Temple-Thurston, Barbara. “The Reader as Absentminded Beggar: Recovering South Africa in ‘Ulysses.’” James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 1, 1990, pp. 247–256. www.jstor.org/stable/25485129.

With nationalism and imperial as topics central to parts of Ulysses, Barbara Temple-Thurston seeks to expand this conversation within the novel by drawing comparison to the Boer War in South Africa, and illustrates that Joyce likely used the conflict as source material to broaden the conversations within the novel. After pointing out that the conflict was frequently in Irish newspapers between 1899 and 1902, she makes the claim that “the complexities and ironies of the South African struggle provided Joyce with rich source material for metaphors for his own views on… nationalistic fanaticism, the brutality of imperialism, and the cruelty of betrayals resulting from collusion” (247-248). Notable discussions about nationalism and English imperialism flood Cyclops, with Bloom and the Citizen narrator at each other’s throats trying to define what a nation is and who fits in Ireland as a nation specifically. Temple-Thurston explains how Joyce was a student at the time of the Boer War, and resistance against the English popularized the Boer cause among Irish Nationalists, while also calling on stories from Joyce’s life and interaction with these ideas. Referencing Joyce’s own childhood and history, paired with textual analyses of the imperialist and nationalist metaphors, Temple Thurston’s historicist analysis of the Boer War opens the door to analysis of imperialism and nationalism in Ulysses outside of the specific Irish context, offering a deeper analysis of these contexts.

Obsessions and themes:

Imperialism and Nationalism

Blackness

Irish History

Joyce’s Own Life and Childhood

African History