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The self in conversation : James Joyce's Ulysses

Following and at times reworking the relation between language, society and selfhood in the antifoundationalist philosophies of Charles Taylor and Richard Rorty, the thesis develops the idea of the novel as a kind of conversation. The thesis takes James Joyce's Ulysses as a progression of thought and style in which its three principal characters, Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and Molly Bloom, expound their views and then lapse into silence as part of an ongoing conversation. Three episodic conversations in particular are discussed: for Stephen, Scylla and Charybdis; for Bloom, Cyclops; and for Molly, Penelope. These conversations, it is suggested, parallel Joyce's evolving novelistic theories, and mark a movement from a metaphysical, to a scientized, and eventually to an ironist understanding of selfhood and society.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60607
Date January 1991
CreatorsBarron, Graham
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of English.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001256709, proquestno: AAIMM72221, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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