Stephen Dedalus

  • Puck Mulligan: A Joycean-Shakespearean Fool

    Puck Mulligan: A Joycean-Shakespearean Fool

    In “Scylla and Charybdis,” Ulysses’ ninth episode, just as Stephen Dedelaus’ exegesis on Hamlet in “Scylla and Charybdis,” Ulysses’ ninth episode, reaches a crescendo, he is suddenly and violently interrupted by a cry from the doorway, “Amen!” Could this be the proverbial shout in the street? Stephen despairs, thinking, “Hast thou found me, O mine…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Christfox in Leather Trews

    Decoding Dedalus: Christfox in Leather Trews

    This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and  break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p.193 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage that…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Entelechy, Form of Forms

    Decoding Dedalus: Entelechy, Form of Forms

    This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and  break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p. 189-190 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage…

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  • A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 2: Anne Hath a Way

    A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 2: Anne Hath a Way

    This is part two of a three part series about searching for real-life “ghosts” by prying  into Shakespeare’s personal life. You can read part one here and part three here. In “Scylla and Charybdis”, Ulysses’ ninth episode,  Stephen Dedalus’ idiosyncratic theory of Hamlet leans heavily on the purported influence of William Shakespeare’s wife, Anne. The…

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  • A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 1: Hamnet Shakespeare

    A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 1: Hamnet Shakespeare

    “—But this prying into the family life of a great man, Russell began impatiently.” This is part one of a three part post about searching for real-life “ghosts” by prying  into Shakespeare’s personal life. You can read part two here and part three here. Who was the real Hamnet Shakespeare? Not much is known about…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Hamlet, ou le Absentminded Beggar

    Decoding Dedalus: Hamlet, ou le Absentminded Beggar

    This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and  break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p. 186-187 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Horseness is the whatness of allhorse.

    Decoding Dedalus: Horseness is the whatness of allhorse.

    “Stephen disdains the subtle resuscitation of the Victorian bardolatry in the Revival’s aspiration to model the creation of Irish national culture on the use of Shakespeare for British national consolidation. Both efforts, to him, are grounded in the almost religious glorification of the poet.” – Irina D. Rasmussen, “Riffing on Shakespeare: James Joyce, Stephen Dedalus,…

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  • Decoding Dedalus: Folly. Persist.

    Decoding Dedalus: Folly. Persist.

    This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and  break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p. 184-185 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage…

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  • Poetry in Ulysses: Medical Dick and Medical Davy

    Poetry in Ulysses: Medical Dick and Medical Davy

    In the opening scene of “Scylla and Charybdis,” Ulysses’ ninth episode, our Hero-Artist Stephen Dedalus finds himself in the librarian’s office of the National Library in a flurry of literary repartee. The other men in the scene, Lyster and John Eglinton, chat and banter, while Stephen tosses in a few snarky comments. Eglinton lobs back:…

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  • Who Were the Real Men in the Library from “Scylla and Charybdis”?

    Who Were the Real Men in the Library from “Scylla and Charybdis”?

    This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. Ulysses’ ninth episode, “Scylla and Charybdis” centers Stephen Dedalus’ heroic defense of his theory on Hamlet in the National Library, pitting our young Artist against several of Dublin’s literary elite, including Æ Russell, Richard Best and John…

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