​English Research Seminar | End(s) of the world / world without end: The Twoheaded Octopus of Ulysses

In the 'Lestrygonians' episode of Ulysses, Bloom overhears a conversation linking the "ends of the world" with a "twoheaded octopus" (U 8.520-21). This section of Ulysses has attracted substantial critical commentary but remains one of the many riddles and enigmas of the text. In this paper, I will apply various ecocritical approaches to examine the enigmatic mollusc of 'Lestrygonians' and thematically related sections of Ulysses. This paper will also explore Joyce's linking of the non-human world with the limits and "ends" of the human world, consider the octopus image within the contexts of Freemasonry, Theosophy, and the occult, and study the 'genetic' history of the passages in question. I will argue that the twoheaded octopus is part of a theme in Joyce's work that depicts the animal world, and the 'end' or purpose of the human world, as essentially unknowable.

Speaker: Dr Richard Alan Barlow

Dr Barlow received his PhD from Queen's University Belfast in 2012. He is now an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University. His articles have appeared in publications such as James Joyce Quarterly, Philosophy and Literature, and The Irish Times. His recent research includes an article forthcoming in Irish Studies Review on Ossianic material in the work of Owenson, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett. He also has work forthcoming on Dion Boucicault and Flann O'Brien and is currently working on an article for a special edition of James Joyce Quarterly. Dr Barlow has lectured at the Trieste Joyce School and at the Vienna Irish Studies and Cultural Theory Summer School. This summer he will be presenting a paper at the Oxford Modern and Contemporary Literature Research Seminar. His monograph, The Celtic Unconscious: Joyce and Scottish Culture, was published by the University of Notre Dame Press in 2017.

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