Questions tagged [ulysses]

For questions about James Joyce's 1922 modernist novel "Ulysses". Use this with the [james-joyce] tag.

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Is there any deeper reason as to why Joyce chose the Latin name for Odysseus when he titled Ulysses?

I only learned recently that Ulysses is the Latin version of the Greek name Odysseus. It made me wonder why Joyce chose it over the Greek for his novel Ulysses. Apparently there's a very prosaic ...
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Has there ever been a stage production of Chapter 15 of Ulysses?

Chapter 15 of Ulysses, "Circe" is written in the form of a play script, complete with stage directions. When I first read it, I idly wondered whether or not anyone had ever attempted to ...
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What is Leopold doing in the chapter Aeolus in Ulysses?

In Aeolus, Leopold is in a newspaper office to do something. I've never quite understood what that is. He is not a reporter. He asks someone to cut out an ad, so that he can run it by the printers. ...
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Who is “our greatest living phonetic expert” in “Ulysses”?

In chapter 12 of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the narrator describes an “exhibition of cynanthropy” which comprises, among other achievements, the recitation of verse. Our greatest living phonetic expert (...
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What is the reference to the sixth month of pregnancy in Ulysses?

In the annotations in Penguin's Ulysses: Annotated Student Edition, Kiberd says that "the six month of pregnancy" beings in the paragraph "Our worthy acquaintance, Mr Malachi Mulligan, ...
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Alma's annotations to Chapter 14 of Ulysses

(If this question does not fit this site, let me know and I'll delete it). I'm considering buying the "Annotated Edition" of Ulysses published by Alma Classics. I was wondering about the ...
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Annotations to Ulysses that help understand its sentences literally?

I read Ulysses once, and I used the following sources for annotations: The annotations at the end of Penguin's Ulysses: Annotated Student Edition, by Declan Kiberd Gifford's Ulysses annotated The ...
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Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, link the sound form "hoe" to "whore"?

Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, link the sound form "hoe" to "whore", as in the current day "ho"? For example, is it probable that Joyce intended the (additional) modern day pun in the ...
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Where and how did James Joyce condemn Hamlet as a failure?

Earlier this year, someone asked Why did T.S. Eliot make a statement that 'Coriolanus' was Shakespeare's masterpiece and that 'Hamlet' was an artistic failure? If the Wikipedia article about William ...
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How do we know that Bloom was never circumcised?

Everyone knows that Bloom was not circumcised (just ask Google). But how do we know this? Hugh Kenner claims it is (371/373). I have read these pages over and over, but don't see it? Despite the ...
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In Ulysses, why does Stephen finally decide not to stay with Bloom?

Ulysses is such a well-commented book that it's hard to find questions which have not been widely explored already. However, there's a simple aspect of character motivation I've been unable to clarify....
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Is the impenetrability of Chapter 14 of Ulysses deliberate, or a consequence of its stylistic pastiches?

Chapter 14 of Joyce's Ulysses, The Oxen of the Sun, frequently changes writing styles as it unfolds. Joyce was attempting to mimic the development of the English language, from its Latin roots through ...
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What is the purpose of all the lists in chapter 12 of Joyce's Ulysses?

Chapter 12 of James Joyce's Ulysses, Cyclops, consists mostly of a first-person comic narrative of men drinking in a pub. The conversation is frequently interrupted, however, by a number of deadpan ...
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What does Stephen Dedalus mean: "History is the nightmare from which I’m trying to awake”?

Source: How to Read Novels Like a Professor (2008) by Thomas C. Foster. p. 247 Middle.   The big, often very uncomfortable, ideas run rampant in those disquieting categories, “minority” and “...
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Why do we see so little mention of Leopold Bloom's social isolation in his internal monologue?

Leopold Bloom is the primary protagonist of Joyce's novel Ulysses. Throughout the novel, we are treated to an extensive transcription of his thoughts and feelings via the stream of consciousness ...
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Why is there so much stream of consciousness in Ulysses?

I'm about halfway through Ulysses. What's sustained me through this famously difficult novel is the quality of the prose and characterisation. However, I was struck by the thought that what makes it "...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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How did Ibsen's writing in A Doll's House influence the James Joyce character Molly Bloom?

How did Ibsen's writing in A Doll's House influence the James Joyce character Molly Bloom? Richard Ellmann in his book James Joyce mentions Joyce reading and getting influenced by Ibsen many times: ...
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