James Heffernan: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, & the Ghost of Shakespeare in Chapter 9 of Ulysses

In Chapter 9 of Ulysses, which is set in Dublin’s National Library, Stephen Dedalus delivers to various literary friends a lecture on Shakespeare. In this intensely personal lecture, Stephen argues that the key to Shakespeare’s whole life is the ghost scene in Hamlet. Though at this point Stephen knows almost nothing of Leopold Bloom, he interprets both the ghost scene and all of Shakespeare’s plays in such a way as to let us recognize within the playwright the figure of Bloom.
James Heffernan, Professor Emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, has lectured extensively on James Joyce, particularly Ulysses, which he has covered in 24 lectures for the Teaching Company.