Tag: course

Course

31 January — 5 June 2024

We were delighted to announce our annual Ulysses for All course. Join our global readership and guest speakers at the James Joyce Centre where Dr. Caroline Elbay will lead Ulysses for All 2024: “What is a Nation?” Ulysses and the World Today.

Course Details:
-Hybrid Zoom/In-Person at the James Joyce Centre
-Start Date: January 31st
-End Date: June 5th
-Time: Every Wednesday at 6-8pm GMT
-Fee: €200

The course description is below:

As we commence 2024 faced with myriad crises of humanity ranging from war and conflict in Europe and the Middle East, internal political unrest within the EU, continuing refugee crises, post-truth, fake news, etc., the sentiments of Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” provide a chilling sense of prescience: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre…the centre cannot hold…Things fall apart…The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

In an attempt to consider the current world situation and attendant issues, Ulysses for All 2024 will focus on the question “What is a Nation?” and aim to arrive at a point where, even at a microcosmic level, an opportunity for what protagonist Leopold Bloom proclaims “I stand for the reform of …morals…New worlds for old…Union of all, jew, moslem and gentile…universal language with universal brotherhood” may be identified.

Ulysses is, without doubt, a pedagogic text – one that invites us to look into our own humanity and where Leopold Bloom undoubtedly constitutes Joyce’s attempt to embody the most humane attributes of a modern identity in a world engulfed by chaos due to religious, nationalist, and imperialist aggression – ideologies which Joyce would later dub “the wisdom of the old world.” Indeed, the idea of belonging to multiple “nations” simultaneously or, concentric nationalities, manifests nowhere better than in the character of Leopold Bloom, Joyce’s wandering, womanly, non-Jewish Jew.

While Joyce was among the hopeful integrationists of the era, his attitude is somewhat coloured by an underlying suspicion that fear and hatred are more enduring in humans than acceptance…hence the situations we face, again and again, over a century later; and whilst the target group or perceived “other” may have changed, the essentialist rhetoric remains the same.

The future has never been more unpredictable, depending on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of human interest or even common sense. Mankind appears divided between those who believe in human omnipotence (Supermen), and those for whom powerlessness has become the principal experience of their lives. It is not sufficient that we merely lament and theorise the problems of our era, but rather imperative that we, as human beings, shape the necessary and humane response.

We look forward to seeing you in Ulysses for All 2024!

Course

8 November – 13 December 2023

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 will guide you through the stories in great detail. The course will be held both in the James Joyce Centre and on Zoom. Particular focus will be paid to issues of gender, poverty, colonialism, nationalism, globalization, the Catholic Church, and sexuality, just to name a few. The course will also go 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 will be led by Dr. Josh Q. Newman, an academic and assistant at the Centre. The course will consist of readings, group discussions, presentations, and guest lectures. Students will be 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!

Course Details:
-Location: Zoom & The James Joyce Centre (35 Great George’s St. N.)
-Start Date: 8 November 2023
-End Date: 13 December 2023
-Time: Every Wednesday, 6-8pm GMT
-Registration: €80

We look forward to welcoming you to Dear, Dirty Dubliners!

Artwork: “Clay” by Frank Kiely.

Course

21 October 2023, 10:30am to 1:30pm

On Saturday, 21 October from 10:30am to 1:30pm, the Poetry Business in association with the James Joyce Centre presented Writing Morning with Ann and Peter Sansom, a rare chance to work with, as described by The Guardian, ‘the best writing teachers in the world.’

This demanding but hugely enjoyable morning drew on classic and contemporary poems to create new poems. In between there was a little discussion about the practice of writing and publication.

Ann and Peter are Co-Directors of The Poetry Business and editors of The North magazine and Smith|Doorstop Books. They have taught poetry at all levels including at Sheffield and Leeds Universities, and have tutored every year for The Arvon Foundation for over thirty years. Ann’s books include Romance and In Praise of Men & Other People (Bloodaxe) and Peter’s include Writing Poems (Bloodaxe), Careful What You Wish For, and Lanyard (Carcanet).

Tickets are €25 general, €20 unwaged.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-poetry-business-writing-morning-with-ann-and-peter-sansom-tickets-721952026947