Collector of doubtful debts of tradition: Thersites as a model for the character of narrator in the 'Cyclops' episode of Joyce's Ulysses

Abstract

Following the path of contemporary analysis of Ulysses' intertextual potential in the framework of possible influences of classical literature on the emergence of the novel, the paper pursues an argument that Joyce's creation of the character of anonymous narrator in the 'Cyclops' episode was mainly grounded on the literary tradition assembled around the figure of Homeric Thersites (Iliad, B 211-277). The main starting points for this hypothesis can be found both in the testimonies considering writer's biography and various stages in the creation of Ulysses, as well as in the complex referential network within which the relations to Thersites can be analyzed on the diachronic level, from Homeric episode, via menippean satire and Shakespeare's interpretation of the figure in Troilus and Cressida, until this day. Using a combination of biographical, hermeneutic and comparative method, the paper aims to point out the fact that, while creating his anonymous narrator in the 'Cyclops' episode, Joyce hadn't remained in the terms of the antiheroic problematic of 'thersitism' that was initiated by Homer and thoroughly elaborated by Shakespeare. Instead of that, he provided the character with a new dimension, while placing him in the conditions of a non-heroic existence, an existence that was completely embodied only in the worlds of the modern novel.