Politics, akin to a dream ensnared by the rigid confines of reality, dances in a perpetual interplay between the idealised visions we conjure for a better world and the unyielding constraints of the present. This duality finds a compelling literary parallel in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, a novel that intricately weaves the tangible realities of human existence into the fluid, cyclical fabric of a dream world. Drawing inspiration from the 18th-century Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico’s theory of cyclical history, Joyce constructs a narrative where beginnings and endings blur, reflecting the repetitive yet evolving patterns of human striving. In this post, I will argue that politics mirrors the structure and themes of Finnegans Wake – both are cyclical endeavors where dreams of progress are reshaped by reality, creating a fractured yet persistent narrative of human ambition. By integrating Vico’s philosophy and examining the rise of populism in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and its resonance with Vico’s ideas in European populism (Germany, France, and Italy), this analysis reveals how politics spirals through aspiration and actuality, driven by the tension between what we imagine and what we achieve.
The Cyclical Nature of History in Vico and Joyce
At the core of Finnegans Wake lies Vico’s philosophy, articulated in his New Science (1725), which posits that history unfolds in cycles – corsi – followed by renewals, or ricorsi. Vico argued that societies progress through three distinct ages: the Age of Gods, characterised by theocratic imagination; the Age of Heroes, defined by aristocratic heroism; and the Age of Men, which is marked by rational institutions. Each cycle inevitably ends in decline, often manifesting as a “barbarism of reflection” where excessive rationalism erodes communal bonds, only to restart with a new divine age. Joyce embodies this structure in Finnegans Wake: the novel’s final sentence, “A way a lone a last a loved a long the …,” flows seamlessly into its opening, “… riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s …,” forming a loop where “the last line is actually part of the first line, and the first line a part of the last line” (Joyce, Finnegans Wake). This circularity suggests that human endeavours revisit familiar themes, yet each cycle carries forward traces of prior aspirations.
Politics reflects this Vichian cycle. The rise and fall of empires illustrate this: ancient Rome transitioned from divine kings to a heroic republic to a rational empire, eventually collapsing into chaos that birthed medieval theocracies – a ricorso blending Christian and classical elements. The French Revolution of 1789 promised a rational Age of Men with liberty and equality, yet spiraled into Napoleon’s heroic authoritarianism, echoing earlier monarchies. Modern democracies oscillate similarly, as seen in recurring tensions between rational governance and populist upheavals. These cycles are spirals, not circles, where dreams of justice evolve through the constraints of reality, much like Joyce’s narrative revisits archetypes – floods, falls, families – across shifting contexts.
Vico’s Philosophy: The Foundation of Cyclical Aspiration
To grasp the resonance between Finnegans Wake and politics, we must delve deeper into Vico’s philosophy. Vico challenged the linear progress of the Enlightenment and Cartesian rationalism, arguing that societies develop through collective creativity. His verum-factum principle – “the true is the made” – asserts that humans best understand their creations, such as language, myths, and institutions, making history a prime field of knowledge. Unlike nature, which belongs to God, history reflects human endeavors, knowable through artifacts like laws or stories.
Vico’s cyclical model divides history into three ages:
• Age of Gods: Primitive humans, driven by fear, attribute events to divine will. Theocratic societies emerge, led by priests using rituals. Language is poetic, with myths like Jupiter explaining nature. This age thrives on fantasia – imagination shaping reality.
• Age of Heroes: Aristocratic “heroes” dominate, enforcing order through strength, as seen in Homeric epics or feudal hierarchies. Language becomes metaphorical, evident in sagas, while class conflicts foreshadow change. Imagination and rationality balance in this age.
• Age of Men: Rationality prevails, fostering democracies or bureaucracies. Language grows abstract, suited to law, but risks detachment from communal roots. Vico’s concept of “barbarism of reflection” warns of decline when skepticism undermines cohesion, triggering a ricorso.
Vico’s poetic wisdom (sapienza poetica) elevates myths as collective truths. The myth of Hercules symbolised humanity’s struggle with nature, encoding practical realities imaginatively. Joyce exploits this in Finnegans Wake’s mythic prose, blending languages to reflect universal experiences.
Vico’s providence reconciles human agency with divine order. Selfish acts – such as heroic power grabs – unintentionally yield societal benefits, like laws. This mirrors politics, where clashing ambitions forge progress. Vico’s rejection of universalism, favouring cultural specificity, anticipates anthropology and informs Joyce’s pluralistic narrative, blending histories into a dreamlike whole.
Dreams and Reality in Joyce’s Narrative
The tension in Finnegans Wake arises from the juxtaposition of reality and dream, achieved through shifting characters, settings, and language. Characters like Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE) and Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP) morph – HCE as pubkeeper or giant, ALP as river or mother – embodying archetypes while grounded in mundane concerns: guilt, family, desire. Settings shift from Dublin’s pubs to cosmic landscapes, blurring boundaries. Joyce’s portmanteau words – “chaosmos,” “meandertale” – fuse meanings, evoking dreams where reality dissolves.
Politics mirrors this dynamic. Utopian dreams – equality, prosperity – collide with limits: scarcity, human nature, power structures. Marxism’s vision of a classless society inspired revolutions, but faced authoritarian realities in the Soviet Union. The American Dream promises opportunity; however, in 2023 the top 1% held 32% of U.S. wealth, grounding ideals in stark inequality. Yet dreams drive change: the civil rights movement’s vision of equality remains aspirational amid ongoing disparities, reshaping laws like the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Joyce’s myths, per Vico, parallel political rhetoric. Leaders invoke “freedom” or “justice” to inspire, just as Joyce’s archetypes – fall, renewal – resonate universally. The novel’s cyclical nature reflects political campaigns promising rebirth, only to revisit struggles, grounding dreams in reality’s prose.
Fractured Narratives in Politics and Literature
Finnegans Wake’s plot resists coherence, with fractured storylines – HCE’s scandal, ALP’s river-narrative, their children’s roles – forming a kaleidoscope of sin, redemption, and renewal. Joyce’s multilingual puns, blending English, Gaelic, and Sanskrit, invite readers to construct meaning from chaos, much like interpreting dreams.
Politics shares this fragmentation. Competing narratives – progressive equity, conservative tradition – create a cacophony. Climate debates fracture: IPCC reports project a 2.5°C warming by 2100 without action, yet discourse splits on economics, exemplified by China’s reliance on coal. Policies often compromise, echoing Joyce’s unresolved tales. Social media amplifies this fragmentation: in 2024, posts on platforms like X framed India’s Modi as either a reformer or an authoritarian, reflecting the multifaceted truths of political narratives. Vico’s myths as collective needs apply here: political narratives shape identity, complicated by the reality of human experience.
The Rise of Populism in the U.S., UK, and Australia
The rise of populism in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia exemplifies the dream-reality tension, reflecting Vico’s cycles and Joyce’s fractured narratives. Populism, positioning “the people” against “elites,” thrives on disillusionment with rationalist systems – Vico’s Age of Men.
In the United States, populism surged with Donald Trump’s elections in 2016 and 2024, echoing Andrew Jackson’s 1830s anti-elite stance. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” promised a restoration reminiscent of the heroic age, appealing to workers against perceived intellectual and financial elites. His rhetoric – “I alone can fix it” – evokes Joyce’s HCE, a flawed giant embodying hopes. Yet reality grounded this aspiration: tax policies favoured wealthier brackets, and polarisation deepened, with the 2020 election disputes highlighting tribalism. Vico’s barbarism of reflection applies here, as distrust eroded civic bonds, sparking a ricorso toward identity-driven politics.
The United Kingdom’s 2016 Brexit referendum, propelled by Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party and Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done,” promised heroic sovereignty against EU technocracy. Voters in stagnant regions, facing housing crises, dreamed of control, as studies in 2019 linked economic decline to Leave votes. Joyce’s shifting settings mirror this dynamic: Brexit’s independence clashed with trade disruptions and inequalities, with London thriving while northern regions lagged. Vico’s providence emerges – selfish votes yielded unintended cohesion, as Labour’s 2024 conservative shift under Keir Starmer absorbed populist sentiments, signaling a ricorso.
In Australia, populism, led by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation since the 1990s, has focused on anti-immigration and anti-expert themes. Australia’s economic stability – 27 recession-free years until 2020 – tempered populist dreams. However, the 2018 financial services royal commission exposed elite exploitation, fueling distrust. One Nation’s influence waned by 2022, failing to win federal seats, but it shaped mainstream parties, such as the National Party’s climate skepticism. Joyce’s fractured plots reflect this: populism’s “common man” empowerment fragments into policy chaos, grounded by economic complexity and indigenous issues. Vico’s poetic wisdom applies here: Hanson’s rhetoric, akin to myth, voiced grievances, but rational systems absorbed these into reforms.
Vico’s Influence on European Populism: Germany, France, and Italy
While Vico’s philosophy does not directly cause populism, its concepts – cyclical history, poetic wisdom, and critique of rationalism – resonate deeply with European populist movements in Germany, France, and Italy, illuminating their dream-reality dynamics. Populism here reflects a Vichian rejection of the Age of Men’s technocratic rationalism, yearning for heroic or divine-age simplicity, yet grounded by modern complexities, much like Finnegans Wake’s cyclical narratives.
In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), founded in 2013, shifted from euroskepticism to nationalist populism by 2015, attacking “Altparteien” (old parties) and immigration. Vico’s barbarism of reflection is evident here: disillusionment with rationalist institutions – Angela Merkel’s technocratic governance and EU integration – fuels AfD’s dream of cultural homogeneity. This echoes Vico’s Age of Heroes, where strong identities resist abstract systems. The AfD’s rhetoric, much like Vico’s poetic wisdom, crafts myths of a “true Germany,” resonating in economically stagnant eastern regions. Yet, the reality of Germany’s globalised economy and multicultural cities grounds this dream, as AfD’s radicalism alienates moderates. Vico’s providence suggests a ricorso: by 2024, mainstream parties adopt stricter migration policies, integrating populist dreams into rational frameworks, mirroring Joyce’s blend of chaos and order.
In France, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) since 2011 blends populism with nationalism, prioritising “ethnic French” citizens in welfare policies. Vico’s critique of rationalism applies here: the RN rejects EU bureaucracy and globalisation, dreaming of a heroic-age nation-state. Le Pen’s “dé-diabolisation,” aimed at softening the RN’s image, reflects Vico’s poetic wisdom – her rhetoric, much like ALP’s flowing narrative, adapts myths of French identity to modern voters. Yet reality constrains this vision: France’s ties to the EU and diverse urban centers limit the RN’s ambitions, as seen in Le Pen’s 2022 loss to Macron. Vico’s cycles suggest a ricorso: Macron’s immigration reforms absorb populist demands, blending heroic dreams with rational governance, akin to Finnegans Wake’s looping resolutions.
In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia), victorious in 2022, embodies Vico’s influence most directly, given his Italian Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy context. Meloni’s dream of national pride rejects the Age of Men’s EU-driven rationalism, evoking a heroic-age past. Vico, a Neapolitan, saw history rooted in cultural specificity, and Meloni’s rhetoric – emphasising “Italianness” – mirrors his rejection of universalism. Her pragmatic engagement with the EU post-election reflects Vico’s providence: selfish nationalist dreams yield broader stability. Joyce’s fractured narratives parallel Italy’s populist chaos, as the Five Star Movement’s earlier anti-elite surge (2013–2018) clashes with Meloni’s conservatism, yet both face Italy’s debt-laden reality. Vico’s ricorso emerges as mainstream parties co-opt populist themes, stabilising the cycle.
Vico’s influence lies in framing populism as a cyclical response to rationalist excess. His poetic wisdom explains populist leaders’ mythic narratives – AfD’s “Germany first,” RN’s “French renewal,” Meloni’s “Italian pride” – which, like Joyce’s prose, encode collective grievances. His barbarism of reflection warns of populism’s risks: unchecked, it fragments societies, as seen in Germany’s polarisation. Yet, his providence offers hope – populist dreams, caught by reality, reshape institutions, as evidenced by Europe’s tightened borders by 2024.
Vico’s Relevance to Political Dreams
Vico’s verum-factum empowers political creation: societies know their laws and revolutions. The U.S. Constitution reflects an Age of Men, with its amendments serving as a ricorso adapting to new impulses, such as suffrage. Vico’s poetic wisdom elucidates the power of populist rhetoric: Trump’s slogans and Le Pen’s speeches, much like myths, encode feelings of alienation, galvanising action. His warning about the limits of rationalism applies to technocracy – Brexit defied economic logic for the sake of sovereignty. Providence suggests that clashing dreams forge order, however messy it may be.
Conclusion: The Eternal Spiral
Finnegans Wake ends where it begins, suggesting humanity’s eternal recurrence of striving, failing, and re-imagining. Politics spirals similarly – dreams tempered by reality, driving us to revisit justice, power, and community. The rise of populism in the U.S., UK, Australia, and Europe embodies this dynamic: anti-elite dreams collide with economic and cultural realities, yet they reshape societies, echoing Vico’s cycles. Joyce’s chaos mirrors this dynamic, grounding imagination in experience.
Politics, like Finnegans Wake, is a dream caught by reality – a fractured, cyclical pursuit of possibility. Civil rights evolve in movements like Black Lives Matter; environmental visions adapt; democratic ideals persist amid populist challenges. Vico’s insight that humans know what they create empowers us: our creations, flawed though they may be, are ours to reshape. As Joyce’s river flows back to its source, politics spirals, carrying dreams into new realities, forever caught, forever aspiring.
