funeral Archives

Incubism

“The coffin is a house in which the dead shelter for a time…. The cortège brings the dead back into the pathways of the living. When the body is no longer capable of locomotion, it is carried along by members of the community in an act of solidarity, which turns out to be an act…

Who Was the Real Paddy Dignam?

“—As decent a little man as ever wore a hat, Mr Dedalus said. He went very suddenly.” This post is a part of an occasional series on the real people behind the characters in Ulysses. You can listen to a podcast discussion of this topic here. Ulysses’ sixth episode, “Hades,” centers around the funeral of…

Ulysses & The Odyssey: Hades

Part of an occasional series on the Homeric parallels in James Joyce’s Ulysses. The Odyssey, Book XI: Odysseus travels to the underworld and meets the prophet Tiresias, who reveals the ultimate fate of Odysseus and his crew. Odysseus has a chance to speak to other souls in the underworld, including his mother, a parade of…