the dialogic imagination of joyce

Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

MONIKA FLUDERNIK The Dialogic Imagination of Joyce Form and Function of Dialogue in „Ulysses“ Originalbeitrag erschienen in: Style 20 (1986), S. 42-57

Monika Fludernik

The Dialogic Imagination ofJoyce: Form and Function of

Dialogue in Ulysses

The acknowledgment of Joyce's mastery in portraying the hazards of)nversation or communication in Dublin has become a commonplace in theitical assessment of Joyce's work. Indeed, it would seem that the various)nversations recorded in Ulysses must have been taken down by the unbiased.;n of a practiced stenographer or captured and faithfully reproduced on ape recorder. The reader's conviction of being placed in the singular position'an immediate witness to the action can, however, be revealed as an illusion.id recognized as the effect—and indeed purpose—of Joyce's adept manage-lent of the dialogue. In this connection, Joyceans are indebted to the acuityHugh Kenner, C. H. Peake, and others for having furnished them with new

'sights.In spite of the general recognition of Joyce's achievements in the handling

r dialogue, few studies have concentrated on an examination of the formsId functions of dialogue in his work.' This may be due to the critics' awarenessiat one could not cut off the dialogue from the remainder of the text without-avely distorting the text's meaningful unity and texture. Indeed, in assessingle dialogue in Ulysses, one soon finds oneself beset by questions of how toistinguish dialogue from surrounding narrative, or of how to define the inter-Aationship between narrative proper (Erzeihlerbericht) and the recording ofharacters' utterances. Perhaps it is this difficulty which has so far stood inle way of a more thoroughgoing appreciation of Joyce's dialogues. Dealing.ith the function of dialogue necessarily involves one's proceeding from atore or less fully established theory of discourse to avoid becoming entangled

narratological controversy. A critic's assessment of the function(s) of dia-)gue will thus implicitly depend on his or her views on the text as a whole.nd his analysis of the dialogue will therefore of necessity be a partial ordeological one.

It is such a partial view of dialogue in Ulysses that I propose here. Theheoretical basis for my argument derives from F. K. Stanzel's A Theory ofkirrative and has been detailed in my article "Narrative and its Developmentn Ulysses." Dialogue is here used as a synonym for the recording of characters'itterances, and its function and form are determined by the qualities of theiarrative in each individual episode. Since the narrative, by definition, mediatesictive reality to the reader, it is free to quote characters' utterances as they

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Form and Function of Dialogue in Ulysses 43

occur, to suppress or distort them, to comment on them, or use them playfullyfor its own ends. The more objective a narrative is—that is, the more it seemsto provide an illusion of rendering fictive reality immediately—the more thor-oughly it will attempt to present characters' utterances as verbatim as possible.On the other hand, to the degree that a narrative is self-conscious, artificial,or fictive, it will appropriate the words of its fictional characters, abbreviatingand paraphrasing, suppressing or even distorting them. It is thus that a scaleof discrete forms of dialogue in fiction becomes established, ranging from (a)direct quotation of characters' utterances (with or without commentatory inquittags), (b) discours indirect libre (DIL), 2 and (c) indirect (reported) speech to(d) speech report,3 in which the narrative fully takes over, recounting what acharacter is saying in the narrative's own words.4

On the basis of these elementary distinctions let us now turn to Ulysses.

I

Dialogue as a whole takes up some 19% of the text of Ulysses. This doesnot include "Circe" and "Ithaca," since both episodes, though cast into theform of dialogue, do not necessarily record (realistic) utterances by individualcharacters. 5 If one included the dialogue parts of "Circe"—that is, exclusive ofthe stage directions—the percentage would rise to 26.8. 6 Over 60% of the dia-logue is direct speech, quoted by means of an introductory dash (from nowon called "marked dialogue") and most frequently integrated into the narrativeby means of introductory inquit phrases or intervening and postposed inquittags.' It is also found in mere juxtaposition to the narrative. Marked dialogueoccurs in episodes one to thirteen ("Telemachus" to "Nausicaa") and in"Eumaeus." In some chapters it can also be part of passages of interior mon-ologue. "Unmarked" direct speech in minor quantities occurs in "Sirens" andin some earlier sections of interior monologue, in which it refers to rememberedor imagined utterances. In "Oxen of the Sun" unmarked direct speech in somemeasure takes the place of marked dialogue. 18.2% of this episode consists ofdirect speech flanked by inquit tags ("quoted" direct speech), and an additional11.3% is unquoted direct speech.

Instances of discours indirect libre (DIL) for the presentation of speechoccur in "Hades"—this one instance is however ambiguous 8—in "WanderingRocks" (several instances), in some phrases in "Sirens" and "Nausicaa" aswell as in "Oxen of the Sun." DIL becomes a major device for renderingcharacters' utterances in "Eumaeus." Reported speech, too, appears mainly in"Eumaeus" and "Oxen of the Sun." Before that point it occurs only in briefpassages in "Sirens" and "Nausicaa." Speech report, finally, occurs first in"Sirens," becomes more prominent in "Cyclops," and constitutes a large partof both "Oxen of the Sun" and "Eumaeus."

44 Monika Fludernik

From this brief survey it becomes immediately apparent that markeddialogue is the major form of dialogue in Ulysses. It prevails from the beginningof the novel up to "Cyclops" and reappears in a less prominent fashion in"Nausicaa" and "Eumaeus." Up to "Scylla and Charybdis" marked dialoguehas a monopoly, which is then partly challenged in "Wandering Rocks" and"Sirens," and destroyed in "Cyclops" and "Nausicaa," where it has to competewith other forms of dialogue. When marked dialogue reappears in "Eumaeus,"it occurs in conjunction with, and in contrast to, the mediate forms of speech(that is, DIL, reported speech, and speech report). One also needs to point outthat Bloom's utterances are here distorted by the style of the narrative, becom-ing absurdly artificial and quite unlike his former style of conversation:

No, Mr. Bloom repeated again, I wouldn't personally repose much trust in that boon com-panion of yours who contributes the humorous element, Dr. Mulligan, as a guide, philos-opher and friend if I were in your shoes. He knows which side his bread is buttered onthough in all probability he never realised what it is to he without regular meals. (540/620/1357)

This chimes in well with the development of the narrative as a whole asexplained in my article "Narrative and its Development in Ulysses." Markeddialogue occurs precisely in those episodes in which some kind of realisticpresentation is aimed at—that is to say, at the beginning of the novel and—with decreasing intensity—up to "Nausicaa." "Scylla and Charybdis," "Wan-dering Rocks," and "Sirens" in particular are the first episodes in which thenarrative evinces pervasive playfulness, a playfulness which in turn renderswhat is being described less and less "realistic." Hence it is significant that themonopoly of marked dialogue becomes challenged at precisely this point inthe development of the narrative. The move away from realistic portrayal iscontinued beyond "Sirens" and the percentage of marked dialogue accordinglydecreases. Significantly, "Oxen of the Sun" with its crass distortion of realityis the first episode not to use any marked dialogue.

In the subsequent chapters, dialogue disappears completely as a recog-nizable unit.' In "Circe" it is hard to distinguish "realistic" from "fantastic"passages: Bloom talks in his interior monologue style even out of fantasies(see Bloom's encounter with Mrs. Breen [434/443/957D, and there are seem-ingly "realistic" passages that have quite fantastic stage directions, as, for exam-ple, at the very beginning of the episode. After the "destruction of all timeand space" in "Circe" t ° we encounter in "Eumaeus" a new effort to set upconventional values. Significantly, this is where marked dialogue reappears ifonly to become invalidated as a measure of realism, just as the narrative initself proves a stumbling block to an acceptable interpretation of fictive reality.The allusion is to the distortion of the dialogue in accordance with the con-ventions of Eumaean prose. This "narrative to end all narratives" stresses theimpossibility of rendering fictive reality by means of language rather than


succeeding in once again reassuring the reader about the objectivity of thefictive world. The case is similar for "Ithaca." Scientific language is not ableto describe reality appropriately, either because science has no sensorium todistinguish between relevancy and irrelevancy of detail (it has to be exhaustivein order to be scientific), or because it cannot describe the reality of religiousor aesthetic experience." In "Ithaca" Bloom's and Stephen's utterances canonly be referred to, not narrated. We frequently conclude from a question thata conversation has been going on and receive gleanings of its content in thesubsequent answer. '2

Except for snatches of people's utterances, "Penelope" does not containany forms of dialogue. Molly's musings, however, in a sense prove to be anexchange of sorts between two parts of her own ego: she is talking to herself.Yet both Bloom's and Stephen's monologues have similar dialogic qualities.These are only so much more apparent in Molly's monologue because thelanguage she uses is quite more colloquial than that of either Bloom or Stephen.Molly's polylogue to herself is significant because it foregrounds the intertex-tuality of language to a much higher degree than do the musings of the twomale protagonists. Her thinking is a random medley of words and phrasesencountered, recorded, and rearranged by and in her mind. The very lack ofa systematic principle of molding these discordant elements into a harmoniousmelody of her own makes the sources of this medley more conspicuous to thereader than the restrained remembrances of quotations or scientific laws inthe minds of Stephen or Bloom.

As an aside let me here briefly comment on the communicative situationof the dialogues—I am here concerned with all kinds of dialogue, not merelymarked dialogue—in Ulysses. In a very striking way, the conversationalexchanges in Ulysses all belong to two of the four types of dialogue suggestedby Gerhard Bauer in his typology: they are either "open dialogues" or "con-versations." In both types the communicative function—or effect—is at itsminimum. In "open dialogue" characters talk at cross-purposes; in "conver-sations" they talk for the sake of talking. The two types can easily be illustratedin Ulysses. Stephen and Mulligan, Stephen and Deasy, or Stephen and Bloom(in "Eumaeus") do not manage to find common ground in their communi-cations, and the same is true for Bloom's talk with M'Coy, his discussion withthe Citizen, or with Nannetti. On the other hand, whenever Dubliners meet,they practice the art of "conversation," airing their gifts for oratory, whetherin a coach on the way to Dignam's funeral, in an editor's office, or in a pub.This also applies to the endless discussions in "Oxen of the Sun," in whichunmarked direct speech has been substituted for the marked dialogue of earlierepisodes. Bauer's typology can of course only be marginally relevant to thediscussion of Ulysses, yet in a general sense it helps to locate characteristicallymodern features of the novel's presentation of dialogue.

36 Monika Fludernik

To turn back to the marked dialogue. Since marked dialogue echoescharacters' utterances realistically, there does not seem to be any possibledevelopment in marked dialogue per se. Nevertheless, formal variation is pos-sible in the integration of the dialogue into the narrative. Here one can pointto several stages of development between "Telemachus" and "Nausicaa," which,incidentally, reflect the general tendencies in the development of the narrativeproper in these episodes.

Most of the marked dialogue is introduced by, interspersed with, or fol-lowed by inquit tags. In the early parts of the novel these tags are unobtrusiveand thus intensify the illusion of an immediate presentation of fictive reality,of its authenticity. Sometimes these tags are even written from Stephen's orBloom's point of view, describing their sensations of reality rather than pro-viding an "objective" account of what is happening:

- Have you the key? a voice [Haines'] asked. (18/11/21)

- That was terrible, Mr. Power's shocked face said, and the corpse fell about the road.Terrible! (100/98/201)

Since the reader's illusion of seeing into Stephen's (Bloom's) mind is intensifiedrather than hampered by these means, the overall effect is the same as withunobtrusive inquit tags. As the novel progresses, however, inquit tags becomemore varied' 3 and hence more noticeable. This development can be tracedfrom "Aeolus" onwards. In "Lestrygonians" it is particularly evident. WhenBloom leaves the bar to go to the toilet, there is a drastic change in the inte-gration of the dialogue. Inquit tags become more numerous and more variedin their use of verbs and characteristic adverbs. As in "Aeolus," the use ofstriking tags can be interpreted as a sign of the emancipation of the narrativefrom Bloom's point of view or as a sign of "outward" (exterior) perspectivein general. (The two are of course interrelated.)

In "Scylla and Charybdis" and "Sirens" inquit tags are playful and quiteobtrusive. They consequently relativize or satirize the actual utterances. Thedialogue has become a mere function of the playful narrative; it no longerseems to exist in its own right. This incidentally applies to "Eumaeus" as well.("Eumaeus" is the episode with the greatest number of prominent inquit tags.)In that episode the influence of the narrative on the dialogue even extends tothe distortion of Bloom's very utterances, as we have seen.

The earlier distancing of the narrative from Bloom's point of view isalso—though more subtly—mirrored in another aspect of the presentation ofdialogue. There is a standard pattern for marked dialogue in the episodes upto "Scylla and Charybdis" or "Wandering Rocks." Marked dialogue, partic-ularly in the episodes up to "Cyclops," serves to render the main events ofeach chapter. (Most of the action of Ulysses is contained in talking, in dialogue,in communication.) All of the early episodes fall into distinct sequences—more


appropriately "scenes"—which are defined by who is talking to whom andabout what. Dialogue is thus of supreme structural importance for the novel.Conversations between characters in these scenes are prevalently rendered enbloc and separated from each other by passages of (Stephen's or Bloom's)stream of consciousness. The standard pattern for such blocks of dialogue isto be interspersed not only with inquit tags but also with brief passages ofnarrative and/or stream of consciousness (most frequently interior mono-logue). This results in the reader's illusion that he is a witness to every singleword uttered, to every minute action or movement on the part of the charactersas well as to Bloom's or Stephen's every thought accompanying these actions.Stephen's exchange with Deasy is a good example of this standard pattern.(For Bloom see his talk with Mrs. Breen [156-59/156-59/329-35], or with Nan-netti [121-23/119-21/247-51].) In "Telemachus" and "Nestor" Stephen's inte-rior monologue thus comments on what is going on to an extent that the readerhas little difficulty in recognizing how to interpret the scene in question. Withthe appearance of Bloom, however, there is a slight though at first hardlynoticeable change. When Bloom meets M'Coy, Bloom's thoughts give oneenough information to judge of the implications of the scene. But by "Hades"Bloom's musings no longer provide an adequate tool for ascertaining the nar-rative's intentions. On the contrary, by hindsight, one now starts to query thevalidity of one's earlier responses to the M'Coy exchange.

The problem is that the function or "meaning" of scenes is no longerimmediately apparent nor can it be reconstructed from the reaction of Bloomalone. Bloom's point of view is not to be trusted completely any longer. Thereader is meant to contrast Bloom's interpretation of the goings-on with hisown information provided by the context. All of this is naturally part of thealready cited distancing of the narrative from Bloom's point of view. Thechange has formal consequences as well. Frequently there is little flankinginterior monologue to guide the reader, and the dialogue is juxtaposed withdetailed descriptions of the interlocutors' gestures. A good example of this kindof dialogue is the final scene of "Hades." Menton's reaction to Bloom's politehint about the dinge in his hat (117/115/237) is rendered in every detail.However, it is only some lines after the exchange has taken place that we learnabout the conclusions Bloom draws from the encounter: "How great we arethis morning." Earlier on we read: "Bloom drew back, chapfallen." The readeris left to assess Menton's behavior and the significance of the whole scene forhimself."

What I should like to proffer as a suggestion is that dialogue increasinglydevelops into a vehicle for illuminative sketches (not to use the term epiphany)of relations between people or of characteristic traits of some of the Dubliners.What better way of describing Cunningham's tact than in the Menton sceneor when he is trying to keep Power from indulging in his harangue on suicide!In one way or another, all the exchanges between the four mourners in the

48 Monika Fludernik

coach are highly typical either of their personal qualities and opinions or oftheir reaction to Bloom.

That the reader is in fact encouraged to take this critical stance in hisresponse to, or interpretation of, fictive reality is prepared for by the gradualdistancing of the narrative from Bloom's point of view. The reader can nolonger wholeheartedly identify with "Mr. Bloom," because the narrative hasalready started to get absurdly detailed," and in "Hades" point of view hasin fact already once shifted from Bloom to Mr. Power' 6 and shut out Bloomin two further passages (compare 103/101/207; 104/102-03/209-11; and 108-09/l06-07/2l7-l9).'

Nevertheless, up to "Wandering Rocks," presentation of dialogue remainsrealistic enough for speech frequency to constitute a relevant tool in deter-mining how characters behave in conversation. One can show conclusively,for instance, that Bloom talks very little on the whole but that when he getsinterested in a subject, he can talk at great length, in fact just as much as theothers talk on the average.' 8 (This trait is also confirmed by the evidence ofthe first-person narrative of "Cyclops," which is fairly realistic if biased againstBloom.) Speech frequency is relevant also as a major factor in the portrayalof Stephen and Mulligan in "Telemachus": Mulligan talks volubly and inces-santly, whereas Stephen is a passive listener, answers questions rather thanasking any. When he says a few words, he does so in a low voice.19

After "Wandering Rocks" the block pattern disintegrates completely owingto the occurrence of mediated forms of dialogue such as DIL. This also meansthat speech frequency can no longer be counted. Both facts are of course con-sequences of the narrative's dissociation from "consistently realistic presen-tation."

For the sake of comprehensiveness let us now turn to the remaining formsof dialogue—unmarked direct speech, DIL, reported speech, and speech report.

The first of these, direct speech without introductory dash, occurs aboveall in "Oxen of the Sun," where it seems to be used in the place of markeddialogue. The stylistically very striking setup of this episode extends to theinquit tags. We recognize Bloom in the guise of "the traveller Leopold" (384/386/831) or "childe Leopold" (385/387/835), "Master Bloom" (392/395/851),"Calmer" (392/395/851), "Mr Cautious Calmer" (393/396/853), "Leop. Bloom"(394/397/855), "Mr. Leopold" (396/399/859), and "Mr. Canvasser Bloom"(407/410/883). Similarly, effective epithets are applied to the other main char-acters. On/e can assume that the pastiche style presumably had its influenceon the choice of reported speech and DIL as more conventional forms ofdialogue. The approach is not exclusively determined by historical accuracy,


however, since indirect speech, which briefly occurs in the "Middle English"passages, was no prevalent feature of the older English literary works. DILonly occurs rarely (see, for example, "Merciful providence had been pleased"[403/406/875])20 and too "early" in historical respects. (DIL does not appearin English texts before the late eighteenth century, although there are somedisputed cases in Chaucer not generally accepted as such by philologists [SeeKarpf 571-81].) The language of juxtaposed exclamations at the end of thechapter aptly pictures afterbirth chaos or the (linguistic) chaos in the Empire'soffspring, namely its colonies.

DIL, reported speech, and speech report in "Eumaeus" are little morethan signs of conventional style. Except for the few exchanges between Bloomand Stephen given in marked dialogue, all of Bloom's harangues are renderedin a mixture of these three devices, and so is Corley's demand for a tip (536-37/616-17/1349-51). The mediate forms of speech are not only more conven-tional, they are also more out of date and prone to becoming tedious if usedfor longer passages. Hence they admirably match the characteristics of Eumaeanprose.

In earlier episodes, DIL and reported speech or unmarked direct speechoccur only as playful interludes or contretemps to the prevalent marked dia-logue. This kind of word game starts in "Scylla and Charybdis" with themusical notation of the Gloria (and the pastiche on the Creed preceding it[197-98/197-98/423]), the blank verse pastiche (203/203/435) and the "play"passage (209-10/209-10/447-51)—an anticipation of "Circe." In "Aeolus," ora-tory has invaded the spoken language as well, yet no formal play has resultedfrom the fact. With "Wandering Rocks," dialogue becomes more varied inform, and these formal variations are used for specifically ironic purposes. Thepassages of DIL for the representation of speech are Conmee's conversationwith Mrs. Sheehy (218-19/219/471-73), the three boys (219/220/473), and Mrs.McGuinness (220/220/473-75), Jimmy Henry's harangue on the Irish language(246/247/531), and Lenehan's story of Rochford's heroic effort in a case ofemergency (232/233/501). It should be noted that DIL in "Wandering Rocks"also occurs for the presentation of thought in connection with Father Conmee,Master Dignam, and M'Coy (232.28-29/233.20-21/501.513-14). In the case ofConmee, Joyce seems to have settled for a consistent use of DIL in a revisionof the priest's chat with Mrs. McGuinness. 2 ' In this passage Joyce changed allpresent tense verbs into the past. The result of this change is certainly verycomical, since many of the resulting syntactic idiosyncrasies would not cus-tomarily occur in passages of DIL, for these are frequently designed to lessen,rather than increase, the distance between the narrator and his characters,Phrases such as "[He] begged to be remembered to Mr. David Sheehy, M.P."arc artificial as well as naive and effectively mirror Conmee's prevalent traitsof character.

SO Monika Fludernik

The "Sirens" and "Cyclops" episodes stand out from the others also onAccount of their treatment of dialogue. In "Sirens" the conversation in theOrmond Hotel is most conspicuously at the mercy of the playful narrator. The'major themes, or voices"—that is, the utterances of the major characters—Are allowed to penetrate to the reader without a filter, though they are wrappedin inquit tags, whose playfulness is reminiscent of "Scylla and Charybdis."there are also "answers" by the narrative to questions asked in the dialogue,such as:

- Poor old Goodwin was the pianist that night, Father Cowley reminded thew. There wasa slight difference of opinion between himself and the Collard grand.

There was. (267/268/577)2'

Characters' utterances, when treated as minor themes, become engulfed in thenarrative's tendency towards overall (musical) patterning. We get extremelybrief passages of reported speech or DIL:

First gentleman told Mina that was so. She asked him was that so. And second tankardtold her so. That that was so. (276/277/599)

She [Miss Douce] had a gorgeous, simply gorgeous, time. And look at the lovely shell shebrought (279/281/605)

Sometimes we encounter direct speech without quotation as part of Bloom'sinterior monologue or as part of a playful arrangement of acoustic facts by thenarrative:

Hello. Where off to? Something to eat? I too was just. In here. What, Ormond? Best valuein Dublin. Is that so? Diningroom. Sit tight there. See, not be seen. I think I'll join you.Come on. Richie led on. Bloom followed bag. Dinner fit for a prince. (264/265/571)

Technically one of the most memorable passages of "Sirens" is the echoing ofthe Croppy Boy (281-85/282-87/611-19). It is not at all clear whether the textis a rendering of Bloom's thoughts or a rearrangement of Bloom's sensationsin the style of the narrative. Yet in its evocative obscurity the passage servesits purpose very well. It succeeds in portraying the artificiality and the bathosof such patriotic songs, while at the same time conceding them to have afascination not easily resisted.

A particularly interesting passage in the middle of "Sirens" also showshow completely the narrative has taken control of the dialogue:

- Our friend Bloom turned in handy that night, Mr. Dedalus said. Where's my pipe by theway?

1.. 1- I saved the situation, Ben, I think.- You did, averred Ben Dollard. I remember those tight trousers too. That was a brilliant

idea, Bob.


Father Cowley blushed to his brilliant purply lobes. He saved the situa. Tight trou.Brilliant ide.

- I knew he was on the rocks, he said. The wife was playing the piano [ Remember?Ben remembered, his broad visage wondering.- By God she had some luxurious opera cloaks and things there.Mr. Dedalus wandered back, pipe in hand.- Marion square style. Bal!dresses, by God, and court dresses. [ ] What?- Ay, ay, Mr. Dedalus nodded. Mrs. Marion Bloom has left off clothes of all description.

- What's this her name was? A buxom lassy. Marion .- Tweedy.- Yes. Is she alive?- And kicking.- She was daughter of ...- Daughter of the regiment.- Yes, begad. I remember the old drummajor.Mr. Dedalus struck, whizzed, lit, puffed savoury puff after.- Irish? I don't know, faith. Is she Simon?Puff after stiff, a puff, strong, savoury, crackling.

Buccinator muscle is ... What? ... Bit rusty ... 0, she is ... My Irish Molly, 0.He puffed a pungent plumy blast.- From the rock of Gibraltar ... all the way. (267-68/268-69/581)

In the latter part of this section the reader has to reconstruct laboriouslywho is actually saying what. Whereas in former episodes the lack of inquittags intensified illusions of immediate presentation, it has here the very oppo-site effect. The reader is made aware of the narrative as the arranging instance.In actual fact it is Ben who asks about Molly's maiden name, but we onlyreconstruct this from incidental evidence. Cowley, we learn, knew Bloom'saddress at the period discussed, and thus he was presumably informed abouthis personal situation. That Cowley is the person who answers is further deducedfrom the fact that he then has to ask Dedalus to confirm whether Molly isIrish or no. Typically, Ben's question on that point is suppressed by the nar-rative, effaced by Simon's puffing. One could regard this passage as a parodyon the minutely detailed reporting in earlier episodes since it purports to letthe reader have all the information available to a person present at the scenewhile surreptitiously denying him the relevant clues for interpretation.

A similar situation, though this time in connection with the garrulousfirst-person narrator, arises in "Cyclops." The Unnamable One has absolutepower over Bloom's utterances. Most of his remarks are either paraphrasedor suppressed:

So they started talking about capital punishment and of course Bloom comes out with thewhy and the wherefore and all the codology of the business and the old dog smelling himall the time [ j about I don't know what all deterrent effect and so forth and so on.(302/304/657)

- That can be explained by science, says Bloom. It's only a natural phenomenon, don't yousee, because on account of the ... And then he starts with his jawbreakers about phenom-enon and science and this phenomenon and the other phenomenon. (303/304/657)

52 Monika Fludernik

On account of the first-person narrative, dialogue in "Cyclops" is fundamen-tally different from that in earlier episodes: we are confronted with an activenarrator, for one, whose presentation of the goings-on gives shape and scopeto the dialogue. There are no longer blocks of dialogue (a convention alreadysubverted in "Wandering Rocks" and "Sirens" on account of the competitiveforms of rendered discourse) except for the natural divisions resulting fromthe interruption by pastiches. The numerous tags are almost exclusively onthe "says Joe" pattern, which is both colloquial and assertive, emphasizingthe speaker's presence in the text rather than rendering him unobtrusive. Inthe pastiche passages dialogue naturally takes the form appropriate to theindividual styles parodied. In this respect there are similarities to "Oxen ofthe Sun," though the dialogue in "Oxen of the Sun" cannot exclusively be saidto conform to the historical pattern, possibly owing to the necessity of pro-viding a longer cohesive text.

III

The forms and function of dialogue in Ulysses as I have presented themare to be seen in direct connection with the subtle modulations of the narrativeitself. Let me briefly summarize in chronological order what has so far mainlybeen presented methodologically. In the early episodes, most particularly inthe Telemachiad, dialogue not only serves to structure the chapters but alsointensifies the effect of a quasi-authentic report by a minutely detailed descrip-tion of events. From "Calypso" onwards this basic pattern—formally markeddialogue introduced by tags and interspersed with passages of interior mon-ologue and/or narrative—becomes slightly modified by the narrative devel-opment towards partial distancing from Bloom's point of view. By the timewe arrive at "Hades," dialogue passages succeed in being suggestive on theirown without much comment in the accompanying interior monologue of Bloom.From "Aeolus" onwards the dialogue itself becomes modified. Rhetorical orna-ment increases in "Aeolus" and in "Scylla and Charybdis"—still justified bythe situations described—with additional formal flourishes in the latter episode.DIL (used ironically) in "Wandering Rocks" and reported speech and speechreport in "Sirens" (plus unmarked direct speech) appear in connection with anarrative quite openly frivolous and unreliable in its choice of material. Onceone arrives at "Cyclops" and "Nausicaa," the authorial (narratorial) forms ofdialogue, in particular speech report, assert themselves as competitive formsof dialogue. With the eventual disappearance of realistic presentation criteriain "Oxen of the Sun," the dash of marked dialogue becomes superfluous."Circe" and "Ithaca" employ nonnarrative dialogue forms, whereas the useof speech report, reported speech, and DIL in "Eumaeus" is a sign of con-ventional discourse in the same measure as the longish absurd inquit phrases


in that episode, which serve to transform the atmosphere into one of comedyor farce. The final satiric touch is provided by the distortion of Bloom's mannerand speech to fit the norms of the narrative.

I have also pointed out that the formal properties of dialogue, whichcorrelate with the development of the narrative in Ulysses, are dependent on.the underlying change from realistic to mythic presentation. In effect, the dia-logue is in all respects a function or extension of the narrative and hencedetermined by its development and rationale.

IV.

This leaves me with a very interesting passage from "Proteus," the mas-tery of which only becomes clear in the light of an examination of narrativeand dialogue techniques in the Telemachiad. The passage is Stephen's imaginedvisit to Aunt Sara's (44-45/38-39/79-81). The pattern is that of "Telemachus"or "Nestor"—only in the first person and in the present tense. There are noinquit tags; the absurd sequence of exchanges explains itself. Towards the endRichie is humming to himself an air which Stephen knows only too well; heremembers Richie's descanting on it hundreds of times before. (So this isremembered discourse in Stephen's interior monologue.) The passage has allthe inventory of the narrative in "Telemachus": narrative proper ("They takeme for a dun, peer out from a coign of vantage"), interior monologue ("Papa'slittle bedpal. Lump of love"), marked dialogue, narrated perception 23 ("In hisbroad bed nuncle Richie, pillowed and blanketed, extends over the hillock ofhis knees a sturdy forearm"), and even reflected/remembered speech. One canwonder whether this is meant to be a parody of Dujardin's use of interiormonologue in Les lauriers sont coupes or of Schnitzler's interior monologuenovels, ridiculing the characteristic recurrence of finite verbs for describingactions of the soliloquizing self in these works: "I pull the wheezy bell." InJoyce's text, however, the present tense verbs seem to serve as markers ofirreality. Since there were almost no finite verbs in the preceding interiormonologue passages, the unexpected appearance of a finite present tense imme-diately alerts the reader to a recognition of a new situation.

The present tense also has the further effect of rendering Stephen's interiormonologue in this scene curiously timeless; there is no past tense of reportagainst which it could be measured. Since Stephen both remembers and imag-ines a typical visit at Aunt Sara's, his perspective and his thoughts determinethe entire scene. The "interior monologue" ("Lump of love" and so on) canthus be Stephen's comment on what he is imagining at the time of the fantasyor a repetition of musings customarily indulged in towards nuncle Richie andhis family. The "Down at Aunt Sara's Vignette" 24 is thus a simplified versionof the technical constellation prevailing in "Telemachus" and "Nestor," only

54 Monika Fludernik

with the interior monologue serving as a quasi-first-person narrative. 25 Thepassage does not deviate from the general narrative situation in the Telema-chiad: it, too, provides the reader with an illusion of im-mediacy, of authen-ticity.

Notes

The only full-length study of dialogue in Ulysses is Mary Pringle Spraggins's "AStylistic Analysis of Dialogue and Narrative Modes in Ulysses," which provides muchstatistical data without helpfully evaluating them. More pertinent general insights areattained by Karl Kroeber in Styles in Fictional Structure and by Ben Kimpel in "TheVoices of Ulysses."

'For a definition of this device and its extended use in fiction, see Gunter Steinbergand Roy Pascal. Note also the recent study by Ann Banfield, which provides a radicallynew interpretation of the same phenomenon.

German Redebericht. This formally corresponds to Cohn's psychonarration inthe presentation of thought. Characters' utterances are narrated by the narrative in itsown words and phraseology irrespective of the syntax and diction employed by thecharacters themselves.

4 This scale becomes relativized by the influences of characters' diction on thepresentation. Thus, reported speech can sometimes, in the manner customary of DIL,adopt peculiar expressions by some characters for its record of their utterances. On theother hand, DIL may adapt to the style of the narrative, which is frequently a sign ofironic presentation. Compare for these two possibilities: "Barrow wanted to know whetherit wasn't pretty risky going out with girls here" (my emphasis) (Dos Passos 262), and

He [Dr. Middleton] left the table a little after eleven o'clock. A short dialogue ensued uponthe subject of the ladies. They must have gone to bed? Why, yes; of course they must. Itis good that they should go to bed early to preserve their complexions for us. Ladies arecreation's glory, but they are anti-climax, recoil, cross-current; morally, they are repentance,penance; imagerially, the frozen North on the young brown buds bursting to green. Whatknew they of a critic in the palate and a frame all revelry! And mark you, revelry in sobriety,containment in exultation; classic revelry. Can they, dear though they be to us, light uscandelabras in the brain, to illuminate all history and solve the secret of the destiny ofman? They cannot; they cannot sympathize with them that can. So therefore this divisionis between us; yet are we not turbaned, Orientals, nor are they inmates of the harem. Weare not Moslem. Be assured of it in the contemplation of the table's decanter.

Dr. Middleton said: 'Then I go straight to bed.' (George Meredith, The Egoist 246)

Banfield's study does not account for these facts.See below and note 9.

6 The percentages given derive from a statistical analysis of Ulysses withthe quarter-line as its basic unit. For a complete account of the results of thisanalysis, see Fludernik "Erzdhler- und Figurensprache in James Joyces Ulys-ses" 37-41 and appendix.

1 Examples of these types are (the tags are printed in italics):

He [Mulligan] sputtered to the air


- 0, the chinless Chinaman (215/215/463)1

- Irish, Buck Mulligan said. Is there Gaelic on you (21/14/27)?

- The ghost walks, professor MacHugh murmured softly, biscuitfully to the dusty windowpane(125/123/255).

For the original classification and further categories see Fludernik, "Erzahler- undFigurensprache" 31-34.

References are to the Penguin paperback edition first, then to the Random Housepaperback, and finally to the new critical edition of Ulysses. In rare instances, whereone or two particular lines of the text are referred to but not quoted, line numbers areadded, separated from page references by a period.

8

Mr. Kernan added:- The service of the Irish Church, used in Mount Jerome, is simpler, more impressive, Imust say.

Mr. Bloom gave prudent assent. The language e?f* course Was another thing. (107/105/215; my emphasis)

The italicized passage is either an oblique rendering of what Bloom prudently answers,or of what he thinks while nodding assent. It is thus DIL, though one cannot withcertainty determine whether speech or thought processes are rendered by it.

9 Characters' actual utterances remain frequently unidentifiable in both "Circe"and "Ithaca" or get lost between the lines. In "Circe" this is due to the disappearanceof an identifiable fictive reality. As has recently become apparent in critical discussion,"Circe" can no longer be readily split up into "fantastic" and "realistic" parts. (SeeFludernik, "Erzahler- und Figurenrede" 171-77, as well as Gottlieb Gaiser "A Note onthe Principle of Dramatization in 'Circe' "; Peake 268; and Kimpel 300.

See Ellmann 145-50." See "the heavenborn earth" (625/704/1553.1243), "the heaventree of stars hung

with humid nightblue fruit" (619/698/1537), and the Sinhad the sailor and roc's auk'segg passage at the very end of "Ithaca."

' 2 "To what inconsequent polysyllabic question of his host did the guest returna monosyllabic negative answer (616/695/1531)?"

' 3 Variation in inquit tags can bes(ffected by choice of different and sometimesunusual verbs of saying, or by striking a verbs detailing a character's manner of speak-ing, accompanying gestures and the like.

14 It is of course a critical commonplace that most scenes serve to contrast Bloompositively with the rest of the Dubliners.

"His [Bloom's] had took his hat from the peg over his initialled heavy overcoatand his lost property office second hand waterproof' ("Calypso" 58/56/111).

16 "He [Power] glanced behind him to where a face with dark thinking eyesfollowed towards the cardinal's museum. Speaking" (103/101/207).

' 7 104/102-03/209-11 (Ned Lambert's chat with Simon Dedalus), and 108-09/106--07/217-19 (Menton's talk with Ned Lambert and the ensuing exchange with the care-taker).

56 Monika Fludernik

"In the first part of the episode (up to the arrival at Glasnevin), dialogue frequencyis on the average nine utterances a page, with Bloom talking 2.5 times a page, whichis just as much as Cunningham. (This is counting only pages on which these charactersspeak at all.) For the whole episode Bloom, Cunningham, and Dedalus have the samespeech frequency, namely 2.3.

' 9 Mulligan takes up 64% of the conversation in "Telemachus," talking morefrequently than either Stephen or Haines, and more volubly at that. Stephen's attitudeis described as passive throughout, as becomes clear from the adverbs and adjectivesused in the inquit tags: "quietly," "gloomily," "with bitterness," "depressed," "verycoldly," "gravely," "listlessly," "drily," "with grim displeasure."

" The quotation in full is: "Merciful providence had been pleased to put a periodto the sufferings of the lady who was enceinte which she had borne with a laudablefortitude and she had given birth to a bouncing boy" (403/406/875).

21 See Groden 9." See also "He was" (260/261/561.205), "He had" (261/262/565.262), and "He

would" (269/270/583.538-39)." That is, narrative adopting a character's own idiom in describing the perceptions

of that character. This form is very frequently found in the whole of Ulysses. (SeeFludernik "Narrative and its Development in Ulysses")

See the articles by Bernard Benstock and Shari Benstock.See Casparis for the frequency of such narratives in twentieth-century works

of fiction. A good example for this would be Margaret Atwood's Surfacing.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. Toronto: General Publishing Co. Ltd., 1972.Bauer, Gerhard. Zur Poetik des Dialogs: Leistung und Formen der Gespriichsfahrung

in der neueren deutschen Literatur. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesells-chaft, 1969.

Banfield, Ann. Unspeakable Sentences: Narration and Representation in the Languageof Fiction. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982.

Benstock, Bernard. "What Stephen Says: Joyce's Second Portrait of the Artist." 'Ulysses'cinquante ans apres: Temoignages franco-anglais sur le chef d'oeuvre de JamesJoyce. Ed. Louis Bonnerot. Paris: Didier, 1974. 137-52.

Benstock, Shari. "The Dynamics of Narrative Performance: Stephen Dedalus as Sto-ryteller." ELH 49 (1982): 707-38.

Casparis, Christian Paul. Tense Without Time: The Present Tense in Narration. Bern:Francke, 1975.

Cohn, Dorrit. Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for Presenting Consciousness inFiction. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978.

Dos Passos, John. U.S.A. Harmondsworth: PenAuin, 1978.Ellmann, Richard. Ulysses on the Liffey. London: Faber, 1974.Fludernik, Monika. "ErzAhler- und Figurensprache in James Joyces Ulysses." Diss. U

of Graz, 1982.


• "Narrative and its Development in Ulysses." Journal of Narrative Technique16.1 (1986): 15-40.

Gaiser, Gottlieb. "A Note on the Principle of Dramatization in 'Circe.' "J/IQ 16 (1978-79): 501-05.

Groden, Michael, et al. Ulysses: 'Wandering Rocks,"Sirens,"Cyclops,' & Wausicaa':A Facsimile of Manuscripts and Typescripts for Episodes 10-13. The James JoyceArchive 13. New York & London: Garland, 1977.

Joyce, James. Ulysses. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978. • Ulysses. New York: Random House, 1961. . Ulysses: A critical and synoptic edition. Ed. Hans Walter Gabler, Wolfhard

Steppe, and Claus Melchior. New York & London: Garland, 1984.Karpf, Fritz. "Die erlebte Rede im alteren Englischen und in volkstiimlicher Redel-

tise." Die Neueren Sprachen ns 36 (1928): 571-81.Kenner, Hugh. Joyce's Voices. London: Faber, 1978. Ulysses. London: Allen & Unwin, 1982.Kimpel, Ben. "The Voices of Ulysses." Style 9 (1974-75): 283-319.Kroeber, Karl. Styles in Fictional Structure: The Art of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë,

and George Eliot. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971.Meredith, George. The Egoist. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.Pascal, Roy. The Dual Voice: Free Indirect Speech and its Functioning in the Nineteenth

Century European Novel. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1977.Peake, Charles H. James Joyce: The Citizen and the Artist. London: Edward Arnold,

1977.Spraggins, Mary Pringle. "A Stylistic Analysis of Dialogue and Narrative Modes in

Ulysses." Diss. U of Minnesota, 1977. DAI 38 (1977): 3490 A. Ann Arbor: Uni-versity Microfilms International. Cat. No. 7726159.

Stanzel, F. K. A Theory of Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.Steinberg, Giinter. Erlebte Rede: Ihre Eigenart und ihre Formen in neuerer deutscher,

franzOsischer und englischer Erzahlliteratur. GOppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik50-51. GOppingen: Alfred Kummerle, 1971.

the dialogic imagination of joyce

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