Ulysses di James Joyce, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Ulysses di James Joyce e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Ulysses di Joyce The action takes place in Dublin on June 16, 1904. Of the two protagonists, one, Leopold Bloom, is an Irish Jew, advertising agent, absolutely any man, the mass man of the modern world; the other, Stephen Dedalus, is a young and restless intellectual. A not entirely secondary role also has the wife of Bloom, a mediocre singer who is constantly unfaithful to her husband. La vicenda  James Joyce uses the flow of consciousness technique, already used by the writer Virginia Woolf, to give voice to his characters and their deepest thoughts. It is precisely the disordered flow of the protagonists' thoughts, which jump from one memory or thought to another, without logic, without respect for the temporal rules, which makes the plot interesting but also complex. Even punctuation is subject to the free overlapping and succession of thoughts. The characters in James Joyce's novel, like Stephen Dedalus, somewhat resemble those of Homer's Odyssey. (Stephen Dedalus is also the protagonist of another famous work by Joyce: "Portrait of the artist as a young man".) Stephen resembles the figure of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses; Leopold Bloom, identifies with Ulysses himself and his wife, Molly, brings us back to the figure of Penelope il Mediterraneo. The reader follows the events and approaches this modern man who lives his numerous daily wanderings. Thus we move on from the figure: the reader is attracted to the figures and the vicissitudes of all the characters but above all he is struck by the figure of Leopold, a Jewish advertising agent who wanders the city of Dublin, just as the legendary Ulysses wandered around of the ancient Greek hero, brave and never domo, to that of the modern hero, mainly an inept with his fragmented, confused, weak and unsolved ego. The novel is characterized by eighteen episodes divided into three sections: the first called Telemachia, which concerns the adventures of Stephen-Telemaco; the second section concerns the adventures of Ulysses, that is Leopold Bloom and the third describes the return of the main character Bloom, who returns to his normal daily life, as Ulysses did by undertaking his Nostos, towards Ithaca. In his book, the author highlights himself as a Homer of modern times, distorting the classical structure of the Greek poem. His hero, Bloom, is in fact an antihero; his journey through life leads neither to any goal nor to any result. Its path is marked by continuous failures and defeats. Among them, for example, the lack of harmony with the young Stephen and the betrayal suffered by his wife Molly. Riassunto  Il romanzo è ambientato a Dublino, in Irlanda. Vengono narrate le vicissitudini di tre personaggi: Leopold Bloom, la moglie Molly ed il giovane Stephen Dedalus (una sorta di figlio spirituale di Bloom). Nei primi episodi del romanzo, vengono narrate le giornate di Stephen, un giovane letterato in crisi che viene identificato come il figlio spirituale di Leopold Bloom. Alle vicende di vita quotidiana di Stephen, si affiancano quelle di Leopold Bloom, un impiegato che lavora come procacciatore di pubblicità. Nel romanzo, viene analizzata la giornata di Bloom: il suo risveglio, gli appuntamenti della giornata più o meno piacevoli, la partecipazione al funerale di un amico, la sua mattina in ufficio e l’evolversi degli impegni della sua agenda. Man mano che passano le ore, Bloom incontra diversi personaggi, che diventano descrizioni singole facenti riferimento ai personaggi classici dell’Odissea di Omero, per l’autore. I cammini dei due personaggi, Leopold e Stephen, si sfiorano sovente ma non vengono mai in contatto. Arriva il pomeriggio e Bloom riprende il suo girovagare per Dublino, tra negozi, persone e monumenti, mantenendo questo suo incedere disattento e svogliato. D’altro canto, Stephen, che si trova presso la Biblioteca Nazionale, intavola un’animata discussione su William Shakespeare. Poi i due finalmente si incontrano durante una visita ad una sua amica comune, Mina Purefoy, che ha da poco dato alla luce il suo bambino. Da lì, Leopold, Stephen ed i suoi amici partono alla volta di un pub. Dopo aver bevuto, la comitiva si dirige verso uno dei quartieri malfamati di Dublino per recarsi in un bordello, dove il giovane Stephen, visto il suo stato di ubriachezza, fomenta una rissa. Qui interviene Leopold che si adopera per cercare di difendere l’immagine e la reputazione dell’amico, convincendolo a seguirlo a casa sua. Qui i due iniziano una lunga conversazione che tratta delle diverse vicissitudini che i due hanno vissuto nella loro vita fino a quel momento. Finale  Stephen illustra a Leopold i suoi progetti letterari per il futuro, il tempo passa e Leopold invita Stephen a fermarsi a dormire da lui ma il giovane rifiuta e decide di andarsene. A questo punto Mr. Bloom, ripensa a tutto l’evolversi della giornata passata e, stanco, decide di recarsi a dormire. Arriva in camera da letto. Il libro si chiude con la moglie di Leopold, Molly, che nel dormiveglia sussurra degli episodi della sua vita. Come nell'Ulisse di Omero anche in quello di Joyce l'eroe rappresenta l'avventura dell'uomo nel mondo. Il protagonista, viaggiando, costruisce la propria identità, arricchendosi delle diversità con cui entra in contatto, senza risultarne distrutto o assorbito. Inoltre, proprio come nell’Odissea omerica, l'opera di Joyce non ha come punto di riferimento esclusivamente la soggettività della poesia, ma la cultura e la storia dell'umanità (che nell'Odissea era rappresentata dalle diverse terre esplorate da Ulisse, nell'opera di Joyce dalle diverse personalità che l'eroe incontra). Lo stesso Joyce ha definito Ulisse un romanzo, anche se per alcune caratteristiche l'opera ha una struttura che può essere comparata a quella di altri generi letterari. Per impianto narrativo è un poema epico, proprio per il suo chiaro riferimento al poema omerico, che richiama con il titolo ma dal quale vuole distaccarsi per le tematiche. Il poema epico infatti permette a Joyce di sottolineare ancora di più, quasi con ironia, la totale mancanza di eroismo, valori, amore, fede, coraggio dei suoi personaggi, modelli antichi, perduti in un mondo moderno. Anche Daedalus, ribelle nel precedente romanzo eponimo e ancora in questo, nel penultimo episodio "Itaca", sembra rassegnato a sottostare alle inique e negative leggi umane. Nell'ultimo episodio "Penelope" è invece la fragile ma determinata Molly a ripetere "Yes, yes, yes...". Ulisse è anche un dramma di tipo teatrale per la scomparsa del narratore e per il rispetto delle unità aristoteliche di spazio e tempo. This prelude of anti-Semitism will be evoked later in the day, as Jewish Leopold Bloom faces similar bigotry. Deasy’s anti-Semitism rests on his sense that the mercantile Jews have brought decay to England. According to Deasy, the Jews have sinned against “the light,” the light being those Christians who understand history as moving toward one goal—the manifestation of God’s plan. But the presentation of Deasy’s character undermines his own convictions. Instead of Christianity and light, Deasy himself deals in coins and material goods. His moralistic color scheme, in which good Christians are light and dangerous Jews are dark, is not to be the color scheme of Ulysses, in which the two heroes, Stephen and Bloom, are dressed in black, and the dangerous characters, such as Buck Mulligan, are associated with brightness. Cyclops  This chapter is narrated by an unnamed denizen of Dublin. The narrator goes to Barney Kiernan's pub where he meets a character referred to only as "The Citizen". There is a belief that this character is a satirization of Michael Cusack, a founder member of the Gaelic Athletic Association.[21] When Leopold Bloom enters the pub, he is berated by the Citizen, who is a fierce Fenian and anti-Semite. The episode ends with Bloom reminding the Citizen that his Saviour was a Jew. As Bloom leaves the pub, the Citizen, in anger, throws a biscuit tin at Bloom's head, but misses. The chapter is marked by extended tangents made in voices other than that of the unnamed narrator: these include streams of legal jargon, Biblical passages, and elements of Irish mythology. In either case, the story of what happened in Barney Kiernan's pub posits a hypothetical fictional afterlife with consequences that cannot be anything other than disastrous for Leopold Bloom. This is because the story is finally false. It is not a deliberate lie, certainly, but even if the narrator tells precisely what happened, the point of the story is nonetheless dead wrong. Leopold Bloom did not win the Gold cup race and therefore did not stiff the company of men, as is assumed by everyone present including the narrator. And yet that is the story that will be circulated with the nearly certain effect of confirming negative stereotypes that Dubliners already harbor about Jews. “Cyclops” as Joyce‟s commentary on Irish politics and culture. Cyclops” is a portrait of Ireland,but from the perspective of an international writer that happened to be Irish. The episode serves a great purpose in highlighting the underlying anxieties of Europe before the First World War. “Cyclops” is an Irish version of nationalism, but compares to other forms of extreme nationalism in Europe. Bloom‟s humanism makes him the most heroic character in “Cyclops.” He is the voice of reason in a maelstrom of nationalism, racism, and patriotism. the “Cyclops” episode directly engages questions of nationalism and prejudice, love and hate, violence and injustice, but Joyce only provides the opportunity to engage these lofty topics while viewing Bloom through the eyes of someone prejudiced against him. The anti-Semitism that has lingered in the background of many of Bloom’s social interactions throughout the day emerges as an overt and aggressive force, principally represented in the character of the Citizen, an Irish nationalist with an eyepatch and a myopic view of who qualifies as truly Irish. This man, in the cave of Barney Kiernan’s pub, is the cyclops our Odysseus/Bloom must overcome. In terms of style, the Nameless One’s narrative (told by one big “I” - another cyclops) is frequently interrupted and undercut by parodies inserted by the Arranger. These interruptions - sometimes absurdly formal, sometimes mythologizing, sometimes elevating the events to an ethereal plane - employ irony to reveal just how commonplace the narrated story really is. Ithaca  Bloom returns home with Stephen, makes him a cup of cocoa, discusses cultural and lingual differences between them, considers the possibility of publishing Stephen's parable stories, and offers him a place to stay for the night. Stephen refuses Bloom's offer and is ambiguous in response to Bloom's proposal of future meetings. The two men urinate in the backyard, Stephen departs and wanders off into the night,[25] and Bloom goes to bed, where Molly is sleeping. She awakens and questions him about his day. The episode is written in the form of a rigidly organised and "mathematical" catechism of 309 questions and answers, and was reportedly Joyce's favourite episode in the novel. The deep descriptions range from questions of astronomy to the trajectory of urination and include a famous list of 25 men perceived as Molly's lovers (apparently corresponding to the suitors slain at Ithaca by Odysseus and Telemachus in The Odyssey), including Boylan, and Bloom's psychological reaction to their assignation. While describing events apparently chosen randomly in ostensibly precise mathematical or scientific terms, the episode is rife with errors made by the undefined narrator, many or most of which are intentional by Joyce. it is a very present theme in the text. Jewish texts and characters are mentioned, throughout the chapter there are many references. He starts to “silently recapitulate” his actions during the day, and he mentally associates the actions to Jewish beliefs, practices, ceremonies. Circumcision is also mentioned in the chapter, "covenant of circumcision", was commanded by God to Abraham, the Father of the Jewish people, as a sign of the eternal link between the Holy Benedict and the House of Israel (Genesis 17.7). This is, of course, the difficulty in Joyce’s “Ithaca” chapter, where the rhetoric of catechism frequently obscures rather than elucidates what is going on between Bloom and Stephen. And perhaps this obfuscation muddies and even conceals the moment one could arguably posit as a climax in Ulysses: Stephen Dedalus singing an anti-Semitic ballad to Leopold Bloom in the kitchen of his host. The ballad of “Little Harry Hughes”—based on the legend of the ritual murder of “little” Hugh of Lincoln—tells of a Jew’s daughter who punishes a little boy that broke her home’s window by inviting him into the house and cutting off his head with a penknife. The delivery of this song is excruciatingly problematic on so many counts that it requires considerable discussion to lay them out before its significance can be fully assessed.