'To let him have the weight of my tongue': The I-Narrator's Voice in "Cyclops"

In the first part of the analysis I shall concentrate on the different techniques of discourse representation used by the I-narrator in relation to a plurality of perspectives and ideological subjectivities. The teller's alternation of mimetic representation and coloured narrative will help us detect the relationship existing between the uttering-I and the other more or less subterranean speaking voices. The second part of the analysis will be devoted to instances of disjunction between the conversational behaviour of the experiencing-I in Kiernan's pub and his role of reporter of the events in the a posteriori narration. It is from the disjunction between his silence at the time of the story and the 'weight of his tongue' at the time of narration that much of the I-narrator's hypocritical attitude and gossipy manner emerges.