James Joyce: Ulysses

In Homer’s Odyssey, it takes Ulysses ten years to return home to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. The trip is quicker in James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)— a single day—but, as in its Homeric antecedent, an aging hero must wander in search of home but, unlike Homer’s hero, his journey is limited to a single day.
And what a day it is! Sharp and funny descriptions of Dublin, dazzling innovations to the very possibilities of the English language, and nuanced (if often obscure) engagements with literature and history transform an ordinary June 16th into the stuff of legend. Bloom’s path sometimes crosses, sometimes aligns with the one taken by Stephen Daedalus, familiar from Joyce’s earlier work A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Although the third main character Molly Bloom, Leopold’s wife, never leaves home, thoughts of her haunt his travels.
Joyce doesn’t mention Homer in Ulysses, although the serial version, published in The Little Review (1918–1920), assigned Homeric titles to the episodes (removed in the full version). So, even if he wavered as to the extent of the relationship between the works, it remains true that both works are “beautifully all embracing” in their “vision of human concerns.” In writing Ulysses, Joyce explores what such concerns look like from the perspective of a decidedly non-heroic modernity, likewise trying to find a way back from a grueling and pointless war.
With Chritopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” providing a cinematic version of Homer’s epic, what better time to join Joyce in his rethinking of Homer’s powerful story of disillusion, desire, and the always pressing question of how to find a way home. In this eight-week Delve, we’ll work our way through Ulysses, exploring these characters’ stories, Joyce’s prose, early twentieth-century Dublin, and the many other stories and histories woven into this extraordinary novel.
Text:
Ullysses by James Joyce
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