James Joyce — Quote from Ulysses “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” Ulysses (1922) Concepts: escape, meaning, oppression Resonant Quotes“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” — James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son Baldwin's people trapped in history and Joyce's nightmare from which we try to awake capture the same inherited weigh...“A cage went in search of a bird.” — Franz Kafka, The Zuerau Aphorisms Both images capture the oppressive pursuit of consciousness by constraining forces—Kafka's cage actively seeking to e...“Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.” — Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition Joyce's desire to awake from history's nightmare and Arendt's observation about thought under tyranny both describe c...“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” — Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out The quotes create a productive tension between Joyce's desire to escape historical trauma and Woolf's insistence that...“Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground While both address human relationship to suffering, Joyce seeks escape from historical pain whereas Dostoevsky observ...