Ulysses: A Study Of Its Narrative Art

This dissertation, based upon narrative theories, studies the narrative art of Ulysses with a focus on its narrator, focalization, characterization, and narrative discourse. It examines their interrelations and their functions in developing the theme of the novel. It is divided into five chapters.Chapter One reviews researches on Ulysses both at home and abroad. It starts with the rise of modernist literature and introduces the philosophical, psychological and linguistic foundations of the stream-of-consciousness novel. Then it goes on to present the researches on Ulysses both at home and abroad.The narrator of Ulysses is discussed in Chapter Two, which begins with the basic functions of the narrator and its features in Ulysses. Functions of the pure diegestic and the parodic narration in the novel and their interrelations are analyzed. The analysis then goes to the organizational functions of the narrator, through which the characters and plots, thoughts and philosophies as well as the narrative techniques are skillfully arranged to reveal and develop the theme of Ulysses. The narrator's organization constitutes an important factor in the narrative art of Ulysses. In conclusion the chapter shifts to the narrator's comments in Ulysses. The analysis focuses on the narrator's implicit comments, which are divided into three categories as allusions and symbols, narrative techniques, as well as characters' identities to elaborate their functions in connection with the theme of the novel.Chapter Three centers on focalization in Ulysses. The narrative in Ulysses establishes a multi-perspective and cubic focalization system. The discussion first goes to the classification of focalizations and their functions in a novel, then expounds three different focalizations in Ulysses and their functions in characterization and the novel's thematic development. The transitions among different focalizations and theirefficiency are dealt with in the third section, which stresses how different focalizations help achieve the unity of the theme. In conclusion the chapter expounds the relationships between focalization and the text, which center on the functions of the multi-perspective and cubic focalization mode in revealing the theme of crises in the ideology of modern society.Chapter Four focuses upon characterization in Ulysses. It starts with the differences of character and characterization between realist and modernist novels. Then the chapter is divided into three sections: characters' speech and behavior, irony, and the language form. James Joyce inherits characterizatioa techniques of the realist novel such as those concerned with the character's speech and behavior. At the same time, Joyce breaks with traditional ways of characterization and develops a sew technique, irony of style, to portray anti-heroes. Furthermore, Joyce invents another method of character-portrayal: characterization through his special use at the language. His careful choice of words and the character's language style help reveal characters'personality.Chapter Five focuses on the narrative discourse in Ulysses, which is discussed in two aspects: its intertextuality and defamiliarisation. The intertextuality in Ulysses exists in its plot structure and language. Hie former analyzes the intertextuality related to the plot of Odyssey, while the latter deals with citations from European classic texts, Holy Bible and Joyce's previous texts. These two sorts of intertextuality employ ancient European civilization as an ironic contrast to the modern world in the West so as to reveal the nature of a spiritual wasteland. The discourse of Ulysses employs such ways as language devices and narrative techniques to defamiliarise the narrative discourse in order to develop the theme of the novel. The second part of this chapter studies those defamiliarised devices and the effect of defamiliarisation in Ulysses.