women in Ulysses

  • Who were the real people in the Ormond Hotel in “Sirens”?

    “Sirens,” the eleventh episode of Ulysses, is memorable for its musical prose, but it also stands out as an episode of revelry in the bar and restaurant of the Ormond Hotel. While Bloom cringes in anguish watching Blazes Boylan jingle-jangle off to meet Molly, the other colorful characters drown their sorrows in booze and song.…

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  • Ep. 167 – Secondbest Bed

    Sometimes the secondbest bed is the better bed. Topics in this episode include Griselsa, Antisthenes and Helen, art of surfeit, the Dark Lady of the sonnets, the erotic adventures of Shakespeare and Richard Burbage, how the Dark Lady connects the works of Shakespeare to the world of Ulysses, misogyny in the interpretation of Shakespeare, the…

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  • Stephen Dynamo

    In the thirteenth section of “Wandering Rocks,” Ulysses’ tenth episode, we meet Stephen Dedalus once again, gazing into the window of Old Russell the lapidarist. We last saw Stephen descending the stairs of the National Library with Buck Mulligan in “Scylla and Charybdis,” seeking augury from absentee birds. Mulligan is meeting Haines at the DBC…

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  • Ep. 160: Anne Hath A Way

    No, not that Anne Hathaway. The Shakespearean one. Topics in this episode include Socratididion’s Epipsychidion, unparalleled pettiness, Stephen’s unfair characterization of Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway, why commentary about Anne Hathaway has been so problematic historically, Anne as a Gertrude stand-in, how we can learn factual information about the Shakespeares’ lives, sixteenth century age gap discourse,…

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  • Ep. 147- Seed Cake

    Should you bring oysters to your naughty liaison on Howth? Topics in this episode include your thoughts on Bloom’s glass of burgundy, whether or not oysters are an aphrodisiac, where you used to be able to find the best oysters in Ireland, whether or not it’s ok to eat oysters in months that don’t have…

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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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  • Ep. 142 – Weggebobbles, Fruit, and Scotch Octopuses

    “If you do the eyes of that cow will pursue you through all eternity.” Topics in this episode include two-headed octopuses, the Freemasons, the real Lizzie Twigg, Dublin’s oldest vegetarian restaurants, Æ, vegetarianism in the early twentieth century, Pythagorus, nutarians and fruitarians, Leopold Bloom’s brief foray into vegetarianism, nutsteak, mashed yeast, the elitism of vegetarians,…

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  • Ep. 141 – The Fascination of a Name

    “Simon Dedalus said when they put him in parliament that Parnell would come back from the grave and lead him out of the house of commons by the arm.” Topics in this episode include James Stephens and his organizational blunder, Michaelmas traditions, architecture and peristalsis, the legacy of Dr George Salmon and his big spooky…

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  • Ep. 138 – Lizzie Twigg (w/ Elizabeth Foley O’Connor)

    “Everybody who met her liked her – because she was warm and outgoing. Here I am saying good things about Lizzie. Poor Liz – nobody remembers her now.” – Padraic Colum, 1969 This episode features an interview with scholar Elizabeth Foley O’Connor about Irish poet Lizzie Twigg, her legacy as a poet, her brief mention…

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  • Ep. 136 – U.p: up

    Inside the madness of Breen Topics in this episode include deep Ulysses lore, nostalgia traps, Molly’s suitors, the Glencree dinner, Old Professor Goodwin, Mr. and Mrs. Breen, U.p: up, the Ace of Spades, Breen’s postcard as an empty threat, an old forgotten expression, word play, hidden meanings, codes, peeing up and cloacal obsessions, Larry David,…

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