James Joyce's Ulysses:
A Guided Tour
 
the second James Joyce Summer School

4 days and nights, 29 November – 2 December 2005
Duchesne College, within the University of Queensland

Duchesne College, a College within the University of Queensland, in association with the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the University of Queensland, will be offering the second of its annual Summer Schools on the work of James Joyce. Ulysses is both a social occasion and that rare thing, a book you can read over and over with an increasing pleasure. This guided tour through the book will involve discussion, talks, music, and the sights and sounds of Dublin today and in 1904, and will help readers unravel the mystery and beauty of one of the greatest novels ever written.

This year, at the same time, there will also be a separate Summer School on Shakespearean Tragedy, convened by Dr Peter Holbrook of the University of Queensland, and focussing on Hamlet and King Lear. For details of both programs, check the Duchesne College Summer Programs.

The inaugural Summer School was in November – December 2004. Its 22 participants generated a great deal of enthusiasm, warmth, and sociability. Click here for some photos from it.

Bookings for the second Joyce Summer School are not open yet, but details and costs will appear on this site once they are finalised. Because the Summer School is based on close discussion, numbers will be strictly limited to 24 participants.

Add yourself to our email list, and we'll notify you as soon as details are available. You can do that simply by emailing Matthew Sheahan.

The program

At the heart of the Summer School is a series of seminars, in which, led by experienced tour guides, we will progressively and collectively read our way though a substantial part of the book, fleshing out the details of the characters, the city and the actions, and the catalogue of stylistic invention through which Joyce brings all this alive. This guided tour through the book will involve discussions, talks, music, and the sights and sounds of Dublin today and in 1904.

Other activities will cluster around these seminars. On three of the days, there will be talks which will fill in background about Joyce, Ulysses and its time, the extraordinary story of the novel's composition and publication, its innovations and influence, and, above all, give practical suggestions on reading it. Ulysses is about Dublin in a way in which very few books are about their setting, with much of the Dublin of Joyce's day still visible. In the talks and seminars, photos and other documentation will help bring the various stages of the book to life - from the streets the characters wander, to the newspapers they read and the advertising, which surrounds them. Similarly with music, which is everywhere in the book: the popular song and light opera of the time are on everyone's lips and in their minds. Joyce has an acute ear for dialogue and the Dublin voice, so we are planning for the program to include a gala Dublin Banquet, at which the entertainment will be provided by musicians and actors from the Brisbane Irish community. By the end of the four days, you will have had a thorough introduction to Ulysses, its pleasures and generous comedy, and its unparalleled and prodigious inventiveness.

Recommended text
If you already have an edition of Ulysses, use that. If you don't, Jeri Johnson's edition for the Oxford World's Classics series is highly recommended (ISBN 0192834649). It's got notes and a commentary, and is also very affordable. It's not necessary for you to have read the book beforehand. Further notes and materials will be made available to participants.

The venue

All sessions will be at Duchesne College, on the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus. All of the program's activities will be held in the College's air-conditioned function rooms and dining hall. Guests will be housed in the College's ensuited accommodation (14 of which are air-conditioned). The College is a short walk to all the facilities available on campus including libraries, museums, Mayne Art Gallery, Cinema, cafés, city buses and the high speed catamaran service. One of the evenings is expected to be a gala Dublin Banquet.

Scholarships

This year, there will be two scholarships on offer for this program. One is for current students at Duchesne College, and the other is for students who are currently enrolled in a course in English literature at the University of Queensland. Each scholarship includes the cost of the program and three nights' accommodation at the College, to the value of $590.

To enter, please write, in no more than one page, explaining how you would benefit from the program, address it to The Principal, Duchesne College, and email it, as an attachment, to Matthew Sheahan, at m.sheahan@uq.edu.au.

The group leaders

Tony Thwaites, the convenor of the program, is a Senior Lecturer in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the University of Queensland, where he has taught Ulysses for many years. Joyce is also one of his main research interests: he has written a number of articles, conference papers and a book on Joyce: Joycean Temporalities: Debts, Promises and Countersignatures (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001).

Dan O'Neill is a former member of the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the University of Queensland, where he taught Ulysses for even more years. Among the many reading groups he has organised and taken part in is a Ulysses group, which recently made a leisurely way through the entire novel over the course of a year.

For further information

Email list and administration
Matthew Sheahan
3377 2325
m.sheahan@uq.edu.au

Content
Tony Thwaites
3365 2086
tony.thwaites@uq.edu.au

Links back to:
Duchesne College
Duchesne College Summer School Program
School of English, Media Studies and Art History
The University of Queensland
Tony Thwaites's Photo Tour of Joyce's Dublin