Molly Blooms: A Polylogue on 'Penelope' and Cultural Studies

“Molly Bloom—arguably the most controversial and least understood character in Ulysses—has been the victim of critics’ preconceptions and prejudices for decades.  She has never received her due as a woman or a fictional character.  This attractive collection rescues Molly from the critical gaze and resituates her as the subject of a vigorous, sensitive, and varied ‘polylogue.’  In the process, Molly becomes a ‘determined’ woman in both senses of the word, a subject produced by culture and history as well as a woman asserting her individuality in and through those media.  This initiates a discussion that will be joined by many scholars and students of Joyce, veterans as well as newcomers to Ulysses."—Robert Spoo, editor of James Joyce Quarterly

This is the first full-length critical study of Molly Bloom that attempts to bring her from the margin to the center of Ulysses.  Twelve scholars, working from different points of view, look at 'Penelope' through the lenses of cultural studies: feminism, new historicism, popular culture, postmodernism, and postcolonialism.  As a result, they produce a multiplicity of Molly Blooms and illuminate the many positions she occupies in Joyce's novel.
    The contributors are Kathleen McCormick, Richard Pearce, Cheryl Herr, Kimberly Devlin, Carol Shloss, Susan Bazargan, Brian Shaffer, Joseph Heininger, Jennifer Wicke, Garry Leonard, Margaret Mills Harper, and Ewa Ziarek.