Ulysses by James Joyce - A Student's Review...!

After reading the novel, which i actually found quite tasking due to the complex nature of the novel's aims, i decided to scour the internet for professional reviews in the hope of allowing me to gain a further understanding of what the novel symbolized.

After reading it, my general view was that the novel was slightly satirical and completely went against the literary conventions at the time it was written. It attacked the causes of World War I and those responsible for it.

1922 was a key year in the history of English-language literary modernism with the appearance Joyce's novel Ulysses and T.S. Eliot's poem, 'The Waste Land'. T.S. Eliot, was an American poet who had lived in London, and his powerful poetry gave modernism a new channel to direct its messages to the public through.

When reading the novel i noticed that each chapter of Ulysses employs a different literary style, referring to a specific episode in Homer's 'Odyssey', and has a specific colour, art or science and bodily organ associated with it. The formal writing, schematic structure of the novel, and the constant comparison to Homer's 'Odyssey' are all examples of the major contributions Joyce made to the development of 20th century modernist literature.

The novel uses several different themes and below i have tried to link in some examples in the book to the themes i think are portrayed throughout the novel :

Infidelity (Molly Bloom and Blazes Boylan)
Guilt (Stephen Dedalus and His Mother)
Anti-Semitism (The Citizen Insulting Bloom)
The Influence of Shakespeare at the time of the novel(Dedalus and His Shakespeare Theory)
Sexual Temptation (Bloom Ogling Gerty Macdowell and Others)
Religion and its Influence (Numerous References and Allusions)
Camaraderie (Bar Scenes, Bloom and Dedalus)

Before i read the novel, i was unaware of the true meaning of modernism when it was referring to famous authors so i got out the trusty old dictionary perched on the end of my bookshelf and found out the definition, Modernism = Modern thought, character, or practice.

My view is that the 'Modernism' Joyce was involved in was a revolt against traditional literary forms and subjects that manifested itself strongly after the destruction of World War I.

It's clear to see from the novel, that Joyce was an extremely optimistic modernist. His technical innovations and use of language are largely responsible for the modern novel that represents a break with the traditional naturalistic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries of Henry Fielding, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert and Daniel Defoe among many others.

A book review of Ulysses published in the New York Times calls the novel "the most important contribution that has been made to fictional literature in the twentieth century.It is likely that there is no one writing English today that could parallel Joyce's feat, and it is also likely that few would care to do it if they were capable."

In my mind there is no doubt that the novel was a significant development in the history and context of literature that has shaped the way we as journalists write and think, as without the English language, journalists are nothing. Joyce's refusal to conform to literary conventions at the time make the novel what it is, and prove him as a modernist writer.

Overall, whilst the read was tasking, i feel i have benefited from reading Ulysses, as it was a different type of novel to my average read and the only comparison i can think of would be to Don Juan by Lord Byron, which for those of you who don't know is a satirical collection of poems that capture the voyage of Don Juan a serial womaniser and trickster across Europe.

I now look forward to reading the next novel, and am finally feeling satisfied within myself and the course.

Would appreciate some feedback from others to see if they agree with my views on the novel..!