Many of my colleagues ask me, "Why Ulysses?" Why ask my students to "read his usylessly unreadable Blue Book of Eccles" as Joyce pokes fun at in Finnegans Wake? They are puzzled by the seemingly insurmountable task of diving headfirst with 15-16-year-olds into such a notoriously complex and esoteric book. "Because it's the perfect book for anyone planning on living their life" is how I reply. This usually sparks an interesting discussion. However, in his brilliant book, Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Life in Joyce's Masterpiece, Declan Kiberd so eloquently expresses what I usually attempt to explain poorly between sips of coffee. Declan Kiberd is a former professor of Anglo-Irish literature at the University College Dublin and, as of this writing, professor of Irish Studies and English professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has won the Irish Times Prize and in 2019 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Enjoy the following excerpts and if you are interested, click on the book cover below to purchase your own copy!
It is worth pointing out for any interested teachers that, in my experience, the reading group dynamic is something a bit unusual with high school students. There are two main factors for this: 1) The vast majority of students in the reading group are typically introverts which makes for an interesting group dynamic where individuals are more focused on their own reading and work than focused on everyone's understanding. 2) Whereas a classroom environment is familiar with expectations and a disciplined structure, a reading group is unfamiliar and more casual. This creates an "adapting" learning curve which is difficult for introverts. So my advice is to BE PATIENT AND SPOT CHECK EACH MEETING TO ENSURE THEY ARE GETTING WHAT THEY WANT OUT OF THE GROUP. Otherwise, it can appear that students aren't interested or aren't reading. Yet, they show up each week so what's the deal?! They're introverts in a group; that's the deal. So have fun, be flexible, and enjoy!
It is worth pointing out for any interested teachers that, in my experience, the reading group dynamic is something a bit unusual with high school students. There are two main factors for this: 1) The vast majority of students in the reading group are typically introverts which makes for an interesting group dynamic where individuals are more focused on their own reading and work than focused on everyone's understanding. 2) Whereas a classroom environment is familiar with expectations and a disciplined structure, a reading group is unfamiliar and more casual. This creates an "adapting" learning curve which is difficult for introverts. So my advice is to BE PATIENT AND SPOT CHECK EACH MEETING TO ENSURE THEY ARE GETTING WHAT THEY WANT OUT OF THE GROUP. Otherwise, it can appear that students aren't interested or aren't reading. Yet, they show up each week so what's the deal?! They're introverts in a group; that's the deal. So have fun, be flexible, and enjoy!
Student Testimonials
"By participating in the Ulysses Reading Group, I was able to think about writing in a new light. James Joyce essentially modernized a famous book, and in doing so was able to comment on his society at the time, while paying homage to The Odyssey within each chapter. He also showed that books do not have to be stagnant; each chapter can be somewhat of a novel on its own with different styles and techniques. I enjoyed reading Ulysses because it serves as a reminder that writing has no limitations. We tend to limit our creativity when it comes to writing and create a set of rules or structure that we must follow. However, Joyce shows that one can write without following a strict guideline, while still being deep and meaningful. James Joyce shows that writing can be an art form used to express both the author and the time period they are writing in. I would definitely recommend that other teachers teach James Joyce in their classrooms to allow readers to be exposed to literature that challenges the way one can look at everything they read." ~ Anyelina I. (10th Grade AICE/Cambridge, General Paper)
“I personally travel a total of two hundred and twenty miles to and from Deltona High School every day, because that school is my home. Applying myself is extremely important to me which is one of the reasons why I decided to join the Ulysses Reading Group, alongside the fact that James Joyce has a captivating and very unique style of writing. I am completely willing to stay after school for an hour every Monday in order to attend this group given my commute due to the group having many benefits, and my motivation to expand my understanding of literature.” -Angelina C. (10th Grade AICE/Cambridge, General Paper)
“I personally travel a total of two hundred and twenty miles to and from Deltona High School every day, because that school is my home. Applying myself is extremely important to me which is one of the reasons why I decided to join the Ulysses Reading Group, alongside the fact that James Joyce has a captivating and very unique style of writing. I am completely willing to stay after school for an hour every Monday in order to attend this group given my commute due to the group having many benefits, and my motivation to expand my understanding of literature.” -Angelina C. (10th Grade AICE/Cambridge, General Paper)
Student Sample Paper
For the AICE/Cambridge international exams, some of the prompts the students have to choose from for their papers include questions about literature. Below is an example of a practice paper written from a past exam prompt. When writing these papers, the students can rely only on their memories as they have no resources other than the ten prompts to choose from, blank paper, and a writing utensil. The example provided shows the value of James Joyce in the classroom.
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Student Art
Kathy C., a student at Deltona High School, created a beautiful and haunting piece of art from a quote by James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The art was created May 26, 2017. The quote is: “He listened to the cries: like the squeak of mice behind wainscot: a shrill twofold note. But the notes were long and shrill and whirring, unlike the cry of vermin, falling a third or a fourth and trilled as the flying beaks clove the air. Their cry was shrill and clear and fine and falling like threads of silken light unwound from whirring spools.”
The Parable of the Plums ~ Sara B. (above) and Sarah S. (below), students at Deltona High School, illustrated the story told by Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses. The text, according to Stephen, is provided and the students drew the scenes. Despite his yearning to be a writer, this is the only story Stephen ever truly creates. Sara B.'s graphic narrative (above) takes a more literal approach while Sarah S. (below) made her two protagonist women dress as Wayne and Garth from the film Wayne's World.
Secondary Students Performing
Finnegans Wake
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In the above video, Farides Leedom-Cantillo and Baylee Osorio of Deltona High School perform a reading of the washerwomen in the first paragraph of the Anna Livia Plurabelle chapter from Finnegans Wake!
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In the above video, Farides Leedom-Cantillo of Deltona High School recites a musical excerpt from Book 1, Chapter 6 of Finnegans Wake. In this scene, Shaun, the Mooske, plays Pope Adrian IV (in the background on the left) and Shem, the Gripes, plays Saint Lawrence O'Toole -- the Bishop of Dublin (in the background on the right).
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In the above video, Farides Leedom-Castillo and Baylee Osorio of Deltona High School perform a lyrical excerpt from the last paragraph of Book 3, Chapter 4 in Finnegans Wake. In this scene, the four judges become the four bedposts of Mr. and Mrs. Porter.
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Ulysses and Us
Click Here To Get A Copy!
“A book which set out to celebrate the common man and woman endured the sad fate of never being read by
most of them.” Pg. 7
“Any teacher knows that many students today sprinkle their essays with quotations from the lyrics of rock music and from popular films. This suggests that they still yearn for instruction from artists on how to live. It may well be that rock artists provide the only common culture which most of those students know. The need now is for readers who will challenge the bloodless, technocratic explication of texts: amateur readers who will come up with what may appear to be naïve, even innocent, interpretations. Today’s students have been prevented by a knowing, sophisticated criticism from seeking such wisdom in modern literature.” Pg. 15
“Stephen’s educational theory is rather akin to Joyce’s: teachers should ask questions, open children to ancient
legends, ask them to contemplate the faraway and the remote – as children naturally want to do.” Pg. 16
“Reading Ulysses is undeniably challenging, yet many of the jobs which are done by ordinary people are as complex and exacting as any analysis of that book.” Pg. 17
“The model of education favoured by Joyce is one which does not master the young but rather mediates the relation between the generations as Bloom does. Bloom is more like a guru than an old-fashioned instructor. His object is less to convey a content than to draw Stephen into the process of transmission itself, so that the teacher-turned-learner can himself become a teacher in turn. Like many students, Stephen is quizzical at first, but he does learn a lot.” Pg. 21
“But this is a book with much to teach us about the world – advice on how to cope with grief; how to be frank about death in the age of its denial; how women have their own sexual desires and so also do men; how to walk and think at the same time; how the language of the body is often more eloquent than any words; how to tell a joke and how not to tell a joke; how to purge sexual relations of all notions of ownership; or how the way a person approaches food can explain who they really are. Before Joyce, nobody had so fully represented the process of thought, that stream of consciousness which everyone experiences every day.” Pg. 21
“The aim of art is not to depict a set of incidents, for that would be no more than information. It is rather to relate each event to the life of a storyteller, so that it can be conveyed as lived experience. Ulysses is the work of a storyteller, not a novelist. It is a narrative which uses the streets as a guide to the received wisdom of an entire community. A life so lived finally reveals an order hidden from those caught up in the day-to-day accidents of its unfolding. What seemed like random incidents are revealed in the end to be part of some fore-ordained plan. There is a providence in the fall of a sparrow, the hairs on our heads are numbered, and the man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are the portals of discovery.” Pg. 357
most of them.” Pg. 7
“Any teacher knows that many students today sprinkle their essays with quotations from the lyrics of rock music and from popular films. This suggests that they still yearn for instruction from artists on how to live. It may well be that rock artists provide the only common culture which most of those students know. The need now is for readers who will challenge the bloodless, technocratic explication of texts: amateur readers who will come up with what may appear to be naïve, even innocent, interpretations. Today’s students have been prevented by a knowing, sophisticated criticism from seeking such wisdom in modern literature.” Pg. 15
“Stephen’s educational theory is rather akin to Joyce’s: teachers should ask questions, open children to ancient
legends, ask them to contemplate the faraway and the remote – as children naturally want to do.” Pg. 16
“Reading Ulysses is undeniably challenging, yet many of the jobs which are done by ordinary people are as complex and exacting as any analysis of that book.” Pg. 17
“The model of education favoured by Joyce is one which does not master the young but rather mediates the relation between the generations as Bloom does. Bloom is more like a guru than an old-fashioned instructor. His object is less to convey a content than to draw Stephen into the process of transmission itself, so that the teacher-turned-learner can himself become a teacher in turn. Like many students, Stephen is quizzical at first, but he does learn a lot.” Pg. 21
“But this is a book with much to teach us about the world – advice on how to cope with grief; how to be frank about death in the age of its denial; how women have their own sexual desires and so also do men; how to walk and think at the same time; how the language of the body is often more eloquent than any words; how to tell a joke and how not to tell a joke; how to purge sexual relations of all notions of ownership; or how the way a person approaches food can explain who they really are. Before Joyce, nobody had so fully represented the process of thought, that stream of consciousness which everyone experiences every day.” Pg. 21
“The aim of art is not to depict a set of incidents, for that would be no more than information. It is rather to relate each event to the life of a storyteller, so that it can be conveyed as lived experience. Ulysses is the work of a storyteller, not a novelist. It is a narrative which uses the streets as a guide to the received wisdom of an entire community. A life so lived finally reveals an order hidden from those caught up in the day-to-day accidents of its unfolding. What seemed like random incidents are revealed in the end to be part of some fore-ordained plan. There is a providence in the fall of a sparrow, the hairs on our heads are numbered, and the man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are the portals of discovery.” Pg. 357
