Ulysses: Lost Homosocial Desire in Ambiguous Identity

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the homosocial desire and the lack of it in two protagonists and heroes of James Joyce in his Ulysses. Unlike the fame of this novel and the extensive research done on this novel, the theoretical relevance of Homosociality in Ulysses has not been widely discussed. This is mostly due to the fact that although, the theory first became popular in the 1990s, it is still a relatively new perspective. This study analyses various views of the social bonds and private lives beside their effects on social behaviors – to determine the reasons of lack of homosociality and the ways in which it is regained – in two Joyce protagonists. Furthermore, this study will seek to argue that if the characters endeavour logically to solve the problems in their lives and mind, their homosociality will be boosted. For example, according to the plot of the story, if Stephen and Bloom as the main characters find their paternity and the root of fatherhood, their relationships and associations with other males in society will be changed accordingly. In order to achieve the mentioned results, the theory of homosociality which was coined for the first time by Jean Lipman-Blumen in 1976 and became popular by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, will be applied to the novel.