5. The Use and Abuse of Alcohol

Description
Cite

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, Nicholas focuses on the use and abuse of alcohol in Dubliners, focusing in particular on three stories: 'After the Race’, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ and ‘Grace’. In each story, Nicholas examines a different impact of alcohol: forgetfulness, sociability, and truth-telling.

Course

In this course, we look at James Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners. In particular, we explore key themes in the collection by looking at groups of 2-3 stories. Having given an introduction to the Dublin of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, we then look at the themes of colonialism and imperialism, women, masculinity, and the use and abuse of alcohol. The final module concentrates on the last story in the collection, 'The Dead', and ask what clues this final story may give us in how we understand Dubliners as a whole.

Lecturer

Nicholas is a final-year doctoral student at the University of Warwick. He conducts his research in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. His main research areas are early modern literature (including Shakespeare), twentieth-century Irish literature and critical theory.