Unveiling Desire: Pleasure, Power and Masquerade in Joyce's "Nausicaa" Episode

Abstract

She was leaning back with legs crossed, swinging the crossed foot vigorously and continuously; this continued without interruption for some ten minutes after I first observed her; then the swinging movement reached a climax; she leant still further back, thus bringing the sexual region more closely in contact with the edge of the bench and straightened and stiffened her body and legs in what appeared to be a momentary spasm; there could be little doubt as to what had taken place. A few minutes later she walked from her solitary seat into the waiting-room and sat down among the other waiting passengers, quite still now with uncrossed legs, a pale, quiet young woman, possibly a farmer’s daughter, serenely unconscious that her maneuver had been detected, and very possibly herself ignorant of its true nature. (180) Readers of Ulysses will note striking similarities between this scenario of male voyeurism and female sexual arousal and the one that