James Joyces Ulysses and Sigmund Freud - Bloom in "Circe" Interpreted Through Freuds Theory on Dreams

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,0, University of Augsburg (Englische Literaturwissenschaft), course: James Joyce, language: English, abstract: This paper analyses the nighttown episode of Joyces Ulysses through the framework of Freuds psychoanalytic understanding of dreams. Setting of from the assumption that Freuds ground-breaking claims must have found their way into the complex, allusion-laden writing of his contemporary Joyce, it works out elements in the hallucinatory "Circe" chapter that refer to Freuds theory on dreams, concentrating specifically on the portrayal of Bloom. After an overview of the central aspects of Freuds Interpretation of Dreams, the structure of "Circe" will be introduced, justifying the analogy to dreams and tackling the general problem of applying psychoanalysis to literary criticism. The next chapter will take a closer look at Freuds idea of regression and enumerate elements that may be considered allusions to this in "Circe". Building on this, the final chapter will then be an attempt at a psychoanalytic reading of Bloom, also drawing upon some additional ideas from Freuds later theories.