Scylla & Charybdis
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A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 2: Anne Hath a Way
“In fact, it could be argued that versions of Anne Hathaway are always constructed in connection with Shakespeare, and that the ways she is depicted are designed to produce a particular ‘Shakespeare’ rather than an independent portrayal of Hathaway as an early modern woman…” – Katherine Scheil “Anyone steeped in western literary culture must wonder…
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A Shakespearean Ghoststory Part 1: Hamnet Shakespeare
“—But this prying into the family life of a great man, Russell began impatiently.” This is part one of a three part post about searching for real-life “ghosts” by prying into Shakespeare’s personal life. You can read part two here and part three here. Who was the real Hamnet Shakespeare? Not much is known about…
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Decoding Dedalus: Hamlet, ou le Absentminded Beggar
“The art of James Joyce, like that of Mallarmé, is art preoccupied with method, with how it’s made. Even the sensuality of Ulysses is a symptom of intermediation. It is an hallucinatory delirium – the kind treated by psychiatrists – presented as an end in itself.” – Fernando Pessoa This is a post in a…
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Decoding Dedalus: Horseness is the whatness of allhorse.
“Stephen disdains the subtle resuscitation of the Victorian bardolatry in the Revival’s aspiration to model the creation of Irish national culture on the use of Shakespeare for British national consolidation. Both efforts, to him, are grounded in the almost religious glorification of the poet.” – Irina D. Rasmussen, “Riffing on Shakespeare: James Joyce, Stephen Dedalus,…
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Decoding Dedalus: Folly. Persist.
This is a post in a series called Decoding Dedalus where I take a passage of Ulysses and break it down line by line. The line below comes from “Scylla and Charybdis,” the ninth episode of Ulysses. It appears on page p. 184-185 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at the passage…
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Poetry in Ulysses: Medical Dick and Medical Davy
In the opening scene of “Scylla and Charybdis,” Ulysses’ ninth episode, our Hero-Artist Stephen Dedalus finds himself in the librarian’s office of the National Library in a flurry of literary repartee. The other men in the scene, Lyster and John Eglinton, chat and banter, while Stephen tosses in a few snarky comments. Eglinton lobs back:…
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Who Were the Real Men in the Library from “Scylla and Charybdis”?
This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. Ulysses’ ninth episode, “Scylla and Charybdis” centers Stephen Dedalus’ heroic defense of his theory on Hamlet in the National Library, pitting our young Artist against several of Dublin’s literary elite, including Æ Russell, Richard Best and John…
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Ulysses & The Odyssey: Scylla & Charybdis
“[The paternity motif], which, applied to the Godhead, has been so fruitful a cause of misunderstanding and dissension in the Christian Church, that this episode is the subtlest and hardest to epitomize of all the eighteen episodes of Ulysses.” – Stuart Gilbert “The Aristotelian and Platonic philosophies are the monsters that lie in wait in…
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The Word Known to All Men
To listen to a discussion of this topic, check out the podcast episode here. “Touch me. Soft eyes. Soft soft soft hand. I am lonely here. O, touch me soon, now. What is that word known to all men? I am quiet here alone. Sad too. Touch, touch me.” The lines above appear towards the…
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Decoding Dedalus: Signs on a White Field
“Actuality and the material world demand a winnowing down of facts to one linear story which serves one party, is the shout of the victor. In Ulysses, the human form is allowed to be infinite; no fact is considered unhistorical, no victory will be dismissed as pyrrhic. Everything is included because Ulysses is the epic…