Textual Conversations and Dialogic Imagination in James Joyce’s Ulysses
Textual Conversations and Dialogic Imagination in James Joyce’s Ulysses

Summary/Abstract: Borrowing from Bakhtinian theory of the novel, this article discusses the novel’s generic possibilities with a particular focus on the “Scylla and Charybdis” chapter in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Named after the twelfth book of The Odyssey, this chapter takes place in the Dublin National Library where five characters are discussing Shakespeare’s controversial play Hamlet. Throughout the chapter, Stephen Dedalus builds up a speculative theory on Shakespeare, which is fundamentally based on an autobiographical reading; yet, he unexpectedly renounces his own theory at the end of the chapter. While the first half of the article explicates Stephen’s theory on Shakespeare, which is primarily interpreted through its criticism of paternity, the second half discusses Joyce’s various attempts at experimentation with the possibilities of the novel genre. The main purpose is, on the one hand, to examine basic Bakhtinian terminology such as dialogy, carnivalesque, polyglottism, heteroglossia, among others, on the other hand, to practice the ways in which Bakhtin’s theory of the novel can be applicable to a literary text. For both purposes, Joyce’s Ulysses is taken as an illustrative case.

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