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Philip Kitcher on James Joyce's Ulysses

"Ulysses shows us that an advertising canvasser's journey throughout a day may be as challenging as that undertaken by a Greek wanderer, and no less worthy of a hero."

48 episodes with Philip Kitcher, 18 films and 11 essays.

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Free film An Introduction to Ulysses
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Read Well, I Tried Once: The Kindest Way Into Ulysses Kitcher's Ulysses is no literary IQ test: read slowly, trace the threads you love, and laugh. Wessels on the most welcoming way into Joyce yet recorded. The introduction Watch Film 2 · Stephen and His Discontents Kitcher reads the first page of Ulysses to the word that drops us inside Stephen's mind, then follows him out of the tower and out of Deasy's school. A short film
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Read The Interior Monologue: How Joyce Puts You Inside Stephen, Bloom, and Molly The interior monologue is the engine of Ulysses, Kitcher argues: language attuned to each character, opening Stephen, Bloom, and Molly to the reader. An essay
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Listen Episode 1 · Go On, and Faith Will Come to You Philip Kitcher has taught Ulysses for years. His advice for first readers: how fast to read Joyce, when to drop the guidebooks, and where people quit. 13 min · first of 48
Intro

Well, I Tried Once: The Kindest Way Into Ulysses

Kitcher's Ulysses is no literary IQ test: read slowly, trace the threads you love, and laugh. Wessels on the most welcoming way into Joyce yet recorded.

Read the introduction →
Audio Series 48 episodes
Hear the first five minutes free Go On, and Faith Will Come to You Philip Kitcher has taught Ulysses for years. His advice for first readers: how fast to read Joyce, when to drop the guidebooks, and where people quit.
  1. 2 A Proliferation of Perspectives Episode 2 · 17 min
  2. 3 Stately, Plump Episode 3 · 14 min
  3. 4 Stephen and His Discontents Episode 4 · 16 min
  4. 5 A Shout in the Street Episode 5 · 15 min
  5. 6 Many Novels Tell Stories Episode 6 · 14 min
  6. 7 This Walk Has No Direction Episode 7 · 17 min
  7. 8 Multimedia Affairs Episode 8 · 17 min
  8. 9 Lost His Way Episode 9 · 14 min
  9. 10 Boys' Club Morality Episode 10 · 15 min
  10. 11 A Sloppy Mythology Episode 11 · 15 min
  11. 12 Why Hades Repays Careful Reading Episode 12 · 14 min
  12. 13 Windy Words Episode 13 · 17 min
  13. 14 Looking Back over That Strange Time Episode 14 · 16 min
  14. 15 No One Is Anything Episode 15 · 15 min
  15. 16 After Rudy Episode 16 · 14 min
  16. 17 Horseness Episode 17 · 16 min
  17. 18 Riddled with Factual Holes Episode 18 · 15 min
  18. 19 Full of Tricks and Traps Episode 19 · 15 min
  19. 20 Far More Than Throwaways Episode 20 · 15 min
  20. 21 The City Laughs Episode 21 · 14 min
  21. 22 Bloowho Episode 22 · 17 min
  22. 23 The Jingle and the Tap Episode 23 · 17 min
  23. 24 Where the Return Begins Episode 24 · 17 min
  24. 25 Not One of the Boys Episode 25 · 15 min
  25. 26 The Second Eye Winks Episode 26 · 16 min
  26. 27 Gerty Speak Episode 27 · 19 min
  27. 28 No Odyssey Episode 28 · 18 min
  28. 29 Not Quite What They Signed Up For Episode 29 · 17 min
  29. 30 The Voices Resonate Within Him Episode 30 · 15 min
  30. 31 The Accusing Voices Episode 31 · 19 min
  31. 32 Two Worlds Episode 32 · 19 min
  32. 33 Working Through Episode 33 · 14 min
  33. 34 The Line of Infidelity Episode 34 · 17 min
  34. 35 The New Womanly Man Episode 35 · 16 min
  35. 36 Non Serviam Episode 36 · 16 min
  36. 37 Bloom Has Donned a Mask Episode 37 · 17 min
  37. 38 Bold Poldy Episode 38 · 17 min
  38. 39 The Author's Obsessions Episode 39 · 15 min
  39. 40 The Myth of Complete Understanding Episode 40 · 13 min
  40. 41 Harry Hughes Episode 41 · 13 min
  41. 42 Lost the Straight Way Episode 42 · 16 min
  42. 43 Sun-Compelled Episode 43 · 15 min
  43. 44 Repairer, Not Fatalist Episode 44 · 15 min
  44. 45 Many Readers Buy into Their Conjectures. I Don't. Episode 45 · 18 min
  45. 46 We Were Never the Same Since Episode 46 · 14 min
  46. 47 What Is Molly Affirming? Episode 47 · 16 min
  47. 48 Under a Microscope Episode 48 · 8 min

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In Conversation With – Where this book meets another

No Voltaire: Joyce's Priest, Voltaire's Pangloss, and Two Ways of Not Asking

Philip Kitcher calls the Jesuit who blesses a barge of turf a second Pangloss; Salman Rushdie's Voltaire fought Jesuits all his life. One drowned ship each.

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O, I So Want to Be a Mother: The Man Who Gives Birth in Joyce and Shelley

Both novels put a man in labor. Philip Kitcher's Joyce makes him the book's tenderest wish; Charlotte Gordon's Shelley makes him its original sin.

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Dublin as a City of the Mind

Kitcher and Banville converge on Joyce's Dublin as a city of the mind: Banville's paralyzed Dubliners, and Kitcher's Bloom, the man who chose freedom.

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The Dead and the Yes: Joyce's Two Endings in Mercy

For Banville and Kitcher, 'The Dead' and Molly's 'yes' are the same turn: Joyce ending both Dublin books in mercy, holding the living and the dead together.

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Watch See all films →
An Introduction to Ulysses Featured

Film 1 • An Introduction to Ulysses
Stephen and His Discontents Film 2 Who Talks Like That? Film 3 Meet Mr. Leopold Bloom Film 4
Further Reading

The Questions these books keep starting →

The Interior Monologue: How Joyce Puts You Inside Stephen, Bloom, and Molly

The interior monologue is the engine of Ulysses, Kitcher argues: language attuned to each character, opening Stephen, Bloom, and Molly to the reader.

Go deeper →

Why Is the Funeral in Ulysses So Funny? Comedy and Death in Joyce's Hades

Ulysses is funny on purpose, Kitcher argues: in Hades, comedy and death share a carriage, and laughter keeps Joyce's seriousness honest.

Go deeper →

Antisemitism and Belonging in Ulysses: Whose Country Is It?

Kitcher names the antisemitism around Bloom and its engine, 'Boys' Club Morality': Dublin excludes its most decent man for the very virtues it lacks.

Go deeper →
New Conversations
Handed the Book at Twelve John Banville on James Joyce's Dubliners Nobody in This Book Has a Job Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice The Forty-Five-Cent Kant Paul Guyer on Immanuel Kant A Romp, Dictated Garth Greenwell on Henry James's The Golden Bowl
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