Truth in the Chapter ‘Nestor’:A Foucauldian Approach to James Joyce’s Ulysses

The purpose of the present study is to read the second chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, ‘Nestor’, and analyze the concept of ‘truth’ based on the theories of Michel Foucault. James Joyce is one of the greatest novelists of twentieth century and his works, especially A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939), established his name in the canon of literature for goods. Central to the theories of Foucault is the concept of ‘power’ that shaped his thoughts in his oeuvre. ‘Power relations’ in each society determine the way people identify themselves. Foucault analyzed the different ways in which power is practiced in the society. In this regard, he depicted a delicate association between power and knowledge and the specific means by which such knowledge is constructed for the sake of power. In order to attain this delicate association, a mental framework is needed. This mental framework which shapes our thoughts and by which we know and perceive the world is ‘Discourse’. According to Foucault, ‘Truth’ is nothing but an outcome of these complicated mechanisms, functioned by power/knowledge. This study aims to analyze such sophisticated mechanisms of Foucauldian ‘Truth’ in Nestor

Keywords:

: Power/Knowledge , Discourse , Power , Power Relations