Department of English

The ambition of this course is to introduce to Joyce’s Ulysses,  a canonical book that we will attempt to read in detail. In order to understand Joyce’s point of departure and final aims, we will first take a look at  Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Our main focus will be Ulysses, that we will study via a key themes like the artist vs. the citizen, Irish nationalism and cosmopolitanism, the role of Dublin in the book, tolerance and religious difference, the aesthetics of everyday lie, the place of women, the role of paternity. Among the many books devoted to Joyce’s masterpiece, I have selected Declan Kiberd’s recent Ulysses and Us, The art of everyday life in Joyce’s masterpiece.

 We will use it as a guide through the chapters.