Recommended Citation

Criticism. " The course doesn't typically focus on a single text, but Ulysses is such an encyclopedic presence that it will allow us to think about a wide range of philosophical and theoretical issues and, I hope, give each of you the opportunity to reflect on what you've learned as an English major and how the knowledge you've acquired can serve you in the future. Other things I hope will have happened by the end of the semester: 1. You'll be intimately acquainted with a daunting text that is generally regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written. 2. You'll have a better understanding of intertextuality: how writers echo and comment on earlier works as they write their own. Given Joyce's immense range of knowledge, you'll also learn through him about everything from the Bible to Plato to late nineteenth-century astronomy.· 3. From a theoretical standpoint, we'll be reading Joyce through the lens ofpostcolonialism: examining the problem posed for him by his identity as an Irish Catholic at a time when Ireland was a British (Protestant-dominated) colony. We'll read his novels in part as efforts to construct an Irish nationa