Powering through Ulysses Together

Fall 2024

OLLI Study Group 674, Fall Semester 2024

Time: 11:45 AM to 1:15 PM

Each Thursday

For 10 weeks

(no class on Thanksgiving Day)

First Class on September 26

Last Class on December 5

The study group leader is Bob Kolodney (email bobkolive@gmail.com)

Register to take course HERE

ON THIS PAGE:

General Information
Course Syllabus
Ted Ex Video, "Why Read James Joyce's Ulysses" (6 min)
Script of Passages from the works of authors who influenced and were influenced by Joyce
Script of Passages from Joyce works before and after Ulysses
Script of highlights (2022 Ulysses Centenary)
Full Text of Ulysses
Table and Orientation Description of Book
Plot Summaries of Ulysses Chapters (from Rosenbach Library)
Additional Resources

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

We will read and discuss Ulysses, James Joyce's master work.

Study Group members may read either the entire text or highlights on the script used for a reading on the occasion of Joyce's Birthday in 2022 (the centenary of Ulysses). If you choose to read only the highlights, this will be equivalent to reading a severely abridged version of the book (about 12%).

CLASSES:

The First Class will be an introduction to Joyce and Ulysses - including the reading of passages from the works of authors who influenced and were influenced by Joyce and passages from earlier and later works of Joyce. The first class will hopefully help you determine your strategy for taking the rest of the course.

In each succeeding class we will progress through the novel - with commentary, reading and discussion as indicated in the syllabus. Study group participants will be invited to participate in reading passages aloud.

PREPARATION:

Before the first class you may wish to watch the short Ted Ed video "Why Read Ulysses" (#3 posted below)

The homework for each class (starting with the second one) will consist of reading the chapters of Ulysses to be covered in the next class - either the full text or highlights.

The principal set of highlights that we will use for this course are those set out in the script used for the OLLI Ulysses Centenary Celebration in 2022 (#6 posted below).

You may find it helpful to read a summary of each chapter before reading the chapter itself. The overall summary and the chapter-by-chapter plot summaries of the Rosenback Library (where the Ulysses manuscript is located) are posted below (#9)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

The Jim Norton reading of Ulysses can be listened to on the ULYSSES AUDIO PAGE of this website where there is also a link to the RTE recording, as well as music and films that can enhance your course experience or be incorporated into your strategy for approaching Ulysses.

Guidance and reference materials are identified below. (#10)

2. SYLLABUS

Scroll in place or open in upper right corner:

Powering Fall 2024 Final Syllabus for Printing.pdf

3. TED EX VIDEO: "WHY READ JAMES

JOYCE'S ULYSSES" (6 MIN):

4. SCRIPT OF PASSAGES FROM THE WORKS OF

AUTHORS WHO INFLUENCED AND WERE

INFLUENCED BY JOYCE:

Scroll in Place or Open in upper right Corner:

Passages-InfluencingAndBYJoyce.pdf

5. SCRIPT OF PASSAGES FROM THE WORKS OF

JAMES JOYCE BEFORE AND AFTER ULYSSES

Scroll in Place or Open in upper right Corner:

JoyceWorksBefore and After Ulysses.pdf

6. SCRIPT OF ULYSSES HIGHLIGHTS

(used for Ulysses Centenary Celebration in 2022)

Scroll in Place or Open in upper right Corner:

JJBirthday02022022ScriptForPrinting.pdf

7. ENTIRE TEXT OF ULYSSES FROM PROJECT

GUTENBERG - WITH CHAPTER

(EPISODE) TITLES ADDED:

Scroll in Place or Open in upper right Corner:

Ulysses - Text - Pr Gutenberg - Episode Titles Added.pdf

8. Summary Ulysses Table - taken from those furnished

by Joyce to friends and brief overall description of

book

Ulysses takes place in less than 24 hours starting at 8:00 am on June 16, 1904. The book is really eighteen novels in one – there is a different masterfully-realized style in each episode.

Each corresponds to an adventure of the Greek hero in his travels around the Mediterranean Sea. But, Joyce’s book deals with the amble across Dublin of an Irish anti-hero (an advertising salesman named Leopold Bloom).

Bloom is a much beloved character with extensive interests and sensibilities whose name has been incorporated into the holiday that celebrates James Joyce and Ulysses. The two other principal characters are Stephen Dedalus a largely autobiographical representation of Joyce in his early twenties, and Molly Bloom (Leopold Bloom's wife) whose closing soliloquy constitutes the most famous ending in all of literature.

The book itself weighs in at almost 700 pages, and contains some 33,000 different words (about the same number as in the works of Shakespeare). Although Ulysses takes place in less than a full day, it touches upon a vast number of different matters – scientific, literary, mythological, medical, economic, religious, political, historical, sociological, psychological, philosophical and other themes.

But, if Ulysses is seemingly universal, it is also a very local work of art. Joyce once said that if Dublin disappeared in a natural catastrophe, it could be rebuilt from indications in Ulysses. Joyce’s Dublin is populated by a considerable population of very Irish people with myriad occupations, personalities, and eccentricities, and it features much of what Dubliners experienced in 1904 –particular streets, buildings,occupations, food and drink, animals, sights, weather, music, etc. – and especially ideas and opinions.

Joyce prided himself as being crafty, and most things in Ulysses are presented in an ironic light. Multifaceted humor is the fuel on which Ulysses runs - So ENJOY!

9. PLOT SUMMARIES

Before the first class it would be helpful to read the summary of the book of the

Rosenbach Library (https://rosenbach.org/ulysses-plot-summary/) - and it would be

good to re-read each chapter plot summary before reading the chapter itself.

Scroll in Place or Open in upper right Corner:

Ulysses Plot Summary.pdf

10. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

RECORDINGS:

You may wish to listen to a recording of Ulysses as you read - the spoken word often brings out elements of the text more vividly than reading alone. Highly recommended are:

the reading by Jim Norton posted on this website on the ULYSSES AUDIO PAGE
the marathon performance of the Irish radio station RTE available for free at RTE RECORDING).; and
you will find related music and films there as well.

GUIDANCE MATERIALS:

You may wish to make use of Michael Groden's Guide to reading Ulysses- this is a marvelous resource/you would probably find it most useful to consult the notes on each episode before reading it.
Also highly recommended is the recently published The Guide to Reading James Joyce's Ulysses by Patrick Hastings available on Amazon.
The standard reference book of Ulysses annotations that explains many of the puzzles and allusions in the book is Ulysses Annotated by Don Gifford - available in various expanded editions.
The most convenient reference source for Ulysses clarifications and explanations is THE JOYCE PROJECT a free resource in which color-coded annotations can be accessed by clicking on highlighted text in the book which is set out in its entirely chapter by chapter.
Otherwise there is a vast academic literature about Ulysses that has been accumulating over the past 100 years. The leading biography of Joyce remains Richard Ellman's James Joyce.

REMEMBER TO READ ULYSSES AS HUMOR

by Ricardo Soares