〈尤利西斯〉─之文本政治(III-I)
Date Issued
2001-07-31
Date
2001-07-31
Author(s)
DOI
892411H002095BB
Abstract
It is in the chapter of "Aeolus" in which Joyce initiates the significant textual experiment
and thereby explores the possibility of non-mimetic writing in Ulysses.. Preceded by the first
relatively "realistic" chapters, "Aeolus" introduces, almost out of the blue, many
non-representational marks which dramatically suspend the novel's realistic content. These, at
the first sight (note the visual and graphic emphasis), refer to the boldface captions, the huge
number of which forcibly interrupts the continuous concentration on the part of the reader
from the tradition of realistic stories. It is thus essential that my three-year study of Joyce's
textual politics starts from this chapter blatant in its textual experiment, not to mention that its
thematics is so impregnated with political import that, next to the episode of “Cyclops,” it
professes itself as a fully-embodied political text.
What renders itself clear in "Aeolus" is Joyce's keen interest in new development of
technology which characterizes the time period in which he wrote and set his novel--the
modern. In this chapter it is most fitting that various forms of telecommunicative technology
are made the central concern on the minds of not only the characters but the narrator-author.
Thus, voice-controlled devices (to use an anachronistic metaphor) such as telephone and even
telegram loom large in the lives of the people found in the printing works in this chapter.
Together with the printing machine, which mechanically reproduces and generates
"newspeak" as rabbits are being pulled out of the hat of the magician, these
close-to-the-original speech- (note the pun) simulating modern technology all at once
cons-/as-pire toward the ideological pursuits on which the speakers in this chapter set their
minds (it is meant deliberately that the voice- or speech-hinged metaphors infuse the above
sentence). Hence, it is no coincidence that the main "art" and "technique" of the chapter--i.e.
the just as much voice-controlled and -concerned rhetoric, or oratory--is combined with and
geared toward the nationalistic ideology constantly on the "breath" (hence the Aeolian theme)
and "lips" of the characters.
My project will attempt to expose this voice-controlled as-/cons-piration infusing both
the text's conscious and unconscious concerns and how it strategically gets affiliated with the
text's surface ideological thematics. While elucidating the close continuum between speechor
oratory-centered feat which various speech-making representatives as proposed by this
chapter display and the political agenda of Irish Nationalism, against this alliance, I will call
attention to the dialectical war fermented by the insidious and insurgent grammatological
elements embedded right in the orthographical aspect of the text. I am hoping to demonstrate
that Joyce's politicization, albeit unduly being glossed over due to his overpowering interest as
well as achievement in aesthetic revolution, in "Aeolus" is activated by a modern warfare in
technology--between telecommunication and grammatology. Therein lies his most
revolutionary vision, as echoed by Stephen's "I have a vision, too" ( U 7.917), concerning Irish
politics, the nature of text-uality, and ultimately textual politics.
Subjects
"Aeolus"
modern telecommunication
voice-controlled technology
textuality
grammatology
Irish Nationalist ideology
textual politics
SDGs
Publisher
臺北市：國立臺灣大學外國語文學系暨研究所
Type
report
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
892411H002095BB.pdf
Size
93.56 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):c349ac77d1b46850cb8c8c5ffb7e3e5b