The aural literacy of Ulysses

• Published in: European journal of English studies 2007-08, Vol.11 (2), p.207-220
• Main Author: Simons, Jefferey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: editing theory; genetic criticism; Joyce's Ulysses; literary interpretation; orality and literacy; textual criticism
• ISSN: 1382-5577; 1744-4233
• DOI: 10.1080/13825570701452979

The Garland Ulysses: A Critical and Synoptic Edition (1986 [1984]), edited by Hans Walter Gabler, Wolfhard Steppe and Claus Melchior, marks a watershed in twentieth-century editorial practice and textual study. Availing itself of pioneering documentary procedures - genetic transcription and collation 'electronically typeset by pagina GmbH in Tübingen from the processed text generated by the editing program TUSTEP' (McGann, Criticism 27.3 [1985]: 283 - 305 at 301) - and the innovative blending of German and Anglo-American editing methods, the Garland Ulysses establishes, on its left-hand pages, a continuous manuscript text recording the work's highly complex stages of textual development, and on its right-hand pages, a clear reading text that Joyce never saw. Taking this editorial turning point as its own departure, this article conceives a new textuality on aligning the compositional and transmissional diachrony of Ulysses with the study of orality and literacy. The alignment rests upon the conceptual scaffolding identified in the article's first two sections and is evidenced thereafter by analysis of the novel's seventh episode. In a concluding move, the article proposes a methodological shift in literary interpretation, one seeing Ulysses resolutely exploit the dovetailed interplay of speech and writing.