ULYSSES By James Joyce

1904 – 1920 James Joyce lived in the cosmopolitan Trieste  mix of cultures  babel of languages influenced his writing  Ulysses Jewish comunity in Trieste  conjure his Dublin -Jewish character in Ulysses 1914 James Joyce started writing Ulysses 1921 the writing is completed The novel not publicated in the U.S.A until 1933  censorship problems difficulty to find a publisher due to its contents 1922 the book is published by Sylvia Beach Key year in the history of English-language literary modernism  Ulysses by James Joyce and The Waste Lands by T.S. Elliot  published

Ulysses is an hypotext Joyce made use of : the psichology and subjective narration of Richardson Laurence Sterne’s “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” which inspired Joyce’s idea of time Joyce himself gave two definitions of his work: New modern Odyssey ; The epic of the human body; The second one is more significant  Ulysses is a summa of Joyce created an opposition between Tommaso d’ Aquino summa theological and his own summa anthropological Process of artistic trasformation and experimentation He Converts the mythical structure and he adapt it in the every day context  Joyce imagines the travel of a common man It used to write the Ulysses the mythical method  T.S. Elliot in “ Order and Myth”  “it is a step toward making the modern world possible for art” Henry Fielding’s epic novel which is modelled on Homer’s Odyssey;

The book consists of 18 chapter  each covers one hour of the day (from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m of the following morning) Every chapter Employs its literary style and parodies a specific episode in Homer’s Odyssey Is associated with a specific colour, art or science and bodily organ Combination of kaleidoscoip writing and schematic structure  great contribution to the development of 20 th century literature. The action of the novel takes places in a single day. Joyce sets characters of the Odyssey of Homer in modern Dublin and represents Odysseus The book explores various area of Dublin life  focused on its squalor and monotony Narrative technique: stream of consciousness; parody and jokes; linguistic association; frequent use of leit motive. These techniques allow Joyce to reconcile between realism and symbolism

There is a fundamental structure in the novel with its three characters:  Leopold Bloom Ulysses  Steven Telemacus  Molly Bloom Penelope Leopold Bloom common sensual man, curios of new experience but not efficient looks forward to scientific certainties Steven the idealist, in search of spiritual values and of an intellectual coherence voluntary exiled, rejected his natural father Steven and Leopold very different but both unable to satisfy their deepest aspectation always pursuing a quest Molly Bloom summary of all women in the women ( Calypso, Circe) the essence of female nature expression of physicity and absolute acceptance of the human condition