The paper discusses the complex relation between the postcolonial theory and the Joyce studies that enabled the introduction of the concept of a postcolonial Joyce. Starting from a comparison, proposed by Derek Walcott, between the writings of the Martiniquais author Patrick Chamoiseau and James Joyce, the analysis draws attention to the transformations of the postcolonial field that make such comparisons possible. The paper goes beyond the common postcolonial theoretical concepts and proposes that it is the very failure of the postcolonial theory to deliver the expected specific answers to the colonial questions that makes the postcolonial – in its solitude and bitterness – sensible in the context of Joyce’s poetics.