Office: Vaughan Lit 231

Office Hours: M 2:30-3:30 pm; W 2:00-4:00 pm; and by appointment

Office Phone: 577-1424

e-mail: rickard@bucknell.edu

WWW homepage: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rickard

INTERNET RESOURCES: You can find links to Joyce resources on the internet at http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rickard/Joyce.html

TEXTBOOKS--CLICK HERE

 

SYLLABUS

This is a provisional syllabus; we will feel free to adjust it as the needs of the class demand. You are responsible for learning of and responding to syllabus changes during the semester. You must have the works read by the day they are listed on the syllabus.

• August 23

Business matters; introduction to seminar and to Joyce. Discussion of Dubliners, especially "The Sisters" and "The Dead"-- please bring your text of Dubliners to class.

Web Resources: Dubliners Online–The complete text of the stories online at Project Gutenberg. See also the online concordance of Dubliners, which enables you to see all the occurrences of any word in the the entire text.

• August 30

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

READ: A Portrait of the Artist" (Joyce's first attempt, in 1904 -- read first three paragraphs in detail and skim the rest);

Required Reserve Reading: Morris Beja, "The Curve of an Emotion: The Years of the Portrait, 1904-1914," in James Joyce: A Literary Life, 40-62 (Book on reserve at Reserve Reading Desk)

Web Resources: Brandon Kershner's Portrait Page–An excellent supplement to Joyce's novel, including biography, criticism, and notes.

A Portrait Online–The complete text of the novel available from Project Gutenberg. See also the online concordance of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which enables you to see all the occurrences of any word in the the entire text.

• September 6

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Extra Reading: Hélène Cixous, "The Artist and the Law," pages 1-7 only of "Reaching the Point of Wheat, or a Portrait of the Artist as a Maturing Woman" (PDF file on Blackboard; Course Materials)

• September 13

Finish A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and begin Ulysses–Read first episode

Extra Reading: Garry Leonard, "When a Fly Gets in Your I: The City, Modernism, and Aesthetic Theory in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (Blackboard)

Ulysses Online–A "hypertextual, self-referential edition of Ulysses"
(NOTE: This is NOT the Gabler text, but a copy of the first edition of Ulysses–accordingly, do not quote this version as if it were the Gabler text in your reading blogs or papers. The Gabler text is not available on line.)

• September 20

Ulysses–Episodes 1 and 2

Required Reserve Reading: Morris Beja, "A Touch of the Artist: The Years of Ulysses, 1914-1922," in James Joyce: A Literary Life, pp. 63-87 (Blackboard)

Extra Reading: Derek Attridge, "Reading Joyce,"in The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce (Blackboard)

• September 27

Ulysses–Episodes 3 and 4

Extra Reading: Rickard, Joyce's Book of Memory, "Introduction" (Blackboard)

• October 4

Ulysses–Episodes 5 and 6

Extra Reading: Cheryl Herr, "Art and Life, Nature and Culture, Ulysses," in James Joyce's Ulysses: A Casebook, ed. Derek Attridge, pp. 55-81 (Blackboard)

PAPER 1 DUE BY THIS DATE

• October 11

Ulysses–Episodes 7 and 8 (Have a look at a hypermedia version episode 8–"Lestrygonians" (Blackboard; Course Materials)

Windows Media Player audio file of Joyce reading from "Aeolus," circa 1924: http://www.talking-book-store.com/Title.aspx?titleId=8012

Extra Reading: Wolfgang Iser, "Patterns of Communication in Joyce's Ulysses," in A Companion to James Joyce's "Ulysses," pp. 108-127 (Blackboard)

• October 18
  

  Ulysses–Episodes 9 and 10

   

• October 25

Ulysses–Episodes 11 and 12

Extra Reading: Emer Nolan, "State of the Art: Joyce and Postcolonialism," in Semicolonial Joyce, ed. Derek Attridge and Marjorie Howes, pp. 73-95 (Blackboard)

• November 1
  

Ulysses–Episode 13 and 14

Extra Reading: Vicki Mahaffey, "Ulysses and the End of Gender," in A Companion to James Joyce's 'Ulysses,' ed. Margot Norris, pp. 129-168 (Blackboard)

FINAL PAPER PROPOSAL DUE

• November 8
  

  Ulysses–Episode 15

  Supplementary Reading: Rickard, Joyce's Book of Memory, "Joyce's Mnemotechnic: Textual Memory In Ulysses" (Chapter Four; On Reserve)

  Extra Reading: Maud Ellmann, "The Ghosts of Ulysses," in James Joyce's Ulysses: A Casebook, ed. Derek Attridge, pp. 83-101 (Blackboard)
  

• November 15

  Ulysses–Episodes 16 and 17

  Extra Reading: Rickard, Joyce's Book of Memory, "Conclusion" (On Reserve)

  or, Jacques Derrida, "Ulysses Gramophone: Hear say yes in Joyce," in A Companion to James Joyce's "Ulysses," pp. 69-90 (Blackboard)

 

• November 22

NO CLASS -- THANKSGIVING BREAK

• November 29
  

  Final Meeting (at my house; details to be announced) – Final Episode ("Penelope") and Excerpts from Finnegans Wake

  Suggested Reading: Karen Lawrence, "'Penelope': A Coda"

  Extra Reading: Ewa Ziarek, "The Female Body, Technology, and Memory in 'Penelope'," in James Joyce's Ulysses: A Casebook, ed. Derek Attridge, pp. 103-128 (Blackboard)

BLOG DUE

FINAL PAPER DUE BEFORE MIDNIGHT ON 6 DECEMBER

ASSIGNMENTS:

Each student will be responsible for:

• Making at least two oral presentations to the class, one of which will be a background report on a related text, a term, a theme in the primary texts, a critical approach to Joyce, a bibliographical problem, etc. The other will involve serving as "discussion leader" for one episode of Ulysses, which will require you to prepare for the class in which we will discuss that episode by reading the primary text carefully, checking the biographical sources for relevant contextual information, going over Joyce's "schemas," letters, and other relevant comments on the episode, and perusing a couple of critical articles. Please remember that the guidelines for making effective oral presentations include preparing in advance, finding interesting things to say, talking directly to your audience, and especially, not going way over or under your suggested time limit (in this case, approximately 15 minutes).

 

• Preparing a detailed explication of one page of Ulysses and presenting it orally to me in my office. This explication should involve such specific things as pronoun references, syntax, unusual and foreign words, allusions, geographical references, and any cruxes the passage involves. For this assignment you may choose any one page of the "Proteus" episode. This report will be presented during the week of September 23 - September 28 (i.e., before the September 29 meeting).

 

• Writing a paper (7-10 pages) on a critical problem or issue in "The Dead" and/or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. This paper will be due October 6, and research is not required.  I will discuss topic choices with you early in the semester.

 

• Writing a longer (approximately 15-page) term paper on a topic of your choice (I will be happy to make suggestions). You should begin thinking about your topic as soon as possible. You must hand in or e-mail me a 150-200 word proposal describing your proposed project on or before November 2.

 

• Keeping a reading blog in which you record: 1) your own reading notes and ideas about each primary work we read (e.g., "The Dead," A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and each episode of Ulysses); 2) a brief summary and response to any critical articles or books you read; 3) responses to questions and/or writing suggestions I may give you at the end of class periods. Blogs should be kept on the Blackboard system. Refer to the handout on "Keeping a Blog" for more information about this important assignment.

 

• Most weeks, an "extra reading" entry will be placed on the syllabus. Each undergraduate student must pick one of these extra entries to address in his or her blog once during the semester (this will be part of the blog grade): briefly summarize the extra reading's main points and discuss your sense of its usefulness or uselessness. Any additional "extra reading" entries will earn extra credit. Graduate students must respond to three of these extra readings in their blogs. Each graduate student will also present one essay from the list of extra readings to the class.

EVALUATION: The following percentages are meant to serve as approximate measures of the importance of various assignments.

Paper 1	20% of grade
Paper 2	30% of grade
Blog	25% of grade
Oral Presentations	20% of grade
Proteus Page Explication	5% of grade

There will be no exams in this seminar.

Note that there is no percentage of the grade listed above for class participation. Class participation is crucial in a seminar and is therefore full and active participation in discussions and activities is taken for granted as part of your overall grade for the class. Everyone must be present every week for such a class to work well; any absences will lower your grade in this course. More than two unexcused absences will result in an automatic grade of F for the seminar!

Syllabus, assignments, selected essays, bibliographies, and other important information for this class will be available on the web page for this class (http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rickard/JJSem.html). You can e-mail me at rickard@bucknell.edu; if you do not know how to use these systems, please ask me for assistance. If you need to speak with me, you can call me or leave a message at 577-1424. My home phone is 523-7784.