James Joyce's Ulysses

Catalog description

Ulysses is arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century, written by the greatest Catholic fiction writer of the 20th century, James Joyce. Modeled on Homer’s Odyssey, the novel charts the modern odyssey of an Everyman through Dublin on one day, June 16, 1904. Reading Joyce’s masterpiece provides students with a transformative journey that unites past and present, as Joyce explores the familial triad of father, son and mother, and develops the richly allusive cultural intersections of Bloom (father)/Odysseus/Moses/Parnell/Jesus/Hamlet/Stephen (son). Goals of this course include providing students with a detailed study of Ulysses and all of its challenging narrative innovations, as well as helping them contextualize the novel through exploring its classical, religious, political, and psychological themes. To facilitate entering the world of Ulysses, the course will begin with Joyce’s first autobiographical novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and it will include excerpts from commentaries by major Joyce scholars.