Literary Theory and Criticism

ENL 6276 Modern British Literature

The Ethics of Portraying Disability: The Blind Stripling in Ulysses

James Joyce’s work Ulysses has provided literary scholars with seemingly unending opportunities of assessment, yet one significant character of the text remains woefully unexamined: the blind stripling. Joyce includes the blind stripling at multiple points throughout the novel, and the scholars who have attempted to analyze his role in the narrative are inconclusive about the purpose the character serves. This peripheral character does not have a name, but rather is only characterized as being blind and a stripling (a term for a slim, young man), descriptions that are both heavily embodied. The other disabled character prominently featured in Ulysses is Gerty MacDowell, who Joyce not only names, but also gives an internal monologue and a history. Alternatively, the blind stripling seems to only serve as a contrast or mirror to Leopold Bloom, as both characters are depicted as wandering throughout the city of Dublin. The blind stripling could also be intended as a metaphor for the blindness of Dublin’s citizens or the futility of their lives. Some scholars argue that the blind stripling is Joyce’s autobiographical influence into the narrative, instead of Stephen Dedalus, because Joyce experienced debilitating restrictions to his eyesight at the time of writing the novel. Whatever the reasons for including the blind stripling in the narrative, either as metaphor or as authorial insertion, it is important to question the ethicality of using a disabled figure as either a metaphor or as a catalyst for affect.

LIT 6934 Florida Literature

The Heterotopic Horizon in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

Place-making and place attachment are important concepts in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and a conclusive reading of the novel must include an analysis of spatial symbolism and politics. In the novel, Janie Crawford is not attached or involved in the place making of the places that she inhabits throughout the first half of the novel, including Nanny’s house, Logan Killicks’ farm, Joe/Jody’s house and store, and Eatonville. Rather, Janie has become attached to the horizon as a place because it symbolizes her dream of a marriage based on true love. While the blooming pear tree is often considered the place to which Janie is most attached, the pear tree merely represents the dream of a love that Janie desires, and throughout the novel she believes that this dream is waiting for her on the horizon. Michel Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia can be usefully considered in relation to the horizon in the novel, because it is a place that functions as a counter-site and a site of resistance to Janie. By acknowledging that the horizon is a heterotopia, Janie’s spatial relations and attachment to the horizon can be better understood. To Janie, Tea Cake not only takes her to her horizon, but also becomes that horizon after his death.

This paper will begin by defining place and delineating the process of place making in relation to power. Power becomes a significant context within the defining of place and in place-making, as seen in the novel and the way that place is gendered. Similarly, race is also an important factor in the act of place-making, and this concept in relation to Nanny’s dream for Janie will also be explored in contrast to the dream Janie makes for herself. Following this, a critical look into the place of the horizon will provide a way of understanding how the horizon functions within the novel. Foucault's concept of the heterotopia will specifically be applied to the horizon in order to create an understanding of Janie’s use of the heterotopic horizon as means of dream-fulfillment.