CRWT 40.10 James Joyce’s Ulysses
This is a class for creative writers and creative readers interested in studying, and more importantly enjoying, James Joyce, the storyteller. No previous experience with Joyce is required. Though the class will begin with an intensive examination of Joyce’s seminal long story, “The Dead,” our focus during the term will be an intensive, close reading of his second novel, Ulysses, a book that, generally speaking, is more famous than actually read. A colossal influence on generations of writers, and readers, including T.S. Eliot, Derek Wolcott, Edna O’Brien and countless others, Ulysses is, among many other things, challenging, irreverent, thought-provoking, political, technically virtuosic, and above all wildly entertaining. Students will read some outside sources on Joyce but for the most part our primary text will be Joyce’s own words – wherever they lead us. Prepare to meet a fascinating and chaotic cast of characters featuring – Lilly, Kate and Julia Morkan, Gabriel Conroy, Stephan Dedalus, Leopold and Molly Bloom, and many others. Assignments will include critical and creative responses to both “The Dead” and Ulysses, as well as a final essay.