Jung (mis)Reading Joyce: Myth, Madness and Misunderstanding in Ulysses

Abstract

This essay examines C. G. Jung's notorious article, or “monologue”, on James Joyce’s modernist epic Ulysses. I posit Jung’s misreading as being shaped by his preconceived expectations of symbolism and narrative in literature. While Jung finds Ulysses tedious and lacking in mythic and unconscious material, this essay highlights Joyce's innovations in both areas, with particular emphasis on his radical experiments in language and the aesthetic experience it evokes. By contrasting the comic, everyday hero Leopold Bloom with the epic hero Odysseus, the essay explores the life-affirming themes of Ulysses. I argue that Jung’s article evidences an almost wilful oversight of Joyce’s engagement with psychoanalysis and archetypal psychology, especially in the “Circe” episode of Ulysses, which paved the way for Joyce’s ultimate experiment in the unconscious: Finnegans Wake.