Syllabus for English 346 (Studies in Modern Prose):
Ulysses

• James Joyce, "The Dead" from Dubliners
• Introductory "first few lines" video on "The Dead" from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)

We'll spend the first part of class introducing the course and its participants. Then we'll talk about "The Dead" as a way of getting used to Joyce's language before we dive into Ulysses. By 11:00 p.m. on the evening before class, in addition to reading "The Dead," do two brief things, partly to ensure that all our technology is working well:

1. Put a paragraph of self-introduction in the class "Self-Introductions" document.
2. As the first entry in your Obsession Document, choose a brief quotation from "The Dead," quote it (with page number citation), and write at least 100 words about how it connects to something else that has interested you in your intellectual development before this class. For instance, if Joyce mentions antelopes, you could talk about how you learned about antelope locomotion in biology or how one of your favorite poems has a great antelope moment.

• Plot summary of Ulysses (handout)
• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 1-3 (The Telemechiad): Telemachus, Nestor, and Proteus
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

• Katherine Mullin, "Joyce through the Little Magazines"
• Vicki Mahaffey, "Intentional Error: The Paradox of Editing Ulysses

We will meet in the Special Collections Reading Room on the lower level of Burling Library for class today.

We will be going to the rare books room in the library today to see Ulysses as it first appeared in The Little Review. After reading both articles carefully, post to the Obsession Document by 11:00 Wednesday evening a brief comment about something specific that one of the articles makes you want to see in the Little Review.

• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 4-6 (Calypso, The Lotus Eaters, Hades)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 4
• Episode 5
• Episode 6

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

• At least three entries of your choice from the Ashplant lexicon.

Assignment due in your Obsession Document by 11:00 the night before class:

1. Write a brief paragraph about an insight you gained from one of your lexicon entries.
2. Use the search form on the libraries' home page (also known as "Primo") to find at least two possible articles or book chapters that might relate to your thinking about your obsession. Aside from the more conventional keyword searches, you can also use the quotations you have used in your obsession document as full-text keyword searches in the library interface or Google Books. At least one of your sources should address Joyce or Ulysses directly. Put citation information for both sources in your Obsession Document, using Chicago style.

For all your research citations in this class, by the way, you will use Chicago Style in the Notes and Bibliography (NB) version. For formatting the paper in Chicago NB Style, you can use my quick guide (PDF). If you use a tool that generates bibliography entries automatically, that's fine as a starting point, but such tools often get details wrong. Do the final version of your entry yourself, carefully. You are responsible for what you submit.

• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 7 (Aeolus) and 8 (Lestrygonians)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 7
• Episode 8

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

For today, read two articles that can function as models of obsession-style writing about Ulysses as a whole, rather than focusing on this week's readings in particular.

• Margot Norris, "Tatters, Bloom's Cat, and Other Animals in Ulysses"
• Paul K. Saint-Amour, "Symbols and Things," from The Cambridge Companion to Ulysses

For today's assignment, you will read both articles but do the following exercise for only one of them. Group 1 will work with Norris's article, and group 2 will work with Saint-Amour's. By 11:00 the night before class, write responses to these questions in your Commonplace Document:

1. Where (specifically) do you think the thesis is located?
2. What are two of the piece's major transitions, and how do they reveal the structure of the argument?
3. If the piece addresses Joyce directly, what are two of the key quotations from Ulysses?
4. What would you include in a short list of the obsession-style major themes of the piece?
5. What are two secondary or theoretical works that are important to the piece?

• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 9 (Scylla and Charybdis) and 10 (Wandering Rocks)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 9
• Episode 10

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Professor Simpson will be traveling for work today, so you will do the usual reading and analysis of the article, but you can have an extra day to do it, and we'll meet on Monday for the next section of Ulysses.

• Vincent J. Cheng, "Authenticity and Identity: Catching the Irish Spirit"

Everyone: By 11:00 Wednesday night, write responses to these questions in your Commonplace Document:

1. Where (specifically) do you think the thesis is located?
2. What are two of the piece's major transitions, and how do they reveal the structure of the argument?
3. If the piece addresses Joyce directly, what are two of the key quotations from Ulysses?
4. What would you include in a short list of the obsession-style major themes of the piece?
5. What are two secondary or theoretical works that are important to the piece?

• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 11 (Sirens) and 12 (Cyclops)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 11
• Episode 12

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

• Joseph Valente, "'Neither fish nor flesh'; Or How 'Cyclops' Stages the Double-bind of Irish Manhood"

By 11:00 the night before class, write responses to these questions in your Commonplace Document:

1. Where (specifically) do you think the thesis is located?
2. What are two of the piece's major transitions, and how do they reveal the structure of the argument?
3. If the piece addresses Joyce directly, what are two of the key quotations from Ulysses?
4. What would you include in a short list of the obsession-style major themes of the piece?
5. What are two secondary or theoretical works that are important to the piece?

• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 13 (Nausicaa) and 14 (Oxen of the Sun)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 13
• Episode 14

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

• Vicki Mahaffey, "Ulysses and the End of Gender."

By 11:00 the night before class, write responses to these questions in your Commonplace Document:

1. Where (specifically) do you think the thesis is located?
2. What are two of the piece's major transitions, and how do they reveal the structure of the argument?
3. If the piece addresses Joyce directly, what are two of the key quotations from Ulysses?
4. What would you include in a short list of the obsession-style major themes of the piece?
5. What are two secondary or theoretical works that are important to the piece?

• Episode 15

Everyone: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your reflecting on "Circe" together this week.

• Episode 15 (Circe), part 2 (lines 2742-end)

Everyone: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading. Because "Circe" involves a remix of the whole novel to this point, this is a good opportunity to start consolidating your thinking as we near the end of Ulysses.

• Introductory "first few lines" videos from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episodes 16 (Eumaeus) and 17 (Ithaca)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 16
• Episode 17

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

• Jennifer Levine, "James Joyce, Tattoo Artist"
• Optional bonus content: The Ashplant Bookshelf Project

By 11:00 the night before class, write responses to these questions in your Commonplace Document:

1. Where (specifically) do you think the thesis is located?
2. What are two of the piece's major transitions, and how do they reveal the structure of the argument?
3. If the piece addresses Joyce directly, what are two of the key quotations from Ulysses?
4. What would you include in a short list of the obsession-style major themes of the piece?
5. What are two secondary or theoretical works that are important to the piece?

• Introductory "first few lines" video from Pandemic Professor Simpson (class YouTube channel, linked from the main menu of our Canvas site)
• Episode 18 (Penelope)
• Web resources from Ashplant:
• Episode 18

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

• Derek Attridge, "Molly's Flow: The Writing of 'Penelope' and the Question of Women's Language"

By 11:00 the night before class, write responses to these questions in your Commonplace Document:

1. Where (specifically) do you think the thesis is located?
2. What are two of the piece's major transitions, and how do they reveal the structure of the argument?
3. If the piece addresses Joyce directly, what are two of the key quotations from Ulysses?
4. What would you include in a short list of the obsession-style major themes of the piece?
5. What are two secondary or theoretical works that are important to the piece?

We will not meet as a class this week. Instead, we will devote our time to wrapping up obsessional thinking about Ulysses and having the one-on-one Ulysses conversations.

By 11:00 p.m. Monday night (a day later than usual), post to your Obsession Document an entry that consolidates your obsessional thinking about Ulysses in preparation for our Ulysses conversation. Create this consolidation by looking back at the contents of your Obsession Document and bringing out the main ideas or point of inquiry that emerge for you. This consolidation can take whatever form is most helpful to you as you prepare for our conversation about the novel.

We will schedule conversations for the later part of the week.

No class session as Ulysses conversations continue.

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, through page 87

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, pages 88-end

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as part of your preparation for your next full entry.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

• Alison Bechdel, Fun Home

Group 1: By 11:00 the night before class, post a full Obsession Document entry describing the key developments and passages relating to your obsession in today's reading.

Group 2: By 11:00 the night before class, do a quotations-only Obsession Document post, as a way of keeping your semester's thinking connected to this last reading.

Today will be a festival of bibliography work. We will meet at the regular class time in our classroom, and the goal of the session will be to make good progress on bibliographies. You will be able to work silently, share your ideas with a group, consult with me--whatever is most helpful for you at this point.

Bibliography due by email attachment at 7:00 p.m.

Rather than meeting as a class today, we will have one-on-one conferences about your bibliographies and the final paper/adaptation.

• Last day: wrapping up and sharing of performances for anyone choosing the adaptation/performance option for the final assignment.

Progress report due by email by 9:00 p.m. An informal, ungraded assignment, this can constitute anything from a paragraph describing the state of your research and writing to an outline of the whole--or whatever else you deem helpful to share with me. I will respond to the materials you give me; you can also suggest questions you would like me to consider in my response.

Final paper or adaptation due by email attachment by 5:00 p.m.