TEACHING JOYCE's ULYSSES a Dissertation Presented to The
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TEACHING JOYCE’S ULYSSES A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Jessica Rose Abel December 2018 © 2018 Jessica Rose Abel ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TEACHING JOYCE’S ULYSSES Jessica Rose Abel, Ph.D. Cornell University 2018 As a novel that asks how we can live in a world of uncertain values and urgent identity politics, James Joyce’s Ulysses could be more relevant than ever, but its textual complexity poses a steep burden to new readers. Teaching Joyce’s Ulysses models a new method of teaching Joyce’s novel using the theory of fictional possible worlds, which envisions texts as producing fictional universes comprised of the “textual actual world” in which the characters live, and all the possible worlds generated by their perceptions, obligations, memories, desires and dreams. Because contemporary undergraduate readers are already very skilled at parsing fictional universes like those of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, this dissertation plays to readers’ strengths by building a character-based methodology for approaching the fictional world of Ulysses that does not depend on reading each line of the novel. The introductory chapter lays out the pillars of this approach, in which I use the theory of fictional possible worlds to update and expand on the tenets of humanistic formalism, which understands texts as a product of human beings, written for humans and about humans. Each subsequent chapter takes as its subject one of the four major characters or presences in the text: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, the Narrator-Artist, and Molly Bloom. Using A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the second chapter proposes the use of the former novel and structure for broaching Ulysses’ first three chapters and creating an understanding of Stephen Dedalus that will serve for the rest of the novel. The third chapter, on Leopold Bloom, uses “Calypso” to establish characteristics which readers can use to identify Bloom in the complex textual fabric of the novel as a whole and proposes the use of a short story by Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem to help students understand the nature and stakes of Bloom’s Jewish identity. The fourth chapter recommends the framing of the Narrator-Artist as the culmination of a teleological sequence of writer-artist figures in the Joycean canon and models how students can assimilate the novel’s extreme textual complexity by understanding it as the self-conscious and capricious invention of the Narrator-Artist who resides above the text. The final chapter, on Molly Bloom, models feminist approaches which take female characters across the Joycean canon into account and uses the novel’s critical reception history to make students more aware that we are also reading within a particular moment under the influence of the dominant social systems of our day. Abel iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Jessica Rose Abel completed her Bachelor’s degree in English & Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas in May of 2012. She began her graduate studies at Cornell University three months later and took her Master’s in English in April of 2015. During her time at Cornell, Jessica taught seven freshman writing seminars and served as a reader for six undergraduate courses. Sponsored by the Cornell Public Service Center, she organized the guest-teaching of more than 100 miniature courses at Ithaca schools k-12, each designed and taught by graduate students. In the Fall of 2018, she was selected to co-teach pedagogy to new graduate student instructors through the Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines. For her enthusiasm, dedication and hard work in teaching, she has been recognized by the Cornell Center for Teaching Excellence (2014) and twice awarded the Cornell English Department Martin Sampson Teaching Award (2017, 2018). In 2018, she received the College of Arts and Sciences’ Diane Gebell Gitner Award for Teaching Assistants. She is also a Cornell Graduate School Dean’s Scholar. Jessica is a born teacher and enjoys stories, exercise, cross stitch, playing the piano, and spending time with her dog, partner, friends, and family. Abel iv DEDICATION: For Dr. Peter Balbert Abel v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: “Preparatory to anything else,” I need to thank Dr. Daniel Schwarz, who has accompanied me in this journey from my first semester, and whose patience, motivation and guidance made it possible for me to graduate. From our first conversation, Dan invested in me wholeheartedly and without hesitation; his generosity and excellence as a teacher exceeds description. I would also like to thank the rest of my committee, Dr. Frederic Bogel and Dr. Kevin Attell. Rick’s captivating teaching has always inspired me, and I owe the completion of this project to his friendly critical guidance and unwavering support. Another excellent teacher, Kevin lent not only direction but a talent for posing piercing questions which helped me push the boundaries of my work. I owe a particular debt of acknowledgement to Dr. Sara Xayarath Hernandez and the Cornell Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement. Sara helped me to take advantage of the resources that most helped me to thrive at Cornell, especially the Diversity Provost Fellowship I received in the Spring of 2018. For their continued faith in me, I’d like to thank my former professors, Dr. Carolyn True, Dr. Victoria Aarons, Dr. Judith Fisher, and Dr. Peter Balbert. It was Dr. Balbert who inspired me to aim for Cornell, who introduced me to Modernism, and whose excellent and theatrical teaching has most shaped my own pedagogy. I would never have made it this far without the encouragement of my friends, Britney Bevers, Michelle Padley, Ryan Tanner, and Dr. Katherine Waller. For their help with proofreading and talking through my work, I am especially grateful to Brian Taylor, Jordan Terry, and James Toomey. Finally, throughout my entire graduate education, I have leaned heavily on my partner, Andrew Wilkinson, whose patience and wisdom have been my sanctuary for the past six years. Most importantly, I humbly thank my parents Mark and Rosa and my sister Rachel for their support and for everything they sacrificed to make this dream possible for me. For believing in me with perfect faith, I’d like to thank my entire family, with special acknowledgment for my grandfather, Virgil Abel Jr, who passed on too early to see me achieve this dream. Abel vi TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: ........................................................................................................ iii DEDICATION: .............................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: ............................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii PREFACE: ................................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER ONE: ULYSSES AS FICTIONAL UNIVERSE .......................................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO: “AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING, IS NOW”: THE ROLE OF JOYCE’S A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN IN THE “TELEMACHIAD” ....................... 30 CHAPTER THREE: “THE NEW MESSIAH FOR IRELAND!”: LEOPOLD BLOOM ............ 65 CHAPTER FOUR: “THE ARTIST, LIKE THE GOD OF CREATION”: THE NARRATOR- ARTIST OF ULYSSES ................................................................................................................ 100 CHAPTER FIVE: “A FLOWER THAT BLOOMETH”: READING MOLLY BLOOM ......... 139 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 162 Abel vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Yeats & Joyce ................................................................................................................ 44 Figure 2: Stephen's Apostasy ........................................................................................................ 46 Figure 3: Page of the Talmud........................................................................................................ 82 Figure 4: Guide to Talmud Page ................................................................................................... 83 Figure 5: Stephen's Forms of Art ................................................................................................ 106 Figure 6: Speech-Act Categories ................................................................................................ 133 Figure 7: Joyce on "Penelope" .................................................................................................... 146 Figure 8: A Portrait Key Passages .............................................................................................. 163 Figure 9: Currency in Ulysses..................................................................................................... 184 Abel viii PREFACE: As a novel that asks how we can live in a world of uncertain values and urgent identity politics, James Joyce’s Ulysses could be more relevant than ever, but the novel’s increasingly distant historical context, complex intertextuality, length, and multitude of styles pose a steep burden to new readers. Fortunately, Joyceans of all stripes have