Unit ENGLISH LITERATURE
- Course
- Philosophy and ethics of relationships
- Study-unit Code
- 40A00040
- Curriculum
- Filosofia e storia
- Teacher
- Annalisa Volpone
- Teachers
-
- Annalisa Volpone
- Hours
- 54 ore - Annalisa Volpone
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2025
- Offered
- 2026/27
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Sector
- L-LIN/10
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- English
- Contents
- Towards the (W)hole: Joyce, Complexity, and the Modern Epic
This course offers an introduction to the major prose works of James Joyce, with a focus on Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). Through selected readings from both texts, students will explore how Joyce’s writing pushes the novel form towards its limits, generating structures of extraordinary density and interconnection. The course draws on complexity theory — principally Edgar Morin’s notion of complex thought — and on Franco Moretti’s concept of the world-text to provide students with a set of critical tools for approaching works that deliberately resist linear reading. No prior knowledge of Joyce is required; the course is designed to guide students into these texts from the ground up, attending closely to language, structure, and the cultural and mythological frameworks that underpin them. - Reference texts
- Primary Texts
Joyce, James. Ulysses. Edited by Hans Walter Gabler. Vintage Books, 1986.
Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. Penguin Modern Classics, 2000. [Selected episodes and passages as indicated in the course schedule.]
Theoretical and Critical Texts
Morin, Edgar. Introduction to Complex Thought. Translated by Sean Kelly. Hampton Press, 2008. [Selected chapters.]
Moretti, Franco. Modern Epic: The World-System from Goethe to García Márquez. Translated by Quintin Hoare. Verso, 1996. [Selected chapters.]
Additional critical readings and contextual materials will be made available on Unistudium. - Educational objectives
- Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Knowledge and Understanding
Acquire a working knowledge of the main features of Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, including their narrative structures, cultural references, and place within the broader context of literary modernism. Understand the basic coordinates of complexity theory and the concept of the world-text as critical frameworks for reading Joyce.
Applying Knowledge and Understanding
Read and discuss selected passages from Joyce’s texts with growing confidence, identifying key structural and linguistic features. Begin to apply the theoretical frameworks introduced in the course to their reading of the primary texts.
Making Judgements
Develop a personal critical response to the challenges posed by Joyce’s writing, supported by close reading and the contextual materials provided. Reflect on what it means to read a text that resists resolution and closure.
Communication Skills
Express observations on the texts and themes covered in the course clearly and coherently, both orally and in writing, using appropriate disciplinary language. Engage constructively in class discussion.
Learning Skills
Organise independent study effectively, integrating primary texts with the critical and contextual materials provided. Develop an openness to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of literature, drawing on cultural history, mythology, and complexity theory. - Prerequisites
- A general knowledge of English literature is recommended. Some familiarity with literary modernism, while not required, will prove helpful in following the course.
- Teaching methods
- Lectures: Each class will begin with a contextual introduction providing historical, cultural, and theoretical background and an overview of the key themes and questions related to the texts under discussion.
Close Reading: Selected passages will be examined in detail to uncover layers of meaning, structural patterns, and intertextual connections. Students will be guided through the particular challenges of reading Joyce’s language.
Class Discussions: Students are expected to participate actively, sharing observations and engaging critically with the primary texts
Students with disabilities and/or SLD, after consultation with the lecturer, may request teaching materials in accessible formats (presentations, handouts, exercises), to be provided in advance of the lessons if necessary, as well as the use of assistive technological tools during the study phase. For general information, please consult the University Services at: https://lettere.unipg.it/home/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Department Representative (Prof. A. Di Pilla). - Other information
- Students with disabilities and/or SLD: for any information on University services, consult the page https://lettere.unipg.it/home/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it).
- Learning verification modality
- A 2500-word essay to be submitted at least 10 days before the exam session, accompanied by a brief oral discussion of the themes and texts explored in the course (15 minutes max). Students with disabilities and/or SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for compensatory tools, dispensatory measures and inclusive technologies ensured by law, to be requested and agreed with the teacher well in advance of tests and exams. For general information, consult the page https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Disability and/or SLD Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it).
- Extended program
- This course offers a guided introduction to James Joyce’s two major prose works, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, approached through the twin lenses of complexity theory and the concept of the world-text. Students are not expected to arrive with prior knowledge of Joyce; the course is designed to build familiarity with his writing progressively, moving from the more navigable episodes of Ulysses towards the more radically experimental language of Finnegans Wake.
The first part of the course introduces the theoretical and critical framework. Drawing on Edgar Morin’s notion of complex thought — which understands complexity not as confusion but as a mode of thinking that holds together contradiction, uncertainty, and interconnection — and on Franco Moretti’s analysis of the modern epic as a world-text that absorbs and reorders the totality of a cultural moment, students will acquire the tools necessary to approach Joyce’s writing as something other than an obstacle to be overcome. Complexity, in this framework, is not a defect of the text but its constitutive principle.
The second part of the course focuses on Ulysses. Beginning with the “Telemachus” and “Calypso” episodes to establish the novel’s basic coordinates — its Homeric scaffolding, its Dublin geography, its two central consciousnesses — the course will move through a selection of episodes chosen for their formal and thematic significance: “Proteus” for its stream of consciousness; “Aeolus” for its encyclopaedic rhetoric; “Nausicaa” and “Penelope” for the representation of female consciousness and desire. The mythological dimension — the correspondence between the Homeric world and the modern city — will be a sustained point of reference throughout.
The third part of the course turns to Finnegans Wake. The course focuses on selected passages that allow students to experience the particular texture of Joyce’s final work: the opening and closing pages, the “Anna Livia Plurabelle” chapter, and key passages from Book II. The mythological and religious dimensions of the Wake — its Viconian cyclical structure, its layering of sacred and profane narrative — will be central to the discussion. Students will be introduced to the critical debates surrounding the Wake’s status as a text at the limit of legibility, and will be encouraged to develop their own strategies for reading it.
Throughout the course, the following questions will guide the discussion: What does it mean to read a text of this complexity? How does Joyce’s writing relate to the mythological and cultural traditions it absorbs and transforms? In what sense can Ulysses and Finnegans Wake be understood as world-texts — works that attempt to contain and reorganise the whole of a culture? And what critical and imaginative resources do we need to bring to that encounter?
Key themes:
Complexity, totality, and the limits of form
The modern epic and the world-text
Myth, cyclical time, and cultural memory
Stream of consciousness and the representation of inner life
Language, play, and the boundaries of legibility
Joyce and the Irish cultural and political context - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- 4 and 5