Today we are joined by our special guest, Katherine O’Callaghan, lecturer at UMass Amherst, who is currently completing a monograph on Music and Soundscape in James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Katherine will help us decipher the music puzzle of “Sirens.” We talk about questions that have confounded readers of Joyce for years: How should we read the opening part of the chapter? Is it an overture or something else? How should we hear the music that is on the page? And last but not the least, Katherine reveals to us who the alpha Siren is in Ulysses. Hint: it is not one of the barmaids!
Libations:

Katherine: A precious cup of Barry’s Tea, straight from Ireland (with a detour to Toronto and probably a few other places)
Eric: A gross K-cup of coffee from a campus office
Wendy: Coffee
Shinjini: A cup of ‘energizing’ tea which may just be an ensemble of non-tea herbs

Mentions:

An RTE conversation between Declan Kiberd and Katherine in which Katherine talks about her personal response to Joyce
A BBC discussion of music featuring Katherine
A BBC production of Joyce scholars listening to Joyce’s favorite songs, featuring Katherine
A recent one-day Joyce symposium, Ulysses in the World, featuring talks by Shinjini and Katherine

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Theme song: “Come on Over” by Scalcairn, via Blue Dot Sessions
Special thanks to Carin Goldberg, whose cover design for the Gabler edition of Ulysses inspired our logo.