Reading Ulysses: A Philosophical Discussion Group

At this meeting we'll continue reading from the 7th chapter; i.e., Aeolus, and we'll begin at the headline, The Great Gallaher, on page 111 of the Gabler edition. In order to move more quickly through the chapter we'll be reading only the most interesting and the more difficult sections that require a closer look. Nevertheless, everyone should read the entire chapter prior to the meeting. For information on the tradition of rhetoric Joyce was familiar with and made use in the Aeolus, although he would have no regard for the turn the tradition took as it is described in the last section (subtitled Toward a New Rhetoric), this is a good source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/rhetoric/Rhetorical-traditions

This group is reading Joyce's Ulysses from a philosophical perspective; i.e., concentrating on the philosophical themes, whether latent or explicit, identifying the philosophical references and allusions, and discussing the significance and value the philosophy has for the novel. This will be a live reading of the novel, but everyone is encouraged to read the read ahead in preparation for the meetings. It is not necessary to be at all familiar with Joyce's work, but having had some experience of the best known philosophy in the Western tradition would be good, because we won't be reading texts other than Ulysses. In short, having a few philosophically minded Joyceans in the group would be great, but anyone with an interest is welcome. We'll discuss our approach to the novel in detail at the beginning of the meeting.

The edition we'll be using is available free online here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4300/4300-h/4300-h.htm
Gifford's Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses is available here: https://annas-archive.org/md5/e3e2c4c6a06e326d464327979bfb02c0