The Ambiguous Status of Native Speakers and Language Learners in Ulysses

Ulysses destabilizes the division between native and non-native speakers of a language. This is achieved through the inclusion of characters such as Molly Bloom, whose status as native or non-native speaker is ambiguous, and Gerty McDowell, who despite being a native speaker of English is also an English language learner. Also contributing to this destabilization is the way that Ulysses positions all of its readers, whatever their experience with the English language, using techniques James Joyce adapted from his experience as a teacher of English as a foreign language, and from his appropriations of the Berlitz Method.