ENGL 4920

ENGL 4920

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2022-2023.

The purpose of the Honors Seminar is to acquaint students with methods of study and research to help them write their senior Honors Essay. However, all interested students are welcome to enroll. The seminar will require a substantial essay that incorporates literary evidence and critical material effectively, and develops an argument. Topics and instructors vary each semester. For Spring 2021 the topic is: Reading Joyce's Ulysses. This class counts toward the post-1800 requirement for English majors.

When Offered Spring.

Permission Note Enrollment preference given to: students in the Honors Program in English or related fields.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS)
Satisfies Requirement Either ENGL 4910 or ENGL 4920 is required for students pursuing an honors degree in English.

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • Topic: Ulysses

  •  5040 ENGL 4920   SEM 101

  • Instruction Mode: In Person
    A thorough episode-by-episode study of the art and meaning of the most influential book of the twentieth century, James Joyce's Ulysses. The emphasis is on the joy and fun of reading this wonderful and often playful masterwork. We shall place Ulysses in the context of Joyce's writing career, Irish culture, and literary modernism. We shall explore the relationship between Ulysses and other experiments in modernism—including painting and sculpture—and show how Ulysses redefines the concepts of epic, hero, and reader. We shall examine Ulysses as a political novel, including Joyce's response to Yeats and the Celtic Renaissance; Joyce's role in the debate about the direction of Irish politics after Parnell; and Joyce's response to British colonial occupation of Ireland.