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Instructor: Václav Paris
[email protected]
Fisher-Bennett Hall,
Rm. 122
The Making of Ulysses
James Joyce in Zurich, 1938. Photograph: Hulton Archive
Banned in the United States for obscenity, Ulysses, when it was published in Paris in 1922
created a sensation that permanently changed the literary world. Following an ordinary
middle-aged man, Leopold Bloom, through one day, the narrative adapts the story of the
Odyssey, setting Homer’s tale in Dublin in 1904. By turns hilarious, tragic, formidably
difficult, and always frank about the material details of everyday life, it is a work that
challenges our conceptions of what literature is about and what it can do. In many ways,
it marks a moment when literature became modern. In this course we will attempt to
understand the effect of Ulysses in 1922 by putting ourselves in the position of one of its
first readers: Joyce’s friend and drinking partner, Frank Budgen. Reading Ulysses
alongside Budgen’s account of Joyce’s composition in James Joyce and the Making of
‘Ulysses’, and in parallel with Homer’s Odyssey, we will trace, episode by episode, how this
great work was born. On the way we will look at its reception and the circumstances of
its suppression, as the episodes were successively published in The Little Review.
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Pedagogical Goals
If you take this class, you should expect the following:
• To gain a good understanding of Joyce’s Ulysses, how it was written, how it was
received.
• To learn about the literary atmosphere and issues of censorship between 1918
and 1922.
• To learn about the relationship of Joyce’s work to the works of Homer.
• To develop a familiarity with the methods of literary criticism.
Texts
All students are required to buy, borrow, or download the following texts:
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Charles Lamb, The Adventures of Ulysses (available online)
Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Butcher and Lang (This is the edition that Joyce probably
used. It is available free online – here.)
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James Joyce, Ulysses: The 1922 Text ed. Jeri Johnson (Oxford World Classics)
Frank Budgen, James Joyce and the Making of Ulysses (1934) (available online – here)
For access to Joyce episodes and other material from The Little Review see the Modernist
Journals Project. All other material listed below in the readings will be available in pdf
form on Blackboard.
STUDENT REQUIREMENTS
Your grade for this course will be evaluated on the following basis (make sure you read
the small print!):
25% Participation – Students are expected to attend all classes, arrive on time,
contribute regularly both to discussions and the online blog, and to give one five
minute oral presentation on an episode of their choice.
I believe the efforts of students who enrich discussion by offering their own views in class
should be rewarded. Out of respect to students presenting their ideas, this class has a
strict policy on attendance and late arrivals. More than three absences or late arrivals will
compromise your participation grade. If you must be absent for more than three classes due
to medical or other emergency reasons, please bring documentation of these issues. Please
inform me of any absences due to sports, religious holidays, or disabilities at the beginning
of the term. A late arrival is defined as more than five minutes after the beginning of the
class.
25% Midterm Position Paper – 1000 word essay on any text discussed in the first
half of the term.
You are free to choose your own topic of discussion, but I will recommend possible
questions to address in class. Hard copies of this paper are due in the first class back after
the midterm break. In grading your paper I will arrange a time to meet with you during the
following week. This meeting is compulsory. In order to ensure that all students have the
same amount of time to write, late submissions will be penalized at the rate of 5% of your
paper grade each day. The word limit is strict – keep between 900 and 1100 words.
25% Final Position Paper – 1000 word essay on any text discussed in the second
half of the term.
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Hard copies due on the last day of class. Same rules apply as for the Midterm position
paper, but I will do not have to meet with you in grading these papers.
25% Final Exam – A one hour written exam.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
All students are expected to familiarize themselves with, and adhere to Penn’s code of academic integrity
(http://www.upenn.edu/academicintegrity/ai_codeofacademicintegrity.html). Plagiarism can easily be
avoided by putting other people’s work in quotation marks and citing sources.
Part I - Preparatory to anything else…
Class 1.
• No reading for the first class. Discussion of course requirements and procedures.
Introduction to Ulysses, the history of the text, its publication, reception, censorship, and
influence.
Class 2.
• Charles Lamb’s Adventures of Ulysses. (This is the version of Homer’s tale that Joyce read as
a young boy, and which allegedly inspired him to write about the same theme. In class we will
discuss the significance of Homer and the epic in the modern period, and its particular
resonances in the period from 1918-1922.)
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Jeri Johnson, “Composition and Publication History,” in Ulysses.
Part II – The Telemachiad
Class 3 – March 1918.
• Ulysses episode 1 (Telemachus).
• Odyssey Books 1-2;
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Ezra Pound, “The Classics Escape” and “Cantico del Sole” from The Little Review
4.18 (March 1918) (This is the issue of The Little Review in which the first episode of Ulysses
appeared.)
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Optional (but recommended) – The Telemachus Comic on The Dublin James
Joyce Center Website.
Class 4. March 1918 continued.
• Ulysses episode 1 (continued)
• Odyssey Books 3-4;
• Budgen; Chapter 1.
Class 5 - April 1918.
• Ulysses episode 2 (Nestor)
• Budgen, Chapter 2.
Class 6 – May 1918
• Ulysses episode 3 (Proteus),
• Budgen, Chapter 3.
Part III – The Wanderings of Odysseus / Bloom
Class 7 – June 1918
• Ulysses episode 4 (Calypso)
• Ulysses episode 4 as it appeared in The Little Review 5.2. (June 1918) 39-52. (See if you
can identify what is missing. In class we will discuss Pound’s censorship of Joyce’s work for the
magazine.)
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Odyssey Book 5.
S.S.B, “What Joyce is Up Against” The Little Review 5.2. (June 1918), 54.
R. McM. “James Joyce” The Little Review 5.2. (June 1918), 55-57.
Budgen, Chapter 4.
Class 8 – July 1918
• Ulysses episode 5 (Lotus Eaters);
• Odyssey Books 6-9
• Hart Crane, “Joyce and Ethics” in The Little Review (July 1918), 65.
• Budgen, Chapter 5
Class 9 – September 1918
• Ulysses episode 6 (Hades)
• Odyssey Books 10-11.
Class 10 – October 1918
• Ulysses episode 7 (Aeolus);
• Review Odyssey Book 10-11.
Class 11 – January - March 1919
• Ulysses episode 8 (Lestrygonians).
Class 12 – April-May 1919
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Ulysses, episode 9 (Scylla and Charybdis);
Odyssey, book 12;
Plagiarism Discussion.
Budgen, Chapter 6
Class 13 – June - July 1919
• Ulysses, episode 10 (Wandering Rocks)
• Budgen, Chapter 7.
Class 14. August – September 1919
• Ulysses, episode 11 (Sirens)
• Budgen, Chapter 8.
Class 15 – November 1919 – March 1920
• Ulysses, episode 12 (Cyclops)
• Review Odyssey, Book 9
• Budgen, Chapter 9
Class 16 – April – July 1920
• Ulysses, episode 13 (Nausikaa)
• Review Odyssey, book 5;
• F.E.R., “The Reader Critic: Obscenity” in The Little Review 6.11 (April 1920), 61.
• “The Reader Critic: Ulysses” in The Little Review 7.1 (May 1920), 72
• Helen Bishop Dennis, “The Reader Critic: The Modest Woman,” The Little Review
7.1 (May 1920), 73-74.
• Discussion: 'The Modest Woman' (von Freytag-Loringhoven, Else): The Little
Review 7.2, (July / August 1920): 37-40.
• Discussion: 'The Public Taste' (Widney, Mary): The Little Review 7.2, (July /
August 1920): 32-33
• Budgen, Chapter 10.
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Class 17. September – December 1920
• Jane Heap, “Art and the Law” The Little Review 7.3 (September / December
1920): 5-7
• Margaret Anderson, “An Obvious Statement, For the Millionth Time,” The Little
Review 7.3 (September / December 1920): 8-16.
• Ulysses, episode 14 (Oxen of the Sun)
• Review Odyssey, book 10
• Joyce’s Letter to Budgen, in Letters II, 140.
Class 18 -- January - March 1921
• Ulysses, episode 14, continued (Oxen of the Sun)
• Frederic Jameson on pastiche;
• T. S. Eliot, “Ulysses, Order, and Myth”;
• Odyssey 13-15.
• Margaret Anderson, “'Ulysses' in Court” The Little Review 7.4 (January / March,
1921): 22-25
• Harriet Monroe, “Discussion: Sumner Versus James Joyce” The Little Review 7.4
(January / March, 1921): 34-34
• Emmy Sanders, “Discussion: Apropos Art and Its Trials Legal and Spiritual,” The
Little Review 7.4 (January / March, 1921): 40, 42-43
Class 19. – Autumn 1921
• Ulysses, episode 15 (Circe)
• Review Odyssey Books 10 and 12
• Advertisement and Order Form for 'Ulysses' by James Joyce: The Little Review,
8.1. (Autumn 1921): 107
• Jane Heap, Hospital: 'Ulysses': The Little Review, 8.1. (Autumn 1921): 112
• Budgen, Chapter 11.
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Part IV – The Nostos
Class 20 – February 1922.
• Ulysses, episode 16 (Eumaeus)
• Odyssey, books 17 to 20
• Budgen, Chapter 12.
Class 21. – February 1922.
• Ulysses, episode 17 (Ithaca)
• Odyssey, books 21 to 24
• Budgen, Chapter 13.
Class 22. – February 1922.
• Ulysses, episode 18 (Penelope)
Class 23 – After Ulysses.
• Extract from Work in Progress
• Budgen, Chapter 14.
Part V – The Critics
Remaining classes will be dedicated to surveying some of the most important responses
and critical approaches to Ulysses. These will be chosen according to class interest and
issues that arise during the semester.
This course was inspired my research at the James Joyce Center in Zurich during the summer of 2013. I
am grateful to Fritz Senn and the Friends of the James Joyce Center for their generous support.