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Course Question & AnswerJames Joyce
Purpose of Course showclose
Many consider James Joyce the most influential author of the 20th century. His innovations in narrative strategy in particular continue to shape and inspire literature today. In this course, we will examine Joyce’s aesthetic and artistic sensibilities through close readings of the major works in his oeuvre, placing special emphasis on Ulysses, whose expansive length and nearly infinite depths has sustained scholarship for decades.
Before we embark upon our journey through Joyce’s canon, we will take a look at the life and times of James Joyce, situating the literary giant within a number of contexts: the fight for Irish home rule, Modernism, the World Wars, and the Irish Literary Revival. We will then progress through his works chronologically, by date of publication: from the sober, artful short fiction of the Dubliners to the avant-garde wordplay of Finnegans Wake. By the end of this course, you will not only have read and thought critically about a number of the most celebrated works of the last century, but will have evaluated for yourself the reasons for Joyce’s commanding and revered position within the English canon.
Learning Outcomes showclose
- Place the works of James Joyce in the context of historical events and literary developments (in Ireland as well as the broader literary community) contemporaneous to their creation;
- Discuss the theme of place in Joyce’s works, especially in The Dubliners; more specifically, students will be able to describe the notion of place in Joyce’s works as it relates to identity;
- Identify the literary strategies and techniques Joyce uses in his works and cite examples of them from the texts read in class;
- Trace the evolution of Joyce’s writing style across his different books and compare the development of shared themes in his various novels;
- Identify and discuss the main recurring themes in James’s work, including immobility, religion, and maturation, and cite examples of these from his specific texts;
- Summarize the use of language in Joyce’s works, specifically Finnegans Wake, and point to this as an example of Joyce’s unique aesthetic
Course Requirements showclose
√ Have access to a computer.
√ Have continuous broadband Internet access.
√ Have the ability/permission to install plug-ins or software (e.g., Adobe Reader or Flash).
√ Have the ability to download and save files and documents to a computer.
√ Have the ability to open Microsoft files and documents (.doc, .ppt, .xls, etc.).
√ Be competent in the English language.
√ Have read the Saylor Student Handbook.
Unit Outline show close
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Unit 1: James Joyce the Man
We will begin this course by introducing ourselves to James Joyce the man, learning what we can about his life and times, including the authors he gravitated towards, the volatile political situation he was born into, and his experience of blindness, among other things. Because many of Joyce’s works bear an undeniable autobiographical inflection and frequently reference political figures and events of his day, you may find this unit particularly useful in deciphering some of the more obscure allusions in his later works.
Unit 1 Time Advisory show close
Unit 1 Learning Outcomes show close
- 1.1 Brief Biographical Overview
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1.1.1 Childhood and Education
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Early Years”
Link: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Early Years” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read this webpage for some basic information about Joyce’s early education and childhood.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Early Years”
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1.1.2 Catholic Upbringing
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Schooldays”
Link: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s "Schooldays" (HTML)
Instructions: Read the entry titled “Schooldays” for a discussion of Joyce’s Catholic education, as well as his discontent with the religion.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Eumaeus”; “Ithaca”; “Penelope”
Link: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Eumaeus”; (HTML) “Ithaca”; (HTML) “Penelope” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections linked here for a basic review of the important themes in these episodes.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”(HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: From the chapter on Ulysses, please read the section titled “Technics” found on pages 164-171.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Michael Murphy’s “Proteus and Prose: Paternity or Workmanship in James Joyce’s Ulysses”
Link: Michael Murphy’s "Proteus and Prose: Paternity or Workmanship in James Joyce's Ulysses" (PDF)
Instructions: Please read this essay for a discussion of the family relationships in Ulysses, especially Daedalus’s relationship with his father and mother. Please note that to access the essay, you must follow the link with the article’s title.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Narrative Structure”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Ontological Condition” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the section from this chapter titled “Idle Talk,” which can be found on pages 79-85. As you read, please focus on the discussion of the novel’s structure of repetitions and paradoxes.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Schooldays”
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1.1.3 Father’s Failed Business and Middle-Class Dreams
- Reading: Herta Muller’s “Books and Writers”: “James Joyce” and Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Writing Amid Chaos”
Link: Herta Muller’s “Books and Writers”: “James Joyce” (PDF) and Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Writing Amid Chaos”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read both entries linked here. In the first item, please pay special attention to the first few paragraphs, which mention Joyce’s father’s failed business and the effect this situation had on Joyce and his family. Then read the entry from the Cornell exhibition on James Joyce to learn about the author’s middle-class lifestyle.
Terms of Use: The "James Joyce" article is licensed by Petri Liukkonen under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial 1.0 Finland License (HTML). A copy of the article in its original form can be found here (HTML). Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Herta Muller’s “Books and Writers”: “James Joyce” and Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Writing Amid Chaos”
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1.1.4 Marriage to Nora Barnacle
- Reading: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Letters to Home”
Link: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: "Letters to Home" (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short section titled “Letters to Home” for more about Joyce’s relationship with his family, especially his courtship of Nora Barnacle.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Letters to Home”
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1.1.5 Life in Trieste
- Reading: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Exile and Struggle”
Link: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: "Exile and Struggle" (HTML)
Instructions: From Cornell’s James Joyce Collection, please read the short entry on his experience as an exile in Trieste.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Exile and Struggle”
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1.1.6 Relationship with Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats
- Reading: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Network”; Poetry Foundation’s “Ezra Pound” and “William Butler Yeats”
Link: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Network”; (HTML) Poetry Foundation’s “Ezra Pound”(HTML) and “William Butler Yeats” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the entire section titled “Network” for a discussion of Joyce’s inclusion in the “literary aristocracy” as well as the two blurbs on Ezra Pound and WB Yeats for an introduction to these two formative figures in Joyce’s life.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Network”; Poetry Foundation’s “Ezra Pound” and “William Butler Yeats”
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1.1.7 The World Wars and Joyce’s Reaction to Them
- Reading: Great Writers Inspire: Cleo Hanaway’s “James Joyce: A Biography”
Link: Great Writers Inspire: Cleo Hanaway’s “James Joyce: A Biography” (PDF)
Instructions: Read this short biography and consider how the world war affected Joyce’s lifestyle.
Terms of Use: This resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales. It is attributed to Cleo Hanaway and the original version can be found here.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Great Writers Inspire: Cleo Hanaway’s “James Joyce: A Biography”
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1.1.8 The Onset of Blindness
- Reading: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Eyesight and Blindness”
Link: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Eyesight and Blindness”(PDF)
Instructions: Please read the short piece here for more information about Joyce’s blindness, including some quotes by Joyce on the subject of his loss of eyesight.
Terms of Use: Jorn Barger has licensed his content under an Open Web Content License (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Eyesight and Blindness”
- 1.2 Inspirations and Influences
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1.2.1 Henrik Ibsen and the Presentation of National Identity and City Life
- Reading: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Literary Tastes”
Link: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Literary Tastes”(PDF)
Instructions: Please look over the section under the header “Ibsen” for more about Joyce’s reaction to the writer. You may also wish to skim some of the other entries to get a sense for his literary tastes and his critical perspectives on works he had read.
Terms of Use: Jorn Barger has licensed his content under an Open Web Content License (HTML). The original version of this piece can be found here (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Literary Tastes”
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1.2.2 St. Thomas Aquinas, His Philosophies, and the Concept of Claritas
- Reading: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia’s “Summa Theologiae”
Link: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae(HTML) and New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia’s Summa Theologica(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short excerpt from Summa Theologiae, as well as the encyclopedia article on the text. You will find that Joyce borrowed heavily from this work and the philosophies it presents.
Note on the text: In his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) presents the major theological teachings of Christianity. The work also articulates his aesthetic theories, including his definition of beauty as “integritas” (“wholeness”), “consonantia (“harmony”), and “claritas” (“radiance”).
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae and New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia’s “Summa Theologiae”
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1.2.3 W.B. Yeats and the Irish Lyric
- Reading: The Saylor Foundation's version of William Butler Yeats’ “Who Goes with Fergus”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s version of William Butler Yeats’ “Who Goes With Fergus” (PDF)
Instructions: Please read the entirety of the short poem linked here.
Note on the text: Yeats’ “Who Goes with Fergus” centers upon a prominent figure in Irish mythology, Fergus, and presents Yeats’ characteristic imagery work and imaginative freedom. Joyce was familiar with the poem and in fact uses the language and imagery in Ulysses.
Terms of Use: This poem is available in the public domain.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Saylor Foundation's version of William Butler Yeats’ “Who Goes with Fergus”
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1.2.4 Realism and an Insistence on the Everyday
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Structuralism and After”
Link: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Structuralism and After” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short piece linked here for more critical perspectives on Joyce’s work as a writer of realist texts.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Structuralism and After”
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1.2.5 The Sights and Sounds of Dublin
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “Joyce’s Dublin Gallery”
Link: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “Joyce’s Dublin Gallery”
Instructions: Please watch the slideshow and look over the collection of pictures. These will give you a good sense of the sights, sounds, people, and places that defined Joyce’s Dublin.
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “Joyce’s Dublin Gallery”
- 1.3 Historical and Cultural Context
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1.3.1 The Legacy of the Act of Union and English-Irish Tensions
- Reading: BBC’s “Acts of Union”
Link: BBC’s “Acts of Union” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short entry for a review of the “Acts of Union.” You will find this act an important backdrop in much of Joyce’s work.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: BBC’s “Acts of Union”
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1.3.2 The Fenians, Parnell, and the Establishment of an Irish Free State
- Reading: BBC’s “Charles Parnell” and “Easter Rising” and The Modern World: Melanie Arndt’s “Joyce’s Hero Mythicized: Charles Stewart Parnell”
Link: BBC’s "Charles Parnell"(HTML) and “Easter Rising”(HTML) and The Modern World: Melanie Arndt’s “Joyce’s Hero Mythicized: Charles Stewart Parnell” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short entries on “Charles Parnell” and “Easter Rising” for a quick historical overview. Then read the brief essay linked above for an examination of the Joyce’s interest in Parnell.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: BBC’s “Charles Parnell” and “Easter Rising” and The Modern World: Melanie Arndt’s “Joyce’s Hero Mythicized: Charles Stewart Parnell”
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1.3.3 The Irish Literary Revival: Key Figures, Concerns, and Tropes
- Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Imagining Ireland”
Link: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Imagining Ireland” (HTML)
Instructions: Read the essay linked here for basic information about the Irish Literary Revival.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Imagining Ireland”
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1.3.4 Joyce’s Contemporaries: Pound, Yeats, Hemingway, and Others
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Flight to Europe”
Link: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Flight to Europe”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short essay for a discussion of Joyce’s relationship with contemporary writers.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Flight to Europe”
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1.3.5 High Modernism: What Is It?—Key Figures, Concepts, and Works
- Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “The Modernist Experiment”
Link: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s "The Modernist Experiment" (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short essay for an overview of modernism.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Lecture: iTunes U: UC Berkeley: Dr. John Bishop’s “Modernism and Post-Modernism”
Link: UC Berkeley: Dr. John Bishop’s “Modernism and Post-Modernism”
Also available in:
iTunes
Instructions: Please listen to the entire lecture for a history of modernism, as well as a review of several prominent modernist writers, including James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner. This lecture will contextualize Joyce’s works for you.
Terms of Use: The above video is reposted from the University of California – Berkeley’s Webcast.Berkeley. The original version can be found here. This video is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “The Modernist Experiment”
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1.3.6 The World Wars and Their Cultural Impact
- Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Representing the Great War”
Link: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Representing the Great War” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short piece linked here for more information on literary reactions to the World Wars.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Representing the Great War”
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Unit 2: Short Fiction
James Joyce described Dublin as a city of paralysis, and many of his short stories in The Dublinersdeal with this concept, featuring figures trapped by their decisions or unable to find the resources to escape. We will examine these tropes carefully, tying them to what we know about his life and times while relating them to his stylistic and structural decisions.
Unit 2 Time Advisory show close
First, however, we will begin with a study of Joyce’s Dublin, which he once termed “the universal city of my work.” How does Joyce present the metropolis, and how does he negotiate the complex relations between place and identity? We will then take a look at Joyce’s craft, thinking critically about his signature techniques and stylistic maneuvers, before examining Joyce’s presentation of characters and their relationships. We will devote the last section to his most celebrated short story “The Dead,” which proves somewhat atypical of the collection.
Unit 2 Learning Outcomes show close
- Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s The Dubliners
Link: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s The Dubliners (HTML)
Also available in:
EPub
Note: This website offers the book for download in 20 different formats. Use the drop-down menu on the right side of the page to choose the most convenient format.
Instructions: Please read the entire collection of stories and then work through the subunits below, which will trace specific themes present throughout the work.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s The Dubliners
- 2.1 “Dear Dirty Dublin”: Views of the Irish Capital
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2.1.1 The Population: Shop Assistants, Clerks, and Other Working Class Figures Supporting the Irish “Establishment” in The Dubliners
- Reading: University of Valencia: Maria Rodriguez Moran’s “Nationalism in James Joyce”
Link: University of Valencia: Maria Rodriguez Moran’s “Nationalism in James Joyce” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read this brief essay for a discussion of Joyce’s creation of place in his stories. In particular, please note the mention of an Irish nationalist population in The Dubliners.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Valencia: Maria Rodriguez Moran’s “Nationalism in James Joyce”
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2.1.2 Physical Descriptions of the City—Positives and Negatives
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead, A Walking Tour”
Link: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead, A Walking Tour”
Also available in:
iTunes Podcast
Instructions: Please listen to the entire podcast linked here, which provides more information about the specific places mentioned in The Dubliners.
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead, A Walking Tour”
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2.1.3 Paralysis in the City: Images of Spiritual and Cultural Debilitation
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Louis Armand’s “James Joyce and the Obscene Object of Post/Humanism”
Link: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Louis Armand’s “James Joyce and the Obscene Object of Post/Humanism” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read this article on paralysis in Joyce’s Dubliners. Pay careful attention to Armand’s discussion of the implications of the word paralysis in the text. Then think back to your reading and come up with a list of images, passages, and plot points that convey a sense of “paralysis.” What do you think Joyce is getting at?
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Louis Armand’s “James Joyce and the Obscene Object of Post/Humanism”
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2.1.4 Community, Place, and Identity: Calling Dublin “Home”
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Linda Wong’s “‘Home and Elsewhere’ Fated Spaces in James Joyce’s Dubliners”
Link: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Linda Wong’s “‘Home and Elsewhere’ Fated Spaces in James Joyce’s Dubliners” (HTML)
Instructions: Read the short piece linked here for a discussion of Ireland as “home” in the stories. Now think about the various subjects broached in this unit of the course and work to relate them to one another. How do concepts of home, place, paralysis, flight, and identity seem to fit together into a cohesive message? Is there one?
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Linda Wong’s “‘Home and Elsewhere’ Fated Spaces in James Joyce’s Dubliners”
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2.1.5 The Public and the Private: Interiors, Exteriors, and Other Spatial Considerations
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead; 15 Usher’s Island, Joyce’s Dublin”
Link: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library: “The Dead; 15 Usher’s Island, Joyce’s Dublin”
Also available in:
iTunes Podcast
Instructions: Please listen to the brief podcast for a discussion on the physical places in the Joyce’s collection of stories.
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead; 15 Usher’s Island, Joyce’s Dublin”
- 2.2 Matters of Style and Technique
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2.2.1 “A Style of Scrupulous Meanness”: Objectivity and Clarity of Vision
- Reading: University of Valencia: Maria Rodriguez Moran’s “Realism and Detail in Dubliners”
Link: University of Valencia: Maria Rodriguez Moran’s "Realism and Detail in Dubliners" (HTML)
Instructions: Please look over the brief essay for a discussion of the realism in The Dubliners. How do you think the objectivity of the stories’ narration impacts your experience as a reader? Why would he choose to write his stories in this mode? How would they be different if they were written in a different style?
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Valencia: Maria Rodriguez Moran’s “Realism and Detail in Dubliners”
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2.2.2 Genre Decisions and Conventions
- Lecture: YouTube: Great Writers Inspire: Catherine Brown’s “Literature and Form 3: Multiple Plotting”
Link: YouTube: Great Writers Inspire: Catherine Brown’s “Literature and Form 3: Multiple Plotting” (YouTube)
Instructions: Watch this lecture.
Watching this lecture and pausing to take notes should take you approximately 1 hour.
Terms of Use: This resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales. It is attributed to Catherine Brown and the original version can be found here.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Lecture: YouTube: Great Writers Inspire: Catherine Brown’s “Literature and Form 3: Multiple Plotting”
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2.2.3 Use of the Third Person and Its Narrative Effects
- Reading: World Wide Dubliners: Wallace Gray’s “James Joyce’s Dubliners: An Introduction”
Link: World Wide Dubliners: Wallace Gray’s “James Joyce’s Dubliners: An Introduction”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short introduction to The Dubliners for information on its narrative style.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: World Wide Dubliners: Wallace Gray’s “James Joyce’s Dubliners: An Introduction”
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2.2.4 The Shaping of Epiphany
- Reading: The Modern Word: Francesca Valente “Joyce’s Dubliners as Epiphanies”
Link: The Modern Word: Francesca Valente’s “Joyce’s Dubliners as Epiphanies” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short article on the use of epiphany in The Dubliners. Do you think this relates to the Summa Theologica you read earlier in anyway?
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Modern Word: Francesca Valente “Joyce’s Dubliners as Epiphanies”
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2.2.5 The Absence of Denouement: Joyce’s Endings
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Michael J. O’Shea’s “Narrative Con/Texts”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Michael J. O’Shea’s “Narrative Con/Texts” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the brief essay linked here. As you read, please focus on the mentions of climax, resolution, and ending for a discussion of the seemingly “paralyzed” conclusions to many of Joyce’s stories. Think back to each of the stories and ask yourself why he chose to end his stories where and when he did. How would more “conclusive” endings have changed the tone and theme of the overall collection?
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Michael J. O’Shea’s “Narrative Con/Texts”
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2.2.6 Collection Design: From Childhood to Adulthood
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners” and Simon Fraser University’s “Structure and Unity in Dubliners”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”(HTML) and Simon Fraser University’s “Structure and Unity in Dubliners” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books (Citizen and the Artist)
Instructions: First, ask yourself about the overall structure or ordering of the stories in the Dubliners collection. Why would he begin and end with the stories he does? Do you sense a pattern? Then click on the link above and, either using the arrows at the bottom of the document or typing in the number in the little “Go to page” box, read the section titled “Childhood” on pages 11-21, “Adolescence” on pages 21-28, and “Maturity” which is on pages 28-36. Then read this “cheat sheet” on the schemas used in The Dubliners and think about the overall structuring and organization of the work.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners” and Simon Fraser University’s “Structure and Unity in Dubliners”
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2.2.7 Thematic Structure: Beginning and Ending the Collection
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books (Citizen and the Artist)
Instructions: Click on the link above and, either using the arrows at the bottom of the document or typing in the number in the little “Go to page” box, please read the section titled “The Schema,” which can be found on pages 1-11. The essay provides excellent information about the overall structure of the text based on shared content and themes.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
- 2.3 The Dubliners Themselves: Characters and Relationships
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2.3.1 The Failure of the Self: Issues of Dependence, Personal Will, and Identity
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Jim Haughey’s “Joyce and Trevor’s Dubliners: The Legacy of Colonialism”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Jim Haughey’s “Joyce and Trevor’s Dubliners: The Legacy of Colonialism” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the entire short article linked here, which is taken from an issue of Studies in Short Fiction. The article addresses the issues of freedom and identity in The Dubliners as they relate to colonial historical context.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Jim Haughey’s “Joyce and Trevor’s Dubliners: The Legacy of Colonialism”
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2.3.2 Desire and Loss
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: John Gordon’s “Dubliners and the Art of Losing”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: John Gordon’s “Dubliners and the Art of Losing”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the critical article linked here, which is from an issue of Studies in Short Fiction dedicated entirely to the study of The Dubliners. The article reads each of the stories in the collection, as part of a series of losses, in which each character finds he is unable to achieve their desires.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: John Gordon’s “Dubliners and the Art of Losing”
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2.3.3 Family and Familial Dependencies
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Linda Rohrer Paige’s “James Joyce’s Darkly Colored Portraits of ‘Mother’ in Dubliners”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: “James Joyce’s Darkly Colored Portraits of ‘Mother’ in Dubliners’(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the entire article for a critical discussion of Joyce’s treatment of family in his text. In particular, the article examines the problematic nature of the mother in The Dubliners in the story titled “A Mother” as well as several of the others. On a broader level, the article also offers an analysis of the relationship between the mother and the rest of the family.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Linda Rohrer Paige’s “James Joyce’s Darkly Colored Portraits of ‘Mother’ in Dubliners”
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2.3.4 Marriage, Love, and Gender Relations
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Joseph Kelly’s “Joyce’s Marriage Cycle”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Joseph Kelly’s “Joyce’s Marriage Cycle” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the article for more information on marriage, love, and gender in The Dubliners.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: Joseph Kelly’s “Joyce’s Marriage Cycle”
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2.3.5 Entrapments: Poverty, Alcohol Abuse, and Sexual Repression
- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Joyce in the Hibernian Metropolis: Zach Bowen’s “All Things Come in Threes”
Link: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Joyce in the Hibernian Metropolis: Zach Bowen’s “All Things Come in Threes” (PDF)
Instructions: Click the link above and then scroll down to the box that reads: “Files in this Item” and click on the “PDF” titled “Joyce in the Hibernian Metropolis” to download this document to your computer. Please read the section titled “All Things Come in Threes” on pages 137-143, which discusses sexuality and alcoholism in the text, as well as a number of other topics.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Joyce in the Hibernian Metropolis: Zach Bowen’s “All Things Come in Threes”
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2.3.6 Confrontations with Death
- Reading: Morris Melotti’s “Consciousness and Death in James Joyce's Dubliners”
Link: Morris Melotti’s “Consciousness and Death in James Joyce's Dubliners” (PDF)
Instructions: Read pages 97 – 131 of the dissertation.
Terms of use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. It is attributed to Morris V Melotti and the original version can be found here.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Morris Melotti’s “Consciousness and Death in James Joyce's Dubliners”
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2.3.7 A Sense of Community
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: David G. Wright’s “Interactive Stories in Dubliners”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: David G. Wright’s “Interactive Stories in Dubliners”(HTML)
Instructions: Think back on the conclusions you have drawn about identity, place, and community in The Dubliners. Then read this brief article for an alternative take on the issue of community and belonging in the collection.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: David G. Wright’s “Interactive Stories in Dubliners”
- 2.4 The Dead
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2.4.1 Representations of Class and Social Position
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead Looking East or West”
Link: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead Looking East or West”
Also available in:
iTunes Podcast
Instructions: Please listen to the entire podcast, paying close attention to the discussion of the class system as represented in “The Dead.”
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead Looking East or West”
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2.4.2 Shifts in Mood: The Impact of Moving from the Joyous to the Pensive
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: C. Roland Wagner’s “A Birth in ‘The Dead’”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: C. Roland Wagner’s “A Birth in ‘The Dead’” (HTML)
Instructions: Read only the first section of the article, which is under the header “Gabriel” on pages 1-4. The article provides an analysis of the shifts in mood and tone in “The Dead.”
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: You Tube: John Huston’s The Dead
Link: John Huston’s The Dead (YouTube)
Instructions: Please watch the short clip from the film version of The Dead, which does an excellent job of capturing the tone of the text.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Studies in Short Fiction: C. Roland Wagner’s “A Birth in ‘The Dead’”
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2.4.3 Man and Wife—The Marital Relationship in The Dead
- Reading: Michael Murphy’s “The Dead: Gabebashing in Joyce Country: Some MsReadings of James Joyce’s Story”
Link: Michael Murphy’s "The Dead: Gabebashing in Joyce Country: Some MsReadings of James Joyce's Story" (PDF)
Instructions: Please read the essay for more about the theme of love in The Dubliners. The essay provides an excellent review of feminist criticism of the work. Please note that in order to access the essay, you must follow the link with the article’s title.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead; Sex, Love and Longing at The Gresham Hotel”
Link: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead; Sex, Love and Longing at The Gresham Hotel”
Also available in:
iTunes Podcast
Instructions: Please listen to the entirety of the podcast for a discussion of the marital relationships in “The Dead.”
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Michael Murphy’s “The Dead: Gabebashing in Joyce Country: Some MsReadings of James Joyce’s Story”
-
2.4.4 The Resources of the Individual Consciousness
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: Please read the section titled “Public Life,” which can be found on pages 36-45. The section focuses on the development of the individual in the stories.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
-
2.4.5 Role of the Story in the Collection: Relationship to Other Stories; Use as an Ending
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: Please read the section titled “The Dead,” which is on pages 45-55. The selection includes information about the function of “The Dead” as the conclusion of the collection, as well as more general information about its themes.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead; Why the Story Resonates”
Link: University College Dublin’s Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive: “The Dead; Why the Story Resonates”
Also available in:
iTunes Podcast
Instructions: Please listen to the entire podcast linked here for an excellent review of the story.
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Dubliners”
-
Unit 3: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
In this unit, we will explore Joyce’s first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a künstlerroman (or narrative following the development of an artist) that remains one of the most widely-acclaimed works of the 20thcentury. The introductory section has been designed to draw us through the entirety of the novel, thinking critically about its structure as a narrative of Stephen’s development and the various stages through which he progresses. We will then turn to matters of style and form, paying special attention to his innovative use of stream-of-consciousness narration. We will conclude with an analytical section devoted to the figure of Stephen Dedalus and the various roles and conventions he fills.
Unit 3 Time Advisory show close
Unit 3 Learning Outcomes show close
- Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Link: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
EPub
Instructions: Please read the entire text of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- 3.1 The Structure of the Novel: The Maturation of an Artistic Sensibility
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3.1.1 Childhood and Intellectual Growth
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: Dr. Pericles Lewis’s Cambridge Introduction to Modernism: “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: Dr. Pericles Lewis’s Cambridge Introduction to Modernism: “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (PDF)
Instructions: Please read this short excerpt from the Cambridge Introduction to Modernism. The section linked here provides a brief analysis of the ways in which Joyce represents his hero’s developing consciousness.
Terms of Use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License (HTML). The original Yale University version of this piece can be found here (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: Dr. Pericles Lewis’s Cambridge Introduction to Modernism: “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.1.2 Sexual Awakening
- Reading: The Modern Word: Sylvie Hill’s “His Cheeks Were Aflame: Masturbation, Sexual Frustration and Artistic Failure in Joyce’s Portrait of Stephen Dedalus”
Link: The Modern Word: Sylvie Hill’s "His Cheeks Were Aflame: Masturbation, Sexual Frustration and Artistic Failure in Joyce's Portrait of Stephen Dedalus" (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short piece for an analysis of Stephen’s sexual awakening in the novel.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Modern Word: Sylvie Hill’s “His Cheeks Were Aflame: Masturbation, Sexual Frustration and Artistic Failure in Joyce’s Portrait of Stephen Dedalus”
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3.1.3 Spiritual Crisis
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Theology Today: Ellen T. Charry’s “Spiritual Formation by the Doctrine of the Trinity”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Theology Today: Ellen T. Charry’s “Spiritual Formation by the Doctrine of the Trinity” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the section titled “The Spiritual Crisis of
Late Modernity,” which is on pages 1-2. This section specifically addresses the spiritual crisis in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, drawing a connection between Stephen’s personal critics and historical events.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Theology Today: Ellen T. Charry’s “Spiritual Formation by the Doctrine of the Trinity”
-
3.1.4 Epiphany and Artistic Awakening
- Reading: The Modern Word: Randy Hofbauer’s “The Tool of the Martyr: A Study of Epiphany in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: The Modern Word: Randy Hofbauer’s “The Tool of the Martyr: A Study of Epiphany in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short article on epiphanies in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: The Modern Word: Randy Hofbauer’s “The Tool of the Martyr: A Study of Epiphany in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
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3.1.5 Artist as Priest: The Vocational Mission
- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Lindsey Tucker’s “Stephen and Bloom at Life’s Feast”
Link: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Lindsey Tucker’s “Stephen and Bloom at Life’s Feast” (PDF)
Instructions: To access this document, you will need to scroll down to the box that reads “Files in This Item” and click on the PDF link. From the section titled “Stephen,” please read the subsection titled “Alimentary Imagery in A Portrait,” which is on pages 11-27. Pay close attention to the discussion of the relationship between the artist and priest in the essay.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Lindsey Tucker’s “Stephen and Bloom at Life’s Feast”
-
3.1.6 Artist in Exile
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: Please read the section titled “Stephen Hero” on pages 56-62 for a discussion of the function of the “exile” theme in the novel, especially in relationship to the maturation process.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
- 3.2 Matters of Style and Form
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3.2.1 Intense Stream of Consciousness Narration
- Reading: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (PDF)
Instructions: Please read the section titled “Joyce’s Literary Career and Romantic Irony,” which is on pages 212-216 of the article. As you read, please focus on the discussion of Joyce’s stream-of-conscious narration.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
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3.2.2 Beginnings and Endings: “Once upon a time and a good time it was” to “Stand me now and ever in good stead”
- Lecture: iTunesU: University of Warwick: Dr. Jeremy Treglowen’s “James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist”
Link: University of Warwick: Dr. Jeremy Treglowen’s “James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist” (iTunes U)
Instructions: Please listen to the entire lecture for a continued discussion of the novel’s style. The lecture spends a significant amount of time discussing the first lines of the book. Pay close attention to this analysis.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Lecture: iTunesU: University of Warwick: Dr. Jeremy Treglowen’s “James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist”
-
3.2.3 The Evolution of Style and Language throughout the Novel
- Reading: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (PDF)
Instructions: Please read the section titled “Stephen’s Trajectory from Romanticism to Modernism,” which can be found on pages 203-209. The section examines the shifts in language that occur as Stephen matures over the course of the novel.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.2.4 Verbal Art: The Sights and Sounds of Urban Ireland
- Reading: James Joyce Music’s “Music in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: James Joyce Music’s “Music in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short entry linked here for more about the musical motif in the novel, especially Stephen’s constant awareness of the sounds around him.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: James Joyce Music’s “Music in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.2.5 Epic Conventions in the Novel
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Robert Scholes’s, ed. The Workshop of Dedalus: “The Paris Notebook”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center:
Robert Scholes’s, ed. The Workshop of Dedalus: “The Paris Notebook” (HTML)
Instructions: From Scholes’s The Workshop of Dedalus, read the short section linked here for more about Joyce’s concept of the “epical” in his novel.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Robert Scholes’s, ed. The Workshop of Dedalus: “The Paris Notebook”
-
3.2.6 Stephen’s Journal Entries and the Concluding Narrative Shift
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books (Citizen and the Artist)
Instructions: From Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist, please read the section titled “Claritas” on pages 95-109 from the chapter linked here. The section specifically discusses the function of Stephen’s journal, as well impressions of the novel’s conclusion.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.2.7 Repetition, Poetic Language, and Lyricality
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: Please read the section titled “Consonantia” on pages 85-95. This particular section discusses the function of repetitive language throughout the text, suggesting that this technique establishes a sense of permanence that counters Stephen’s maturation. The section also provides some additional information on the musical and lyrical language in the text.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.2.8 Novel as Künstlerroman and Bildungsroman: Elements of Convention
- Reading: University of Tennessee at Martin: Dr. Lynn Alexander’s “James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Tennessee at Martin: Dr. Lynn Alexander’s “James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the part of the site titled “Background” to learn about the terms bildungsroman and kunstlerroman and their application to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Tennessee at Martin: Dr. Lynn Alexander’s “James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
- 3.3 Portraits of Stephen
-
3.3.1 Stephen as Son and Family Member
- Reading: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read chapter one for a discussion of Stephen’s relationship with his family, as well as his rejection of parental authority.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.3.2 Stephen as Irishman
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Twentieth Century Literature: Tracy Schwarze’s “Silencing Stephen: Colonial Pathologies in Victorian Dublin”
Link: CBS’s Find Articles: Twentieth Century Literature: Tracey Schwarze’s “Silencing Stephen: Colonial Pathologies in Victorian Dublin”(HTML)
Instructions: Read this short piece on Stephen’s attachment to Irish nationalist causes in the novel.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: CBS’s Find Articles: Twentieth Century Literature: Tracy Schwarze’s “Silencing Stephen: Colonial Pathologies in Victorian Dublin”
-
3.3.3 Stephen as Artist
- Reading: University of Tennessee at Martin: Dr. Lynn Alexander’s “Stephen’s Aesthetic Theories”
Link: University of Tennessee at Martin: Dr. Lynn Alexander’s “Stephen’s Aesthetic Theories” (HTML)
Instructions: Please look over the notes linked here for more about Stephen’s role as an artist in the novel.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage aboveSee a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Tennessee at Martin: Dr. Lynn Alexander’s “Stephen’s Aesthetic Theories”
-
3.3.4 Stephen as Friend
- Reading: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read chapter five for a discussion of Stephen’s relationship with his friends, especially Joyce’s construction of his friends as characters.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.3.5 Stephen as Romantic Hero
- Reading: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” (PDF)
Instructions: Read the section titled “Some Considerations on the Nature of Irony in A Portrait,” which is on pages 209-212. This particular section of the articles discusses, among other issues relevant to your study, the idea of Stephen as the hero of a romantic novel.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Madrid: Cristina Flores Moreno’s “Romantic Irony: The Bridge Between the Romantic and the Modernist Artist in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
3.3.6 Stephen as Mythical Character
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Joycean Pioneers”
Link: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Joycean Pioneers”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the short piece linked here for some information on critical reactions to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’s origins in myth.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Florida: Dr. R. Brandon Kershner’s “Joycean Pioneers”
-
3.3.7 Stephen as Catholic and Theologian
- Reading: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
Link: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the entirety of chapter three, which discusses Stephen’s rejection of his religion and theology.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: London School of Journalism: Ian Mackean’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”
-
Unit 4: Ulysses
Chronicling the events of a single day in the lives of two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, Joyce’s expansive, densely allusive, and narratologically-innovative Ulyssesremains one of the most important, complex, and challenging works in literary history. As in the unit on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, we will begin our study of the masterpiece by moving through the novel from beginning to end, episode-by-episode, addressing major developments and themes as they arise in the text. We will then take a step back, discussing stylistic and aesthetic decisions, and finally take an in-depth look at some of its principle themes and concepts.
Unit 4 Time Advisory show close
Unit 4 Learning Outcomes show close
- Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s Ulysses
Link: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s Ulysses; (HTML) The James Joyce Center’s
"Ulysses" (HTML)
Also available in:
Kindle
Instructions: Please read the entire text. Because the text is rather lengthy, you may want to read each chapter as it corresponds to the summary outlines contained in subunits 4.1.1-4.6.6 below. You will likely find the text incredibly challenging and at times nonsensical. Forge ahead, enjoying the musicality of the language and the flow of the work if you cannot seem to make heads or tails of a given passage. Focus on finding patterns, noting sounds, and determining where you sense shifts in tone, voice, and mood.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
- Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of James Joyce’s Ulysses
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4.1 The Progression of the Novel
- Reading: Stockton College’s “The Linati Schema” and Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Writing and Publishing Ulysses” and “Selling Ulysses”
Link: Stockton College’s “The Linati Schema”(HTML) and Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection “Writing and Publishing Ulysses” (HTML)and “Selling Ulysses” (HTML)
Instructions: First read the essay titled “The Linati Schema,” which details Joyce’s letter to his friend Carlo Linati. The schema will provide you with a useful lens through which to view individual chapters. From Cornell’s James Joyce Collection, please read the entirety of both short essays for a discussion of the history of the text.
Note on the text: Ulysses is arranged into 18 different episodes; in a 1921 letter to Carlo Linati, Joyce associated each episode with an element or figure from Homer’s The Odyssey. This schema has become the standard method for identifying each of the episodes, and we will use it here.
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- Reading: Stockton College’s “The Linati Schema” and Cornell University’s James Joyce Collection: “Writing and Publishing Ulysses” and “Selling Ulysses”
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4.1.1 Telemachus, Nestor, and Proteus: Death of the Mother; Images of Death and Drowning
- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Telemachus”; “Nestor”; “Proteus”
Link: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Telemachus”; (HTML) “Nestor”; (HTML) “Proteus”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections linked here for a basic review of the important themes in these episodes. They should help you work through the text.
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- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Telemachus”; “Nestor”; “Proteus”
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4.1.2 Calypso, Lotus Eaters, and Hades: An Introduction to Leopold Bloom, His Voice, and His Molly; The Funeral and Bloom’s Understanding of Death
- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Calypso”; “Lotus Eaters”; “Hades”
Link: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Calypso”; (HTML) “Lotus Eaters”; (HTML) “Hades” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections linked here for a basic review of the important themes in these episodes.
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- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Calypso”; “Lotus Eaters”; “Hades”
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4.1.3 Aeolus, Lestrygonians, Scylla and Charybdis: The Bric a Brac of Life Breaking into the Narrative; Images of Ingestion and Digestion; Relations between Stephen and Bloom
- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Aeolus”; “Lestrygonians”; “Scylla and Charybdis”
Link: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Aeolus”; (HTML) “Lestrygonians”; (HTML) “Scylla and Charybdis” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections linked here for a basic review of the important themes in these episodes.
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- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Aeolus”; “Lestrygonians”; “Scylla and Charybdis”
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4.1.4 Wandering Rocks, Sirens, Cyclops, Nausicaa, Oxen of the Sun: Musicality; the Worlds of Women and Men; Experiments with Narrative Style and Voice
- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “The Wandering Rocks”; “Sirens”; “Cyclops”; “Nausicaa”; “Oxen of the Sun”; James Joyce Music’s “Music in Ulysses”
Link: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “The Wandering Rocks”; (HTML) “Sirens”; (HTML) "Cyclops"; (HTML) “Nausicaa”; (HTML) “Oxen of the Sun”; (HTML) James Joyce Music’s "Music in Ulysses" (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections linked here for a basic review of the important themes in these episodes. Also, please look over the short essay on Joyce’s music for more about the sounds in the novel.
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- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “The Wandering Rocks”; “Sirens”; “Cyclops”; “Nausicaa”; “Oxen of the Sun”; James Joyce Music’s “Music in Ulysses”
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4.1.5 Circe: Visions and Hallucinations; the Concept of Time
- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Circe”
Link: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Circe” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections linked here for a basic review of the important themes in these episodes. Many consider this episode the most challenging; take your time with it.
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- Reading: RTE Reading Ulysses’s “Circe”
- 4.1.6 Eumaeus, Ithaca, and Penelope: Excess of Narrative and Text; “Where?”--Questions of Place; Molly’s Monologue, Femininity, and Gender Relations
- 4.2 Style and Form
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4.2.1 Intense Stream of Consciousness
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: “James Joyce’s Method—Regarding the Stream of Consciousness”
Link: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: “James Joyce’s Method—Regarding the Stream of Consciousness” (PDF)
Instructions: Read the short introduction to the novel, which discusses Joyce’s technique of stream of conscious narration.
Terms of Use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License (HTML). The original Yale University version of this piece can be found here (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: “James Joyce’s Method—Regarding the Stream of Consciousness”
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4.2.2 Split Narrative: The Voices of Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, and Molly
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: “Ulysses, Order and Myth”
Link: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: “Ulysses, Order and Myth” (PDF)
Instructions: Read the brief essay here for more about the multiplicity of voices in the text.
Terms of Use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License (HTML). The original Yale University version of this piece can be found here (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Lecture: iTunes U: UC Berkeley: Dr. John Bishop’s “James Joyce, from Ulysses”
Link: UC Berkeley: Dr. John Bishop’s "James Joyce, from Ulysses"
Also available in:
iTunes
Instructions: Please listen to the entire lecture.
Terms of Use: The above video is reposted from the University of California – Berkeley’s Webcast.Berkeley. The original version can be found here. This video is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: “Ulysses, Order and Myth”
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4.2.3 The Interjection of the Outside World: Newspaper Headlines, Street Ads, and the Sounds of City Life
- Reading: Michael Murphy’s “The Rhetorics of Fiction and Politics in the Aeolup Episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses”
Link: Michael Murphy’s "The Rhetorics of Fiction and Politics in the Aeolus Episode of James Joyce's Ulysses" (PDF)
Instructions: Please read this essay, which discusses the narrative function of the intrusion of various voices and sounds into the novel’s main narrative. The article also offers an excellent discussion of the presence of journalistic anecdotes in the text. Please note that to access the essay, you must follow the link with the article’s title.
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- Reading: Michael Murphy’s “The Rhetorics of Fiction and Politics in the Aeolup Episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses”
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4.2.4 Puns, Wordplay, and More
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Sam Slote’s “A Eumaean Return to Style”
Link: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Sam Slote’s “A Eumaean Return to Style”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read this critical essay for a discussion of language, style, and wordplay in the novel.
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- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Sam Slote’s “A Eumaean Return to Style”
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4.2.5 Repetitions and Intratextual Gestures
- Reading: University of California Press E-Books Collection: Maria Tymoczko’s The Irish Ulysses: “Genre Echoes From Early Irish Literature”
Link: University of California Press E-Books Collection: Maria Tymoczko’s The Irish Ulysses: “Genre Echoes From Early Irish Literature” (HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: Read the chapter linked here, which offers a critical analysis of the repetitions and narrative strategy in the novel, as well as thoughts on its abundance of intertextual references.
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- Web Media: University College Dublin: Ann Fogarty’s “James Joyce and Popular Culture”
Link: University College Dublin: Anne Fogarty’s "James Joyce and Popular Culture"
Also available in:
iTunes
MP3
Transcript (PDF)
Instructions: Please listen to this discussion for a critical analysis of the effect of intertextuality in the novel.
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of California Press E-Books Collection: Maria Tymoczko’s The Irish Ulysses: “Genre Echoes From Early Irish Literature”
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4.2.6 Approaches to the Episodic Structure
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: Dr. Pericles Lewis’s Cambridge Introduction to Modernism: “Ulysses”
Link: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: Dr. Pericles Lewis’s Cambridge Introduction to Modernism: "Ulysses" (PDF)
Instructions: Please read this short excerpt from the Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, which offers a brief analysis of the episodic structure of the text.
Terms of Use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License (HTML). The original Yale University version of this work can be found here (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Yale University’s The Modernism Lab: Dr. Pericles Lewis’s Cambridge Introduction to Modernism: “Ulysses”
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4.2.7 Punctuation and Syntax
- Reading: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Punctuation in Ulysses”
Link: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s "James Joyce's Punctuation in Ulysses"(PDF)
Instructions: Please read this short piece on Joyce’s use of language in the novel.
Terms of Use: Jorn Barger has licensed his content under an Open Web Content License (HTML).See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: Robot Wisdom: Jorn Barger’s “James Joyce’s Punctuation in Ulysses”
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4.2.8 Beginnings and Endings: Thoughts on Where We Start and Finish in the Novel
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”(HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: From the chapter on Ulysses, please read the section titled “Technics” found on pages 164-171.
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- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”
- 4.3 Major Themes and Concepts
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4.3.1 Relationship to Homer’s The Odyssey: Parallels and Discrepancies in Characterization, Mode, and Sequence
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: From the chapter on Ulysses, please read the section titled “The Odyssean Scheme,” which is on pages 123-142. The section discusses the presence and function of Homeric parallels in the text.
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- Web Media: LibriVox’s “James Joyce in Context”
Link: LibriVox’s “James Joyce in Context”(HTML and Mp3)
Instructions: Please look over the site linked here, which includes a list of all of Ulysses’ references to other popular texts. You may want to listen to some of the audio files, which include readings from the texts used in the novel.
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- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Charles Peake’s James Joyce, the Citizen and the Artist: “Ulysses: The Form and Subordinate Structures”
- 4.3.2 Mothers, Fathers, and Sons: The Function and Disfunction of Familial Relationships
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4.3.3 Concepts of Time
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Alexandra Anyfanti’s "Time, Space, and Consciousness in James Joyce's Ulysses"
Link: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Alexandra Anyfanti’s "Time, Space, and Consciousness in James Joyce's Ulysses" (HTML)
Instructions: Please read this short piece on the irregularity of time in the novel.
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- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Alexandra Anyfanti’s "Time, Space, and Consciousness in James Joyce's Ulysses"
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4.3.4 The Figuration of Jewish Identity, Anti-Semitism, and Leopold Bloom
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Frank Budgen’s James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, and Other Writings: “Chapter Thirteen”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Frank Budgen’s James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, and Other Writings: “Chapter Thirteen”(HTML)
Instructions: From the critical study linked here, please read the entirety of Chapter Thirteen. The chapter reflects on the construction of Bloom’s character, which becomes inextricably linked with his Jewish identity.
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- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Frank Budgen’s James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, and Other Writings: “Chapter Thirteen”
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4.3.5 Stephen and Bloom: Relationships and Parallels
- Reading: Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Frank Budgen’s James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, and Other Writings: “Chapter Four”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Frank Budgen’s James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, and Other Writings: “Chapter Four”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read the chapter linked here for a discussion of the relationship between Leopold and Stephen, who are constructed through their oppositional characteristics.
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- Reading: Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Frank Budgen’s James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses, and Other Writings: “Chapter Four”
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4.3.6 Marriage, Marital Strife, and Jealousy
- Web Media: University College Dublin: Declan Kiberd’s “Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life”
Link: University College Dublin: Declan Kiberd’s “Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life”
Also available in:
iTunes
Mp3
Transcript (PDF)
Instructions: Please listen to this discussion of sexual relations and jealousy in the text.
Terms of Use: The linked material above has been reposted by the kind permission of University College Dublin, and can be viewed in its original form here. Please note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity without explicit permission from the copyright holder.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Web Media: University College Dublin: Declan Kiberd’s “Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life”
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4.3.7 The Irish Voice and Irish Identity
- Reading: University of California Press E-Books Collection: Maria Tymoczko’s The Irish Ulysses: “Irish Nationalism and Ulysses as Epic”
Link: University of California Press E-Books Collection: Maria Tymoczko’s The Irish Ulysses: “Irish Nationalism and Ulysses as Epic”(HTML)
Also available in:
Google Books
Instructions: From The Irish Ulysses, please read the entire chapter linked here.
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- Reading: University of California Press E-Books Collection: Maria Tymoczko’s The Irish Ulysses: “Irish Nationalism and Ulysses as Epic”
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Unit 5: Finnegan's Wake
If readers find Ulysseschallenging and at times inscrutable: welcome to Finnegan’s Wake, a bold and chaotic adventure into language. Lacking a conventional plot and nearly creating its own language, this final work by James Joyce has been alternately spurned as gibberish and revered as genius. In this unit, we will first read the work in its lyrical entirety, then address its innovative form and style, and finally move on to major tropes and themes that emerge in the text.
Unit 5 Time Advisory show close
Unit 5 Learning Outcomes show close
- Reading: Trent University Finnegans Web’s version of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake; The James Joyce Center’s “Finnegan’s Wake”
Link: Trent University’s Finnegans Web’s version of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (HTML); The James Joyce Center’s “Finnegans Wake” (HTML)
Also available in:
Kindle ($0.99)
Instructions: Please read a selection of this text – perhaps the first 50 pages – as well as the short introduction from The James Joyce Center. You may, of course choose to read as much of the work as you wish, but for now, a small sampling or taste will do as a book-end to the course.
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- Reading: Trent University Finnegans Web’s version of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake; The James Joyce Center’s “Finnegan’s Wake”
- 5.1 Language and Style
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5.1.1 Stream-of-Consciousness Narration at the Next Level: The Language of Dreams
- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Coping with Joyce: Kimberly Devlin’s “The Dialectical Logic of Joyce’s Dream Text”
Link: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Coping with Joyce: Kimberly Devlin’s “The Dialectical Logic of Joyce’s Dream Text” (PDF)
Instructions: Please read the essay linked here, which is found of pages 232-246 of the online textbook. The essay interprets the novel as a type of dream text—a fairly common reading of the work.
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- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Coping with Joyce: Kimberly Devlin’s “The Dialectical Logic of Joyce’s Dream Text”
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5.1.2 Cyclicality and Repetition
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Jim LeBlanc’s “The Closing Word of Finnegans Wake”
Link: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Jim LeBlanc’s “The Closing Word of Finnegans Wake”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read this short article on the patterns and repetitions in the novel.
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- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Jim LeBlanc’s “The Closing Word of Finnegans Wake”
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5.1.3 Beginnings and Endings: Thematic and Structural Concerns
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “Reading Finnegans Wake”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “Reading Finnegans Wake”(HTML)
Instructions: Please read this chapter for a review of the novel’s structure.
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- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “Reading Finnegans Wake”
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5.1.4 What Tongue Is Joyce Speaking In?—Thoughts on the Incorporation of Multiple Languages and Literary Traditions
- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Mark Nunes’s "Semiotic Perturbations: What the Frog's Eye Tells Us About Finnegans Wake"
Link: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Mark Nunes’s "Semiotic Perturbations: What the Frog's Eye Tells Us About Finnegans Wake" (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the entire critical essay for a discussion of language and wordplay in the text, as well as a conversation about Joyce’s ability to communicate with readers.
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- Reading: Hypermedia Joyce Studies: Mark Nunes’s "Semiotic Perturbations: What the Frog's Eye Tells Us About Finnegans Wake"
- 5.2 Major Tropes and Themes
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5.2.1 The Narrative of a Dream and the Absence of Standard Analysis-Friendly Conventions
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “Dream and Poetry”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “Dream and Poetry”(HTML)
Instructions: Read this short chapter for a discussion of the theme of dream in the novel.
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- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “Dream and Poetry”
-
5.2.2 The Concept of Time
- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Joyce in the Hyberian Metropolis: Derek Attridge’s “Countlessness of Livestories: Narrativity in Finnegans Wake”
Link: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Joyce in the Hyberian Metropolis: Derek Attridge’s “Countlessness of Livestories: Narrativity in Finnegans Wake” (PDF)
Instructions: Please read the short article linked here, which can be found on pages 290-295, for more about the structure and movement of time in the novel.
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- Reading: Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank: Joyce in the Hyberian Metropolis: Derek Attridge’s “Countlessness of Livestories: Narrativity in Finnegans Wake”
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5.2.3 Marriage and Marital Relations
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Themes”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Themes” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the sections on “Family and Society,” which can be found on pages 41-44; “The Primal Scene,” which can be found on pages 44-47; “Triangular Desire,” which can be found on pages 47-54; and “In the Name of the Father,” which can be found of pages 54-61. These selections will offer you a solid thematic overview of the text.
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- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Themes”
-
5.2.4 Guilt and Forgiveness
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Themes”
Link: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Themes” (HTML)
Instructions: Please read the section titled “The Redemption of the Son,” which runs from page 61-64, as well as “Redemption: Maternal Salvage,” which runs from pages 64-72.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on the webpage above.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Reading: University of Wisconsin’s James Joyce Scholars Center: Margot Norris’s The Decentered Universe of Finnegans Wake: A Structuralist Analysis: “The Themes”
- 5.2.5 Cycles, Disconnections, and Paradoxes
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Final Exam
- Final Exam: The Saylor Foundation's "ENGL406 Final Exam"
Link: The Saylor Foundation's "ENGL406 Final Exam"
Instructions: You must be logged into your Saylor Foundation School account in order to access this exam. If you do not yet have an account, you will be able to create one, free of charge, after clicking the link.See a broken link? Please let us know!
- Final Exam: The Saylor Foundation's "ENGL406 Final Exam"
