Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

to speak with vision and authority" (McFarlane 82). Bloom--the wandering Odysseus
searching for his homeland, his son, and his wife--stands on the "outside" and speaks
with the "vision and authority" that McFarlane describes. He stands, as well, outside
Foucault's metaphorical Catholic Panopticon, viewing its structure and providing a
unique perspective on the power relations which emanate from its ever-present influence.
However, while Bloom is situated outside the Catholic Panopticon, he nevertheless
struggles against comparable cultural forces which are instrumental in the formation of
an individual, for as Foucault writes, "Power is everywhere"(History 93). The powers
against which Bloom struggles are clearly the anti-Semitism offin de siecle Europe, the
culturally defined gender roles of Ireland, the ambiguities of his religious and cultural
heritage, and his marginality in Irish culture--a marginality exacerbated by the emerging
Irish nationalism and xenophobia. However, for the purposes of this study, Bloom,
being situated outside the Catholic Church, serves to highlight its institutional powers
with a critical perspective that is removed from the Church's dominant influence. By
examining cultural orthodoxies through the prism of the Other, Joyce is able to reflect
the power mechanisms which permeate Irish culture, predominantly the Catholic Church
and Irish nationalism. Just as Stephen serves as a Foucaldian "chemical catalyst,"
revealing the power structure from within the Catholic Panopticon and reflecting the
disciplinary agon of the deviant struggling against an orthodoxy, Bloom, being outside
the Panopticon, provides an insightful perspective into those powers which comprise that
orthodoxy (Foucault, Subject 211).
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