’s memoir ‘Shakespeare and Company’ and Richard Ellmann’s biography ‘James Joyce’ are often treated as authoritative sources. These accounts have become so foundational that their inaccuracies and blind spots are now deeply embedded in the field, shaping interpretations for decades. Yet these recollections are themselves products of memory: selective, revised, and sometimes contradictory.
MemMod addressed this challenge by drawing on memory studies, an interdisciplinary field at the crossroads of the humanities and social sciences. This perspective shows why certain narratives about Joyce endure, despite contradictory archival evidence.
The project’s objectives were to:
• develop a theoretical framework for studying modernist life-writing through the lens of memory studies;
• conduct archival research into the creation and circulation of influential memoirs and biographies;
• prepare an annotated edition of ‘The Book of Days’, the previously unpublished Trieste diary of Stanislaus Joyce.
By addressing the problem of how memory circulates and endures in scholarship, MemMod contributes to more reliable accounts of literary history that better reflect the diversity of voices and contexts shaping modernism. It provides new critical tools for researchers and resources for students, teachers, and the wider public interested in Joyce, modernism, and European cultural heritage. Anticipated impacts include more reliable research, renewed attention to overlooked voices, and alignment with EU commitments to diversity and open science.
Through these objectives, MemMod sets the scene for rethinking how we write and transmit literary history, and how early foundational accounts shape the humanities.
