My paper focuses on the corporeal discourse in James Joyce’s Ulysses, called by the author “the epic of the human body”. I use Foucault’s category of the ancient “regimens” of diet and sexuality; according to The History of Sexuality those referred not so much to medical recommendations as to the art of living. The paper claims that the concept of regimens was still alive in the Modernist culture. For Nietzsche, physiology was a fundamental science and his whole anthropology was built upon it. The management of body functions, dietetic schemes, walks and the choice of a proper climate were essential for his philosophy of life. The paper defines Bloom’s corporeal regimen in Ulysses as one that celebrates the body and affirms life in its material forms. Bloom’s relaxed rules on sexuality and consumption and his joyful glorification of the material world (as in chapter four where he prepares a kidney and chapter seventeen where he opens two drawers that – among other things – include a variety of objects and representations of the human body) can be seen as a Modernist counter-project to the disciplining “ascetic ideals” of the Christian tradition.
 

My paper focuses on the corporeal discourse in James Joyce’s Ulysses, called by the author “the epic of the human body”. I use Foucault’s category of the ancient “regimens” of diet and sexuality; according to The History of Sexuality those referred not so much to medical recommendations as to the art of living. The paper claims that the concept of regimens was still alive in the Modernist culture. For Nietzsche, physiology was a fundamental science and his whole anthropology was built upon it. The management of body functions, dietetic schemes, walks and the choice of a proper climate were essential for his philosophy of life. The paper defines Bloom’s corporeal regimen in Ulysses as one that celebrates the body and affirms life in its material forms. Bloom’s relaxed rules on sexuality and consumption and his joyful glorification of the material world (as in chapter four where he prepares a kidney and chapter seventeen where he opens two drawers that – among other things – include a variety of objects and representations of the human body) can be seen as a Modernist counter-project to the disciplining “ascetic ideals” of the Christian tradition.