Ulysses

Written during the First World War and the struggle for Irish independence, Ulysses, while set prior to these events, was shaped by, and was a reaction to them. That one day in 1904 Dublin is not a static world, preserved in aspic, but one shaped by the social, political, and economic events that provided the context for future cataclysmic transformations. Political and philosophical concerns, dilemmas, contradictions run like a thread through the novel despite its allusive and symbolist form and techniques – it was a revolutionary attempt to develop forms of literary expression capable of explaining and interpreting the modern world, not by rejecting all that went before but preserving what was progressive and liberating while exposing and rejecting what was oppressive and repressive.

– John McInally: Revolutionary and Life Affirming: One Hundred Years of James Joyce’s Ulysses – read the full review in In Defence of Marxism issue 39