ENGLISH 749

Ulysses and Contemporary Criticism and Theory

The purpose of this class is twofold: to delve deeply into Ulysses through a sustained close reading over the course of a semester; and to examine a wide range of the current critical approaches now prevalent in Joyce studies. Each week we will carefully read a chapter or two of the text and engage with a different critical approach. These will include: theory of narration, reader response theory, feminism and gender studies, intertextuality, various poststructuralisms, Ulysses and postcolonial studies, Joyce and popular culture, political Joyce, Ulysses and historical narratives, Joyce as postmodernist, and Joyce and the question of literary value. A larger question that will present itself is how the defining text of modernism can seem to lend itself so easily to postformalist investigations--and what this in turn implies about our conceptions of modernism, the application of literary theory, and the parameters of canon change.

Date                     Readings

Sept 11                 Ulysses, pp 1-2.

Sept 18                 U, Ch 1 "Telemachus" and Ch 2 "Nestor,"

                              Wolfgang Iser (reader response) in Norris, 108-28;

Sept 25                 U, Ch 2 (cont); Ch 3 "Proteus"

                            *Robert Spoo on Historical Narratives

                            *Joseph Valente on Queerness

Oct 2                     U, Ch 4 "Calypso"; Ch 5 "Lotus-eaters"

                            *Vincent Cheng on Race and Empire;

                            *Laura Doyle on Race and Gender

>>Short paper due<<

Oct 9                     U, Ch 6, "Hades"

                              Patrick McGee (Marxism) in Norris, 220-38

                              *Susan Stanford Friedman on Gender and the 'Other'

Oct 16                   U, Ch 7, "Aeolus"; Ch 8, "Lestrygonians"

                              *John Somer on Point of View;

Oct 23                   U, Ch 9, "Scylla and Charybdis"

                              Jacques Derrida (deconstruction) in Norris, 69-90

Oct 30                   U, Ch 10, "Wandering Rocks"; Ch 11 "Sirens"

                              *R B Kershner on degeneracy;

                              *Richard Brown on perversity

Nov 6                    U, Ch 12, "Cyclops"

                              *Seamus Deane on Nationalism;

                              *Enda Duffy on the Postcolonial

<<Abstract of final paper due>>

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NOV 11, Saturday: Colloquium on Ulysses, 1:30-4:15, Susq. 1120

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Nov 13                U, Ch 13, "Nausicaa"

                            **Garry Leonard on Popular Culture

                            Vicki Mahaffey (Gender) in Norris, 151-68

Nov 20                Ch 14, "Oxen"

                            *Mark Osteen on Intertextuality

Nov 27                Ch 15, "Circe"

                            **Christy Burns on Parody and Stereotype

                            Kimberly Devlin (Psychoanalysis) in Norris 187-202

Dec 4                  Ch 16 "Eumaeus"; Ch 17 "Ithaca"

                           *Brian McHale on Postmodernism

Dec 11                Ch 17 (cont); Ch 18, "Penelope"

                           *Fritz Senn on Dislocution

Dec 14                1:00 PM: <<Final Paper due>>

Texts: James Joyce, Ulysses (ed. Gabler)

Margot Norris, ed., A Companion to JJ's Ulysses

Assignments:

One short paper (3-4 pp) due Oct 2

One seminar paper (15-20 pp)

One in-class presentation on one of the episodes (15 mins)

Brian Richardson

Reference:

Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses, Don Gifford with Robert Seidman.

The Bloomsday Book: A Guide Through Joyce's Ulysses, Harry Blamires.

Allusions in Ulysses, Weldon Thornton.

Who's He When He's at Home? A James Joyce Directory, Shari and Bernard Benstock.

An Annotated Critical Bibliography of James Joyce, Thomas F. Staley.

An Index of Recurring Elements in James Joyce's Ulysses, William Schutte.

The Cambridge Companion to Ulysses, ed Derek Attridge

Biographical and Bibliographical:

Richard Ellmann, James Joyce

Arthur Power, Conversations with James Joyce

Letters of James Joyce, 3 Vols, Eds. Gilbert and Ellmann

Michael Groden, Ulysses in Progress

John Kidd and Groden on Gabler's editing: JJQ 28 (Fall 1990), Studies in the Novel 1990

Introductory Criticism:

Patrick McCarthy, Ulysses: Portals of Discovery

Daniel R. Schwarz: Reading Joyce's Ulysses

Stuart Gilbert, James Joyce's Ulysses: A Study

Standard Critical Accounts:

Richard Ellmann, Ulysses on the Liffey (1972)

Hugh Kenner, Ulysses (rev. ed. 1987)

Clive Hart and David Hayman, James Joyce's Ulysses: Critical Essays (1974)

David Hayman, Ulysses: The Mechanics of Meaning (1970)

Karen Lawrence, The Odyssey of Style in Ulysses (1981)

Other Basic Critical Works:

Bonnie Kime Scott, Joyce and Feminism (1984)

Vincent Cheng, Joyce, Race, and Empire (1995)

Cheryl Herr, Joyce's Anatomy of Culture (1986)

Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses (1994)

Derek Attridge and Daniel Ferrer, eds, Post-Structuralist Joyce: Essays from the French (1984)

Journals:

James Joyce Quarterly, Joyce Studies Annual, European Joyce Studies, Papers on Joyce, James Joyce Broadsheet, James Joyce Literary Supplement

Electronic Media:

Electronic journal: Hypermedia Joyce Studies

http://www.2street.com/joyce/ Email: hjs@2street.com

Listserv: J-JOYCE.

Send message to: j-joyce-request@lists.utah.edu

message: subscribe j-joyce firstname lastname

Hypertext version of Ulysses:

http://publish.uwo.ca/~mgroden/Ulysses/

Websites:

The Brazen Head: A James Joyce Public House

www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth/joyce.html

International James Joyce Foundation homepage:

www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/english/organizations/ijjf/main.htm

Split Pea Press www.harenet.co.uk/splitpea/splitpea.html

(Contains digital presentation of 16 June 1904 Evening Telegraph)

"Ulysses for Dummies" www.bway.net/~hunger/ulysses.html

Other electronic items are listed in JJQ 35.1, fall '97.