“Modern Myths: The Function of Myth in Ulysses and Cien años de soledad”

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the complex role that myth plays in James Joyce’s Ulysses and Gabriel García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad. It begins by defining myth and narrative, the terms T.S. Eliot uses in his review of Ulysses as modes of narration, before exploring the tensions that emerge between these modes. A close analysis of two episodes in each novel demonstrates the uses to which each author puts myth and explores the implications of myth as a distinct mode to the narrative one. It progresses to examine the responses to myth both from the author and the reader’s perspective, relocating the debate to a linguistic setting. The political value of myth is explored, as a way for each author to negotiate particular colonial and post-colonial relationships to literature, and indeed, in the case of García Márquez, to the other author. The final part of the paper examines the repercussions of the mythical/narrative tension for modern interpretations of reality, chiefly through literary means. As a conclusion, the paper suggests that myth as a mode produces a productive tension when forced to coexist with the narrative mode traditionally associated with the novel.