ENGL3701: Reading Joyce's Ulysses

• ENGL 2081 Literature of the Modern Period

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• To promote enjoyment and a detailed knowledge and understanding of the text of Ulysses, one of the most important literary works of the 20th century.
• To raise awareness of some of the literary, historical and intellectual contexts of Joyce's work.
• To situate Ulysses amid relevant critical debates concerning such issues as: genre and form; conceptions of modernism; Catholicism, nationalism and imperialism in Ireland; representations of gender and sexuality.
• To provide a platform for independent analysis of Ulysses and its contexts.

• This module will focus on Ulysses but some reference will also be made to Joyce's other work, including discussion of Giacomo Joyce. Seminars will be based around discussion of specified chapters of Ulysses each week with reference to particular critical debates. The text of Joyce's work will remain the cornerstone of discussion and the course will proceed through it sequentially.
• Typically, the concerns of seminars will include, in relation to Joyce, issues such as: form, genre and canonicity; the "ordinary reader" and the nature of modernism, esp. with respect to literary allusion and popular culture; the role of the Catholic Church in Ireland and Joyce's relation to it; national and imperial contexts in Ireland c.1880-1930; Joyce's depictions of gender and sexuality, of sex and voyeurism. Standard practice will be to read sequentially through Ulysses, discussing a topic in relation to a chapter, e.g. "Cyclops" and nationalism. In each case, brief relevant secondary material will be specified reading alongside the chapter in question.
• A detailed bibliography will be distributed at the start of the module.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• At the end of the course students will have a detailed understanding of Joyce's Ulysses.
• They will be able to relate Joyce's work to some of its literary, historical and intellectual contexts.
• They will have a grasp of some key critical debates in Joyce studies and will be able to question different critical perspectives concerning Joyce and modernism.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts and critical approaches
• informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts
• sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to literature
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to literary studies
• skills of effective communication and argument
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation, and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• awareness of literature as a medium through which values are affirmed and debated

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyse critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a capacity for independent thought and judgement, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organisation and time-management skills

• Seminars: encourage peer-group discussion, enable students to develop critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts, and skills of effective communication and presentation; promote awareness of diversity of interpretation and methodology
• Consultation session: encourages students to reflect critically and independently on their work
• Independent but directed reading in preparation for seminars provides opportunity for students to enrich subject-specific knowledge and enhances their ability to develop appropriate subject-specific skills.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.
• Coursework: tests the student's ability to argue, respond and interpret, and to demonstrate subject-specific knowledge and skills such as appreciation of the power of imagination in literary creation and the close reading and analysis of texts; they also test the ability to present word-processed work, observing scholarly conventions. In individual Special Topics, the essay may, where appropriate to the subject, take an alternative form, such as 'creative criticism'.
• Feedback: The written feedback that is provided after the first assessed essay allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.

Before the first assessed essay, students have an individual 15-minute consultation session, in which they are permitted to show their seminar leader a sheet of points relevant to the essay and to receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

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