Who Chose This Face for Me?: Joyce’s Creation of Secondary Characters in Ulysses

This book investigates the process of characterisation of secondary figures in Joyce’s Ulysses. Drawing on theories from stylistics, pragmatics and narratology, this study explores the linguistic/literary interface of Joyce’s novel focusing on the author’s orchestration of different textual cues for presenting secondary characters as miniature examples of human complexity. Although grounded on solid theoretical bases and supported by sound methodological suggestions, this work provides the reader with a number of practical examples of character analysis which can be applied to any work of prose fiction. The characters selected for analysis are Buck Mulligan, Simon Dedalus, Mrs Breen and Milly Bloom. The thorough account of their textual characterisation uncovers the colourful individualities of Joyce’s minor figures and reveals their intriguing potential for the contemporary reader.