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The Perception Of Coincidence: Artistic Symmetry In The "Wandering Rocks" Episode Of James Joyce's Ulysses, James A. Scruton

Masters Theses

James Joyce's Ulysses, the most influential novel of the twentieth century, has often been criticized for its fragmentation and complexity. Impenetrable to some readers, misunderstood by others, Ulysses bears within its eighteen episodes a symmetry of subject and form that at once clarifies and multiplies the meanings to be found there. Richard Ellmann calls Joyce's theory of art "the perception of coincidence," a theory best exemplified by "Wandering Rocks," the central episode of Ulysses. The use of "symmetrical coincidence" in ''Wandering Rocks" can be seen in two ways: 1)the internal structure of the episode, and 2)its location among …