Joyce’s Body Politics in Ulysses

James Joyce, who once remarked, “Ulysses is an epic of . . . the body”, interrogates the valorization of soul over body by deploying discourses of physicality to a great degree throughout his works. By mapping out the interface of physical culture and militant nationalism, I will show how Joyce employs the representative figures—Eugen Sandow, the founder of physical training, and Michael Cusack, the founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Born and raised in the militant atmosphere of his native country, Prussia, Eugen Sandow emerged as the icon of masculine empowerment, and followed the imperialist imperatives for physical reinforcement by engaging himself in promoting physical culture and developing training programs. In Ulysses, Bloom buys Sandow’s exercises, his program book and a patent device, Sandow-Whiteley pulley exerciser in order to recuperate his virility. Sandow’s emergence as a strong man on the stage coincided with the demand for physical strength, in particular, on young men who were conscripted for the war that the British government waged in the South Africa. Sandow appeared on the stage, dressed in a military uniform, and promoted his physical training program in his own magazine. In “Cyclops,” which deals with Irish nationalist agendas, Joyce creates the Citizen, based on the real Cusack, the founder of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Although it is a complicate problem to identify some features of Cusack’s real life, Joyce creates a composite “caricature” of Irish nationalist. In a parody of parliamentary minutes, Joyce deals with the ban of Irish games in Phoenix Park. MP Nannetti attends a parliamentary session, whose committee members are characterized as engaging in imminent political agendas. Joyce’s anachronistic use of the Croke Park massacre reinforces his keen awareness of the brutality of Prime Minister Balfour’s coercion policy, which permits the reinforcement of military policing. Joyce’s final deployment of an associative device is the Citizen’s canine fellow, Garryowen, not only because Sandow is accompanied by his hound, Sultan, but also because ancient Irish heroes also have their hounds, for example, Finn and his Bran. The Citizen’s mongrel canine is employed to undermine the national purity promoted through a concept of “Irish Ireland,” which naturally excludes an alien like Bloom. In conclusion, Joyce shows the pervasive dominance of masculine prowess promoted by the cult of physical strength, and the similarity between imperialist ideology and Irish militant nationalism.