Ashplant
Reading, Smashing, and Playing Ulysses
Zimmerman, Nadya. "Musical Form as Narrator: The Fugue of the Sirens in James Joyce’s Ulysses." Journal of Modern Literature 26, no. 1 (2002): 108–18.
Related topics:
Link to citation page: http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_modern_literature/v026/26.1zimmerman.pdf
Zimmerman argues that Joyce does employ a fugal structure in "Sirens" (U 11) in order to "question autonomy and simulate simultaneity." In doing so, she argues, Joyce reveals a "multi-vocal interiority" (109). Zimmerman begins her piece by differentiating between a regular fugue and a "fuga per canonem," which combines the characteristics of both a fugue and of a canon. Both the fugue and canon rely on imitation, but the fugue uses imitation in different keys. Zimmerman goes on to argue to Joyce creates an eight-voice fuga per canonem by employing what she calls both "verbal simultaneity" and "temporal simultaneity." The two work together in concert. For example, "verbal simultaneity" is the thematic question-answer structure present in a fugue, which Zimmerman sees reflected in the way that Joyce redistributes the theme to different characters in the episode. These redistributions cannot happen at the same point on the page, but they happen at the same point in linear time (temporal simultaneity.) To illustrate this, Zimmerman uses a number of different points in the episode (too numerous to list here) which she shows in a chart detailing both theme and time. In particular, though, she mentions the line "Bronze by gold, miss Douce's head by miss Kennedy's head, over the/crossblind of the Ormond bar heard the viceregal hoofs go by, ringing steel," which has been used by other scholars in discussing the whether or not "Sirens" is a fugue (U 11.64-65). The theme mentioned in this line is completed in the next passage. Together, the lines achieve the affect of a fugue. Zimmerman ultimately concludes that in this method Joyce "offers a new approach to literary narrative" because he allows readers to perceive text "vertically"--understanding several lines at once--in the way we formerly could only perceive music (117).
Citations and Related Sources