Musing in and out of the museum with James Joyce’s Ulysses

Abstract

Ulysses became part of the literary canon almost from the moment it was published, and it did not take long before it was turned into a literary monument. As such, it is often celebrated and commented upon; it is perhaps less eagerly visited, except maybe in the form of cursory strolls through selected passages and along a certain number of critical avenues. It will therefore not be surprising to claim that Ulysses is not just about Dublin: the book itself is city, world, and world cultural heritage.Ulysses has long been considered one of the works perfectly embodying the modernist ideal of totality. Even though the claim may sound disputable today, the notion that this novel might constitute a museum of Western civilisation is alluring. James Joyce and Ulysses have spawned several actual museums and ‘historical houses’ in Dublin, as well as inspired a whole gallery of visual works, thus making up an imaginary multimedia museum. What is more, Bloomsday has reached the status of national holiday, and Bloom’s footsteps engraved on the pavement in the distinctive places along his one-day journey are meant to celebrate Joyce’s epic. It could be argued that Joyce has been turned into a national monument at the same time as Dublin has been museified, but I will show that Joyce’s writing also provides the necessary antidote, that is, the profanation of the sacred.This paper explores the unique way in which Ulysses creates a utopian place in which consciousness can feed on memory and consume the cultural heritage, as well as probe into the past and forget it. In such a space, readers are recreated as flâneurs or nomads wandering aimlessly and egoistically, while provisionally forming an impossible community.