James Joyce's 'Ulysses' and Iconic Realism through Cognitive Dissonance

This is an excerpt from a paper presented at the American Conference for Irish Studies, 2022:

The semiotic theory of iconic realism is the placement of a realistic iconic element within a realistic setting in which that element is not usually associated, to bring about the recognition of change that needs to occur in society. Throughout his novel, Ulysses, James Joyce illustrates iconic realism through cognitive dissonance by means of language that contains semantic components directly correlating with his characters and their settings. In turn, the readers interpret those linguistic features according to knowledge of the language and manner in which the semantic elements align with their personal experience. 

The spirit of Joyce must navigate between what is expected of Leopold Bloom as a Jew and what his Dublin neighbors expect of him as an Irishman. This spirit first reveals itself in the chapter, entitled, "Telémachus" through Stephen Daedalus, as he experiences an internal conflict of his mother’s death, with visions of her appearing to him as did the ghost in Hamlet. This type of cognitive dissonance continues through the Homeric episodes. 

Moreover, Leopold Bloom also experiences personal and religious revelations through each inhaling and expelling of air. One such vivid example is in the chapter, entitled, Aéolus. Here, Joyce uses the heaving air of a pompous society’s fickle response to Bloom’s Jewish culture. In this chapter, we are introduced to various comparisons between Jesus Christ, Stephen Daedalus, and Bloom: their dissonant placements in their individual societies and how each has dealt with these discrepancies. Joyce describes the editor as having a ‘scarlet beaked face,’ a ‘comb of feathery hair’ and a harsh voice, similar to that of a cock crowing, once again referring to the Biblical reference of Peter rejecting Christ on the morning of his crucifixion (Blamires 49). Such reflections illustrate the iconic realism that Joyce incorporates in this novel, as he uses these iconic images within Bloom’s mind, occasionally audibly articulated by Bloom, but mostly present only in his mind, to bring the audience in alignment with the dissonance present in Bloom’s, and Joyce’s, Dublin. Through Bloom’s cognitive experience, the reader understands the ‘cross’ that he must bear. 

Another example of this use of the inhaling and expelling of air exists in the Scylla and Charybdis  chapter with the obnoxious expelling of high verbiage between Stephen Daedalus and the other scholars. Here, once again, Joyce employs the use of linguistic empowerment of those who have against those who have not…or very little. Joyce, through Stephen, refers to those who do not understand the human spirit as the ‘vegetable world.’ He decides to stay firmly planted in the present, “through which all future plunges to the past” (Blamires 77). Here, Joyce unknowingly reveals an interesting foreshadowing of worldly events with which only the current reader can relate, for within 25 years of this writing, the world will revisit Joyce’s own recent past of WWI through the lens of WWII. 

Blamires, Harry, The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide through Ulysses, Routledge, New York: 1997.

Sydney Owenson: Her Philosophical Focus and 'The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa'

Saint Francis in Ecstacy 

by Salvator Rosa

Courtesy of Google Art

From my book, Innovations in Rhetoric in the Writings of Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), p. 231

Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan), a voice representing independent consciousness, does not discriminate between various forms of aristocratic domination and the voice of the common person. Where knowledge and awareness are concerned, she reveals her perspective of the truth as she illustrates in the following passage from her biographical sketch, The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa:

Knowledge, which is supremacy as long only as it is a monopoly, was then the exclusive possession of the clergy; and the intellectual disparity, which existed between the many and the few, long continued to be the instrument of delusions, of which ignorance inevitably becomes the dupe and the victim. (SR, p. 2)

Her purpose for writing evolves from her focus on bringing awareness of the global and historical significance of Ireland to a philosophical focus on the dissemination of knowledge to all thinking individuals. In the above passage, she points out an ‘intellectual disparity’ which exists between those who have been taught through intensive educational programs and consequently, then use that education as an “instrument of delusion.” 

Even though she presents Rosa in a discrete manner, Owenson reveals her disdain for any totalitarian control over the human spirit, be it religious or governmental. She remains devoted to the concept of independent and critical thinking as the way for humanity to advance elevated consciousness. Thus, her biography of Salvator Rosa is a statement on the evolution of human culture and the possibilities that exist when human beings utilize the knowledge they gain in a positive way to enlighten others. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg and Iconic Realism

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs47/f/2009/172/9/f/Doctor_T__J__Eckleburg_by_sukimd.jpg

But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust, which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently, some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 2

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg peer across the ‘dumping ground’ of American spirit. This example of iconic realism portrays eyes as the ‘windows of the soul’ of a country steeping in corruption and superficiality. Fitzgerald places these eyes on an old billboard, gazing across a field of forgotten possessions, bringing into focus awareness of America’s consciousness to be ever vigilant of the forefathers’ intentions of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’

Literary Resonance, Revolution, and Iconic Realism in Sydney Owenson's novel, _The Wild Irish Girl_

Photo from insert of the 1888 publication of The Wild Irish Girl by Sydney Owenson

Iconic realism intones throughout Sydney Owenson’s national tale, The Wild Irish Girl, written from a feminine cultural point of view shortly after the British Act of Union 1801.

Sydney Owenson engages in the construction of iconic realism through her interface with the concept of literary harmony elicited from the initial resonance of Irish revolution. She creates characters as iconic representatives of the consciousness existing in her historical reality. They speak in their native Irish Gaeilge in opposition to standard English, leading her audiences to literally hear a recognizable semblance of truth. This truth can then become a basis for future writers to harmonize with the transitioning, historical significance of human consciousness.

Such resonance, which distinguishes between intense reality and strength of the human spirit through iconic realism, echoes within Owenson’s novel. By means of her characters and their circumstances following the British Act of Union 1801, Owenson demonstrates the necessity for humankind to relate to one another on a realistic rather than a symbolic level. 

Semiotic Themes

I took this photo in Dublin, Ireland a few years ago.

Content of material represented through literature, art and music contains the linguistic configurations associated with language in addition to visual and auditory stimuli: 

In literature, content consists of language, represented by words on a page that convey meaning to the audience. 

Artistic content varies from materials, such as paint, rock, metal, fabric, or other physical substances, with the subject matter originating in the human experience. 

Musical compositions include content that incorporates any form of resonance to which the auditory mechanism responds.

For instance, thematic representation of creative expression incorporates the history, language and culture of the artist in relation to individual purpose of expression with an audience. A musical composition contains a specific theme. This theme can then repeat every time a musician performs the piece. However, the theme will elicit variations based on instrumentation, acoustics, and musicians actively attempting to recreate the original sound. 

A new aurally thematic expression results from this interpretation. Likewise, a work of art will receive the eyes of multiple viewers. Each person adapts his/her life experience (historicity) to the interpretation of the rendered artistic theme, thus altering the original thematic construct of the artist. Hence, an artist's theme is in a constant state of evolution, no matter which art form has been presented. (Lakatos 22-23)