Catholic Liturgy in Joyce's Ulysses

Joyce critics in search of new and more elaborate schemes with which to illuminate the structure of Ulysses are often like Catholics who in the Nicene Creed affirm belief in "all things visible and invisible"?little knowing that the latter category encompasses much that simply is not there. Such critical zeal has been abundantly manifest, appropriately enough, in secondary literature treating the novel's many liturgical elements. Stuart Gilbert seized an early opportunity to perpetuate Val?ry Larbaud's assertion of a parallel between colors which dominate chapters of the book and the colors of priests' vestments through the liturgical year;1 in 1958, Kevin Sullivan claimed that "in Ulysses.. .the shadow-structure is the Catholic Mass,"2 a claim which lived on in articles in the James Joyce Quarterly in the 1960s and '70s. Paul Briand stated that "Joyce used the framework of the Mass to serve as yet another structure to support the smithy of his soul for the forging of the uncreated conscience of his race";3 Patrick McCarthy concurred (albeit with reservations) in an article the next year: "Joyce chose the mass as one of the structural bases of the novel."4 There is no question that the evidence to support these claims exists; unfortunately, this does not mean that the claims are true. To recall the oft-quoted but nonetheless pertinent caveat lector from Mr. Joyce himself: "I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries" (/// 535). While some tan talizing liturgical references lead to highly productive avenues of inquiry, others do little but tantalize. As a result, there has been a great deal of dross in the critical apprehension of the Joycean litur gical vein; of the work which has been outstanding, Ruth Walsh's 1969 JJQ article debunking much of the UlysseslMass structure criti cism while illustrating the value of liturgy as objective correlative and character vehicle stands out, as do Robert Boyle's illuminations of the Eucharistie motif both in JJQ and elsewhere. Building on this base, I will separate the critical hallucinations from the important