OTHERNESS AND GENDER PERFORMATIVITY IN JOYCE’S DUBLINERS AND ULYSSES

Abstract

This paper examines the construction of women as the “other” in James Joyce’s Dubliners and Ulysses through a feminist theoretical lens, employing a close reading of selected women characters, including Eveline, Maria, Gretta Conroy, Mrs. Mooney, Gerty MacDowell, and Molly Bloom. By analyzing pivotal narrative moments such as Eveline’s paralysis at the dock, Maria’s disrupted rituals, Gretta’s emotional silence, Mrs. Mooney’s tactical manipulation of gender norms, Gerty’s self-objectification, and Molly’s embodied monologue, the paper illustrates how Joyce both reflects and subverts early twentieth-century patriarchal norms. Women’s identity is shown to be performatively constructed and narratively constrained, yet occasionally resisting these limits through fragmented acts of agency. Irigaray’s notion of woman as the supporting “mirror” to man clarifies the structural marginalization of these characters, while Butler’s emphasis on repetition and performativity exposes the instability of gender roles in Joyce’s texts. The study also engages with recent feminist literary criticism that re-evaluates Joyce’s work in light of contemporary concerns, foregrounding voice, embodiment, and shifting models of women’s subjectivity, while also addressing the intersection of gender and class through insights from material feminism and social reproduction theory. Ultimately, Joyce’s fiction is shown to participate in a complex negotiation of gendered identity, revealing both the constraints of patriarchal narrative and the latent potential for feminist disruption.