The One Bleeds into the Other: Menstruation and Dichotomies in James Joyce's Ulysses

Abstract

This thesis examines the representation of menstruation in James Joyce’s ground-breaking novel Ulysses (1922). Turn-of-the-century Irish society was a hostile environment towards women and many patriarchal authorities enabled this atmosphere. This thesis investigates the ways in which religious, medical, and cultural discourses attributed to the subordination of women and how Joyce challenged the narratives of women as inherently inferior with his literature. The powerful social institutions considered the menstruator as a dichotomous being by nature. In turn, Joyce relied on two dichotomies, namely life-death and body-mind, in Ulysses to undermine the convictions of these establishments. His personal relationship with Nora Barnacle (and his daughter Lucia) had instilled in him a fascination for the female body and he wrote Ulysses to express his adoration. Love for the woman lies at the heart of the novel and in an inherently misogynist society this was a radical act in and of itself.