Physical Culture and the Aesthetics of Jewish Regeneration in Ulysses

This essay surveys themes of Jewishness and masculinity in James Joyce's Ulysses. It argues that Joyce positions Leopold Bloom at the nexus of visual cultural forces each vying for representation of the Jewish male body post-Dreyfus Affair. The study traces how physical culture and bodybuilding, degeneration, and Zionism each grew increasingly reliant on art and emergent technologies of image production and circulation. In doing so, the essay shows the extent to which Edwardian consumer culture and iconography shape Bloom's relationship to political Zionism, his perceived degeneracy, and his own ethnic identity as an Irish Jew. Because similar cultural forces beset Joyce himself, who suffered from illness throughout his life, the essay further reflects upon how Joyce uses Bloom's Judaism and perceived degeneracy as a way of thinking through his own Irishness and ill health.