L;Program in Comparative Literature

The University of Texas at Austin

ILA 387/CL 382: Transcolonial Joyce

Spring 2015 Prof. César A. Salgado

M 4-7 BEN 1.106 Office Hours: Th 12:30-3:30
Unique Number 32960 BEN 3.140 cslgd@mail.utexas.edu

Course Description:
This seminar will examine the political and esthetic intersections and discrepancies
between Anglo-European high modernism and subaltern writing in Latin America, the
Caribbean, and Latino-U.S. through a discussion of colonial and postcolonial authors
who arguably write in a Joycean mode. By interrogating or challenging critical concepts
and paradigms such as influence, cosmopolitanism, center/periphery, modernity,
coloniality, globalization, and Weltliteratur, among others, the seminar will explore after-
Joyce writing as a postcolonial Global South political and aesthetic statement rather than
as a Euro-centered canonical movement.

The seminar will work through an archival reading of the dissemination, translation,
reception, assimilation, and refashioning of Joycean texts, thematics, and techniques
among Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino writers and poets. Among the issues to be
considered are:

 the novelistic representation of Global South peripheral world capitals: Dublin,

Havana, Miami, San Juan, Nuyol (Latino New York)
 language and translation politics in colonial and post-colonial contexts
 debates on culture and decolonization in Global South independence and/or
revolutionary contexts
 uses of oral, popular, ethnic, and consumer cultures in Global South writing
 the use of translingual neologisms in postcolonial literary discourse (Joyce’s
linguistic experimentation as a “precursor”of Spanglish in Nuyorican poetry and
Cuban American fiction)
 peripheral high modernist confrontations with censorship
 anti-patriarchal, anti-clerical, gender, and feminist politics in after-Joyce writing

The course will draw on postcolonial and decolonial theory to think about the esthetico-
political nature of the appeal that Joycean themes and forms have in several peripheral
scenarios in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. English translations of
most works will be available, but students are expected to work with these texts with
full reading knowledge of English and either Spanish or Portuguese.

GRADING SYSTEM
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One 20-25 page term paper (60%). Class participation, including three oral
presentations (40%): one on a chapter of Ulysses, another on a postcolonial Joycean
author, another on a work of Joyce scholarship to be selected with consultation with the
professor. Due to the complexity of the texts, full reading knowledge of English, Spanish
or any other language involved is required. Nevertheless, students from the
Comparative Literature program are encouraged to consult translations when these are
available. The history of the translation of Joyce’s work in Spanish and Portuguese will
be an important issue in this course; a competent level of bilingualism is thus essential
for satisfactory performance in this class.

Required readings:
At the Coop:
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin)
__________, Ulysses, the Corrected Edition (Vintage)
Don Gifford, Notes to Ulysses
Leopoldo Marechal, Adán Buenoayres (Cátedra)
Miguel Angel Asturias, Hombres de maíz (Archivos)
Clarice Lispector, Perto do Coraçao Salvagen/Near to the Wild Heart
José Lezama Lima, Paradiso (Archivos)
Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Tres tristes tigres (Cátedra)
Luis Rafael Sánchez, La guaracha del Macho Camacho (Cátedra)
Reinaldo Arenas, El color del verano
Roberto Fernández, Raining Backwards (Arte Público Press)
Urayoán Noel, High Density Politics
Selections from these works will be available as pdf:
Ana Lydia Vega, Encancaranublado
Ana Menendez, In Cuba I was a German Shepherd
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Boring Home
Gianina Braschi, Yoyo Boing
Tato Laviera, AmeRícan, Enclave, Mixturao
PDF copies of critical articles by Vincent Cheng, Enda Duffy, Maria Tymoczko, Francine
Masiello, Gerald Martin, Norman Cheadle, Mark Wolleager, Morton Levitt, Leonard Orr,
and others will be sent by email or available on Blackboard in due time.

At Jenn’s:
Readings packet #1 (AP) with archival pieces about the dissemination of Joyce’s work in
Spain and the Third World (available at Jenn’s Copies)
Reading packet #2 (TJ) with selections from translations of Joyce’s work into Spanish and
Portuguese by Jorge Luis Borges, Amado Alonso, J. Salas Subirat, Guillermo Cabrera
Infante, Augusto and Haroldo de Campos, José María Valverde, Francisco García Tortosa,
María Conde, and others (available at Jenn’s Copies,)
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SCHEDULE

Jan. 26: Organizational meeting

Cosmopolitan, Postcolonial, Global, TransLatin, or Decolonial Joyce?

Feb. 2 From Dubliners to A Portrait

Literature:
From James Joyce’s Dubliners, “An Encounter,” “Araby,” “After the Race,” “A Little Cloud,” “Ivy
Day in the Committee Room” (PDF copies)
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Documents:
Antonio Marichalar, “James Joyce en su laberinto” (AP)
Ezra Pound, “Dubliners and Mr. James Joyce” (AP)

Translations:
El artista adolescente (Retrato). Translated by Alfonso Donado (Dámaso Alonso). Selections
from chapter 5 (TJ)
“Un encuentro.” Translated by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (TJ)

Criticism:
Maria Tymockzko, “Postcolonial Writing and Literary Translation” (AP)
César A. Salgado, “Detranslating Joyce for the Cuban Revolution: Edmundo Desnoes’ 1964
edition of Retrato del Artista Adolescente” (pdf)
Morton Levitt, “Beyond Dublin: James Joyce and Modernism” (pdf)
Vincent Cheng, “Of Canons, Colonies, and Critics: The Ethics and Politics of Postcolonial
Joyce Studies” (pdf)

Feb. 9 Ulysses: The Telemachiad

Literature:
James Joyce, Ulysses: Chapters 1-3 (Telemachus, Nestor, Proteus)

Documents:
Jorge Luis Borges, “El Ulises de Joyce” (AP)
Valery Larbaud, “James Joyce’s Ulysses” (AP)
T.S. Eliot, “Ulysses, Order, and Myth” (AP)

Translation:
__________, “Proteo.” Translated by Oscar Rodríguez Luis. Chapter 3. (TJ)

Criticism:
Gerald Martin, “Into the Labyrinth: Ulysses in America” (AP)
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Feb. 1 Ulysses: Bloom’s Odyssey.

Literature:
James Joyce, Ulysses: Chapter 4-9 (Calypso. Lotus-Eaters. Hades. Aeolus. Lestrigonians.
Scylla and Charybdis)
Documents:
Ezra Pound, “Ulysses,” “Joyce” (AP)
Translation:
Ulises. Translated by J. Salas Subirat . Chapter 9. (TJ)
Criticism: TBA

Feb. 23 Ulysses: Parody as Style: Dialect, Slang, Popular Culture

Literature:
James Joyce, Ulysses: Chapters 10-14 (Wandering Rocks, Sirens, Cyclops, Nausicaa, Oxen of
the Sun)
Translation:
__________, Ulises. Translated by José María Valverde Chapter 14. (TJ
Documents and Criticism: TBA

March 2: Ulysses: “Walpurgisnacht” as Paradigm. Gender and Stream-of-Consciousness

Literature:
James Joyce, Ulysses: Chapters 15-18 (Circe, Eumeaus, Ithaca, Penelope
Translation:
__________, “Penelope.” Translated by María Conde. Chapter 17. (TJ)
Documents and Criticism: TBA

March 9: Ulysses in Argentina. The Subirat Translation and Adán Buenosayres

Literature:
Leopoldo Marechal, Adán Buenosayres
Documents:
________________, “Las claves de Adán Buenosayres” (AP)
Julio Cortázar, “Leopoldo Marechal: Adán Bueanosayres” (AP)
J. Salas Subirat, “La experiencia de traducir el Ulises al español” (AP)
Jorge Luis Borges, “Nota sobre el Ulises en español” (AP)
Criticism:
Ambrose Gordon, “Dublin and Buenos Aires: Joyce and Marechal” (AP)
Articles by Norman Cheadle, Francine Massiello & Sergio Waisman (pdf)

(Special Meeting on Clarice Lispector TBA)

SPRING BREAK

March 23: Joyce in Central America: The Mythic Method in Guatemala

Literature: Miguel Angel Asturias, Hombres de maíz

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Documents & Criticism: TBA/TBD

March 30: Joyce and the Cuban Neobaroque: Lezama’s Joyce

Literature: José Lezama Lima, Paradiso

Documents:
Julio Cortázar, “Para llegar a Lezama Lima” (pdf)
Cintio Vitier, “Introducción” to Critical Edition of Paradiso (pdf)
Ana María Simo, José Lezama Lima, Roberto Fernández Retamar, “Discusión sobre
Rayuela” (AP)

Criticism:
Leonard Orr, “Joyce and the Contemporary Cuban Novel: Lezama Lima and Cabrera Infante”
(AP)
César A. Salgado, “Joyce Wars, Lezama Wars: The Scandals of Ulysses and Paradiso”

April 6: Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Language Games

Literature: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Tres tristes tigres

Documents & Criticism: TBA/TBD

April 13: Reinaldo Arenas’ Cyclonic Novel as Walpurgisnacht

Literature: Reinaldo Arenas, El color del verano

Documents & Criticism: TBA/TBD

April 20: Dublin/San Juan: A Day in the Life of the Caribbean Colonial City

Literature:
Luis Rafael Sánchez, La guaracha del Macho Camacho
Ana Lydia Vega, selections from Encancaranublado and Pasión de historia (pdf)

Documents & Criticism: TBA/TBD

April 27: Dublin/Miami. Joyce and Cuban-American Literature on Exile

Literature:
Roberto Fernández, Raining Backwards
Ana Menéndez, selections from In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, selections from Boring Home
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Documents & Criticism: TBA/TBD

May 1: Dublin/NuYol/Babel. Latino Joyce and Spanglish

Literature:
Urayoán Noel, High Density Politics
Giannina Braschi, selections from Yo-yo Boing, The United States of Banana
Tato Laviero, selections from AmeRícan, Enclave, Mixturao