After the Race – Interesting Literature

A Short Analysis of James Joyce’s ‘After the Race’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

We remarked at the end of our summary of ‘After the Race’ – a short story from James Joyce’s 1914 collection Dubliners – that there isn’t exactly much ‘plot’ to summarise. So how might we gesture towards a literary-critical analysis of this challenging story? Many of the stories in James Joyce’s Dubliners focus not on an event itself but on what happens just afterwards.

‘After the Race’: A Summary of the James Joyce Short Story

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

What follows is a short plot summary of James Joyce’s story ‘After the Race’, which was published in his 1914 collection of short stories, Dubliners. Before proceeding to the summary below, you might wish to read ‘After the Race’ here.