Table Of ContentJAMES JOYCE'S
TEACHING LIFE
AND METHODS
Language and Pedagogy in
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,
Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake
ELIZABETH SWITAJ
James Joyce’s Teaching Life
and Methods
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James Joyce’s Teaching Life
and Methods
Language and Pedagogy in A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses,
and Finnegans Wake
Elizabeth Switaj
Palgrave
macmillan
JAMES JOYCE’S TEACHING LIFE AND METHODS
Copyright © Elizabeth Switaj 2016
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-55989-0
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be
made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced,
copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House,
6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable
to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accord-
ance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire, RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One
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ISBN 978-1-349-56431-6
E-PDF ISBN: 978-1-137-55609-7
DOI: 10.1057/9781137556097
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Switaj, Elizabeth Kate.
James Joyce’s teaching life and methods : language and pedagogy in A portrait of
the artist as a young man, Ulysses, and Finnegans wake / Elizabeth Switaj.
pages cm
Summary: “James Joyce didn’t just play with language in his writing: he also, while
teaching English to later-language learners, infused his pedagogy with a serious
unseriousness that has caused his teaching to be underrated. In fact, he was a skilled,
if unconventional, educator, and his teaching transformed his literary work”— Provided
by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Joyce, James, 1882–1941—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Joyce, James,
1882–1941—Knowledge—Language and languages. 3. Joyce, James, 1882–1941—
Literary style. 4. Joyce, James, 1882–1941. Portrait of the artist as a young man.
5. Joyce, James, 1882–1941. Ulysses. 6. Joyce, James, 1882–1941. Finnegan’s wake
7. English language—Study and teaching. I. Title.
PR6019.O9Z8244 2016
823'.914—dc23
2015023403
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction xi
1 “With No Delays for Elegance”: Joyce’s Teaching Life
and Methods 1
2 Language Learning and Pedagogy in A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man 41
3 Native Speakers as Language Learners:
The Pedagogical Ulysses 75
4 “Night Lessons” in Wakese: The Furthest Extreme of
Joyce’s Anarchic Pedagogy 115
Conclusion 155
Notes 159
Works Cited 169
Index 191
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Acknowledgments
The development of this book has spanned several years and nearly as
many countries, and the list of those to whom I owe a debt of grati-
tude has grown accordingly.
I am particularly grateful to Professor Brian Caraher, who super-
vised my PhD at Queen’s University Belfast and also provided out-
standing mentorship in the ways of academia and scholarly culture.
John McCourt and David Dwan, my doctoral examiners, also pro-
vided important feedback on this work. Indeed, my project might not
have been possible without Dr. McCourt’s work on Joyce in Trieste.
Chris Agee, the editor of Irish Pages, also provided guidance from a
literary but nonacademic perspective.
An early and much abbreviated form of chapter one appeared in
Polymorphic Joyce: Papers from the Third Joyce Graduate Conference
(Edizioni Q, 2012), and though the version that appears here has been
substantially rewritten, I owe a debt of gratitude to Franca Ruggieri for
including it. A version of the “Language Learners and Native Speak-
ers” section of chapter three appeared as “The Ambiguous Status of
Native Speakers and Language Learners in Ulysses” in the Journal of
Modern Literature 37.1 (2013); I am grateful for both the editorial
process that added insight to the chapter and permission to reprint the
work. More recently, Brigitte Shull and Ryan Jenkins at Palgrave have
been key to preparing this book for publication.
My students also deserve thanks. I owe my students in Japan and
China a particular debt of gratitude: had I never taught them English, I
never would have conceived of this project. My students at the College
of the Marshall Islands (CMI) have tested my ideas about pedagogy
and allowed me the chance to course-test chapters from this work.
viii ● Acknowledgments
On an institutional level, this project would have been substan-
tially weaker without the resources of the Richard Ellmann archive
at the University of Tulsa, the National Library of Ireland, the British
Library, and the Queen’s University Belfast Irish studies collection. I
am also grateful for Queen’s University Belfast (QUB’s) remarkably
efficient interlibrary loan program and for that of the King County
Library System. I am also grateful for the scholarship that allowed me
to attend the Trieste James Joyce Summer School in 2010.
On a personal level, I am grateful to Matt Hunt for his constant
support and friendship and to my three formerly feral cats: Golden,
Gerty (who was born with twisted rear legs), and Jimmy.
List of Abbreviations
CHI, CHII Deming, Robert, ed. James Joyce: The Critical Heritage.
2 vols. London: Routledge, 1970. Print.
D J oyce, James. Dubliners: Text, Criticism, and Notes.
Ed. Robert D. Scholes and A. Walton Litz. New York:
Viking Press, 1969. Print.
EFL English as a foreign language
ELT English language teaching
FW Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. London: Faber, 1975. Print.
JJ Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. Rev. ed. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1982. Print.
JJQ James Joyce Quarterly
LI, LII, LIII Joyce, James. Letters of James Joyce. Vol.1. Ed. Stuart
Gilbert. Vols. 2–3. Ed. Richard Ellmann. London:
Faber, 1957–1966. Print.
MBK Joyce, Stanislaus. My Brother’s Keeper. Ed. Richard
Ellmann. London: Faber, 1975. Print.
P Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
Text, Criticism, and Notes. Ed. Chester G. Anderson.
New York: Viking, 1968. Print.
SH Joyce, James. Stephen Hero. New York: New Direc-
tions, 1963. Print.
TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language
U Joyce, James. Ulysses. Ed. Hans Walter Gabler et al.
New York: Vintage Books, 1986. Print.
