Reading a minoritarian <i>Ulysses</i> , or the politics of a writing machine

A growing body of critical investigations has scrutinized Ulysses by highlighting its resistance to hegemonic structures, through the lens of its deterritorialization of English, and consequently its limitless potential as a work of minor literature according to the Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s terminology. By situating these concepts within a larger Deleuzian framework, interpreting Ulysses as a product of minor literature helps us illuminate James Joyce’s practice of deterritorialization for undermining the prevailing discourses on cultural hegemony, regimes of signification, and national identity. The aim of this study is to explain how Ulysses, as a rhizomatic text, invites an infinite range of interpretations without privileging any particular one over others. In light of Deleuzian readings, this essay argues Ulysses is a work of minor literature that resists the conventional struggles of British Realism to represent reality. Furthermore, as a ‘writing machine’, Ulysses embodies Joyce’s rejection of Freudian psychoanalysis, generating anti-Oedipal desires through the establishment of countless connections between a vast array of supplementary texts. In so doing, it renders these states of desire free from all interpretations. Finally, the political implications of this minor literature are explored through the concept of deterritorialization.