Ulysses Explained

David Weir is Professor of Comparative Literature at The Cooper Union, USA.

"David Weir's book speaks to the reader eager to encounter the many ways Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare serve James Joyce's Ulysses. Weir has an almost uncanny ability as a critic to make his points with crystal-clear and often ingenious examples from the texts under scrutiny. What he reveals is how Joyce adapts and undercuts key epic and dramatic elements in order to create a kind of cultural template for the modern writer." - Michael Seidel, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, USA "Fortunately for us, the triads that fascinated Joyce so much intrigue David Weir as well. Homer and Ulysses' narrative, Shakespeare and its plot, Dante and its structure: each individual relationship comes alive in Ulysses Explained, but they particularly shine when Weir plays one off against another and especially when he triangulates them all to show Ulysses as an interlocking amalgamation of three very separate traditions. All readers - beginners, scholars, and those in between - will discover much that they didn't know before in this lucid and lively book." - Michael Groden, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Western University, Canada and author of Ulysses in Progress and Ulysses in Focus

• Introduction 1. Homeric Narrative 2. Shakespearean Plot 3. Dantesque Design Afterword Appendix A: Synopsis of Ulysses Appendix B: Consolidated Schema Appendix C: The Odyssey and Ulysses : Episode and Chapter Comparison Appendix D: Modernist Sexuality in Exiles