James Joyce • “The Dead” • Unit B
Overview
There are seven tasks in Unit B about James Joyce’s short story “The Dead.” Each of the tasks is explained on this webpage.
Begin <James Joyce • “The Dead” • Unit B> on Monday, July 1st, 2019. Complete the seven tasks in the unit no later than 11:00 pm Eastern on Monday, July 8th, 2019. Late work will receive a grade of zero.
Task B.1
Re-Read Joyce’s “The Dead”
To refresh and deepen your understanding of our focal text for Week One and Week Two, re-read James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” (written in 1907; first published in 1914). You have two options for reading it; choose one or the other.
First Option • Read the story without notes — i.e. in a straight-up, uninterrupted format — on a single webpage from the University of Adelaide in Australia. Here is the artifact: James Joyce’s “The Dead” as a webpage. The link opens in a new window.
Second Option • Read the story on a PDF in a version with notes, produced by your instructor. Here is the artifact: James Joyce’s “The Dead” as a PDF. The link opens in a new window.
You absolutely must read the story. However, in addition to reading it, you may find it useful to listen to a reading of it in unabridged (i.e. full-length) form. The reader is the acclaimed Irish actor Barry McGovern, who has been a guest of the Center for Irish Research and Teaching at Georgia Southern University. Here is the artifact: Barry McGovern reads Joyce’s “The Dead” (via Stitcher). The link opens in a new window.
Task B.2
Listen to Three Short Podcasts
Can Be Done Concurrently with Task B.3
University College Dublin (U.C.D.), a unit of the National University of Ireland, has produced a series of six high-value podcasts about different aspects of Joyce’s “The Dead.” The overall title for the series is Joyce’s Dublin: An Exploration of “The Dead.” This task requires you to listen to the fourth, fifth, and sixth of the podcasts (also called episodes) — in order, from fourth to sixth. The podcasts are available on a single webpage from U.C.D.’s Humanities Institute. Here are the artifacts: Podcasts 4 through 6 about Joyce’s “The Dead.” The link opens in a new window. Some of the interpretations offered in the podcasts may differ from views about “The Dead” presented in our course lectures (which feature elsewhere as PDFs).
For your information: The next task (Task B.3) is a 20-question multiple-choice quiz that covers Podcasts 4 through 6. As the quiz is not time-limited, you might want to attempt it while completing this task (Task B.2) — that is, while listening to the three podcasts, rather than after having listened to them. Our course allows you only one attempt at the quiz.
The quiz is not time-limited. In other words, there is no limit on how long you can take to complete it. However, the quiz is “live” and available to take only until 11:00 pm Eastern on Monday, July 8th, 2019. After that hour, it closes.
The titles of the podcasts that you must listen to are as follows:
Podcast or Episode 4 • “The Dead”: Distant Music and “The Lass of Aughrim”
Podcast or Episode 5 • “The Dead”: Sex, Love, and Longing at the Gresham Hotel
Podcast or Episode 6 • “The Dead”: A Walking Tour with Barry McGovern
Task B.3
Take a Quiz about the Podcasts
Can Be Done Concurrently with Task B.2
While listening to — or having listened to — the fourth, fifth, and sixth podcasts in the six-episode series (detailed in Task B.2 above), you need to go to the course Folio page and take a 20-question multiple-choice quiz about them. The quiz is not time-limited; however, once you start it you must finish it. You cannot save content, log out, and then return to the quiz later. On Folio, you can find the quiz under the module or section entitled “Week Two • Unit B of James Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead.’” The quiz itself in entitled “Quiz over Podcasts 4-6 about ‘The Dead.’”
The quiz is not time-limited. In other words, there is no limit on how long you can take to complete it. However, the quiz is “live” and available to take only until 11:00 pm Eastern on Monday, July 8th, 2019. After that hour, it closes.
Task B.4
Read a Scholarly Article
Can Be Done Concurrently with Task B.5
When studying any topic, we want to hear from experts. In the case of literary studies, a fundamental mechanism for accessing expert opinion is peer-reviewed scholarly articles, usually published in academic journals and in books from university presses. As we don’t have a new piece of literary fiction to study for Week Two, we’re going to expose ourselves to a scholarly article about James Joyce’s short story “The Dead.” It was written by C. Roland Wagner and first published in 1995 as pages 447 through 462 of Volume 32 of the journal Studies in Short Fiction. Wagner entitles his piece “A Birth Announcement in ‘The Dead.’” Here is the artifact: Wagner’s “Birth Announcement” article as a PDF. The link opens in a new window. Some of the interpretations offered in the article may differ from views about “The Dead” presented in our course lectures (which feature elsewhere as PDFs).
For your information: The next task (Task B.5) is a 20-question multiple-choice quiz about the article. As the quiz is not time-limited, you might want to attempt it while completing this task (Task B.4) — that is, while studying the article, rather than after having studied it. Our course allows you only one attempt at the quiz.
The quiz is not time-limited. In other words, there is no limit on how long you can take to complete it. However, the quiz is “live” and available to take only until 11:00 pm Eastern on Monday, July 8th, 2019. After that hour, it closes.
Task B.5
Take a Quiz about the Scholarly Article
Can Be Done Concurrently with Task B.4
While studying — or having studied — C. Roland Wagner’s scholarly article (detailed in Task B.4 above), you need to go to the course Folio page and take a 20-question multiple-choice quiz about it. The quiz is not time-limited; however, once you start it you must finish it. You cannot save content, log out, and then return to the quiz later. On Folio, you can find the quiz under the module or section entitled “Week Two • Unit B of James Joyce’s short story ‘The Dead.’” The quiz itself in entitled “Quiz over Wagner’s article about ‘The Dead.’”
The quiz is not time-limited. In other words, there is no limit on how long you can take to complete it. However, the quiz is “live” and available to take only until 11:00 pm Eastern on Monday, July 8th, 2019. After that hour, it closes.
Task B.6
Study Lecture/Exam Notes
So far in this unit (Unit B), you’ve re-read the entirety of James Joyce’s short story “The Dead”; you’ve both listened to and attempted a quiz about the three assigned podcasts (Numbers 4-6); and you’ve both studied and attempted a quiz about an assigned academic article, C. Roland Wagner’s “A Birth Announcement in ‘The Dead,’” first published in the journal Studies in Short Fiction in 1995. The podcast-focused quiz yields up to 10 points, and the article-focused quiz yields up to an additional 10 points. Taken together, they produce the 20 quiz points available in Week Two.
Having completed the above work, you are ready to study our second formal lecture. The lecture is presented in written form, along with several useful images. The lecture deals with just some aspects of “The Dead.” Here is the lecture that you need to study for this unit (Unit B): Second Lecture about Joyce’s “The Dead” as a PDF. The link opens in a new window.
This lecture covers the following five matters:
• Dating the action in the tale to late on January 5th and early on January 6th, 1904.
• A discussion of Joyce’s exploitation of the conceit of Epiphany to frame the story’s interrogation of its chief protagonist, Gabriel Conroy.
• An exploration of the significance to “The Dead” of Irish land-and-house nationalism, especially the socio-economically revolutionary Wyndham Land Act, which came into effect on November 1st, 1903.
• An argument that while a Gaeilge (Irish-language) word for blessing features explicitly in the short story, the narrative also implies and exploits a Gaeilge word translatable as curse.
• A thesis that Gretta all but reveals to Gabriel that, before their marriage, she not only dated Michael Furey but also bore his child.
Task B.7
Take the Exam for Unit A
Having thoroughly studied the Second Lecture about Joyce’s “The Dead” (see Task B.6), you need to go to the course Folio page and take a multiple-choice exam about its contents. The exam is time-limited; in other words, you must complete it within a certain (generous) length of time. In addition, the exam is closed-book. In other words, you are on your honor not to use any outside material, including: (1) the Lecture/Exam notes provided in task B.4; and (2) the full text of “The Dead” provided in Task B.1. Your instructor has no way to check if a student cheats by violating the closed-book requirement. Simply put: The university expects you to observe its Honor Code (link opens in a new window). Ultimately, if you cheat, that must be between you and your conscience.