James Joyce's Finnegans Wake [5-week Reading Group, $150 suggested]

***This class is sold out, but interested students can audit this course asynchronously.

Instructor: Hollis | Wednesdays March 16-April 13 | 7:00-8:30 PM

The end of Finnegans Wake is its beginning. The final sentence of the book, “a way a lone a last a loved a long the,” circles back around to the first sentence, “riverrun.” The novel, thus, never ends. It is meant to be read over and over, as the reader tries to puzzle out what Joyce was up to. Initially, many readers take this as Joyce being elitist, pompous, or at the very least arrogant, but, the more one reads The Wake, the more they see how playful Joyce is being, the more they see the fun.

Beyond that, Joyce is trying to challenge our reading practices. By making us pay attention in new ways and frustrating our expectations of what a book should be, he questions the cage of conventionalism that can lead to easy acceptance of potentially damaging ideas. Indeed, Joyce’s Wake is profoundly anti-fascist, encouraging community and humility. It is best to read it with others. It is best not to try to master it.

In this class, we will look at different sections of Finnegans Wake and explore how the novel helps us to read differently, and, by extension perhaps, live differently. While we won’t be able to read the entire book in this course, we will touch on the various themes that Joyce introduces, including themes such as love, grief, family, and language, all with a little bit of humor thrown in.

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If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.