Beyond the "Holy See": Parody and Narrative Assemblage in "Cyclops"

Abstract

The Cyclops chapter of Ulysses, with its first-person narrator, its multiple parodic forms, and its shifting points of reference, presents puzzle in which form itself plays crucial role in tangle. Although chapter opens with an apparently well-defined point of view - talented, if overly opinionated, barroom raconteur - reader soon finds that this singular I at center of chapter is hardly unique, or for that matter central, authorial eye. On 33 occasions, parodic intrusions cause to shift points of view.(1) These shifts set up paradoxical move that grants centrality to given form, while at same time revealing limitations of that positioning. The result is chapter that transforms multiple failed attempts at direct narration into productive model, defined by interaction of multiplicity. Each shift results in proliferation of narration through these multiplying reports of (U 12.1869-81). As eyewitnesses proliferate - interrupting, canceling, and contradicting each other - narratives begin to serve as supplements to one another. While this proliferation undermines authority of any single, direct narration, interaction of these multiple forms affords Joyce possibility of creating multilinear assemblage in place of authorial, authoritative narration. Narrative delineation in Cyclops serves to mark limitations of any given framework. The central I-narrator brings this feature of chapter into high relief by his prominent delineation as character. That which defines him as narrator also serves as his limit. is in effect parody of authority, neither all-seeing nor all-knowing. His opinions shape facts of story and, like names of characters he occasionally forgets, whatever does not fall under eye of narrator does not become part of his narrative. In addition to marking this lack of impartial omniscience, Joyce also calls attention to limitations of scope by emphasizing I-narrator's bodily presence, fact most notable when I-narrator exits bar to relieve himself, taking narration with him (U12.1561-72). Likewise, chapter reads more as retelling rather than running commentary, with Joyce emphasizing act of storytelling by writing out so's and anyhow's.(2) These features of chapter delineate narrator's character and, in doing so, emphasize limitations of this perspective: that we are hearing version of events in Barney Kiernan's pub. In similar fashion, delineation of various genres by way of parody forces reader's attention on means by which narrative frame serves as both limit and condition of possibility for narration. As Michael Groden notes, parodies in Cyclops and other middle stage chapters allowed Joyce to introduce a relativity in point of view that is much stronger than variations among initial-style episodes (155). Each interruption radically alters account of events in section, calling attention to way in which telling shapes tale. Like Circe, Cyclops is chapter of metamorphoses; but in this section of novel, character transformations occur as direct result of changes in frame. As early as first page of chapter, I-narrator demonstrates means by which form determines content. In order to voice his perspective on Herzog merchant, he literally gives voice to Herzog by impersonating him: He drink me my teas. eat me my sugars. Because he no pay me my moneys? (U 12.31-32). But is equally involved in less-obvious process of (im)personation when creating Geraghty in character of the most notorious bloody robber (U 12.25). Narration in this chapter is always form of impersonation; representation in propria persona is not possible. …