The “eye”, “Yes” and the “I” have it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Indeed, the episode “Cyclops” is recognizable at a glance. After the melodic fugue of the “Sirens”, the twelfth chapter sees a rapid change, both in tone and in form. The narrative shifts to a mysteriously verbose I-narrator and recounts Leopold Bloom's encounter with the conflicted citizen. This occurs midway through James Joyce's "Flaneur Epic," and he writes one of the most recognizable parallels to his Homeric counterpart. When Odysseus lands on the island of the Cyclops, he and his men are trapped in a cave by Polyphemus. The “Cyclops” cannibalizes a few men every day. In order to outwit the giant, the hero gets Polyphemus drunk and tells him that his name is "No Man", before plunging a stake into his eye. This causes the monster to scream incoherently, blaming "No Man", which draws derision. Those close to him don't understand. His blindness allows Odysseus and his men to escape the cave by attaching themselves to the sheep. He then foolishly proclaims his name as he walks away, leading Polyphemus to pray that Father Poseidon will curse the boastful Odysseus. Bloom and The Citizen are the Joyceans Odysseus and Polyphemus, and their confrontation echoes the traditional epic. The anonymous narrator is crucial to the reading of the chapter. The presence of “I” quickly establishes the author’s intention by reducing the perspective to a single person, a single eye on the scene. The authority of the narrator gradually frays under a deluge of parodic interjections and the multiplication of characters serving as eyewitnesses. In the episode "Cyclops", the juxtaposition of eloquent prose and the characters' colloquial jokes highlights Joyce's struggles with Irish nationalist rhetoric during this period of Irish cultural revival. The political connotations are all the more apparent with the citizen density, which continually gives rise to nationalist ideas. The choice of parodic tone not only emphasizes the flaws of blind nationalist ideology, but also serves as both an incredibly self-aware exercise in the limits of narrative authority. -Narrator, then immerses himself in parody when he is interrupted more than thirty times by an unknown parodist. The repetition of the homophones "Eye" or the anonymity of the narrator, evoking the identity of the "No Man", are enough to immediately associate this episode with Odyssén's meeting with the cyclops Polyphemus. This parallelism is perceptible at first glance, well before the introduction of the citizen and Léopold Bloom. This guides the reading of the chapter. Essentially, this insinuates a lesser relevance of the events compared to the stylistic prose of the episode. The story of “No Man” outwitting a giant is in the subtext rather than the plot. The mocking interruptions, although varying in style, are not attributed to a single voice, and for the purposes of this study we will attribute these passages to a singular parodist. The reader is further and further removed as the central voice of “I” loses its narrative authority with each new intrusion. Joyce almost immediately draws attention to the physical presence of this new anonymous narrator and his vulnerability. The episode begins with him recounting how a "bloody sweep" almost took out his eye with a broom. This not only draws a parallel with the mythical monster, but also foreshadows the theme of myopia. The narrator seems for the most part to follow a naturalistic dialogue, although often tinged with vulgar and bitter remarks. Its simplicitycontrasts sharply with the often hyperbolic parodist, who offers numerous perceptions, without ever giving a truly complete vision of the same moment. The choice to stylistically parody narrative conventions is an interesting choice and constitutes an essential starting point for analyzing the author's intention. Hyperbolic passages often describe events in an epic manner, as illustrated by the parodist's first interruption, painting an exaggerated portrait of Dublin, as the narrator walks towards the bar: In the fair of Inisfail there is a land, the land of Saint Michan. . There stands a watchtower that can be seen in the distance. There sleep the mighty dead as they slept alive, warriors and princes of great fame. (12.378.31) The description of an ancient mythical land inhabited by powerful warriors and princes sharply departs from the narrator's previous paragraph. The language is reminiscent of the Irish Literary Revival movement, which romanticized Celtic culture. “Inisfail” was the name given to Ireland by the divine race known as “Tuatha Dé Danaan” and appeared in 19th century revivalist poetry. These interpolations point out to the reader the parallels with the Homeric tale. Bloom's "smoking cigar" is the modern day stake of the Odyssey, the Citizen is introduced with numerous references to caves, echoing Polyphemus' lair. The following parody invasions ridicule different styles. Their juxtaposition with the narrator's familiar account of the same moment emphasizes the mocking tone. In a parodic passage of medical jargon, Leopold Bloom's scientific explanation is interrupted by the narrator, who describes it thus: “he begins with his speeches on the phenomenon and the science, on this phenomenon and on the other phenomenon. » (12.394.1). The parodist follows this annoyed account with the ceremonial “The eminent scientist Herr Professor Luitpold Blumenduft” (12.394.4) and mocks Bloom's explanation using highly technical language. Eclectic uses of language are motivated by seemingly insignificant details, which introduce new perceptions, all of which abstract from what has been previously said. They cause confusion, misinterpretations and contradictions in the story. Leopold Bloom is both an “old lardyface” and a “distinguished phenomenologist.” He can be seen through anti-Semitic lenses as a thrifty Jew or a mythical hero. The allusions to the source material are among the most explicit in Joyce's epic, however, the deluge of long lexical lists injected by the parodist, the multitude of stylistic voices and the contradictory depictions of the central character seem to render the plot moot. The tone is that of a mocking epic, but Joyce does not mock the Homeric tale. He uses the structure of the Odyssey as a vehicle for various stylistic and thematic parodies. “Cyclops” subverts the instruments used by Irish revivalists to spread their message, highlighting their inherent flaws. The three cultural media pillars intended to fuel the sense of belonging to the Irish nation were newspapers, Celtic ballads and theatre. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, nascent nationalist groups used newspaper distribution and ballads to educate the nation about their own national history. While “Aeolus” is set in a newspaper office, “Cyclops” is full of references to print culture, from articles taken from real periodicals to mention of the citizen's “paraphernalia newspapers.” The news-saturated episode continues the pattern of parody interpolations, here mocking biased media content, such as an article satirizing British imperialismread by the citizen: A delegation of the leading cotton magnates of Manchester was presented to His Majesty the Alaki yesterday. of Abeakuta by Gold Stick in Waiting, Lord Walkup of Walkup on Eggs, to present to His Majesty the sincere thanks of the British traders for the facilities granted to them in his dominions. (12.) Similarly to the Homeric plot, the content of these imitated "journalistic" articles, while significant and certainly humorous, is also somewhat secondary to the main argument. It is the swarm of periodicals in circulation and their consumption made ridiculous. Just as the plethora of stylistic voices contributes to this idea that there is no single objective perception of events, the sheer volume of newspapers in circulation adds to the conflicting messages that influence readers. Adding to the confusion caused by the number of diaries, Joyce also includes the ceremonial or performative aspect surrounding their consumption. Pubs were a well-known meeting place for Irish nationalists to share their ideas. The public reading of newspaper articles allowed the masses to hear the messages of a unified Ireland and reclaim their identity after a long period of British colonialism. This aspect of interpretation is deeply rooted in the oral tradition of ballads, which has long been the only way to ensure that history is not forgotten. Tales of the legendary races that created Ireland and the occult were usually the themes of these musical fables, and over time they evolved into political ballads. Theater truly entered the equation later in the century and seriously cemented its role in this revival when Lady Gregory, WB Yeats and Edward Martin opened the Abbey Theater in 1904. The Irish Literary Revival aimed to promote a national consciousness, breaking away from British imperialism for good and the fight for a new start with a free Irish state. Two recurring stereotypes about the Irish were considered symbols to be recovered to dissociate themselves from colonial blockages. The first was the loathsome "Stage-Irishman", portrayed as a cowardly drunkard, and the second was the passive and docile woman. Ireland, historically attributed to this feminine image, was prevalent due to its Celtic mythology, occult past, and goddess symbolism. Revivalists took these images and reinvented them to fit a nascent nation that needed to rediscover its identity after centuries of colonialism. These figures transformed the cowardly Irishman into a young soldier or artist, ready to fight for his country, and the weak woman into a powerful mother figure reminiscent of old Irish traditions, personifying Ireland as a homeland. Cathleen Ni Houlihan, the best-known play on the patriotic themes of the Literary Revival, was written by WB Yeats and Lady Gregory. They promoted an incarnation of Ireland, that of a fragile woman after having her “four green fields” usurped and having incited a young man to sacrifice his life to recover them for her. Citizens' calls for action "And they will return and with vengeance, no cowards, the sons of Granuaile, the champions of Kathleen Ni Houlihan" (12.428.12) reflect this internalized activist discourse. “Cyclops” plays with the performance tradition, and this episode is one of the most theatrical yet. The way in which the parodist and citizen constructs these events in Irish history and the characters in the scene is melodramatic. While the narrator describes the citizens' actions as laughable, he compares them to a Queen's Theater caricature, which makes for an interesting juxtapositionwith the highly functional style of the abbey. Yeats was known to hate theater, believing that overly ornate performances diminished the power of the storyline. Joyce sees the movement as being closer to British influences than they think. The irony is strong. The Citizen, a caricature of Irish revivalism, serves to denounce its rhetoric and the sectarian attitudes that are sometimes attached to it. The figure is described as wearing a belt adorned with seal stones engraved with "crude but striking art, the tribal images of many Irish heroes and heroines of antiquity", solidifying his romanticism of ancient Ireland, a common thread of revivalist discourse. His grandiloquent attitude, coupled with the parodist's theatrical portrayal of his character, seems to be closer to the characterization in Alexander Pope's epic parody "The Rape of the Lock" rather than that of Alexander Pope's "The Odyssey." Homer. Its singular nostalgia and xenophobia illustrate Joyce's own reservations about the movement, criticizing an ideology that could lead to further isolation of Ireland. Ulysses positions itself in a period of transition for Irish national identity. The story takes place in 1904, when Ireland was still under English rule, and this reality of the Irish colonial experience is the source of great tensions, particularly with the agrarian population. The book's publication in 1922 came a year after the emergence of the Irish Free State. The Citizen is a personification of militant Irish nationalism, while Bloom takes a seemingly oppositional stance, leaning toward a more moderate solution to this question of "Irishness." Historically, the English have portrayed the Irish as morally bankrupt and politically incapable of justifying their rule over Ireland. The reality of Irish inequality, the loss of Irish culture and Irish land was not new. This stems from generations of English colonialism. One of the main motivations for this movement was the Great Potato Famine of the 19th century, during which the Gaelic-speaking population fell dramatically. The citizen says it clearly when he talks about the worst year of the famine: They were chased from house and hearth in the dark 47th. Their mud huts and roadside shields were destroyed by the batteringram and the Times rubbed its hands and said For the white-blooded Saxons there would soon be as few Irish in Ireland as there were redskins in America. Even the Grand Turk sent us his piastres. But the Sassenachs attempted to starve the nation at home while the land was full of crops that British hyenas bought and sold in Rio de Janeiro. (12.427.33) Joyce makes many comparisons between Bloom and Charles Parnell, who had been an important political figure in the Irish nationalist movement and led the liberal Home Rule League. Parnell opposed the revolutionary policies of the Fenians. The citizen himself praises the terrorist acts committed by the group and hates the lukewarm methods of the League, which reacted with boycotts to assert its point of view. Interestingly, citizens are seeking to modernize through Irish independence. This nostalgic longing for ancient Ireland was a common thread in nationalist rhetoric. This antagonism between the hot-headed citizen and the protagonist has often caused readers to sympathize with Bloom. Joyce's authorial intent seems clear enough on first reading, but it is much more implicit. Bloom's Ambivalent Identity is an exploration of Ireland's nuanced identity after a long and complicated history with colonialism/ 27820927.