I have tried to apply analytical tools supplied by philosophy and logic to reveal or perhaps - to some extent - even create a consistent account of Joyce’s masterpiece. “Ulysses” contains no determinate meaning, even in a cryptic form – its author intention was rather to incline a patient reader to interpret the text and in this way to co-create its meaning. It is a demanding enterprise, not only because of the size of the book and often an opaque style of Joyce’s writing but also because he often seems to suggest certain paths of interpretation leading astray. For example, in spite of many openly blasphemous fragments the book contains some nontrivial theological threads. Its composition reveal certain logical order akin to a musical composition although at first glance it could remind a kind of a pathwork and so on. The epoch of radical social changes resulting in the Great War surely influenced the content of the novel. |