HNAR-303: James Joyce's 'Ulysses'

Arguably one of the most important and influential works of fiction of the 150 years, James Joyce's 'Ulysses' is also famously difficult to read. At least that's its reputation. This course is designed to be a guided tour through the novel's 18 shifting chapters, in order to unlock its humor, invention and humanity, and to help dispel its mystery. 'Ulysses' takes place on a single day (June 16, 1904) in the life of literature's great antihero, Leopold Bloom. Along the way of an almost hourly chronicle, the pages take readers through the inner thoughts of principle and minor characters, parodies of literary styles, critiques of imperialism, racism, and popular culture and highbrow culture. It does this while also mimicking the structure of Homer's 'Odyssey', shifting the styles of chapters and complicating the nature of authorship and narrative authority. Joyce's biographer Richard Ellmann wrote that, whether we read 'Ulysses' or not, we've been influenced by it. This course presents the opportunity to see what Ellmann means.