Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Fall 2024
Abstract
James Joyce’s masterpiece novel Ulysses is a text built upon its relationship to other texts. The very title is a reference to the Greek hero Odysseus and the epic poem that contains his story. The form of Ulyssesrelies heavily on the structure of the Odyssey for its movement. With chapters taking key events from the Odyssey as inspiration for their themes, characters, and events. One chapter for example is based on the episode where Odysseus travels into the underworld and Joyce’s stand-in character Bloom goes to a funeral. These structural and tonal suggestions have lead me to ask if this would come across in a sentiment analysis of the overall shape of the stories. My initial guess was that there would be some overlap but that the liberties Joyce employees with the events of the Odyssey–expanding some minor parts such as the Lotus Eaters and even adding some sections like the Wandering rocks at the expense of some sections Homer puts more emphasis on–and the difference in form between novel and epic poem would lead to some major structural differences. But I was surprised when surveying the results of the analysis that the actual arc of the stories were similar as were scenes in the emotional low points of the story, but the emotional high point of the stories were of completely different scenes. So I used a topic modeling to see if the differing peaks of Ulysses could be related to the different topics of the novels. Which appeared likely.
Recommended Citation
Jordan, Aidan and Elkins, Katherine, "Intertextual Sentiments in Ulysses and The Odyssey" (2024). IPHS 200: Programming Humanity. Paper 74.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/dh_iphs_prog/74
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