What is gigantism in Ulysses?
Gigantism is Joyce's name for the technique of Episode 12, “Cyclops”. The pub talk is broken by more than thirty parodies that inflate things to enormous size, legal, heroic, scientific or newspaper styles, until the Citizen becomes a giant hero of Irish legend.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 12, Cyclops. A parody of Irish heroic legend describing the Citizen.
The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired freelyfreckled shaggybearded
What it means in plain English
The description goes on for a page, ending with a list of “Irish heroes and heroines of antiquity” that includes Napoleon and Cleopatra.
The comedy deflates the Citizen's nationalism by blowing it up.
Literary context
The Cyclops in Homer is a one-eyed giant; Joyce's giant style matches.
References
- Ulysses, Episode 12, “Cyclops”
- The Linati and Gilbert schemas
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
Who narrates Cyclops?
An unnamed debt collector, interrupted by the parodies.
Related terms
The Citizen
The aggressive nationalist Bloom argues with in 'Cyclops' (Episode 12) — Joyce's one-eyed Cyclops.
Barney Kiernan's
Barney Kiernan's is the pub on Little Britain Street where Episode 12, “Cyclops”, takes place. Bloom goes there to meet Martin Cunningham about Dignam's insurance and ends up in a row with the Citizen, who throws a biscuit tin at him.
“Love, I mean the opposite of hatred”
“Love, says Bloom. I mean the opposite of hatred.” Bloom says this in Barney Kiernan's pub in Episode 12, after the Citizen's attacks on Jews and the English. Asked what real life is, he answers simply that it is love, then leaves, which the drinkers mock.