Ulysses in Critical Perspective

Name: Ulysses in Critical Perspective
Author: Michael Patrick Gillespie
ISBN: 9780813081458

Edited by Michael Patrick Gillespie and A. Nicholas Fargnoli

Published by: University Press of Florida

Series: The Florida James Joyce Series

In this survey of foundational theory on James Joyce’s Ulysses, seasoned Joyceans introduce the methodologies that have made significant contributions to understanding the novel.

240 Pages6.00 × 9.00Notes, bibliography, index

Paperback
9780813081458
Published: March 31, 2026

$28.00

BUY

EPUB
9780813075273
Published: March 31, 2026

(Ebook delivery via Leaf eReader app.)

$28.00

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Description
Authors
Praise
Table of Contents

A survey of foundational theory on James Joyce’s Ulysses

This collection of essays reviews the state of theory on James Joyce’s Ulysses more than 100 years after the fictitious Leopold Bloom steps into the novel, a day Joyceans celebrate as Bloomsday. The contributors—well known for their work in James Joyce studies—each provide three assessments in their areas of specialization: a history of the best criticism to date, an updating of critical positions, and an agenda for future examination. In clear, accessible language, the collection examines the insights readers can expect from particular modes of inquiry and offers an informed view of theoretical approaches and interpretive trends.

For new Joyce scholars, the book provides a highly readable summary of existing criticism. For seasoned Joyceans, it offers an important review of the methodologies that have made significant contributions to understanding the novel.

Michael Patrick Gillespie is professor of English at Florida International University. A. Nicholas Fargnoli is professor of theology and English at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York. Gillespie and Fargnoli are coauthors of Reading James Joyce: An Introduction.

“A substantial contribution to Ulysses criticism, to the pedagogical as well as scholarly dimensions of Joyce studies. . . . It is also an engaging and stimulating consideration of the future orientations of Joyce studies.”—Vincent Sherry, Washington University in St. Louis

“Presents Joyce enthusiasts another useful tool with which to probe the myriad folds of meaning in Ulysses. . . . Recommended.”—Choice
“Suppl[ies] a panoramic survey of the field that should be of great interest both to veteran Joyceans, many of whom figure prominently in the narrative of critical history these pages trace, as well as to those who are comparatively new to the conversation but for that precise reason are all the more intent on knowing its backgrounds and current contexts.”—James Joyce Quarterly
“Provide[s] readers of Joyce’s Bloomsday Book, newcomers and veterans alike, with an invaluable survey of the relevant critical terrain and with a map for future exploration.”—English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920
“The collection offers a most valuable resource for undergraduates and, perhaps, graduate students daunted at the challenge of beginning work on Joyce. . . . An important addition to any university library.”—Modernism/Modernity

Foreword by Sebastian D. G. Knowles, Series Editor

Introduction: The Mime of Mick, Nick, and the Maggies

I. The Words on the Page

1. “Preparatory to anything else”: Joyce’s Styles as Forms of Memory—The Case of “Eumaeus”
John Paul Riquelme

2. Narratology and Ulysses
Margot Norris

II. Perspectives of the Readers

3. Joyce and the Invention of Language
Sheldon Brivic

4. En-Gendered Choice and Agency in Ulysses
Kimberly J. Devlin

5. Ulysses and Queer Theory: A Continuing History
Joseph Valente

III. Pre- and Post-Publication

6. Joycean Pop Culture: Fragments toward an Institutional History and Futurology
Gregory M. Downing

7. Historicizing Ulysses
Ira B. Nadel