Economy and Economia in James Joyce’s “Grace”

This paper explores the connection between James Joyce’s“Grace” (Dubliners, 1914), and John Henry Newman’s 1848 novel Lossand Gain. Its focus is the interplay that both narratives establishbetween the conceptual domains of religion and economy in relation toconversion. This pattern is singled out by means of a compositemethodology involving cognitive linguistics and narrative analysis, thatseeks to establish metaphor as the conceptual foundation, or immanentstructure, for both narratives. Hence, the manifestation of such a structureis observed in “Grace”, through a structural comparison between thetales, and through an overview of the function of metaphors and oxymoronsin discourse. Finally, the hypothesis is put forth that such similaritiesbetween Joyce’s and Newman’s narratives might signal Joyce’s methodo-logical reliance on the notion of Economia Sacramentalis, described byNewman in the Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864).