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"In the beginning was the Whirred": Language and Relativity in James Joyce's Ulysses.

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Read the Proteus episode from Ulysses.

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Then read these two articles.

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McArthur, Murray. ""Signs on a White Field": Semiotics and Forgery in the "Proteus" Chapter of Ulysses." ELH 53.3 (1986): 633-52.

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Brivic, Sheldon. "The Veil of Signs: Perception as Language in Joyce's Ulysses." ELH 57.3 (1990): 737-55.

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In addition you could also read this short article about space-time polarity in Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Look at what Kumar is saying about Bergson and Joyce. It will shed light on your Proteus experiment. Kumar, Shiv K. "Space-Time Polarity in "Finnegans Wake"" Modern Philology 54.4 (1957): 230-33.

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Question:

"What Stephen sees himself seeing on the beach is language, a field of coded signs that seems to obstruct his vision of the truth." (Brivic 738). In what ways can you support Brivic's assertion? Why

do you think Joyce called this episode 'Proteus.'? How does this title help us to see what Stephen is seeing?

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