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“OMNIUM GATHERUM”
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protagonists, Joyce’s portrayals of these “talents” reveal his
critique of those corrupt intellectuals who fail to live up to that
name, and, more subtly, his intricate dialogue with those who
exercised such a profound influence over modern Ireland.
2II. The Intellectual: Some Concepts
To dissect Joyce’s representations of intellectuals, it is of
use to examine some background theoretical concepts. For
Said, the intellectual is “an individual with a specific public
role in society that cannot be reduced simply to being a faceless
professional, a competent member of a class just going about
her/his business”; rather, this individual is “endowed with a
various walks of life, and hence is more representative of the Irish
intelligentsia as a whole.
2
A large number of Joyce scholars have delved into the episode of “Aeolus”;
the majority of these studies focus on rhetorical figures and newspaper
headlines. M. J. C. Hodgart’s research, for instance, is a classic study of
Joyce’s deployment of classical rhetoric (1974: 115-130). Karen R. Lawrence
examines headlines and rhetorical figures (1980: 389-405). David Mikics
concentrates on rhetoric, looking into the politics and histories hidden in the
speeches (1990: 533-558). Stephen Donovan’s article is devoted to the
investigation of newspaper typography, another study of Joyce’s use of
headlines (2003: 519-541). None of these readings centers on the topic of
the intellectual. Some researches on Joyce and journalism, however, are
relevant to my study, although they do not address the issue of the
intellectual directly. Cheryl Herr explores Joyce’s anatomy of the press,
arguing that “Joyce interrogates, often comically, the conditions of
production of Irish journalism and the replication of those conditions in
other professions such as education and law” (1986: 67). R. Brandon
Kershner dissects Joyce’s close connection to journalism and the newspapers
and periodicals referred to in
Ulysses
, seeing the
Freeman’s Journal
office as
“the arena for performances” for the group of pretentious Dubliners (2010:
83). In his survey of the relation between the Irish press and Catholic
nationalism, Len Platt deems the pressmen in “Aeolus” to be the products of
conservative reaction to the post-Parnellite era (1998: 735-746). These
critiques have shed light on my reading of the intellectuals represented in the
episode.