A slow and dark birth: Esthetic maturation and the entelechic narrative in James Joyce's 'Ulysses'

This analysis applies the esthetic principles proposed by Stephen Dedalus in chapter V of A Portrait of the Artist to Joyce's more complex and influential novel, Ulysses. The first chapter studies the “narrative young” strategy, examining the stylistic devices of the “Telemachus” episode and indicating the parallel between the “narrative young” technique and Stephen's lyric stage of esthetic development. In the second chapter, I examine the “narrative mature” technique of “Calypso” as well as the chapter's gravitation away from egocentric narrative (Bakhtin's monologism) to the epic stage of esthetic development (dialogism). The final chapter examines the “narrative old” technique of “Eumaeus” as the realization of Stephen's dramatic stage—including the use of hackneyed expressions, pseudonyms, false identities, and misused figurative language. The final chapter will also analyze the literary and epistemological implications of the “narrative old” style and how this entelechic progression adumbrates the techniques of “Penelope” and Finnegans Wake.