Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The 2024 syllabus can be found here. This lecture is the sixth in an eight-week sequence on James Joyce. This one covers episodes 10 through 12 of Joyce’s Ulysses. First, we recapitulate Joyce’s writing so far and examine the ways his works exemplify all the many meanings and practices of modernism, from the use of myth to the stream of consciousness to the mapping of the metropolis. We explore the 19 vignettes of the Ulysses-in-miniature that is “Wandering Rocks,” with a focus on the depiction of authority (the Catholic Church, the British Empire) and the characters of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom in the labyrinthine city. Then we consider the fugue structure of “Sirens” and its omni-musical use of language to create the joyful Joycean nation, as well as its focus on fathers and children. Finally, we examine Joyce’s fierce satire of a bigoted and essentialist cultural nationalism in “Cyclops,” and Bloom’s humanistic passive resistance—all of it adding up to Joyce’s utopian horizon of the cosmopolitical enlightened nation. The first 15 minutes are free to all; the rest requires a paid subscription. Please like, share, comment, subscribe, and enjoy! The slideshow corresponding to the lecture can be downloaded behind the paywall:
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