Listening to twining chords and wedded words in Joyce's Ulysses: an interdisciplinary approach

This research study aims to shed light on how Joyce made use of music in Ulysses to create a literary work that exceeded the borders of literature until then, producing an extradimensional and transdisciplinary work of art that did not fit in the classification ranks that existed in the early stage of the twentieth century. This interdisciplinary study is organised according to its main concern, which is the analysis of the influence of music in both the structure and the characterisation of Ulysses. The first section deals with the musical structure found in Joyce's masterpiece as a whole – and in each of the chapters – with a particular emphasis on the 'Sirens' episode. The next section studies the characters in Ulysses as performers, and it can subsequently be divided into two parts: the analysis of the characterisation in the work – with Joyce's own concept and use of the leitmotif –, and the study of the counterpoint between characters in Ulysses. Finally, an annex is included in which the reader will observe how Joyce referred to his work – as a whole or in parts – in terms that can be expected to describe a musical composition instead of literature. The conclusion of the annex is the result of the analysis of Joyce's letters in Ellmann's compound, and it contextualises the starting point of the study