Metaphorical networks and geographical connotations in the musical landscape of James Joyce's Ulysses

This paper will look closely at three musical references punctuating Bloom’s day: Michael Balfe’s The Rose of Castile, Friedrich von Flotow’s Martha, and Thomas Moore’s The Last Rose of Summer, from the fifth volume of his Irish Melodies. Its purpose is to illustrate how and to what extent they are essential to the narrative economy of the work: because they all bear strong geographical connotations, they entail different and contrasting imaginative elements that become closely associated with specific characters and situations and culminate in Molly’s betrayal of her husband in the eleventh episode. A first remarkable element is the association of Molly with the Spanish peninsula, exemplified through her connection with The Rose of Castile, and Martha also plays a comparable role in the development and the characterization of Molly’s infidelity. In addition, the colonial context of Ulysses breathes new and unexpected meanings into matters that are rarely brought to bear in such a framework. It is the case, for example, of the ballad “‘Twas rank and fame”, and The Last Rose of Summer is also subjected to trivialization and satire, broadly aimed against Celtic revivalism.