This seminar will examine three major works by the great modernist writer James Joyce (1882-1941): the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), and the colossal modern (mock-) epic Ulysses (1922). Time permitting, we may also consider a brief sample of Finnegans Wake (1939). Through oral reports and other means students will learn about the historical context in which Joyce lived and created his work, though our main focus will be the increasingly complex and marvelous texts themselves. Student work will include oral reports, frequent short informal response papers, a midterm reflection paper, and a final creative or critical project on some aspect of Ulysses.
