While James Joyce’s Ulysses is generally considered to be a
complex masterpiece of modernist literature and annually celebrated in
Ireland, his short story collection Dubliners (1914) has been
regarded as a simple or more accessible entry point to his oeuvre for a
long time. Within the past decades, however, Dubliners has
received more (scholarly) attention. It is now considered the collection
– or rather cycle – that completed the transition from the tale
tradition to the modern (Irish) short story and a landmark work (not
only) of Irish short fiction. Besides, the short stories are as
multilayered and partially as enigmatic as his longer works and many
aspects, which appear as negligible details at first glance, have become
subject to prolonged discussion and investigation.
In this seminar, we will dedicate one session to each short story to
explore and discuss the various layers and interpretations of the
individual stories, on the one hand, and their multiple
interconnections, on the other. Since the complexity of the narratives
is not always discernible at first glance and since their ambivalence
may leave readers puzzled after the first reading, they have to be read
at least twice. In line with the idea that short fiction is the ‘art of
saying less but meaning more’ (Hunter), we will thus re-read
the stories during the course of the semester to explore and discuss
them in detail. Therefore, students who are not familiar with Dubliners yet are required to read the stories before the first session on 12 October (there will be a fun quiz in the very first session about Joyce’s short story cycle).
- Dozent/in: Alessandra Boller