Filed under: Conferences, Lectures, & Schools
“Cognitive Joyce: The Neuronal Text” is an international conference that will be held at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, May 27-28, 2011. Organized by Caroline Morillot and Sylvain Belluc, this conference aims to “highlight and dissect the mental and neuro-physiological mechanisms, such as perception, attention, memory, reasoning or communication, through which Joyce’s characters build up their knowledge.” The conference theme of Joyce and the neurosciences will, in turn, involve narrower topics such as aesthetics and cognition, fiction and cognition, and cognitive linguistics, to name a few.
- Philosophical background: Aristotle, Plotinus, etc.
- Theological background: Aquinas (as relayed, especially, by Jacques Maritain), Saint John of the Cross, Dionysius the Areopagite, etc.
- Cognitive operations at both the diegetic and extradiegetic levels.
- The connection between narratology and cognitive science.
- The limits of the cognitive approach.
300-word proposals should be submitted to Caroline Morillot (caroline.morillot@univ-paris3.fr) and Sylvain Belluc (sylvain.belluc@etud.sorbonne-nouvelle.fr) by January 31, 2011.
Visit Cognitive Joyce CFP for more information.
Filed under: Uncategorized
A new blog project, “Wake In Progress”, ambitiously attempts to put illustrations to Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The creator of these illustrations, Stephen Crowe, began his work over a year ago and has posted 20 pictorial slides to his site. Crowe writes that his illustrations are his attempt to honour the book by purposefully creating pictures that look like they belong in a rubbish pile: “When I began this project, I wanted the look of the illustrations to take into account the book’s various incarnations — to appear variously as an illuminated manuscript, as the work of an obsessive artist, and as scavenged discoveries of the city dump.” Visit “Wake in Progress” to view Crowe’s illustrations and to watch his project unfold.
Filed under: Uncategorized
A new play entitled “Gibraltar,” adapted from Ulysses for the stage by Patrick Fitzgerald and performed at the Bowery Electric in New York City, began its run on Monday, Oct. 11, and will continue until Nov. 29. Each Monday at 7 PM, Fitzgerald’s two-person 90-minute production depicts the interactions between and story of Leopold and Molly Bloom. Bloom is played by Fitzgerald, who was seen most recently in the Irish Repertory Theater’s production of W.B. Yeat’s plays, and British-born actress Cara Seymour plays Molly Bloom. Reviewers state that Fitzgerald’s production “greatly enhance[s] the cohesiveness of James Joyce’s masterpiece.” Additionally, Fitzgerald claims to have discovered new insights about Ulysses and Molly’s final soliloquy, which he enthusiastically announces at the end of this article.
“Gibraltar” will be performed on Mondays, Oct. 11, 18 & 25, and Nov. 15, 22 & 29. For ticket prices and location of the Bowery Electric, please visit the Bowery Electric’s webpage.
Filed under: People
We would like to take a moment to remember the life of G. J. Watson, who passed away February 2, 2009. Professor Watson was a valued member of our editorial board since 1989 and a Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen from 1966 until his retirement in 2005. Born in 1942 in Portadown, Co Armagh, Ireland, Professor Watson was educated at Queen’s University Belfast and Wadham College Oxford. Later, Professor Watson was appointed Assistant Director of the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at Aberdeen in 2001, and he was instrumental in the development of interdisciplinary studies between theater, politics, and the literature of his native Ireland. His widely influential Drama: an Introduction (1983) and Irish Identity and the Literary Revival (1979; repr. 1994), an exhaustive account of the political context of the achievements of W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, John Millington Synge, and Sean O’Casey, gave Professor Watson scholastic international renown, adding to his wide circle of friends, followers, and students. Professor Watson was “legendary for his cheerful pursuit of high academic standards, his sense of humour, his gift for mimicry, and his loyalty.”
Please visit http://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/georgewatson.shtml to read more about the life and influence of Professor Watson.
The comments section will remain open for other members of the James Joyce community to share their memories of G. J. Watson.
Filed under: Conferences, Lectures, & Schools
On Saturday, November 13, the James Joyce Research Center at University College Dublin will be holding Finnegans Wake-End, a workshop concentrating on “The Ondt and the Gracehoper” fable in Finnegans Wake, Book III, Chapter 1, 414.14-419.10. Professor Anne Fogarty (UCD), Dr. Luca Crispi (UCD), and Dr. Sam Slote (Trinity College Dublin) in conjunction with guest moderators Professor Vicki Mahaffey (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Professor Derek Attridge (University of York) will be facilitating discussion to uncover the originality and complexity of “The Ondt and the Gracehoper” fable. Paul O’Hanrahan from Balloonatics Theatre Company will be the guest reader.
Participants in the workshop should bring a copy of Finnegans Wake to the workshop and read Book III, Chapter 1 in advance.
For further information and to register contact joycesearchcentre@ucd.ie.
You may also visit the UCD website for further details.
Filed under: Uncategorized
The annual ritual of the Nobel Prize in Literature has now arrived, accompanied as always by deep laments about those who have once more been passed over amid grudging admissions that this year’s winner might indeed have some talent. With Mario Vargas Llosa having been handed the honor this year, another giant of the Latin American Boom has been properly handed the laurel, even if we’re left to wonder why say Thomas Pynchon didn’t make the cut.
In any case, an equally important part of the literary liturgy following the announcement of the award is the recitation of famous writers who were passed over in their lifetimes. This year, that inveterate compiler of pointless lists, the Huffington Post, has created a top-ten list of Nobel losers on which Joyce appears. Readers are encouraged to vote on which writer was most unjustly treated by sages of Stockholm. At the moment, our Sunny Jim is a surprising third–behind Chekov and Tolstoy.
Filed under: Uncategorized
The new album entitled “North Strand” from from the ambient musical group “Minus 3″ is clearly thematically inspired by James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” All tracks are written and recorded by musician Keith Rose and vocalist Rebecca Reis-Miller, who infuse their music with “an eclectic form of ambient music: operatic, enveloping, disquieting, and infused with industrial field recordings.”
Track titles for “North Strand” include:
1. North Strand
2. Enters Mabbot Street (Circe Remains)
3. Adiaphane
4. Strindberg
5. Yes
6. North Strand (gloaming)
Listen to “North Strand” at http://www.last.fm or amazon.com.
