James Joyce’s ULYSSES: Texts and Contexts

FAIN: FS-50119-06

Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL 62901-4302)
Kevin J. H. Dettmar (Project Director: March 2006 to January 2009)

A six-week seminar for fifteen college and university faculty on James Joyce's ULYSSES and its multiple contexts, to be held in Dublin, Ireland.

A six-week seminar for college and university teachers focusing on the twentieth-century's pre-eminent novel in English, James Joyce's ULYSSES (1922), exploring the text of the novel in its Dublin, Ireland context, as well as the context of its critical tradition and critical legacies. ULYSSES is absolutely central to the English curriculum, and to the study of the humanities and twentieth-century culture; but the difficulties the novel poses for undergraduate students has meant that it is rarely taken up in anything besides senior seminars. The goal of the seminar will be to equip undergraduate teachers with new approaches to teaching Joyce's masterpiece, emphasizing the power of context (geographic, national, linguistic, literary, artistic, cultural, historical) to bring the book to life for students; and to familiarize researchers with the latest trends in Joyce scholarship, to reinvigorate their own scholarly projects.