The Theme of Procreation and Postcreation in James Joyce's "Oxen of the Sun"

”Oxen of the Sun” in James Joyce's Ulysses is a crucial episode because it not only exhibits his obsessive concern with the problem of language in his art, but also presents the theme of what Stephen calls ”postcreation” in parallel with that of procreation, the gestation of a human baby. The counterpoint of these themes is carried by Bloom and Stephen. Bloom stands for fertility/procreation; Stephen for art/postcrcation, and the two themes intertwine in a complex scheme of triple (Homeric, embryonic, and stylistic) correspondences. The episode epitomizes the technique of the novel. The structural elements are woven together in an intricate relationship: the maternity hospital where the themes arc enacted; Mrs. Purefoy who struggles to give birth; Bloom who comes from concern for her and for Stephen, the young son of a friend; the English prose styles whose evolution suggests growth; and Stephen himself who reveals the working of his mind in carousing wit h his friends. The sac red interacts with the profane, and esthetic creation juxtaposes physical procreation. The central symbol is the womb, and the world within it suggests the world without, outside reality with all its meanness and triviality. Within is the inside of the Hospital, the actual womb, and Stephen's mind, the womb of his imagination. What takes place within cannot be separated from what happens without, just as sense cannot be dislocated from sensation, or metaphysics from physics. Bloom's first significant contact with Step hen also symbolizes the reconciliation of man's spiritual nature with the life of this world. As Bloom's earthy sensuality complements Stephen's unwarranted spiritual flight, he establishes rapport between body and soul, common sense and acute intelligence. The artist's creative imagination is quickened so that he will eventually bring forth ”bairns hale” (U 14. 75) just as Mrs. Purefoy docs. Even in their grasp of reality, Bloom and Stephen appear to be groping towards the same direction. The words ”metempsychosis” and ”parallax,” with which Bloom is preoccupied from time to time, seem to counterpoint Stephen's obsession with man's ineluctable modes of percept ion, Together they form the fundamental concepts of Joyce's creative method. Seen in this way, the homage to the oxen of fertility is really an affirmation of art as well as of life. We owe our reverence and ”pure faith” (Purefoy) not only to maternity and procreation, but to the ”Poetic Genius” in us all.

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James Joyce's "Oxen of the Sun" ； procreation ； postcreation ； the womb

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