James Joyce's Ulysses - Taking The Next Step

Join us for the 2018 Bloomsday in Melbourne one day Masterclass –

and find out what's REALLY going on between the covers!

Join Joycean expert guides Frances Devlin-Glass and Steve Carey

as they present a fast-paced, fun and fascinating masterclass

for anyone already familiar with the book (or who attended the beginner's course on 7th July)

 

Where: Celtic Club, 420 William St, Melbourne

When: 10am-5pm Saturday 25^th August 2018

Cost: $90 ($80 for concessions and Early Bird tickets)

NOTE: Book for this day and you'll get a FREE hardcover copy of Kevin Birmingham's excellent book on Ulysses, The Most Dangerous Book in the World

 

If you’re already a little familiar with the structure of Ulysses and its narratives, this is the day for you! Together we:

• Get a handle on some non-naturalistic chapters, esp. Cyclops, Nausicaa, Circe, Ithaca and how they work as literary constructs;
• Investigate Joyce’s debt to a variety of Modernist movements;
• Explore his radicalism in thinking about
  • Romance,
  • Nationalism,
  • the Body, and his forays into psychoanalysis and the uses of dreams
  • man’s (and woman’s) place in the cosmos

 

Focal chapters: Cyclops (12), Nausicaa (13), Circe (15) and Ithaca (17)

 

Session 1: 10am-11:30:  The Big Picture: Joyce and Literary Modernism

• Intellectual Imperatives Driving Modernism
• Literary Challenges to Victorianism

Session 2 11.45 am-1.15pm Joyce as Metafictionist

• • What is a novel? What are the limits of the form?
  • How is it different from other forms: drama, romance, journalism? Etc

Session 3: 2.15pm-3.30pm:  Parodies Gentle and Savage in Cyclops

The novel abounds in parodies, some affectionate, some highly critical. The focus for this session is Cyclops (13) with its 31 (or more) different parodies of (mainly) Irish styles.  Parody as a salute to a tradition; a form of political critique; intellectual liberation. We take you through this chapter in detail and examine how the literary becomes highly political, and delve into Joyce’s take on power and violence. We also explore Joyce’s take on nationalism.

• Irish contexts of Cyclops
• Rejecting and Embracing Nationalism
• Modus Operandi of chapter: Naturalism/Hyperbolic Parody (‘Gigantism’)

Session 4: 3.45-5pm: Circe as Psychodrama

• Unleashing Ids
• Wider Context: Sexology as Butt and playing in the sexual arena
• Debating Sexuality & Sexuality & Gender as Performance
• Pornosophy: The Wisdom that inheres in Bodies

 

Then…

We go to the pub! We’ll continue the Joycean chat at the Royal Exchange pub over the road.