Ulysses and heteroglossia: a Bakhtinian reading of the "Nausicaa" episode

Abstract

This article is an attempt to approach James Joyce's Ulysses from a Bakhtinian perspective, not only to reinforce the opening thesis (Ulysses is the novel par excellence in the light of Bakhtin's theory of the genre) but also to discover the implications of Joyce's use of the so-called "heteroglossia". Ulysses contains an elaborated dialogue of languages which do not exclude each other but intersect in many different ways. This study approaches the "Nausicaa" episode as a paradigmatic microcosm in which heteroglossia is organized and incorporated according to the same procedures which articulate the whole novel. The analysis of all the voices which participate in the narrative reveals the various mechanisms and meaningful implications of the dialogical interaction within the text.