Class: Part One – Exploring the Labyrinth. Perhaps the greatest literary genius to emerge out of Ireland and arguably the greatest literary intelligence since Shakespeare, James Joyce (1882-1941) can be understood as creating an ever-widening labyrinth of innovation through his four masterpieces: Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939). Yet the first two books in this sequence which are the initial turns of this labyrinth, Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist, are plain, simple, enjoyably witty and readily understood. This course will give a foundation to anybody wishing to understand the unfolding of Joyce’s genius by reading and discussing his two most accessible works: Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. We will read a selection of short stories from Dubliners culminating in his masterpiece, “The Dead.” Then we will read his autobiographical novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Instructor: Patrick O’Donnell