Elizabeth Switaj Libri

Exploring the often-overlooked impact of James Joyce's teaching career, this book highlights how his experiences as an English-language instructor influenced his literary works. It argues that his playful and unconventional teaching style contributed significantly to the themes and language in his major novels, including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. By examining the connections between his pedagogy and writing, the book sheds new light on Joyce's artistic development and the role of language in his narratives.

The Bringers of Fruit: An Oratorio is a polyvocalic retelling of the Persephone myth that investigates memory, code, and relationships.

Before Joyce became famous as writer, he supported himself through his other language work: English-language teaching in Pola, Trieste, and Rome. The importance of James Joyce's teaching, however, has been underestimated until now. The very playfulness and unconventionality that made him a popular and successful teacher has led his pedagogy to be underrated, and the connections between his teaching and his writing have been largely neglected. James Joyce's Teaching Life and Methods reveals the importance in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake of pedagogy and the understanding of language Joyce gained teaching English as a Foreign Language in Berlitz schools and elsewhere.