Narrative Arrangements in Superposition and the Critique of Nationalism in “Cyclops”

“Cyclops” poses a challenge to readers as they try to navigate the narrative in Barney Kiernan’s while negotiating the interpolations that appear throughout the episode. This essay argues for a way of reading the episode that considers the main narrative and the interpolations in a critical dialogue contesting nationalism. In addition, the study proposes a new way to understand the debate between David Hayman and Herbert Schneidau about when and where the episode is narrated and how it fits within the chronology of the novel’s day. The concept of superposition from quantum mechanics provides a conceptual means to understand the narrative complexities of “Cyclops” without being reductive about their potential meanings. Superposition may also offer a way to understand Bloom’s famous definition of the nation here.