Amor Matris: The Narrative of Maternity in Ulysses

• Main Authors: Hsiao, Yen-yen, 蕭嫣嫣
• Other Authors: Sung, Mei-hwa
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2000
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/78820543148713358781

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 88 === This dissertation focuses on the narrative of maternity in Ulysses, and its relationship to Joyce''s cultural critique of masculinity as a "symptom" in the Irish society. My research builds on the gender issues in the context of Ireland''s colonial history, culture and politics. From this perspective, "Amor matris" underlines the narrative key of Ulysses, by which Joyce excavates the subtext of the repressed masculinity under the patriarchal law. Along with the repressed masculinity, the repressed mother/motherland powerfully sheds light on Joyce''s cultural and political imagination. Joyce wishes to envision Ireland as an authentic urban world of hybrid cultures, not a land embedded in folk tradition. Thus, the thematic intertextuality of the mater texts with artistic creation substantially highlights Joyce''s cultural imaginary on the role of women. My study examines the female figures on Bloomsday initiated by the milkwoman and culminated in Molly Bloom. In the light of the French feminist theories on language, psychoanalysis and writing, I analyze Molly Bloom as a cardinal emblem of the maternal alterity, which sustains Ireland to recover from spiritual paralysis. By reading Molliloquy as an exemplary of ecriture feminine, I conclude that Ulysses interrogates the law of gender with revisionary insight illuminated by its maternal narrative.