Discursive Practices in the Chapter 'Cyclops ؛ A Foucauldian Approach to James Joyce’s Ulysses

Discursive Practices in the Chapter 'Cyclops ؛ A Foucauldian Approach to James Joyce’s Ulysses

The purpose of the present study is to read chapter twelve of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) based on the theories of Michel Foucault. James Joyce is one of the greatest novelists of twentieth century and his works, specially A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939), established his name in the canon of literature for goods. Chapter twelve of Ulysses, by the title of ʹCyclopsʹ, is the central text, upon which my discussion is based. Central to the theories of Foucault is the concept of ‘power’ that shaped his thoughts in his oeuvre. ‘Power relations’ in each society determine the way people see and perceive the world around them. Foucault was interested in revealing the different ways in which power is practiced in the society. In this regard, he depicted a delicate association between power and knowledge and the specific means by which such knowledge is constructed for the sake of power. In order to attain this delicate association, a mental framework is needed. This mental framework is ʹDiscourseʹ. According to Foucault, discourse, in simple words, is a framework that shapes our thoughts and by which we know and perceive the world. After the explanation of the term discourse, the discussion is focused on the discourse of nationalism and its association with the discourse of religion. In addition, the domination of the discourse of religion is proposed and its influence on the discourse of nationalism is discussed.