Korg - A Possible Source of the Circe

7/28/2019 Korg - A Possible Source of the Circe

1/4

A Possible Source of the "Circe" Chapter of Joyce's UlyssesAuthor(s): Jacob KorgReviewed work(s):Source: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Feb., 1956), pp. 96-98Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3043564 .

Accessed: 08/03/2013 17:13

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Modern Language Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Fri, 8 Mar 2013 17:13:23 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhuphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3043564?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3043564?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup


2/4

A Possible ource f the"Circe " Chapter fJoyce'sUlyssesThe choiceof a dramatic orm orthe" Circe or " Night-Town"scene of Ulysses is one of the most ingeniousstrokesof Joyce'singeniousmasterpiece.Probablyno other orm f presentationouldhave done ustice to its teeming rocession f subconscioushoughts.Althoughno real precedent orthis fantastic ramahas beenfound,there is evidenceto indicatethat it was influenced y GuillaumeApollinaire's es Mamellesde Tiresias.1The "Circe" chapterwas written n 1919 and 1920 while Joyce

was living n Trieste nd Paris,and according o a letterhewrote nJuly 25th,1920, it occupiedhimthrough he summer f thatyear.Apollinaire's lay was publishedn 1918. Joyceknewof it whenhecame to Paris in June of 1920, forhe mentionedt in a lettertoStanislausJoyce s oneoftheindications fthe city's trong urrentinterest n the Odyssey.2Les Mamellesde Tiresias is a whimsical nd causticfarce n thetraditionof AlfredJarry'sUbu-Roi. Its heroine,Therese,afterannouncing o her husband that she is discontentedwith being awoman, s transformednto a man, grows beard and mustache ndadopts thename Tiresias. Her mamelles tartfromher bosomandfloat away upwards ike balloons. Her husband s metamorphosedintoa woman (" Puisque ma femme sthomme I1 est juste que jesois femme p. 52), and undertakesheprojectof repopulatinghecityof Zanzibar,producing xactly40,050 childrenn a singleday,one ofwhom s the authorof a novel thathas sold 600,000 copies.He createshis last child by puttingtorn newspapers, cissors,apenholdernd a paste-potntoa cradleand dousing hemwith nk;outofthemess arisesan adult ournalist. Whenthere s a complaintthathe has overpopulatedhecity, fortune-tellerr cartomancienneappearsto suggestthat the peoplebe fedwithcards. At the endof the play she dropsher disguise to reveal that she is Therese,restored o heroriginal ex.The most striking esemblance etween he " Circe" scene andLes Mamellesde Tiresias s, ofcourse, hereversal f sexes nvolvingBloom andBella in theoneandTherese nd herhusband ntheother.Thereare,in addition, number f minor imilaritieswhich,f they

I editions du Be1ier,Paris, 1946.2 See Gorman's James Joyce,p. 268 and p. 273.

96 Modern Language Notes

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/4

are interpreteds the results fJoyce'smemory fthe Frenchplay,offerupportingvidence f nfluence.Therese'shusband,ikeBloom,is painfully hy n his femininencarnation. Bloom is blessedwitha sudden and extravagant ertility,lthoughhe cannot rival thefecundity f Apollinaire's haracter, or he becomesthe motherofeightgifted hildrenwhoare " appointed o positions fhigh publictrust (MIodernLibrary Edition, p. 484). The prudishnessofApollinaire'scartomancienne" Toucherune femmequelle hontep. 84) is found gain in Mrs.Breen and thenymph rom he picturein Bloom'sbedroom,who tellshim,"You are not fitto touch thegarment f a purewoman" (p. 540). Apollinaire's haracters,ikeJoyce's,sometimes ndulge in a kind of wittyechoism. WhenThere'sennounces hathername s henceforthiresias,her husbandreplies " A diousias (p. 42). He replies to a remark about acaoutchoucwith "A tchou" and to "Un rhumec'est exquis" with" Atchi (p. 52). This is parallelled n the" Circe chapter ytheretrieverp. 586-587) and thehorse (p. 590-591) who turnthelastwordsofhumanspeeches ntotheircharacteristicries, nd bysuchexchangesas Lynch's " He is. A cardinal's son," followedbyStephen's Cardinalsin" (p. 512).Although t does not have the staggeringmaginative nergyofthe " Circe scene,Les Mamelles s the same sortof richfantasy.The justificationf his unconventionallay givenby Apollinaire nhisprologuemight e takenfor descriptionf the" Circe chapter.

I1 est juste que le dramaturge se serveDe tous les mirages qu'il a a sa disposition....I1 est juste qu'il fasse parler les foules des objets inanimesS'il lui plaitEt qu'il ne tienne pas plus compte du tempsQue de l'espaceSon univers est sa pieceA F'int6rieurde laquelle il est le dieu createurQui dispose 'a son gr6Les sons les gestes les d6marches les masses les couleurs-pp. 31-32.

If, as thisevidence uggests,Joycehad Les M1amellese Tiresicasin mind whenhe wrote the " Circe chapter,Apollinaire'smethodof dramatizing houghtsmust have had a particularvalue forhim.The fanitasticventsof Les Marnelles re simply hefulfillmentsfthe characters'wishes. Similarly,such episodes of the " Circechapter s Bloom's coronation nd his adorationby crowdsof spec-VOL. LXXI, February 1956 97



4/4

tators are his daydreams cted out. Joyceextended his device oftranslatinghoughtsnto action,dramatizing loom's fears,memories,and sentimentalizingnd Stephen's enseof guilt. Thus,the" Circechapters a pageantofsubsconscioushoughts resentedn theforrof vivid episodesby a methodpossibly uggested o JoycebyApol-linaire'sfarce.Universityof Washington JACOBKORG

The Red Badge ofCourageanda Reviewof Zola's La DebaicleAlthoughmost. iteraryhistoriansmentionZola's La De6bacle sa possible sourceof Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage,there s no convincingvidence hat Craneever read theFrenchman'snaturalisticwar novel. On the contrary,here is good reason to

suppose that Crane neverread the book. Thomas Beer, his firstbiographer, tates that the young bohemian, bsorbed n April of1893 with the idea of a novel of the Civil War, threwZola's storyaside presumablyfter readingthe first ew pages.' Crane alwaysdenied any literary onnectionwith Zola; in fact,he was deeplyannoyedwhenhis Englishacquaintancesnsisted ponhisdiscipleshipto the naturalists. " They standme againstthe wall," he once com-plained, witha teacup n myhand and tell me how have stolen llmy things rom e Maupassant, ola, Loti and the blokewho wrote-I forget hename."Yet TheRed Badge so closely esemblesa Debacle in generalplan,design, nd intention hat literaryhistorians ave alwayssuspectedthat Cranehad someknowledge f the precedent hathad been setforhim. An overallviewof La Deba'cle,without verreading thenovel tself,he mayhavegot in thesummer f 1892 from reviewin the New York Tribune which provides remarkable tatementofthe aims,method,ndpointofviewof TheRed Badge ofCourage:

'Thomas Beer, Stephen Crane: A Study in American Letters (New York:AlfredA. Knopf, 1923), pp. 97-98.2 Stephen Crane: An Omnibus,ed. Robert W. Stallman (New York: AlfredA. Knopf, 1952), p. 674.

98 Modern.Language Notes


Korg - A Possible Source of the Circe

Documents

Transcript of Korg - A Possible Source of the Circe