123422 SE Literary & Cultural Studies Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2022W)

WARNING: This class is not for the faint of heart. This is a highly advanced literature seminar, requiring a tremendous amount of energy, time, sweat, and tears. This course is for patient and enthusiastic readers of literature. James Joyce's "Ulysses" is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the novel form. A notoriously complicated text, "Ulysses" creates an experimental journey - one might say, an odyssey - into the puzzling realm of language, history, space, and consciousness. If you're not prepared to be confused, frustrated, and exhausted from tackling this demanding (yet, deeply rewarding) novel, I do not recommend registering for this seminar. On the other hand, if you're hungry for a challenge, then this might be the course for you.
This semester we will read the entirety of James Joyce's "Ulysses" while also focusing on its enduring legacy in literary/cultural studies. The third-most written about text of all time, "Ulysses" has been the source of several monographs, adaptations, literary analyses, theses, conferences, and debates. Because we are entering into the text on the 100-year anniversary of its publication, we will ask ourselves how the novel continues to resonate with a contemporary readership, even a century later. Furthermore, we will examine a plurality of media, seeing how "Ulysses" has figured into a wide range of cultural representations (e.g. song and film).

Course outcomes:
-Students will undergo a thorough close-reading of James Joyce's "Ulysses", recognizing both its innovativeness as well as its beauty.
-Students will be able to position the novel alongside its historical and literary context (i.e. Literary Modernism)
-Students will explore a plurality of media, and the myriad ways in which "Ulysses" has been represented in other artistic forms.