All Program Dates
October 18, 2026 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm March 21, 2027 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm
November 15, 2026 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm April 18, 2027 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm
December 13, 2026 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm May 16, 2027 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm
January 24, 2027 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm June 13, 2027 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm
February 21, 2027 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Registration
Tuition for this course is $540. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.
This program is for those 18 and older.
To promote access to onsite and virtual Rosenbach experiences, we offer scholarships for each Signature Program. To inquire, email Sunstein Senior Manager of Digital Initiatives Edward G. Pettit at epettit@rosenbach.org.
Description
We are only now beginning to learn how to read James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. It sits at the top of the canon of 20th-century literature, arguably the end point of the evolution of the English language novel. Radically experimental, fearlessly uncompromising, and profoundly uninterested in “readability,” the novel is also a surprisingly moving and very funny narrative that is at once a history of the world and the story of a family. Trek through the Joycean high country with Rosenbach Joyce Sherpa Mike Barsanti as he leads an intrepid group of readers through a truly unique work of literature. Designed for first-time readers, the course will help students find a method for reading (and re-reading!) the “Wake,” while benefiting from the shared experiences of the group. There are nine course sessions from October to June. No prior experience necessary; no gear required.
Instructor
Michael Barsanti has been reading, thinking, and talking about James Joyce for a very long time. His obsession began with a high-school class that gave him his first chance to read Ulysses back in 1986, has carried forward ever since then through undergraduate and graduate degrees, and even through a stint at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, where he curated the Ulysses in Hand exhibition in 1998. His favorite Joyce projects have been those that have connected non-academic “civilians” to Joyce’s work, especially the Ulysses Seen online graphic adaptation created by Robert Berry that he collaborated on in the 2000s. Barsanti earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002, an MA from the University of Miami, and a BA from Williams College. He led the Rosenbach’s in-person nine-month Ulysses seminar in 2024-2025.