Filed under: Events
The James Joyce Centre in Dublin is ramping up its Bloomsday festivities this year with Global Bloomsday. The Centre has organized a livestreamed, worldwide reading of Ulysses that will begin on Saturday June 15th (GMT) and last until midnight on Sunday June 16th (GMT). Twenty-five cities from four continents are involved. The program is currently being finalized, but each city will read a portion of the book and then pass it off to another. The O’Brien Press has recently published a special edition of Ulysses, called the Dublin Illustrated Edition, that each reader across the world will use for the reading. Stay tuned to the Global Bloomsday website for the finalized program and a link to the livestream.
Through May 5th, Seattle’s Frye Museum is hosting a unique exhibit inspired by Joyce’s Chamber Music. The exhibit consists of 36 paintings done by different artists to correspond with each poem in the collection. However, instead of merely reading the poem, the artists created their work in response to music inspired by the individual poems. In addition to the artworks themselves, the Frye is also providing museum-goers with access to other work the artists have done, including academic, curatorial, and theoretical items. The full exhibit description can be accessed here.
This past weekend, University College Dublin held its James Joyce Research Colloquim at various venues around their campus. The event, taking place from the 25th through the 27th, featured talks and discussions by an array of eminent Joyceans. Panel topics included “Joyce’s Punctuation,” “Avant-textes and Annotations,” “Distressing Intertextualities,” and “Technology and Globalization.” Among those giving talks were Claire Hutton, Anne Fogarty, Terence Killeen, and Luca Crispi. The Colloquium’s full program and list of abstracts can be viewed here.
On June 8th, the Institut Du Monde Anglophone at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris will be holding a one day conference entitled “Optical Errors in James Joyce.” If you have additional questions about the conference, you can contact Andre Topia at andre.topia@orange.fr. Here is the conference program:
Saturday, June 8 (Grand Amphithéâtre)
- 10.15 am : André Topia (Sorbonne Nouvelle) : “Scopic Joyce : Defective Lenses and
Blurred Focus”
- 11 am : Daniel Ferrer (ITEM-CNRS) : “Joyce’s Myopic Writing”
Saturday, June 8 (Grand Amphithéâtre)
- 02.15 pm : Sam Slote (Trinity College Dublin) : “‘I’m your Venus effect’ : Reflection and
Desire in ‘Circe’ (Ulysses)”
- 03 pm : David Spurr (Genève) : “Joyce’s Shadow Vision”
- 04.15 pm : Fritz Senn (Zürich James Joyce Foundation) : “The Warped Modality of
‘Ithaca’ (Ulysses)”
Filed under: Events
Today, the Irish Central Bank released a James Joyce collector coin. The coin, designed by Mary Gregoriy, features a portrait of Joyce with text from Ulysses flowing out of his head as a representation of his stream of consciousness technique. Unfortunately, the coin misquotes Stephen’s thoughts from “Proteus,” raising the possibility that a revised and corrected edition (perhaps overseen by Hans Gabler) will have to be released. The coin is part of the European Silver Programme in which EU members issue thematically related coins to commemorate aspects of European culture. Ten thousand coins are being minted and can be bought here, by calling 1890 307 607, or from the Central Bank in Dublin. The cost is € 46. Read more on the coin’s inception and design here.
Filed under: Events
Croatian director, Niksa Eterovic, is staging 3 parts of his five part “James Joyce Cycle” at two separate venues in Dublin this month. Parts 2 and 4, called “Lucia Joyce: La Macchina della Famiglia,” and “Irishirisirischmurmelquietsch,” are playing until Saturday at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Part 5: “Ulysses: or The Cyclops and his Rhinoceroses” is playing at the O’Reilly Theatre from February 13-16th. Esterovic makes Joyce’s life and work the subject of his cycles. The performances are in multiple languages and so, like Joyce’s work, are difficult for audiences to comprehend, and they also deal with difficult aspects of Joyce’s life, such as Lucia’s mental illness and Joyce’s blindness. Thanks for the Irish Times reporting on the performances. Read more on them here.
Beginning in February, the James Joyce Centre in Dublin will hold a reading group entitled “Ulysses for All.” Led by Dubliner and Joycean Caroline Elbay, the group “aims to show that contrary to popular perception, Joyce’s epic was not written exclusively for the academics, but for everyman.” The course will be held from 6-8 pm every Wednesday for 16 weeks and feature visits from prominent Joyce experts such as Terence Killeen, Luca Crispi, and Tom Halpin. There will be a welcome reception on Thursday, February 14 to kick the class off and it will end just before Bloomsday on June, 5th. It will cost €50 and to book a spot email mark@jamesjoyce.ie or call 01-8788547. For more information about the class and the James Joyce Centre visit the website here.
Joyce’s birthday is nearly here (you’ll need 131 candles this year) and there are two conferences taking place to help celebrate the event:
- The Difference of Joyce, from 6-7 February in Rome, which will be officially opened by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. Among the featured keynotes are Geert Lernout (on the Bible and the Wake), Fritz Senn (on “Avoiding the Obvious”), and Daniel Ferrer (whose enigmatic title is “I Beg to Differ.”)
- The 18th Irregular Miami J’yce Birthday Conference, from 31 January to 2 February in Coral Gables Florida. It’s always a pleasure to see this (indeed irregular) event return. This year it features over 60 presenters. I don’t believe any presidents will be attendance, though it’s hard to complain about a February conference that host its opening reception around a pool. (And maybe I’ll finally learn what they have against the letter “o.”)
Report from both events will appear in the next issue of JJQ.
The website for the 2013 North American Joyce Conference is now live. The event will take place from 11-15 June at the College of Charleston. Accommodation and registration information is available on the site. There is no specific theme for this year’s gathering so panels, papers, and roundtable discussions on all topics are welcome. The deadline to submit proposals is 15 March.
The James Joyce Centre has announced its 2013 Winter and Spring Lecture Series Schedule.
The James Joyce Birthday Lecture
Monday, February 4th
Professor Sam Slote (TCD)
Joycean Birthdays
(This lecture will be followed by a wine reception)
Monday, March 4th
Diarmuid Curraoin
“Faithful to Herself”: James Joyce and Questions of Irish Linguistic Identity
Monday, April 8th
Dr Luca Crispi (UCD)
Molly’s Lovers
Monday, May 6th
Professor Michael Groden (University of Western Ontario)
Me. And me now: Writing About a Life with Ulysses
Each lecture begins at 6:30 and is free but because of limited seating it is necessary to secure a seat in advance by emailing info@jamesjoyce.ie or calling 01 878 8547
For more information on the lectures visit the Centre’s website here.
