Stream of Consciousness, Peristalsis and Translation: "Lestrygonians" from the Narratological Perspective

Abstract

”Lestrygonians” is one of the most challenging episodes in ”Ulysses” owing to its allusive depth and extraordinary wit. Descriptions of the aroma and images of food, the pungent associations they conjure up in the ”thoughtful” mind of Bloom, once juxtaposed with interior monologues showing his disturbing anxiety over Molly's infidelity, easily contribute to the difficulty of understanding the text of the episode. In this initial style, the frequent use of short psycho-narration passages reminds us of the narrator's presence through brief narrative introductions of on-going actions and scenarios in the narrative. These introductions and the need to present the inner thoughts of characters make possible the splicing of psycho-narration with monologues, and for the narrator's adoption of figural voice, both of which complicate reading and translation. In this paper, these issues on the interpretation of the episode's textual structure are studied by comparing the two Chinese translations with Joyce's original. How the initial style in ”Lestrygonians,” when combined with the food theme, interfered with reading and translation is studied from the narratological point of view using Dorrit Cohn's methodology of classifying acts of the mind.