Episode 3: Proteus

“Proteus,” the third episode of Ulysses, is notoriously difficult. We explore different responses to that difficulty as we talk with Ilaria Susmel, a bank clerk from Trieste, Italy, Sam Slote, a professor of English at Trinity College Dublin, and Piotr Prachnio, a literary critic from Poland. We talk about the protean obscurity as a point of identification, an occasion for exploration, and a series of beautiful and evocative sounds. We also listen to how the shifting language of the episode finds further transformation in translations into Italian, Portuguese, and Polish.