Dotter of Her Father's Eyes facts for kids
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| Author | Mary M. Talbot |
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| Illustrator | Bryan Talbot |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
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Publication date
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2 Feb 2012 |
| Media type | Hardback |
| ISBN | 0224096087 |
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes is a 2012 graphic novel written by Mary M. Talbot with artwork by her husband, Bryan Talbot. It is part memoir, and part biography of Lucia Joyce, daughter of modernist writer James Joyce.
Synopsis
Mary Talbot recounts her childhood in Preston, Lancashire, focussing upon her relationship with her father, Joycean scholar James S. Atherton. Talbot became a scholar herself, working in critical discourse analysis and publishing about language and gender.
The book juxtaposes Talbot's childhood with Lucia Joyce's -- the daughter of James Joyce. Inspired by Carol Shloss’s 2003 biography of Lucia, it covers her ambitions in dance and her deteriorating mental condition.
Writing
Bryan Talbot reflects on the differences in collaborating with his wife and his normal collaborations with writers. Explaining the process to the Sunderland Echo, Talbot says, "[t]he usual state of affairs is you get a script through the post or by email and that is the end of the collaboration. You illustrate, you design the page and tell the story. But this time, Mary would come down to the studio to watch me work and suggest things. I would suggest changes to the script to make it clearer or to get a point across, then we would discuss it over dinner.” Rather than have Bryan rework the art, Mary identified inaccuracies by inserting footnotes throughout the book.
