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A Feminist Perspective An Annotated Bibliography |
Feminist critics and theorists are battling for identity. Some feminists deny the term "feminist," such as Julia Kristeva. Some align themselves with poststructuralism, others with Marxism, some with psychoanalysis. Some are more concerned with women char acters, some with women writers. Some think that a male writer, Joyce or any other man, cannot write with any feminist sensibility or agenda; others disagree. I tried to take into account as many of the varying degrees of feminist theory as possible in compiling and annotating, in order to achieve some semblance of balance.
What the reader will find in this bibliography includes Joycean feminists who embrace his writing, finding a feminist touchstone either in his portrayal of Leopold Bloom as the sensitive "new womanly man," or in his portrayal of Molly Bloom as a "real" woman. It also includes those who do not embrace Ulysses, who instead find Molly Bloom, or other aspects of the novel, offensive, for various reasons. In between these two opinions lies a wide spectrum of criticism, including New Historical, Marxist, socialist, poststructuralist, and others, usually in combination with feminist perspectives in some way.
Male critics are not excluded, as I do not share the belief with Gilbert and Gubar and others that feminism must be a women-only domain. Derek Attridge, Richard Brown, Colin MacCabe, and other male critics included in this bibliography, reveal feminist sensibilities and are included because of the quality of their interpretations.
The reader will find several recurrent themes and issues with which the critics and theorists are struggling, including the concept of Leopold Bloom as "androgynous," Stephen Dedalus's feelings about motherhood and fatherhood, transvestitism, the "flowing" language of "Penelope" and its metaphorical implications, patriarchal atmosphere of Dublin and Joyce's upbringing, Nora Joyce as model for Molly Bloom, and Molly Bloom as archetypal Virgin Mary, Eternal Feminine, Gea-Tellus, and so on. I have tried to tie related essays/books together with "see also" references when possible.
This is only a small portion of the criticism which has been and is being written on Ulysses from a feminist standpoint. I know that I am not yet in a position to pass judgment as to whether Ulysses is a "feminist" novel, or as to what Joyce's intentions were behind creating Molly Bloom, or even if his "intentions" are as important as what the reader comprehends and interprets, taking a more reader-response approach. However, this is a start; it is a beginning of a journey toward coming closer to an answer, to finding my "place" within Joyce's Bloomsday narrative. I hope that the annotations herein will lead the reader to read further and to find his or her place also.