Ulysses

Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359 and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality.

This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth.

Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

Quell'audace son io: me la fidanza / Me l'ardir persuade al gran periglio / D'insinuarmi nel dardanio campo. / Ma se meco verranne altro guerriero, / Securtà crescerammi ed ardimento. / Se due ne vanno di conserva, l'uno / fa l'altro accorto del miglior partito.

Zusammenfassung Einer der zentralen Texte zum Anderen der Kultur und vor allem der Kultur des Anderen ist ohne Zweifel Theodor W. Adornos Interpretation der Odyssee im Rahmen seiner mit Max Horkheimer verfaßten Dialektik der Aufklärung. Der Text ist damit Zeugnis einer interkulturellen Arbeit in und an der Schrift, während er zugleich auch Analyse eben dieses Prozesses der Arbeit der Vernunft und Sprache an ihrem Anderen ist. Im folgenden soll analysiert werden, welche Themenkomplexe Theodor W. Adorno an der Odyssee vorfinden konnte, wie er sie analysierte – und welche exegetischen Optionen das Material noch sowohl im Sinne der Interpretation Adornos, aber auch gegen sie geboten hätte. Adornos Odyssee-Lektüre ist eine vernunftkritisch motivierte Archäologie, der Versuch, das, was an der Moderne und ihrem exzessiven Bezug zur Vernunft schon quasi von Beginn an als Makel auszulegen ist, zu definieren. Im Rekurs auf eine sozusagen vorgeschichtliche Erzählung soll so die letztlich außergeschichtliche Frage beantwortet werden, ob ein Begreifen möglich sei, ohne sich genau der " Sprossen der Leiter, über die Odysseus, […] (der) Affe, nach Ithaka klettert " 1 , zu bedienen, ob also das Andere (die andere Sprache und Kultur, aber dann ganz deutlich auch das Andere von Sprache und Kultur) anders denn im Zuge einer illegitimen Bemächtigung zu verstehen ist.

The stream of consciousness mode is a key feature of James Joyce’s Ulysses, but Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo have turned a blind eye on this as they followed a more socio-political strategy to drop Joyce’s psychological modes altogether from their translation. Xiao and Wen have a reason for choosing said strategy despite Xiao’s familiarity with the technique. Several factors forced them to drop the stream of consciousness mode in favor of a politically-correct format. After all, historical developments did not allow literary Modernism to thrive and Ulysses to be accepted in 20th–century China. The quarrel between the leftists and the rightists among men of literature contributed to this negative atmosphere. Then, the rise of communism made things even worse with the state’s subsequent coercion of writers and translators to toe the official line. But perhaps the single most determining factor was the Cultural Revolution and its attendant atrocities. Xiao was labeled a rightist, purged by Mao’s Red Guards, banished to a Chinese gulag, and was forbidden from writing after his release. Political persecution made him extra cautious, and their decision to jettison Joyce’s stream of consciousness mode is understandable. In Translation and Conflict, Mona Baker brings forward the concept of “selective appropriation,” which she argues to be evident in patterns of omission and addition that are traceable in the target text itself. Relevant historical events, personal accounts from Xiao and Wen, as well as more recent studies by PRC scholars show that their strategy of purging the stream of consciousness technique altogether from their translation is a classic example of selective appropriation resulting from self-censorship, of adopting a translation strategy in consideration of political reality. This paper examines Xiao and Wen’s translation strategy by comparing sample excerpts, and provides a historical account of decisive historical events.

Patrick McGee uses the Lacanian model of the Unconscious to show how Ulysses baffles and defeats certain axioms of traditional literary criticism, such as the assumption that the meaning of an author's fiction can be reduced to his conscious beliefs and intentions.  Described by Shari Benstock as "the first feminist reading of Ulysses," Paperspace goes further than any other book to date [1988] in the application of postmodern critical theory to a close reading of the novel.

Ulisse è il campione della ragione che trionfa in Occidente, l’eroe dell’intelligenza e dell’avventura. Ma la sua figura non è univoca nella tradizione antica. Le maschere del mito greco parlano di altre ragioni, di passioni irriducibili, di colpe che l’eroe non ha pagato. E di una giustizia che non si lascia iscrivere nella legge condivisa.
Ulisse che calunnia; Ulisse, infido e vigliacco in battaglia; Ulisse che corrompe; Ulisse che tradisce; Ulisse che sacrifica una fanciulla affinché soffino venti favorevoli alla partenza da Troia; Ulisse che seduce e abbandona; Ulisse, il reduce, che fa strage di giovani a Itaca. Capitolo per capitolo, la luce tocca personaggi femminili e maschili – compagni di impresa in guerra e in viaggio, madri e figlie, padri e figli, dee e mortali. Nauplio, Teti, Aiace, Neottolemo, Ecuba, Polissena, Calipso, Nausica, Eupite – figure ai bordi della narrazione maggiore, travolte e stravolte nella loro vicenda mitica dal genio contorto di Ulisse. Dalle fonti antiche emergono le loro voci che, in concerto, compongono un grave atto d’accusa contro l’eroe.

Il libro è disponibile su: https://bit.ly/Contro_Ulisse_Salerno_Editrice_2021

This book reassesses Primo Levi’s Holocaust texts in light of the posthumanist theories of Adorno, Levinas, Lyotard, and Foucault which together critique humanist notions of subjectivity, ethics, culture, and science. I argue that Levi positions himself as an exemplary subject of Western modernity who experiences and interprets Auschwitz through the lens of Enlightenment humanism. Even as Levi speaks for the victims, his texts suggest that Holocaust writing framed by humanist assumptions risks complicity with the murderous master narratives of Nazism that it seeks to overturn. My book explores the consequences of this potential complicity for the future of the humanist subject.
Reviewed in The Journal of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy. See https://doi.org/10.1080/13532944.2012.756706

Images of the drowned man plague James Joyce’s Ulysses, suggesting the sea and characters’ relationships to water as sources of tension and potential threat. By examining a few of the ways that water and the threat of drowning appear with regards to Stephen, Bloom and Molly, the reader can see associations between the motif and guilt, poverty, and identity (both socially and personally constructed). Further, the various images of water and the threat of drowning combine with the form of the novel to create interesting moments of mimesis that potentially reveal who has drowned and who has survived their individual threatening seas.

L’articolo prende le mosse dagli studi di Hans Blumenberg sul mito, sulla sua genesi antropologica e sulla funzione ‘epocale’ di alcuni «miti fondamentali», per seguire la storia della ricezione del mito di Odisseo, comprenderne il portato di «significatività», osservarne le trasformazioni semantiche attraverso la storia e i diversi concetti di realtà che ne contraddistinguono i momenti. Si tenta quindi di cogliere la capacità mutogena del mito soprattutto in relazione allo snodo epocale del passaggio alla modernità, anche in rapporto alle evoluzioni della metafora della navigazione. Infine si getta uno sguardo sul contemporaneo e sulle possibili risignificazioni odierne di quel topos narrativo.

Much research since ancient times has sought to locate Odysseus’ Ithaca, described by Homer as being west of an island group. Numismatic evidence seems to have been largely neglected, even though it preserves mythology and traditions from the distant past. This paper surveys the coins of the most commonly accepted region of Ithaca, the islands of the Ionian Sea west of Greece. Minting began there in about 500 BC, less than three centuries after Homer’s composition of the Odyssey as we know it. Coins that illustrate gods, characters, and symbols are selected and ranked by the significance of their associations with Ithaca as described in the Odyssey. The results seem to support the location of Ithaca in the area of western Kephalonia.

L’article étudie l’odyssée anti-nostalgique de Saad Saad, le protagoniste du roman Ulysse from Bagdad d’Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.  Les modes de transformation du substrat homérique et plus particulièrement les mythomorphoses des figures réactualisées révèlent la dynamique de renversement du syntagme mythique de base.  Les avatars contemporains du navigateur « aux mille ruses » et de ses compagnes, fatidiques ou épisodiques, ainsi que les métamorphoses insolites de quelques créatures mythiques sont analysés du point de vue des pratiques de modernisation hypertextuelle.

Offering a critique of the class politics of contemporary Joyce studies, McGee insists that Joyce’s later work be understood in the context of the general political economy, or conditions of production, that underlies both Joyce’s career and his critical reputation. He relates debates over pedagogy and the critical editions of Joyce’s works to his situation as a colonial and postcolonial subject and as a critic of the social, economic, and ethical values of capitalism. In his groundbreaking view of Joyce’s politics, McGee offers a new way to understand Joyce’s attitude toward violence and social change and his response to the Irish revolution and civil war. A final long essay lays out the implicit theory of social and cultural revolution in the Wake. While especially valuable to scholars of modern literature and critical theory, the work also will be important to readers in a range of fields, including politics, education, psychoanalysis, feminist and gender theory, ethics, and postcolonial theory.

Notre-Dame Déesse & Le Féminicide des Héros est un voyage dans le temps qui illumine notre société. Il est raconté par un homme âgé de culture moyenne, qui s’étonne à chaque pas, et rit, ou se met en colère, comme un enfant.

La quatrième de couverture annonce « Une vaste ‘déconstruction’ de croyances archéologiques au long du Fil d’Ariane : des temples néolithiques de Malte à la Grèce de l’âge du bronze et de l’époque classique. Un essai & un récit de voyage & un pamphlet tout-terrain, éducatif et rieur. À petites doses chaque soir, il peut être utile contre de vieux maux. »

Le parcours est résumé par un crieur de journaux :
« Découverte archéologique dévoile origine machisme, viol de groupe et féminicide ! »
Il a raison, mais ce n’est pas tout, et il n’a pas lu les 13 bonus tracks, ni répondu au quiz.

Après une diffusion ad personam qui a provoqué douleurs ou exultations en divers milieux, nous publions en exclusivité sur Academia.edu cette version de Notre-Dame Déesse & Le féminicide des Héros, complète et non censurée. Nous conseillons au lecteur de la télécharger tant qu'il est temps. Tôt ou tard, un éditeur avare demandera à l’auteur de la retirer de Academia.edu où le texte est disponible en trois langues, gratuitement. L’auteur courbera l’échine, parce que lui aussi aime l’argent.

Leopold Bloom, James Joyce irodalomtörténeti jelentőségű művének, az Ulyssesnek a főhőse a műből egyértelműen következően szabadkőműves. Vagy legalábbis annak látszik. Vagy csak annak nézik? Mi hát a helyzet ezzel kapcsolatban?

A tanulmányban 2x2-es mátrixokban mutatjuk be az eredeti, a Gáspár Endre féle, a Szentkuthy Miklós és végül a Magyar James Joyce Műhely (Gula Marianna, Kappanyos András, Kiss Gábor Zoltán, és Szolláth Dávid) fordításában a szabadkőművességre utaló részleteket, esetenként megmagyarázva.

Cette thèse examine l’omniprésence de la figure d’Ulysse dans la conscience de soi du XXe siècle à travers ses nombreuses réécritures littéraires et philosophiques. Constatant la prolifération sans précédent de la figure d’Ulysse dans la littérature de cette période, il s’agit de montrer qu’elle incarne et met en marche une pensée qui conduit au cœur des problèmes les plus importants du siècle. La fortune littéraire et critique qu’Ulysse connaît au XXe siècle est expliquée par les modalités de la pensée qu’il véhicule, modalités qui sont éclairées par la définition d’Ulysse en tant que figure de la médiation des extrêmes. Cette pensée des extrêmes incarnée par Ulysse est définie comme une manifestation de l’esprit propre au littéraire et irréductible à la pensée conceptuelle, c’est-à-dire comme pensée littéraire. À partir de l’étude de textes littéraires du XXe siècle dans lesquels se manifeste la figure d’Ulysse, je montre que cette pensée concerne le rapport de force entre affect et raison au sein de l’esprit, la manière dont la raison se propulse à partir des affects pour ensuite être débordée par ceux-ci, dans un mouvement perpétuel qui est exemplifié par les pérégrinations d’Ulysse en quête d’un retour impossible. Ce rapport de force entre affect et raison est thématisé de manière spécifique sous la forme de la mise en scène par la figure d’Ulysse du rapport de force entre l’origine hellénique et l’origine judéo-chrétienne de la civilisation occidentale, entre raison et révélation, savoir et foi, Athènes et Jérusalem.

This thesis examines the omnipresence of the Odysseus figure in twentieth century self-consciousness throughout its many literary and philosophical rewritings. Noting the unprecedented proliferation of the Odysseus figure in this period’s literature, the thesis seeks to convey the ways in which it embodies and sets in motion thinking at the core of the most important problems of the century. Odysseus’s literary and critical fortune in the twentieth century is explained by the modalities of thought which it conveys, modalities that are themselves clarified by the definition of Odysseus as a figure of the mediation between extremes. This thought of and between extremes embodied by Odysseus is defined as a manifestation of the mind proper to the literary, that is, as specifically literary thought, which is irreducible to conceptual thought. From the study of diverse literary texts of the twentieth century in which the Odysseus figure appears, I demonstrate that this particular form of thought concerns the balance of power between affect and reason within the mind, the way in which reason propels itself on the basis of affects only to become overwhelmed by them, in a perpetual movement that is exemplified by the peregrinations of Odysseus in his quest for an impossible return. This power struggle between affect and reason becomes a thematic element in the form of Odysseus’s depiction, or “mise en scène,” of the power struggle between the Hellenic and Judeo-Christian origins of Western civilization, between reason and revelation, knowledge and faith, Athens and Jerusalem.

Our Lady Goddess & The Femicide of the Heroes is a time travel illuminating our society. The tale is told by an old man of average culture, exclaiming in surprise at each step, and laughing, or getting angry, like a child.

The back cover announces « A vast “deconstruction” of archaeological beliefs along Ariadne's Thread: from Malta’s Neolithic temples to Bronze Age and classical Greece. An essay & a travel log & an educative, smiling, off-road pamphlet. Small doses every evening can help solve old problems.»

The newsboy makes a long story short:
«Archaeological find unveils origin of machismo, gang-rape and femicide!»
He is right, but there is much more to it, and he did not read the 13 bonus tracks, nor answered the quiz.

After a distribution ad personam that caused great pain or exultation in many fields, we publish here, as an exclusivity for Academia.edu, this full, uncensored version of Our Lady Goddess & The Femicide of the Heroes. We advise the reader to download it before it is too late. Sooner or later, some greedy publisher will ask the author to remove it from Academia.edu where it is available in three languages, for free. The author will bow down because he, too, loves money.

Il tema di Ulisse e le sirene è stato ampiamente trattato nel corso degli studi, soprattutto nel caso di particolari reperti. Il presente articolo si propone l'obiettivo di fornire una panoramica sulla rinascita di questo episodio in vari contesti specialmente nell'ambito del III secolo: quello funerario con l'esempio dei sarcofagi, con gli oggetti d'uso comune come le lucerne e con l'architettura residenziale. Durante questo periodo quindi viene ripresa l'iconografia della vicenda omerica che si era sviluppata già ampiamente nei secoli passati, attribuendo anche un significato diverso e soterico se visto in ottica cristiana.

The theme of Ulysses and the Sirens has been thoroughly studied, especially in the case of particular finds. The aim of this paper is to give a global view on the revival of this episode in different contexts, especially during the third century: the funerary one with the example of the sarcophagi, with the ordinary use objects as the oil lamps, and with the residential architecture. So, during this period the Homeric iconography which was much developed in the last centuries is resumed, also giving a different, esoteric mean, if read from a Christian perspective.

This paper focuses on a mysterious reference in the depiction of the provenance of the fateful bow of Odysseus in Od. 21.26, which is usually translated as '[the man called] Herakles, guilty of monstruous actions' or else as '… Heracles aware of great deeds'. Instead of traditionally linking this allusion to Heracles' killing of Iphitos or the story of Heracles' involvement in the theft of the mares of Iphitos' father by Autolykos, Odysseus' grandfather, it is argued that the reference here is to the participation of Heracles in the cosmic battle of the Olympian gods against the Gigantes. Accordingly, the line should be translated as follows: 'Heracles, witness to great deeds'. As such, Od. 21.26 would provide us with the earliest attested mention of the Gigantomachy in Greek literature. If so, alongside other passages in the Odyssey such as 12.69-70 (mentioning 'Argo, who is in all men's minds'), this reference might have been triggered by the poet's eagerness to include an allusion to a freshly pre-Homeric poem widely circulating among his envisaged audience.

"Love loves to love love. Nurse loves the new chemist. Constable 14A loves Mary Kelly. Gerty MacDowell loves the boy that has the bicycle. M. B. loves a fair gentleman. Li Chi Han lovey up kissy Cha Pu Chow. Jumbo, the elephant, loves Alice, the elephant. Old Mr Verschoyle with the ear trumpet loves old Mrs Verschoyle with the turnedin eye. The man in the brown macintosh loves a lady who is dead. His Majesty the King loves Her Majesty the Queen. Mrs Norman W. Tupper loves officer Taylor. You love a certain person. And this person loves that other person because everybody loves somebody but God loves everybody."

James Joyce. Ulysses NY: Book of the Month Club 1982 p.318 

Inscribed on 2022-02-02

In episode nine of Ulysses main protagonist, Stephan Daedalus proposes his Shakespearean theory claiming that Shakespeare’s works have their origin in the playwright’s personal trauma, namely, suffering from his wife’s,  Anne Hathaway’s adulterous life. He describes whole mood of main plays as pessimistic where neither Hamlet nor other tragedies result in Aristotelian catharsis and recreation of positive meaning. On the contrary, they represent life as absurd. Stephan sees Hamlet as an absurdist thinker comprehending negativity of life rather than idealistically understood moral protagonist of his time. Hence, the analysis of the theory makes it clear that Joyce’s specific reading of Shakespeare’s works is a part of meaning seeking, ironic nature of Ulysses.

The legacy of sea crossing stories continues to provide us with models of how to achieve a disciplined focus, during our crossing, so that we can reach a different way of life, arriving not unscathed, but transfigured. This hybrid of literary nonfiction and wide-screen scholarship quotes Homer's Ulysses, Steely Dan's "Home at Last," and "That Sinking Feeling" by Sting, and other literary and religious texts, including Frederick Douglass and Thoreau. We all need the mast of a stern discipline in one form or another, it is argued. Siren songs surround us. Such voices calling us may seem too seductive to resist. Better to have some wax at hand to block out the white noise of a chaotic world.

James Joyce's Ulysses is arguably the most famous example of avant-garde prose ever written; in this novel he chose the arduous task of representing a sonic art (music) in language (literature) revealing a fascinating dynamic between the two media. This paper will explore the literary uses of music in the Sirens episode of Ulysses with the aim of addressing four key interrelated research questions: (1) how the representation of music in Ulysses informs our reading by elucidating the major themes and characters of the novel; (2) how language and literary techniques are used to convey musical structures and forms; (3) how Joyce responds to the contentious idea of music as an 'absolute' or 'pure' art, residing above language; and (4) how Joyce rewrites the Sirens myth and in so doing evokes the significant connection between music and myth, which was revitalized during the modernist period.

Poème sur la distance, l'Odyssée interroge les notions du proche et du lointain, de la dispersion et du regroupement tout comme celles du contact topographique et du contact topologique, en un temps où les aristocraties grecques sont prises dans un jeu complexe d'échelles identitaires. Doivent-elles d'abord s'enraciner, à l'échelle locale, dans un rapport de proximité immédiate avec les autres membres de la polis? Se bâtissent-elles au contraire, à l'échelle de la Grèce continentale ou bien encore à celle du monde connu, dans le cadre d'un «web» constitué de cités connectées? Chercher la proximité immédiate avec Ulysse, un héros né sur la lointaine Ithaque, c'est sans doute, pour Ménélas, tenter de concilier, dans un idéal aristocratique impossible, les deux spatialités concurrentes du haut archaïsme.