When World War I broke out in August 1914, the Joyces lived in Trieste. At that time, the city belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From one day to the next, the Joyce family, as British subjects, became “enemy aliens.”
Return to Zurich – and a Legal Problem
In the summer of 1915, Nora and James decided to move back to the safety of Zurich, together with their two children, Giorgio and Lucia. Swiss migration laws, as elsewhere in Europe, were still very liberal. Accordingly, returning to the city that the parents had briefly gotten to know in 1904 proved straight-forward.
There was one problem, however: the so-called “Konkubinatsverbot.” This law made it illegal for unmarried couples to live together under the same roof. Just a few years earlier, in 1913, Zurich voters had endorsed a proposal that tightened the provisions of the “Konkubinatsverbot,” with 67.20% voting in favor.
As Joyce opposed the institution of marriage, he and Nora were not actually married when they returned to Zurich. However, the couple evidently passed themselves off as married – and succeeded in deceiving the Zurich officials.
Violating the “Konkubinatsverbot”: Possible Consequences
What would have happened if James and Nora had been found out? It is possible to reconstruct a plausible scenario based on documented cases in which the “Konkubinatsverbot” was violated.
The Joyces would first have received a so-called “Trennungsbefehl” (i.e. Order of Separation). In other words, they would have been ordered to live in separate quarters and would have been allowed to move back in together only after getting married. Had Nora and James decided to ignore the “Trennungsbefehl,” they would have faced further sanctions, including hefty fines. As a measure of last resort, officials could even have revoked the Joyces’ residence permit and ordered them to leave the country.
Had this happened, Ulysses might have become a different book or perhaps remained unfinished. Seen in this light, it is not surprising that Ulysses problematizes the institution of marriage and its legal framework.
Table of Contents
- James Joyce, Ulysses, and the Law: An Introduction
- Obscenity and Literature: Legal Context around 1915
- James, Nora, and the “Konkubinatsverbot”
- Adultery as a Crime of Property
- Doubt as a Virtue
- Joyce Files a Lawsuit in Zurich
- Dying Without a Safety Net
- Ulysses Outlawed in the U.S.
- A Victory for Free Speech
- Suicide as a Crime
- A Difficult Return: Stricter Migration Laws
- A Defamation Case Against the BBC
Source: Scheidegger, Carole. Ordnung und Unordnung: Das Zürcher Konkubinatsverbot und dessen Abschaffung im Jahre 1972. Unveröffentlichte Lizenziatsarbeit. Zürich, 2006.
