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:

Mentions:

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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.