Transformation of structures of Homerian epic in James Joyce’s Ulysses

Курилов Д.О.

Kurilov Dmitriy Olegovitch – PhD in Philology, associate professor at the Department of History and Typology of Russian and Foreign Literature, Voronezh State University

Abstract

The article considers modifications of certain structural-compositional and poetic-narrative features of the ancient epic (narrative formulas, compound epithets, “silencing” of the event) in the modernist epic of the twentieth century basing on selected fragments of The Odyssey by Homer and Ulysses by J. Joyce. The conducted comparative analysis reveals how specific modification of Homerian epic formal features corresponds to Joyce’s particular narrative objectives and general artistic mission.

Keywords

epic; chronological incompatibility; silencing; (narrative) formula; compound epithet

DOI: 10.31249/lit/2025.03.10

Download text