James Joyce, born in 1882 and died in 1941, was a poet and critic. His most famous work, Ulysses, was inspired by Homer’s epic. It is indeed primarily a text of modern literature. It is divided into 18 chapters and faithfully follows the structure of the Odyssey. He will use Homer’s work to tell his own version of the epic. In his novel, Odysseus comes from James Joyce anti-hero, and the journey of the hero, Leopold Bloom is condensed into one day.
There are many references to the Odyssey, but everything is set in a contemporary world, both epic and so ordinary. This is the element that makes the work so strong, one has the impression of finding the Homeric identity while being so far away. Each of the books in James Joyce’s Ulysses refers to an adventure from the Odyssey, whether it’s the encounter with the Cyclopes or Circe, for example. Joyce’s aim is clear: to bring Homer’s Odyssey down to earth, to our level, and to bring it to life at all costs. Indeed, when we read the Odyssey, we understand that Odysseus is a hero, that he faces monsters and fights with gods. Joyce, through his work, wants to prove that it is not necessary for a person to be in a fantastic and mythological setting to be a hero.