“Signs on a White Field”: The Shadow of Ulysses

  • Erin Kroi University of Victoria

Abstract

This essay employs a poststructuralist approach to James Joyce’s Ulysses through affect: the dynamic method that considers bodies and their sensory experiences along-
side the emotionally-formed forces that motivate them into relation. Through the examination of my own encounter with the Robert Amos painting, Dedalus on the Shore (2016), and the Proteus episode of Ulysses it depicts, I advocate for the novel’s endurance as a global cultural monument beyond its high-literary disposition. Utilising Rita Felski’s discussion of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology, I explore reproductions of Ulysses that shift focus from the novel’s stature in literary history to the influential power engendered by its essence, and our delight in its stylistic whims.

Published
2023-04-15
Section
Articles