Date of Award

Fall 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2025 Corinne Lafont. All rights reserved. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English Literature Department

Abstract

Sex, femininity, and dirt in James Joyce’s Ulysses form what Julie Kristeva calls “abjection.” The abject is "the border where exact limits between same and other, subject and object, and even beyond these, between inside and outside, and disappearing—hence an Object of fear and fascination,” (Kristeva 1980, 185) evident by Leopold Bloom’s identity as a cuckold. Alternately approached with loss, disconnection, and anxiety, the text reveals that Leopold Bloom craves his abject to distance himself from physical and emotional rejection. “Calypso” establishes how his abject operates as a defense mechanism to self-defile before others can approach any realized sexual bond. Femininity remains deeply compelling yet disgusting to Leopold Bloom, manifesting in unstable relationships to his cat, wife, self, and daughter. When he finally faces his cuckoldry in “Circe,” he remains at a distance, holding authority over his narrative. Though Kristeva’s theory fails to disentangle his relationship to himself and femininity, “Calypso” and “Circe” portray how Leopold Bloom dirties himself as a distraction from his true self-annihilating reality: social and sexual isolation.

Keywords

Kristeva, abject, femininity, defilement, sexuality, dirt, cuckoldry

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