Course

2 October – 6 November 2024

The James Joyce Centre was proud to offer once again its popular six-week Dear, Dirty Dubliners course this past autumn!

Dubliners, James Joyce’s debut collection of short stories, is considered one of the finest short story collections ever written, laying bare the intrigues, dirtiness, and indignities of life in Dublin at the turn of the 20^th century. Joyce got at the “heart” of Dublin with penetrating insights into its denizens, using innovative styles and techniques that would come to define the Modernist movement and beyond.

Dear, Dirty Dubliners is a unique, six-week course that guided participates through the stories in great detail. Particular focus was paided to issues of gender, poverty, colonialism, nationalism, globalization, the Catholic Church, and sexuality, just to name a few. The course also went over its troubled publication history as well as its enduring legacy and adaptations, such as John Huston’s 1987 film The Dead. 

The characters in the 15 stories vary in many ways but one quality they all have in common is paralysis: not physical paralysis per se, but rather emotional, financial, familial, and spiritual. His struggle to get the book published (it took more than seven years) would shape Joyce as a young artist: a man who challenged the literary and cultural establishments both in and outside of Ireland.

The course was led by Dr. Josh Q. Newman, an academic and assistant at the Centre. The course consisted of readings, group discussions, presentations, and guest lectures. Students were provided with contextual and scholarly materials via Moodle. You do not have to be an academic or so familiar with Joyce’s work to enjoy the class!

Each session was recorded and available for view on Moodle. Recordings are done with the consent of the attendee in accordance with GDRP. Please email [email protected] for more information.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Artwork by Frank Kiely.