Hailed as one of the greatest collections of short stories ever written, Dubliners challenged the literary, cultural, and legal establishments in both Ireland and abroad. Through innovative techniques and experiments with language, Joyce’s first major work changed the face of literary modernism and set the stage for his subsequent genre-shattering works.

We will focus on Joyce’s experiments with language and how he creates the historical, political, religious, and sexual context of his characters’ lives. For the final class we will compare John Houston’s 1987 film The Dead with the final story of the collection.

Participants should anticipate reading 40 pages per week and watching an occasional video. For the first class please read pages 1-28 of The Dubliners.

Nancy G. Walters earned an MA at Trinity College (Hartford). She was a secondary English teacher in St. Louis and an English instructor at St. Louis University, Lindenwood College, and Southwestern Illinois College. She has recently studied James Joyce through the James Joyce Institute of Ireland and the James Joyce Centre Dublin.

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