novels in modes

Kawabata's novels each center on an aspect of Japanese culture: the game of go, kimonos, the tea ceremony. Each novel could be said to be in the "mode" of that aspect. Flaubert's novels could be said to be written in the mode of stupidity: human stupidity is the theme and the style has a certain concrete stupidity to it.

Each of the chapters of Ulysses is in a different mode. From this angle, Ulysses is less a novel than 18 novellas unified by 1) time of day 2) its characters 3) place 4) the Odyssey parallels. Same formula as Dubliners.