colonialism
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The Most Historic Spot in All Dublin
“History in ‘Wandering Rocks’ is not only colonial history registered in the fabric of the city; it is also quite specifically colonial history distorted and dominated by Protestant and Anglo-Irish interpretations.” – Len Platt The eighth section of Ulysses’ tenth episode, “Wandering Rocks” opens with “two pink faces” greeting a third in some dark, dusty…
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The Superior, The Very Reverend John Conmee S. J.
“The tidal waterway, the Anna Liffey, mother of Dublin, plays as ever her part in Joyce’s Dublin. As a creative force she is older and greater than Christ or Caesar. If Christ left Dublin the city would still exist. Man can invent fresh gods as he needs them and new gods would replace the old;…
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Decoding Dedalus: He drew Shylock out of his own long pocket.
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. 204 – 205 in my copy (1990 Vintage International). We’ll be looking at…
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Ep. 145 – Gorgon-Zola
Fermentation is hot. Topics in this episode include Davy Byrne’s moral pub, Nosey Flynn, Noah and the curse of Ham, Plumtree’s Potted Meat, cannibalism, missionaries who get eaten by cannibals, long pig, Reverend MacTrigger, lapses in Leopold Bloom’s empathy, the Jesuits’ mission of conversion, colonialism, Yom Kippur, food as an expression of religion, mity cheese,…
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Ep. 140 – Up the Boers!
Was Leopold Bloom ever totally radical? Topics in this episode include Bloom’s memory of a protest, Bloom’s view of the police, the significance of soup imagery, the origins of the Boer War, Irish Nationalist opposition to the Boer War, Joseph Chamberlain, Christiaan de Wet, the irony of Irish Nationalist support for the Boer cause, a…
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Ep. 125 – Why aren’t there any black characters in Ulysses? (w/ Ryan Kerr)
Ryan Kerr joins the Blooms & Barnacles podcast to discuss the racial politics of Ulysses. Topics include the minstrel show performer Eugene Stratton, the absence of black characters in Ulysses, and the depiction of anti-black racism within the novel. Support us on Patreon to access episodes early, bonus content, and a video version of our…
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Leopold Bloom’s Gorgonzola
“He entered Davy Byrne’s. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.” Following a long, restless journey across Dublin’s city centre in “Lestrygonians”, Ulysses’ eighth episode, Leopold Bloom finally sits down to his lunch. After a close encounter in the…
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Ep. 120 – THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME
How often does James Joyce think about the Roman Empire? Topics in this episode include Leopold Bloom bullied by children and adults, stealing upon larks, the Oval, The Rose of Castille, Lenehan’s riddle unfulfilled, the Roman Empire as an analogue to the British Empire, puns, cloacae, the origin of the phrase “cloacal obsession,” H.G. Wells’…
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Ep. 114 – HOUSE OF KEY(E)S
We finally unlock the secrets of Ulysses! Topics in this episode include Joseph Nannetti Sr. and Jr., the debts of Joe Hynes, Bloom’s passivity, the real Alexander Keyes, his struggle to advertise in print in Dublin, advertising in late Victorian Ireland, an innuendo of Home Rule and the Manx Parliament, heraldic imagery in Bloom’s ad,…