James Joyce wrote most of the short stories in his landmark collection, Dubliners, when he was still in his 20s, but a tortuous publishing history, during which printers refused or pulped them for their profanity, meant they weren’t published until 1914, when Joyce was 33. In their eighth episode, Mark and Seamus discuss the astonishing confidence ... Show More
Oct 14
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Shyness and Dignity’ by Dag Solstad
What happens when the techniques of realist literature become absorbed into our understanding of real life? And what would it mean to try to depict that experience in fiction? In Dag Solstad’s Shyness and Dignity (1994), a middle-aged teacher, Elias Rukla, is teaching Ibsen’s The ... Show More
24m 18s
Dec 2017
122 Young James Joyce
We often think of James Joyce as a man in his thirties and forties, a monkish, fanatical, eyepatch-wearing author, trapped in his hovel and his own mind, agonizing over his masterpieces, sentence by sentence, word by laborious word. But young James Joyce, the one who studied lite ... Show More
1h 4m
Nov 2023
Oh Man, James Joyce was a Dirty Dude!
James Joyce is, without question, one of the most famous authors in the English language. Millions of readers have enjoyed (and sometimes struggled with) his groundbreaking novels and short stories. However... that's not all Joyce wrote. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max expl ... Show More
42m 11s
Mar 2023
The Fart Letters of James Joyce
James Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He was a part of the avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. He also delighted in the sounds and smells of his beloved wife, Nora Barnacle's farts. ... Show More
23m 23s