Getting on Nicely in the Dark: The Perils and Rewards of Annotating Ulysses

The problem of how to provide useful contextual and extra-textual information to readers of Ulysses has vexed Joyceans for years. The debate has generated lively and opinionated discussions in print and at Joyce meetings, forums and listservs. On one side are scholars who argue for scaled-down annotations that present only basic information as simply as possible, minimizing the amount of interpretation involved. On the other side are the actual first-time readers, struggling to make sense of Joyce’s complex, highly allusive text, and willing to accept help wherever it may be found. The work of annotation is both complicated and enriched when it is undertaken in a hypermedia environment. This thesis addresses these issues, particularly as they relate to the task of annotating a list of characters in the novel for The Joyce Project, a hypermedia version of Ulysses under the direction of Professor John Hunt at the University of Montana. With brief entries for more than 180 characters, the list is intended primarily as an aid to help readers keep track of the dozens of characters who inhabit the pages of Joyce’s work. However, creating the list in hypermedia, with links between characters in the list, between the text and the list, and between the text and external sources, creates a virtual web of connections which leads to new insights and directions for further study.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Montana

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Nelson, Barbara

• annotation
• hypermedia
• hypertext
• James Joyce
• Ulysses

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/491

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1510