The Odyssey of Reading Ulysses

Abstract

In his quest for meaning, the fictionalized Joyce — the speaker and writer of the events within the imagined world — becomes an Odysseus figure within the novel. While Odysseus goes from place to place, Joyce goes from style to style. By temporarily assigning characters to a position of marginality, Joyce is calling attention to himself as creative presence and showing how the imagined world is dependent upon his language. Moreover, he is implying that, because the modern, urban post-Christian world acks order and coherence, his modern epic must not only be somewhat incomplete and inconclusive, but must present indeterminate and ambiguous passages to the reader.