AMES JJ OYCE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BERNARD BENSTOCK , FOUNDING EDITOR PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI VOLUME 34, NUMBER 1, SPRING 2020, ISSN: 0899-3114 Contents ŸŸŸTeaching James Joyce in the Secondary Classroom for the Twenty-First Century: As One Generation Tells Another By D YLAN EMERICK -B ROWN ................... (2-3) # Michael Groden . The Necessary Fiction: Life with James Joyce’s Ulysses. Reviewed by H ANS WALTER GABLER ...... (3-4) # Chris Forster. Filthy Material: Modernism & The Media of Obscenity. Reviewed by V ICTOR LUFTIG ................... (4-5) # Patrick O’Neill . Trilingual Joyce: The Anna Livia Variations . Reviewed by E. PAIGE MILLER ................. (5-7) ŸArt of the Wake, by CAROL WADE ......................... (8) # Caroline Pollentier and Sarah Wilson, Editors. Modernist Communities across Cultures and Media. Reviewed by MARGOT BACKUS and G RETE NORQUIST ............................. (9-10) # Tim Wenzell . Woven Shades of Green: An Anthology of Irish Nature Literature. Reviewed by C HRISTIN M. MULLIGAN . (10-11) # Jessica Martell, Adam Fajardo, and Philip Keel Geheber, Editors. Modernism and Food Studies: Politics, Aesthetics, and the Avant-Garde. Reviewed by J UDITH PALTIN ............... (11-12) # Catherine Flynn. James Joyce and the Matter of Paris. Reviewed by Marian Eide .................... (12-13) Ÿ DAVID NORRIS Reads from Finnegans Wake Reviewed by P ATRICK REILLY .............. (13-14) # Brian Fox . James Joyce’s America . Reviewed by J ONATHAN MC CREEDY .. (14-16) James Joyce's America The illustrations featured in this issue (see page 8) were done by Carol Wade as part of her “Art of the Wake” series. As her website for the project explains, “Joyce has created a wonderful tapestry of historical, social, and cultural references in Finnegans Wake. The Art of the Wake seeks to weave some of these references into illustrations with the same playful witticism that Joyce was renowned for.” More information about Wade’s project can be found at artofthewake.com . PAGE 2 JAMES JOYCE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ### S PRING 2020 Teaching James Joyce in the Secondary Classroom for the Twenty-First Century As One Generation Tells Another By Dylan Emerick-Brown HENEVER HIGH SCHOOL English teachers poetry, find this to be a difficult transition. However, whiny Holden Caulfield with an Irish accent.” Ste- mention that they teach a Shakespearean play “The Dead” offers the best of both worlds. “I enjoyed phen’s journey through puberty, family poverty, trouble Wto fourteen-year-olds, everyone shrugs their the analysis of the references in Joyce’s writing like the in school, anxiety over social awkwardness, sense of shoulders knowingly, recallin-g their own experiences Irish nationalism and the Charles Stewart Parnell con- fear and guilt as a motivator of behavior bestowed by for better or worse reading Romeo and Juliet . However, authority figures, slow development of confidence when I tell people that I teach James Joyce to fifteen- through age and experience, inadequacies in romance, year-olds, people look aghast as though I’m a whip- and a yearning to break free from parental bonds—both cracking lunatic who derives a sick pleasure from nationalistic as well as familial—-were all incredibly torturing my students. As a Western society we have What about relatable for fifteen-year-olds. “I think Joyce is worth wholeheartedly accepted the works of William Shakes- being taught in high school because his work is peare as unquestioningly and critically valuable to an Finnegans Wake ? therapeutic and can help students understand the individual’s education, so much so that the typical importance of writing and storytelling,” writes Sarah American student is taught four of his plays over the Barrett, a student in my class. “I usually like to keep my course of their time in high school (and often a handful troversy,” writes Charles Simms, a tenth grader who issues to myself, so to see someone as successful as of his sonnets). James Joyce, on the other hand, has the went through “The Dead” unit. Because the fiction is so Joyce sharing a version of himself and his life with reputation for being esoteric and elitist, reserved solely realistic and based so heavily in the actual world, teach- others makes me feel more open to the idea of writing for the masochists in English literature graduate pro- ers can pull in nonfiction readings and resources that as a form of therapy.” By analyzing Stephen, the grams. Joyce is seen as inaccessible while Shakespeare accompany and enhance the literature. This allows them students found that they were also analyzing them- is seen as necessary. The great irony is that the Bard to seamlessly tackle literary and nonfiction state stan- selves. And the realism Joyce uses to bring these wrote his plays on royal commission and Joyce wrote dards in a single text, making their lives easier than characters and situations to life resonated and allowed his stories and novels for the average person. And I having to put together separate and unrelated texts for them to believe in the struggles of Stephen as though he have found that the benefit of teaching Joyce’s works to students to study. were one of them, a fellow student. students is both academically and developmentally The extra credit or remediation assignment for this It only made sense, given the success of the reading advantageous with students mastering the same stan- unit became one of two assessments of political car- group format of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man dards taught regarding Shakespeare, but with more toons illustrated by Sir John Tenniel and published by and the students’ interest in Stephen Dedalus, that I engagement and student success. Punch magazine in the nineteenth century. The first, propose to them a Ulysses Reading Group. “I joined the I teach English II Honors and AICE /Cambridge “The Irish Frankenstein,” which portrays the Irish Ulysses Reading Group because I wanted to find out General Paper, both English courses for tenth graders people as a brute monster who threatens an English how Joyce portrays Stephen Dedalus now that he is averaging in age between fifteen and sixteen years old. gentleman, is interpreted by the student in terms of what older and back from Paris,” writes Jennifer Fuentes, a Deltona High School, where I teach, is a secondary, Tenniel’s message was to the British people. This is tenth grader in my class. Of course, there is no time to grade nine through twelve, school situated in central followed by an analysis of a little-known editorial of the teach the entirety of Ulysses in class with the remaining Florida within Volusia County. On paper Deltona High same title that accompanied the cartoon in the publica- three quarters of the school year, roughly eight months. is not necessarily the type of magnet or private school tion. In it, the unknown author plagiarized Mary Also, it would be unfair to put all of the students in which one might expect an entire James Joyce unit to Shelley’s Frankenstein while editing various phrases through such a lengthy and challenging novel given be taught. We have a majority minority population of and words to make the politically and ethnically they had just spent about ten weeks with Joyce. The around 1,800 students and the faculty and administra- charged editorial appear as though it was coming reading group takes the form of a voluntary weekly tive body are always striving to improve our students’ straight from a popular contemporary novel. The stu- after-school meeting that lasts for an hour, though academic achievements. And in a school where the dents break this down, noting the differences between students can pop in during lunch any day. The episodes reading and writing proficiency level has been below Shelley’s original text and the editorial’s edits to deci- are divided throughout the remaining eight months of the state average, the idea of teaching Joyce was daunt- pher the true intent of this publication. The other car- the school year week by week with most being covered ing to me. It was certainly in my wheelhouse. I have toon is Tenniel’s “The Irish ‘Tempest,’” an illustration in a single week while some of the longer episodes are presented at multiple international conferences and have portraying the Irish as a Shakespearean Caliban harass- split over two. The entire AICE /Cambridge General been published in various scholarly journals regarding ing an innocent Hibernian woman who is being protect- Paper class is given a presentation on Ulysses with the Joyce studies. But it is a different scenario altogether ed by British Prime Minister Gladstone. Students have Judge Woolsey court decision, a planning calendar for teaching teenagers Joyce. to look closely and interpret from the drawing and text- the reading group, a layout of the meeting format, and, I began with “The Dead.” My rationale was that it ual elements within it what Punch ’s purpose was in most importantly, a legal guardian permission form. It is was shorter than a novel, so it could be read in a few publishing this image. This takes the form of an analyti- important that the student and the legal guardian know days, and it was more accessible than, say, Finnegans cal essay. Many students with passing or even good what they are getting into. They are given two weeks to Wake . The unit begins with a PowerPoint presentation grades voluntarily do this assignment because they think this over, ask me any clarifying questions, and on the story’s context, handouts on the Catholic/Protes- think it’s fun. return the permission forms signed. Students are tant divide in Ireland, and even a Google Map of the After the success of the unit on “The Dead,” I expected to purchase their own copies of the novel— route Gabriel and Gretta take between the Morkan realized that I could use the flexibility of curriculum in preferably the Hans Walter Gabler edition—but I have a residence and the Gresham Hotel.