Seeds of Brightness: Poetic Memory in James Joyce’s Ulysses

This dissertation examines the process of “poetic memory” in James Joyce’s
Ulysses, a term chosen by Italian philologist Gian Biagio Conte to describe allusive
processes in the poetry of classical texts, specifically the epic. Conte examines and
classifies the epic codes and norms residing within and constituting the classical epic
genre. These change with each successive epic according to the author’s culture. The
allusive process enables an author’s dialogue with his or her predecessors, which has
implications for the establishment of textual authority. By applying Conte’s system of
epic codes and norms toward a reading of Ulysses, it is possible to interrogate the novel
and assess how it situates itself within the epic tradition.
In Ulysses, Joyce responds to and revises the epic tradition through his
appropriation and modification of works by classical, medieval and Renaissance authors.
He writes from the advantage of doing so in the early twentieth century, at a point in
history with a wide range of literary material available to it. Through Ulysses’ Homeric frame and intricate allusions, Joyce creates a somatic text, one that appropriates the
textual somatic components of the Commedia and Gargantua and Pantagruel. In
appropriating and revising elements of these somatic sites, as well as classical allusions,
Joyce creates a foundational Irish epic, one that ultimately questions and even parodies
statements of authority.