Use of Language in James Joyce's Ulysses
In his essay “The Decomposing Form of Joyce’s Ulysses,” Henry Staten has argued “that Ulysses achieves some of its most characteristic effects by pressing the internal logic of mimesis to the limit, above all through onomatopoeia, which manifests in a peculiarly condensed way the self-contradictory character of the realist project” (Staten 174-5). Mimetic narrative and method are undone by an onomatopoeiac mode, which is conceived by Stephen “as the pure self-expression or self-annunciation of reality” (175): “Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide…” (Ulysses 3.2-3, emphasis added). “Listen: a fourworded speech: seesoo, hrss, rsseeiss, ooos” (3.456-7). In textually representing “wavespeech,” Stephen’s onomatopoeiac “signatures” foreground the mediated nature of our knowledge and perceptions of the world. Indeed, any ideal or phenomenal referent to which our signifying language is merely attached, acting as a transparent medium through which we might know and perceive the referent, is absent. One might say referents in Joyce’s text are in turn other signs. In other words, the unmediated or immediate reception of sense, of the sense of a thing’s ‘quiddity’ or ‘eidos,’ its ideal, “iterable” form is impossible. Language is not a transparent mediation of sense. There is always semeiotic mediation, a contingent though not necessarily arbitrary process.
The undermining of mimesis in language might be, Staten further argues, Joyce’s aesthetic intention. Perhaps Ulysses is the first novel to willfully undermine its mimetic composition, its own intentionality in attempting to mirror nature. It displays language as deconstructive of itself, ...
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...rcalated elements contingently link in series, composing, decomposing, recomposing. We have entered a thoroughly non-Platonic world in this passage of generalized simulacra. Perhaps Ulysses is an extravagant Rube Goldberg machine, or even transit system of signs, an indeterminate semeiotic. Even Molly’s closing words echo this contingent though non-arbitrary nature in her choosing Bloom for her life’s mate: “I thought well as well him as another … yes I said yes I will Yes” (18.1604-9). This “Yes” is an opening not a closing, the closed form of the novel is elided, and we find ourselves again, as indeed we had during our reading, in a world “there all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end” (3.27-8).
Works Cited
Ulysses. Random House: New York, 1986.
James Joyce’s Ulysses: A Casebook. (ed. Derek Attridge). Oxford University: Oxford, 2004.
James Joyce is praised for his distinct stylistic purpose and furthermore for his writings in the art of free direct discourse. Though at times his language may seem muddled and incoherent, Joyce adds a single fixture to his narratives that conveys unity and creates meaning in the otherwise arbitrary dialogue. Within the story “The Dead”, the final and most recognizable piece in the collection Dubliners, the symbol of snow expresses a correlation with the central character and shows the drastic transformation of such a dynamic character in Gabriel Conroy. The symbol of snow serves as the catalyst that unifies mankind through the flawed essence of human nature, and shows progression in the narrow mind of Gabriel. Snow conveys the emission of the otherwise superficial thoughts of Gabriel and furthermore allows for the realization of the imperfections encompassed by mankind. Riquelme’s deconstruction of the text allows for the understanding that the story cannot be read in any specific way, but the variance in meaning, as well as understanding depends solely upon the readers’ perspective. Following a personal deconstruction of the text, it is reasonable to agree with Riquelme’s notions, while correspondingly proposing that the symbol of snow represents the flaws, and strengths of Gabriel, as well as the other characters as it effects all equally.
After centuries of serving as background noise to her husband Ulysses’ odes of sea storms, sirens, and celebrity, the mythological Penelope finally steps into the light in Miriam Waddington’s poem “Ulysses Embroidered.” Functioning as a revisionary text to both the Alfred, Lord Tennyson work “Ulysses” and the tradition of The Odyssey itself, “Ulysses Embroidered” quickly strikes its readers as a fiercely feminist re-envisioning of Penelope and her tale. Waddington’s work allows for an age-old legend to be told in a new way with a bold, feminine speaker, but to what end do her changes remark on Tennyson’s original work? By engaging in two separate modes of revision by both reading against the grain and “constantly [engaging] in dialogue” to work in tandem with the original poem, Waddington
Cooper, John. “The Writing of the Seen World: David Jones 's In Parenthesis.” University of Toronto Quarterly 48.4 (1979): 303-312. Project MUSE. Web. 22 Oct. 2016. Cooper argues Jones ' mastery of visual description in In Parenthesis. In Paragraphs seven through thirteen, Cooper compares In Parenthesis to James Joyce 's “Araby,” and attributes the same qualities to Joyce 's writing. He makes the point that both have “a highly developed feeling for space, form, and color” (306.) He then follows up with an example from Joyce 's text. This opinion of Joyce 's writing style parallels my own. I address how Joyce is a master of visual description and how the descriptions of various settings mirror the growth of his protagonist.
In Ithaca, the depth of Joyce's irony is displayed. The denouement of this odyssey is perfect for this story, while at the same time leaving us with the exact opposite of the resolution in the tale the book proclaims to emulate. Odysseus' public apotheosis parallels Bloom's private shame. The concise question and answer format which Ithaca adopts, found no where else in the book, is refereed to by many critics as reminiscent of a catechism. The description is well deserved given the overt religious themes in Ulysses. The almost mathematical precision of the text in juxtaposed with gut wrenching emotion surrounding infidelity. The parallels that one can draw between the characters of Ulysses and the Odyssey are perhaps the deepest in Ithaca while the themes and undertones of the work drift further apart.
Ulysses was probably one of the most outrageous and most brave men to ever live and he went through a lot while on his adventure to war and then, also coming back. When he came back home everyone respected him and knew that when he got older he was never just going to roll over and die. He was going to fight until he was killed or until he died of a disease. In the poem Ulysses by Tennyson there are three messages the he makes.
James Joyce uses sexuality throughout his works to establish an intimate and relatable bond between the reader and the characters in his works. All of Joyce’s works address issues in sexuality, which presents the idea that sexuality was of upmost importance to him. Given that sex is a large part of human existence, it is a good way to get the attention of the reader. A substantial amount of characters throughout Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man are driven by sexual desire. In fact, there is so much sex throughout in Ulysses that “early publishers and critics refused to publish it because of its vulgarity; the sexuality featured in Ulysses was part of the claims that the novel was obscene” (Ivie). Sex is a wonderful way to connect the reader to the character, and Joyce is talented in being able to bring the reader right into the sexually suggestive minds of the characters. Each character in all of Joyce’s works are defined by their sexuality and are in search of some type of self-identity, and through that idea is how Joyce best portrays that sexuality itself may be defined by adultery, prostitution, and masturbation and other bodily functions.
Campbell, Joseph. Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
In the novel's opening story, "The Sisters," Joyce elevates this concern with writing "reality" from sub-theme to theme: the story is an extended meditation on textuality just as much as it is the story of a boy and a priest. By beginning with a metatext Joyce brilliantly opens up the entire collection for a different kind of reading, one based on noticing rather than overlooking literature's limitations. With...
Justin Levenstein. ‘Ulysses, Dubliners, and the Nature of Relationships in the Modern World’. Emergence: A Journal of Undergraduate Literary Criticism and Creative Research. Available from(WWW) http://journals.english.ucsb.edu/index.php/Emergence/article/view/21/100 Date Accessed: 11/12/13
To me, Ulysses was a necessary evil, in that I thought that I would not be able to call myself a literature student unless I had read the entire novel. While my journey through Ulysses was laden with moments of bewilderment, exasperation, and self-pity, I was able to power my way through the novel with a deeper appreciation for the way James Joyce was able to create a linear story told through a series of non-linear writing styles. In retrospect, the grueling challenge of reading Ulysses made me a better student, in that I was able to grow as a reader by adjusting myself to Joyce’s train-of-thought writing style, and that I could add Ulysses to my personal canon of academic literature.
James Joyce emerged as a radical new narrative writer in modern times. Joyce conveyed this new writing style through his stylistic devices such as the stream of consciousness, and a complex set of mythic parallels and literary parodies. This mythic parallel is called an epiphany. “The Dead” by Joyce was written as a part of Joyce’s collection called “The Dubliners”. Joyce’s influence behind writing the short story was all around him. The growing nationalist Irish movement around Dublin, Ireland greatly influences Joyce’s inspiration for writing “The Dubliners”. Joyce attempted to create an original portrayal of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. The historical context for Joyce’s written work was the tense times before the Irish-English civil war broke out. An examination of his writing style reveals his significance as a modern writer.
Tennyson’s abstract poetic genius in combining historical references and deeply felt emotion, causes comprehension obscurity in finding a single thematic idea. The distinction weaved through the works of “Ulysses” and “The Lady of Shalott” is depicted though the mood, structure, and tone. Although the differences vary heavily, an underlying theme of escaping their idle world appears evident through both pieces of writing. Through Ulysses, a grand warrior, and The Lady of Shalott, a locked away mistress, appear as contrary characters, their development in relinquishing themselves from redundant worlds relates them in various manners.
Joyce approaches this story from a third person perspective and creates examples of stream-of-consciousness narration. When we read the only three indirect thought processes; ‘He is in Melbourne now.’(IS) ‘Miss hill, don’t you see these ladies are waiting?’(IS) ‘Look lively, Miss Hill, please. (IS)’we, the readers, are presented with outer observations only as they encro...
... we see that life is a façade; the characters disguise their sorrow in modesty. Joyce’s portrayal of Ireland undoubtedly creates a desire to evade a gloomy life.
Kenner, Hugh. "Joyce's Portrait -- A Reconsideration". The University of Windsor Review. vol.1, no. 1. Spring, 1965. 1-15. Rpt. in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. ed. Dennis Poupard. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1985. 16:229-234.