APPLYING NOVEL CATEGORIES TO J. JOYCE’S ULYSSES’s EXCTRACT

Structure and layout: A unique piece of text without any paragraph or other kinds of structure or even punctuation

Space: The extract is set in a bedroom but the character’s thoughts explores many other spaces since the beginning like China, nature, shops and so on.

Time: An indefinite time in the late morning of 16^th June 1904, which we can only suppose to be short because it lasts only for a quantity of immediate thoughts and perceptions.

Storyline:  There is no action at all, only a succession of thoughts from the character which is reflecting while trying to sleep.

Plot: Facts are organized as a real mind’s thoughts: a succession of ideas, perceptions and memories.

Narrative strategies and language: The only narrative technique is the stream of consciousness, a free flux of thoughts expressed by the text without any limitations. In this way, the narrator is coinciding with the character, who presents himself/herself using his own thoughts.

Themes: The text is a direct expression of the character’s inner self, conveyed by the stream of consciousness technique. This collocates the novel into a typical Modernist context. In addition to this, the character’s mind shows many conventions in Joyce’s Irish society and culture, but the reader is unable to notice a trace of the writer’s point of view beyond the stream of consciousness.

Carlo Mauri

Daniele Sorrenti