As Brivic points out, the labeling of females as hysterical is another means by which a patriarchal society genders certain behaviors. Behaviors related to emotionality are notably gendered, as males and females are socialized to react and communicate according to gender norms. Occasionally in Joycean narratives, discourse related to gender is overt, rather than covert. For instance, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen does not take offense at his father's calling him a "bitch" and instead mocks him: "He has a curious idea of genders if he thinks a bitch is masculine," (Chapter 5). Awareness of the futility of gender norms and gendered identities fuel Stephen Dedalus's character in both Ulysses and in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Feminist discourse is deliberately subversive in both James Joyce's Ulysses and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Male characters are central...
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