THE 'OXEN OF THE SUN' episode of Ulysses is set at the National Maternity hospitalin Dublin and by Joycean standards its plot is relatively unambiguous. It presentsa group of young Dubliners, some of whom are students or professionals inthe field of medicine, discussing national politics, demographics and sexuality. Theirdebate dips in and out of the social theories concerning history, economics, philosophy, naturalhistory, anthropology, eugenics and social Darwinism, with state-of-the-art refractions ofthe narrative voice through canonical styles of English prose. In contrast to the predictable,evolutionary trajectory of the plot, the debaters' say-sos, the barrage of mild indecencies andthe explicit subject matter generate a dense textuality and ambiguous ideologies.